Broken Roads is the debut offering from indie studio Drop Bear Bytes. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, your team of survivors has to journey across dangerous lands beset by raiders and mutated fiends. Fortunately, we have several tips to help you get started on your adventure.

Our Broken Roads guide discusses the game’s Morality system—the Moral Compass—as well as the role it plays in combat and when conversing with other characters. We also talk about the ideal Attributes and Skills for your character. Finally, we have additional tips regarding game mechanics that you encounter within the first few hours of starting the campaign.

Choose your preferred Origin
Broken Roads offers four options when you select an Origin, which is essentially your character’s starting template. Each Origin offers its own bonuses, though you can still allocate Attribute Points and Skill Points when you level up or respec (i.e. reset) later in the game.

Hired Gun:

• Attribute Bonuses: Awareness +1 and Strength +1.
• Starting Skills: Shooting Mastery +10 and Opportunist +5.
• Tip: Compared to other Origins, the Hired Gun gives you clear-cut advantages in combat due to its bonuses.

Surveyor:

• Attribute Bonuses: Awareness +1 and Intelligence +1.
• Starting Skills: Vigilance +10 and Punt +5.
• Tip: The Surveyor has minor bonuses when it comes to combat, but it does give you extra uses of the Punt mechanic (more on this later).

Barter Crew:

• Attribute Bonuses: Charisma +1 and Resolve +1.
• Starting Skills: Leadership +10 and Biology +5.
• Tip: The Barter Crew is a good option for those who prefer supporting their squad.

Jackaroo:

• Attribute Bonuses: Resolve +1 and Strength +1.
• Starting Skills: Tinker +10 and Biology +5.
• Tip: The Jackaroo is an all-rounder that can potentially excel at anything.

Max out ideal Attributes and Skills

During character creation and each subsequent level up, you’ll be able to allocate Attribute Points and Skills Points. In the case of Attributes, you should check how each one affects a core stat or function:

• Health Points (HP)—A character will fall in battle if their HP is depleted, though they get back on their feet once combat has ended; affected by Strength and Resolve.
• Damage—Ranged weapon damage is determined by Awareness, whereas melee weapon damage is determined by Strength.
• Initiative—Determines when you’ll take your turn during combat; affected by both Agility and Intelligence.
• Action Points (AP)—Determines the types and number of actions you can perform each turn; affected by Agility and Intelligence.
• Movement Points (MP)—Determines how far you can move during combat; affected by Strength and Agility.

A good example early on is how you can use either Intelligence or Agility (or even both) to increase your character’s Initiative and Action Points. However, because Agility also increases armor, dodge, and critical hit chance, you might want to prioritize it to aid you in combat. From there, you could increase the Awareness Attribute further, since ranged weapons are preferable to melee weapons.

Alongside this, we recommend increasing the Skills that will complement your playstyle. In our playthrough, we maxed out Shooting Mastery to improve our accuracy, damage, and bonus critical hit chance. Note that each Skill also confers additional boons for every 25 Skill Points that you allocate.

Use the Punt system

The Punt system is a unique feature that enables you to improve your chances of successfully passing Skill Checks. When presented with an option, you may choose to spend Punt Points, which come from the Charisma Attribute and Punt Skill. All spent Punt Points are also restored whenever you level up.

Reset and gain additional Attributes and Skills

Are you having second thoughts about your character’s build? Don’t worry, since you can reset Attributes and Skills in Broken Roads.

To do this, simply progress further into the campaign until you arrive in the town of Merredin. There, you’ll meet a street magician named Adam. Complete the main objectives in Merredin until the election-related events at the Flaming Galah. The next morning, Adam will be near the Brookton Convoy area. Speak with him and choose, “I’d like to change up my skillset.” This can be done for free, and it resets all Attributes and Skills so you can reallocate the necessary Points to options that you prefer.

Apart from this, Adam can also teach you new Skills, such as Tranquility (grants AP and MP to allies), Nitro (gain bonus AP and MP instantly but decrease these on your next turn), and Steamroll (charge toward enemies and knock them down). You can acquire these by selecting the “Embrace the feeling” response and choosing from the available replies.

Understand the Moral Compass

When you first create your character in Broken Roads, you’re given six questions with multiple answers. This serves as your introduction to the game’s Morality system, otherwise known as the Moral Compass.

