Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Tigranes]

Is Cryogenic Induction worth it? I tried taking it at level 10 but I couldn't see how I'd ever deal 50%> mechanical or cold damage to an enemy. I don't know what high level psi powers are coming up. Metathermics just doesn't seem very good early on.

Nah man, I've skipped all the Metathermics feats. No enemy should live so long that I should need to stack like five cold spells on it anyway, and if it's really that strong then there are other strategies available.

Now that I'm level 23, I've realized that I almost never use Metathermics skills. They tend to be highly situational/potentially self-damaging/resisted by the enemy du jour. Thought Control and Psychokinesis can simply lock down and devastate entire groups of enemies without any assistance from Metathermics. Cryostasis is a good incapacitating skill, but costs six million psi points, so I almost never use it.

However, I remember Metathermics being a lot more useful (or at least, I used it more) in the early and part of the middle game, and it's important to get the Cerebral Trauma feat for Neural Overload if skipping Metathermics entirely. Along with Cryokinesis and Force Emission, it's one of the three "basic attack" psi abilities, and it bypasses all shields and armor.

Yeah, Neural Overload (or as I call it, Nerve Staple) has 100% accuracy, good range, bypasses armor and shields, is silent, and is rarely resisted very much by Resolve. Therefore, it's immensely superior to the entire crossbows category.

It's one of the earliest and simplest psi skills, and it's the shit throughout the game.

I see the points I've put into Meta as a waste, really. I never really needed it in early game either. As you say, Neural Overload with Cerebral Trauma is a good bread and butter, and Force User for the barrier is always a good choice as well. Electrokinesis, Bilocation, Proxy, etc. and there's really nothing that stands out for Meta. The early abilities are all boring except for Cryostasis, to boot. I was hoping Meta would come good later, but guess not.

 

[ArchAngel]

While I am not a native English speaker the explanation of strawman I found online says I used it correctly in this case. Fishing does not equal hiking, camping or other outdoorsman stuff. While both happen outdoors and CAN happen in nature they are nowhere near enough so you can equate them and then use that as a valid argument.

I suppose this is why you have a

tag.

I'm not misrepresenting your argument in any way. I'm comparing fishing to other forms of outdoorsmanship and to forms of entertainment sometimes considering boring by the uninitiated. You don't have to agree with the comparisons, although frankly it's ridiculous not to as they are appropriate and self-evident. A comparison needn't equal/be the same as the things to which it's being compared.

It thoroughly puts paid to your subjective argument, so I can see why you're trying to worm your way out of it.

Also personal attacks are next step when someone has lost an argument and does not want to admit it. Congrats!

 

[Tigranes]

My entire Fort Clown Car loot haul, minus mechanically locked containers (some shitty boots, helmets, sledgehammers, knives, etc. have been converted into repair kits and used):

Jesus, is that 80 advanced hypos? @_@ Do enemies carry that many healing consumables or do you just nuke them from stealth before they can respond?

Geez. You could leave 90% of that stuff on the ground and never feel like you missed out.

 

[oneself]

I see the points I've put into Meta as a waste, really. I never really needed it in early game either. As you say, Neural Overload with Cerebral Trauma is a good bread and butter, and Force User for the barrier is always a good choice as well. Electrokinesis, Bilocation, Proxy, etc. and there's really nothing that stands out for Meta. The early abilities are all boring except for Cryostasis, to boot. I was hoping Meta would come good later, but guess not.

I think meta is quite good late. I am having so much trouble with coil spiders without metathermics.

 

[Tito Anic]

Check out this review from @RestrospectiveGaming

Hes got good argument about different choices and example with Omega Base mission. Also i then he tried to justify absence of voice acting: "I like writing and i like it because it is good and because it is good it doesnt need voice acting"

 

[Gord]

Does anyone else have this lockups sometimes when a dialog pops up at the same time as combat starts?
I get a dialog window pop up but the cursor stays in hourglass form, preventing any further interactions.
I can only forcibly close the game.

 

[Tigranes]

I have that sometimes, e.g. when I die and I try to click some stuff in the load screen, etc. Thankfully Underrail has such tiny maps that you've always got a recent autosave.

 

[Tito Anic]

Bros, did you do embassy mission with a cyber spawn; i got caught all the time? Also did anybody find strange power cell, will it be usefull later?

 

[Blaine]

Geez. You could leave 90% of that stuff on the ground and never feel like you missed out.

>leaving loot behind

Jesus, is that 80 advanced hypos? @_@ Do enemies carry that many healing consumables or do you just nuke them from stealth before they can respond?

10 of them are mine, and some of them managed to use one of theirs.

I think there are about 40-50 fighters there total and all have 1-2 advanced hypos.

