I would suggest you start by working for one of the gangs -- Los V or Fennians.
Work up some positive rep and step #1 -- start hiring a team.
The first gear to buy is armor. Armor is critical to staying alive.
Hire Runners, stick with them and buy them gear.
Start to Cyber your character -- Cyber Skill and Attribute points don't count towards Xp cost ... but the generate DV which causes lower XP awards.
Cyber your Runners with combat gear and your Knight with survival gear.
Sniper or Gunslinger are great Knight classes because they let you look over a number of Runners at long range.
Look around the Forum or explore the map ... find the runners, shortcuts and passages through the map. Water Taxis, Ferry, Helipads, etc. They will help.
When you are strong ... Confront everyone in encounters ... you don't back down as a Knight
Just to show there is more than one way to play this ....
Start by working for one of the Gangs, Los V or Fennians -- or Streets, but since they don't have a ladder connector yet, they are a less productive choice.
The first thing you buy is a 2 job computer. Try Back Bay Importers in Old Kenmore, although that is available lots of places. It will set you back 3.5K Yen. They also sell Tasers and the Yakashima Mk251 Bounty. The Taser is the second thing you want to buy. It kills all gang related enemies in one blow, and doesn't raise your heat so much as actually killing the gang members. The Mk251 Bounty is a sniper rifle that is accurate for people who haven't trained firearms a whole lot. It, or one of its friends that require better accuracy is essential for killing drones in one hit, which won't be a problem for you as long as you stay in Los V, Streets and Fennian land, which I will call 'ganger land'. Blue Ox is also ganger, but on the complete other side of town. It's interesting to play a 'start in Oxland' char once you have mastered the 'start in south Gangerland', but you haven't got there yet. Stay in the South. If you are getting lots of encounters before you can afford the 2 job computer, buy the taser. The 'stunna' is another blue glove taser equivalent, but it is only available in Corps land, and you don't want to go there for quite some time yet. Old Kenmore is a Streets (thus Ganger) neighbourhood.
You want package delivery, message delivery and escort duties early on. Do not try assasination, capture, negotiate or intimidate until you have better stats and gear.
Also, as long as you stay in Ganger (not Ox) land, it is possible to play so that you never take any combat hits at all, unless at the very start a ganger with a gun is close enough to shoot you, and they start with the initiative (get their moves first). This is because a stunna or a taser takes out every enemy with one connecting hit. (So, yes, if you miss all your blows, they might get one in against you.
Bullets in Gangland hurt less than whacks with a club, or dog bites, so if you will be whacked with a club, you need to either be able to take out the club weilder with your taser, or -- say when you have 2 of them -- run away even if this means taking a bullet. In gangland this is very rare.
Therefore, I don't worry about Armour until I want to move out of gang land to KH, Yakuza, and Brave Star land -- which for me is after I get the blue gloves and the 2 job computer.
If you are getting killed in Gangland a lot you should invest in armour early, until you
figure out what you are doing wrong. I don't find that the 200-300 Y armours protect me
enough to care about them. The first one I buy is only available from Mars Omni Tech.
As of yesterday, you can get decent armour for working for the Los V ladder early on.
Not as nice as the Omni tech ~1k armour, but, what the heck, it is free. This is as far as I have gotten on the Los V ladder, which is, as I said brand new. So I cannot say about its later rewards. But it may be a good choice. Before this I would have told you to concentrate on being a Fennian ganger, as they are the only S ones with a ladder connector. Now I am not sure. The Fennians do giver you a very nice 'I drive into heat' taxi connector -- I am willing to work for the Fennians just to get that. But after I get that reward I end up leaving Fennian active service because I want to do more expensive jobs from non-gangers. But do work that one out to its top for the fun of it, sometime.
Runners are a huge waste of money until you have learned how to fight in such a way to
avoid taking hits. They cost a lot to hire (not so much to rehire) and to outfit, and then they die on you, unless you know how to fight them effectively, and how to level them up effectively. They take their equipment with them when they die, so having them die on you is even more expensive. Baby runners are more or less worthless, and will depend on your fighting skills to keep them alive long enough so they can train so they can be helpful. Don't bother with them until both a) your character's skill is such that he or she can protect them, and b) your personal skill at fighting has been trained that you can protect them. You are better off spending your money on better gear than runners. Now whether you are better off spending 24000 on Wired Nerves II (available from the Pal Med Center in Mars Corp) or hiring 2 or 3 runners, and kitting them out -- that is very debatable. But if there is still gear you absolutely crave for yourself, then get yourself in shape before hiring help.
(p.s. -- I go for the Wired Nerves II before runners).
There is a three job computer at Mars Corp Importers in Charlesbank. It costs 8465, and as soon as you can afford it you should because it will pay off handsomely in less than a week. I often buy it before I buy armour. But it requires a scary trip to Mars Corp land ...
Cybersword is a great starting class because it begins with a lot of brawling. If you plan on stunning your enemies whenever possible, this will be your major combat skill. But you can be pretty effective even with a 2 in Brawling, so any character can become an effective brawler. It takes more of an investment in firearms before you will be able to use many of the guns effectively -- so stick with your lightfire if you have one until you are accurate enough to use something else. The Mk251 I already mentioned is also only 1 point worse in accuracy than your lightfire, so it is also a good choice. If you don't start with a lightfire -- say you are a runner, or a cybersword main char, you can buy them at the Mars Inc Supply Store in the Fenns.
Dermal Sheathing is good for you. Other implants are good as well, especially those that increase your AP: But this is expensive, so you need to learn how to fight uncybered until you can afford the stuff.
The secret to staying alive is to not get greedy and go to zones before you are ready for them. Ready in some cases means 'I have all the gear I need', but what it mostly means is that you have enough AP in a fight that you can outrun your opponents. The AP formula is
AP == 3 + (dex + int + per)/2
If you have taken drugs to get 10 or more mental health you get an additional D3 AP a round.
Some expensive cyberware boosts this as well.
Thus you need to train yourself (and your runners when/if you get some) in dex, int, and per. The more you are a close in fighter, the more you need -- dex, int, and per! (which isn't obvious). Since Per depends on Int, raising the two of these and leaving dex alone for a while makes for a good strategy, because you will also want to be pushing the strength pair of athletics and brawling. Of those two it is athletics that is the most important, because with a taser or stunna you can get by on remarkably little brawling skill. Having good athletics means that you can run quite far from your enemies. Having good AP means you get more moves (for running) per turn. Once you get far enough away you can escape from battles. Since you get the same amount of VP for escaping an encounter as stunning them all, there is no need to confront everybody.
Taxis cost money. During the time you are restricted to gang land you are better off walking most places.
Your english is very good. And this is not a place where mono-lingual English speakers spend their time bolstering their overactive egos by making fun of those whose English is poorer than their own, in any case.
Good luck! Life is tough in the NBZ, even on easy mode. And if you keep dying, report back how it happened and we can give you more suggestions on how to avoid it.
and Welcome to the Forums
I mean I am still enjoying this game.
