The intention of this guide isn't to be comprehensive or offer widespread analysis of every option- it offers some tips to build a decent character for a first run, whilst avoiding spoilers as much as possible.

Here's the assumptions made:

-The game is played on Normal difficulty. This is important, because difficulty affects the speed of character progression. Easy will let you blow more points, whilst Hard means you have less to play with and Impossible demands an optimised character that's planned from the start.

-We skip out on Psionics. Psi is fun, but relatively complex and clunky, and very hungry for cyber modules. For a first playthrough, I wouldn't recommend it and won't be covering it in this guide.

-Exploits and sequence breaks are not used.

A System Shock 2 character is built out of four things- Stats, Tech Skills, Weapon Skills, and Psionics. Psionics don't exist for the purpose of our build, but we still have lots of options.

Stats and skills are leveled at terminals throughout the game using Cybernetic Modules. These are XP/Skill Points. You get them dished out for completing objectives and can find them fairly often in the environment. Depending on how you count, there's roughly ~880-890 CM up for grabs in the game. On a first, spoiler free, playthrough, you'll miss some of these, so more conservatively you can expect to spend 825-850 before seeing the credits roll.

That said, the game becomes very liberal with CMs towards the tail end, by which point you don't have as much time to enjoy the fruits of spending them. You get around 600-650 prior to the game's climax kicking into gear.

Our character's training (next section) also amounts to an injection of free CMs in the region of 45-50. The CM values of these starting stats/skills are not exactly created equal, but the deviation only adds up to a couple gained/lost either way. OSA, the training we won't be taking, gets substantially more CMs in starting stats, but c'est la vie.


Our hero has 5 stats.

• Strength - Strength offers two main benefits. Each point gives us an extra column of inventory- there's a lot of stuff to pick up on your adventure, but a judicious inventory manager can make do without extra slots.
  
  Strength also serves to gate access to certain equipment. The Assault Rifle, easily the best weapon in the game, demands 2 points. Power armor requires 3, and is also very nice to have, so it's likely we want to get that third point. Higher levels only offer access to armor generally inferior to power armor and a not-very-good weapon, so the benefit beyond 3 is mostly your inventory space.
  
  Strength also gives you a buff to melee damage. A character that wants to primarily use melee will, unsurprisingly, want to cap strength.
  
  
• Endurance - Endurance provides, on Normal difficulty, 5 HP per point in addition to some resistance against passive environmental damage. Environmental damage can often be avoided or otherwise mitigated, but this is still a nice-to-have.
  
  A character on Normal, before endurance, has 30 hp, so 5 extra isn't much to squeeze at (it isn't possible to have 0 endurance, so you'll always have 35). Still, the HP gain is static yet higher levels will cost you more CM- you're paying more modules per HP, basically.
  
  You can get away without endurance, especially if you're save scumming, playing cautiously, or making judicious use of healing items. Most people will want to at least get a point or two.
  
  
• Agility - Provides a movement speed buff, reduces fall damage, and decreases weapon recoil.
  
  There are few if any places in the game mitigating fall damage is helpful, recoil is not really a problem if you are a competent shooter player and attempting to conserve ammunition, but the movement speed is beautiful. Melee characters demand agility, but everyone likes it. It's personal preference how heavily you invest.
  
  
• Cybernetic Affinity - Makes the hacking minigame easier. That's it.
  
  To the stat's credit, the minigame is very annoying with little investment. If you're going to hack, get yourself a couple points in Affinity.
  
  
• Psionic Ability - Has no utility for a character that doesn't spec into Psionics.

All stats, save for Cybernetic Affinity, can be temporarily buffed with implants. Not a game changer, but nice.

We also have a choice of 5 tech skills:

• Hacking - Pretty much as you'd expect. There's a lot of stuff to hack in this game, but notably it's frontloaded- 2 points allows you to hack all doors, terminals, and crates (aside from the ocassional security crate, which demands a hacking stat of 6). Hack 3 lets you slash the prices of vending machine and unlock secret stock, whilst Hack 4 allows you to subvert turrets. Points in hack also make the minigame easier, as is the case with Cybernetic Affinity.
  
