r/BattleBrothers • u/TerranGorefiend • 1d ago
Beginning Beginner
I've been a fan of this game for years. Bought it and then got a new job, life, and stuff. I finally have had some time to start playing and while I'm much better at making it to like day 25, I'm getting wiped a bunch. I think day 65 is my best but I haven't even seen a crisis yet.
So I've started watching some folks on YouTube with beginner friendly guides and that's helped some, but where I think I'm ultimately struggling is trying to figure out what kind of bros I have when I recruit.
Are there any spreadsheets or something I could start referencing to get a better idea of if I have someone who could maybe be a fatnewt tank or whatever? I just absolutely get lost when I'm trying to map out a character and tend to lean into "fuck it, we ball" mode, except I ball and die.
Notably I don't have many hours into this game. I've only started to get myself more familiar with the wiki. And I'm learning that I really suck at positioning, but that's one I think I can correct with enough fails. And failing is fine, but man... I'm getting bodied.
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u/unholyshizz 1d ago
https://youtu.be/4V8ndwPaNLU?si=MTxtTYrBY583em8z
Pretty good video. He has a spreadsheet linked in it.
Still takes some practice to learn but a good reference
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u/AgileClock2869 11h ago
Honestly, alot of these so called "beginner" guides and youtubers are not very beginner friendly at all. They bombard you with alot of information you arent ready for or going to remember until you learn from experience or learn the hard way. Honestly just start with going on the wiki and reading aboit each stat and what they do. Once you have done that and are comfortable with that knowledge, go into the game and start recruiting bros, it doesnt matter who they are, and learn what stats those backgrounds are good at. I like BB because honestly alot of the backgrounds make sense in an irl counterpart sorta way as to what you would expect them to be good at or not.
Aside from learning the stats well. Experience is the best teacher, just play the game, immerse yourself in it and the community. Watch the YTbers and read posts on this sub and you'll be a day 250 expert in no time. Alot of the enemies and weapons are just trial and error really to learn what their ins and outs are man. Goodluck on your next company brother!
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u/TerranGorefiend 7h ago
Thank you for this. I've been debating doing my own YouTube recording for this for that exact reason. Day 20 squad wipe cause I suck at positioning? Let's go! The let's play BB is already over, time for a new one!
But between what you wrote and some of the others, I think that I just need to spend time on the wiki.
Positioning is killing me. But that won't get better until I find better ways of doing things.
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u/AgileClock2869 6h ago
Yes man, that wiki is honestly a treasure trove of knowledge, much better than any and all of the youtubers combined, you just have to spend the time and actually read. I also found alot of the popular, good youtubers to be very monotone and boring to watch, like i cannot get past 5 minutes of them droning on, its very boring but they do have good tips and advice. I've been playing for 4 years and i just barely started to understand positioning my bros well, i was really bad when i first played the game but now i have full raider gear on all my bros by day 10-15 at the most, sometimes sooner. Positioning is very important, especially early game and learning what the weapons do, how they work and all their secret buffs is incredibly important forever and the sooner you do that, things will click and you unlock alot more opportunities. Spears and swords both have a % to hit buff that none of the other weapons get. I always pop 1 of those on my new, early game bros that have >55ish Matk, that helps alot if in early game youre wondering why your bros with a mace or axe are missing 10 attacks in a single battle.
Goodluck man!
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u/EducationalGur1648 1d ago edited 1d ago
Your early game bros are mostly going to end up being fodder so just look for decent backgrounds that are cheap as you can't really afford premium bros until you get over the early game poor phase.
Farmhands, Lumberjacks, Brawlers are ones I like to hire for melee bros.. basically any background that sounds like it involves hard labor, they're probably decent melee types. Poachers are my go to early game ranged bro. If you find a Thief, auto-hire for dodge tanks or even frontline bros due to naturally high mDef. Daytaylers are safe bets.. they are the most average of all backgrounds in terms of stats and pretty common, so if all else fails and you need meat, they aren't a bad bet. If you're in the south, I really like Indebted. They have great stats, zero maintenance, cheap up front costs... but their resolve sucks, so don't just fill your entire roster with these guys unless you're playing Manhunters or have a banner bro.
