Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[ArchAngel]

Underrail achievements are as shitty as Bethesda ones (maybe even worse). They're all in the "do something x times" category. Age of Decadence is the only game I know where achievements at least mean something.

I guess you never blew yourself up with a grenade if you claim that...

 

[Excidium II]

Underrail achievements are as shitty as Bethesda ones (maybe even worse). They're all in the "do something x times" category. Age of Decadence is the only game I know where achievements at least mean something.

Complete first quest as X class...

Kill X people or X person

Die X times

Complete X quest line

Theres a lot of interesting achievements in AoD, but also a lot of filler.

At least it's some interesting statistics for the dev.

By the way what's that 15MB update about?

 

[Nines]

About Lenox...

Spoiler

So, you found a killer, and you cannot report about him to Tanner or someone else from SGS council. That's some nice logic here.
You need 90 points in Persuasion to provoke Mordre... and for what? Everyone in SGS will still be hostile towards you.
You report about your findings to Lenox hoping to see some kind of ending, but Mordre simply disappears (along with Lenox I assume).

And this quest was so good at the beginning.

 

[Goral]

Theres a lot of interesting achievements in AoD, but also a lot of filler.

While in UR you only have filler.

 

[ArchAngel]

So I fought

Spoiler

Rathound King

with my 2nd char - Psi Monk

Spoiler

And destroyed him alone at lvl 12. Last char was crossbow stealth and he was only lvl 10 with oddity system and I explored a lot more with that character. That character had no chance to win this alone.

 

[Eyestabber]

1) I can't craft normal bullets?

AFAIK, no.

2) Micro-Shrapnel is just 7.62? What about the other special ammo?

Yes. http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ammo#Special_Rounds

3) If 2) above holds true, then is the Hornet the best Assault Rifle?

Yes, but because of AP costs to burst fire, not because of special bullets. Check my sig.

 

[Goromorg]

About Lenox...

Spoiler

So, you found a killer, and you cannot report about him to Tanner or someone else from SGS council. That's some nice logic here.
You need 90 points in Persuasion to provoke Mordre... and for what? Everyone in SGS will still be hostile towards you.
You report about your findings to Lenox hoping to see some kind of ending, but Mordre simply disappears (along with Lenox I assume).

And this quest was so good at the beginning.

Spoiler

Did you go to the Core city to gather info about Pierce previous job?
If you did, then check inventory list in morgue and tell Pasquale about the instrument of crime. Then talk with Lenox and with Tanner.

So I fought

Spoiler

Rathound King

with my 2nd char - Psi Monk

Spoiler

And destroyed him alone at lvl 12. Last char was crossbow stealth and he was only lvl 10 with oddity system and I explored a lot more with that character. That character had no chance to win this alone.

Spoiler

I did it too. At first I did cast enrage on white rathound, then threw molotov and blocked doors with force field. Then I kited and fineshed those who left. Took me a few tries.

 

[circ]

How do you hebrews make these 1.7k capacity shields? I get 500 capacity with a 120 quality plasma gen, which isn't too shabby. Do I need some add-on?

 

[Wintermute]

Yes, you need one of these:
http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=High_Efficiency_Energy_Converter

 

[Grotesque]

Hornet the best Assault Rifle?

It's the best assoult rifle not because of special ammo but because of the low AP burst cost that would enable to shoot twice in a turn and thus making the "concentrated fire" and "commando" feats truly powerful.

At least it's some interesting statistics for the dev.

There is no achievement for finishing the game or finishing the game on hard.
These are the only valuable statistics for the dev.

 

[KazikluBey]

just did, very helpful, thanks. question tho: why not use the muzzle break and the other thing that increases burst by 2 shots? the components i mean, not the skill

2 more shots is not that good if you have 7 already with the feat.

Personally I went the opposite from Eyestabber with my ARs, I use a Huszar as my main weapon for the highest damage per burst; almost nothing survives one. I think Eyestabber overvalues crit for ARs somewhat, but maybe that's because he uses Hornets with its low top-end damage. I found aimed shot less and less useful as the game progressed, as by level 25 expertise improves my non-crits by 57-13% for an average of 22%. Many crits do much less damage than a normal good shot.

