Wisdom is the One Stat to rule them all, especially when combined with Wolf as a trainer. Those four mercs you highlighted were the core of my squad through my first playthrough, and combined with Wolf as a trainer, turn into monsters by the midgame. I will say that Kalina overcomes her low Wisdom because her unique perk lets you use HP ammo on a sniper rifle that can kill most enemies with a torso shot - you just have to recognize that despite her dossier, she's really a sharpshooter who can fix stuff and not a mechanic who can shoot. I like to save my skill books and give them to her once Wolf trains her up to ~75 in her physical stats.
Kalyna obviously is a leadership shooter. She never was a mechanic in the first place. I don't know where you got that rumor.Her mechanic skill allows her to lockpick low level locks, not to repair. There's a repair skill for repairs as far as actual mechanics are concerned.
I agree with the bit about wisdom part, except that Wolf as a trainer is far inferior to your IMP as a trainer. a) Your IMP can have 85 LDR vs Wolf's 18. That alone means the IMP is a lot faster at training. b) Your IMP can have 85 MRK vs Wolf's 79. It's not big, but that's 6 points on every single merc that is being trained. c) Your IMP can have 85 WIS vs Wolf's 75. This means that in the long term, your IMP will more easily advance and thus hand those advancements on to their trainees. d) Your IMP costs 0$ for every training session, Wolf costs about 2k$. The issue with Kalyna is that she is so horribly unwise that she requires much much more training than everyone else. Take for example the holy quadrinity of Buns, MD, Barry, Livewire. They are all above 90 WIS and all have relatively similar values for DEX/AGI/MRK. This means that they all require about the same amount of training sessions to get up to speed, which makes it efficient.
I grabbed buns just for 14 days to train marksman to MD and Livewire. At the end of training period they were both close to 90 marksmanship. Wisdom is key, Livewire was getting like 6 points per session in the early ones. By the time I finished the game both MD and Livewire were at 100 marksmanship.
@@MrKochshawn Of course wisdom is key, that's like... The title of the game, here. Also 94 wisdom (Buns) is key to learning for sure, as long as the thing you're training is high also. So marksmanship she does well, and medical too. Hence Wolf being useless as a merc trainer except for agility and health, basically. Grizzly teaches strength better than Wolf, even without the teach perk. (because Grizzly has 95 INCREMENTAL multiplier. So it's weight more than Wolf's 85ish, basically, 10% bonus teaching can't even compete) But also 100 isn't the best marksmanship. For Dexterity as a main stat governs marksmanship, as an INCREMENTAL multiplier to marksmanship that is in fact a buff, to the competence itself. So take Fox to teach DEX to everybody. Use Livewire to teach mechanic, Barry for Explosives, Mouse for Agility, and also maybe there should be a shooling mod for Kalyna and Steroïd, so someone gets to teach these champs some worthy wisdom, but me thinks that would be a bit unbalanced to have wisdom teaching enabled. Taht would destroy the game's reality, even... Then back to focus : you get to realize with high DEX for example, the rate of success at ANYTHING involving hand manipulation (so marksmanship, explosives, repair, and medical) The best way to improve these four skills at once is to teach DEX, basically... With a high wisdom to boot for best student stat rise, just as you said. For you see, DEX also is taken into account when it come to teaching these 4 things, not only wisdom.
Fox is insanely good if you are planning to do any kind of stealth. With a knife in her hands on some maps you can kill like 5 people before the fight even starts and even then she has full AP. She also great against armored targets early on because she can just melee kill them and run away with the right perks.
Training is so useful and opens up many more merc to use. I spend 3 sessions on the first island train Marksmanship and Agility. (you get 30k for taking the main city so you have basically a free week) Everyone in this list can get training from your IMP. My IMP has 85 Mark and Agil. Teacher Perk. Wolf is a good Health and Strength Trainer. If you take Fox instead of MD she is the best Dexterity trainer in the game. Grunty, Steroid, Grizzly, and Red all of the sudden have potential to be solid really solid. I run the same team without MD. I pick up Meltdown and Ice. But that leaves me having to Hire MD around the time i take Fleatown for some med checks in dialogue you need for...certain events.
Yeah, taking a free week for training sounds like a very very good idea indeed! Fox is awesome, true, but she lacks the high Medicine Stat that you need for some missions - but yeah having MD in a second squad is fine, as you said. But imho it's MD all the way if he gets some proper training, he is also a good marksman. Anyway, appreciate your comment!
Give your IMP 85 Dex and suddenly they are the best dex trainer in the game (leadership is far more important than anything else). Grunty (74), Steroid (61), Grizzly (72) and Red (79) all have really bad wisdom, so teaching them takes a lot longer than teaching MD (94). From my training tests, 20 points of wisdom equate to about 60% of learning impact. In addition, a lower starting value leads to higher gains. A perfect teacher would get MD from 68 to 91 Mrk in 3 sessions (of course if you don't have a 100/100, but rather a 85/85, things change). That's the same amount Grunty, Grizzly and Red would need. As soon as you factor in training (which you should, because it's OP), wisdom is the most powerful stat - as long as your IMP has 85 in leadership and anything you want to teach.
If Livewire doesn't wanna sign up early, Steroid has also been a great pickup for me, he has enough mechanical to do what he needs to do, hack everything, repair items and so on, plus he has significantly more marksmanship and strength over Livewire, so he can be a really nice gunman/inventory mule as well. Barry is the goat for explosives for sure though, just pretty normally playing a campaign, he's at 100 explosives now and I've got him loaded out with an M14 with a GL on it and grenades in his other pockets, he's come in clutch so many times with his shaped charges. Although the downside to Steroid is that if you keep him around, he'll make it an issue if you ever try and hire any of the russians, of course namely Igor and Ivan Dolvich, but it's fiiine. Also other people saying it too, but yeah, it's just a given to make your IMP merc high leadership and stuff as well, I basically 85'd every stat by dump statting explosives, medical and mechanical down to 0, then dropped his strength to about 40-50, which made him a super lethal marksman leader that can jack of all trades better than Wolf, but the dumped stats are also nothing because those other 3 train up so easily and so quickly, one training session with MD put my IMP guy from 0 to 20 medical, basically same story training him with Barry in explosives.
My starting squad is IMP merc focused either on ranged or melee, always dumping medicine/mechanics/explosives. You get all 85s on what's left with 40 in one stat...so 40 marksmanship if you go melee, 40 str if you go ranged or you can bump that some at the expense of health which is not that important if you are gonna play a sniper. Fox is the absolute best T1 merc. She is arguably the best combat medic in the game, her unique is great. She has teacher so she can help with militia and she can also teach Dex to anyone that can learn. Dual wield isn't great but it can be ok with modded guns. I take her down the dex perk path and she becomes an interrupt machine. Great candidate to wield an LMG. End game merc. Barry is my second favorite T1 merc. His unique is fantastic. Those shaped charges can really get you out of a jam and on some maps you can smoke 7-8 guys with one. He hits 100 explosives very quickly if you give him all the magazines you find. End game merc. Livewire is 3rd best. Her unique is great, seeing enemies when you have intel for the sector can really speed things along and/or make things a lot safer. She is obviously a mechanic but she has decent medical too and can be a decent backup to your main doc. She can be an end game merc but I replace her with Magic at some point, when I can afford him. That starting 4 can do 2 week contract on even the hardest difficulty where you only start with 24K.
Good Tips, love the comment! But I guess when you're at a level to play on highest difficulty, you don't really need the videos anyway lol. But i really appreciate you watching it anyway, so thanks for that!
