Random things discovered about tinkers in base campaign

[Sirrocco]

Just a few things I figured out that would have been nice to knwo when I was building my character to begin with.

- You don't need the trainer location. Actually, if you have the skills to begin with, it's kind of a waste- you're better off grabbing one fo the passives, if you get that escort. Injectors, steam tanks, and schematics *do* come a lot slower (don't drop as regularly, no guaranteed drops, and nowhere that sells them) but you will eventually get everything that you need.

- Each tinker crafting skill has two schematics associated with it. One you get at 1 point. The other you might get randomly at 2, 3, or 4, but you will get at 5. The one for 1 point looks like it's just a random schematic. If you get high enough level before investing your first point, it may well be one you already have, getting you nothing extra. The other looks like it's locked to skill gain (as far as I could tell). It picks one schematic, and upping the skill is the only way you'll get that one. (Is this the same schematic per skill for every run through? Don't know.) Regardless, combining that with "no really, eventually you'll get everything", the correct strategy is also the easy strategy. plod along. Pick up schematics as you find them. Don't invest skill points until you have something that you want, you have the ingredients for it, and you need to up your skill to build the thing.

- It's true that yeeks are the only way you're going to get ritch stingers (for fire infusion) early in the game, but the fire infusion schematic itself seems to drop pretty late - after you'd be running into ritches anyway. It *is* for sale at the trainer, though. Thus, if you're hoping to get tinker-crafting off the trainer on some other class, yeeks have an advantage there. If your'e a tinker class to begin with, the trainer isn't worth it, which means that there's no real advantage there.

- (salves)+(web belt)+(fungus tree) sounds like it would be *awesome*, and tinkers don't use magic, right? Don't fall for it. Salve healing doesn't actually trigger the regen effect, so no partial turn and no equilibrium gain. So not worth the cat point. Given that, there's no good reason to go Zig. Losing access to magical gear isn't worth it (and force-betray also hurts a bit).

More tips/insights welcome, if anyone has them.

[ster]

you can get ritch stingers from ruined dungeon, actually

i unlock tinker location since you're guarenteed the salve recipes from shop and any chance at a good injector/gen that scales with your main stats is a good chance

[Sirrocco]

My point is that you're goign to get the salve recipes anyway (though you might not get the fire salve before Gates of Morning). Similarly, it seems like you're pretty much guaranteed to *eventually* get a couple of decent injectors/generators. I suppose that it would make sense to unlock the tinker location if you're having difficulty with the early-to-midgame and generators/injectors/salves would help, but I was running a sawbutcher, and that was not a concern.

Point about the ruined dungeon. Assuming you do hit them there, you're probably getting them not too long after you unlocked the location. Huh. If they don't show up there, you can hit the farportal a few times and be pretty likely to get what you need.

[ster]

you can hit the farportal a few times

Unstoppable force salve isn't that good

[Frumple]

Assuming you do hit them there, you're probably getting them not too long after you unlocked the location. Huh.

Puzzle failure summons still drop ingredients, apparently (I just double checked, heh), and they're usually not terribly dangerous. If you really want ritch stingers, you can twiddle your thumbs at the puzzle orbs until they spit ritch stingers at you. Has been a thing since about the point both ingredient drops and the ruined dungeon puzzle existed at the same time, iirc.

Think theoretically you can get just about any ingredient at all from the ruined dungeon, in arbitrary amounts even. It can just take more time than it's probably worth, particularly for some of the higher level/rarer enemy types. Sometimes y'get lucky, though -- second or third intentional failure activation when I was testing just now dumped ritches on me. First ingredient carrying enemy, even.