The basics of Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown
Let’s talk about what you can expect while completing the objectives in Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown.
Non-lethal weapons, stacking effects, and elemental shields
Several objectives in Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown suggest using non-lethal options to take down opponents. Although you won’t have these Disruption/Disruptor-type weapons in your inventory at the start, you’ll eventually acquire these once you reach the Admin Level. Disruptor weapons (barring melee types) use energy cells as ammo. They tend to deal very low damage, but they also apply a stack of the Disruption debuff. Once Disruption reaches 10 stacks, a target is considered knocked out instead of killed. Different kinds of weapons also apply a certain number of stacks (i.e., the Disruptor version of the handgun applies 1x stack per shot, and the sniper rifle applies 3x stacks per shot).
Likewise, you’ll notice stacking effects such as Tar (making units vulnerable to fire damage and explosions). There are also weapons that can apply elemental shields. You’ll need to use a particular element (i.e., fire, cold, or energy blasts/disruption) to remove a target’s shield before it can take damage.
Note 1: Disruption only works on human enemies. For others such as robots, synths, and animals, they won’t get knocked out even if they have 10 stacks.
Note 2: While it’s possible to simply bring down human enemies through non-lethal means, your tamed pets won’t have that discretion in mind. They will still kill targets. So, if you wish to focus solely on non-lethal methods, you’re better off leaving them in the new Animal Kennel in Ranger HQ.
Tellurium and new crafting blueprints
With the crafting feature added in the version 1.4 update, you’ll be able to create new items, weapons, armors, and mods. Tellurium is a material that you can acquire in Steeltown and it’s used to craft particular items that can only be obtained from blueprints in the city. Examples include Disruptor weapons and elemental resistance armors.
Moreover, you’ll also encounter characters from the world of Wasteland 3 in the city of Steeltown, assuming you’ve taken certain steps when you met them during the base game’s campaign. We’ll discuss these encounters and your arrival at the Steeltown Gates in the next part of our guide.
