Incline Age of Decadence - Tips, Tricks and Spoilers

[Ol' Willy]

Did knife-dodge run with Forty Thieves per Parabulus advice. Indeed it went way smoother than my previous attempts

While dagger damage output grows to be nothing short of wonderful, I am surprised at how awful the dodge is. I actually never tried dodge builds before

8 DEX, 8 dodge, 4 armor penalty and I couldn't even kill the raiders outside of monastery. At this point I dropped light Ordu armor in favor of heavy Ordu armor so I won't die so quick at least. Which of course was then discarded in favor of Power Armor as usual. Yeah, its organic shield is just for show, doesn't interfere with dodging

To my surprise, dagger build turned out to be the best performer against Agatoth with solid 5-0 score

One neurostim - one ancient bomb to soften him up - one or two turns of arm hacking - then torso strikes which crit surprisingly well even at 7 crit. He dies in 4 turns usually

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I am surprised at how awful the dodge is. I actually never tried dodge builds before

I actually preferred dodging to block. It works very well with sledgehammers.

 

[Technomancer]

While dagger damage output grows to be nothing short of wonderful, I am surprised at how awful the dodge is.

Min maxed dodge is OP. Also, you need to always be aware about walls nearby and chars surrounding you. Each tile around you where you cannot step reduces dodge rating.

 

[Fenix]

Is it that alchemy option?

 

[Technomancer]

Is it that alchemy option?

For Feng ring quest? No such thing. Alchemy dialogue is just a comment your char makes, you only can say it after you are offered the ring so it doesn't affect anything.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Also, you need to always be aware about walls nearby and chars surrounding you. Each tile around you where you cannot step reduces dodge rating.

Exactly. The only times when you won't be surrounded by enemies, allies or scenery is in the arena. The majority of fights would have you surrounded by something, and every time you move you open yourself for opportunity attacks. Nothing better than being hit for 15HP for free, isn't it?

Blocking gives you three levels of defense. First is to completely neglect the damage, and as we know, it procs better because it is not affected by your surroundings. Flanking and rearing will be introduced only in Dungeon Rats. Then, if it fails, your shield absorbs some of the damage. And only then the damage comes to your armor, and as a blocker, you don't really care about armor penalty, so you can wear actually good armor.

With dodge, you have only two levels. First is dodging itself, which procs worse than blocking. And then it comes immediately to the armor, and as a dodger, you won't be usually having the toughest armor.

The only advantages dodging gives is by allowing you to use two handed weapons and don't suffer from shield THC penalty

 

[Technomancer]

The only times when you won't be surrounded by enemies, allies or scenery is in the arena. The majority of fights would have you surrounded by something, and every time you move you open yourself for opportunity attacks. Nothing better than being hit for 15HP for free, isn't it?

Sure, but some fights will have bottlenecks though and allies are pretty rare themselves (majority of fights are solo vs many). Also, two handed spear has great synergy with dodge. Especially with unique arena trident. You can raise your interrupt so high that no one will enter your tiles which means ranged characters will not land a shot on you since dodge is optimal (trivializing some of the hardest encounters with archer backline). And if someone manages to get into your range, they will only take one tile while others who try will get interrupted as well. And you can always step back since two-handed spears allow you to attack from one tile away.

The only advantages dodging gives is by allowing you to use two handed weapons and don't suffer from shield THC penalty

The only? You say all that and fail to mention the greatest, core advantage. What about unlimited AP-free counter hits? Each point in dodge skill boosts counter chance and aztec macuahuitl unique boosts it by insane 20% when normal two handed axes or swords only raise it by 5%. This allows some cool builds, like 4 STR warrior. Since you can compensate lack of damage with sword passive bleed procs that stack.



As they say, the best defense is offense. After all, they won't try to hit you if they are dead

Dodge would be even more OP if devs didn't fail to implement all ideas they had. Power armor in particular was planned to have an option of removing the shield turning it into dodge armor. Which would only get stronger scaling from extra +3 DEX (more dodge rating and even more AP for attacks). But alas.

 

[Technomancer]

Nothing better than being hit for 15HP for free, isn't it?

