Train what. That's what i'm asking. What stat alters how much damage they take?
Improving the strength, stamina, and dexterity of your followers will increase their max health.
... is that true? That doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere in game or in the wiki.
All three of those stats, really?
Normally I neglect strength and dex completely, since my dex is inevitably crippled by heavy armour and strength doesn't do anything when you're using guns.
I guess i'll try working on those next.
Two training sessions per day is shit though.
Armor first of all, sounds like you already have that covered but you want duraplate on everyone at a minimum. If you're playing the alpha you may want to pick up WEGA armor. It's not that much more expensive and it's a lot tougher for NPCs. It's kind of a pain to repair for MC though so personally I just stick to duraplate on MC.
Next up, weapons. For melee you want either greatswords or great axes depending on strength. For Ranged you want plasma. You can start getting plasma drops for free when you finish your 15th bounty. Greatswords you can rarely get for free from the warlord who sometimes spawns in Marston Avenue but you'll probably just have to buy some. Great Axes you can only buy as far as I know, never seen one drop anywhere.
Next you have Ranged skill for ranged attacks and Strength for melee attacks. Damage scales based on those 2 stats so you want those trained up to decent levels (120+).
Lastly you might want to think about getting some health implants. MC can get 3 of them (3rd one is on the mastersphere and expensive). NPCs can get 2 each.
Those fights are not all that tough but they're definitely not something I would recommend for an early game combat team unless you pick up all the top tier mercs immediately. I usually wait til at least the 2nd or 3rd month before I go do that so I've had some time to gear up and train my mercs up a bit.
I've been training up Aiko, Enya and Rebecca as my main combat squad. After months and months, they both have ranged combat stats in the 100+ range.
Are plasma guns better than coilguns? They seem about equal, in my experience.
Also, what's up with H.U.L.C armour? I keep finding pieces but I never worked out what to do with them, in the end I just bought two full sets from the rich district at great expense, but the person wearing the second set still keeps getting wiped out regardless.
Also, health implants, I'll have to remember to check if I gave them all that.