Also, does expertise count before or after the Smart damage increase?

 

[hell bovine]

Stuck on the final boss.

Spoiler

Or at least I assume Tchort is the final boss.

I combined mutagens to create Exitus-1 and fed it to Tchort, killing half his tentacles before the battle started. That didn't seem to make any difference to me though.

I play a sneaky character that uses traps, stun effects and attacking from afar to win battles. It's got me this far. But against self-regenerating, burrowing tentacles, most of it is rendered useless and I'm just a guy with a crossbow. My damage is not strong enough to counteract their regeneration. And I can just barely survive using my energy shield long enough to destroy one mutagen tank. And I probably need to destroy all tanks in order to kill them.

I can't recharge my shield or lay traps to deal with the Tchortlings in combat, and the tentacles never lose sight of me and let me leave the combat state. Even if I somehow manage to clear the Tchortlings, I don't see how could survive long enough to destroy the tanks and the tentacles.

Do the tentacles have any weaknesses, is there a faster way to destroy the tanks than shooting bolts and tossing HE grenades? I thought the biocide plot grenades could be useful but they only deal like 50 damage per round, which is rather useless.

Spoiler

I did it simply by standing on Tchort's platform, ignoring everything else (after the Mouth died), and hitting Tchort's eye repeatedly with nothing but Neural Overload (with Focus Booster, etc.). The tentacles regenerate after 2-3 rounds anyway, so I figured keeping the shield up and just tanking the damage was the way to go, chowing down on as many meds as I could, except Adrenaline since in this case it would do more harm than good. Try a Doctor's Pouch if you have one, Morphine and Aegis (if you can make Aegis), then a hypo (hopefully you've found one Super Hypo in DC if you can't make them yourself), etc.

It puzzles me that Styg saw fit to render stealth and traps largely or entirely useless in certain scenarios, including some of the most difficult battles in the game.

Keep in mind that

Spoiler

from what I've tested, psi thought control damage is the only type of damage that tchort seems to have no resistance against, in comparison to other damage types (mechanical, electrical, ice, fire; haven't tried acid, but he seems immune to other gas grenades except psimorph). The problem is that this applies to the tentacles too (my mage hit one for over 500 fire damage, and that took maybe half of HP off) and mutagen tanks (critical immune, lots of resistances, on average took three mk v grenades to destroy one).

I don't understand this design, because the rest of the game doesn't feel like that; you can create overpowered builds, but you don't need to, because you can use different ways to approach the same problem. Here it comes down to whether your character can dish out enough damage to what basically is a hp-sponge.

And that's why I found the final fight disappointing. It's like shrooms on steroids.

 

[Eyestabber]

question tho: why not use the muzzle break and the other thing that increases burst by 2 shots? the components i mean, not the skill

Because AR builds usually go for Full Auto, which makes every burst fire 7 bullets instead of 5. Muzzle break provides a 28,57% increase in damage potential, which is not bad. Smart modules OTOH can easily increase your damage by 40-50% with the advantage of not wasting additional bullets (remember that burst fire is considered a "special attack"!!!). Ammo conservation may not seem like a big deal, but green bullets are not THAT common and are very, VERY precious. And since you can only have 2 upgrades and you'll DEFINITELY want to burst fire twice, you end up going for a rapid reloader. Smart + rapid = no more upgrade slots. You COULD use a muzzle break with a 7.62 Smart Hornet. Either that or anatomically aware scope. Or compensator.

Another thing to consider is the DT barrier, tho that is more of concern for SMG users. Increasing the damage of every bullet is better since it guarantees you will trigger DR instead of DT. I could be wrong, but I'm not really a fan of muzzle break. If you have a spare upgrade slot, making sure every bullet in the burst hits (compensator) OR making sure that crits will hurt like hell (Anatomically Aware Scope) is IMO better than MOAR BULLETS! If you don't have full auto for whatever reason, then muzzle breaks become MUCH more interesting, since the increase in damage potential will be 40% instead of 28,57%.