  Every character wants 2 points in hacking. Hacking vending machines is marginal but helpful, hacking turrets is rarely practical but very fun. The security crates that demand a maxed hacking skill are not worth the price of admission, but for a character that's already pumping hacking to 4 it might be worth getting to 6 just for kicks.
  
  
• Research - Different research projects demand levels in this skill- they offer buffs and access to exotic equipment. Points in research also slash research times, though it's rare that the timer is a problem. Critically, an implant allows research to be buffed by 1- since research is exclusively contextual and non-combat, every character functionally has a permanent +1 to research once they nab the implant.
  
  Different schools of thought exist regarding if the skill is worth it. None of the buffs are game changing, but they're nice to have. The gear generally sucks and also demands heavy investment in its own stat- a dedicated character, who would of course spec Research. For a generalist, it's hard to justify going above 2 points- this gives you 3 with the implant, high enough to complete most research projects in the game and get access to some fun stuff.
  
  Since we aren't doing spoilers, it's hard to give a detailed appraisal. I would advise you stick with 2 points.
  
  
• Modify - Lets you tinker with your weapons to permanently buff them provided your Modify meets a requirement.
  
  This is incredibly strong, but the game also offers a few findable items that perform these upgrades without a skill check. The handful throughout the game is enough to skip Modify entirely if you only want to upgrade one or two weapons, which you can absolutely get away with.
  
  This one is probably a skip.
  
  
• Maintenance - Lets you repair the durability on weapons using maintenance tools. These are consumable and have to be found. Points in maint both serve as a hard requirement for certain weapons and also increase the amount of durability restored.
  
  We want the Assault Rifle- the Assault Rifle requires 4 points of maintenance to maintain. You do the maths. Going higher offers marginal benefit.
  
  This isn't a gameplay guide, but as a tip- save your maint tools early, using them at low maint skill will only have marginal impact and earlygame weapons are commonly replacable.
  
  
• Repair - Like maintenance but bad. Can fix weapons at 0 durability by 'hacking' them (benefits from Cyber Affinity).
  
  Invest in maintenance and don't break your weapons. There's marginal benefit in that some weapons are available in broken states earlier than they can be found working- this simply doesn't justify putting CM into repair, especially on a first playthrough.
  
  Also shares modify's problem that there exist items that allow you to repair without a skill check.

In summary:

Strength - Always good, rarely great. 2 is mandatory, higher is QOL.
Endurance - Depends on how much you plan on getting shot.
Agility - You want a couple points, you might want more.
Cybernetic Affinity - If you want to hack a lot, grab 2-3 points. Skip otherwise.
Psionics - This guide says skip it. But I'm not a cop.

Hacking - At least 2. Only go higher on a character that is specialising in hacking.
Research - 2 points.
Modily - Skip it.
Maintenance - 4 points minimum, not much need to go higher.
Repair - Skip it.

Spoiler free, there's little to say here.

Standard Weapons is the god stat in this game. The Assault Rifle demands 6 points- Remaster nerfs it, but not enough to dethrone it. The Pistol and Shotgun are also common early and benefit from this stat. A character that only invests in Standard will be more than fine.

Energy Weapons nominally benefit from infinite ammunition, recharging at no resource cost rather than firing bullets. You only need one point to use the Laser Pistol, and it can be a decent early-game workhorse if you're a desperate ammo hoarder like me. Without getting into spoilers, a character that skips out on Standard for Energy will struggle to beat the game without advanced knowledge and prep. Don't do that.

A point in Heavy Weapons lets you use the Grenade Launcher. The Grenade Launcher is good. Other Heavy Weapons exist, but only come into play fairly late in the game. You will seriously struggle to feed your weapons if you go Heavy-only, but it's likely the best (and most fun) choice of off-skill for Standard. Make sure you pump Strength if you want to use the flashier heavies later on.

