Tradeskills

The old saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” This same ethos of self-sufficiency is a hallmark of the post-apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth, a time in which those who survive are those who can build and repair essential equipment, machinery, weapons, and more.

Tradeskills represent a character’s aptitude for crafting and fixing everything from rifles to computers; they even include things like cooking stews and brewing up poisons. The better your Tradeskills, the better items you’ll be able to craft in that area.

Tradeskills fall into eleven categories:

Armorcraft: Constructs clothes and armor.

Ballistics: Builds firearms, ammunition, zip guns and crossbows.

Construction: Builds tents and other camping equipment to provide save havens out in the wilderness.

Cooking: Prepares food that provides buffs and improves Health, Stamina and Gamma regeneration.

Geology: Harvests minerals such as iron or coal from the Earth.

Medicine: Prepares medical supplies and devices, including bandages, antitoxins and crash carts.

Mutagenics: Builds items that affect mutations, such as drugs that speed Gamma recovery.

Nature: Harvests resources from plants and animals.

Scavenging: Gathers materials and items from ruins and rubbish heaps.

Science: Builds advanced devices, such as batteries, computers and grenades.

Weaponry: Constructs axes, clubs, knives and other melee tools.

Remember that Tradeskills only allow you to construct an item—they don’t determine whether you know how to use it or not. A master craftsman could very well build a great pistol, but he or she may not be able to use it if his or her Pistol Skill is too low. Likewise, medical items require proficiency in the First Aid Skill, armor items require the Armor Use Skill and so on.

Practice Makes Perfect

To improve a Tradeskill, use it. As long as an item is still challenging for you (i.e., near your Tradeskill level), you’ll improve as you craft it. Each item made by crafting boosts the skill (up to a certain limit that is determined by each item). The number of points earned from making an item varies based on the length of time required to make it, value of the components, etc.

Anyone may craft using any Tradeskill, and skills cap based on the character’s Intelligence and Perception stats, so players who spend AP on those will get further in crafting than those who spend AP on other things. Note that because crafting consumes a fair amount of real time, it will be a challenge for any one player to max out every Tradeskill.