WASTELAND 3 - ADVANCED COMBAT TIPS & TRICKS \\ Combat Guide

Wasteland 3 Combat is a little different to Wasteland 2, I think for the better! Here is all the Combat Tips and Tricks and everything I've learnt about Wasteland 3's Combat so far!
Intro: 00:00 - 00:20
Sneak & Setup: 00:20 - 01:57
Taking Actions: 01:57 - 05:26
Pre-Combat Prep: 05:26 - 07:37
Other\Ranger Setup: 07:37 - 08:05
Outro: 08:05 - 08:49
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
⏯More of my Content⏯
WASTELAND 3 - STARTER PARTY GUIDE \\ Character Build Guide: • WASTELAND 3 - STARTER ...
WASTELAND 3 - 20+ BEGINNER TIPS AND TRICKS : • WASTELAND 3 - 20+ BEGI...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
🔔 Social Media 🔔
► Twitch: / norzza
► Twitter: / norzzatv
► Instagram: / norzzatv
► Discord: / discord
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
💻My Setup 💻
Content Creation PC: kit.co/NorZZa/my-content-crea...
Streaming Setup: kit.co/NorZZa/my-streaming-setup
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Additional Description Tags, Rangers!): wasteland 3 combat tips, wasteland 3 beginners guide, wasteland 3 combat, wasteland 3 combat guide, wasteland 3 combat walkthrough, wasteland 3 tips and tricks, wasteland 3 guide, wasteland 3 tips

[@tictoc4156]

probably very noob question but how armor and pen works?

[@tictoc4156]

@@norzza wow it really helped thank you! now i understand what that % means. Anyways if you make a video about all this i will watch it, there is no info out there. If you decide to make it you could also explain if you know why sometimes when you enter combat some of your characters doesnt have AP, also sometimes when i move or shoot i get my AP back, maybe its a bug im pretty sure is not a perk because im just starting.

[@lagoonman427]

@@tictoc4156 that's a luck action, where your character uses no ap

[@LarsH0NEYtoast]

After landing a fat 1400 crit with my sniper on a scorpitron i used the kodiak to finish it off with a couple of rams. Was my first one too and it wasn't so bad haha

[@haakonsteinsvaag]

@@tictoc4156 The reason some of your party members dont have AP at the start of combat is that the game uses an initiative system to se who goes first. You kan ensure that all your characters get their APs by being the one who start the combat. You do this by shooting/attacking first. Snipers and rocket launchers are fantastic to start combats with sinse they kan shoot from outside the enemy detection range (red circle around enemies).

[@jarhead2808]

@@LarsH0NEYtoast best sniper in the game is the JackHammer Lmao. Put on these mods : - +6m scope - +20 shot angle - -1 ap per shot - explosive rounds You get to one shot or two shot the strongest ennemies in the game for 4 ap cost. I actually hit for 5k per shot and u can shot at least 3 times per round. Beast

[@redelephantsdotnl]

Few things I'd like to add: - You can no longer swap out items in combat, this has been patched out - as it should. - Permadeath is an option in the Difficulty settings. If turned on, you must raise your characters in time, or replace them. That goes for your companions, too. If you loose Kwon and Lucia early, that's that - you have to progress further to replace them. - Whereas it's good to have a dedicated healer - It's beneficial to assign every character just one rank in First Aid. That way, every character can use medkits and heal another character. - Don't waste expensive ammo on finishing off an enemy. Open with your Big Guns, finish up with pistols and snipers. If you pump ten rounds of fifty caliber bullets into that last Drool, when a single shot of 38 does the trick, you've wasted precious resources. - A Sneaky Sniper has hands down the best single target damage output in the game, no question - I've seen mine hit for 17K, and there are things I didn't do to make him hit even harder [but that's nonsense anyway, there is no enemy with that kind of HP]. However, having Sneak on someone that does Area of Effect damage is *way* more effective, especially since in the mid-to-late game, your sniper should preferably be ambushing at the end of your turn, instead of opening at the start of it. Combine sneak with say, Explosives or Shotguns for maximum effect. Kwon and an SMG can also do wonders if his strike meter is full. - Open fights! Never, ever, ever let the enemy get the drop on you and start the first turn. On Hard and Jerk - this is almost always, immediately game over for you. - Always murder everything you can. It's always better to kill one enemy than wound two; especially on the harder difficulties, where your defenses are pretty much useless; the enemy will rarely leave someone alive when they hit someone.

