Anyone doing a solo run?

[brato]

I just started one. It seems minimum med/mec/explosive skillis 30 to be able to use them to heal/fix/make bullets etc.

I'm starting out with markmanship 65, but wisdom 85, dex 70, health 70, ldr 30 and strength 70, i believe.

Killed the first 3 no problem, got wounded though and spent several hours to heal myself. 

Now in the next sector there are 4 dudes, - and i don't want to savescum to much - they shot me up pretty bad but i think I'll make it.

Anyway, it's not gonna be a speedrun, that's for sure. At least i won't have cash problems.

What's your take on solo? Tried it yet?

[Melliores]

I will try it on my next playthrough. You are better off hiring one merc instead of using a custom IMP in my opinion.
 

Good candidates for your solo merc :

Blood - can throw quite a few things and is great at stealth. Has good medical and explosives.

Ivan - that 3 AP reimbursed on a kill can make you a killing machine. Only has good explosives, so it will be difficult to mod weapons.

Magic - possibly the best merc that you can use for a solo run. Extraordinary mechanical and when he hits, the crits are devastating. He can remain hidden and do a lot of stealth kills. The mechanical skill makes sure you get good loot and can modify your weapons.


Your best bet is take a mine or two on your way to the Major (you should know where he is from your first playthrough) and when you approach his sector, the Refugee camp crisis will trigger automatically. Then it is as simple as taking out the Major, the Colonel and the Corporate agent.

You might want to play on First blood difficulty to make it less tiresome and to have more starting funds.

[Warmonger]

1 hour ago, brato said:

I just started one. It seems minimum med/mec/explosive skillis 30 to be able to use them to heal/fix/make bullets etc.

I'm starting out with markmanship 65, but wisdom 85, dex 70, health 70, ldr 30 and strength 70, i believe.

Killed the first 3 no problem, got wounded though and spent several hours to heal myself. 

Now in the next sector there are 4 dudes, - and i don't want to savescum to much - they shot me up pretty bad but i think I'll make it.

Anyway, it's not gonna be a speedrun, that's for sure. At least i won't have cash problems.

What's your take on solo? Tried it yet?

Good luck but will not work, not even with the best you can choose/get. And if ist would the game would be weak/disappointing. 😉 

[5Cents]

Im playing JA3 with one merc; mission impossible, no easy modus, dead ist dead, till the bitter end.

I dont have to save-load too much, because its not allowed anyway. So ill try different tactics and get to know my enemy better.

I must say, its actually not that hard i imagined. Maybe i played too long Mini-day Z 1 on mobile 3th difficulty ..and it wasnt allowed to saveload too, or Stalker Alpha, Ironman.
So compared to this JA3 with one merc its actually easy.

But trust yourself and go on, i think you gonna manage it easily. For me its pure fun and with more mercs than one, it would be maybe even more fun, but less challenging.

Merc is not to decisive, more stratetic descisions, when to send him where f.e.

Edited July 26, 2023 by 5Cents

[brato]

3 hours ago, Melliores said:

Your best bet is take a mine or two on your way to the Major (you should know where he is from your first playthrough) and when you approach his sector, the Refugee camp crisis will trigger automatically. Then it is as simple as taking out the Major, the Colonel and the Corporate agent.
 

Thanks for the good advice. Are they all 3 gonna be at the camp when the crisis triggers?

[Melliores]

Nope, they will be at their respective camps. The crisis should actually trigger and resolve itself quite fast, as you will be approaching the Major's camp to save the president. So you will need to take out the Major first, then the Colonel and leave the Corporate agent for last on your way back.

Now, this is only if you want to also complete the game before May the first. Otherwise you can take your time and do some of the sidequests but it will become tedious defending towns and mines with just a single merc.

[Skaldy]

6 hours ago, Melliores said:

Nope, they will be at their respective camps. The crisis should actually trigger and resolve itself quite fast, as you will be approaching the Major's camp to save the president. So you will need to take out the Major first, then the Colonel and leave the Corporate agent for last on your way back.

Now, this is only if you want to also complete the game before May the first. Otherwise you can take your time and do some of the sidequests but it will become tedious defending towns and mines with just a single merc.

Thanks for spoiling the story for people who havent played the game yet

[sandman25dcsss]

How do you even play solo? There are maps with 4-5 enemies looking at each other, they can't be killed one after another, it would take 3-4 turns. Using silencer and SR from great distance?