Eh didn't really happen with me but I only played dodger that was optimized. I also finished DR with solo dodger on psycho (there dodge is cancer). For AoD min max dodge means you stack all ratings. Meaning 10 CON and 10 DEX, grabbing Dellar training (7 CHA unfortunately), failing Crit on Esbenus so you trade -2HP for extra dodge rating and finally getting both IG trainings (in Teron and in Caer-Tor). I used meteorite metal manica crafted with 10 Crafting. Its best 0 dodge penalty armor that offers something like 8 DR. Plenty for those rare moments when you will get hit. Opportunity attacks land once on a blue moon and is nothing when you have 58 HP to spare. 50 if you took regen potion which makes chip damage even less of an issue and turns min maxed dodger pretty much immortal. With this build I even dodged full strength Aga once, as in I killed him before he managed to land a single hit (without using bombs or bolas, just sharpened meteorite sword). It was still dodgy (ayy) but the odds were decent, even with his 15 Perception.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Also, two handed spear has great synergy with dodge. Especially with unique arena trident. You can raise your interrupt so high that no one will enter your tiles which means ranged characters will not land a shot on you since dodge is optimal (trivializing some of the hardest encounters with archer backline).

This one true, spear guy gave me the most problems for my 4 DEX guy, I could kill him (before getting PA) only by two lucky crits on opportunity attacks

Spears have the best synergy with dodge especially as single hand spears suck, and spears have the best organic crowd control

Power armor in particular was planned to have an option of removing the shield turning it into dodge armor. Which would only get stronger scaling from extra +3 DEX (more dodge rating and even more AP for attacks). But alas.

Power Armor works with dodge, the char will just ignore the shield and be dodging as usual. The only limitation is no two handed weapons, which is fine for dagger builds

For AoD min max dodge means you stack all ratings. Meaning 10 CON and 10 DEX, grabbing Dellar training (7 CHA unfortunately), failing Crit on Esbenus so you trade -2HP for extra dodge rating and finally getting both IG trainings (in Teron and in Caer-Tor).

Well, this is very specific build, but to compare, how a min-maxxed block will compare?

 

[Technomancer]

Well, this is very specific build, but to compare, how a min-maxxed block will compare?

It will likely be OP too, and way better in DR. Wanted to try it a few days ago but gave up. Played AoD too many times.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Tried Dungeon Rats... medium difficulty

For the first run I crafted the char using all the knowledge I had from AoD. Fairly balanced sword-block without excesses. Took only Marcus with me because other guys (with 6 CHA) are useless bums who would only waste your SP gains. Got filtered already at Reinar fight; I ran out of heals and can't craft more because I ignored alchemy, but even then, the Reinar himself and the bomb spam made the run to stop right there.

Alright, after consulting the internets I found the build a guy used to solo ironman the game on top difficulty. Fine for me for non-ironman medium difficulty, and I like solo, so 4-10-10-4-10-2 spear-dodge-alchemy-crafting char. It went very smooth, got majority of the encounters, including Reinar, Yngvar, former Legatus and Enforcer on the first try. Died a couple of times on three worms and that nigger with a huge sledgehammer whatever his name is, couple of times with 4 big scolopendras... Overall, I don't think I died more than ten times in total, very smooth

And then got filtered again by constructs. I cheesed the first fight (1 steel 2 bronze) by bombing the steel construct, but then comes the solid stop with one steel and 4 bronze. And I am out of bombs and acid

Despite 4 PER, but with 10 spear and nice steel spear with good THC bonus, hit chances are low even for fast attacks. While fast attacks hit more often and deal at least some minuscule damage to bronze robots, steel one takes no damage whatsoever and dodges half of the time. Aimed attacks - not even a chance. 10 dodge with 10 DEX at 002 armor penalty of course doesn't mean shit as they will hit a lot.

Tried another tactic, I have custom light spear with nice +30% passive bonus. Great for crowd control, interrupt procs most of the time, but deal no damage at all and procs -DR extremely rarely. The best I could do is to kite most of the map and kill the bronze robots, but then I still have the steel one at nearly full HP, and he simply ends it with easy 20HP crits.

