Deadly Effective - Minimal Skills Overhaul

Deadly Effective is a lightweight, vanilla+ perk overhaul designed to enhance build variety and make perks more relevant throughout the game experience.

Contact / Feedback

This mod is also hosted on Nexus mods at https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/11834 Feel free to leave feedback under the Comments at the above page.

You may also join the Spacefarer Discord at https://discord.gg/YQHjkGd89x or via the QR code.

Overview

The main concept is designed around the idea of Synergies - playstyles opened up by the improvements to perks.

Do you want to use automatic weapons and slowly overcome their downsides? Do you want to use highly accurate energy weapons to lay down consistent fire? Or do you want to just blitz into a room and clear hostiles in moments?

All these and more are available in the early game - as long as skills are chosen wisely. Later skills build upon these playstyles to keep combat fresh and allow for deep specialization.

Hardcore Mode

A single perk is added to the player to lower stats like reload speed, weapon handling, or fall damage reduction by default. This more heavily incentivizes taking relevant perks to enhance your chosen playstyle. This can be disabled at will under Gameplay Options.

Note: It is recommended to disable Hardcore Mode if using DE with other economy mods or survival systems.

Early-Game Perks

Ballistics is now Neutralisation - It focuses on semi-automatic carbines but also buffs pistols and shotguns at higher investment.

Lasers is now Focus - A broader discipline that covers all energy weapons in the game. It leverages their accuracy and fire rate to deliver devastating barrages at any range.

Dueling is now Evasion - It is designed to make all CQC playstyles viable even at higher difficulties with powerful damage mitigation abilities.

Pistol Certification has been modified heavily to encourage a more swashbuckling, daring playstyle. Gunslingers can manipulate enemy health to their advantage, making them a deadly force in tight quarters.

Shotgun Certification now focuses heavily on the strengths of shotguns and their ability to clear rooms and cripple foes with terrifying effectiveness.

Boxing now focuses more on the fundamentals of CQC such as footwork and offensive evasion. Skilled Boxers can trip enemies or dodge blows in close combat.

Mid-Game Perks

Rifle Certification is now Suppression - Allowing automatic fire to be laid down more easily and to devastating effect.

Particle Beams is replaced by Efficiency - the concept being that a savvy technician can squeeze enormous efficiency out of initially underperforming weapons.

Incapacitation now differentiates between organic and inorganic targets and can instantly KO at higher levels.

Isolation no longer offers flat combat bonuses, with higher levels offering Stealth bonuses and even allowing solo combatants to strike Fear into enemies.

Late-Game Perks

Rapid Reloading is now Weapon Handling. Experts in this discipline can wield all weapons efficiently and are less encumbered in combat.

Skill Challenges

Most skill challenges have been altered, with requirements increasing in specificity as ranks are gained. Earlier challenges focus on quantity, so the late-game grind is reduced significantly.

Example Synergy Playstyles

Akila Vaquero

Utilizes Neutralisation, Pistol Certification, and Evasion. A deadly gunslinger that is nearly untouchable when in the midst of enemies, favoring high-damage pistols and falling back on knives or axes to finish off foes.

Trench Gunner

Utilizes Boxing, Shotgun Certification, and Weapon Handling. A master of CQC whose enemies rarely have time to react before being blown to bits by shotshells of all kinds or bludgeoned unceremoniously.

Space Marine

Utilizes Suppression, Weapon Handling, and Focus to lay down reams of highly accurate and deadly energy fire, quickly eliminating all threats before giving his team the all-clear.

Compatibility

Incompatible with other skill or perk mods. If using bugfix mods, they can be loaded earlier.

It is highly compatible with most other types of mods, including those that reference or check for vanilla perks. For example, if a mod wanted to check if the player had the Dueling skill, this would return true if they had the Evasion skill. All vanilla dialogue checks will also perform as intended.

Load the mod as late as possible to avoid entanglements.