FWIW My first game was First Blood. I quit about half way through and started a Commando run with the vanilla+ mod in the Steam Workshop. Because I had learned so much and because of the mod which radically increases gear and ammo drops, the game was actually easier. I finished the main story in 35H but still had a lot of map to do. Rather than mop it up with that squad I started a new game on MI, with no drop chance mods. Also playing a melee IMP which is really not my thing.
antastic breakdown for newcomers to the game! 👏 Your choices for the starting squad make so much sense, and I appreciate the clear explanations. This will definitely give beginners a solid footing in Jagged Alliance 3. Subscribed and looking forward to more tips! 🔥🎮
Fox is most broken of the cheap mercs, give her sniper rifle with silencer and she can kill 2 enemies be4 the battle starts. Its true tho that her med. skill is a bit to low for some checks, but they come much later in the game, no need to have MD from the start.
Fox has become my headshotting sniper badass. I have no idea how it happened, and her stats don't really work for it, but she doesn't seem to care because she's dropping the opposition left right and center ;~)
One of the better guides. A thing you did but failed to mention is to put the Psycho trait on your IMP, because all the psychos you can hire are... well.. psychos, which gives them massive downsides. And you want all 3 personality traits in your party (Livewire is a Scoundrel, Buns to me is the perfect Negotiator to round it out). Stat distribution on your IMP is unnecessarily balanced. Put strength on 40 (which makes virtually no difference, because scrapping is better than hoarding anyway) and max out the rest. Advancing from 80 to 85 is a lot slower than from 40 to 45, so you can deal with your 40 strength (if you want) rather quickly in the mid game. But 85 LDR is a must. Wolf is overrated, in my opinion. His bonus only enhances his contribution - so why not instead have two cheaper mercs replace him (which makes them faster at those tasks and better in combat). You could get Buns + Igor or Buns + Mouse for the same cost. Or better yet, save the 5k by only getting Buns (and leverage your cheaper squad into more training sessions. To me, Wolf is more of a second wave merc who waddles behind you and trains the militia while your party does the real stuff. More in depth: The absolute beauty of MD+Livewire+Barry+Buns is that they all have super high wisdom and combat stats (DEX/AGI/MMS) that are fairly similar. I think it takes 4/2/4 training sessions from an 85 LDR/AGI/DEX/MMS-IMP to get all 4 to 85 in all stats (or close enough).
@@jankodes197 Forget Thor. Take Fox as a field medic and watch that 100 DEX shine. MD's only average, compared to her. Never failed to mention that fact to her during JA2 even, Michael Dawson : you know how self-confident the man can be.
@messire9837 I like Fox, but I would not say she is essential depending on your Playstyle. That is the beauty of this game. However her failed stealth kill into brutalize is a thing of beauty in this game 😍
@@DarkStarStudiosUK Yeah, of course she's not essential, she has a lot of possible applications is what I would say. Also, if you have a member of the animals gang, she's pretty much the way to go. (Grizzly, Wolf, Buzz formally also) Check out her knife throwing abilities also. I managed to 'kill', more like incapacitate Graat with two knife throws to the neck (I think that was his name, the slaver from the B2 mine) Repair and explosive, me thinks, are the only activities I would advise against for Fox. And hoarding also, obviously. The rest is open to disctretion. Awesome overwatcher also. (dual Berettas 👌) * EDIT : Graaf is the name.
Leadership on the IMP is a priority, since there aren't very many good leaders available and having one early helps a lot with map movement. It's a pain to have to wait for Raider for a squad speed buff.
As somewhat of a part 2 to this video it'd be nice to see a video of the perks you recommend for the different types of mercs. Sniper-focussed mercs should get those perks while whatever-focussed mercs should pick this and that perk. Anyways, I watched all of your JA3 videos so far and must say that they're really helpful. Thank you for doing them! Just started a new playthrough with this squad and I'm trying to make much less mistakes than with my last run...
Actually I already thought about the next videos and i think it might be something like you suggest. Thanks for the input, appreciate it. Last days have been quite work-busy so i didnt find too much time to play.
Barry is a certain pick, cheap solid and great explosives.. I also like Thor, decent medic and leadership as well as pretty good base combat stats.. I also went for Vicki, she isn't cheap but her mechanics is top class. Plus the Imp merc. This team of 4 might be a little on the pricey side and money was tight but I didn't fail a single check the whole game and they are all pretty decent marksmen. By end game they were top tier and hiring legendary mercs was not really needed.
I'd exchange Wolf for Meltdown and give the IMP "Negotiator", to have all 3 personalitys from the start. Also a good Idea to keep the MG42 from the first Quest - they suck up ammo like nothing, but a heavy Gunner (-1AP to fire maschineguns) simply can save your ass, especially on siege battles like Hill station or in the Museum. When you get a better one, use a short barrel for additional -1AP. Means 2AP to fire a long salvo = a lot of dead enemys. And a lot of overatch attacks (easily 6+ later) Don't use it always (amoo usage) but a strength/Health centered built pairs well with a Shotgun as secondary weapon. Fully agree with Barry an livewire, two of the best Mercs in their branch. Not sure about MD. At all you simply don't need a Doctor (means: skill Level 80+) before you reach the Jungle/sanatorium. So a "combat medic" Merc with a medicore (50-60) med rating to patch you up a bit is usually enough at start. Fox is really good at this, as her Perk is brilliant: she can do the "opening kill" in real time and has full AP when the battle begins. Give her a Sniperrifle with supressor (Gewehr98 an Winchester are good enough to begin with) and you have a real force. Imp: Wisdom to 85. You can not train wisdom. So maximise it at beginning. Also I'd go with Leadership 85. each Point above 25 increases the travel speed of the team for 1%. So +5 Leadership = 5% faster travel. You can go down with strengh (only important for inventory size an throwing distance AFAIK) or even marksmanship. It is not so important as in JA2, because "hitting" has much more factors in it (weapon and mods usw) so even a "mid 70" marksman has little problems to get 95% and above to hit chance.
That is also a good idea, but after i finished Ernie Island i rotated Buns into the squad (hence her beeing a little bit faded on the right side of the picture). I didn't find "Psycho" too useful or I didnt miss it yet. The Problem with the MG42 is that the 100 Ammo from it is better spend on those Gewehr98 and M24 than on the MG42... Snipers are way too powerful. Appreciate the comment!
Wolf's trait only applies to his contribution, as far as I can tell. It looks like there's a "work units per time" and Wolf gets a 1.33 multiplier because of his trait. If he has other people working with them, they don't have this multiplier.
Absolutely right, Fox is awesome with her Agi + Dex. But her MED is not *that* high and she could fail some Medicin Checks. But since there is no "right or wrong", a lot of combinations work. Thanks for sharing your team, guess it'll help the community trying out their own starting Squad!
Red actually makes for a good cheap explosives guy, too. The $7500 pricetag on him is quite deceptive - he has a really high medical deposit that makes up almost a third of that pricetag, while his actual daily wage is lower than most veteran and IIRC even a number of recruit-level mercs.