[brato]

3 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

How do you even play solo? There are maps with 4-5 enemies looking at each other, they can't be killed one after another, it would take 3-4 turns. Using silencer and SR from great distance?

Not sure. It was pretty hairy clearing the sector with Herman and the Minefield, but I managed. Took 3 days to heal up and several grenades.

Then the Rust next to Ernie. Surprisingly easy, as I had a Gewehr98 now. I just laid flat on high ground ao they couldn't hit me, and they did me the favour of coming up one by one, if at all.

Then I went in the bunker below, and that was tricky. Survived by the skin of my teeth with grenades, run and gun and 2 unaimed headshots with my rifle (a little save scumming was involved). In the end one more guy popped up and luckily missed his shots, he was 3 tiles from me. I had 7 AP for one shot and i didn't miss.

It makes every sector a challenge, and i have to think about it in new ways. I like it so far. Bit worried about weapon mods, as i only have 30 mec. Hope it goes up from repairing things all the time, but not so far.

Gained agility already from running a lot during combat, and I've already gained 2 levels. Haven't even been in Ernie yet.

[brato]

Got the island cleared. Noticed that 32 explosive skill doesn't make you a crafter. I guess i won't be making any ammo.

Key to winning is staying mobile with extended free move perks. They almost rushed on the roof of the fort, but i ran away at the last minute, and ran further the next turn, too. Then i killed one, and ran some more. Shot a wounded Pierre in the head, but he didn't die. Knife attack with my last 2 AP!

27 damage! 

And letting nobody hang in Ernie is beneficial. Herman gives you a skill book, and so does greasy bill, or whatever his name is.

60 strength is not enough btw. I can hardly carry what i need. Luckily there's the craft items to squadbag mod.

 

[sandman25dcsss]

@brato

Interesting, I didn't think about kiting. I think it greatly depends on map, sometimes there will not be room to retreat to.

There is another mod which allows to increase individual inventory size either by multiplying by factor or straight to 24. And yet another mod which increases stack sizes (so you don't need new slot for every 10 knifes and alike).

Edited July 28, 2023 by sandman25dcsss

[BossWeapons]

On 7/26/2023 at 8:36 PM, brato said:

I just started one. It seems minimum med/mec/explosive skillis 30 to be able to use them to heal/fix/make bullets etc.

I'm starting out with markmanship 65, but wisdom 85, dex 70, health 70, ldr 30 and strength 70, i believe.

Killed the first 3 no problem, got wounded though and spent several hours to heal myself. 

Now in the next sector there are 4 dudes, - and i don't want to savescum to much - they shot me up pretty bad but i think I'll make it.

Anyway, it's not gonna be a speedrun, that's for sure. At least i won't have cash problems.

What's your take on solo? Tried it yet?

I'm running two solo games at the moment. One stealth sniper, one full on melee. Both builds have zero explosives, zero medical. They're both quite unnecessary skills for a solo in my opinion. The stealth sniper has a maxed out mechanical for weapon mods and the knife guy has only 50, but I think that was too much. Both styles have been very successful for me, but they require a different play style. I love the melee character though. Feels good rushing a whole group of enemies and just stabbing them all to pieces before they get a good chance to react and when they do shoot me back the grit shield has gotten so large, that if the enemy isn't shooting at me with a heavy machinegun I'm practically in no danger of dying most of the time. The melee guy for sure takes more wounds though, but they hardly matter.

Movement is the key and the sniper, with her light armour and free movement can run practically half the sector for free. She's insanely mobile. The knife guy not so much, but that's mainly because I'm wearing heavier gear on him. Both builds rely on the cover action to get those extra AP's for the next round for that extra stabby time or reposition allowance.

Edited July 28, 2023 by BossWeapons

[username55]

1 hour ago, BossWeapons said:

I'm running two solo games at the moment. One stealth sniper, one full on melee. Both builds have zero explosives, zero medical. They're both quite unnecessary skills for a solo in my opinion. The stealth sniper has a maxed out mechanical for weapon mods and the knife guy has only 50, but I think that was too much. Both styles have been very successful for me, but they require a different play style. I love the melee character though. Feels good rushing a whole group of enemies and just stabbing them all to pieces before they get a good chance to react and when they do shoot me back the grit shield has gotten so large, that if the enemy isn't shooting at me with a heavy machinegun I'm practically in no danger of dying most of the time. The melee guy for sure takes more wounds though, but they hardly matter.

