Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Latelistener]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/250520/announcements/detail/592614163127620102

Hey guys, it's time to start revealing some concrete info on the expansion. Some new game mechanics stuff, to be precise.

First, let's talk about leveling. Once your character levels past level 25, they become a "veteran" character. To gain veteran levels, a character will require significantly more experience (both oddity and classical) than for regular levels. Player can gain a maximum of 5 veteran levels, so the new level cap is 30.

Veteran characters no longer receive base ability or skill points during leveling and their derived stats such as health, detection and so on do not scale with levels anymore. However, they do get to pick a feat every level and, in addition to regular feats, they can also pick from the veteran feat pool.

Veteran feats, at least in this expansion, tend to be more general in nature, but they can also give you some important bonuses that you cannot otherwise obtain. Here are some examples (in addition to the one on the screenshot):

• Fight Response - When starting a turn below 25% of your maximum health, your action points are increased by 10.
  
• Improved Dodging - Increases the chance you'll dodge a melee attack by 5% (additive).
  
• Tempered: Acid/Cold/Electricity/Heat - Reduces all X (depending on feat) damage taken by 30%.
  
• Major Supplier - Increases the amount of money the merchants are willing to use when trading with you by 2% per mercantile skill.

Keep in mind that these feats might be altered, pending testing.

The reason I decided to prevent certain aspects of character from scaling beyond level 25 is to avoid having the character outscale the content at his current main storyline progression just by raw character power. Because we'll be expanding the game horizontally in this expansion (and probably in the future) we need to take special care to still provide adequate challenge to the player while also allowing them to improve some aspects of their character.

 

[Ent]

I'm thinking about jumping back into underrail again after getting hyped by the expansion announcement. I was always a bit intimidated by crafting so I avoided it on my characters for the most part aside from making stuff like balaclava or shoes. This time I really want to dive headlong into it and make a scientist character blasting people with those fancy fancy pistols but I have a few questions about it before I start and I was wondering if you guys could fill me in on them: How good are pistol class weapons (I haven't really heard much about them other then the fact that they were nerfed in the beta)? Should I go 10 perception to meet feat requirements for the pistol feats or should I not care about them? Are there any skill caps to crafting material qualities that I should be aware of so I don't waste skill points? Can I go full nerd and forego stealth and lockpicking and rely solely on hacking as my espionage skill?

 

[Gord]

How good are pistol class weapons (I haven't really heard much about them other then the fact that they were nerfed in the beta)?

Pistols are kind of mixed bag, imo.
They are ok early on, but generally inferior as damage dealers to other options (SMG, Assault rifles or snipers).
The special pistols can be quite good later in the game if you craft them right and get a few of the right perks, however. E.g. high crit-damage plasma pistols can deal a lot of damage.
Chemical pistols (acid, fire, ice) I found to be underwhelming, but maybe it needs a more carefully spec'd char for them.

 

[Jazz_]

What about the crossbow? I have only played with a crossbow/psi build so far (I think I'm midgame right now, I reached CoreCity and I'm doing the faction quests) and everytime I get shot with automatic weapons/hit with a hammer and see the dmg I'm like ''mmhh, maybe the crossbow wasn't the best choice''.

 

[hilfazer]

How good are pistol class weapons (I haven't really heard much about them other then the fact that they were nerfed in the beta)?

Chemical pistols (acid, fire, ice) I found to be underwhelming, but maybe it needs a more carefully spec'd char for them.

Especially after DEX AP reduction nerf and excluding them from Gunslinger.
First one is a balance change, but i don't believe chemical/energy pistols or throwing knives deserved same punishment as SMGs or knives.
Second one is a thematical/realism/immershun change that just happened to affect balance (like any non-cosmetic change do) in a wrong way. I'm fine with such changes but that imbalance needs to be somehow addresed.

Perhaps your spec was all right and you just tried to use chemguns too early. On my 'scientist' build i was using SMG until lvl 14 (btw, i don't have problem with that, i'm fine with builds that suck early only to shine late game ).
Also, chemguns start really weak but they grow in power fast. Sure, they will never match power level of strongest options but they are used to be viable/strong late game and quite fun as well.

What about the crossbow? I have only played with a crossbow/psi build so far (I think I'm midgame right now, I reached CoreCity and I'm doing the faction quests) and everytime I get shot with automatic weapons/hit with a hammer and see the dmg I'm like ''mmhh, maybe the crossbow wasn't the best choice''.

Take stealth, traps, electronics, 10 PER and all xbow feats that require it. Chemistry and biology can be useful too. Epeli can fill you with details.
Some weapons just aren't as strong as others but xbows are viable while also being fun.

 

[Biscotti]

What about the crossbow? I have only played with a crossbow/psi build so far (I think I'm midgame right now, I reached CoreCity and I'm doing the faction quests) and everytime I get shot with automatic weapons/hit with a hammer and see the dmg I'm like ''mmhh, maybe the crossbow wasn't the best choice''.

If you're just going to be shooting regular bolts at everything, then yeah crossbows will feel rather weak. Their strength lies in their ability to fire special bolts to inflict all kinds of status effects on your enemies, and depending on the frame you use, their high critical bonus. I remember breezing through many fights by lighting everything up with incendiary and shock bolts.

That said, they definitely require certain feats to shine, and investing in mechanics/chemistry/biology is important so you can craft the bolts you want instead of relying on merchants to stock the right ones.

 

[roshan]

How good are pistol class weapons (I haven't really heard much about them other then the fact that they were nerfed in the beta)?

Pistols are kind of mixed bag, imo.
They are ok early on, but generally inferior as damage dealers to other options (SMG, Assault rifles or snipers).
The special pistols can be quite good later in the game if you craft them right and get a few of the right perks, however. E.g. high crit-damage plasma pistols can deal a lot of damage.
Chemical pistols (acid, fire, ice) I found to be underwhelming, but maybe it needs a more carefully spec'd char for them.

