[Thanks Inkhaven for hosting me! This is my fourth and last post and I'm already exhausted from writing. Wordpress.com!]

Last time, I introduced the concept of the “Fat Newt” (fatigue neutral) build, a way of skilling up characters in Battle Brothers that aims to be extremely economical with the fatigue resource, relying entirely on each brother's base 15 fatigue regeneration per turn. This choice frees up stat and skill points to distribute evenly among offense, defense and utility. To illustrate, let's compare two possible ways to build a bro.

The first brother is a Nimbleforged Cleaver Duelist, who wields the weighty and brutish one-handed Orc Cleaver. To successfully attack multiple times a turn, this brother needs sky-high base stats - attack, defense, HP, fatigue, and resolve - and a continuous investment of stat points to reach around 70 maximum fatigue. Furthermore, this build requires a specific suite of offensive and fatigue-recovery perks to function, such as Berserk, Killing Frenzy, Duelist, Cleaver Mastery, and Recover. Only the most seasoned of Hedge Knights and Sellswords can pull this build off consistently.

This brother also needs to stay alive in the thick of battle, so optimally he wears “Nimbleforged” armor, famed medium [...]

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First published:
November 26th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ptd6XuKZbEDqwr63N/training-phd-students-to-be-fat-newts-part-2

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Game item card showing Greataxe stats and description for a two-handed battle axe.

Video game item card for Ravenous Beheader cleaver weapon with stats

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“Training PhD Students to be Fat Newts (Part 2)” by alkjash

LessWrong (30+ Karma)