The West was won long ago, but the common pistol still has a certain appeal to those that live on the fringes. While rookies may practise their draw, veterans know the true value of being able to reload in a hurry.

In an age of powerful ranged weaponry, getting up close and personal seems like a foolish proposition, but a skilled blade-master can cut their way through dozens of foes without wasting so much as a single round.

The mainstay of armed conflict since the flintlock, rifles have the focus and fire rate to deal damage at greater ranges. The mainstay of many a professional soldier’s armoury, rifle skills cover everything from weapon maintenance to sights adjustment.

Blocking, deflecting and dodging, sacrificing armour rather than a limb and knowing how to roll with a blow. There are many facets to defensive skills, but all of them have the same goal: staying alive.

For experienced miners, there is an art to wielding a pickaxe. The way the axe is swung, where the tip connects, and the amount of force used, all can affect the yield and its quality. The same skills can also be applied to hostile targets in a pinch.

Yes, it is shiny, but does it still work? Based on technical knowledge and intuition in equal measures, sifting through a pile of scrap can be an art. An Experienced salvager quickly knows what materials can be reclaimed and which components might still function with a bit of oiling.

There are various materials that emit useful gases when heated. Knowing where to find them and just how much to heat them to extract the maximum amount of gas is something only experienced gas miners know.

Heating a metal ore too slowly will just result in a hot rock, heating it too quickly and you’ll find yourself with a broken visor faster than you can say “thermal shock”. Who says geoscience is dull?

Gore organisms mutate and multiply rapidly, and keeping up with the various types of growths and boils is useful in locating the best place to insert a syringe. Experience also helps the prospective biosampler keep their lunch down, which is always a plus.

Gone are the days where simply strapping a metal plate to something passed as armour. Modern armour needs to protect against thermal and kinetic damage as well as dangerous atmospheres and vacuum.

It requires as much precision and skill to craft a good weapon as it does to wield it. Careful alignment, seamless joining and secure containment all help to ensure that the end product is more dangerous to the target than to the user.

From the careful reduction of metal ores into usable materials to the synthesis of complex organic molecules, this science represents an understanding of the basic building blocks of, well, practically everything.

The understanding of the materials, forces and pressures that make the difference between a system that works and the system that doesn’t. Engineers craft components and bring them together to form something greater than the sum of all parts.

Agility isn’t easy in a spacesuit, but good technique will take you far. The trick is to land on your feet, not your face.

Those about to venture out into the unknown would do well to understand the value of speed and endurance. A sudden ammo shortage is not the best time to regret skipping gym in school.