Gear

As Flexible Survival has progressed, the number of choices available for people keeps increasing, and many people are worried about making the right choices when it comes to gear - what to use, how to get it, how to use it, and so on. Since these questions come up frequently, here are some collected answers!

Equipping Gear

When you first start the game, you can talk to the Requisition Clerk in Triage to receive a gear starter kit. Depending on which kit you choose, you are given a chainsword or a laser pistol, a combat helmet, and either a medkit or an armored vest.

To see your inventory, you type 'i', 'inv', or 'inventory'. This gives you a numbered list of all the items you are carrying. For example, it may say:

• 1 Chain sword
• 2 Combat Helmet
• 3 Armored Vest

And so on. In order to equip an item, you type '+equip 1' or '+equip 2', or whatever the inventory number is of the item you are trying to equip. To see your currently equipped items, type '+equip' without any numbers. Here is an example of the +equip screen:

• 1 Charlotte Load: 21 Upkp: 5 Lvl: 0 Exp:100% Distill: 441/441
• 2 Armored Vest Load: 30 Upkp: 1 Lvl: 5 Exp:100% Distill: 1680/1680
• 3 Combat Helmet Load: 15 Upkp: 1 Lvl: 5 Exp:100% Distill: 1680/1680
• 4 Laser pistol Load: 15 Upkp: 3 Lvl: 9 Exp: 85% Distill: 2645/3110

Remaining Loadout: 18.8 - Total Upkeep: 10

Here, the number is the equipment slot each item is in. Load is how much loadout each equipped item uses, Upkp is the Upkeep cost of each item (in Resources). Lvl is the Craft Level, and EXP and Distill are used in crafting distillations, something that will be covered later. For now, the three important things are Load, Upkeep, and Level.

Every character starts the game with a maximum of 100 Loadout. This can be increased through merits (Always Be Prepared, All Natural) and Roles (the Readiness role). Every character also starts with 10 Resources, and Resources can be increased to a maximum of (Player Level x2) by spending XP. If you want to equip a piece of gear, you need to have enough available loadout and resources; if you are out of loadout you just can't equip it, and if you are over budget on resources all of your gear stops working.

Level Scaling

When a player levels up, they gain more hit points and their mutant powers hit harder or heal more damage. Gear functions in a similar manner - as it gets leveled up, any effects that cause damage (like on weapons), provide healing (like the medkit), or increase damage resistance (like armor) becomes more powerful. However, gear is also capped by the level of the character it is equipped on; a level 1 character can equip level 50 armor, but the armor will only give the character the same bonus it would if it were level 1. On the other hand, since the armor is already level 50, its effectiveness will automatically increase as the character gains levels and it won't have to be upgraded.

Damage, Healing, Regen, Heal Gain, HP Buffer, Penetration, and Damage Resist are all scaled up by level. If your gear does any of these, you will want to have it upgraded to your level at least. Summoned minions, such as Mutant Companions and Drones, are also summoned at a level equal to their item level.

Gear that gives a buff, such as Haste, Recharge, or DamageBuff, does -not- scale with level; you can safely leave gear with these bonuses at a low level, and still receive the full effect. Further, Children and Kangaroo Pets automatically summon at a level equal to the player's, and so they do not need to be upgraded either.

The process of actually upgrading an item is covered in the Crafting Guide (put link here)