Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[ciox]

Are any of the unique/"purple" weapons worth it by the time you run into them (unless you rely on metagame knowledge to beeline there, avoiding enemies, early in the game, I guess)?

The unique fist weapons all have some pretty nice things going on. Unique shotguns are good too (except the joke one, but it's obviously meant to be bad). The unique acid pistol is great too, though it does have its drawback. If you can work around that it's vastly superior to normal acid pistols.
The rest aren't that exciting. MP5 is nice considering how early you get it though. Dragunov can be too.

These weapons used to have bugged properties that made them more useful and unique, like no STR requirement on the Dragunov, or no penalties for moving, but that's all gone now.

Well, the Dragunov still seems to be bugged, just it's a bad bug. It doesn't have a scope. Every other rifle gets bonuses from a scope, but it doesn't.

The Dragunov doesn't have a STR requirement on purpose, same with the movement thing.

That is long gone https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dragunov

 

[ItsChon]

Are any of the unique/"purple" weapons worth it by the time you run into them (unless you rely on metagame knowledge to beeline there, avoiding enemies, early in the game, I guess)?

The unique fist weapons all have some pretty nice things going on. Unique shotguns are good too (except the joke one, but it's obviously meant to be bad). The unique acid pistol is great too, though it does have its drawback. If you can work around that it's vastly superior to normal acid pistols.
The rest aren't that exciting. MP5 is nice considering how early you get it though. Dragunov can be too.

These weapons used to have bugged properties that made them more useful and unique, like no STR requirement on the Dragunov, or no penalties for moving, but that's all gone now.

Well, the Dragunov still seems to be bugged, just it's a bad bug. It doesn't have a scope. Every other rifle gets bonuses from a scope, but it doesn't.

The Dragunov doesn't have a STR requirement on purpose, same with the movement thing.

That is long gone https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dragunov

Jesus, I guess it had been a while since I last played.

 

[Fenix]

I rolled 12 of them and only got 1 that was of 114 quality and the rest were below 100.

Rolled set of three once, and the lowest was 114q, higherst 140+q.

what armor is best for shotgunners?

I can't say for best, but if you use metal it should defend you enough so you can slowly walk close and shoot.
Or light leather with stealth, occasional tacvest for when you dontt have space for maneuvering.
I prefer second option, because shotguns have 4 tiles optimal range.

 

[Blaine]

So are persuasion, intimdation and mercantile "required" skills for story reasons and/or do they give enough to be invested in?

They're not required, but Persuade is nice to have, and Mercantile now grants access to special merchandise (think Mick & Ralph's in FNV) that can yield high-quality components sooner/more frequently in addition to adjusting buying and selling prices in your favor. You can also receive a few thousand charons' worth of discounts and deals throughout the game, which is nice, but ultimately a drop in the bucket.

With high-ish Mercantile and (optional, but notable) Power Management, you can flat-out purchase the components for energy pistols, shield emitters, powered goggles, cloaking devices, powered weapons, ammo, etc. and craft end products that sell for significantly more than the components cost. This is helpful because while you'll always have tons of guns, crossbows, tactical vests, grenades, and miscellany to sell as loot, electronic devices and energy weapons are in far shorter supply and are sorely needed for bartering with electronics merchants.

General tip: By far the cheapest way to procure electronic repair kits is to craft or buy basic (not modded; mods don't affect scrap yield) psionic headbands and recycle them into kits. All other electronic devices are much too expensive for this to be worthwhile.

 

[Elephantman]

So riddle me this: do you have to slaughter all the pirates and all the natives or what?
I didnt get free passage with pirates on 70 Persuation but they are non hostile as long you dont enter their territory. But there is no way to get to the Health Center without killing a path through em.

I am getting fucking fed up with idiotic super surprise crab attacks and now I have to kill a million trash npcs? What the fuck? Pillars of Shit quality design. If you thought that hordes of lunatics, ironheads and rathounds are bad...

