Got the forge on the morning of the second day and the workstation in the afternoon of that day

[ElCabong]

I put one point in advanced engineering out of the first four you get. As soon as I leveled I put the other point in lockpick.

 

Sometimes you just get lucky

[theFlu]

And raided a random book cafe?

[ElCabong]

1 hour ago, theFlu said:

And raided a random book cafe?

Haven't found one. Made a new random gen that's mostly rural. Every workbench I looted had one. I think a few cement mixers had one. 

[Reth]

Both forge and workstation give you very little advantage early in A21. I built both as soon as I could only to discover that whatever I could make I had already looted or received as a quest reward.

 

Forge used to grant you iron/steel tools, but this is no longer the case.

[Syphon583]

58 minutes ago, Reth said:

Both forge and workstation give you very little advantage early in A21.

I don't know about that. I'll give you Workbench, maybe, but the forge is extremely helpful as soon as I can get it. I suppose it depends on playstyle, but for players who use a bow (a very common early game weapon, even if you aren't spec'ing into it) you can make iron arrowheads which are vastly better than stone. For those unlucky to find a grill or cooking pot the first day or so, you can immediately make those (this also allows you to make multiple camp fires to spread out your cooking). If you do happen to find gear early on that requires repair kits to fix, the forge allows you to make forged iron needed to make those kits.

17 hours ago, ElCabong said:

I put one point in advanced engineering out of the first four you get. As soon as I leveled I put the other point in lockpick.

 

Sometimes you just get lucky

Yeah, I always push to get the forge as quickly as possible. While I usually put one of my first points into advanced engineering, if you know where to look you can get the forge ahead mags pretty quickly without a point. AFAIK, cement mixers are guaranteed to have a mag and workbenches have a pretty high chance.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Syphon583 (see edit history)

[pApA^LeGBa]

If you put your point in advanced engineering before you loot your first trader you can easily get the forge for lunch on day one even.

[RipClaw]

9 hours ago, pApA^LeGBa said:

If you put your point in advanced engineering before you loot your first trader you can easily get the forge for lunch on day one even.

The funny thing is that you have a better chance of getting workstation magazines with points in Lock Picking than if you put the points into Advanced Engineering. The reason for this is that Advanced Engineering also boosts the magazines for electric traps and items, while Lock Picking exclusively boosts the magazines for workbenches.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by RipClaw (see edit history)

[Scyris]

10 hours ago, pApA^LeGBa said:

If you put your point in advanced engineering before you loot your first trader you can easily get the forge for lunch on day one even.

 

I've had that happen without anything in advanced engineering as well, just gotta get really lucky. As for vehicles I just use the bicycle (from going from tier 1 to 2 quests reward) till I can buy the parts for something better. Its not worth putting points into grease monkey just to make a vehicle a bit cheaper, there is basically no real other benefit. The biggest problem is getting the gas can recipe, that requires WAY to damn many books to get, and they removed the schematic for it.

 

Its also silly how rare it is to ever find any vehicle magazines inside the pass n gas boxes, they seem super rare, its the same case with workstations and working stiff boxes, which should also be a primary source for that magazine yet, it rarely ever shows up.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Scyris (see edit history)