Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Blaine]

Core City Docks

• 20 minutes
• 31 bites
• 8 fish (4 Slackjaw, 3 Yellow Pufferfish, 1 Pentapus); 1 junk (1 electronic scrap)
• 25.8% success rate (29% including junk)
• average 38 seconds between bites (29 if excluding possible bad spot)
• average 2 min., 30 sec. to make a successful catch (2 minutes, 13 incl. junk); or 1 min., 58 sec. (1 min., 40 sec. for junk) if excluding possible bad spot
• worst stretch: 5 min., 0 bites (possible bad spot)

Here on the docks, I might have selected a bad spot. However because it can take up to two minutes or occasionally even longer to get a bite in a "good" spot, there's no way to know this for sure until you sit around like a moron for about three or four minutes.

Try better fishing spots, like this for example (on the road to Junkyard, requires Perception). Also, from my experience, the game asks you to "get the fuck out" at some point, when you catch ~10 fishes. I don't think grind is the best approach here.

Thing is, you can't catch every fish available (for the fishing quest) from one spot, or even from one screen. As there is no information available on where to obtain specific fish, all you can do is try everywhere.

Also, I change spots and/or screens frequently.

 

[Tigranes]

Why do you even do this to yourself

 

[Blaine]

Why do you even do this to yourself

I want those fucking electrolytes et al. and the 100% fishing success rate, and I hope the developers will read this and realize this is a nasty shitsmear on an otherwise excellent RPG.

 

[Nines]

Thing is, you can't catch every fish available (for the fishing quest) from one spot, or even from one screen. As there is no information available on where to obtain specific fish, all you can do is try everywhere.

You can catch most of what you need in any point near SGS aka Caves. The rest you can catch in the tunnels here. Ghostface is in DC. And Phantom Jelly.. well.. I don't know, other than it's rare, and probably appear at some point as you progress through the game.

 

[Blaine]

You can catch most of what you need in any point near SGS aka Caves. The rest you can catch in the tunnels here. Ghostface is in DC. And Phantom Jelly.. well.. I don't know, other than it's rare, and probably appear at some point as you progress through the game.

How in the fuck can I complete the quest, then? I've done everything in Upper and Lower Underrail (that I can find; I doubt I missed anything except the glitched Protectorate/Drones quest lines) and am preparing to enter DC, which is part of why I'm fishing. Everything I've read (people bitching about not finding ampules, etc.) implies that you cannot return from DC once you go there.

As for fishing a few times and then moving on rather than "grinding," since my success rate when the fishing is good is low as shit, what, am I supposed to backtrack through caverns ten or fifteen times instead, once per hour or two? Both options are trash. Besides which, the most annoying issue is the very low success rates when I do get bites.

 

[oneself]

Do faceless at the faceless blockade at the Core City spawn indefinitely?

 

[Blaine]

Do faceless at the faceless blockade at the Core City spawn indefinitely?

Yes.

 

[oneself]

Do faceless at the faceless blockade at the Core City spawn indefinitely?

Yes.

Man I really really wanted to pick up the loot.

And I wish I was playing classic XP.

 

[Beastro]

Try better fishing spots, like this for example (on the road to Junkyard, requires Perception). Also, from my experience, the game asks you to "get the fuck out" at some point, when you catch ~10 fishes, by increasing time between bites. I don't think grind is the best approach here.

10?

At most I've seen things stop after 5-6.

To speed things up I use two rods and place them side by side, plenty of time to click them. Anything more than that is too much for the time spent setting them up.

 

[Blaine]

All right, I read up on it a bit, and you are eventually allowed to leave DC.

Well, this was a fun (read: absolutely shitty and banal) experience, but since I can't complete the fishing quest before DC anyway and have no desire to spend 20 hours fishing for a sufficient number of component fish with a 15% catch chance, I'm throwing in the towel and will do without them. That 15% catch chance ends up being mostly "trash fish" that you can turn into blood, by the way. The catch chance for the uncommon and rare fish that turn into useful Biology components is less than 5% for me.

The PSA here is that if your Dexterity isn't at least 9-10, you can safely assume that you will never have reasonable access to fishing biology components (best health hypo in the game, and by far the best combat drug in the game) until you've completed 95% of the game, at which point you don't need them.

What a shitbrained fuck-up and a needless sabotage of the Biology skill that turned out to be.

 

[Beastro]

What's your dex at?

Mine's at 7 and with two rods I don't take that long to exhaust pools.