I found the video to see how the guy made it, and lmao, turns out the shit was nerfed. He had 10 craft 9 alch and 7 crit at that encounter, which means that SP bonus from high INT was massively nerfed. His interrupts also proc -DR far more often than in my case

I could can this run too or console meself some SP to have the same set-up as in his video... But the difficulty spike is nonsensical regardless. I went four or five fights without dying, including enforcer and armored guys before him, but then the massive cockblock

 

[jackofshadows]

I am surprised at how awful the dodge is. I actually never tried dodge builds before

This is because it was op as shit at some point. I remember clearing all Maadoran thugs like it's nothing with simple dagger dodge build (in Teron there were still reloads here and there). So it got nerfed hard even though I don't remember the exact details (you also have had crazy counter-attack value vs blockers). Worse, it all went over to Dungeon Rats, I remember dying several times in a row to some motherfucking worms while having 10 dodge and ragequiting hard afterwards (really ditched that run).

Btw liberal use of fire helps dodger a lot.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Overall, the encounter design in DR is amazing in a bad way. Who had the brilliant idea to make half of the game enemies poison you? Especially considering that DR is high lethality game with small HP pools with no healing in combat and poisons can deal up to 20% of your total HP per turn depending on CON?

I generally liked the human encounters. You have ranged enemies, tanks, dodgers, alchemists, often grouped around mini-boss of sorts. Really entertaining.

But the wildlife is somewhere between frustrating and infuriating, and more so considering how it is prevalent in the early game.

Let's say you have 6 CON, 20 HP remaining, get hit for 5HP and get 5HP poison - you may already reload because it is pointless to continue further. Even more infuriating for tank builds when you get hit for peanuts like 1 or 2HP but lose 12-15HP solely on poisons. It's like it was made to push people forward to pressing that uninstall.exe

 

[jackofshadows]

How plentiful antidot is? I guess not exactly in abundance, it's been a while.

 

[Technomancer]

medium difficulty

Try top difficulty, its the intended one. Ideally solo. Makes you fucking survive and hold on to bombs like crazy. Also, some builds straight up don't work, like low STR relying on sword bleeds, will get fucked on robots. I was amazed how much harder solo was than AoD (especially for dodger), makes sense since difficulty was balanced around party, but breaking through anyway made it very satisfying. AoD seems trivial in comparison now.

 

[Fenix]

that nigger with a huge sledgehammer whatever his name is

DemoCritus - he demonstarate how he can crit ))

And then got filtered again by constructs. I cheesed the first fight (1 steel 2 bronze) by bombing the steel construct, but then comes the solid stop with one steel and 4 bronze. And I am out of bombs and acid

Same. I did that on IM, and died there twice or more. Like... I think it worked before last update.

I found the video to see how the guy made it, and lmao, turns out the shit was nerfed. He had 10 craft 9 alch and 7 crit at that encounter, which means that SP bonus from high INT was massively nerfed. His interrupts also proc -DR far more often than in my case

Yep, just as I thought.
I think many successful builds reports were before last update.
I easily did dagger run before last update - not anymore.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Run N3 - hammer-block 10-6-6-10-6-2. Char like this would be alright for AoD. Result in DR - can't get past first three big ants without bombs. No chances against ant queen, hard fail. Here I finally realize that for solo DR, 10 DEX and 10 CON are non-negotiable. And 10 DEX means going for dodge, which also makes sense since you can't get access to heavy armors and shields until much later in the game

Run N4 - hammer-dodge 10-10-10-4-2. It goes even smoother than run N2 as it trades useless spear interrupts for actual damage, but it also lacks a lot of precious SP. But who cares when it can just bash skulls in, questions later, consumable use also much lower than with spear build. Wonder if it will be cockblocked by robots too

 

[Ol' Willy]

How plentiful antidot is? I guess not exactly in abundance, it's been a while.

Antidot is an insult to injury, because what you gonna do? Consoom after each hit? You would spend all of them in a single fight. 10 CON is the only answer

 

[Ol' Willy]

Also, some builds straight up don't work, like low STR relying on sword bleeds, will get fucked on robots. I was amazed how much harder solo was than AoD (especially for dodger), makes sense since difficulty was balanced around party, but breaking through anywy made it very satisfying. AoD seems trivial in comparison now.

