Physique

Physique is one of the Core Stats Steele and other creatures have. Higher Physique improves the character's melee attacks, making it vital for any player who specializes in melee, and may 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.
  • 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 at all levels 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

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 transformatives that increase it are slow, chance-based, have an upper limit, and decrease other stats in the process. They include the following items and possibly others:
  • Zil Rations
  • Cerespirin
  • Horse Pills
  • Pandaneed
  • Panda Pro
  • Treatment Medipen("Bull" variant only)

• The most reliable method of increasing physique is to buy a Lifetime Membership at the Ten Ton Gym then repeatedly do Hard Workout, 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 is also a great method and has the benefit of also increasing Willpower. The downside is that Mirrin has an actual storyline that you might not want to skip through.