Dead State: Perk Guide

• Melee – Take Brawler. The likelihood of getting shot is higher than your likelihood of being able to flank the enemy’s heel. Barrage vs Quick Reflexes depends on your emphasis, with B allowing you to hit enemies with smaller weapons more times and QR allowing you to use bigger/heavier weapons and still have AP to dodge or get in position to hit. I’d especially recommend QR if you’re running a control hitter (using brush weapons to Knockdown/axes to Cripple and Hamstring). Maxing it for Warrior is definitely recommended, as both zed and armored hostile/neutral survivors are susceptible to a good thwacking.
• Ranged – Until you get a (cross)bow, you’re not going to want to spec into this because guns = noise = zombies. That said, take Vital Shot. Humans, particularly military, survivalists, Coyotes, and militia are going to set off enough to attract zed anyway, so you can feel free to bring your own dakka. Quick Draw vs Reload is dependent on whether or not you’re wielding a (cross)bow, because they require a reload every shot. Unless you’re running a sniper build, you’re going to want one of the other survivors to wield the (cross)bow(s). Similarly, Sharpshooter isn’t worth the points needed to max when explosives and melee work do the job.
• Leadership – Take Don’t Panic and Get Up, hands down. Extra chance to hit can be achieved with pills and is less useful than keeping your team alive. Double Time is definitely worth the points invested, esp. since Leadership has a semi-magical “Take up your mat and walk” effect on most survivors’ off-day complaints.
• Negotiation – Likeable and Popular are non-negotiable, pun intended. Once you get enough people, fixing things is a cinch, and once you’ve explored the map, the endgame turns into fishing and foraging with morale dropping every day until you get the heck out of Splendid. One of the survivors requires 8 Neg to recruit, so 9-10 is unneeded.
• Medical – Having played through all hundred or so days with Herbalist, I can confidently say Paramedic’s the way to go. Have you ever seen a pile of 175~ bandages? I have. Similarly, get Combat Medic, because quite frankly you’ll have enough survivors to cycle your team to heal back at the Shelter.
• Science – Take Inventor and Pharmacist. The endgame requires a lot of fuel, and if you have every survivor, chances are more than one will be infected. Unless you get a balanced Mech/Sci survivor, the PC will have to be the one to head up Science Lab construction, which requires 5 Sci. Besides that, there’s the occasional alarm to deactivate, but Bomberman’s not worth maxing it out.
• Survival – Get Forager and Expert Gardener. You’ll get to the whole map eventually, and quite frankly you’ll be getting by on horseback or car eventually, making feet unnecessary. Maxing it for Animal Magnetism isn’t bad either; dogs are OP, if a bit glass-cannonish.
• Mechanical – Take Efficiency and Solar Power; in the early game, you don’t have much access to parts, and in the endgame you need as much fuel as possible.

Some allies can gain new perks through conversation.

• Aggro Moss – Cultivator.
• Bud Larsen – Deadly Aim vs Uncanny Focus depends on the range of the gun you’ve got him holding.
• Darlene Lumpkin – Natural Born Killer.
• Doug Schultz – Sycophant.
• Elaine Martin – Counselor.
• Fiona Parks – Shelter Support.
• Gillian DeVries – Fuel.
• Joel Oswalt – Handyman
• Mark Corbeau – Master Chef.
• Max Getz – remove Unhinged.
• Michiru Yata – Burn Specialist, since you can prevent arm and leg sprain with good armor, but fireproof equipment sucks as armor.
• Parisa Sharazi – Upgrade Researcher to Obsessed Researcher.
• Paul Rainier – Old Instincts, since you can prevent Panic with a music player or get him out of it with Leadership or meds.
• Priscilla Butler – Book Learnin’, since you’ll generally be at a surfeit of food.
• Renee Cass – Comforting Presence.
• Ryan Michaels – Trainee [x] depends on what you need.
• Sandy Doubleday – I Can Do It.
• Sir Charleston – Armorer.
• Troy Cooper – Harvester.

By Terreliv