Wastelands II

Assorted hints

There are a number of things you can do in different orders or
ways.  For example there is a broken toaster which has a secpass B
in it, so you don't have to visit Finster if you don't want to.
There are also at least two different pulsar keys available.
There are at least two ways to get into the sewers -- find a sonic
key (on the golf course) and find the secret doors (using
perception) or borrow the bloodstaff back and give it to the high
priestess.

You can visit the citadel any time you can stand the damage, you
can visit Darwin Village as soon as you like, too.  One of the
more fun ways to play the game is to restart with your old
characters and play them through as ninjas -- using as few weapons
as possible.  The best way to start out this group is to go
directly for the Mines, pick up some loot and outfit the group
with canteens and a pick axe and then get some cash.

The way to increase skills is to increase IQ when going up levels.
For each IQ point you add, you get a skill point you can spend at
the various libraries (in many of the towns, the citadel, the
mushroom cloud temple, Darwin village...) For the most part it is
best to just buy a single point, then use the skill to raise it.
You must have a point in a skill to use it (even passively).  I
find it important to buy all your characters all the weapons and
fighting skills.  Once they have a point in a skill, using the
weapon leads to increases.  All characters should also have a
point of perception, swimming, climbing and acrobatics.  One
should have lock picking.

Perception (and experience) can be raised by walking past the
windows on Ugly's Hideout Roof.  As long as you don't break the
windows, you can come back and get more experience here.
Eventually every character who walks here long enough will get a
perception of 3.


Experience can also be gained by swimming in the bay at the
south center of the map.  If you stay away from the edges, you
won't get attacked while swimming.  You may drown there if you
are low level and not very experienced.  This will not gain your
Swim level.  There are other places that do that (like the
sewers).

There are places in the game to raise climbing, acrobatics,
gambling.  Perception gets raised passively when walking past
interesting things.  The reason every character should have
perception is that if you pass something, everyone gets checked
for seeing it.  If anyone does, you get told about it.  Seeing
Ugly's safe or the secret door leading to the sewers are examples.

Exceptions to the only buy one point rule are Bomb Disarm and Safe
Cracking.  I buy these to 3 on one character.  You need to be able
to Safecrack in a couple of locations as well as disarm a bomb or
two to be successful and although you can save and try several
times, you seem to need a high level to succeed.  I personally buy
Repair Toaster and Electronics up to 3 as well, because I believe
you get better results from repairing the toasters the higher your
skills.  (This is another good thing to save before trying and
re-do until you like the results.) High Electronics is useful if
you want to screw around with several of the controls terminals
throughout the game.  (It's not necessary to win, though.)

You didn't ask, but the highest rank is Supreme Jerk.  If you get
that high, you no longer gain experience for killing/doing
anything.  It's approximately 180 levels above where you start.  I
find it more fun to stop raising at Brigadier General.  You can
play the whole game through at BG and not gain enough experience
to go up a level.  My BGs (I play with 5 including one clone I
made) have approx 125 IQ and 35 in all other stats.  In brawling
and pugilism, once you get to 30 or so each in your skills, you
get 3 or 4 hits per round doing 30 or so damage each.

As for building Max, try all the parts you find.  And read the
diagnostics again after adding each new part successfully.  You
will need two at least ROM boards.  This may mean you don't have
one when you want to repair the helicopter simulator, but you can
get one later at the final base, where the robots seem to have a
lot of spare parts.

















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