 

[Nines]

How in the fuck can I complete the quest, then? I've done everything in Upper and Lower Underrail (that I can find; I doubt I missed anything except the glitched Protectorate/Drones quest lines) and am preparing to enter DC, which is part of why I'm fishing. Everything I've read (people bitching about not finding ampules, etc.) implies that you cannot return from DC once you go there.

As for fishing a few times and then moving on rather than "grinding," since my success rate when the fishing is good is low as shit, what, am I supposed to backtrack through caverns ten or fifteen times instead, once per hour or two? Both options are trash. Besides which, the most annoying issue is the very low success rates when I do get bites.

I haven't found much information on where to catch Phantom Jelly, so take it with a grain of salt. But I just got to Core City, and I already have everything except Phantom Jelly and Ghostface (another mystery to solve, how to get back from DC). You was suppose to fish from time to time in various places while you were traveling, not grind it at the end of the game.
I caught most of the fishes near Junkyard, except Demon Squid, Slackjaw and maybe 1 more fish, which I caught in the abandoned camp (with two lurkers) I marked on the map.
From my experience, you will get baits frequently, until you actually catch X fishes (not sure how many, but it's less than 10).

 

[Beastro]

I caught most of the fishes near Junkyard, except Demon Squid, Slackjaw and maybe 1 more fish, which I caught in the abandoned camp (with two lurkers).

I fished at the hidden syphoner pool by Junktown, then the Core City sewers for the Demon Squid, Slackjaw, etc.

 

[Blaine]

Yes, I know the player is ostensibly intended to fish occasionally as the game progresses. However, with a 15% catch rate, even if I'd done so regularly throughout the game I'd still have very, very few useful (read: not blood) components. No matter how it's done, it's a huge and disappointing waste of time for very little benefit.

The catch rate is absurd, and it wasn't any better when I first began fishing in an area than it was when I finished fishing in the same area. My very first time fishing in the game, ever (Core City sewers), I got 22 bites and caught 1 fish after 5 minutes. That catch happened in the last 5-6 bites. I moved to a different screen in the sewers (four hours later; left the game running while I had dinner and ran some errants, etc.), got 18 bites and caught 3 fish in 5 minutes.

You're trying to suggest that I'm fishing too much/for too long and that that's why my success rate is so low. That's not it. I do agree that it seems as though you start to get fewer bites the longer you fish in one area, but the actual catch rate when you do get bites seems to be based solely on DEX and RNG. I fished in half a dozen areas (haven't posted all of them) and the initial 10-15 bites weren't any more successful than the next 15-30+ bites in that area.

In my opinion, catch rate should be 10% per point of DEX, topping out at 90% at 9 DEX (maybe adding 1% per point of DEX over 9). Instead it's more like 4% per point of DEX (for me anyway), absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Zetor]

The fishing thing is one of the reasons I've stalled out on my crossbowman playthrough, since I'd need to spend a couple hours fishing in DC to get components for 2 high-end combat drugs. Yea, going to need to build my resolve IRL before attempting that...

 

[Inf0mercial]

Hmmmmm i kinda regret taking bio above 50 on my heavy armour ar character, i think from now on stop at 50 and shift to hmmm maybe dip into psi as a late psychokineses for wall and disruptive field or metathermics for cryo shield? They don't require high will and are good main stay abilities.

With 50 bio you get focus stim at 40 you get adrenaline shot, so those are two kind of big stop marks i think.

 

[oneself]

Biology skill is not good in comparison the others. Good stuff require too many components that comes from too many different sources, that require you to "farm" them to get it. The best stuff is only accessible very very late, and is arguably unnecessary by that point.

The upside is that you know exactly how much biology skill you need to then ignore that skill completely, since component that are required for biology does not have a quality attached to them.


If fishing is indeed dependent on DEX, then there is one more reason to run DEX heavy builds. Like we really needed another.

 

[circ]

Also the core city merchants and layout, you can blame it on me. Didnt think it trough, as i always try to design the hubs as real and logical possible, so from a "architecture" viewpoint it makes sense, but from a gameplay aspect that was really bad design, need to look into it later and see if there can be done something about it.

You did exactly the right thing. Don't listen to these stupid assholes. They've been conditioned to play console action RPGs with trash-tier world-building.

Yeap, you said it. I remember the continuous loading screen transitions and tiny areas in Ultima's, Might and Magic's and Magic Candle - console versions of course.

