Physique

Physique is one of the Core Stats Steele and other creatures have. Higher Physique improves the character's melee attacks and may also be called on for interactions that rely on raw strength. Aside from this, it works slightly differently for each class.

• Mercenaries always use Physique to escape from grapples more easily. They also have some perks and abilities that interact with Physique.
  • Always gained at level one, Headbutt is an active ability that does physique-based damage with a chance to stun.
  • Always gained at level seven, Iron Will passively grants bonus Willpower equal to 1/5 of your total Physique. This can raise it above its normal cap.
  • Optionally gained at level ten, Bigger Guns, passively removes the physique requirements for heavy weapons.

• Smugglers use Physique to escape from grapples more easily until level three, at which point they always gain the Escape Artist perk that causes them to use Reflexes for this instead.

• Tech Specialists always can use Physique to escape from grapples more easily but also gain the Static Burst ability at level five, which allows them to bypass this requirement and instantly escape grapples for a small Energy cost instead.

Increasing Physique

During character creation, the Athletic upbringing increases this stat by one while Bookworm decreases it by one. Choosing Physique Affinity increases starting physique by one in addition to making it easier to increase the stat later on through gameplay. However, it does not affect any static increases added through level-ups. These bonuses stack, allowing you start with anywhere from two to five physique.

After character creation, various Transformative Items and events have a chance of increasing Physique:

• Most but potentially not all transformatives that increase it tend to be slow, chance-based, have an upper limit, and decrease other stats in the process. They include the following items and possibly others:
  • Zil Ration
  • Cerespirin
  • Horse Pill
  • Pandaneen Pill
  • Panda Pro
  • Treatment Medipen("Bull" variant only)
  • ClearYu

• A more reliable method of increasing physique is to buy a Lifetime Membership at the Ten Ton Gym then repeatedly do a Hard Workout in the Weight Room, returning to your ship to get rid of the Sore/Very Sore Status Effects once you run out of Energy. Physique gains for individual sessions are low but since there are no combat encounters or unique scenes involved, this method can easily be spammed until the stat's maxed out.
• Training with Mirrin increases Physique and Willpower. Note that Mirrin has an actual storyline that you might not want to skip through.
• Working out with Ramis increases Physique if you choose Strength and is more effective if you also choose to Carry On. This has the benefit of already being on your ship but might be hard to skip through quickly if you have a lot of crewmembers to sort through.

• Horse Pill
  • Physique less than 33% of max
    • slow stat gain of 3 for physique
  • Physique at 66% or less, but more than 33% of max
    • slow stat gain of 1.5 for physique
  • Physique greater than 66% of max
    • slow stat gain of 1 for physique