Personally I went the opposite from Eyestabber with my ARs, I use a Huszar as my main weapon for the highest damage per burst; almost nothing survives one. I think Eyestabber overvalues crit for ARs somewhat, but maybe that's because he uses Hornets with its low top-end damage.

Ahn...no? I "overvalue" the ability to burst fire twice no matter what, something that Huszar frames can't provide.

I found aimed shot less and less useful as the game progressed, as by level 25 expertise improves my non-crits by 57-13% for an average of 22%. Many crits do much less damage than a normal good shot.

Aimed shot is not meant to be used with your AR. You use it as your personal "one shot button" with the sniper rifle. You DO have a sniper rifle...right?

Also, does expertise count before or after the Smart damage increase?

Mmm...I'm curious about this as well. I think only epeli knows that for sure.

 

[ArchAngel]

So with my 2nd char I read more closely what

Spoiler

Dude

has to say. I asked him about Faceless and

Spoiler

he said what you find out later and he explained why they want the device

 

[hell bovine]

Spoiler

OK. Counter questions :D
1. Does anyone explain who Tchort is and what was its plan (well in addition to shit propaganda that Tchortists talk about all the time)? Why did Tchort want the cube?
2. What is Occulus?
3. Is the specific role of the Cube explained? Or does it just stay an unexplained McGuffin?
4. Really? The guy that asks you to bring him his knife?
5. What does the computer say? Do you find out who the Father is?

Spoiler

1. Some of the scientists were working on creating new intelligent organisms. These organisms were the Faceless. I forget which scientist, but one of them took pride in one of Faceless he created, and allowed that Faceless (named Otis) to become his right-hand man. When Biocorp started falling apart, Otis led a rebellion or something similar, and threw the scientists who created the Faceless into the Mutagen tanks. Those scientists became Tchort. It's not explained why Tchort wanted the cube.

2. I don't know. And from Declinator's post I may have been incorrect about Six's affiliation.

3. It's not explained. You can ask the Faceless once you retrieve it and they just tell you to fuck off.

4. Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is. Don't even know about a knife.

5. IRIS still wants to kill you but mysteriously shuts down and shows a flash of "horror". I thought it was interesting because her reaction indicated that you didn't pass the check when you did. It later occurred to me that she probably shut down because she realized that Father is dead. If you reboot IRIS (requires 130 hacking) you find a much nicer version. The Father is some guy who's name I forget. Stenberg or something. He had a sister who died in a tragedy and IRIS is actually modeled after his sisters personality. He predicted Biocorp's collapse into warring factions and prepared the Arke to defend itself.

Spoiler

1. Lol. So Eidan and Tchortist are just a bunch of tools :D
5. I have crap Persuade and the same thing happened to me. I think both of us failed the check. What was your character's Persuade score?
I also used hacking afterwards to get some windows based version.

Actually, I am not sure about

Spoiler

them being just tools. Explore the forbidden lab in the tchortist institute. Since you are still playing, I won't spoil that.

Blackmill, do you have any additional info about the tchortists? I've finished the game, so I'm not afraid of spoilers.

 

[ArchAngel]

Spoiler

OK. Counter questions :D
1. Does anyone explain who Tchort is and what was its plan (well in addition to shit propaganda that Tchortists talk about all the time)? Why did Tchort want the cube?
2. What is Occulus?
3. Is the specific role of the Cube explained? Or does it just stay an unexplained McGuffin?
4. Really? The guy that asks you to bring him his knife?
5. What does the computer say? Do you find out who the Father is?

Spoiler

1. Some of the scientists were working on creating new intelligent organisms. These organisms were the Faceless. I forget which scientist, but one of them took pride in one of Faceless he created, and allowed that Faceless (named Otis) to become his right-hand man. When Biocorp started falling apart, Otis led a rebellion or something similar, and threw the scientists who created the Faceless into the Mutagen tanks. Those scientists became Tchort. It's not explained why Tchort wanted the cube.