Movement is the key and the sniper, with her light armour and free movement can run practically half the sector for free. She's insanely mobile. The knife guy not so much, but that's mainly because I'm wearing heavier gear on him. Both builds rely on the cover action to get those extra AP's for the next round for that extra stabby time or reposition allowance.

very hard to believe for me. I mean I don't know what difficulty you are playing, but especially the melee enemies that do like 60 damage, how can you possibly survive two of those when they get close?

Grit wise if you get 3 attacks with your starting AP, thats 45 grit from the one skill, and with 3 attacks you usually don't even kill an average enemy (like marauder). So if two of them are attacking you, you are basically toast...

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by username55

[BossWeapons]

31 minutes ago, username55 said:

very hard to believe for me. I mean I don't know what difficulty you are playing, but especially the melee enemies that do like 60 damage, how can you possibly survive two of those when they get close?

Grit wise if you get 3 attacks with your starting AP, thats 45 grit from the one skill, and with 3 attacks you usually don't even kill an average enemy (like marauder). So if two of them are attacking you, you are basically toast...

 

Normal difficulty. Character is fully built for using melee, picking up all the perks that either make your melee attacks more damaging, accurate or give you more grit along with the mobility ones. Of course there are enemies that can delete you if you get unlucky, but that's just how it goes. You need to pick your targets though and preferrably not try to face tank enemies with machetes or heavy weaponry.

You deal with the most dangerous enemies first. With close to 20 AP and all the free move you can do, most of the time it's a non issue to kill one target and then dash away for a new approach. Sometimes if the enemies are well positioned (for you that is), you can just dance through every single one and stab each of them once while at the same time retreating to safety. Regular marauders are a non-threat unless you get absolutely swarmed.

The beginning is probably the hardest in my opinion since you don't have all those cool perks yet and you need to rely more on being sneaky rather than a whirlwind of doom. But you gain levels so very quick when playing solo that by the time you enter the mainland you're quite well off already.

[username55]

I just tried this, failed already in the Rust. Commando difficulty.

Tried to sneak kill first guy, but failed, then you have like 6 guys rushing you, and with full auto, and leg shots, and everything, no chance. No way to retreat or attack someone. Maybe I should try other starting perks, I usually take the one for improved melee and the melee interrupt attacks.

 

 

[Skaldy]

Btw, playing solo will lock you out from best ending

[username55]

5 hours ago, username55 said:

I just tried this, failed already in the Rust. Commando difficulty.

Tried to sneak kill first guy, but failed, then you have like 6 guys rushing you, and with full auto, and leg shots, and everything, no chance. No way to retreat or attack someone. Maybe I should try other starting perks, I usually take the one for improved melee and the melee interrupt attacks.

 

 

tried it again...

no luck. Again stealh kill failed, and then you get full auto'd, and slowed, which reduces the move range to 3 hexes or so...

so w/o luck doesn't seem to be really feasible. And by feasible I mean it is possible most of the time...

it's like they say: "don't bring a knife to a gunfight..."

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by username55

[Melliores]

@username55

On my normal playthrough I soloed Camp la Barière with Igor and a machete. Managed to kill 13 légion men, at night. They had at least half of them on patrol as well.
 

Igor does have the Stealthy perk and very good Agility. Do you actually first prepare you takedown and then simply click right next to your target? Also you might want to wait for nighttime if you are having difficulties sneaking around.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Melliores

[5Cents]

1. I finished a fast solo-merc run on highest difficulty-settings + no sevegame, to try out JA3. I was interested, if its possible.
I the beginnig, i just wanted to study the game, testing hardness, but after a time, i decided to have something like a speed run, without doing sidequests and concentrate only on the main goal. So i only had one mine, but that was enough. In the last days, when the Mine was running out, i had 300000 or so. My merc finally ended up on Level 7 or 8.
It is possible, but sometimes (only some sectors) it seemed impossible.

In my solo-run i changed between 3 Low-Levelmercs. The Island i did with Blood. Then i thought it would be good to have an better explosive-expert and Barry took over duty, on mainland.

Then i wanted better weapons, so i needed a very good mechanics and i changed Barry with Livewire (actually i didnt liked her, but then she proofed to be very good & became my substitute for the role of Reaper or Shadow.

No explicit spoilers, but a touch of them, follows, Caution.