[@Mr._Steal_Your_Squirrel]

Thank you NorZZa! I wasn't ready for a 40 minute plus tips guide 😆 so this short and sweet synopsis was very helpful. Cheers!

[@d-risky4994]

One of the best tips I have is to dip a few points into weird science for everyone and try to keep a pulse weapon and a fire/cryo weapon one each character... they ignore all armor and do a bonus 30% damage to either machines or organics Also having an “infiltrator” with the poindexter quirk and max intelligence from the start that focuses on sneak, locks, mechanics, and explosives can run through combat areas without triggering combat and disable generators that power turrets and massively tip the scales in your favor They will be squishy but you can keep them behind cover lobbing grenades and decoys and crit hitting a ton

[@crimsonraen]

Thanks for the video! :) Seeing your builds made me feel better about my skill compositions.

[@badejong]

Great one! Thank you for creating it... 👍👍👍

[@RuanPedro_ThanatosOfDark]

Great video keep it going bro!

[@Electronite1978]

Use Kodiak to run over the enemies and as target/cover as it can take lot of damage. Especially in the early games Kodiak can be the easiest way to handle tought enemies if you simply run over them.

[@auspicioustoot]

Save everything you pick up until you get the antique collected perk and then sell everything at once and become rich

[@masterpainter78]

Then buy it all back.....Wait for it....Sell it back and proc it again! Can be done as often as you need.

[@haakonsteinsvaag]

@@masterpainter78 does not seem to work for me. When i sell and buy back junk, I get the same amount of money. Atleast this is the case with the junk only costing 1$. And yes, I do have the perk and sometimes get the ekstra money. But when I try to repeat, I dont get more money.

[@Svoorhout85]

Good idea! Im kind of strapped for cash in the beginning though. Hiring recruits etc. But i'll make a barter specced mule character soon i'll bring along for shopping.

[@eliot271]

Quality video, thank you.

[@sionefonua7636]

I'm miss my Tom cat 😢. He died protecting my squad from a mutant toad. I wish there was pet cemetery that lets you revive fallen pets.

[@fatalgravity]

Same. Gone, but not forgotten.

[@masterpainter78]

Dont worry, there is a cat lady in the first town.

[@kyle013579]

I told mine to stay at the base. He's now the base mascot. I didn't want him to bite it.

[@DMVFELLA....]

Nice advice i started playing a week ago

[@grawr3534]

Start combat with rocket launchers, they can instantly kill 4 units. I place snipers on Ambush once they get the ambush perk. Luck stat is crazy strong.

[@alessimc]

How does that perk work exactly with the sniper? Just fire first like a sneak attack?

[@hadin9563]

@@alessimc When you end your turn with the Ambush ability (shoots enemies in range on their turn) if the sniper kills the enemy with that shot, they got another ambush shot) You can set it up so the sniper kills everyone during their turn if you get them all low enough

[@alessimc]

Hadi Noureldeen Awesome, thanks Hadi. I have the perk but didn’t get how to use it ;)

[@nepu6538]

Thx👌

[@divingscene]

Pro-Tip: Use your Kodiak to run over enemies, It deals a ****load of damage. Waaaay better than shooting.

