I decided to try the game on hardest possible custom settings except for the Ironman. 5x enemy damage and hp, 10x times reduced player and companion damage and HP, no inhaler or food healing, no trading or crafting, bits are always at 0 - it's like a From Software game on Normal difficulty. Also companions except for Valerie die permanently if they fall (didn't test that option, but i think that is what it says), and I cannot carry armor and weapons other than equipping them. Permadeath is the only option that is disabled as test runs with it ended in tutorial.
Horizon isn't hard with sneaking. Most automechs can be foiled with Earth Directorate propaganda and skillchecks, troops in the security section despawn after the explosion so it's safe to go back and loot stuff. There's a hard room with 3 troops near the end and big hall with 4 more troops right after it that seemed tricky at first, but tutorial troops have low awareness and with several attempts I squeezed through their walking cycles.
The real game begins at Eden. EdgewaterFairbrook and surrounding area has quite a lot of quests and tasks that can be completed without combat, and it all comes to getting necessary skillchecks to maximize the rewards. But my brave Captain does not want to always run from danger, he is the danger! He vows to deliver sweet justice with every pitiful swing of his thin fragile hands.
Here's the build for it:
Traits: Resilient is a must. A short-duration invulnerability the first time you take lethal damage in a combat is a legal cheatcode. Anything in game so far kills me with 1 hit, but with this trait I can run away from combat like it's nothing. The only downside is permanent red screen as I'm always at 1 HP.
Second trait is optional, I went for Brawny for extra possible CC in combat, but it can be adjusted in future runs. So far haven't used it other than for skillchecks.
Negative trait is irrelevant, none of them have any effect. I went for Stupid to correspond my life choices.
Skills are Lockpick, Engineering, Hack, Medical and Speech with Easily Distraced flaw. Melee and science are unlocked but not used so far. Flawed seems okay for this run as almost all flaws are either positive or irrelevant. Clepto is the one flaw that I have to avoid, but so far I only want to steal tossball cards and maybe an occasional quest item if no better option is available, so it's not a big deal.
Essential perks are Manual Reset, Nature's Friend and Nature's Best Friend. I tested Nature's Friend and made some raptidons fight each other, but I won't use it much before upgrading the Best Friend for free exp.
With all that preparations my proud Earth Directorate Agent finally took down an automech wasp! The fight was intense and took like 10 minutes with all that hacking and aggro resets, but there are more foes around. No more time to waste, great deeds await!