Wasteland 3 Guide: What You Need To Know Before Playing

Wasteland 3 is out and I've been pouring hours onto this game in making the Desert Rangers either a respectable force or a problem for the communities found in Colorado Springs. Either you are a fan of the series or this is your first time playing a Wasteland game, there are a couple of things mentioned in this Wasteland 3 guide that you need to know before starting your first playthrough and get the most out of it.

You can make custom rangers after creating your starter two 

I assumed at the start that the two characters you will make will be in your party from start to finish, but that’s not the case in Wasteland 3. They will get the most experience simply because they started with you from the start but the option to create more custom characters will be available to you once you get your base of operations, which becomes available in the first couple of hours into the game. You can even take out your original Rangers from the team, if you’re not happy with your first creation.

So, don’t feel pressured to make the ideal characters right away, have fun with it.

There are doctors that can heal your team to full

It happened to me a couple of times. I enter a fight, things go sideways and out of reaction you heal yourself up with the items you have. If you don’t see another encounter soon, don’t heal. If your team is gravely hurt and you can go back to Ranger HQ or to head to a nearby town safely, do it. It would be better to patch everybody up for free or for a fixed price than using multiple healing items to get back Constitution (health) or fix broken bones with injury kits.

Better to save healing items during fights or in between multiple encounters.

Save your Skill Books

While you explore the world of Wasteland 3, you’ll encounter various skill books that permanently increase the level of a skill by 1. These are rare items and are best used when you need them.

Let’s say you’re exploring an area and find a machine you can’t fix because you’re behind 1 level in Mechanics. This is where the book can go in handy if you want to interact with the object instead of waiting for that character to level up.

It’s also good to hold these books when you’re set with what a specific character will focus on. It’s also best to use these books at the tailend of your playthrough when you want to hit the max level of a particular skill easily, as it will need a lot of skill points (15 points for level 10) to max it out naturally.

Every big decision has a pro and con

There’s a lot of decisions to be made to make the world of Wasteland 3 a better place and even if you think it’s the right choice for your playthrough, you will feel the result of your decision one way or the other.

One decision might be right for your moral compass but will reduce your reputation on a specific faction, or maybe a decision you made didi’t sit well with one of your companions, resulting in him/her leaving your group permanently, removing a vital member in your team.

You might think some choices you make are small ones but they will carry over and affect what happens in future quest lines

Diversify your team composition

There are two reasons why this is important, which resulted in me reorganizing my entire team for an hour when I noticed there was a problem . 

The first reason is ammo. Every shot you make uses the ammo you have in your inventory. With that in mind, the last thing you want is half of your team running out of ammo mid-fight. To prevent this, have a diverse team using different kinds of weapons to make use of the various ammo types you pick up along the way. Don’t have 3 characters using just assault rifle ammo, or two explosives experts using the same pool of grenades and rockets. Spread them out, the more times you use a variety of ammo per fight the less money you will spend in stocking up ammunition

The second reason is to have specialists. There’s not enough skill points to go around even if you invest in the Intelligence stat, so you need each of your 6 members to specialize in a specific area, and spread it well enough that your team is able to tackle any type of obstacle the game throws at you. Make sure one can lockpick their way through a door, for example, or have a sneaky guy point out planted mines so that your explosives expert can disarm it. Or maybe a character well-versed in First Aid can provide an additional dialogue option to provide a better outcome in a quest. 

Remember: if you have at least one character in your group with that particular skill, it will be available to you through dialogue choices or when you have to interact with something in the game. 

Kiss Ass and Bad Ass aren’t the only skills that affect dialogue 

Don’t think the Kiss Ass and Bad Ass skills are the only skill used to provide more dialogue choices to certain characters. If you have a team of characters focused on specific skills, you might be lucky enough to make use of unique dialogue choices that could give you an outcome that is more to your favor. 

Some dialogue choices may appear if you have a high enough level for a particular skill. I’ve reduced a price tag for an offer from a character thanks to me having enough barter skill in one of my characters to haggle. Or have enough Nerd Skills to provide more context and change the direction of the conversation with the character. 

This further bolsters the idea of having a diverse team, as mentioned above. It’s key, and makes things more interesting in the long run.

Invest in the Barter skill and the Toaster Repair skill

Barter for me was a no-brainer from the start as the skill simply increases the selling amount of each item and even reduces the price of items in stores.  Reputation to a certain faction does give you a discount but having that extra layer that affects the price of each item will be beneficial if you invest in it early. 

And as much as the name sounds ridiculous, the Toaster Repair skill has its benefits. Think of broken toasters as special chests that can only be opened to characters with a high enough Toaster Repair skill level. The contents of each Toaster varies but are always special. It sometimes contains Toast, which is weirdly one of the strongest healing consumables you can find in the game. 

Toaster Repair might not be a vital choice for all characters but have a Ranger at the base that specializes in it so that if you do find a toaster in need of a repair, you can go back with that toaster Ranger specialist to repair and loot it’s contents. 

Upgrade your Kodiak ASAP

There will be a point in the game where you can upgrade your mode of transportation, the Kodiak. And there will be another point in the game where certain quests require you to travel through areas with high radiation, and will require a chassis upgrade for your Kodiak to allow you to even cross these locations.

Be sure to have some money saved up when the option is available. Have close to $2,000 or you’ll find yourself spending time to make the money in order to progress through other missions. 

There’s more you need to know about Wasteland 3 but this hopefully gives you a good start to plan ahead and take on whatever Colorado Springs has waiting for you.

Wasteland 3 is now available for PS4, Xbox one, and PC.

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