Reloading Skill

Reloading

Class	Skills
Type	Skill
Skill Group	Combat - Firearms
Max Level	10
Total XP	32,775
Skill Books	Reloading Skill Books
Best Occupation	Veteran (+2)

The Reloading Skill governs how fast a character reloads firearms and magazines. It speeds up every step of putting rounds into a gun. It belongs to the Combat - Firearms group, together with Aiming.

Reload speed matters most when zombies are closing in. A slow reload can leave a shooter helpless at the worst moment. A higher level makes swapping magazines, filling them and loading rounds directly all go faster. The Veteran starts with the most Reloading skill. The Police Officer also starts with a small head start.

Reloading is the quiet partner of Aiming. Aiming decides whether a shot lands, and Reloading decides how soon the next one comes. A shooter with high Aiming and low Reloading still stalls in long fights. Raising both makes firearms a steady weapon rather than a last resort.

How to Level Reloading

Reloading experience comes from three actions. Inserting a magazine into a firearm gives experience. Loading rounds into a magazine gives experience. Loading rounds straight into a gun also gives experience.

This makes Reloading one of the safest combat skills to train. A character can unload and reload magazines or guns in a quiet room. No shots need to be fired, so no zombies are drawn in.

From level 5 upward, experience gains drop to a little over a third of the normal rate. The higher levels take much longer.

Some television and tape programs give Reloading experience. Dead Wrong, Knox Gun Owners Club's Guide to Guns and Basic Gun Handling (Officer Use Only) all help. Gains from watching only count in the first three levels.

The Fast Learner trait raises the experience rate to 130 percent. The Slow Learner trait lowers it to 70 percent. The Reluctant Fighter trait lowers it to 75 percent.

The low levels earn bonus experience on each reloading step. That makes the first few levels quick to reach through simple practice. A single magazine and a few rounds are enough for a long session. Load the rounds, unload them, and repeat.

Practice costs no ammunition, since unloaded rounds go back into the inventory. That sets Reloading apart from Aiming, where every training shot is gone for good. A character with a gun and spare time at the base can raise this skill well before the first gunfight.

Reading the matching skill book before a practice session makes each step count for more. The books matter most past level 5, where the normal rate slows down.

The XP each Reloading level asks for, with the running total from level 0.

Level	XP Needed	Total XP
1	75	75
2	150	225
3	300	525
4	750	1,275
5	1,500	2,775
6	3,000	5,775
7	4,500	10,275
8	6,000	16,275
9	7,500	23,775
10	9,000	32,775

Reloading Level Effects

Each level speeds up removing and inserting magazines. Loading rounds into a magazine and unloading them also gets faster.

Guns that load directly benefit too. Revolvers with a cylinder, breech-loaded shotguns and rifles with an internal magazine all reload faster.

Faster reloads let a shooter keep firing during a fight instead of backing off to reload.

A trained shooter can swap a full magazine in quickly and keep spares loaded ahead of time. Guns that load round by round, such as shotguns and revolvers, refill one round at a time. A higher level shortens each of those steps and makes these guns safer to carry.

Reloading Skill Books

The Reloading Skill Books come in five volumes. Each volume speeds up experience for two levels. Reloading I: "Basic Reloading" covers the first two levels. Reloading V: "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Reloading Techniques" covers the last two. Because experience slows from level 5, the later volumes are especially worth finding.

These books pair well with safe practice. A character can read a volume and then spend a quiet evening loading and unloading magazines.

The five volumes, the levels each one speeds up, the XP bonus while those levels are trained, and how long each takes to read. Reading times are game time at the default two minutes a page. Sitting down and wearing Reading Glasses each cut the time by a tenth, the Fast Reader trait cuts it by about a third, and Slow Reader adds a third.

Volume	Levels	XP Bonus	Pages	Read Time	Spawn ID
Reloading I: "Basic Reloading"	1 to 2	x1.5	220	7 h 20 min	`/additem Base.BookReloading1`
Reloading II: "Dead Man's Click"	3 to 4	x2.5	260	8 h 40 min	`/additem Base.BookReloading2`
Reloading III: "Jungle Style Reloading"	5 to 6	x4	300	10 h	`/additem Base.BookReloading3`
Reloading IV: "Strippers, Speedloaders, and Bolt Action"	7 to 8	x6	340	11 h 20 min	`/additem Base.BookReloading4`
Reloading V: "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Reloading Techniques"	9 to 10	x8	380	12 h 40 min	`/additem Base.BookReloading5`

Set of Reloading Books bundles all five volumes in one item and unpacks into them.

Item	Image	Spawn ID
Set of Reloading Books		`/additem Base.BookReloadingSet`

Reloading Starting Levels

The Veteran begins with two levels of Reloading. The Police Officer begins with one level.

Both occupations also start with Aiming levels, so they pair well with firearms. A head start in Reloading makes the first gunfights less stressful.

Any other character can catch up with practice at home. Because training is safe, a starting level matters less here than in Aiming.

These occupations and traits start a character with levels in Reloading.

Name	Image	Type	Levels	Points
Veteran		Occupation	+2	-8
Police Officer		Occupation	+1	-4

Notes

Train safely by unloading and reloading magazines in a quiet place.
Experience slows from level 5, so read the later books.
Revolvers and shotguns that load directly also train the skill.
The Veteran has the best start in Reloading.
Practice uses no ammunition, since unloaded rounds can be loaded again.
Keep spare magazines loaded before heading out.

All Character Categories

All Skills

Skill	Type	Total XP	Spawn ID
Axe	Skill	32,775	`/additem Base.Axe_Old`
Long Blunt	Skill	32,775	-
Short Blunt	Skill	32,775	-
Long Blade	Skill	32,775	-
Short Blade	Skill	32,775	-
Spear	Skill	32,775	-
Maintenance	Skill	32,775	-

Skill	Image	Type	Total XP
Aiming		Skill	32,775
Reloading		Skill	32,775

Skill	Type	Total XP
Carpentry	Skill	32,775
Carving	Skill	32,775
Cooking	Skill	32,775
Electrical	Skill	32,775
Glassmaking	Skill	32,775
Knapping	Skill	32,775
Masonry	Skill	32,775
Blacksmithing	Skill	32,775
Mechanics	Skill	32,775
Pottery	Skill	32,775
Tailoring	Skill	32,775
Welding	Skill	32,775