[@hayclclen3734]

to beat the scorpitron all you have to do is hit it with the kodiak 3 times. It will usually get destroyed in between turns but your mechanic can always heal it right back up with a couple tool kits

[@xenamere6909]

top tip for game start - dont sell any Junk untill youve cleared colarado springs and have your armoury set up -you will have loads by then - ( you can buy n sell weapons etc but not junk )create your barter character as soon as you can -max out intelligence - then max out the barter skill - when you get him out he will have the ability to pply the Antique perk - sel junk for anything up to 50,000 dollars -depending on antiques found - set up for anything !

[@shawn7692004]

This is now nerfed! Doesn't work anymore

[@sipsix]

I hate it when animal companions block whole doorway so rest of my crew gets stuck behind them while my guy runs on combat alone

[@blank7652]

Best situation you can do there is try and keep your group together and use the wasted AP to set an ambush, hopefully you can maim or outright kill one or two when they close the distance themselves.

[@michaelmiles2647]

When you buy the parrot and get it killed first fight 😔 😂

[@rob119490]

That shits been driving me insane; so many reloads.

[@havocgr1976]

Yap died so fast, but that parrot was worth it ROFL.

[@jdog7797]

Or you change out a ranger in HQ and lose Tom Cat because he disappears. 😿

[@samueljohnson7691]

Yup I lost the parrot and my two headed goat in the same fight right after I got polly

[@tysonbell3524]

Same, decided that the little arsehole went out doing exactly what he does, being an arsehole 😂

[@tomahawk2416]

I run a rifleman with lock picking and hardass and a few mechanic, shotgun and revolver leader with almost a maxed barter skill, sneaky s nerd stuff sniper, small arms and explosives healer, and use PVT josie Bell but i respeced her kinda into big guns and use ironclad cordite for the brawling and he's a secondary explosive user

[@mohdnorazmil]

I have a brawler... at high level, they are super2 strong, can stun aoe stun every turn, ap only use 1, etc... very very fun... this even with wrong starting build.

[@DecrepitBiden]

How do I adjust my attack radius cone? Like a flamethrower. I've seen video where they finely adjust the cone of attack.

[@mansonlong1017]

Put Barter on one of your beginning characters in character creation. Getting them to the coveted rank 7 will be much easier, and passing some of the harder barter speech checks will be much easier. Antiques Dealer is an awesome perk, but far better if you can get it early.

[@mansonlong1017]

@@norzza Yeah, but at least the console version is still very buggy. Using Antiques Dealer is almost a sure-fire way to trigger a crash. Save, save, and more save the game before you go into conversation with a vendor. Hopefully they come out with another patch soon.

[@Baraz_Red]

Detail : switching quickslot items in combat does not seem to work in the current Steam/PC build (last update was in Oct. 2021). I will retest a few times, but up to now it seems like a logical change due to the limited Quickslots system. I was able though to switch weapons.

[@havocgr1976]

Great video, was using my healer instead of my leadership char for revives, I ll change that.Also sometimes its better to do precise strikes on chest, on high armor targets to remove that armor.I have nerd and mechanics on my mellee tank.

[@samueljohnson7691]

My melee also does mechanics so I can run him up to disable turrets

[@poopedpant694]

yah this helped

[@masterpainter78]

CHA 10 characters are amazing with any skill composition, well except non-coms. Heavy Weap + Explosive = Extreme pain tier for enemies cause you can get explosive mod right after leaving the starting area in your vehicle. Rapid Firing explosive death rounds 19X hits a turn of explosive heavy machine gun fire is a super room clearing machine.

[@TheFrigginDevil]

I don't understand. Was animal whisperer good at some point? I thought it was cool when I first started but they really don't do any damage and the enemy never really shoots at them so they can't sponge bullets for you and they take forever to do anything and they get in my way. Am I missing something with them?

[@TheTarkovish]

Yes, theres a glitch where I think its a feature at this point. If you have ranger with an animal companion and you go to manage your squad, kick the ranger out, go out of the menu back to real life, talk to manage your squad and put the whisperer back in your squad, you will see he/she has the animal companion perk but the companion is back in the kennel. It allows you to have the various perks ON all the time. (Kinda the same steps you use to artificially level up your characters)

[@Mondo0909]

Is Initiative even worth now? I thought that it effected who goes first

[@KnightKnowledge]

Is there ammo crafting or the only way to get more is by buying them?