In my opinion as a Jagged Alliance veteran, btw finished the game since it release 6 times and 2 times in Ironman. I would go any day with those 4 mercs in the start ; IMP (with high leadership as a leader with good agility, dexterity,wisdom, marksmanship, would keep Mechanical, Explosive & Medical as low as possible) so the other 3 would be most definitely Barry (imo the best explosive merc in the game, has good overall stats; comes with high dexterity and wisdom already which means you can get him into a elite merc half through the game), then Igor is a must and imo the best all arounder of the game, with a lil improvement he becomes just like his uncle Ivan or even better half of the game. As for mechanic Livewire is surely the best option as a recruit (she can become also a elite merc in mid game due very high wisdom with some training) but her cartoony voice lines really goes into my nerves (we cant mute the mercs either like back in JA2) like we are playing a child game, so is Kalyna imo so i would go with Steroid but mid of the game i would take surely Vicki into my first team, she is the best mechanic of the game imo with good shooting stats + wisdom. I would also highly recommend to get Flay as soon as possible after finishing the Ernie Island, i would directly go to the north and track him down, his probably the best sniper of the game with a lil training agility and dexterity, his shooting % is never below %90 with me, also recommend to keep his Winchester Lever Action Rifle still end game as its really effective especially later with the AP & Hollow bullets. So my starting team on Ironman run would be with IMP, Barry, Igor & Steroid. Mid to end game first squad would be IMP, Barry, Igor (as i said he becomes better than Ivan around mid game), Flay, Vicki or Steroid (if i still keep him and train his agility), then as a 6. merc i would go either with Blood or Fidel (i like Fauda but i think she is overpriced, she supposed to be on Elite imo). As for doctor, i try to avoid to take a doctor with me in my squad, the strategy am playing is to get hit as less as possible and with a merc who has around 50 medical (Blood, Buns, Flay, Livewire, Wolf etc....) can also get the job done well enough but if i had to take a medic with me from start of the game it would be surely MD (he has also very silly voice lines) i tested all the doctors already and i must say Thor is the best overall medic imo, also comes with overall good stats, if not Thor then Dr.Q (he can also improve his stats quickly due good wisdom and can become also a very good stealth killer) but the only time i really needed a medic was for those medical checks to be honest in the Refugee Camp, Sanatorium and few other locations.
Almost the same as my rec. Only thing I do different is replacing Wolf with Blood. Saves a tiny bit of money and while losing Wolf's operations multiplier hurts, Blood is just insanely strong especially in the early game, both as a stealth killer and in actual combat. Even moreso once you get him a sharpened machete.
These are my starting group, my custom merc with high leadership and teaching trait to train militia and move faster across the map (custom merc has mechanical maxed out as its a pain to train mechanical skill later with Kalyna - Vicky is the costlier option mid game once I got to the larger map) Starting: Igor, Barry, Kalyna, MD, Livewire (depending if my custom merc has no mech skill) Large Map: Blood, Ice, Thor, Vicky, Buns, Grunty, Scully This has always been my default start that I got used to never tried other mercs and these work fine for me.
Great to hear. All those comments are highly appreciated, since you guys add so much more for all new players reading them! I always loved scully but his picture is so terrible, i cant pick him yet lol.
Fox can clear an entire sector all by herself! You just need to raise her MRK to at least 80 then give her a silenced sniper rifle with a thermal scope
Starting merc depends mainly on your first decision Fox vs Buns. They hate each other so you have to choose one and go from there. Barry is a must- i cannot see no reasonable alternative to him. IMP is basically agi,dex,wis,ldr 85 remaining as you wish. I hate IMP not adding any comment into conversation and livewire personality in general so i skipped both and started my 2nd run with: fox,barry,hitman,wolf - then on 2nd island grizzly,flay,raven, raider, larry, vicki, smiley. I missed only a few mech checks until i got vicki. Fox and Raven being my the most OP characters
Yeah but you can get Fox and Buns on the Team if you hire Wolf and Buns first, then Fox will join afaik. But anyway, your team sounds very reasonable and there is no "right or wrong". I just wanted to newcomers to give a starting squad :)
Red is a pretty reasonable alternative to Barry. His pricetag is deceptive - he demands a really high medical deposit that causes his default price to look high, while his daily wage is actually lower than some of the recruit-tier mercs. Learned that in a campaign where Barry was not avaiable at start and I was forced to actually look for another explosives guy.
I wouldn't get Wolf right away because he's pretty pricey, and you don't have much money on the higher difficulties. Fox and Wolf like each other, and they're good if you get them both. Fox, Barry, and Livewire are by far the best T1 mercs. Buns is the best T2 merc (she really has a T1 price), and will be great at teaching all your lower marksmanship mercs, as well as giving you the negotiator perk. The only problem is that she doesn't like Fox I have both in my squad, and it's annoying that Buns always has -1 to morale, but it's still doable, and they have some hilarious banter. I'll probably pick up Sidney in the lategame to offset the penalty. I would say that Livewire and Barry are absolute musts in any squad. They just bring so much to the table for cheap. I would say that after that, you have some options.
Valid choice, but aus you said Buns dislikes Fox so it's a choice between the two I guess. But you're correct, this might not be the optimal squad for higher difficulties - but then it wouldn't be a beginners guide anymore, right? Anyway, appreciate your comment!
AFAIK dexterity doesn't influence how far you can walk, that's agility. Wolf's trait works only for himself, it's pretty pointless when he's in a big team. He's awesome later on when you buy him to train militia, but as part of your main team, his trait mostly means he's going to wait around for the rest to finish up their assignments.
Yeah, you're right - its' agility, not Dex. You can switch out Wolf for almost every other Merc, maybe Buns or someone else of your preference. So many valid combinations, I just really think this is a good combo for beginners to start with. Appreciate your comment!
I beef up my IMP character's mechanical so I don't need Livewire for hacking, she is so useless in a fight and slow. Also you still have a ton of mechanical to repair everything you find at the start. Then I take Fox, Grizzley, Barry, and Kalyna. I take Ernie with them, then get MD Dawson, and use him to train guards behind my main force. Grizzley is good because he can use grenades, and he has strength to carry a lot and bust things open.
totally valid combination, even though I would do it differently. But it's a smart choice, nonetheless.! If you combine MD with Hitman for Crew Training, man... this is simply awesome!
So you complain about people not being able to fight, but instead of training them up really quick with your IMP with 85 leadership and combat stats, you pick the squad with virtually the worst wisdom so they can't ever get better? Fox, Grizzly, Kalyna have about the same combat stats that Livewire has - at the start. 10 days in and Livewire is better than all of them. Yes, it does work, because the game is easy enough that even sub-par party compositions work - but this is far from optimal. And the issue with mechanic on the IMP is just that you can get it elsewhere. Leadership is the one thing you can't get elsewhere. And a total of 340* points in the 4 main stats (Dex, Agi, MMS, Wisdom to improve the first 3) is something you only find on Buns, Ice, Ivan and legendary mercs. In case you're wondering: The worst sum in these 4 stats belongs to Steroid, followed by Kalyna and Grizzly.
@@DrZaius3141 I don't want my starter mercs in my combat team once I get more money. I want them as cheap as possible and doing operations. I only want my starter mercs to get me 2 mines. Operations can take a bit longer when you are not waiting for them to finish before you move to your next conquest. And I want my IMP fighting, not training the whole time. Separation of duties!
Agreed with this squad option. It's sad that all of possible starting squads are depending on wisdom only. Because low marksmanship or dexterity is not as bad as low wisdom. Mediocre MD or Livewire will become beasts after few hours of the game. Mediocre Fox or Steroid won't, just get more expensive with each level. That is why Barry, MD and Livewire is the onpy option for the starting squad, not the Barry, Fox and Steroid. Barry is also is the only explosive specialist option in recruit tier level (in my humble opinion, he is the best merc of all JA3).
yeah, but it was more or less the same with JA2. Leveling up was quite easy too. But yes: wisdom is waaay to overpowered. Agreed. Also on Barry. Love this guy!
No Barry is not the cheapest, MD and Igor is the cheapest. Igor and MD 7 days fee 3770 (INCLUDING 900 medical) Barry is 7 days fee 2990. 3770 - 900 is 2870. The order of low cost mercs is Kalyna, Grizzly, Barry, MD/Igor.
