[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Character Creation and General Tips

All of these tips apply to the campaign that ships with the game, "Dead Man's Switch".  To see my review for the game, click here.

Character Creation

• Your character will be going through a lot of combat scenes early on.  It'll make your life easier if you have good combat skills early.  You'll be running into a lot of Karma very quickly, so you can always go your specified route later if it's not combat focused.  For example, if you're planning on being a decker with some rifle proficiency, upgrade your rifle/ranged combat/body stats before you start the game, then level your decking skill later.
• It's at least a few hours until you do any decking, and even then the first time you use it it's nearly impossible to fail even with poor statistics.  Later on good decking can pay off, but you'll often have a competent decker available to you anyway.  In general, I'd advise against making decking a priority for your main character.
• Focus on combat and dialogue upgrades on character creation.
• Specialize in one or two weapons.  Since you can only carry at most three with the right upgrades, you really don't need to  be good at more than two.
• Your very first mission will be using a pistol no matter what and you won't have access to any spells, so it might not be a bad idea to be at least somewhat competent at ranged combat.

General Tips

• Get Charisma 4 as soon as possible.  It unlocks many dialogue options through the game.  A score of more than 4 isn't necessary for the purposes of dialog. 
• For Etiquette, Street and Security are most useful at the beginning of the game.  After that, Shadowrunner and Corporate can net you some more cash in the mid game.  Academia and Gang are basically worthless.
• Better cyberdecks make a big difference.
• Pretty much all weapons are viable at all ranges.  It's very rare that combat takes place at the super long ranges where weapons like the shotgun would be handicapped.
• Speaking of which, shotguns feel like the best weapons in the game.  The only weapons that beat out their damage output are rifles on full auto, which is very inaccurate.
• Shaman spirits can make combats a lot easier for you, but certainly are not required to do well.
• Overwatch is done with the ability you currently have selected when you activate Overwatch.  Thus, activate Overwatch with your best ability (e.g. burst fire over single shot) available.
• No matter what your build, you will likely want to get a Body score of at least 6.  Your main character is the only one who cannot be revived by teammates if they get downed (it's an instant mission failure if you are knocked out) and you don't want a lucky 2% long-range shotgun burst fire taking you out and forcing you to restart.
• If you end a combat and the scene isn't immediately about to end, heal up!  You can use health even when not in combat by going to your inventory, selecting the medkit and selecting the person to heal.
• Don't be afraid to use the consumables on the shadowrunners that you hire.  The next mission they will have all new gear anyway.
• Look at your potential runners' gear carefully.  It changes mission to mission.  The street samurai who was packing a shotgun and an AK last mission might have a pistol and an SMG this one.
• Don't underestimate the buffs, especially Haste and Aim.  Aim is especially good when combined with a high damage, low accuracy ability like the rifle's "Full Auto".
• Magical accuracy is often different than hitting with a gun.  A troll hiding behind cover might be a 50% hit with a pistol but a 95% hit with a willpower spell like Mana Bolt.
• You CANNOT heal "Drain" damage from casting a spell before the cooldown is complete.