[@mikexirou]

There s a perk to find more ammo.

[@KnightKnowledge]

@@mikexirou yep but no crafting and i can't tell if the vendors reset their stock (looking for cheaper reliable ways to obtain ammo)

[@shamsulhaqramzi378]

also you can have a sniper with nerd stuff and hack some powerful one,its by just shooting their cpu

[@SoddingSuperHero]

You cannot hijack and jack turrets from a distance I take it wit nerdy stuff only upclose? Would love to see a squad build for ranger and supreme jerk difficulty too! My party composition for supreme jerk is sneaky sniper, field medic , lucia wesson and marshal kwon, heavy gunner guy and my main melee brawler Doing alright but having serious struggles because of my brawler somehow with high speed at 9 and coordination at 9, he still dies even with mopey poet, like seriously dude? Any advices guys? Do I need to invest into luck or just keep pumping intelligence for crits ? My brawler at lv8 atm Haha, I feel like swapping to full on melee tank early on

[@SoddingSuperHero]

NorZZa Lokinh forward to it mate!

[@xdhwowbob]

There is an unique weapon upgrade can turn a melee or brawler weapon with 35% stun chance. I start to use a brawler after obtaining 1 ap per attack trait to pair with this weapon upgrade. So my brawler is a stun master. He works with another melee character who can do guaranteed crit attack with a hammer to one shot most stunned minions.

[@frking100]

Beat jerk a couple of days ago. From my experience small arms are probably the best weapons in the game. Their low ap cost allows for luck to trigger more times and sticking scopes on them make their range as long as rifles, shotguns and automatic shotguns are probably the best dmg per ap. My team was 3 shotguns and pistol 1 shotgun and rocket 1 sniper and 1 with assault rifles. I think strength builds are mostly pointless as most enemies 1 shot you until you can get the cyborg enhancement that gives crit immunity that said Scotchmo and Kwon start with good strength. Sneaky shit is a meh ability and it feels very underwhelming. Dropping smoke grenades and turrets can be very good and if you can get some rangers to first aid 7 and the perk you can force through most fights. The highest weird science requirement I saw was lvl 8 (for an armor for dialogue was 7) and survival was lvl 7 (allows to skip combat in map). My build was very ammo starved as many used the same ammo but I never ran into issues where I dint jave enough to load. Try to focus on offense and dealing as much dmg as possible in jerk most enemies will hit you regardless of cover focus your points on luck and extra ap the get hit chance or intelligence (speed is also useless)

[@ThyLegohood]

Lucia Wesson has extremely low health

[@SoddingSuperHero]

frking100 Nice team, but personally I disagree with your take on melee characters being pointless even on supreme, I also think having 2 snipers can work on this difficulty My melee character despite being a brawler and I respec him into a brawler tank and he have been a great source of distraction for the enemies to attack at and if you have animal whisperer for pets , send your warrior with em to gank up on one target Smoke grenades helps concealing your melee tank and also first aid 5 with overcharge heal help keeps him going and alive in a engagement , a melee tank with medical marvel +5 const every level keeps my tanky warrior going with a high survivability with so much armor EVEN on supreme , he is taking hits like a boss. I also have my field medic to keep anybody from going down

[@TravisTravels]

They must have changed the ability to change out stuff in you uick slots because I don't have that option.

[@unholyspire2530]

The whole item slot change makes it so u shouldnt ever spend a perk point to increase ur quick item slot

[@tomahawk2416]

I'm also interested to know in who you think the best companions r?