Livewire is so broken that it feels like cheating. Hiring her is almost like unlocking 'god mode'. Feels a bit like a mary sue/self-insert. So, of course I hired her, lol.
One correction to the video. Training your own mercs always lasts 2 days. the operation cannot be made faster. So Wolf's trait does NOT influence this. You can only influence stat gain within the 2 day operation (having 2 teacher trait mercs with high leadership etc)
@@chr_isso No need to apologize. I also assumed merc training (which is an operation) would fall under the 33% speed boost to all operations as well when i first hired him
No Fox? Why people avoid Bobby? He is very capable mechanic with superb strength (perfect for team mule role), very high HP and he is a great marksman. True his versatility is on the low side, but he can upgrade it after a few training sessions with Fox. Plus you are missing such a great banter. 😆 I can't play all this bland or cheesy characters. Ps For the best chatter you must find Larry and don't send him to the rehab! At least not for the while....🤣
Will do on my current playthrough. I didn't think of these videos at the beginning and already sent larry to the rehab .. so yeah, i still need to do that :D
Funny thing is that Fox detests Bobby so you should try to avoid them on same squad or sector other than training. I THINK Fox will ask for more money (similar to how Buns asks for more money when Fox is on the team).
@@hexxon77Nope, Fox will absolutely demand extra money if you try to hire her while Steroid is around, and will get a morale penalty if she's in the same sector as him. This also happens with Smiley if the two are together in the same place for a while.
No, that's not the best starting easy mode team, far from it. Fox is missing, so you're also missing out on the core reason why Wolf brings the teams' morale up like nobody else does (except for Grunty, me very best, but not for beginners). Also Wolf worthless earlygame as far as teaching goes as he's no specialist of nothing, so not very efficient in terms of learning rate. Also, using him to train militia would be such a waste. Good thing to know, Grizzly teaches strength best, and Fox dexterity best. So that leaves him with his really good agility to teach also. Just add Meltdown to it for the agressive dialogue options, and there you have it: the easy mode dream team. And Barry/Livewire, of course. These are of course key to easy mode, as you've been telling yourself, here. Though I would never use Barry on the battlefield, except for huge battles with his shotty and special bombs. He's better of building ammo, and he doesn't enjoy the killing, no morale boost for him. Me thinks your selection tends to overlook several details dealing with the JA rulebook fundamentals. Sad, considering the fact there's Wolf in the team : Fox is a way better field medic than MD is. As DEX is main medical STAT, acting as a incremental modifer on the medical SKILL, the left column is for is a buff to the main stat (so 100 for her, there's the actual STAT to govern them all, as it pretty much governs all assertive tasks in the game : explosives, repair, medical and also marksmanship. As a Medic, Fox reach 100 medical in no time. It takes longer for MD, as it turns out. Though he's pretty good as a medic (his wisdom), don't get me wrong, here. Also, Wolf isn't THAT good as a trainer, as he's pretty much a jack of all trades. Vicky teaching repair does it way faster even without the teaching skill. Barry does it better, when it comes to explosives... And so on. But Wolf is more like a health trainer, he has a huge passion for it also (moral boost). But to use wolf to train repair or even medical would be a mistake. For Medical, ask Buns to do it. If you want a sub par trainer in those skills, meaning time wasted, Wolf is OK. Just so now you get to realize WHY he has that special : he excels at pretty much nothing but physics and aiming. So he needs the time boost. Beyond that, Fox for Dex obviously, Barry for Eplosives, Grizzly for strength (steroid being to dummo to teach), and so on. What Wolf is is an EXCELLENT sniper who RARELY misses a shot. All he needs more is a little athletic perk a fitted Galil with grenade launcher and there he goes : BOOM! There's Wolf, single and deadly, might I add. And he's a natural also, his main stats do it all (AGI and DEX combined give huge bonus to aimed sniping for mathematical reasons, again, incremental multipliers start to get REALLY goodfeel above 85. He's good at overwatch, grenades and throwing light sticks also. Though not knives, might wanna keep them for Fox instead, even if she doesn't have the knives perk. Her 100 DEX is key, she does well with knives, better than several specialists even, be it as melee special cut-cut or even thrown knives. >> So Basically, Wolf is like Grunty, a tactical do-it-all/moral caretaker, but for noisy daylight operations, alongside commotion-friendly buddies such as the Animals gang (So Fox, Grizzly and some others still missing the JA3 call to arms as of yet)
Awesome comment, thank you. I didn't put my focus on the teaching aspect, but more on a beginner approach which mercs work together. If you prefer Fox or Meltdown or want to switch out other mercs, there's absolutely no right or wrong here. But for a beginner, I think this Squad is pretty decent as it covers everything you would need for the very beginning.
What is that about teaching?? Why not have mercs who dont need teaching? Fox is way better than MD. Sniper/medic/stealth at start no schooling. 2 free turns on stealth! New beginners have a load of shitss to learn. teaching is not one of them
Especially in the easy mode you got plenty of time. some people finished the game with 1.5 million and more, so there is no hurry. I simply explain what can be done, not that it's a must to do. This Squad works well and MD has helped a lot in the completion of Quests, e.g. Rabies Quest...
@@chr_isso Yes, but the new beginners are not interested in that. They just want to survive the first hours. MD is utterly crap at combat. He is support, not combat. Newbiz dont have a clue as to how things work, they are fumbling tumbling, surviving by sheer willforce. My first try, i killed half of aims mercs. And died of not enough ammo. This game is not easy, because it is completely random. One game can be easy, where u find what u need when u need, an other game can be a dreg with you finding thing u dont need, the legion only making good decisions, and everything not going your way. It is random.
Wisdom is the One Stat to rule them all, especially when combined with Wolf as a trainer. Those four mercs you highlighted were the core of my squad through my first playthrough, and combined with Wolf as a trainer, turn into monsters by the midgame. I will say that Kalina overcomes her low Wisdom because her unique perk lets you use HP ammo on a sniper rifle that can kill most enemies with a torso shot - you just have to recognize that despite her dossier, she's really a sharpshooter who can fix stuff and not a mechanic who can shoot. I like to save my skill books and give them to her once Wolf trains her up to ~75 in her physical stats.
Awesome comment! Will pin this, thanks
Kalyna obviously is a leadership shooter. She never was a mechanic in the first place. I don't know where you got that rumor.Her mechanic skill allows her to lockpick low level locks, not to repair. There's a repair skill for repairs as far as actual mechanics are concerned.
I agree with the bit about wisdom part, except that Wolf as a trainer is far inferior to your IMP as a trainer.
a) Your IMP can have 85 LDR vs Wolf's 18. That alone means the IMP is a lot faster at training.
b) Your IMP can have 85 MRK vs Wolf's 79. It's not big, but that's 6 points on every single merc that is being trained.
c) Your IMP can have 85 WIS vs Wolf's 75. This means that in the long term, your IMP will more easily advance and thus hand those advancements on to their trainees.
d) Your IMP costs 0$ for every training session, Wolf costs about 2k$.
The issue with Kalyna is that she is so horribly unwise that she requires much much more training than everyone else. Take for example the holy quadrinity of Buns, MD, Barry, Livewire. They are all above 90 WIS and all have relatively similar values for DEX/AGI/MRK. This means that they all require about the same amount of training sessions to get up to speed, which makes it efficient.
I grabbed buns just for 14 days to train marksman to MD and Livewire. At the end of training period they were both close to 90 marksmanship. Wisdom is key, Livewire was getting like 6 points per session in the early ones. By the time I finished the game both MD and Livewire were at 100 marksmanship.
