Was playing around with a combat build today and wanted to really focus on making Bud useful asap and see how long it takes. Trained stamina twice a day with Rebecca starting on day 2 until I hit 60 stamina and then trained Bud every day after that for awhile (after maxing out his attention whore trait). Managed to get him to 70 ranged before the end of the first month while also completing the random bounty and 2 arena fights every day. The only thing else I was doing on those days was keeping the town clear of enemies and occasionally restocking stims and ammo. I didn't bother bringing Juno or Rebecca with me on any of the fights. The goal for the first month was to get my mercs as buffed up as possible, save enough money to buy Aria on day 25, and buy duraplate for my main and all of my mercs as soon as possible.
I picked up Juno to be my gardener and Rebecca to train stamina with but they were otherwise ignored for the first month. I bought duraplate for my main and Bud immediately after unlocking Crystal Hills and got another suit for Dexter soon after. Doyle was stuck with heavy leather until about the end of the month. The only house upgrades I bothered to get were maxed out garden, maxed out bedroom, and level 1 upgrade for living room/bathroom/kitchen/gazebo. Those house upgrades were enough to keep Rebecca and Juno from losing happiness/affection while I ignored them.
The difference was really night and day with Bud. At 70 ranged with his attention whore trait maxed out he hits pretty consistently with a rifle and can even use a plasma gun somewhat effectively in a pinch on the tier 5 bounties. He misses often enough with a plasma at that point that I don't think I'd want to switch him permanently until he's at more like 80 ranged.
On day 25 I stopped training Bud and started training stamina again with Aria. I also bought a stealth suit and gave it to Aria so I could take her fighting with me to build her respect up to 20. The plan is to drop her into the arena when I get my stamina to 80. I don't think I'll need to train Bud's ranged anymore at this point. He has critted his way to 76 now and it's only day 27. I'm not sure when the best time to switch him from a rifle to something stronger is but he definitely already does more damage on average with a plasma gun than a rifle despite the misses.
I seemed to average about 1 ranged skill per day training Bud 3x a day if I don't save scum it. Sometimes I get 2, sometimes 0, usually 1. I usually ended the day getting enough massages to put me at full stamina in the morning when I woke up so I only had to skip a training session if the bounty was far away or his attention whore trait needed topping off. I was doing the daily bounty first thing in the morning and then immediately doing 3 training sessions with Bud most days. There's not time to do all 4 training sessions after the bounty, and there's no time to complete the bounty if you do all 4.
Sounds like a solid start! I'd say you're using Bud right at this stage, mostly a rifle but occasionally let him fire that plasma gun when you need the possibility of a big hit. The Highwaymen of Darkmere and those dinosaur things (Cherooks?) you encounter on Aria's quest. Soon I'd let him go plasma full time, except where his big hits might inhibit the training of others.
I ran into my first tier 6 bounty! Grimdark fixed a bug and it sounds like I'll be seeing a lot more of them too, something like 45% when your bounty tally gets high enough. It was five opponents, two with Plasma guns and Duraplate, two with autorifles and at least combat armor and one idiot with a handgun in the long gun zone. I went home to get my 'A-Team,' I've been using bounties and the board clearing to train my new mercs Doyle and Felix and Rachael for respect, but I kinda figured this wasn't going to be a job for second-stringers. I saw a screenshot on the Discord where one of them was listed as a 'Black Gunner' and I sure as hell remember those guys from the trio guarding the Mindmancer.
Bud was a conundrum, he's up to 95 ranged and had the +5 bonus so I figured he was an auto-hit and of course those plasma bolts were
free so I took him along, but broke Ayden out of mothballs and put the Space Marine's 140 ranged combat to use as well as Rebecca's 120 with the Warrioress and bitch bonuses. Bud's 75 health showed, he took the first shot by the bounty and lost 2/3rds of his health straight away, but thankfully did not take another shot. I do think in the long run I might decide Doyle belongs on the 'A-Team' or yank Olivia out of school (Warrioress auto-hit) as Bud has already gone down a few times and I don't want to see him get knocked up too badly. He's my Budman, right?