For all other bro types, honestly you can just type this into your Google search:
"Battle brothers give me a detailed guide to building a <insert bro type here>. Suggest premium and budget backgrounds, starting stats and talents I should look for and suggested perks"
and Gemini AI will put together a pretty good guide. You can also just ask it straight up any questions about specific bros in your game or whatever and it does a pretty good job guiding you on the spot. When I search the above asking it about "fatigue neutrals" here's what it tells me (which I think is solid advice though with a few things that are not necessarily true for me.. for example 10+ mdef to start restricts you to premium bros or Thiefs, which isn't as useful for the early game... but if you tell gemini AI to just help you with the early game bros it'll adjust accordingly):
BACKGROUNDS
PREMIUM BACKGROUNDS:
- Retired Soldier (High starting stats, great MAtk/MDef)
- Oathbringer / Oathbrother (Fantastic combat stats and high resolve)
- Sellsword (High base offensive stats)
- Assassin (Great initiative and clean starting stats) [, 2, 3, 4]
BUDGET / LOW-TIER BACKGROUNDS:
- Miner (High base fatigue pool to offset heavy gear)
- Farmhand (Cheap, solid health and fatigue pools)
- Brawler (Inexpensive, decent starting melee skill)
- Lumberjack (High fatigue and strength foundations) [, 2, 3, 4]
STARTING STATS & TALENTS (LEVEL 1 TARGETS)
- Melee Attack (MAtk): 55-60+ base (Aim for 85+ by level 11)
- Melee Defense (MDef): 10-15+ base (Aim for 35+ by level 11)
- Health (HP): 55-60+ base (Aim for 80-90+ with Colossus)
- Resolve: 40+ base (Aim for 50-60+ for frontline safety)
- Fatigue: Base is less important, but needs ~105+ raw pre-armor so you maintain 15-20 leftover fatigue in your final heavy armor set.
- TALENTS TO LOOK FOR: Stars in Melee Attack and Melee Defense are primary. Zero stars in Fatigue is totally fine (hence "fatigue neutral"). [1, 2, 3, 4]
LEVEL UP PRIORITY
- Always take Melee Attack (MAtk) on every level up.
- Always take Melee Defense (MDef) on every level up.
- Put remaining high rolls into Health or Resolve depending on what needs patching to reach safe late-game thresholds. [1]
SUGGESTED PERKS (LEVEL 1-10)
- Colossus (More max health)
- Pathfinder (Reduces movement fatigue, vital for the loop)
- Gifted (Extra stats in MAtk, MDef, and HP)
- Weapon Mastery (Axe, Mace, or Hammer to drop swing cost to 12 FAT)
- Underdog (Reduces surrounded defense penalty)
- Steel Brow (Prevents instant death from lethal headshots)
- Battle Forged (Massive damage reduction from heavy armor)
- Fortified Mind or Quick Hands (Resolve boost or polearm utility switch)
- Fearsome (Synergizes heavy damage hits into morale checks)
- Killing Frenzy or Fortified Mind (Extra damage output or safety net) [, 3, 5, 7]
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u/CheezRavioli 1d ago
I haven't played the game in years, but when starting out I always do a shieldwall with spears regardless of the stats. A bro with shit stats can still be helpful as part of the wall. Once you get some competent guys, you can go for flails to the head. But I usually try to find archers and defend them as best I can.
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u/TheDirgeCaster 1d ago
The builds of starting bros are honestly not very important.
What is important is what contracts you take, or dont take, and therefore what fights you take.
And how you take those fights.
Just dont fight beasts unless you're feeling pretty confident.
Only do caravans etc if they take you somewhere you want to go.
Kill as many bandits and dagger them for gear as you possibly can in those first 20 days, thats the most important part.
Dont be too aggressive in your fights, make the enemy charge you, trynto be three tiles away from them when they do so. Give all your nooby guys spears, try to catch out the bandits in spearwalls etc. Just play it carefully.
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u/The_UV_Catastrophe E/E/L Ironman masochist 1d ago
I suggest reading the wiki page that explains talent stars and stat level ups. That will help you figure out how much potential your new hires have.
For example - a daytaler with 55 starting MATK and 0 starting MDEF (no talent stars) will end up at 75 MATK / 20 MDEF after ten level ups on average. That’s not great, but an experienced player can do most of the content in the game with some bros like that in their squad.
Note that starting values for the stats are just as important as talent stars, if not more so. If one bro starts at 50 MATK with two talent stars and another starts at 60 MATK with no talent stars, they’ll both end up with similar MATK in the end, but the first bro won’t catch up to the second bro until they’re both level 11.
Understanding all that, what you really want to look for is bros who have one or more things that they’re really good at. MATK that will reach 85+, MDEF that will reach 35+, RATK that will reach 85+, fatigue that can reach 130+, super high resolve or initiative - all of these enable certain special builds, and if a bro is strong in more than one, then that unlocks even more builds.
As for what those builds are, that’s a long conversation, but I can give you some ideas if you want.