@@MrKochshawn Of course wisdom is key, that's like... The title of the game, here.
Also 94 wisdom (Buns) is key to learning for sure, as long as the thing you're training is high also. So marksmanship she does well, and medical too. Hence Wolf being useless as a merc trainer except for agility and health, basically. Grizzly teaches strength better than Wolf, even without the teach perk. (because Grizzly has 95 INCREMENTAL multiplier. So it's weight more than Wolf's 85ish, basically, 10% bonus teaching can't even compete)
But also 100 isn't the best marksmanship. For Dexterity as a main stat governs marksmanship, as an INCREMENTAL multiplier to marksmanship that is in fact a buff, to the competence itself.
So take Fox to teach DEX to everybody. Use Livewire to teach mechanic, Barry for Explosives, Mouse for Agility, and also maybe there should be a shooling mod for Kalyna and Steroïd, so someone gets to teach these champs some worthy wisdom, but me thinks that would be a bit unbalanced to have wisdom teaching enabled. Taht would destroy the game's reality, even...
Then back to focus : you get to realize with high DEX for example, the rate of success at ANYTHING involving hand manipulation (so marksmanship, explosives, repair, and medical) The best way to improve these four skills at once is to teach DEX, basically... With a high wisdom to boot for best student stat rise, just as you said.
For you see, DEX also is taken into account when it come to teaching these 4 things, not only wisdom.
Fox is insanely good if you are planning to do any kind of stealth. With a knife in her hands on some maps you can kill like 5 people before the fight even starts and even then she has full AP. She also great against armored targets early on because she can just melee kill them and run away with the right perks.
I love it. I dedicated my stealth sniper build to her, more or less
Wolf has been my favourite since JA1 :)
Wolfie, most useful, most often, bar none.
Training is so useful and opens up many more merc to use. I spend 3 sessions on the first island train Marksmanship and Agility. (you get 30k for taking the main city so you have basically a free week) Everyone in this list can get training from your IMP. My IMP has 85 Mark and Agil. Teacher Perk. Wolf is a good Health and Strength Trainer. If you take Fox instead of MD she is the best Dexterity trainer in the game. Grunty, Steroid, Grizzly, and Red all of the sudden have potential to be solid really solid. I run the same team without MD. I pick up Meltdown and Ice. But that leaves me having to Hire MD around the time i take Fleatown for some med checks in dialogue you need for...certain events.
Yeah, taking a free week for training sounds like a very very good idea indeed! Fox is awesome, true, but she lacks the high Medicine Stat that you need for some missions - but yeah having MD in a second squad is fine, as you said. But imho it's MD all the way if he gets some proper training, he is also a good marksman.
Anyway, appreciate your comment!
@@chr_isso hmm.. how much time do you train him until he gets good marksmanship? i find him quite terrible, great medic but the worst soldier :)
Give your IMP 85 Dex and suddenly they are the best dex trainer in the game (leadership is far more important than anything else). Grunty (74), Steroid (61), Grizzly (72) and Red (79) all have really bad wisdom, so teaching them takes a lot longer than teaching MD (94). From my training tests, 20 points of wisdom equate to about 60% of learning impact. In addition, a lower starting value leads to higher gains. A perfect teacher would get MD from 68 to 91 Mrk in 3 sessions (of course if you don't have a 100/100, but rather a 85/85, things change). That's the same amount Grunty, Grizzly and Red would need.
As soon as you factor in training (which you should, because it's OP), wisdom is the most powerful stat - as long as your IMP has 85 in leadership and anything you want to teach.
BARRY UNGER .....🤣🤣🤣 THE VOICE OVER IS AMAZING :)
It's so funny how much love Barry receives. He's just an all time favourite !
Barry is a flipping legend !! He is definitely one of my favourites in the game.
yes! he was always under my radar but man, he is awesome! he won a place in my heart!
If Livewire doesn't wanna sign up early, Steroid has also been a great pickup for me, he has enough mechanical to do what he needs to do, hack everything, repair items and so on, plus he has significantly more marksmanship and strength over Livewire, so he can be a really nice gunman/inventory mule as well. Barry is the goat for explosives for sure though, just pretty normally playing a campaign, he's at 100 explosives now and I've got him loaded out with an M14 with a GL on it and grenades in his other pockets, he's come in clutch so many times with his shaped charges. Although the downside to Steroid is that if you keep him around, he'll make it an issue if you ever try and hire any of the russians, of course namely Igor and Ivan Dolvich, but it's fiiine.
Also other people saying it too, but yeah, it's just a given to make your IMP merc high leadership and stuff as well, I basically 85'd every stat by dump statting explosives, medical and mechanical down to 0, then dropped his strength to about 40-50, which made him a super lethal marksman leader that can jack of all trades better than Wolf, but the dumped stats are also nothing because those other 3 train up so easily and so quickly, one training session with MD put my IMP guy from 0 to 20 medical, basically same story training him with Barry in explosives.
My starting squad is IMP merc focused either on ranged or melee, always dumping medicine/mechanics/explosives. You get all 85s on what's left with 40 in one stat...so 40 marksmanship if you go melee, 40 str if you go ranged or you can bump that some at the expense of health which is not that important if you are gonna play a sniper.
Fox is the absolute best T1 merc. She is arguably the best combat medic in the game, her unique is great. She has teacher so she can help with militia and she can also teach Dex to anyone that can learn. Dual wield isn't great but it can be ok with modded guns. I take her down the dex perk path and she becomes an interrupt machine. Great candidate to wield an LMG. End game merc.
Barry is my second favorite T1 merc. His unique is fantastic. Those shaped charges can really get you out of a jam and on some maps you can smoke 7-8 guys with one. He hits 100 explosives very quickly if you give him all the magazines you find. End game merc.
Livewire is 3rd best. Her unique is great, seeing enemies when you have intel for the sector can really speed things along and/or make things a lot safer. She is obviously a mechanic but she has decent medical too and can be a decent backup to your main doc. She can be an end game merc but I replace her with Magic at some point, when I can afford him.
That starting 4 can do 2 week contract on even the hardest difficulty where you only start with 24K.
Good Tips, love the comment!
But I guess when you're at a level to play on highest difficulty, you don't really need the videos anyway lol.
But i really appreciate you watching it anyway, so thanks for that!
FWIW My first game was First Blood. I quit about half way through and started a Commando run with the vanilla+ mod in the Steam Workshop. Because I had learned so much and because of the mod which radically increases gear and ammo drops, the game was actually easier. I finished the main story in 35H but still had a lot of map to do. Rather than mop it up with that squad I started a new game on MI, with no drop chance mods. Also playing a melee IMP which is really not my thing.
antastic breakdown for newcomers to the game! 👏 Your choices for the starting squad make so much sense, and I appreciate the clear explanations. This will definitely give beginners a solid footing in Jagged Alliance 3. Subscribed and looking forward to more tips! 🔥🎮
Fox is most broken of the cheap mercs, give her sniper rifle with silencer and she can kill 2 enemies be4 the battle starts. Its true tho that her med. skill is a bit to low for some checks, but they come much later in the game, no need to have MD from the start.
I'm so happy to hear that there are so many possible approaches, would be boring is there was a "meta". Thanks for the suggestion, i like fox as well!
Fox has become my headshotting sniper badass. I have no idea how it happened, and her stats don't really work for it, but she doesn't seem to care because she's dropping the opposition left right and center ;~)
One of the better guides. A thing you did but failed to mention is to put the Psycho trait on your IMP, because all the psychos you can hire are... well.. psychos, which gives them massive downsides. And you want all 3 personality traits in your party (Livewire is a Scoundrel, Buns to me is the perfect Negotiator to round it out).