-edit-
Holy shit, this mean I dumped 40 points into Persuation for fuckign nothing since Im gonna be killing em all anyway. Holy fucking shit the retardation.

 

[ItsChon]

Spoiler

What do I do once I reach the Shadowlith? I tried blasting it with the Torch but nothing happened, and these voidal horrors don't seem to die either, and only take damag from the Torch sometimes.

 

[Black Angel]

So riddle me this: do you have to slaughter all the pirates and all the natives or what?
I didnt get free passage with pirates on 70 Persuation but they are non hostile as long you dont enter their territory. But there is no way to get to the Health Center without killing a path through em.

I am getting fucking fed up with idiotic super surprise crab attacks and now I have to kill a million trash npcs? What the fuck? Pillars of Shit quality design. If you thought that hordes of lunatics, ironheads and rathounds are bad...

-edit-
Holy shit, this mean I dumped 40 points into Persuation for fuckign nothing since Im gonna be killing em all anyway. Holy fucking shit the retardation.

Spoiler

Yeah, you might as well assess your odds of fighting the Captain and his right/left-hand men instead. Once you defeated them, radio the Chief to commence attack on the ports. At least, that's the way I see it if you can't tilt the negotiation in the expedition's favor. Or just join them.

As for the natives, I think after their 4th attack on the camp their numbers would be severely reduced. The way I see it, I think you only need to kill their 'officers' to stop their invasions before their 4th attack. To know who they are, you need to communicate with certain neutral native.

Spoiler

What do I do once I reach the Shadowlith? I tried blasting it with the Torch but nothing happened, and these voidal horrors don't seem to die either, and only take damag from the Torch sometimes.

Spoiler

Keep torching it, going to take a while. The void horrors could definitely be killed by the torch. Pro-tip: take with you and activate the chunkiest energy shield you have when facing the horrors.

 

[Elephantman]

Wow, 'arr pee gee' label revoked. Content at best a 2/5 roffles.
Nice Expansion lel. 10 bucks is too much.
At first you fight hordes of """greater""" siphoners. Then you slog through apocalypse level of locusts. Then you slam trough a metric tonne worth of robots, level after level. MUDCRABS! Fucking Oblivion level MUDCRABS! And since this is not enough autism, you will be killing helpless natives and pirates in droves.
Pillars of Eternity 1 is a better game holy shit.

 

[normie]

Pillars of Eternity 1 is a better game holy shit.

take that back

 

[Elephantman]

Fuck no, there is even bait on the Steam screenshots. I fucking thought the native villages would neutral, let alone the pirates. Now I have to fight 5 fights on every map. Consisting of the same idiotic """ t a c t i c """ of fireballing and forcewalling and raging.

 

[razvedchiki]

git gud scrub.

 

[Elephantman]

This has to be some kind of a mistake. The natives have like elders and wymbonz with 50hp etc.
Styg is a certified moron if this is a plain kililng spree.
They should have made an actual arpeegee instead of 7 fucking gigabytes of jetski skins which no one is gonna be fucking using anyway, lord almighty, talk about idiotic priorities.

 

[Tygrende]

what's wrong with one always hostile faction when there's already 3 neutral factions (and the ferryman), 2 of which are mutually-exclusive?

 

[Elephantman]

Lol talk about spinning!
There are 0 factions.
The pirates have no fucking idea about anything and it makes absolute zero sense to join them.
Aegis is fucking paying you 1k chacha for a single """mission""" and giving you jetskis - they aint a faction.
The natives are retarded.

Fuck this, I am going back to Deadfire - words I though no one would utter.
Maybe in half a year they'll fix this trash barrel.

 

[Elephantman]

Tigranes was actually right for once! The loredumps are idiotic too.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[razvedchiki]

havcent found energy edge either,its prob expansion only.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

so... crabs. especially psyker ones. As a knifer i love the introduction of enemy with extremally high mech+electricity dt. Expose weakness can no longer be bypassed i guess as I found grenades not effective enough... unless plasma are the way to go?

