I hate all phobias, but if they made astraphobia (fear of storms) or acrophobic (fear of hights) that would be cool. Deaf is good if your deaf irl

Conspicuous is S for me. Being able to attract a few zeds out of hordes in a faster way seems more like a buff.

I would rank thin skinned higher, and not because of “just don’t get hit” logic, here’s why: the only debuff of thin skinned that matters is an increased chance to get bit, but the increase isn’t significant at all. You have a 15% chance in base game with no traits. Thin skin increases that to 19.5% chance for *8* points. Maybe that extra 4.5% chance will save a run, but honestly, I’m probably less likely to get hit with the perks I can get for 8 points anyway.

you neglected the bonus side effect of claustrophobic - you can't get bored while you have panic, so when you are indoors doing things like reading skill books or organizing your base you no longer have to worry about managing the bored moodle. It's almost a buff once you get to a point where you have lots of sleeping pills/beta blockers/alcohol or if you find a base where you can put a bed in an open area.

As someone who plays with sprinters, the chances of you living long enough to pop open a book is extremely slim. Which is why I always take slow reader.

You at 3:55 "Fast forwarding time is free, no resources." Bro, that's the argument all of us slow-reader chads make that you're arguing against! "Why waste your first week reading?" We don't. Reading shouldn't be your SUPER early game priority anyway. Looting and securing a safehouse should be. But no matter what, there's always going to be downtime windows. Terrible weather. Or nursing an injury. Or double-dipping by reading in front of the t.v. And just to linger on your 3:55 remark (where you gave claustrophobia a B), claustrophobia is an evergreen problem. Slow reader is NOT an evergreen problem. As you advance farther and farther into your character career, you need less and less reading. Magazines are done probably in the first month. Books as needed, but before long you'll not need to read almost ever. Most flaws don't have that shining benefit: Slow reader is considered so good because it's a turn-key problem. It's ONLY a problem when you ask it to be one - generally in the comfort of your safehouse. And it's a problem with a shelf-life. I *always* take it, and have never regretted it. Still, I think you make a good argument that some people underrate the value of their time. And I do think depending on the campaign setting, slow-reader can be a terrible option. Although I think it's fine in multiplayer too, when you're not able to sleep. It's a good night-time filler activity. You could have made your (decent arguments) and made it a hot-take by putting it at B-tier or C-tier. I think you're trolling if you think it's F-tier. Either way, I'm arguing in the spirit of debate. Thought your video was still very fun and I agreed with most of your takes. Cheers!

Conspicuous is the freest 4 points of all really. High thirst at least makes you have to carry abit more weight. Easy S tier

Ironically, I don't know if it is blind luck or coincidencental, after dying several times my friend has survived the longest on a character he rolled randomly with deaf

I agree. Most people read books as like one of the first thing they do since while out exploring, it's ideal to level up other skills too and you'll want the 3x multiplier for ranks 1-2. Slow Reader is *a lot* of wasted hours in those first few critical days when the power on, the water's on, and the zombies are at the lowest spawn numbers they'll ever be. After those are out, I agree, Slow Reader becomes free points.

"it wears off 4 or 5 months in" this the same guy that said you shouldnt take slow reader because of how critical the early game is? thats a bit of strange take, personally i think cowardly is a death trap, with cowardly you will be maxed out on panic near constantly when fighting any amount of zombies, which will cause them to take twice as long to kill, tiring you out twice as much meaning that you're also more likely to also be tired and be dealing even LESS damage. personally i ALWAYS go for brave, because with brave you dont even see that panic moodle until you're fighting hordes, meaning you kill zombies more effectively, lowering your chance of fucking up and getting killed. also i should point out that cowardly DOES NOT wear off 4 or 5 months in, because the way it works is it gives a static increase in panic, sure it will go away quicker but you will still whilst fighting hordes regularly jump from no panic to extreme panic because as soon as you see those zombies pop into your personal bubble, you gain an immediate 100 panic, rather than claustrophobic and agrophobic which are slow build ups of panic that eventually become less meaningful. but either way, at the end of the day a character who has any panic trait WILL be panicked more often and for longer than any character without such trait, whilst cowardly is more manageable 5 months in, a brave character is essentially desensitized by that point. if you ask me +2 points is not at all worth having the first few months be a complete slog of being constantly panicked and constantly having to spend twice as long fighting zombies... ESPECIALLY if you take this along side a phobia, because with say, claustrophobic and cowardly you will enter a building, gain panic twice as fast pretty much instantly maxing out your panic and in the early days it takes a long time for that panic to go away meaning even once out of the building any zombie you encounter for a good while after will be dealt reduced damage, and once more bolster your panic to extreme levels... the effect that cowardly has on the early gameplay and wasting time is excessively more than slow reader, with slow reader you maybe lose a day reading the essential early skill books like carpentry with cowardly you spend at least twice as long on every single zombie you come across... for 2 trait points? no thanks losing a day in my bedroom reading is preferable to not just losing time against zombies, but for the extra risk, more time fighting zombies, more chance of injury, more chance of death. and this is coming from someone who takes TONS of negative traits... cowardly is just not at all worth its cost.

Deaf is s tier, I always take it. +12 points go a long way.

