There are a huge variety of skills your characters can take in Wasteland 3 and it can be hard to know what to prioritize. In addition to needing to keep each character's combat skill of choice competitive, you'll want members of your squad proficient in a variety of skills that will let you improve your gear, explore more of the world, and keep your crew alive.
Perhaps your oddest option is toaster repair, a skill that originated in the original Wasteland. While it might not sound like something useful when trying to survive post-apocalyptic Colorado, you definitely shouldn't ignore it.
What does toaster repair do in Wasteland 3?
Taking the toaster repair skill lets you repair toasters you find throughout the game. It turns out the reason that most of these devices are broken is that people have stuffed useful items in them.
You can basically consider toaster repair to be a very specific version of lockpicking. While lockpicking lets you crack safes and open doors of varying difficulties, putting skill points in toaster repair lets you fix toasters of increasingly high difficulty.
The first toaster you'll encounter is in the kitchen at Ranger HQ and it will reward you with a Toaster Repairman's Badge, a unique utility item that ups the character who equips its toaster repair skill by 1. Make sure to give someone the skill early so they can fix it and use that item to make future repairs easier. Toasters are also stuffed with a wide variety of loot including cash, weapons, consumables, and modding items.
Toasters also contain some items you won't find anywhere else. Tarjan Tokens can be spent at the Cabinet of Curiosities in The Bizzare to give a character either a buff or a permanent perk. These are pretty powerful including a permanent +10% boost to evasion or a 25% experience bonus for three hours.
You'll also collect a set of parts that can be used to construct a Golden Toaster. Once you assemble it, you'll be able to take it and a Gold Plated Hammer acquired through maxing out your lockpicking to the Toaster Repair Academy. There you'll receive the unique Verchitin armor set, the best set in the game, and Courageos, a fire-breathing toaster animal companion that's a reference to the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster.
Toaster repair perks in Wasteland 3
Along with maxing out your toaster repair skill to get the unique loot, you should also consider picking up some toaster repair perks. At rank 3, you can become a toaster expert and earn extra loot whenever you fix a toaster. At rank 5, you'll be able to pick up Breakfast Bandit, which means the toasters will provide you with toast, a powerful consumable that restores all of your character's constitution and gives them an extra action point for the next 90 turns. It requires two AP to use in combat and also sells for $40.
Later up the tree, you can also pick up some combat skills. At rank 7 your fire damage bonus increases by 25%, so you should make sure your toaster repair character also invests in heavy weapons so that they can use flamethrowers. Once you've maxed out the skill you can pick up Toasty, which will make your next attack after killing an enemy inflict the Burning debuff.
Don't underestimate toaster repair! It's a surprisingly valuable skill for pyromaniacs, collectors, optimizers, and players looking to make some fast cash.
Into the wastes
Assemble a team of Desert Rangers, build a base, and work to tame the post-apocalyptic Colorado wilderness in this massive RPG. Make your choices carefully as they'll have significant impacts on the world and story.
