Most capable solo class?

I'm interested in the possibility of trying to take as minimal team as possible through the game to maximise the funds available to upgrade my runner.

What archetype mix is considered the most solid for the various tasks required in a run?

I do understand that in some missions you will have to take a story character along, or a token decker.

Would a solo strategy revolve around a mage with healing? A rigger with a bots for damage and healing? Or would it require a mix of more than one archetype, such as a Rigger Shaman.

Solution 1:

I have to say that there are certain parts of the game where solo is very infeasible (namely, the portions that require you to have a decker on hand). However, I managed to get by most of the game with a smallish party of 2/3 consisting of me as a street samurai with focus on rifles, a support adept/shaman runner (there's a dwarf support you can hire that's perfect for that), and a decker as needed for all the hacking duties. The support's only purpose is to provide aim/armor/haste and some incidental healing as needed.

The problem with the heal spell is that it only heals the last damage dealt to you, if its from multiple sources, you won't be able to heal back up to max. I've found it much easier to focus on dodging and quickness to avoid being hit in the first place than to rely on healing back up. This also synergizes well with ranged weapons. Also, medkits are cheap enough to use as a emergency heal when needed.

I'm not too big of a fan of riggers since the bots simply can't do as much DPS as you can with an assault rifle on full auto. There isn't much in the game you can't take out with a single burst of full auto with some of the late game assault rifles. Though I'd imagine its possible to combine rifles with rigging skills to let your bot take most of the damage, but then you'd have to invest in a lot of drone repair kits since the bot can't dodge nearly as well as you can.

Also, there are some late game hacks where you have to defend an area while your decker works their way through the matrix. Since there are multiple enemies heading your way and you have to keep your decker alive, having additional runners will make that part a lot easier. I doubt this part is soloable even if your main is a decker as they'll just get beat up while they're hacking (your drone will become deactivated while hacking so you can't use that to defend either).

So TLDR, I'd stick with a minimum party of 2, you as the primary DPS with a full auto rifle and a support dwarf for buffs, and a decker as needed. This is how I beat the game, money was no issue at all as long as you grab all the pay data and sell it.