Are they resistant to energy too? Didnt craft energy edge yet but I already found out that 10% penalty is rounded up... Quite pricy on energy cost too.

Plasma Grenade MK3 is really good, it just has a smaller area of effect.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Aegis is fucking paying you 1k chacha for a single """mission""" and giving you jetskis - they aint a faction.

Wtf is wrong with you, if faction doesn't protect your ass with soldiers in power armor- it doesn't mean they not faction anymore.

 

[Naraya]

About to start Underrail. Should I go blind or should I look for "guides and tips for new players" to avoid frustration etc.?

 

[Luckmann]

Alright. So.

The Dude.

What a fucking ride.

 

[Blaine]

About to start Underrail. Should I go blind or should I look for "guides and tips for new players" to avoid frustration etc.?

Here's a quick set of heavily biased tips, courtesy of YT:

• If it looks like a room, dark alleyway, or dark hallway is unoccupied, assume that it isn't. This is the #1 rule of Underrail.
• Save often. Turn off autosave on transition to speed loading times. Make hard saves before making big decisions.
  
• If you find the beginning of the game annoying, keep at it. It still annoys me almost 900 hours of playtime later. (Example: Thrown AoE utilities like grenades have terrible accuracy, since that is solely based on skill and light levels... in a level-based system. All new characters randomly fling grenades off into corners and onto themselves.)
• If you find making a workable build frustrating, ask here, but be careful whom you heed. Some of these guys are good at the game, but absolutely bonkers with their inscrutable and possibly inadvisable build choices.
• Speaking of which, Evasion and Dodge suck ass, ESPECIALLY for new players, who could really use them the most. Don't use these skills for any reason. This comment will earn me some downvotes, and those people can go right ahead and charm my trouser snake. (That said, they're absurdly powerful for NPCs.)
  
• Yes, the entire settlement will go instantly hostile if you accidentally click a forbidden desk (or maybe only if you loot it, but to be safe, don't touch), and will stay that way forever. No, there is no way to assassinate that inconvenient NPC without turning the settlement hostile, even if you're invisible and completely isolated... except when a quest or the plot indicates that you can, that is. FEEL THE OLD SKOOL, and read this: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Zone_Control
• If you use zone transitions tactically (to run away and heal, for example), do so very carefully. Your foes will be ready and probably also healed when you return, and will get to go first. It used to be easier to zone cheese, and this made Styg very grumpy, so now you get fucked.
• Crafting skills are bonkers OP, but make sure not to level them up too high, especially Biology and Chemistry. After certain plateaus, and with certain boosts you'll gain access to, you won't need them any higher.
• ALWAYS PUMP COMBAT SKILLS TO THE MAX EVERY SINGLE LEVEL. NO EXCEPTIONS (except possibly Throwing, if you only throw AoE utilities).
• You are going to die a lot, enjoy.
• Don't use the in-game automap. Use your memory to get around instead; it's much more satisfying, and also challenging and exciting when you take a wrong turn into dangerous territory.

 

[Tygrende]

Speaking of which, Evasion and Dodge suck ass, ESPECIALLY for new players, who could really use them the most. Don't use these skills for any reason.

Except for feat requirements. Escape Artist, Uncanny Dodge, Fancy Footwork, all great feats.

 

[Luckmann]

• Don't use the in-game automap. Use your memory to get around instead; it's much more satisfying, and also challenging and exciting when you take a wrong turn into dangerous territory.

As someone that can get lost in a fucking supermarket, I cannot impart upon you just how incredibly frustrating the game would be for me without even the very basic functionality of the automap. Jesus Christ. I even add map-notes to note unexplored directions so I don't forget about them later, and mark areas "unexplored" if I set foot in there but don't explore further.