I generally suck at party-based RPGs (the ones that require actual skill, not the ones like Arcanum), but my opinion is that this is debatable.

Having party requires investment in CHA. So, for a smol three men party you need 6 CHA, and this is 4 stat points not being invested in something actually useful.

Then, you get thinner SP spread, meaning slower leveling, and more resource consumption.

So you would have bigger party, but will worse stats and worse gear as a result compared to a lone killing machine

 

[Technomancer]

So you would have bigger party, but will worse stats and worse gear as a result compared to a lone killing machine

In theory, but party play is trivial compared to solo. Can have 10 CHA, focus on raising both crafting and alchemy to 10 so you could supply the team and recruit best available chars. Its easier because you can spread the damage by manipulating AI and positioning. Solo char gets focused hard.

 

[Fenix]

Well, you actually could throw main @ alchemy-crafting to the trash bin - old guy could easily reach 10 long before end, and Ismail will hit 10 alchemy too. The best weapon that do something with little inwest is a throwing, you could have handicapped defence skills - partymates will get you covered on this, and instead throw shit, poisoned to boot...
Party is a cakewalk, solo is another deal.
I have me on steam guy who told he won with bow, being oneshotting NPC later in game - 10 Str, crit, barbed meteoric or something, probabbly no defence at all - at least till endgame.
I just can't think of how he actually win early fucking game with so 0 ammo for that - as I tried crossbow many times and failed spectacularly.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Sledgehammer build wasn't cockblocked by robots as the damage on that thing (thank democritus for his hammer, can't craft anything better because 4INT) is just great. Counterattacks also make wonders as enemies kill themselves off my char.

Didn't like the "emperor" fight at all. I preserved six bombs so I could take him out on the first turn and have two more to take out some other guy, but the amount of shit thrown at you is ridiculous. Arrows, bolts, axes, fire, acid, nets, it's pure RNG, like cranking the slot machine and reloading until enough stuff misses you. Can't imagine soloing this on top difficulty since even at 10 DEX 10 dodge the hits are too often.

The one of many things I like about combat in Underrail is how the environment matters a lot. Skillful positioning, breaking the LoS, disengaging, using the range to your advantage, and none of this is applicable to Dungeon Rats. Most of the time you are just thrown into the room with enemies and only thing that matter is whom to engage first and where. Environment here is way less important.

Didn't make it to the end because the last wave fight is even bigger slot machine with no ability to heal or repair. Got armor damaged? Reload. Lost too much HP on a wave? Reload. Sometimes you should reload after the first turn if you missed too much or got hit too much.

The best I managed to do is to kill the first three waves in the shack of death (the only environment options available, fight in the open or in the shack duh), then engage the fourth one in the open with 19HP. Ironically, five armored swordsmen are not even a problem, I can take them out (though non enough HP left for fifth wave). But ranged enemies are outright infuriating. I can take out the crossbow guy in the first turn, then I had to take out the bow guy, but his meatshields quickly swarm me and protect him. And while meatshields are easy, bowman can casually hit for 10-12HP

I can probably make it to the fifth wave with enough HP if I reload enough, but such gameplay loses the appeal very quickly

Regeneration potion of course makes it easier, but even though I killed sky metal robots guarding needed ingredients, at 2 alch this is not going to happen

 

[Ol' Willy]

Realized that I have 20 unspent SP, so raised alchemy to 4 and made some helping items, thus got to the fifth wave with 17HP.

This is more than enough to fight the swordsmen, elite or not, but archers simply don't care. They can simply decide to stop missing and kill you in a turn or two

Also found a bug, a portion of fort wall could be shot through if you run outside

It is enough to fight against these faggots with cranked THCs, but also with wallhacks? Nah

 

[ERYFKRAD]

lso found a bug, a portion of fort wall could be shot through if you run outside

I don't think that's a bug, AoD also did not have line of sight impeded by walls.

 

[Ol' Willy]

lso found a bug, a portion of fort wall could be shot through if you run outside

I don't think that's a bug, AoD also did not have line of sight impeded by walls.

It is because if I move a little bit more to the side on the outside the archer has to step out too