KF2: Getting More Starting Dosh with SWAT Armor and 9mm Tricks

The idea of this guide is simple: pick the perk skills that hand you free gear at the start of a match so you spend less Dosh on the first trader visit. The guide itself is a single annotated screenshot of the SWAT skill tree, and its comment thread added the useful extras below.

The SWAT skills that matter

The three circled SWAT skills: Heavy Armor Training, Close Combat Training and Assault Armor.

• Heavy Armor Training (level 5): while you have body armor, you take only Health damage from sonic attacks and Clots cannot grab you. You begin each game with 50% armor.
• Close Combat Training (level 10): your 9mm pistol and knife deal 110% damage, and you begin each game with dual 9mm pistols.
• Assault Armor (level 20): maximum armor increases by 50% and you begin each game with 50% armor, which stacks with the armor from Heavy Armor Training.

Because the armor and pistols come free with the perk, you can save your starting Dosh for a better primary weapon.

Community additions

Readers added two points in the comments, and the author updated the guide to mention the first:

• If you drop one of your starting 9mm pistols and pick it back up, it sells for more Dosh at the trader. The same applies to the Gunslinger's starting dual 1858 revolvers.
• Switching perks is also said to give you free armor again, which readers expected the developers might change later.
• One commenter pointed out that Ammo Vest does not increase the ammo you start with, so choose it for reload and capacity reasons rather than for a bigger first purchase.

Treat the community notes as player reports from 2018 and check them in the current build before relying on them. For more on early-game spending see the Dosh kill rewards table.