[@tomahawk2416]

No worries mate

[@sionefonua7636]

Is having 7 squad members normal ?!? Cause I somehow glitched my squad selection into having a 7th party member. Gotta say combat is easy thanks to my extra sniper lol

[@unkindled4965]

Wait, so if a companions revive time reaches 0 they can be brought back by a doctor?

[@hadin9563]

Or using a Nitro spike after the combat is over if you don't want to head back or can't

[@MaineMotman]

I'd like to note- or at least ps4- swapping quick slots on ps4 seems to be patched

[@Quiron1985]

All u need to know is I run Minsc. melee/animal Companion. :D

[@DecrepitBiden]

Haha. Baldur's Gate is strong in you I sense.

[@bdbrady]

A pet hampered I hope.

[@Febrezeaire]

Even at level 20 I still hoard all the attachments. Just to be safe

[@Febrezeaire]

NorZZa but im greedyyyy

[@Elnegro..]

How the hell do I use throwables? I have them in my quick slots and they are no where to be found. I assume it's a bug but if not I need 2 know.

[@tictoc4156]

its in the middle bar between abilities and special strike

[@Elnegro..]

@@norzza Yea think I saw it in this vid or another. Had no idea there was a 2nd bar that contains the throwables. Could have saved my ass on the dam. ( play on hardest dif )

[@s_lim9455]

If you are on PS4 you press square twice to access items & throwables

[@user-tn9kc1rj3n]

Any char with FULL LUCK is op ) automatic rifles stormtroopers musthave

[@Daniel-nf1gq]

What the deal with hp gap? I already often have enemies with 1k-2k hp even before i started to look for patriarch childs and have something like 12-13lvl characters, so i assume deeper in the game there is gonna be even tougher enemies, but, like, coolest guns that I found browsing internet deals about 300+ dmg for sniper rifle, and that's would be JUST OK even now.

[@Daniel-nf1gq]

@@norzza On the westlander difficluty. And I get it when it's event where you don't suppose to fight, like event where you see liberty or scorpotron. But it still feels like every enemy have atleast twice the advantage on hp and dmg on my rangers, and the more time in the game, the more this advantage. At this point Major Tom gonna be my main tank and dps guy, since he have same scale as enemies or something

[@GregorioRicouz]

Whats the best duo to start with?.

[@lokithecat7225]

A Custom one. There is no good reason to use the pre builts, they don't even have Quirks.

[@coopstain1728]

@@lokithecat7225 Yes they do. They have trinkets on them and if you choose them, then you can keep the trinkets later on when you get to HQ and make your own characters.

[@tobarstep]

I suspect that the free inventory switching will get patched at some point.

[@erickesquivel8609]

Can someone please help me with this? On ps4 you press X to move your character during combat. When you want to move to a space where there is a dead body to loot it, during combat, you press X. You stop at the space next to that body to pick it up. If I want to move to the space where the body was, but I don’t want to loot it, how do I do that? You end up using your ap points on this pointless and stupid action otherwise and get stuck standing next to the body like an idiot. Someone please tell me how to move to the location and not loot the body please. I’m seriously not touching this game again until I figure that out. It’s game breaking.

[@jdog7797]

Why did you not say brekkie?

[@jaffo7018]

I use 1 melee tank 2 snipers 1 doc and a mechanic/ nerd. Lastly the pistol lady

[@Svoorhout85]

I put this game off a long time because I had analysis paralysis after getting to the ranger HQ. But now I finally sat down and made a good team. Leader with hard ass and shotguns. A melee tank with explosives, survival and mechanics. A flamethrower with weird science, nerd stuff and toaster repair and a sniper with lockpick and sneak. Kwon fits right in as the only automatic user and kiss ass. Im using Lucia as a modder and barterer. I dont know what other companions can do but I'll replace her with a more useful fighter.

