Related topics: Game Mechanics, Augmentation Gems, Strength
What is burden?
Each item you can carry has a burden value displayed at the top of the Examine Target Panel. These units and your character's Strength are used to ascertain the current carrying capacity of your character.
Luckily we don't have to figure this out ourselves, there is a handy burden meter above your pack slots on the Inventory Panel. This meter will range from 0% to 300%. Watch out though, once you pass 100%, your character will be overburdened, and suffer from a wide variety of impairments.
How much can I carry?
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Formula: Buffed Strength * 150 = 100% Burden Capacity
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Each point of strength adds 150 burden units of carry capacity. To find out how much you can carry, multiply your current buffed strength by 150 to see the maximum burden units you can have before becoming overburdened. (See table for examples)
| Strength | Burden Capacity | 1 Aug | 2 Augs | 3 Augs | 4 Augs | 5 Augs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1,500 | 1,800 | 2,100 | 2,400 | 2,700 | 3,000 |
| 50 | 7,500 | 9,000 | 10,500 | 12,000 | 13,500 | 15,000 |
| 100 | 15,000 | 18,000 | 21,000 | 24,000 | 27,000 | 30,000 |
| 150 | 22,500 | 27,000 | 31,500 | 36,000 | 40,500 | 45,000 |
| 200 | 30,000 | 36,000 | 42,000 | 48,000 | 54,000 | 60,000 |
| 250 | 37,500 | 45,000 | 52,500 | 60,000 | 67,500 | 75,000 |
| 290 | 43,500 | 52,200 | 60,900 | 69,600 | 78,300 | 87,000 |
What happens to me when Overburdened?
Once you pass 100% burden, your character will become overburdened. When this occurs, you will notice the burden meter, and your Character Information Panel icon at the top right of the screen have turned yellow. This will put an impairment on your Run, Jump, Melee Defense, and Missile Defense skills according to how overburdened you are.(See table below)
At 200% your character will no longer be able to jump, and will drain stamina when walking or running. Your burden meter, and character information panel icon will become red.
At 300% you will receive no further detriments, however you will not be able to carry any more items. This is the limit of your burden bearing capacity.
| Burden % | Reduction in skills |
|---|---|
| 100-109 | 10% |
| 110-119 | 20% |
| 120-129 | 30% |
| 130-139 | 40% |
| 140-149 | 50% |
| 150-159 | 60% |
| 160-169 | 70% |
| 170-179 | 80% |
| 180-189 | 90% |
| 190-300 | 100% |
Reducing burden with Augmentations
Obviously by this point you've learned that strength increases the amount you can carry, but you can also acquire 5 Augmentations to increase your capacity by up to 100%!
The Might of the Seventh Mule augmentation will give you an increased 20% capacity each up to 5 times maximum, and will cost 1 billion experience each. (See: Augmentation Gems)
Spending your experience wisely
I bet you're wondering at what point it becomes more costly to pump experience into Strength, than to buy an augmentation. It turns out, that for a character that has 100 innate strength, only 128 points added to strength(228 base) are needed to be put into strength(28 Million experience spent), before 1 billion experience spent in strength gives you less burden capacity than 1 augmentation. For characters with 10 innate strength, 146 points(156 base) in strength will be required.(119 million xp spent)
If you have limited experience to burn, and wish to get the best bang for your buck, it is recommended to acquire all 5 augmentations before increasing your strength past 128-146 clicks.