There are four quadrants that represent your character’s core tenets or philosophical leanings, which later determine the available responses when speaking with other individuals:

• Utilitarian (yellow)—Focus on the greater good that affects the greatest number of people.
• Humanist (light blue)—Every person has worth and every person matters.
• Machiavellian (red)—The ends justify the means; disregard the cost to others if it means the survival of your group.
• Nihilist (purple)—Ultimately, life is meaningless outside of each individual human experience.

Watch out for Morality-based responses and Morality shifts

Many conversations and events in Broken Roads make use of the Moral Compass, which then leads to numerous potential outcomes. For example, when a character named Alanna tries to save Jake, an individual who is fighting off raiders, you can choose one of the four options:

• Humanist: “Chase after her. She’s defenseless.”
• Utilitarian: “Chase after her. Letting her distract Jake could get him killed.”
• Machiavellian: “Let her go. She will only slow you down.”
• Nihilist: “Let her go. There’s no helping someone who doesn’t want to be saved.”

As you can see, even if certain decisions are similar, there are still different reasonings behind them. Moreover, conversing with characters and choosing a particular Morality-based response can slightly shift your worldview.

Let’s say your worldview is a mix of Utilitarian and Machiavellian beliefs. Early in the campaign, you can certainly pick those responses when prompted, as well as Humanist or Nihilist ones if you want to slightly shift your beliefs to another quadrant. Later, as you focus on a specific philosophical leaning, you may select additional responses based on that leaning. However, other options become unavailable, denoting how your worldview has become narrower.

Acquire new Moral Traits

Having a narrower worldview unlocks Moral Traits, which also have different effects when in combat. Here are examples from the Utilitarian quadrant:

• Plan and Execution (low-level trait)—Begin combat with -5 Initiative; gain +5 Initiative each succeeding round; stacks until the end of combat.
• Don’t You Die On Me (low-level trait)—If an adjacent ally with lower HP is attacked, you swap places with them to take damage in their place.
• Greater Good (high-level trait)—Gain a +10% bonus to area-of-effect (AoE) attacks; bonuses when supporting an ally with the least HP; bonuses when casting magic abilities that support the weakest ally.

Obtain healing items and unstack those that you don’t need

To survive in Broken Roads, you’re going to need various restorative items. These include First Aid Kits, Water Bottles, Medicinal Herbs, and more. Consumables can be equipped from your inventory, and you can use them in battle to heal your teammates.

Speaking of items, those that are sold by vendors often come in stacks. If you don’t want to purchase the whole lot, you should hold the right mouse button and drag each item one by one to buy them separately.

Hold the Tab key to highlight objects and characters

Each area in the game has several NPCs and objects that you can interact with. Keep the Tab key held down to highlight these points of interest and their respective icons:

• Dialogue box—You can speak with this NPC.
• Hand—You can interact with this object or NPC.
• Question mark—You can investigate this particular curiosity to learn more about it. Note that investigating something for the first time also grants experience points.

Be ready for combat encounters

Battles in Broken Roads are turn-based affairs, with party members and enemies taking their turn based on their Initiative stat. You expend Movement Points (MP) to go to new spots, whether to take cover or get closer to a target. You then spend Action Points (AP) to attack, reload, swap weapons, or use items.

As cited earlier, we recommend focusing on firearms and the Shooting Mastery Skill. Enemies can attack from afar, so if you can’t get close enough to a target to attack but have your trusty sniper rifle on hand, you can still eliminate your foe with ease.

Explore the outback via the world map

After the events at Merredin, the campaign opens up by giving you access to the world map. Once you set out, you can select up to four additional party members—you can always change to other teammates whenever you revisit Merredin.

While viewing the world map, you can select a destination to travel to, but be prepared for random combat encounters along the way. Likewise, you should be able to rest and recuperate on the world map (or area maps). Additional destinations and points of interest also appear as you get closer to those places.

Last but not least, certain quest objectives are affected by the passage of time. As such, if you don’t tackle a certain dilemma or mission soon, it might get resolved even without your input.

We hope our Broken Roads beginners’ guide helps you with everything you need to know about the Moral Compass as well as Attributes, Skills, and general gameplay mechanics. With these tips, you should be ready to brave the dangers that come your way.

Those who are keen on exploring a post-apocalyptic Australian outback should grab Broken Roads, which is available on the Epic Games Store.