Strike rate is a derived statistic in Wasteland 3 that determines how fast your critical strike bar fills out and you can make a special attack (basically a called shot that causes bad things to happen to your target). These special attacks always deal critical damage to all affected targets and may have other special effects.
Critical Strikes[]
| Name | Effect | Weapon types |
|---|---|---|
| Precision strike | Single target attack that allows to fire on an enemy's different body parts | Sniper rifles, assault rifles and handguns |
| Torrent strike | Cone area damage attack | Flamethrowers, machineguns, submachineguns and shotguns |
| Thundering strike | An attack that allows to leap up and slam the ground, sending out a stunning shockwave around you | Melee and brawling weapons |
| Nuke strike | Area damage attack that burns the ground | Rocket launchers |
Exceptions[]
Some weapons don't have a critical strike, and so strike rate is irrelevant to them.
Calculation[]
The strike rate stat shows how much percent is added to the strike rate bar, with the critical strike unlocking at 100%. Strike rate gain is disabled when using a weapon without the requisite skill.
Each party member has a base strike rate of 6%, supplemented by 2% per point of Charisma. As such, without any modifiers applied, the strike rate is as follows:
| Strike rate calculation | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charisma | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Strike rate | 8% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 20% | 22% | 24% | 28% |
| Attacks needed
for filling the bar |
13 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
Last point of Charisma gives 4% Strike Rate. As such, the minimum viable level is 2 Charisma, since that gives a neat 10 shots for attack. The number of attacks is halved at 7 and remains constant until 10 Charisma, where you get a critical strike every four attacks (though it does waste 12% from that attack).
Increasing strike rate[]
All bonuses are additive, not multiplicative (i.e. 10% base SR with a +2% bonus will yield a 12% strike rate, not 10.2%).
Perks[]
- Handgun users can take the Opportunist perk, providing +5% Strike rate gain per handgun attack (effectively 2.5 extra Charisma points).
Trinkets[]
- Kickboy's Heart Pendant
, exclusive to Punk Lovers starting characters, grants +4% Strike rate.
Armor[]
- Elite cryo exo helmet BoS, Elite energy exo helmet BoS, Elite pyro exo helmet BoS provides +2% Strike rate.
Weapons[]
| Weapon type | Weapons | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Sniper Rifle | Red Ryder Range Model Air Rifle  Cold Death  CSG |
+20% Strike rate |
| Sniper Rifle | Marksman Rifle  SR2000-Argent  Eliminator  Ray Tracer  Hot-Rivet Rifle  BoSElite Hot-Rivet Rifle  BoSBolt Thrower  CHDInfused Bolt Thrower  CHD |
+15% Strike rate |
| Sniper Rifle | Ol' Rusty  Death Lance  Black Star  Neutron Projector  |
+10% Strike rate |
| Sniper Rifle | Tundra Rifle  Red Dragon  |
+5% Strike rate |
| Brawling Weapon | Elite pneumatic gauntlet  BoS |
+4% Strike rate |
| Handgun | Old Man Winter  CSG |
+3% Strike rate |
| Brawling Weapon | Pneumatic Gauntlet  BoS |
+2% Strike rate |
Builds[]
- Snipers are built around making critical strikes as often as possible. However, the only way to reach 50% strike rate allowing for making critical shots every three attacks (+50% with each attack, precision strike on the third) is to use a very specific build:
- Punk Lovers starting character pendant (+4% Strike rate)
- 10 Charisma (+26% Strike rate)
- Using Red Ryder Range Model Air Rifle or Cold Death CSG (+20% Strike rate).
- Alternatively, instead of using Kickboy's Heart Pendant , Lucia Wesson's unique background gives her an innate +5% Strike rate, allowing players to build her for a 50% strike rate while saving the Pendant for other characters (very useful for other characters to hit strike rate breakpoints such as 25% (precision strike every fifth attack) or 34% (precision strike every fourth attack))
- Without that, the strike rate is capped at 48% (when using the elite helmets from Battle of Steeltown) or 46% (without them), which is a significant amount of waste.
- The most efficient strike rate is +34%, which grants a critical strike every four shots with a minimum amount of waste. This can be achieved by using the +20% strike rate sniper rifles and 4 Charisma or ones with lower ratings, adding three points of Charisma for every missing 5% strike rate.
Notes[]
- Thanks to /u/Ilikepie84 for a simple explanation.