Stat distribution on your IMP is unnecessarily balanced. Put strength on 40 (which makes virtually no difference, because scrapping is better than hoarding anyway) and max out the rest. Advancing from 80 to 85 is a lot slower than from 40 to 45, so you can deal with your 40 strength (if you want) rather quickly in the mid game. But 85 LDR is a must.
Wolf is overrated, in my opinion. His bonus only enhances his contribution - so why not instead have two cheaper mercs replace him (which makes them faster at those tasks and better in combat). You could get Buns + Igor or Buns + Mouse for the same cost. Or better yet, save the 5k by only getting Buns (and leverage your cheaper squad into more training sessions. To me, Wolf is more of a second wave merc who waddles behind you and trains the militia while your party does the real stuff.
More in depth: The absolute beauty of MD+Livewire+Barry+Buns is that they all have super high wisdom and combat stats (DEX/AGI/MMS) that are fairly similar. I think it takes 4/2/4 training sessions from an 85 LDR/AGI/DEX/MMS-IMP to get all 4 to 85 in all stats (or close enough).
I used the same squad - other than Thor instead of MD, but he is SO expensive compared to others here.
@@jankodes197 Forget Thor. Take Fox as a field medic and watch that 100 DEX shine. MD's only average, compared to her. Never failed to mention that fact to her during JA2 even, Michael Dawson : you know how self-confident the man can be.
@messire9837 I like Fox, but I would not say she is essential depending on your Playstyle. That is the beauty of this game. However her failed stealth kill into brutalize is a thing of beauty in this game 😍
@DrZaius I found Nails to be a pretty "balanced" psycho, except that he hates going underground
@@DarkStarStudiosUK Yeah, of course she's not essential, she has a lot of possible applications is what I would say. Also, if you have a member of the animals gang, she's pretty much the way to go. (Grizzly, Wolf, Buzz formally also)
Check out her knife throwing abilities also. I managed to 'kill', more like incapacitate Graat with two knife throws to the neck (I think that was his name, the slaver from the B2 mine)
Repair and explosive, me thinks, are the only activities I would advise against for Fox. And hoarding also, obviously. The rest is open to disctretion.
Awesome overwatcher also. (dual Berettas 👌)
* EDIT : Graaf is the name.
Leadership on the IMP is a priority, since there aren't very many good leaders available and having one early helps a lot with map movement. It's a pain to have to wait for Raider for a squad speed buff.
They reduced the penalty for low leadership on movement with the latest patch (1.1)
As somewhat of a part 2 to this video it'd be nice to see a video of the perks you recommend for the different types of mercs. Sniper-focussed mercs should get those perks while whatever-focussed mercs should pick this and that perk.
Anyways, I watched all of your JA3 videos so far and must say that they're really helpful. Thank you for doing them!
Just started a new playthrough with this squad and I'm trying to make much less mistakes than with my last run...
Actually I already thought about the next videos and i think it might be something like you suggest. Thanks for the input, appreciate it.
Last days have been quite work-busy so i didnt find too much time to play.
Barry is a certain pick, cheap solid and great explosives.. I also like Thor, decent medic and leadership as well as pretty good base combat stats.. I also went for Vicki, she isn't cheap but her mechanics is top class. Plus the Imp merc. This team of 4 might be a little on the pricey side and money was tight but I didn't fail a single check the whole game and they are all pretty decent marksmen. By end game they were top tier and hiring legendary mercs was not really needed.
I was just thinking about this today! Thank you!
Haha, glad I could help! Thanks for commenting, appreciate it!
I'd exchange Wolf for Meltdown and give the IMP "Negotiator", to have all 3 personalitys from the start. Also a good Idea to keep the MG42 from the first Quest - they suck up ammo like nothing, but a heavy Gunner (-1AP to fire maschineguns) simply can save your ass, especially on siege battles like Hill station or in the Museum. When you get a better one, use a short barrel for additional -1AP. Means 2AP to fire a long salvo = a lot of dead enemys. And a lot of overatch attacks (easily 6+ later) Don't use it always (amoo usage) but a strength/Health centered built pairs well with a Shotgun as secondary weapon.
Fully agree with Barry an livewire, two of the best Mercs in their branch.
Not sure about MD. At all you simply don't need a Doctor (means: skill Level 80+) before you reach the Jungle/sanatorium. So a "combat medic" Merc with a medicore (50-60) med rating to patch you up a bit is usually enough at start.
Fox is really good at this, as her Perk is brilliant: she can do the "opening kill" in real time and has full AP when the battle begins. Give her a Sniperrifle with supressor (Gewehr98 an Winchester are good enough to begin with) and you have a real force.
Imp: Wisdom to 85. You can not train wisdom. So maximise it at beginning. Also I'd go with Leadership 85. each Point above 25 increases the travel speed of the team for 1%. So +5 Leadership = 5% faster travel. You can go down with strengh (only important for inventory size an throwing distance AFAIK) or even marksmanship. It is not so important as in JA2, because "hitting" has much more factors in it (weapon and mods usw) so even a "mid 70" marksman has little problems to get 95% and above to hit chance.
That is also a good idea, but after i finished Ernie Island i rotated Buns into the squad (hence her beeing a little bit faded on the right side of the picture). I didn't find "Psycho" too useful or I didnt miss it yet.
The Problem with the MG42 is that the 100 Ammo from it is better spend on those Gewehr98 and M24 than on the MG42... Snipers are way too powerful.
Appreciate the comment!
Thank you for the information this will make my tactics better and the game will definitely be better to play keep them coming 👍
Glad I could help mate!
Hello for IMP 85 int you can't learn it and it speeds up the training of all statistics shooting can be given 60-70 is the fastest training stat
Wolf's trait only applies to his contribution, as far as I can tell. It looks like there's a "work units per time" and Wolf gets a 1.33 multiplier because of his trait. If he has other people working with them, they don't have this multiplier.
Barry and Limewire are kinda required, Wolf is super good, but then there's also Blood, Mouse and Fox that are very good
Absolutely right, Fox is awesome with her Agi + Dex. But her MED is not *that* high and she could fail some Medicin Checks. But since there is no "right or wrong", a lot of combinations work.
Thanks for sharing your team, guess it'll help the community trying out their own starting Squad!
I call her Limewire all the time too 😂.
@@Chronic.Well it was set in the early 2000's and being a hacker so it kinda fit.
@@Chronic. ....same ..lol...
Red actually makes for a good cheap explosives guy, too. The $7500 pricetag on him is quite deceptive - he has a really high medical deposit that makes up almost a third of that pricetag, while his actual daily wage is lower than most veteran and IIRC even a number of recruit-level mercs.
