1 Energy cost is the stat that matters
In a system where dodging and attacking share one resource, raw damage is a misleading number. What decides a fight is how many actions you can take before the bar empties.
So compare weapons by damage per unit of energy rather than damage per hit. A weapon that hits half as hard for a third of the cost is stronger in almost every situation, because it also leaves you able to dodge.
The same logic applies to anything that reduces cost or increases the pool. Those parts look boring on a comparison screen and change what you can survive.
2 There is no best build, and that is the design
Players who treat the workshop as a one time upgrade screen get the worst of the system: they carry a configuration tuned for a fight they already won. Opening the menu before a new area is not fussiness, it is the intended loop.
3 Keep two configurations in mind
Rebuilding constantly is exhausting. A practical middle ground is to maintain two mental templates and swap between them.
| Template | Built around | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Explorer | Cheap actions and a large energy pool | Clearing an area, many small fights, scavenging |
| Duellist | Higher output accepted at higher cost | A single area boss you have already watched once |
The reason this works is that the two jobs have different energy profiles. Exploration is many cheap exchanges; a boss is one long expensive one. A machine tuned for both is worse at each.
4 What to change when a boss stops you
Because area bosses gate the map, a wall there stops everything. Work through the changes in order of how much they cost you.
Notice that only the first step is about skill. In a game with swappable parts, repeating the same attempt with the same machine is the least productive option available.
5 Reading a world that was built to be scavenged
Hod is a crater of broken machines and ruined buildings, and you are told outright that you must scavenge to survive. A world described that way is usually generous to players who look.
Two habits pay off. Clear an area fully before beating its boss, since progression is one way in the sense that your attention moves on even when the map does not. And keep parts whose use is not obvious, because the customisation system is explicitly about matching a part to a moment rather than about ranking parts.
Events can trigger during exploration as well, so a second pass through a familiar area is not always wasted time.
Compare parts by damage per unit of energy rather than damage per hit, since dodging draws on the same pool. The developers describe customisation as choosing what suits the situation, so treat rebuilding as the loop rather than as setup. Keep an exploration configuration built on cheap actions and a duelling one for bosses. When a boss stops you, watch once, then cut energy cost, then change range, then go and scavenge.
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