abstract
| - Shadowrun (Sega)/Mr. Johnsons can help you. Getting the right equipment can help you. Owning the best cyberware and the finest deck can help you. But no single factor will influence your performance in ALL areas as much as Skills and Attributes. Unlike most RPGs where you gain levels by collecting experience points from slain enemies, in Shadowrun you accumulate Karma points based on accomplishing Shadowruns. Killing enemies (and hacking the Matrix) will also earn your character Karma, but to a far lesser extent. When you've accumulated some Karma, the next step is to use it to upgrade your Skills and Attributes. When you check into any hotel, you'll be given the option to go to the Karma Screen to spend your Karma on boosting the Skills and Attributes of your choice. Each stat must be boosted one point at a time (with the exception of the weapons Skills -- see Part 3) and each successive upgrade to a stat will cost more and more Karma. There are a total of eight Attributes and twelve Skills, although they don't all operate in the same manner. The quirks of each category will be explained in Parts 2 and 3 below. Note that you can check your stats, as well as your current Karma, at any time by pausing and choosing "Attributes/Skills" from the main pause screen. So, those are the basics. Part 1 of this section will talk about Karma and how to go about getting it. Part 2 is a list of each Attribute, including what parts of the game it affects and my personal rating of how useful it is and therefore how much priority you should give to upgrading it.
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