[@ljthompson3011]

Advanced combat tips and one is turrets will actually shoot people lmao

[@ThyLegohood]

My Ranger squad consist of a Leader who has the +20 initiative (who isn't a leader) he's a gunslinger, lock picker, with the ability to repair toasters. My blader medic who if she kills, she gets extra action points, she's my animal charmer and has a PHD in hacking. My 3rd is a Sub machine gunning mechanic w/ explosives. He's immune to all effects. 4th is my Armor modding AR modder. She has the penetration quirk. For my first and only run, i got no sniper and no sneaky shit.

[@ThyLegohood]

@@norzza I use the first two they give you, but now i use the gunslinger hundred family chick along with the drunk hillbilly Scotcha

[@lokithecat7225]

Your party has a ton of wasted points in Modding. Those skills are best used on a character that isn't in your "Fighting" Party, and just swap the Modder in at the base to gear up.

[@lokithecat7225]

@@norzza Skill is handy, but since you can create as many free characters as you feel like, just make a brand new Armor Modder character with 10 in the skill. These "specialist" non combat characters can dump all the relevant perks to be the best at the job. Barter, Armor Mod, Weapon Mod, Toaster Repair, and probably others, can just be relegated to "specialists" so your "Fighting" party can concentrate on other stuff. Then just have them field strip / mod / sell and buy for you between missions.

[@ThyLegohood]

@@norzza that's a seriously great idea.

[@lokithecat7225]

@cool dude Depends on play style. If you immediately stop after every battle, and upgrade with whatever you find, it would be horrible. If you upgrade when you go back to base (while selling everything with a maxed out Barter character) the only downside is you don't get the Rank 10 Armor mod bonus for your party. Late game you'll have points to burn, but I find early on that sparing them is rough.

[@BNik92]

@@ThyLegohood The game being so bugged, I gave up on that strat because characters may randomly lose all their skill points and stats for no reason when swapped back in. I just decided not to go in hard on modding.

[@ThyLegohood]

@@BNik92 every game is like that when it first comes out.

[@Cephlin]

I think they stopped you from changing your quick slots in battle for free

[@jdog7797]

I want to name my animal companions

[@zebloodyking]

I literally don't know how to do stealth and I play on Xbox

[@ohhfishill5286]

Drive your truck into enemies

[@lokithecat7225]

Don't drive over Bile Bombers. They go boom, and 2 can take out your rig at low levels.

[@lilsabin]

this game is hard , believe me , save often

[@lilsabin]

NorZZa normal 😂...the problem is the initiative thing , sometimes you ll just run in a fight by accident...i also play on console (xbox) so no clicking , straight running everywhere , i have to save after i turn every corner

[@kinh0t]

U cant switch items during fights anymore, it was not intended and thank god they fixed this shit. It was unplayable the amount of bugs and badly balanced gameplay on release. Now many of these problems are fixed.

[@ausmiku]

No, you can't use inventory during combat ! (2023)

[@mau5099]

Just got the game from Game Pass and I gotta say it's a trash game. 80% of what you covered isn't mentioned in the game at all. I play on Hard and I'll be overleveld for a mission by 2 or 3 levels and I'll still have an unnecessarily hard time fighting enemies. I either have to overthink every encounter or find a cheese strat or save scum because a) like I said despite being overlevelled the enemies are insanely challening or b) the game bugs out and thought I wanted to shoot my own teammate, an enemy bugged out and teleported toward me and didnt show me, or c) some other dumb RNG ish happened. This game is pretty wanting ngl. Divinity Sin 2 & XCOM are way better for the same style of game and more indepth combat and lore. What you say looks interesting but after playing, say 10 hours, I just can't justify still playing this game. If I knew this game had a history of being obtuse af, I wouldve looked up videos like yours first.

[@guillaume4806]

"advanced"

[@pimbotox8370]

No spin no zoom no interest.

[@DigitalYojimbo]

Phoenix point > wasteland 3

[@Sanguen666]

there's nothing "advanced" about this guide...

[@nenzonenzo]

Yet another fake “advanced” tips video . Just call it “more beginner tips” ffs.

[@tdumford1]

get good at spelling.