2. I don't know. And from Declinator's post I may have been incorrect about Six's affiliation.

3. It's not explained. You can ask the Faceless once you retrieve it and they just tell you to fuck off.

4. Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is. Don't even know about a knife.

5. IRIS still wants to kill you but mysteriously shuts down and shows a flash of "horror". I thought it was interesting because her reaction indicated that you didn't pass the check when you did. It later occurred to me that she probably shut down because she realized that Father is dead. If you reboot IRIS (requires 130 hacking) you find a much nicer version. The Father is some guy who's name I forget. Stenberg or something. He had a sister who died in a tragedy and IRIS is actually modeled after his sisters personality. He predicted Biocorp's collapse into warring factions and prepared the Arke to defend itself.

Spoiler

1. Lol. So Eidan and Tchortist are just a bunch of tools :D
5. I have crap Persuade and the same thing happened to me. I think both of us failed the check. What was your character's Persuade score?
I also used hacking afterwards to get some windows based version.

Actually, I am not sure about

Spoiler

them being just tools. Explore the forbidden lab in the tchortist institute. Since you are still playing, I won't spoil that.

Blackmill, do you have any additional info about the tchortists? I've finished the game, so I'm not afraid of spoilers.

Spoiler

Is that the basement? I did stealth through that a bit, saw some people in tubes but could not access computers and such without fighting everyone so I left the same way out :D
Later in the quest to find the deserter Tchortist guard I can tell him I saw what is going on although I didn't see much :D

 

[Kem0sabe]

Underrail achievements are as shitty as Bethesda ones (maybe even worse). They're all in the "do something x times" category. Age of Decadence is the only game I know where achievements at least mean something.

Complete first quest as X class...

Kill X people or X person

Die X times

Complete X quest line

Theres a lot of interesting achievements in AoD, but also a lot of filler.

At least it's some interesting statistics for the dev.

By the way what's that 15MB update about?

Version 1.0.0.8

• Creeping Dread and Eye of Spoiler debuff will now expire more quickly when you get out of the affected areas; this will also make a certain special feat more useful
  
• Tweaked health and resistances of various DC creatures
  
• Burrowers in front of Arke Power Plant will no longer respawn
  
• Roman will no longer chicken out and disappear at the start of Junkyard battle
  
• When you drop items, the loot bag will now be named "Stuff" instead of "Remains"
  
• Added more explosives to certain merchants
  
• Added bottles and dirty rags to some junkyard merchants
  
• Made bottles more common when scavenging trash
  
• Added more bolt triggers to some merchants
  
• Increased the amount of military components at certain merchants (especially in the early game)
  
• Buffed Balor's Hammer
  
• Buffed the damage of mk2 and mk3 EMP grenades and mines
  
• Plasma discharger and laser emitter component skill requirements mod changed to 1 (down from 1.25)
  
• Persuading the mindreader in Rail Crossing to let Buzzer live will no longer negatively affect the player's score when talking to the Faceless in DC
  
• Using the mutagen scanner now pauses the game
  
• Certain named tchortling in Deep Caverns will no longer infinitely respawn
  
• Fixed Mysterious Lady not appearing at the Core City metro station
  
• Fixed Ola's dialogue tree bug
  
• Fixed the medical locker in one of DC outposts
  
• Lost Vault Trader's key now properly unlocks the footlocker in the shack behind him
  
• Various minor map bugs

 

[hell bovine]

Spoiler

OK. Counter questions :D
1. Does anyone explain who Tchort is and what was its plan (well in addition to shit propaganda that Tchortists talk about all the time)? Why did Tchort want the cube?
2. What is Occulus?
3. Is the specific role of the Cube explained? Or does it just stay an unexplained McGuffin?
4. Really? The guy that asks you to bring him his knife?
5. What does the computer say? Do you find out who the Father is?

