Editing Coco's Guide to Starting Out (section)

== Owned vehicles ==
The best ''suggested'' chassis to get when you're starting out would be either a [[Moose]] or a [[Mercenary]]. These are balanced mid-price vehicles that can bring down a bigger car and (more importantly) escape a difficult scout. These two chassis will  get you '''into a fight''' and pound the enemy on an equal basis, but more importantly they will get you '''out of trouble''' just as fast.

'''Build precise mission orientated vehicles''' - do not buy a chassis and fill it full of all the guns and armour it will carry. Buy the best weapons for your crews skill  and maybe one backup weapon - no more . If you want to experiment - do it in an arena (you can take your vehicles in there and fight NPCs AND resign).

'''Have a plan''' - This might only mean a simple ''mode'' of attack i,e speed and range you want to engage enemy. If you are going head-on take a rollcage. If you plan to out drive the enemy in a standard close in melee take at least a 2.5 litre or more

'''Look at your allies' strengths''' - If your fighting partners are all knuckleheads - let them take the initial salvo and you can take the overshoots or go wide and outflank them. If you a ultra new in town plead incompetence and take 3 crew instead of 2 because vets will gift you crappy cars they cannot be bothered to drive back to town

'''Keep your CR DOWN''' - This is a great way to start and will pay dividends later when you scouting alone . Low Cr cars  will encounter low CR pirates - when you are out alone you should be driving very efficient cars and when combined with your low scout skill you will only encounter comparable enemies. Approx guide -  Muscle cars under 120 cr : Sedans under 150CR : 4x4 under 220 CR . What is the point ? You are gonna use all the non CR advantages available to give you  an edge.

'''The Devilish Detail''' Little things add up to give you a fighting advantage.Things that cost no CR included -
* Gunners are more accurate than drivers who also act as gunners
* Gunners can reload their own weapon (drivers cannot)
* gunners can drive home loot cars
* Spare ammo cost no CR
* Toughness cost less CR than armour (chomper with 84 armour is little more than a symphony with 84 armour)
* Better Engines dont cost CR ( they are the best defense there is ! Muscle cars survive because of speed)
* GREAT Gunner skill will (of course) cost no CR and will  swing an even battle .
* Poor gun Skill ? Give them inaccurate weapons  - get the car to point blank and hose off! (cheap too)
  
So in a nutshell - lots of guns and lots of armour makes you a target for more enemies - be efficient and drive a lean, mean car

=== Engine ===
You should go with the biggest [[Engines|engine]] your car can fit [[Exposed Engine|unexposed]]. '''If you cannot afford to buy the best available engine you are not ready'''. On the Moose that means 2.5 litres and on the Mercenary 3.2 litres . 

The only two designs to use '''exposed engines''' are courier cars and mortar cars - both are always facing away from the enemy.

Spirit Chassis with a 3.2L exposed and 20 tank (Fr 10 Re 18 Le 12 Ri 12 To 5 Bo 5) has 110 cargo and can run un-escorted.

Land runner with a 4.0L exposed and twin CGLs rear (Fr 15 Re 28 Le 20 Ri 20 To 5 Bo 5). Lower armour to keep CR down.

=== Armor ===
====Armor Grade====

'''A''' armor weighs half of what '''B''' armor weights but costs four times as much
'''B''' armor is the normal armor in terms of weight and cost.
'''C''' armor weighs twice as much as '''B''' armor and costs half as much

It really comes down to a choice between '''B''' and '''C''' grade as '''A''' is much too expensive for anything but racing type events. '''C''' armoured cars will be slightly slower and if you're going with a smaller engine, too much '''C''' armor isn't a very good idea. '''If you cannot afford to buy the B Class Armour you are not ready'''.  The place you'll really appreciate having a lighter and faster car will be when [[Solo Scouting#tactics|running away]] from encounters you realize you can't win.

You can't get refunds on your armor so switching the armour type later will be an expensive and time-consuming process. I'd recommend dishing out the extra cash for '''B''' armor for your first car and '''C''' on your second to see which works out better for you.

==== Armor Facings ====
You should put 100% of the maximum [[armor]] points that the chassis can take. '''If you cannot afford to buy a fully armoured car you are not ready.'''

To start with you can evenly distribute the armour on your front and sides with 5 to 7 points on top and bottom. As you play you will redistribute the armour to fit your style. Slow tanks (with '''C''' armour) tend to have more on the sides e.g. Front 23% Rear 23% Left 23% Right 23% Top 4% Bottom 4%. Fast, dogfighters have maximum on front e.g. Front 25% Rear 19% Left 23% Right 23% Top 5% Bottom 5% . The best feedback is the bullet-ridden absence of armour as you roll back into town. Look at the holes left by the last encounter and adapt your armour to deal with it - some people take more hits to their sides, while others take all their hits to the front

=== Weapons ===
You need a minimum of 2 crew (second guy to drive home your precious, looted car) and therefore 2 guns, and maybe a third weapon to experiment with. The priority is 2 good, accurate guns with lots of ammo - the  Machine Gun family fits the bill very well - Twin Medium Machine Guns (2xMMGs) being the classic safe bet this can configured in many ways -

The regular [[Machine Gun]] and [[Gatling Gun]] are a bit low-damage, but make up for it by only being 20 bulk.
Machine guns are probably the most versatile of all the weapons for any situation and you will pick up fesh ammo for it after almost any fight.  Twin [[Gatling Gun]]s are the mark of a good gunslinger, but the GG is not accurate, and Newbies need to hit once before they can hit twice in a round.

Car Rifles generally get outperformed by other weapons, but are more accurate. Rockets, on the other hand, do [[Splash Damage|splash damage]], which can damage several cars if they're grouped tightly together and being hit with several rockets per turn can cause a car to flip or at least lose control. Rockets are also decent at damaging the characters inside vehicles. Rockets are a poor starting choice as they are very dangerous to your crew at point blank range and can harm other players who are trying to help you - '''avoid them initially'''.

Dropped weapons ([[Mine Dropper|mines]], [[Flaming Oil Jet]]s, [[Spike Dropper|dropped spikes]], etc.) can be unpredictable and are designed for inter-city travel. Mines or flaming oil jets in the right place can heavily turn the tide of battle in your favour, but looted cars with no tires will have difficulty escaping if you have a return encounter.

The more expensive/rare weapons ([[Laser]]s, [[Car Cannon]]s, [[Anti-Tank Gun]]s, etc.) really aren't worth the investment when you're just starting out compared to the cheaper alternatives.

=== Misc. Stuff ===
==== Ammo ====
You should bring 1 reload for all your weapons, possibly even more for weapons with 10 or smaller magazines. Dropped weapons usually don't require reloads since mostly they're used at the start of the encounter to get an initial advantage or for an escape during a [[Encounters|return]] encounter.

==== Passengers ====
Each passenger takes up 20 bulk.You might take a third crewman to drive home loot cars or you may have a third weapon depending on your design.Vets are generous to newbies, so having a second loot car driver could double your haul for any one scout. Massed scouts are safer and yield bigger hauls of loot too. You only usually find four 4 crew in a larger [[Table of chassis#Combat|4X4]] (Landrunner or Apache chassis) combat vehicle. Faster sedans like the [[Voyager]] and muscle cars like the [[Phoenix]] make great taxis for intercity runs with 3 paying passengers though.

==== Fuel ====
Fuel is the last thing you need to concern yourself with, a size 2 tank will do fine. If you insist on [[Solo Scouting|an early grave]] then please get a 5 to 8 size tank and scout out as far as possible (max 50 mile range).