2. When i hired her, for my first time, i didnt knew about Livewires special capability. But i turned Out to be very helpful, when playing with just one merc under such circumstances & you want to play as a unseed killer. But it didnt felt like cheating, because it is wasnt active that often, because there wasnt always possible to recon or i didnt took the time for that (its also a risk getting wounded).

I really enjoyed to play with her and i used her mainly as an swift & deadly sniper.
Eagles-Nest was the most challenging sector, because i couldnt save or retreat and AI always seems to know where my merc was. So ive got to restart over and over again, till i finally could make it somehow (didnt mod or cheat). Luckywise i reconed that sector before, so with Livewire i knew where enemies we're, otherwise i couldnt made it, i suppose.

3. Playing with one Merc, conclusion;

Its fun to play JA3 with one merc, but of course a bit but hectic sometimes (keeping the Gang alive on tac screen, is sometimes a bit hard naturally, f.e. and some sectors, like the last one are a bit to difficult sometimes (or Flag Hill, from the wrong Side, in the end ^^) Next time, i'll do it with more than just one merc, to follow the storyline better and enjoying all sidequests and stories, see more lovely designed places of Grand Chien and meet even more nice people. 🙂

Edited July 28, 2023 by 5Cents

[brato]

Well, I wanna do it with the IMP. I started over, because I need more Mec to modify weapons, 30 wasn't enough. I went with CQC and Stealth for Perks this time. Hope that wasn't a mistake. 

Zero explosive, but 30 medical, so I can heal myself. Str 70 instead of 60, for more room. 30 Ldr, 85 Wisdom. Rest 65 or higher. We'll see how it goes with landmines and such, and I guess I won't be crafting anything. 

In the first sector I knifed the first guy, and then the other 2 ran up to the villa and were shot by the guards. Weird. My kills, you idiots!

Anyway, the minefield sector is next... tricky

 

 

[brato]

This is how it's going. Got a Gewehr 98 with suppressor and prism scope. 

The bunker was interesting. I silently knifed the dude behind the door, but then someone saw the body. 3 guys come running. I had just leveled up and now have the grenade/free move perk. So i tossed one and ran, and for one turn no one followed. Lucky i guess. Made it through unscathed, but later discovered 2 more dudes in the back room.

High mec skill is a must, I'd say.

How does one play solo without medical skill, i wonder.

[moqueur]

Finished mine yesterday. And I have to say that those who manage to pull this off with their I.M.P. mercs deserve a separate achievement — on my own first solo run I tried to do it but gave up pretty soon. Choosing an A.I.M. merc makes things much less complicated. You can swap them when you need to mod the weapon or to train militia or whatever — which means your 'combat' merc doesn't have to be a jack of all trades.

I went with Blood. Hired him for the first time ever and was going to swap him for Reaper a little further on. Ended up beating the whole campaign with this guy as he turned out to be a brilliant choice. I'm a very mediocre player and frankly speaking I did my fair share of save scumming near magazine vendors and hi-end loot containers but surprisingly I hardly ever had to load my game in combat as it turned out to be not as difficult as it seemed. 

Still the experience was really rewarding. I thought I had a lot of fun while beating the game for the very first time — but I was wrong. Solo run showed me where the real fun begins. And that even after completing the game twice (a normal run and a speed run) I still have a lot to learn. Like active use of abilities, careful choice of perks to get, high mobility, stealthy approach, knowing my weapons and using right guns in right circumstances.

So both Blood and I learned a lot and became much better on our joint adventure. And I'm really glad I actually gave it a try 🙂

[5Cents]

'My' Livewire stats after completing solo-run. Dispite she has Level 10 now, some perk categories werent still available because of low stats (which werent getting better too much btw), which i find good.

[Solaris_Wave]

On 7/29/2023 at 3:16 AM, brato said:

This is how it's going. Got a Gewehr 98 with suppressor and prism scope. 

The bunker was interesting. I silently knifed the dude behind the door, but then someone saw the body. 3 guys come running. I had just leveled up and now have the grenade/free move perk. So i tossed one and ran, and for one turn no one followed. Lucky i guess. Made it through unscathed, but later discovered 2 more dudes in the back room.

High mec skill is a must, I'd say.

How does one play solo without medical skill, i wonder.

Interesting place for your mouse pointer to land. Picking Bella's nose.

[brato]

11 hours ago, 5Cents said:

'My' Livewire stats after completing solo-run. Dispite she has Level 10 now, some perk categories werent still available because of low stats (which werent getting better too much btw), which i find good.

How did you do that with 44 strength?