How to Build a Diplomat in Encased

A diplomat in Encased aims to manipulate others through honeyed words and sleazily bending the rules. The game allows all situations and quests to be completed without fighting, typically instead with speech, technology, or evasion. When a diplomat can’t win through direct speech prompts, they may need to get a bit dirty and use subterfuge, hack, or send an ally to covertly assassinate a mark.

Taking place in an alternate post-Cold War era, Encased is an isometric RPG that examines a futuristic version of the 1970s. While it is possible to use one of the many pre-made heroes, players will gain far more control by experiencing Encased as a custom character. This allows special tweaking of stats, backgrounds, and roles. Players can then choose to make a diplomat who leans more into speechcraft, bribery, or simply being famous or infamous.

An important aspect of this build is that it avoids initiating turn-based combat at all costs. Players should be saving multiple times and resort to reloading if full combat ever does happen. In most cases, traveling in stealth mode will always reveal all characters’ vision ranges, with safe zones in white and danger in red.

Diplomat Character Creation in Encased

The first part of character creation in Encased is selecting which one of the five wings of Crystal Sands the hero is from. Silver Wing is the most natural fit as it grants a direct bonus to Charisma, Influence, and skill points gained; the Psionics boost is going to waste, though. However, two other possibilities are White Wing and Orange Wing for a bit more flavor. White will instead give +1 Brains and +15 Science for the build while Orange has +1 Deftness, +30 Encumbrance, and +20 Criminal. More importantly, each Color Wing has special dialogue and interactions to vary player experiences.

Attributes

Attributes govern a character’s more granular abilities and other stats. There are only a few rare means of raising them once starting Encased’s campaign, so it is absolutely key to set them correctly during character creation. While consumable items will often yield a temporary boost to attributes, that will not grant access to perks or passive skills. For the diplomat build, players should assign the following  point spread, adjusting for Color Wing bonuses:

• Muscle: 6
• Perception: 1
• Guts: 5
• Charisma: 10
• Brains: 6
• Deftness: 8
• Fortune: 8
• Psyche: 1

Additionally, players should also tag the skills Science, Criminal, and Influence for bonus points, along with taking the Bossy Trait. Bossy grants an additional +2 Charisma but penalizes Precision, which is not used by the diplomat, and Encumbrance, which will limit base carrying capacity. With all of these, the protagonist will have access to all Influence options (Charm, Conviction, Intimidation) along with good speech, stealth, and hacking capabilities. One drawback is that the low Perception means slower experience gains at first, but that will be offset in future levels; it also is less of an issue for Silver Wing members who receive additional skill points at each level.

Party and Level Progression in Encased

While the diplomat build is functional at the first level, it will get stronger as the game progresses. As players gain levels, they should focus on the following skills:

• Tech to 15: A cross-skill requirement that will grant Lock Picking within the Criminal skill list
• Science to 60: Unlocks Smarty Pants for a +10% experience bonus
• Influence to 90: Gives Party Heart for +2 Charisma while tipsy and Art of Excuse for +15 Criminal
• Science to 90: Yields Practical Psychology for +20 Reputation
• Criminal to 90: Grants Innocent Looks at 60, which lowers Reputation loss when committing crimes; at 90, gives Scratch my Back to improve bribes, and Cunning Plans, which raises experience points gained when in stealth
• Influence to 120: Gives Personalized Approach for +25 Reputation with all companions
• Tech to 40: Required for the Optimizer perk
• Contraptions to 30: Allows removal of traps with Mine Clearance; players will already have enough Contraptions if Optimizer was selected
• Science to 150 or Piloting to 60: Piloting will finally let the main character drive all vehicles. Players can instead max Science for an instant free level.

Perks

Perks are further bonuses similar to the first level Trait but that typically have no downside. Players will want to aim for the following, but order doesn’t matter as much compared to skills:

• Deft Hands: +15 Tech and Criminal
• Rising Star: +30 Influence
• A Leg Up: Gain another level instantly
• Optimizer: +25 Encumbrance and +40 Contraptions
• Chef: Gain 50 experience points from cooking
• Invigorating Teleportation: reduces fatigue when using a teleport
• Team Mascot: +2 Fortune for the main character and all companions
• Self-Improvement: +1 Perception and Psyche, as they are the two lowest stats of the build

Companion Selection

Encased allows players to take two companions at all times, and occasionally a third for certain quests. They will mostly make up for roles that the diplomat lacks. Note that companions cannot speak to NPCs, making some skills pointless for them.

Katarzyna or Cheerful Jack should be a mainstay to take care of environmental puzzles or obstacles. Katarzyna is better for Science- and Medicine-related skills but can be pushed toward Tech later. Jack is instead good with Contraptions and Tech but can also go for some Criminal skill points. Players can switch to either of them if the situation calls more for hacking or trap disposal.

While the goal of the diplomat is to prevent turn-based fights, some enemies, like wild beasts, may still need to be killed. Thankfully, this can be done with stealth or ranged attacks without enemy retaliation. Yoko is the best companion pick for these moments, as her talents in High-Tech Weapons and Heavy Weapons means she can easily snipe or use hit-and-run tactics. Fox is a secondary option, as her high critical damage might instantly kill enemies, though going into melee range increases the chance she may be spotted. She also has a decent amount of Psionics, which has reach and may capitalize on enemy weaknesses.

Regardless of the team composition or the main character’s current level, all of Encased can be completed with zero fighting. If ever it seems like a mission is edging towards a brawl, diplomat players should save first and weigh all their options. While it might not be the most straightforward option, there is likely some means for the diplomat to either smooth talk enemies or simply avoid the situation entirely.

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Encased is available on PC.

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