Soldier

The quintessential warrior, solders form the backbone of most FDF forces. Exceptional at long range, their hexshell rifles are devastating, even to heavily armoured targets.

Ferocity
Good for use when you have a backline soldier unlikely to be in range of foes' attacks. It gives a serious offensive bonus, but unlike other on init talents, it has a defensive penalty and actually hurts your accuracy. Be careful you have a lot of accuracy to start with before choosing this talent as it will effectively compete with other on init talents.

Burst Fire
Good for finishing off two weakened foes at the end of a combat round. This talent competes with Full Auto in terms of utility but is available much sooner.

Discipline
This is a powerful defensive buff for very little initiative. It is very helpful to use for soldiers using snubbers in positions 1 or 2 but still has some value for other soldiers as well.

Suppressing Fire
A common go-to early talent. Not only is it slightly more accurate than a basic attack, but the debuff on your foe can save you from return fire. Even if it misses, it still pushes a foe back a position. This can be helpful to push a swordsman out of position 2 and into position 3, forcing him or her to waste a lot of time repositioning. The only limitation of this talent is that it cannot hit the third position, unlike the basic attack with a rifle.

Roaring Barrels
This is the standard attack talent for snubbers. The bonus damage and penetration make it very deadly. Removing all buffs can change the tide of a battle as well.

Backline Leader
A powerful group buff, it can only be used in the 4th position. It is useful to use with a Soldier with at least 11 initiative who can follow up with a Full Auto and have an improved chance to avoid the self-inflicted debuff from that talent.

Covering Fire
This talent is particularly helpful when foes have been pushing your squad out of position. You can attack while retreating to your usual attack range. The pinning and stun are just a nice bonus at that point!

Ferocious Crossfire
One of the easiest to get, and most powerful, boarding talents available. While it doesn't deal a ton of damage to the opposing crew, it can often finish off multiple weakened foes or injure them to the point where a followup lance from your vessel will finish them. It is very satisfying to score four kills with this one talent!

Blowback
Blowback is a hard counter to swordsmen in position 2 where it will knock them out of position, greatly weaken their defenses, and even give them some stun. The trouble is, this requires your soldier to be in position 1 which isn't always easy to maintain, and generally means you are using a snubber.

Full Auto
This talent can change the course of combat. Bonus damage, piercing, critical in serious amounts AND hitting two targets. The downside is the massive AP cost and the harsh debuff you'll incur. If a fight is ended with its use though, the debuff doesn't matter. Also, this talent pairs well with someone who has the calm trait granting +10% debuff resist, and has used Backline Leader which grants another +25% resistance. You can resist the debuff as though it were applied by an enemy if you're fortunate. This talent competes for use with the more conservative _Burst Fire_ talent. Consider Retraining Talents to only have one of the two learned if you've chosen them both.

Concussion Grenade
These grenades are quite powerful at shutting down enemy teams composed of non-Xeno foes. Despite its description, it does deal a very small amount of damage in addition to the morale loss, stun, and initiative penalty. The grenade's initiative cost makes it very costly to miss with. Be sure to review the Skills page to see what contributes to grenade accuracy.

Frontline Brave
This is another group buff, but requires you to be in positions 1 or 2. It costs more AP than Backline Leader but is still a powerful early-combat move as long as you have at least 13 initiative so you can take a second action in the round.

Fearsome Charge
This is the only attack talent that is extremely useful for both machine guns as well as snubbers. Snubbers can use it to get back into position while gaining a mighty buff, while position 4 soldiers can use it to gain a buff before unleashing Full Auto as their following action.