 

[Elthosian]

Re: methathermics feats: I haven't taken a single one of the cold-based ones, but pyromaniac is quite useful to effectively neutralize enemies for 4-5 turns provided they aren't wearing fire resistant armors, plus I have found thermodinamicity helpful to maximize damage whenever the AOE fire ball attack isn't on cooldown.

I've found Cryo Orb one-shots shielded enemies in quite a reliable manner even without Psionic Mania, although admittedly I sometimes regret choosing the opposite branch of psi feats, having 25 extra max points doesn't sound as awesome as guaranteed criticals.

You forget -5 AP on spells with full hp.

True enough, definitely the best part about branching that way if coupled with Premeditation.

 

[Lord Andre]

Bros, did you do embassy mission with a cyber spawn; i got caught all the time? Also did anybody find strange power cell, will it be usefull later?

For embassy mission, craft/buy all the stealth gear possible. Shoot and destroy the camera near the turret. Non civilians will rush to investigate the spot. Bee line to ambassador office entrance, enter stealth, have the crawler on speed key, enter room on spot where guard used to be and release. It's doable with a stealth of let's say 60 from items.

 

[Tito Anic]

Thanks.

 

[circ]

Metathermics is great overall and especially CC. Cryo Orb will instakill trash mobs, does nice damage otherwise too, adds a -moves debuff, great against melee. Pyro stream could do more damage though, but then I haven't run into a fire vuln mob so who knows. 'Fireball' is great for CC again specially with Pyromaniac, as usually half or more will panic, helping out greatly. Exothermic Aura I used once - seemed fine until I noticed I kept taking fire damage too, ugh ok. Dunno about Destabilization.

 

[Blaine]

The fourth turn of Exothermic Aura is when you still have invulnerability to fire but don't radiate flames. Get to a clear area that turn. It's a fun and cool-looking skill, but is mainly for large area denial as enemies naturally don't want to run through the flames. High mobility helps.

 

[Tigranes]

Geez. You could leave 90% of that stuff on the ground and never feel like you missed out.

>leaving loot behind

Jesus, is that 80 advanced hypos? @_@ Do enemies carry that many healing consumables or do you just nuke them from stealth before they can respond?

10 of them are mine, and some of them managed to use one of theirs.

I think there are about 40-50 fighters there total and all have 1-2 advanced hypos.

Combat is fun. Wandering around the caverns lost is also fun in its own way. The writing may not be stellar, but it's something. Spending hours ferrying loot back and forth to earn money you'll never need? Sounds about as enjoyable as working in an Amazon warehouse, except you get paid in fake money. I really don't get people who backtrack to open that locked container, 'farm' monsters, and all that.

Advanced hypos - it's easy to rack up 50+ without trying hard, though I suppose that depends on your combat style. My sniper was one-shotting most folks, so you'd always get more than you need.

Bros, did you do embassy mission with a cyber spawn; i got caught all the time? Also did anybody find strange power cell, will it be usefull later?

For embassy mission, craft/buy all the stealth gear possible. Shoot and destroy the camera near the turret. Non civilians will rush to investigate the spot. Bee line to ambassador office entrance, enter stealth, have the crawler on speed key, enter room on spot where guard used to be and release. It's doable with a stealth of let's say 60 from items.

Another way: You can actually do this very easily once you figure out how stealth works in this game. The moment an enemy passes out of YOUR LOS (i.e. you can't see their sprite), they reset immediately. So go to the pillar in the courtyard nearest the entrance to the office. There, you should not be visible to anybody. Stealth, and then move in. The guard by the gate and maybe the patroling guard will see you (red eye), but that doesn't matter - once you get in the office you lose their LOS and they reset. You just have to walk up to the grate and release the spawn (hotkey it) as fast as possible - so that you finish doing so before the secretary, the only person that matters, goes red.

I did it with something like 30 or 40 stealth.... so if you invested in stealth AT ALL you can do it, possibly with the help of a cloaking device or interloper.

 

[oneself]

Combat is fun. Wandering around the caverns lost is also fun in its own way. The writing may not be stellar, but it's something. Spending hours ferrying loot back and forth to earn money you'll never need? Sounds about as enjoyable as working in an Amazon warehouse, except you get paid in fake money. I really don't get people who backtrack to open that locked container, 'farm' monsters, and all that.

Completionist mentality. It gives me satisfaction to know that I did as much as I could and have left loose ends and no stone un-turned.

It is not fun per se, but satisfying. Which is a more fundamental reason why one seeks "fun" to begin with.

