Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Sheepherder]

You look like someone who needs to use the rightmost inventory sorting mode to hide the keycards and other quest items :D

Imagine not constantly looking at the ever growing collection of quest items that symbolise your progress. There's something nostalgic about reading through early game key cards while in late game.

"Ah yes, an Old Junkyard key No. 2 of however many! Such fond memories!", these were the last delirious thoughts running through the desperate players head as he slammed his head against the keyboard, trudging through the Labyrinth.

 

[Jasede]

Me: "I am going to play Oddity to avoid degenerate XP farming from picking every lock and disarming every trap and killing every animal."
Also me: "Ah, to get the oddity from Depot A you have to spawn a 10% chance random encounter two-headed mutant. Also, oh, I missed a barrel in Junkyard, better dig through every dumpster again."

 

[Ol' Willy]

Me: "I am going to play Oddity to avoid degenerate XP farming from picking every lock and disarming every trap and killing every animal."

The beauty of Classic XP is that you don't have to farm it. It comes easily and you hit level cap without farm or grind.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Anybody else notice the Pirate theme music sounds a lot like Nick Cave's 'Brother, My Cup is Empty'? I both love it (as a yuge Cave fan) and hate it (because now I can't un-hear it and stop singing it in my head).

 

[Jasede]

So, I read that Free Drones are the only ones who sell Nail Bombs, and I am a Throwing build. So that seemed useful.
Then I met the fucking Free Drones - they stole a train. Those assholes talked like communists so I blew them up. I don't need commie Nail Bombs. I joined the Protectorate and everyone has been treating me with respect there; real bros. I hope they hate commies as much as me.

About to hit level 20! What's a good level to start Expedition on Dominating+Oddity?

 

[jackofshadows]

About to hit level 20! What's a good level to start Expedition on Dominating+Oddity?

You can go right now but I'd say the later the better, honestly. Regardless of yours gimmick ass build

 

[Jasede]

I was looking through the Underrail Builds thread in this very same forum and someone said their easiest Dominating run was with a Throwing build. However, they did also increase Temporal Manipulation to have that spell there as a DPS option, plus Tranquility. I don't have that. However, I don't need it! I have Plasma Grenades.

Honestly, I am not expecting many problems from this point onwards. My Frags do hilarious damage, I have the AI Scrambler + Plasmas to deal with armor/robots and my movement speed is blinding. I haven't crafted anything except grenades yet, but I have so many spare skillpoints that I can just max tailoring later on. It's a fun way to play!

I am not going to lie though, until level 16 or so it was very frustrating. Your only way to deal with Depot A was tons of traps + grenades, and that trend continued for most of the game. Many of the fights I simply avoided with stealth.

I also feel that if I had been playing Classic instead of Oddity I'd be level 25 now and quite a bit stronger.

The key thing here is to not think of the Throwing Knives as DPS, but as a 'finish off enemies on low HP' execution tool, which is obviously not as amazing as a real weapon skill, but often very useful. With Split Spare, Pinning and Fatal Throw and Ripper, they make for a reliable finisher against 'soft' targets. This compliments grenades in several ways: it buys you AP, it saves you a 'finish them off' grenade, and it can provide some minor crowd control for when quick tinkering and the nets are on cooldown.

The biggest drawback of this build is the extreme reliance on Hexogen. I spend a lot of time wandering around shopping for more Hexogen. That really is the only bottleneck. The Gauntlet, of course, was tough because I am reliant on grenades and you only get a few, but you can stealth past most monsters.

 

[Tigranes]

I am not going to lie though, until level 16 or so it was very frustrating. Your only way to deal with Depot A was tons of traps + grenades, and that trend continued for most of the game. Many of the fights I simply avoided with stealth.

...

The biggest drawback of this build is the extreme reliance on Hexogen. I spend a lot of time wandering around shopping for more Hexogen. That really is the only bottleneck. The Gauntlet, of course, was tough because I am reliant on grenades and you only get a few, but you can stealth past most monsters.

This is what gets me about some of the builds. No criticism, I'm happy you're enjoying it and I wish I could, but I just can't into builds that take until level 15+ to really unlock. At that point you're spending hours and hours and also having a compromised experience on the vast chunk of the game in order to enjoy some good times at the very end, no?

After a dozen plays, the one I really want to do is a Balor build, but even with the latest additions you still need to be at endgame levels to actually lift that hammah

 

[Jasede]

I just came from Kotc2 as my last game, so without sarcasm, having to cheese to level 16 wasn't a big deal. Here you reload a fight once or twice. There it was 20+ times.

 

[Jrpgfan]

I just came from Kotc2 as my last game

I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[Jasede]

Moving is hard...

 

[jackofshadows]

Moving is hard...

I'm suprised to see useless furniture combined with your maniacal lootwhoreness. But I feel you; I've lost screenshot but in F:NV, unlike here, you can actually walk with any overweight so I walked once from the Divide to my Lucky 38 apartment with like 4k/~200 :D

 

[Jasede]

What else am I gonna spend the coins on? Besides, looks nice.

Oh, just DOMINATED the Carnifex. Guess he can't dodge so well when he's stuck in an Acid Blob Trap Mark III. Poor fellow went down like a sack of potatoes.

