Character creation:
Pick whatever suits you. I�ve found that humans make good scouts, but most other species will do fine. However, I�d avoid Twi�lek if possible, and probably Mon Cal, as they don�t receive the stat advantages you�ll need as a scout.
As a Wookie you�ll experience initial language problems, but this may not bother you if you�re planning to solo a lot. If you�re new to SWG, I�d avoid Wookie completely. The language barrier doesn�t help to someone still trying to learn the basics.
Go for human and you�re guaranteed a pretty good all round scout.
I�d recommend scout (obviously) or marksman as your starting profession. Scout is more useful if you�re planning on picking up novice artisan when you start out, and marksman is probably more useful if you�re planning to solo more.
Either choice is fine, though � you won�t experience problems if you choose marksman, as you�ll likely want to train in that later anyway.
Personally, I chose a Human Scout for my character.
Starting out:
I�ve only tried starting on Naboo or Tatoonie, but I�m sure the other options are fine for novice scouts too.
To generate a little cash for training and new gear, you may want to run a couple delivery missions first. Find two with decent rewards (1000 credits plus), and if possible, try to find two that have the same destination (don�t worry if you can�t).
Use /find shuttle port to get a route to the nearest one, and buy a one way ticket to the first destination (no need to waste money on round trips). Make sure you don�t fly from a star port, as you�ll find you pay more for the same trip.
Complete the mission(s), and you�ll have a stash of about 2.5k. If you want more cash, just get another two delivery missions, although you probably won�t need more than 2.5k at this early stage.
Personally, I ran only two missions, and ran a few more later when I needed more cash for training.
If you want to gear yourself towards more of a crafting scout, it may be useful to train in novice artisan (use ctrl+v to bring up the planetary map, then use the menu to find the correct trainer).
This�ll give you the skills you need to use all of those surveying tools in your inventory, but I�m not planning on going into surveying in this guide.
If you want to be able to survive on your own in the wild, I recommend training in novice marksman. This�ll give you 3 special attacks that you can use when fighting with your CDEF pistol.
Personally, I chose to train in novice marksman, and not in artisan. Looking back, I think this was a good choice, as after trying artisan out on a different server, I realised it wasn�t the profession for me.
Getting XP:
To advance in the scout skill tree, you need 3 types of experience:
Scouting
Trapping
Wilderness survival
You can gain scouting XP by harvesting resources from critters you�ve killed. Left click and hold to bring up the radial menu, and hover over the �harvest resources� option. This�ll pop a smaller menu up, offering you different types of resource to harvest from the corpse � meat, hide and bone.
As a novice scout, you�ll mainly need hide and bone, so harvest this wherever possible. Scouting XP will allow you to advance in both the hunting and exploration skills. The exploration skills will help you to move quicker, and camouflage against critters later on. The hunting skills will allow you to get better results from harvesting, and give you more information when you target a critter.
You can gain trapping XP by effectively using traps on critters. You�ll need to make the traps yourself, and this can be done by using the generic crafting tool in you�re inventory.
You need 3 units of bone, and 3 of hide to construct either of the traps you start with schematics for. One of the traps will do a little damage if used successfully, the other will make critters vulnerable to melee attacks. This is pretty useless, as I was using the starting CDEF pistol when I was a novice scout, but at least if you use it successfully you get a little trapping experience.
After accumulating 1000 trapping XP, you can find a scout trainer to learn �Makeshift Design� � trapping level 1. If you plan on using trapping, I recommend learning this skill ASAP, and then advancing up the trapping side of the skill tree as fast as you can. The starting traps are pretty useless, but they get more and more useful the more you advance.
Wilderness survival experience is gained by using camping kits in the countryside. You need to craft these kits first, and require 5 units of hide, and 2 units of bone. Campsites allow you to heal in safety (against small critters initially), and provide a place for medics and entertainers to heal your wounds.
By crafting, deploying and then de-activating or abandoning your camp kits, you gain wilderness survival XP.
By training in �Rudimentary techniques� (survival level 1), you learn the /forage command (which I haven�t found very useful), but you also improve your camping skills. Advancing up this part of the skill tree allows you to get improved camp kits, to accommodate more players, and scare off larger critters.
Quick way to gain all of the above scout profession XP:
- Create your character, choose a starting city
- Run four delivery missions, make sure each one offers at least 1200 credits as a reward
- Train in novice marksman
- Head a short distance out of the city � as soon as you see small critters to attack, stop
- Use your CDEF pistol to kill the smallest critters you can find � it may help to go prone before attacking, then standing up when the critter finds you and starts attacking.
- Harvest bone and hide only after killing the critters
- Craft both traps, and a camp kit after harvesting enough resources
- As soon as the critter starts attacking you up close after you make the traps, use both.
- Whenever your health drops bellow 50%, deploy the campsite, then sit down for a few minuets to heal.
- Craft new traps and a new camp kit while waiting to heal.
Keep doing this until the �you have qualified for��..� message pops up. When you get this, run back to town and train up in the new skills.
Note : you need 2000 scouting XP to get both exploration and hunting skills (1000 each for the first level).
If you trained in novice marksman to start with, you�ll have to decide what weapon you want to go with (unless you want to master the whole marksman skill tree, which is costly in both XP and money). Personally, I went with carbine, and spent skill points improving carbine and ranged support skills.
But, I�ll quickly evaluate each weapon choice:
-Pistol
Effective and short ranges, ineffective at long ranges
Allows �body shot�, doing primarily health damage
-Carbine
Good all-rounder � more effective at short / medium range
Allows �leg shot�, doing primarily action point damage
-Rifle
Effective at long ranges, ineffective at short range
Allows �head shot�, doing primarily mind damage.
The ranged support skills allow you a little more flexibility with your chosen weapon, giving you the �aim� and �full auto�, which are useful when hunting early on.
There you have it - I hope you find it useful. For any more advice, or potential additions to this guide, please email me on chikitta@fire-and-skill.co.uk
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