Exotic Weapons are available later, demand heavy stat investment in both this skill and Research, and are generally underwhelming compared to those facts. Still, live your dream if you really like the fantasy of the skill- just maybe also save some points for Standard.

In short- Standard is mandatory, skip Exotic, and optionally take a minor in Energy or Heavy if you want some variety.

We can pick from 3 different Military Branches, which each offer 3 sets of 3 choices for starting stats and skills.

OSA is for Psi characters- it's out. We're left with Marine or Navy.

Marine emphasises pure combat, whilst Navy benefits from utility skills. Unfortunately for Marine, Navy gets the better end of the deal here. Both of our options start with Standard Weapons 1.


Marine gets to pick:

• Year 1 - 2 points in a physical stat- Strength, Endurance, or Agility.
  
  Dealer's choice. None of these are essential, and the benefits are discussed prior. Starting with extra Agility makes kiting the early, melee focused, enemies a joke, so that'd be my call.
  
  
• Year 2 - This is the interesting one. Marine can choose Heavy, Energy, or Standard weapons. Standard gets +2, whilst the others get +1 and a point of Cybernetic Affinity.
  
  Cybernetic Affinity is dubious here- doubly so if we consider that a hacking character probably went Navy, but on the flipside the Marine does get a free Laser Pistol or Grenade Launcher to start the game, albeit at a very low durability. The Grenade Launcher is pretty much a curiosity, though it's a fun one- you'll run out of shells and won't be able to feed it until you could get the GL naturally, but an early Laser Pistol is certainly a boon for a character that likes Energy.
  
  Assuming we want at least one point in Cyber Affinity, these options are fun- though starting the game with only 1 point in Standard Weapons will make the opening a little less smooth than it could be.
  
  
• Year 3 - +1 Maintenance, Repair, or Modify.
  
  Only one of these stats is good- and incidentally, you get a bonus maint tool for your trouble. Not even a question. Helps fix your Year 2 weapon, if that floats your boat.

Whilst Navy gets:

• Year 1 - +1 Strength, plus your choice of Hack, Repair, or Modify.
  
  As with Year 3 of Marine, this isn't even really a question. Hack is the only useful stat here.
  
  
• Year 2 - +2 Cyber Affinity, +1 Maintenance, or +2 Standard Weapons.
  
  Standard Weapons is worth more modules and is far more useful early game. You get a tool with Maintenance, so a case can be made there, but I'd only ever pick Standard here.
  
  
• Year 3 - +1 Research, +2 Endurance, or +2 Agility.
  
  You want the Endurance or Agility. I pick Agility here, personally.

What's important to note is that the actual impact on a final build is minimal in terms of CM. What we're really doing, a la Dark Souls, is deciding how we want our character to be specialised before we've had a chance to build him out.

Navy simply wins out on that front, save for the potential benefit of Marine starting with a flashy weapon.

Pick whatever you want though, really. It's marginal in the grand scheme of the game.

Four times throughout the game, you get the chance to pick from a list of upgrades. Many of these are infamously useless, though Remaster buffs them slightly.

You can make your own decisions here, frankly.

Cybernetically Enhanced and Sharpshooter (or Lethal Weapon for melee) are disproportionately strong. Tinker, formerly a contender for the worst O/S upgrade, has been substantially buffed and might be one of the best.

Naturally Able is bad, even buffed, as is Spatially Aware.

Worth noting that whilst it's true you get four of these, one is fairly late in the game and one is near-enough at the end. Make your early picks count.

You might have noticed there isn't a great deal here that couldn't be intuited, save for pointing out a few potentially trap options, which is correct.

The main lesson I can impart is that this game penalises generalist builds and rewards specialised ones. The reason I dispense Psi for a first playthrough is that it's module hungry and demands full investment to really bear fruit.

That isn't to say you can't experiment off the beaten path of '6 Standard Assault Rifle everything to death', but pick what your gimmick will be and stick to it.

Once you've rolled credits and know what you're up against, you can get sillier with the builds. If you avoid spoilers, there's probably still plenty to find on a second run.