 

[Blaine]

Combat is fun. Wandering around the caverns lost is also fun in its own way. The writing may not be stellar, but it's something. Spending hours ferrying loot back and forth to earn money you'll never need? Sounds about as enjoyable as working in an Amazon warehouse, except you get paid in fake money. I really don't get people who backtrack to open that locked container, 'farm' monsters, and all that.

You don't get the appeal of having a huge treasure hoard? Are you not a dragon...?

It's simple, really. Fort Clown Car is like two or three screens from the Core City elevator. I just load up to dark orange encumbrance, click an exit, alt-tab, and shitpost here on the Codex. Alt-tab, click exit, continue shitposting.

It's extremely rare to have to make more than two trips, maybe three to get all the loot after clearing a stronghold. Clown Car is a massive exception.

 

[Lord Andre]

By the way Tigranes , it's easy to trigger "shatter" from Cryogenic Induction with cryo orb or better still with assault rifle burst + concentrated fire. Unfortunately I have yet to see enemies with high enough HPs to need this strategy. Premeditation + Psionic Mania + Cryo Orb will one shot an adjacent target for 0 AP leaving room for sniper/crossbow aimed shot, burst, fireball, grenades etc. in the same turn, way more cost efficient. Perhaps in DC the ability to kill something by only taking out 50% of it's HP will be more useful.

 

[ST'Ranger]

For embassy mission, craft/buy all the stealth gear possible. Shoot and destroy the camera near the turret. Non civilians will rush to investigate the spot. Bee line to ambassador office entrance, enter stealth, have the crawler on speed key, enter room on spot where guard used to be and release. It's doable with a stealth of let's say 60 from items.

There is a much simpler way of doing this which requires essentially no risk.

Spoiler

Stealth inside the ambassador's office and simply walk next door to the vent near the secretary. This requires maybe 25 Stealth at most.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Which psi ability we gain from the pillars in Core city sewers? I saw it when playing as a Preatorian but with my psycho don't want to side em with just for that.
Though If it is a unig psi power I have to ...

 

[Blaine]

Which psi ability we gain from the pillars in Core city sewers? I saw it when playing as a Preatorian but with my psycho don't want to side em with just for that.
Though If it is a unig psi power I have to ...

I'm pretty sure it's just a second opportunity to gain Bilocation, because I didn't get shit from it.

Two locations for Bilocation, makes sense.

 

[Lord Andre]

For embassy mission, craft/buy all the stealth gear possible. Shoot and destroy the camera near the turret. Non civilians will rush to investigate the spot. Bee line to ambassador office entrance, enter stealth, have the crawler on speed key, enter room on spot where guard used to be and release. It's doable with a stealth of let's say 60 from items.

There is a much simpler way of doing this which requires essentially no risk.

Spoiler

Stealth inside the ambassador's office and simply walk next door to the vent near the secretary. This requires maybe 25 Stealth at most.

The secretary is right next to the vent. I had much higher stealth and he always started combat no matter where I positioned. Do you mean stand right in the door frame between the 2 offices when releasing?

 

[ST'Ranger]

For embassy mission, craft/buy all the stealth gear possible. Shoot and destroy the camera near the turret. Non civilians will rush to investigate the spot. Bee line to ambassador office entrance, enter stealth, have the crawler on speed key, enter room on spot where guard used to be and release. It's doable with a stealth of let's say 60 from items.

There is a much simpler way of doing this which requires essentially no risk.

Spoiler

Stealth inside the ambassador's office and simply walk next door to the vent near the secretary. This requires maybe 25 Stealth at most.

The secretary is right next to the vent. I had much higher stealth and he always started combat no matter where I positioned. Do you mean stand right in the door frame between the 2 offices when releasing?

Spoiler

Stand in the ambassador's room and Stealth there. The secretary has no vision of you whatsoever. Leave this room and stand next to the vent by the secretary. Now the ambassador + guard have no vision of you and the secretary's vision is ticking up. Release the critter there.

 

[Blaine]

Basically, if a character still has LOS to you except at absolute maximum visible distance (right before semi-fog-of-war obfuscates the scenery again), entering stealth won't work on them. However, you can move six inches behind a doorway to break LOS, enter stealth, and waltz into the room with fresh alertness timers ticking.

I still need to test the mechanics of re-entering stealth during combat thoroughly. I know that under many conditions, enemies will still have the "red eye" even if you sprint halfway across the map and around two corners. I think they have to "lose interest and give up" for it to work properly. Can anyone shed light on this?

 

[ST'Ranger]

An incapacitated enemy will start at orange and go down if they can't find you. As far as just straight stealthing against a non-CCed enemy, not sure if it can even be done. It would take multiple turns at least, and I can't think of a way off the top of my head to force that except with critters/doors which is irrelevant anyway.