How To Put Together a Squad of Dwellers
Team assembly is an essential skill in the late game where a few thousand power isn’t significant. There are many details to consider - let’s start off by asking a few questions.
As the great strategist Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, said:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Who Is Your Enemy?
This. This is the most essential part of the attack. A state-of-the-art military sentry bot will probably withstand Desdemona’s laser better than a wild feral ghoul. This goes the opposite way, too - you are more likely to would the robot by throwing rocks at it than by firing the very thing he’s made to counter at it. Each dweller has a damage type (physical or energy), so pay attention to it when you’re fighting something strong.
Your enemies will do this as well. For example, an animal will probably physically bite you, but an assaultron will shoot some military-grade lasers at you.
Generally speaking, monsters do physical damage unless they’re ranged or exploding; that’s usually energy. Robots are a sort of a wildcard, but - if they have sawblades or bullets, they’re physical damage dealers. If they fire lasers, like eyebots, they deal energy damage.
Additionally, irradiated (green) enemies and assaultrons may use radiation against you (as a matter of fact, so can you - with Mother Isolde). Is it significant enough to warrant consideration? If so, you’ll need a radiation healer. This means you’re taking either Neriah, Madison, Cade, or one of the very few remaining radiation healers with you - or you’re using RadAways, which are not plentiful.
If your enemies are players - in an arena (PvP) - you’ll want to employ something clever, or unbelievably broken - like matching Roach King with The Inspector, a strong Healer and then some.
What are Your Dweller Choices?
You probably don’t have every character unlocked - and even if you do - you will not have them all in top shape. Leveling dwellers to the maximum level, along with their perks and equipment, gets expensive.
You will always want to bring at least one attacker along. If you’re fighting a boss, you’ll want a single target attacker; if not - an AoE is great. AoE dwellers affect all enemies they fire at with their abilities. Some dwellers have their ability fit the number of enemies they fight. I’ll call those hybrids.
For example: Desdemona is an energy hybrid AoE attacker. Her AoE laser deals more damage with fewer enemies around, capping at 100% against a single target. Dave is a physical single-target attacker. He only attacks a single dweller until he reaches 5 medals - at that point, he can hit 2 targets at once. Alien is a pure single target attacker. He will never hit more than one enemy at a time.
What Are the Bonds of Your Dwellers?
Every bond has a damage boost. Wilds Wanderer has a smaller one, but it compensates for it with utility. Usually, you’ll want to (if you can) roll with a 3 + 2 bond. Unfortunately, the 5 dweller bond is not really worth it, and a 4 dweller bond is only available to Wilds Wanderers.
There is one attribute, in particular, you’ll want to keep your eyes on - the +15% damage boost at 2 bond members. Brotherhood of Steel: +15% damage to synths (and robots) The Institute: +15% damage to humans Commonwealth Allies: +15% damage to mutants Sole Survivor: +15% damage to ghouls Goodneighbor: +15% damage to animals Wilds Wanderer: +12% damage at 4 members, all other bonds: +9% damage, and starting AP increase at 3 members The wilds wanderer bond is something of an enhanced support bond. If you want damage, you can easily stock in 3 + 2, reaping the benefits of both a common bond and a WW one.
What Are the Races of Your Dwellers?
This is an often overlooked trait, and rightfully so. The race isn’t very significant unless you’re a minmaxer. Even then, the bond and abilities are more important than the race.
And What About their Roles?
Now we come to the juicy part. As I said, you’ll usually want at least one attacker. Generally, it’ll be an AoE one so that you’ll have an easier time in PvE.
A dead attacker is a bad attacker. Corpses deal no damage.
If the enemy does a lot of damage, or you need your dwellers to live (for example, in Vault 112), you’ll want a tank. By tank, I mean someone on the front line who won’t die. Healers make great tanks - Neriah is an amazing one. Just slap some tank gear on her, and if the enemy isn’t a powerhouse, she’ll live. If the enemy is… well, then use a real tank. Their downside is that they don’t really do anything aside from tanking.
Almost all attackers are great, but some are better than others. For example, I am absolutely confident that the Roach King is stronger than Kellog at the time of writing. Look at their ability and perk info. Look at their medals, if you have them, trinkets. There are many things to factor in, so you can almost always tell who is better suited for your requirements.
All Characters Also Have a Range
This is where they stand in your lineup. Often it doesn’t matter, as the game puts your dwellers in the correct positions. However, on some occasions, it may be better to manually swap two dwellers. Note that you can only do this with dwellers of the same range.
If you put a mid-range Neriah after the mid-range Khan Maykr, she will really be in front of her in the fight. If your enemy keeps slaughtering your team, it might just be that you’ve placed the healer on the front-line, and they’re getting killed too early. Or you’ve put them too far back, and the attacker dies too early. If an enemy attacks the last dweller only, it might be a good idea to place a more durable one there and scoot your main attacker a bit forward.
Synergy
Last but not least comes synergy. A mystical word for dwellers that work well together. For example, Danse and Mistress of Mistery have synergy. They both attack the target with the lowest HP - this means that together they can almost certainly take out a healer/support each turn.
One more example, Dave fires off lots of rounds, giving him an insane amount of damage with the stealth armor. If you put Saashi on the team with him, you’ll essentially double his damage due to her AP transferability.
Generally speaking, each dweller has some other dwellers they just work well with. For example, most dwellers synergize with Piper, The Inspector, KL-E-0, and Saashi. But like I said - there are some other exciting combinations out there…