Spoiler

1. Some of the scientists were working on creating new intelligent organisms. These organisms were the Faceless. I forget which scientist, but one of them took pride in one of Faceless he created, and allowed that Faceless (named Otis) to become his right-hand man. When Biocorp started falling apart, Otis led a rebellion or something similar, and threw the scientists who created the Faceless into the Mutagen tanks. Those scientists became Tchort. It's not explained why Tchort wanted the cube.

2. I don't know. And from Declinator's post I may have been incorrect about Six's affiliation.

3. It's not explained. You can ask the Faceless once you retrieve it and they just tell you to fuck off.

4. Yeah, I have no idea who this guy is. Don't even know about a knife.

5. IRIS still wants to kill you but mysteriously shuts down and shows a flash of "horror". I thought it was interesting because her reaction indicated that you didn't pass the check when you did. It later occurred to me that she probably shut down because she realized that Father is dead. If you reboot IRIS (requires 130 hacking) you find a much nicer version. The Father is some guy who's name I forget. Stenberg or something. He had a sister who died in a tragedy and IRIS is actually modeled after his sisters personality. He predicted Biocorp's collapse into warring factions and prepared the Arke to defend itself.

Spoiler

1. Lol. So Eidan and Tchortist are just a bunch of tools :D
5. I have crap Persuade and the same thing happened to me. I think both of us failed the check. What was your character's Persuade score?
I also used hacking afterwards to get some windows based version.

Actually, I am not sure about

Spoiler

them being just tools. Explore the forbidden lab in the tchortist institute. Since you are still playing, I won't spoil that.

Blackmill, do you have any additional info about the tchortists? I've finished the game, so I'm not afraid of spoilers.

Spoiler

Is that the basement? I did stealth through that a bit, saw some people in tubes but could not access computers and such without fighting everyone so I left the same way out :D
Later in the quest to find the deserter Tchortist guard I can tell him I saw what is going on although I didn't see much :D

Yep.

Spoiler

You can talk to them if you open the cages. Be warned though: it's better to join the tchortist, explore the west wing and go through the hole that leads into metro tunnels before. You can betray the tchortist afterwards anyway. (I already have reported the "locked out of institute" bug that can occur otherwise, and Styg wrote that they'll look into alternative solutions, but until it's stated as fixed in a patch, you can't be sure.)

 

[ST'Ranger]

epeli I'm curious if you've ever seen anyone suggest something like an "inn" that could be used to "rest" until shops restock and/or wildlife recovers from devastation. Or maybe make it a benefit of the character's house.

 

[AW8]

I just finished this earlier today... with the new patch it's actually quite reasonable to do as a stealther as long as you play to your strengths.

Spoiler

Bring 4 boxes of TNT (I only brought 3, but still managed -- I had to kill one of the tanks with regular crossbow shots while ducking in and out of a safe room). Enter in your stealth suit, don't turn on your shield yet. After the Mouth of Tchort gives his little spiel, stealth IMMEDIATELY and head to the right area. Plant a TNT next to the upper right tank, then head to the lower right one. After the boom, every enemy will move to investigate, that's your cue to drop the TNT on the lower right tank. The next part will be a bit tough, but essentially you want to cross all the way to the left and enter the little shack without getting attacked, while wearing at least a gas mask (otherwise the gas will hurt you bad, and you definitely don't want the +damage debuff on you at any point). Once there, close the door behind you to drop any suspicion for enemies, then head to one of the mutagen tanks on the left in stealth, drop TNT, run back to the room, close the door. Wait a few seconds so that enemies move to investigate the explosion, then the coast should be clear to go to the other tank, drop another bomb, and then run like hell (still stealthed!) to the safe room near the ladder you entered through. Enter the room, close door behind you, equip fire/shock bolts and fire grenades as well as your preferred combat suit (acid/bio resistance preferred, as well as high movement... I just used my stealth suit for this).

