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The Alterschallenges you to crew its mobile base with different versions of the same man, Jan Dolski. Each of these titular Alters has made different choices in their life and gained new skills and perspectives as a result. They all have something to offer, but you may find that some are more useful overall than others.
With so many different Jans to choose from, you might find early on that it’s tough to decide which ones are the best additions to your team. We’ve ranked them all so that you’re able to build the ideal crew.
Tier Criteria
To give you a better idea of how we’ve ranked each of the Alters, here’s how each tier is defined for the purposes of this list:
D-Tier
Shrink
The Shrink fills the same purpose as the Guard,watching over characters in the Contemplation Roomto help speed up their mood increase. However,you must create the Doctor firstif you want to recruit him, and the two fall on different sides of the big question in Act 2. That means that recruiting the Shrink guarantees that at least one extra Alter will disagree vehemently with your decision.
Tabula Rasa
Tabula Rasa is a fun Easter egg, but hedoesn’t actually do anything. He can’t be assigned to any jobs, so all he does is wander around the base taking up a bed and eating your food.
Technically, Tabula Rasa doesn’t take up an Alter slot, so at least you’re able to still work with a full crew even if he joins you.
C-Tier
Doctor
The Doctordramatically increases the healing rateof anyone recovering in the Infirmary, as long as he’s assigned to take care of them. Injuries are rare as long as you’re careful, but they can still happen even if you do everything right, and having the Doctor around lets you patch up other Alters in no time.
The Doctor alsoworks more efficiently in the Kitchen, letting him whip up meals quickly at the start of each day before moving on to other tasks.
Guard
The Guard fulfills the same function as the Shrink, butwithout risking any divisions among the team.He’s the only Alter apart from the Scientist whoremains loyal no matter what decision you make in Act 2,making him a good pick for rounding out your team once all your essential functions are filled.
The Guard’s personal storyline does take him out of action for a few days and add a drain on your food supply, otherwise his loyalty would probably count for more.
B-Tier
Miner
The Miner’s skill is exceptionally useful,extracting resources from Outposts fifty percent faster than other characters.Under normal circumstances, he’d be A- or maybe even S-Tier, but his personal storyline makes him hard to deploy effectively early on.
The Miner provides afascinating, heartbreaking look at self-worth, addiction, and living with a disability, but until you complete his storyline he has to spend a lot of time in the Infirmary or Contemplation Room. Once he’s come to terms with himself, he’s unstoppable, but getting over that first hurdle can be difficult, especially on your first playthrough.
Refiner
The Refinerprocesses materials in the Refinery faster, and can be especially useful in the late game when you have easier access to ALX and Enriched Metals. However, Refinery tasks are among the shortest in the game, sounless you have a dozen or so queued up at oncethe Refiner doesn’t get much chance to show his value.
A-Tier
Scientist
You can’t complete the game without the Scientist. That’s not hyperbole; you literally need to research new technologies to progress through each Act, andhe’s the only character who can do so.
Unless you’ve manage to complete everything on the current tech tree,the Scientist should be in the Research Lab every hour of every day.His upgrades are essential, and he proves to be one of the game’s most critical characters. The only real disadvantage to him is that when you do need to pull him from the Lab to help out elsewhere, it can impact your overall efficiency sincenobody can cover his tasks.
Technician
The Technician isalways the first Alter you create, and while he can be hard to get along with hisfaster base repairswill save your campaign more than once. He can quickly complete Base Maintenance each day before moving onto other tasks, buthe really shines during Magnetic Storms.
Even with a Radiation Filter in place,several rooms in the base will take damage at once during storms,requiring repairs. If too many rooms are damaged, the base will be destroyed. The Technicianfixes these malfunctions fifty percent faster, averting disaster.
Be sure the Technician always has plenty of Repair Kits to use, and give the Maintenance Bay a second workstation so another Alter can help out. You can repair a third room manually, as well.
S-Tier
Botanist
Growing crops in the Greenhouse isone of the most time-intensive tasks in the game, but the Botanist makes it look easy. By combining hisdoubled cultivation speedwith the Efficient Food technology, you’re able to produce a pack of 10 Raw Food with roughly six hours of work - more than a full crew can consume in a day.
Cooked Meals areworlds better than Mush in every regard, and the Botanist lets you move the crew’s diet entirely to the good stuff. There isn’t any other character who lets you make that positive of a change so reliably.
Worker
The longer the game goes on, the faster you’ll find yourself burning through resources. Suit Batteries, Pylon Components, Repair Kits, and more will allconstantly need to be replaced in the Workshop, and having the Worker on board means you’ll never suffer shortages as long as he has raw materials available.
Having the Worker on item production means you can comfortablystay outside the baseand just wait for new Drill Cartridges or Anomaly Shields to be ready - it actually ends up being more efficient than going all the way back to the base to make them yourself!