In my opinion as a Jagged Alliance veteran, btw finished the game since it release 6 times and 2 times in Ironman. I would go any day with those 4 mercs in the start ; IMP (with high leadership as a leader with good agility, dexterity,wisdom, marksmanship, would keep Mechanical, Explosive & Medical as low as possible) so the other 3 would be most definitely Barry (imo the best explosive merc in the game, has good overall stats; comes with high dexterity and wisdom already which means you can get him into a elite merc half through the game), then Igor is a must and imo the best all arounder of the game, with a lil improvement he becomes just like his uncle Ivan or even better half of the game. As for mechanic Livewire is surely the best option as a recruit (she can become also a elite merc in mid game due very high wisdom with some training) but her cartoony voice lines really goes into my nerves (we cant mute the mercs either like back in JA2) like we are playing a child game, so is Kalyna imo so i would go with Steroid but mid of the game i would take surely Vicki into my first team, she is the best mechanic of the game imo with good shooting stats + wisdom. I would also highly recommend to get Flay as soon as possible after finishing the Ernie Island, i would directly go to the north and track him down, his probably the best sniper of the game with a lil training agility and dexterity, his shooting % is never below %90 with me, also recommend to keep his Winchester Lever Action Rifle still end game as its really effective especially later with the AP & Hollow bullets. So my starting team on Ironman run would be with IMP, Barry, Igor & Steroid. Mid to end game first squad would be IMP, Barry, Igor (as i said he becomes better than Ivan around mid game), Flay, Vicki or Steroid (if i still keep him and train his agility), then as a 6. merc i would go either with Blood or Fidel (i like Fauda but i think she is overpriced, she supposed to be on Elite imo).
As for doctor, i try to avoid to take a doctor with me in my squad, the strategy am playing is to get hit as less as possible and with a merc who has around 50 medical (Blood, Buns, Flay, Livewire, Wolf etc....) can also get the job done well enough but if i had to take a medic with me from start of the game it would be surely MD (he has also very silly voice lines) i tested all the doctors already and i must say Thor is the best overall medic imo, also comes with overall good stats, if not Thor then Dr.Q (he can also improve his stats quickly due good wisdom and can become also a very good stealth killer) but the only time i really needed a medic was for those medical checks to be honest in the Refugee Camp, Sanatorium and few other locations.
Almost the same as my rec. Only thing I do different is replacing Wolf with Blood. Saves a tiny bit of money and while losing Wolf's operations multiplier hurts, Blood is just insanely strong especially in the early game, both as a stealth killer and in actual combat. Even moreso once you get him a sharpened machete.
Man i loved Blood already in JA2. Need to give him a try!
These are my starting group, my custom merc with high leadership and teaching trait to train militia and move faster across the map (custom merc has mechanical maxed out as its a pain to train mechanical skill later with Kalyna - Vicky is the costlier option mid game once I got to the larger map)
Starting: Igor, Barry, Kalyna, MD, Livewire (depending if my custom merc has no mech skill)
Large Map: Blood, Ice, Thor, Vicky, Buns, Grunty, Scully
This has always been my default start that I got used to never tried other mercs and these work fine for me.
Great to hear. All those comments are highly appreciated, since you guys add so much more for all new players reading them!
I always loved scully but his picture is so terrible, i cant pick him yet lol.
Fox can clear an entire sector all by herself! You just need to raise her MRK to at least 80 then give her a silenced sniper rifle with a thermal scope
I think I will give her shot in my second playthrough!
You don't even need to raise her marksmanship really just give her an accurate rifle with a bipod.
Starting merc depends mainly on your first decision Fox vs Buns. They hate each other so you have to choose one and go from there. Barry is a must- i cannot see no reasonable alternative to him. IMP is basically agi,dex,wis,ldr 85 remaining as you wish.
I hate IMP not adding any comment into conversation and livewire personality in general so i skipped both and started my 2nd run with: fox,barry,hitman,wolf - then on 2nd island grizzly,flay,raven, raider, larry, vicki, smiley. I missed only a few mech checks until i got vicki. Fox and Raven being my the most OP characters
Yeah but you can get Fox and Buns on the Team if you hire Wolf and Buns first, then Fox will join afaik.
But anyway, your team sounds very reasonable and there is no "right or wrong". I just wanted to newcomers to give a starting squad :)
Red is a pretty reasonable alternative to Barry. His pricetag is deceptive - he demands a really high medical deposit that causes his default price to look high, while his daily wage is actually lower than some of the recruit-tier mercs. Learned that in a campaign where Barry was not avaiable at start and I was forced to actually look for another explosives guy.
I wouldn't get Wolf right away because he's pretty pricey, and you don't have much money on the higher difficulties. Fox and Wolf like each other, and they're good if you get them both. Fox, Barry, and Livewire are by far the best T1 mercs. Buns is the best T2 merc (she really has a T1 price), and will be great at teaching all your lower marksmanship mercs, as well as giving you the negotiator perk. The only problem is that she doesn't like Fox
I have both in my squad, and it's annoying that Buns always has -1 to morale, but it's still doable, and they have some hilarious banter. I'll probably pick up Sidney in the lategame to offset the penalty.
I would say that Livewire and Barry are absolute musts in any squad. They just bring so much to the table for cheap. I would say that after that, you have some options.
Valid choice, but aus you said Buns dislikes Fox so it's a choice between the two I guess. But you're correct, this might not be the optimal squad for higher difficulties - but then it wouldn't be a beginners guide anymore, right?
Anyway, appreciate your comment!
Fox is a must both for stealth and for top tier overwatch. She has high enough medical to not need md.
Fox is a solid choice for sure!
Thanks! Usefull information
Glad it was helpful!
Wolf and Livewire. Best soldier names.
I prefer to take Igor, Ivan, Md, Barry, Kalinka and Grunty. Brute force at it's finest.
Sounds like a good combo mate!
@chr_isso and relatively cheap, except Ivan. But he worth every $.
AFAIK dexterity doesn't influence how far you can walk, that's agility.
Wolf's trait works only for himself, it's pretty pointless when he's in a big team. He's awesome later on when you buy him to train militia, but as part of your main team, his trait mostly means he's going to wait around for the rest to finish up their assignments.
Yeah, you're right - its' agility, not Dex.
You can switch out Wolf for almost every other Merc, maybe Buns or someone else of your preference. So many valid combinations, I just really think this is a good combo for beginners to start with.
Appreciate your comment!
I beef up my IMP character's mechanical so I don't need Livewire for hacking, she is so useless in a fight and slow. Also you still have a ton of mechanical to repair everything you find at the start.
Then I take Fox, Grizzley, Barry, and Kalyna. I take Ernie with them, then get MD Dawson, and use him to train guards behind my main force. Grizzley is good because he can use grenades, and he has strength to carry a lot and bust things open.
totally valid combination, even though I would do it differently. But it's a smart choice, nonetheless.! If you combine MD with Hitman for Crew Training, man... this is simply awesome!
So you complain about people not being able to fight, but instead of training them up really quick with your IMP with 85 leadership and combat stats, you pick the squad with virtually the worst wisdom so they can't ever get better? Fox, Grizzly, Kalyna have about the same combat stats that Livewire has - at the start. 10 days in and Livewire is better than all of them.
Yes, it does work, because the game is easy enough that even sub-par party compositions work - but this is far from optimal. And the issue with mechanic on the IMP is just that you can get it elsewhere. Leadership is the one thing you can't get elsewhere. And a total of 340* points in the 4 main stats (Dex, Agi, MMS, Wisdom to improve the first 3) is something you only find on Buns, Ice, Ivan and legendary mercs.
In case you're wondering: The worst sum in these 4 stats belongs to Steroid, followed by Kalyna and Grizzly.
@@DrZaius3141 I don't want my starter mercs in my combat team once I get more money. I want them as cheap as possible and doing operations. I only want my starter mercs to get me 2 mines.
Operations can take a bit longer when you are not waiting for them to finish before you move to your next conquest.
And I want my IMP fighting, not training the whole time. Separation of duties!
Ice only costs like 8-9k for 14 days at the beginning, almost same cost as kaylana
Yeah getting Ice or Buns as a sixth merc sounds like a good idea to me.
The only difference for my first Squad was i had Meltdown instead of Wolf. As he wasn‘t available at the Time.
Agreed with this squad option.