 

[Ol' Willy]

I buckled and downloaded cheat engine - for trader refresh. I was kinda tired of stashing stuff in boxes just to never touch it again.

 

[Duralux for Durabux]

I buckled and downloaded cheat engine - for trader refresh. I was kinda tired of stashing stuff in boxes just to never touch it again.

Cheat engine is a worm.

 

[Jasede]

Here's the build I've been playing:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQC...8AABZKzkvNhYwPsKIUVxeJ1gmTsKzQWHipbwK4qi6Bd-_

If I had to play it all over again I would have taken Uncanny Dodge earlier (still don't have it, just hit level 24.) I also put a few too many points into Chemistry because I wanted Frag V's earlier.
Other than that, I have done pretty much all the quests I can think of and scoured the land with a fine-toothed comb, on Oddity. I can certainly hit level 25 I believe before I begin Expedition.
Currently, only two quests are left in my journal, both taking place in the Institute West wing.

Throwing knives continue to be bad but sort of fun. If I had to replay the game I would probably take the Temporal Acceleration feat so I can throw even more knives. I might still take it at level 30 instead of Sure Step anyway, Sure Step is just for quality of life (saves me from carrying Steel Boots.)

 

[ghostdog]

What difficulty Jasede ?

 

[Jasede]

Dominating + Oddity.

 

[Ol' Willy]

It cool to have several guys playing the game at the same time and discussing their builds. It feels like I'm at some gaming forum or something.

I'll post my Energy build later. I'm just at level 12 and this is with Classic. Don't have much time on my hands. Anyway, here's some of my observations from my first run on Dominating:

- I found out that you can cheese out rathounds in the first quest, abusing the fence. They just stand still and wait to die, and if you are super cheap you can skip turns to use only Aimed Shot. Took me three runs to figure this out.

- Tried the recommended bear traps + molotovs combination at Newton Warehouse. Damn, man, it's effective as fuck. Took me one try and zero HP loss to finish the bugs off.
- GMS compound wasn't too hard. Killed rats, ghosted robots, killed raiders, left raider base for later.
- Fabled Depot A. Went in from the Black Eeels side, cleared the bunker, cleared the adjacent areas. This allowed me to completely bypass the central, most assraping, area, but why should I? Am I a coward? My tactic was to enter the area from different sides (East and South) and damage muties without them retaliating. Tedious, but effective.
- Silent Isle is a fucking hell. Bugs and rathounds are not a problem, but four Goliaths? I was lucky and thinned the herd, allowing me to ghost my way to the lost cargo.
- Went to my favourite Underpassages. It's still to early to assault the main Lurker base, but I had some fun in neighboring areas. Big kek at the room with six Lurkers, with narrow one-tiled corridor being the only way inside. Have fun standing in the line and watching me to toss those grenades at you, kids.
- Killed all animals at the Arena, but the first human opponent has fucking 2200 HP. Noice, gotta see you after 10 levels.
- So yeah, I wander around and kill random people a lot, but second time it's much easier, even on Dominating, even as a conlet. Traps and grenades rule.

As for progression, with Energy Pistols as my weapon of choice most of the combat feats are going straight past me. The biggest setback is that there is no refreshing feat like Commando or Shooting Spree for energy guns. Laser pistol plainly sucks, I can't kill anyone in one turn. Plasma pistol is better, allowing me to score 400-550 HP of damage on criticals this early, but with 40AP per shot it's a gamble. So, grenades are indispensable, no questions. As with my previous build, I don't plan it thoroughly - I had a rough sketch at the start and modify it according to my fancy. And once again: no PSI. I buckled with trader refresh, but I won't buckle with PSI.

Also, anyone interested in my previous Brr build? Though it was only on Hard, it was a curious thing: no PSI, zero MP, zero stealth, no traps.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Also, anyone interested in my previous Brr build?

Yes, please. I need a point of comparison for my own Full Metal Jacket build.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Yes, please. I need a point of comparison for my own Full Metal Jacket build.

 

[Jasede]

All quests I could find completed and secured a meeting with the Tchort guy in the institute; level 25 reached.
Gonna start the 'expedition' now.

Still haven't crafted any wearable item. I guess I could make an Energy Shield...
You know, I have never, ever used my shield. Ever.

Guess you don't really need energy shields or crafted gear on Dominating, at least not until level 25. Maybe in the final dungeon or Expedition.

 

[Ol' Willy]

 

[Sheepherder]

Yes, please. I need a point of comparison for my own Full Metal Jacket build.

If you do play a burst weapon build, I recommend taking Opportunist together with Suppressive Fire. The MP decrease from Suppressive Fire procs Opportunist for a nice +15% damage bonus.
Speccing into Concentrated Fire might also be a good idea, which is afaik a "Increase damage taken" damage modifier - multiplicative with most other multipliers.

 

[Ol' Willy]

If you do play a burst weapon build, I recommend taking Opportunist together with Suppressive Fire. The MP decrease from Suppressive Fire procs Opportunist for a nice +15% damage bonus.
Speccing into Concentrated Fire might also be a good idea, which is afaik a "Increase damage taken" damage modifier - multiplicative with most other multipliers.

Also, I found speccing Commando to be absolutely mandatory: a measly cost of three spec points allows to restore 9 AP. That allowed me to make two bursts and reload/throw grenade/use chem.