 

[Blaine]

Biology skill is not good in comparison the others. Good stuff require too many components that comes from too many different sources, that require you to "farm" them to get it. The best stuff is only accessible very very late, and is arguably unnecessary by that point.

Yep. The high-end stuff might as well not even exist.

Focus stim (50), Aegis (60), and Trance (70) are all you might need, so 60 for non-psi characters and 70 for psi. Bullhead (80) is quite good but requires Demon Squid, so fuck that. In general, fuck anything that requires uncommon fish (e.g., absolutely every high-end drug).

Hundreds of hours I've been playing this game, and fishing made me want to smash my computer screen. By far, it's the worse frustration I've ever encountered. When I write my review for the Codex news page, I'm going to slam it hard.

 

[Blaine]

Yeap, you said it. I remember the continuous loading screen transitions and tiny areas in Ultima's, Might and Magic's and Magic Candle - console versions of course.

All of those franchises actually did get console versions. If memory serves, the Ultima console remakes were popamole as fuck.

Just a note, having played Ultimas in the past is by no means an indicator that you've been immune from falling prey to console popamole conditioning in the intervening years.

 

[Nines]

I fished at the hidden syphoner pool by Junktown, then the Core City sewers for the Demon Squid, Slackjaw, etc.

Yeah, there is a good spot in there too.

Yes, I know the player is ostensibly intended to fish occasionally as the game progresses. However, with a 15% catch rate, even if I'd done so regularly throughout the game I'd still have very, very few useful (read: not blood) components. No matter how it's done, it's a huge and disappointing waste of time for very little benefit.

Actually I think you would have at least a shit ton of blue eels if you fished regularly. Not that you need much of these components until DC anyway. The game is fairly easy even without them, no? You just need to complete the quest, after which you'll get the perk for 100% success and loadsafish.

You're trying to suggest that I'm fishing too much/for too long and that that's why my success rate is so low.

No. After, let's say, 6-7 successful attempts, the time between bites is increasing dramatically (from 1-5 seconds between bites to.. much more), which means there is no point in staying anymore, even if success rate is still the same. I usually drop fishing completely after this for some time, since, from my experience, time between bites will be increased no matter even if you changed a spot.

Also, maybe it's just me, but... I have a feeling that you shouldn't pull the rod immediately after it bites. Wait for a second. If you fished IRL you probably know what that means. But again, this is most likely bullshit.

 

[Blaine]

Yeah, I tried various consecutive runs of reeling in the rod immediately, reeling it in after a small delay, reeling it in halfway through the two bobs, and reeling it in halfway to the end of the second bob. No difference in my experience.

 

[Zetor]

iirc the fishing minigame is pretty much 1:1 WOW's fishing (cue 'lol MMO gameplay' comments)

Biology skill is not good in comparison the others. Good stuff require too many components that comes from too many different sources, that require you to "farm" them to get it. The best stuff is only accessible very very late, and is arguably unnecessary by that point.

Yep. The high-end stuff might as well not even exist.

Focus stim (50), Aegis (60), and Trance (70) are all you might need, so 60 for non-psi characters and 70 for psi. Bullhead (80) is quite good but requires Demon Squid, so fuck that. In general, fuck anything that requires uncommon fish (e.g., absolutely every high-end drug).

Hundreds of hours I've been playing this game, and fishing made me want to smash my computer screen. By far, it's the worse frustration I've ever encountered. When I write my review for the Codex news page, I'm going to slam it hard.

Some endgame meds and poisons in DC need high biology, up to 130ish... and yea, the best combat drug in the game will need you to do quite a bit of fishing.

 

[Unbeliever]

About Phantom Jelly

Spoiler

North of Core City, there is abandoned lab with some kind of electric spiders. In front of lab door is big hole. Jump down and you will find cave with Phantom Jelly

Probably because I have 10 dex, fishing was fun (sort of) for me. I always quit after 7 or 8 bites per cave, and found all species except phantom and ghost really easy. And I did it just for glory, because I am no crafter.

 

[Blaine]

Some endgame meds and poisons in DC need high biology, up to 130ish... and yea, the best combat drug in the game will need you to do quite a bit of fishing.

I have no use for poisons (other than for super stims, which also require rare fish), and having checked the Wiki I see that in fact literally all of the high-end medications require fishing. That's more points I can spend elsewhere that otherwise might have gone to Biology.

Fortunately I am a pure psi user with high Stealth, so the loss of access to those medications isn't a huge blow all things considered, but psychologically it's really pissing me off as I am unable to experience the full extent of my crafting skills or of fishing without immense frustration.