Wanted to gush a bit about my current run so I figured I would give everyone the opportunity to do so as well
I have personally finally gotten a character to stick for the first time in awhile. Been alive a month and am on the cusp of getting into the late game.
Main branch build H with the mods speedy dex and stats thru kills for reference.
Characters name is Simon Chu with the MD profession and car crash start. With deft and fleet footed as positive traits and near sighted and slow healer as negative. Only skill was first aid at six with everything else either bog standard or zero.
Current stats are 8 strength, 9 int, 9 dex and 12 perception. Started at 7 strength, 9 int, 8 dex, and 8 perception. No stat increases from cbms or mutations. I have just killed a shit load of zombies for exp. Melee is at 6, dodge 4, with cutting and piercing both at 5.
This whole run has been extremely lucky. Finding exactly what I need when I need it with everything from tools to weapons being in abundance.
Weapon wise I got the tools and items for a knife spear day one, then got a rapier from a mansion as a back up along with a mace for bashing open safes and such, then found a glaive in a pawn shop around the end of the first week.
Recently switched to a khopesh I made because I found "the book of five rings" in a strip mall dojo. Easily the biggest find of the run. Finding it means I got to learn niten ichi ryu on a character I had been specing into perception for the whole game since I planned on maining spears and guns.
My dodge with cataphract armor and a swat helmet while using the martial art is 8.5 (the martial art adds half your perception as dodge if you use it right) and I'm doing 70-90 damage on my big hits and absolutely loving it. Killed a hulk in melee yesterday without it even touching me. Held a whole private resort worth of zombies at a fence gate without needing to move as well. No mutations or cbms, all due to finding that book, feels good.
It also feels good to finally just use a khopesh. It's my favorite sword in real life and I have had a few runs where I was right about to make one before dying so finally having one feels great. Contemplating working on blacksmithing when I finally get home to make a nodachi and try that out. Been checking every pawn shop and mansion I find on the off chance that or a katana spawn to save me the trouble.
Armor wise I rocked swat armor early but switched to cataphract armor after finding the exodii recently. Summers coming in with a vengeance though so might have to switch to something lighter soon just because of the heat.
Have been compensating for this a bit with my night fighting capability since I found light amp googles at the military base along with the ninjutsu book (game really wants Simon to be a mall ninja) along with a silenced American 180 and a butt load of .22LR ammo.
Speaking of guns, I've got guns, a shit load of guns, so many I sold about half of them to the traders and got all their currency plus the stuff I wanted from them. I even finally, finally! Found a P90. A gun I have wanted to find for forever. Not because it's amazing or anything. Just because I love the gun in real life and wanted one. Though I will probably use it just for fun after I get home and work on my submachine gun skill. I did sell my Glock 31 by accident so I don't have a carry pistol anymore, woops.
Current vehicle is a modified ambulance I found at a military base that I filled with cargo spaces and slapped a m249 turret on. I found a functional apc in my last session so I'm gonna fix that up and switch to that next time I play.
The only real bad luck I had with this character was all the factions were across the massive lake in the middle of the map that had no boats on my side, or were behind massive forests I had to drive way around to the north. Only made contact with the refugee center, exodii and hub 01 in the last few days because of this. Still looking for the artisans.
After I fix up the apc I found I'm heading back to the hub to drop off a quest and then back to the exodii to do the same and work on some of theirs to unlock more cbms. Then it's back to the refugee center to drop off more quests and then hopefully back home to my cats, I have two, names are Buster and Luna.
Speaking of cbms, I do have a few now but they are all utility stuff like the flash light and finger lighter. Can't wait to get the good stuff.
Current goals after that are get a proper farm going, can't find a good stash of seeds to save my life! Gather up some farm animals as well. Get the apc fully tricked out and converted to an amphibious vehicle to make travel easier. Then hit up some of the labs and TCL's I've found around the map for mutagen stuff. I haven't mutated in years so looking forward to that.
Anyway, that's enough of me gushing. How are all your runs going?