I agree Hearty Appetite being in "alright" tier in early game. But in late game i feel like it will become hell to manage food. I played with that trait 2 days ago and m god my character just cannot stop from eating. I was at 7th day and i realized that i wont be able to feed my guy properly in late game because there wont be enough food to feed him.

for thin skin (an auto pick S godly tier) you have base 15 dodge + rank in melee weapon = total dodge chance x thick/thin/no trait so basicaly when you start the game you're at 15 base dodge with no trait (only for front attacks mind you), 19.5 with thick skin and 10.5 with thin skin for just 5% (at best) chance of a wound you get 8 points, if you expect a 5% modifier to save you when you could take keen hearing or any combat trait that could ACTUALLY save you this is a no brainer like out doorsman + keen hearing or whatever +8 points is a lot and all you spit on is 5% AT BEST S goldy tier

Thank you for removing me from the slow reader day waste grindset. It's the best gameplay change I've made

smoker always and then that hand movement

I was waiting for this video to come out, and its as good as I imagine, i was craving for you saying "You are foolish for taking slow reader"

taking slow reader is horrible, my most used strat is fast reader, fast learner and unemployed and take mostly permanent buffs and/or stuff that boosts athletism and strenght with this it isnt horrible to get your other skill leveled up i do use some modded traits aswell but it works even vanilla for me

This list is hilariously bad that's a straight up fact, not an opinion. I only hope new players don't watch this. Putting smoker in S tier and slow readers in the F tier, is this a shitpost. Slow reader is S tier in single player easily. You say it wastes so much time while putting objectively much worse time wasting traits above it.

"L" take on the Slow Reader. Nothin' personal.

thanks for the tier list man

hey mattsi this is a great video (only thing i would suggest is make it more obvious when you move on to a new trait, like esp at 21:10 when you switch to talking about slow healer without naming the trait i was confused). also i noticed that it seems like this is mostly SP based, which makes sense since the game started like that, but as someone who spends most of his time on MP servers, I wonder if you could talk about more multiplayer-based strats (if they differ, which i would think so- SLOW READER >:) and also sleep traits lol) for traits and builds.

with the SOTO mod, Smoking has numerous negative effects on endurance and such

Restless sleeper is manageable as hell. I dont need to set alarms for short naps. I just live off short naps. And if i wake up and need more sleep, beer can.

Deaf is free points if you’re deaf irl

Sometimes I take deaf so that I can blast my music and not have to worry too much about hearing zombies, but house alarms are always a problem.

Has anyone had the problem of things that should lower Stress actually raising it instead? Like watching Paws TV causes Nervous Wreck instantly. Books and magazines that say lower stress do the same thing. Have no mods that affect mood. Do have Smoker Trait so I know Stress slowly rises and smoking lowers it, but it says nothing about things that should lower it raise it instead.

Traits' point balance makes no sense. My gf and i tried to re-create ourselves to see how hard/easy would it be for us to survive a zombie apocalypse. We both had our chars with, like, ~30 points penalty if not more. So, instead of seeking for best traits for points exchange, i would recommend just to download 100 trait points mod and re-create yourself honestly with all negative and positive traits. Also, as irl medics, we were offended by this miserable +3 First Aid bonus for our occupation. People study for 6+ years for...3 skill points in their main skill branch?

That does not work. With speeding time up with the Clastrohobic. You litterly have to find a big house OR drik a beer before bed or sleeping pills. But Alcohol is best actully,,,

Just letting you know that I clicked 'stop' after about 30 seconds due to your censored tier list. This is the first video of yours I've seen and that decision tells me that you're not that interesting and without the censorship that I would surely have quit the video about 30 seconds or so in and I gotta be part of your YT puppymill of meta stats to make you money. Had you left it visible then I might have been curious about why you placed the traits in their spot, but nah. Perhaps you can use this feedback for future videos if you haven't already done so since this particular one got published. i wouldn't know since I lost all interest in you now. Well, Sayonara.

Nice edit!

Pretty good list overall. I would never take unlucky or pacifist personally so would put them in manageable rather than A tier. You clearly put slow reader in F tier just to get reactions as there's zero justification for it being any lower than C tier haha. The weirdest one though is actually cowardly in S tier. It's only +2 points, causes massive damage reduction and takes months to wear off. Meanwhile thin skin is in B tier and it basically takes an already super low chance of avoiding damage and makes it ~25% less. So (at weapon lvl 4) it's about 2% base chance to avoid the damage and thin skin makes it about 1.5%. It's also worth a huge 8 points. Thin skin is free unless you want to wade through trees all playthrough

I cannot ever gain weight in the game ever. I over eat constantly and lose weight anyways, so I usually only take overweight.

Overweight/Obese say "max fitness of 9/6". Meaning that you can train fitness alright, but once you level to that point, say, you're obese and raise your fitness to 6, it will stay at 6. You will get zero exp while exercising and it stays at 6.01 (minor carryover exp, like 1-4 points).

For players who cant make it past a couple weeks, i dont recommend cowardly because for only 2 points, you are going to deal around .2 to .3 damage if you have strong panic or higher, to put in perspective, a crowbar does .6 minimum and 1.15 max. You deal around 30% less damage through your entire run because you wont make it past a month to where the panic starts to lower Unlucky is unironically good for leveling up mechanics because the game only allows each car part to be installed and removed one time per day for xp, however failing will still give you some xp without being restricted by daily parameters, meaning you can get more value out of one car

Me who’s been choosing illiterate every run: 🗿

Heck Nah. I would never ever pick Asthmatic. Way too risky 😂 but regardless. Good List!!

Is it just me or is this list missing strong and stout?

this game is way to realistic. i also use beer as my prefered medicine than otc meds

🤓🤓🤓 Imagine being able to read

Matt walsh

I know right