It's sad that all of possible starting squads are depending on wisdom only. Because low marksmanship or dexterity is not as bad as low wisdom. Mediocre MD or Livewire will become beasts after few hours of the game. Mediocre Fox or Steroid won't, just get more expensive with each level.
That is why Barry, MD and Livewire is the onpy option for the starting squad, not the Barry, Fox and Steroid. Barry is also is the only explosive specialist option in recruit tier level (in my humble opinion, he is the best merc of all JA3).
yeah, but it was more or less the same with JA2. Leveling up was quite easy too. But yes: wisdom is waaay to overpowered. Agreed. Also on Barry. Love this guy!
No Barry is not the cheapest, MD and Igor is the cheapest.
Igor and MD 7 days fee 3770 (INCLUDING 900 medical) Barry is 7 days fee 2990. 3770 - 900 is 2870. The order of low cost mercs is Kalyna, Grizzly, Barry, MD/Igor.
Quick learning doesn’t stack and the 30% only works on ops WOLF is performing
What do you mean by quick learning? And yeah, ofc only wolfs operations are accelerated. Thanks bro!
Livewire is so broken that it feels like cheating. Hiring her is almost like unlocking 'god mode'. Feels a bit like a mary sue/self-insert. So, of course I hired her, lol.
One correction to the video. Training your own mercs always lasts 2 days. the operation cannot be made faster. So Wolf's trait does NOT influence this.
You can only influence stat gain within the 2 day operation (having 2 teacher trait mercs with high leadership etc)
Thanks for the info and sorry for the misinformation though!
@@chr_isso No need to apologize. I also assumed merc training (which is an operation) would fall under the 33% speed boost to all operations as well when i first hired him
No Fox? Why people avoid Bobby? He is very capable mechanic with superb strength (perfect for team mule role), very high HP and he is a great marksman. True his versatility is on the low side, but he can upgrade it after a few training sessions with Fox. Plus you are missing such a great banter. 😆 I can't play all this bland or cheesy characters. Ps For the best chatter you must find Larry and don't send him to the rehab! At least not for the while....🤣
Will do on my current playthrough. I didn't think of these videos at the beginning and already sent larry to the rehab .. so yeah, i still need to do that :D
Funny thing is that Fox detests Bobby so you should try to avoid them on same squad or sector other than training. I THINK Fox will ask for more money (similar to how Buns asks for more money when Fox is on the team).
@jeromeleebuenviaje3385 I don't think it is a case in JA3. I have them both in the team No problems MD will ask for more.
Steroid is actually kinda meh as a marksman. Low dexterity and agility really drags him down in practice.
@@hexxon77Nope, Fox will absolutely demand extra money if you try to hire her while Steroid is around, and will get a morale penalty if she's in the same sector as him. This also happens with Smiley if the two are together in the same place for a while.
I feel that night ops should be better.
true! night ops doesn't really cut it if you can put on those thermals on the snipers...
its litelarry my squad 1
Nice, i think it's really beginner friendly!
its just logical@@chr_isso
Buns > Wolf
I like em both. But yeah, Buns is strong!
horrendous starting squad, no accounting for merc relationships
that's nothing a beginner should be looking for ...
No, that's not the best starting easy mode team, far from it. Fox is missing, so you're also missing out on the core reason why Wolf brings the teams' morale up like nobody else does (except for Grunty, me very best, but not for beginners). Also Wolf worthless earlygame as far as teaching goes as he's no specialist of nothing, so not very efficient in terms of learning rate. Also, using him to train militia would be such a waste.
Good thing to know, Grizzly teaches strength best, and Fox dexterity best. So that leaves him with his really good agility to teach also.
Just add Meltdown to it for the agressive dialogue options, and there you have it: the easy mode dream team. And Barry/Livewire, of course. These are of course key to easy mode, as you've been telling yourself, here. Though I would never use Barry on the battlefield, except for huge battles with his shotty and special bombs. He's better of building ammo, and he doesn't enjoy the killing, no morale boost for him.
Me thinks your selection tends to overlook several details dealing with the JA rulebook fundamentals. Sad, considering the fact there's Wolf in the team : Fox is a way better field medic than MD is. As DEX is main medical STAT, acting as a incremental modifer on the medical SKILL, the left column is for is a buff to the main stat (so 100 for her, there's the actual STAT to govern them all, as it pretty much governs all assertive tasks in the game : explosives, repair, medical and also marksmanship.
As a Medic, Fox reach 100 medical in no time. It takes longer for MD, as it turns out. Though he's pretty good as a medic (his wisdom), don't get me wrong, here.
Also, Wolf isn't THAT good as a trainer, as he's pretty much a jack of all trades. Vicky teaching repair does it way faster even without the teaching skill. Barry does it better, when it comes to explosives... And so on. But Wolf is more like a health trainer, he has a huge passion for it also (moral boost). But to use wolf to train repair or even medical would be a mistake. For Medical, ask Buns to do it. If you want a sub par trainer in those skills, meaning time wasted, Wolf is OK. Just so now you get to realize WHY he has that special : he excels at pretty much nothing but physics and aiming. So he needs the time boost.
Beyond that, Fox for Dex obviously, Barry for Eplosives, Grizzly for strength (steroid being to dummo to teach), and so on.
What Wolf is is an EXCELLENT sniper who RARELY misses a shot. All he needs more is a little athletic perk a fitted Galil with grenade launcher and there he goes : BOOM! There's Wolf, single and deadly, might I add. And he's a natural also, his main stats do it all (AGI and DEX combined give huge bonus to aimed sniping for mathematical reasons, again, incremental multipliers start to get REALLY goodfeel above 85. He's good at overwatch, grenades and throwing light sticks also. Though not knives, might wanna keep them for Fox instead, even if she doesn't have the knives perk. Her 100 DEX is key, she does well with knives, better than several specialists even, be it as melee special cut-cut or even thrown knives.
>> So Basically, Wolf is like Grunty, a tactical do-it-all/moral caretaker, but for noisy daylight operations, alongside commotion-friendly buddies such as the Animals gang (So Fox, Grizzly and some others still missing the JA3 call to arms as of yet)
Awesome comment, thank you.
I didn't put my focus on the teaching aspect, but more on a beginner approach which mercs work together. If you prefer Fox or Meltdown or want to switch out other mercs, there's absolutely no right or wrong here.
But for a beginner, I think this Squad is pretty decent as it covers everything you would need for the very beginning.
does not stack 😊
Livewire sucks. She can Straight up just leave your squad permanently. Taking my 15 minute break...
Maaaan her comments are so annoying, agreed. But she is still a very good merc.
Wished you could turn down the comments and only allow the funny parts
What is that about teaching?? Why not have mercs who dont need teaching?
Fox is way better than MD. Sniper/medic/stealth at start no schooling. 2 free turns on stealth!
New beginners have a load of shitss to learn. teaching is not one of them
Especially in the easy mode you got plenty of time. some people finished the game with 1.5 million and more, so there is no hurry. I simply explain what can be done, not that it's a must to do. This Squad works well and MD has helped a lot in the completion of Quests, e.g. Rabies Quest...
@@chr_isso Yes, but the new beginners are not interested in that. They just want to survive the first hours. MD is utterly crap at combat. He is support, not combat.
Newbiz dont have a clue as to how things work, they are fumbling tumbling, surviving by sheer willforce.
My first try, i killed half of aims mercs. And died of not enough ammo.
This game is not easy, because it is completely random. One game can be easy,
where u find what u need when u need, an other game can be a dreg with you finding thing u dont need, the legion only making good decisions, and everything not going your way. It is random.