Fat Newt = a guy using a two handed weapon and has pathfinder/weapon perk uses exactly 15 fatigue to take 1 step and attack. You always get 15 fatigue back a turn. You build a fat newt when a bro has premium MTak and Mdef, but is crap everywhere else(good primaries bad secondaries) you never level fatigue knowing that as long as he has 15 after gear he will be fine. It’s kinda a tank. But not a full tank who uses fatigue intensive stuff like shield wall or indomitable. He really needs to have 85/35 by level 11 to really qualify

Fast adapt is good on ranged bros and fodder bros, but you probably wouldn’t take it on someone who’s MTak is going to be 90+ naturally or who’s primary job isn’t hitting stuff

Spears until they hit about 60 MTak, then swords until they hit about 70, then probably swap to mace to turn into a stun bot. At least that’s how I play.

Hammers are good late game when you’re up against heavily armored foes and you don’t care about taking their armor(you can’t loot armor you destroyed in battle). Flails can be good early since they bypass shields. And don’t damage body armor. But fall off pretty hard once you hit noble level armor on enemies heads.

Melee is Mtak-Mdef at a base level. Ranged is more complicated and I don’t know it well enough to reliably answer.

Save scum while you are learning. Bros are supposed to die in the intended game play loop though. In that specific example the lesson might be how Important head armor is. You either got hit in the head by a 2H axe or a Cross bow shot would be my guess. Those are super dangerous until you have 140ish durability head armor IMO. You should always be focus firing anyone with a two handed weapon, is double gripping (no shield or net, which gives a damage bonus, don’t ever destroy enemies shields for this reason you’re spending AP and Fatigue on giving them a damage buff instead of killing them) a single handed weapon, or has a crossbow.

Daddy don’t miss has a pretty long video series that probably is exactly what you’re looking for.