For the next bit, I suggest popamoling the nearest tentacle (break LOS by hiding in the house) and killing all the tchortlings that come visit (you can pre-trap the pathways to make this MUCH easier). Once at least one tentacle is dead, rush up to Tchort (don't forget to keep dropping quick tinkered bear traps on the path behind you to catch respawning 'lings), kill any tentacles that are alive... focus the thought control (psi) one first, because bilocation will fuck you up. After 3 tentacles are dead, you can just murder tchort with Aimed Shot, maxed shock bolts, and poison (if you have hypertox). With all 4 mutagen tanks destroyed, it takes a LONG time for them to respawn.

Oh yeah, it's probably obvious, but keep in mind that you can just exit combat if enemies can't get to you for 4+ turns. This'll give you an opportunity to freely re-equip, heal, recharge your NVG, re-stealth, etc. Also, DO use NVG during the shooty parts, otherwise your accuracy will suck.

I actually deviated from that 'strategy' quite a bit due to being under-prepared, and it still wasn't too bad. Remember, LOS is your friend, and even in the grim darkness of the post-apoc future only those with opposable thumbs can open doors!

Spoiler

That sounds like a plan. Unfortunately I have no TNT.

"But what about the 8 TNT charges on the shelf in the Faceless-controlled Warehouse Block?", you ask.

I uh... I may have... I may have used all of them on weak walls before I realized how the Jackhammer worked. Choices and consequences!

Maybe the Rassophore quartermaster sells them, I'll go have a look next time I play.

Also, exiting combat didn't work against the tentacles for some reason, as they can see me through the walls. They even unsuccessfully tried to use psionic attacks on me while I was hiding in a shack (with the door closed), although I don't think there was any animation other than the message above their heads.

 

[Blaine]

epeli I'm curious if you've ever seen anyone suggest something like an "inn" that could be used to "rest" until shops restock and/or wildlife recovers from devastation. Or maybe make it a benefit of the character's house.

Seems like an okay-ish idea. High-quality component rarity is one of the ways in which the strength of crafted gear is kept to a dull roar, and merchant wanted-item limitations per 90 minutes restrict the flow of Stygian coins to a brisk stream rather than a raging river, but in the end it's mainly just an annoyance. Instead, people who are willing to visit merchants 30+ times each during their playthroughs (essentially just profitable downtime and backtracking) are conferred an advantage, while those who aren't miss out. I often left Underrail running while doing other things during my three playthroughs so that I could have fresh merchants waiting when I returned.

It's a delicate balance, though, at the extreme end of which is selling all your loot to essentially one merchant with infinite money and high-quality components being readily available.

 

[ST'Ranger]

Maybe you could just visit a high-end stripclub in Core City that costs you 1000 Charons for a wild night and wake up at home with a headache that can be cured only by high quality crafting components.

 

[Blaine]

Styg tried his hardest to cockblock me from getting metal armor before entering and completing GMS.

RIP in peace, Vilmer, and thanks for the cash. I'd also like to thank Len for selling me the appropriate blueprint.

 

[Lord Andre]

I'd like to make a correction to something I've said earlier in the thread. On the few occasions I used the ice cube psi ability together with the "shatter" feat, I had always finished with burst or cryo orb and the enemy died. Due to the way the last chunck of the health bar goes away a second later after the bullets stop I always figured the feat was working. Recently I used a sniper aimed shot and instead of the usual remains there was a pool with ice cubes, so I'm guessing the only way to really activate the feat is to do more than 50% damage in one shot and not one ability. Which basically makes the feat about as useful as a cock flavored lollipop. If I'm still missing something and anyone can further clarify, please do.

 

[Blaine]

I skipped Cryogenic Induction myself, because I figured the fight should be nearly over before I need to worry about stacking more Chill effects for Cryostasis (non-Induction Chill/Cryostasis should be sufficient), and also because the shatter component sounded like a bunch of rubbish. The restriction to mechanical and cold damage, although logical—and the typically narrow window in which it is (marginally) useful—indeed bring to mind a cock-flavored lollipop.