Pistols are basically shit. I did a pistol build, but for marginally less damage, I could use an SMG which cost perhaps a third of the AP. So I had all the pistol feats but switched to SMG usage, except for using a .44 hammerer as my secondary weapon.

 

[Jazz_]

I am kinda stuck, feeling somewhat under leveled, I'm level 12 (almost 13) and I'm at the point in the main quest where I have to retrieve the metal figurine for the Tchort guys, problem is the area where the figurine is kept it's filled with enemies who absolutely wreck my shit, and there are 2 enemies just in front of it so grabbing it in stealth is not really an option. After that I decided to go to Foundry and do some quests there, I got the Balor quest, found him and he's in an area that's again filled with enemies, no way I can kill all of them + Balor at this level. I have done all the quests at Camp Hathor and all the faction (JKK) quests so I have no idea where I could level up now? I'm kinda wondering if choosing to level thru oddities was a mistake...

 

[Jack Dandy]

No way, oddities did me just fine.

How about just good ol' fashioned exploration? Lotsa oddities to find..

 

[MediantSamuel]

I am kinda stuck, feeling somewhat under leveled, I'm level 12 (almost 13) and I'm at the point in the main quest where I have to retrieve the metal figurine for the Tchort guys, problem is the area where the figurine is kept it's filled with enemies who absolutely wreck my shit, and there are 2 enemies just in front of it so grabbing it in stealth is not really an option. After that I decided to go to Foundry and do some quests there, I got the Balor quest, found him and he's in an area that's again filled with enemies, no way I can kill all of them + Balor at this level. I have done all the quests at Camp Hathor and all the faction (JKK) quests so I have no idea where I could level up now? I'm kinda wondering if choosing to level thru oddities was a mistake...

I feel like you may have missed something, I'm fairly sure I've always ended up at the Institute of Tchort at at least level 16 (four playthroughs.)

 

[Heretic]

I am kinda stuck, feeling somewhat under leveled, I'm level 12 (almost 13) and I'm at the point in the main quest where I have to retrieve the metal figurine for the Tchort guys, problem is the area where the figurine is kept it's filled with enemies who absolutely wreck my shit,

What the fuck are you doing there? Go do something else, literally anything. I didn't even touch Tchortists until I was about level 20. The whole figurine fight was quite difficult for me, especially the lower floor.

Foundry, The Beast, Protectorate or Free Drones, Arena, Jack Quicksilver, regular exploration... Level up some more first.

 

[Jazz_]

I'm 14 on my way to 15 now, I wrecked Balor by luring him in a narrow hallway and abusing the exit/heal and reset cooldowns/re-enter trick.
I basicly casted ''Enrage'' on him several times and watched him wreck all the other enemies for me as I kept doing damage to him.

I am very curious about a sniper rifle build, has any codexer tried it? sometimes I find sniper rifles here and there and all of them seem to have insane damage stats, high perception+sniper rifle build must be one-shoot city.

 

[MediantSamuel]

I'm 14 on my way to 15 now, I wrecked Balor by luring him in a narrow hallway and abusing the exit/heal and reset cooldowns/re-enter trick.
I basicly casted ''Enrage'' on him several times and watched him wreck all the other enemies for me as I kept doing damage to him.

I am very curious about a sniper rifle build, has any codexer tried it? sometimes I find sniper rifles here and there and all of them seem to have insane damage stats, high perception+sniper rifle build must be one-shoot city.

Crafted snipers are incredibly powerful. I'm sure my Sniper character from earlier this year was hitting nearly one thousand damage by late-midgame.

 

[Doktor Best]

So how does the trader stock system work in detail? I know from wiki that they refill their stock, but will they keep what they had forever or will that be gone after a while? Is their stock completely randomized?

 

[Latelistener]

So how does the trader stock system work in detail? I know from wiki that they refill their stock, but will they keep what they had forever or will that be gone after a while? Is their stock completely randomized?

It will be randomized after some time, and they will not keep the same stuff forever, even if you hadn't bought it.

 

[Sykar]

Does anybody know why I get this -10 to Initiative sometimes, like always at the start of the Black Eel vs Scrappers fight?

 

[ghostdog]

So how does the trader stock system work in detail? I know from wiki that they refill their stock, but will they keep what they had forever or will that be gone after a while? Is their stock completely randomized?

IIRC they restock every 3 days. Their inventory is randomized but as you move on through the game, it will get better. Certain stuff like ammo and important supplies will always be available and the vendors tend to keep a pretty similar stock. If you find something you really like, grab it, but you'll probably find something better a bit later, so don't worry too much about it.

 

[Doktor Best]

I'm in Core City now. God damnit this game is too good.

 

[Jazz_]

I'm in Core City now. God damnit this game is too good.

Have fun in the arena. I think the hardest opponent for me was the first one (bald melee guy), mostly because it was the first time I was going against a shielded opponent and I was somewhat underleveled I suspect, If he touched me I was dead, so I had to ''kite'' him the whole time. I was surprised of easy the old psy dude was for me (I think it's the last opponent before the final fight against the Invictus, I have not attempted that one yet).

 

[HoboForEternity]

gauntlet is alot harder than arena.

tho i admit carnivex gave me alot more trouble than i expected him too. the jump between the runner up and carnivex is beyond expectation

 

[Doktor Best]

These feat descriptions are so fucking cryptic. Whats the range of yell? Does it cost AP? Does it only reduce hitchance or also damage? Does it make sense for my SMG-build?

 

[PlanHex]

Does it only reduce hitchance or also damage?

I think it's pretty clear that "reduces offensive skills" refers directly to the skills in the offense category, which govern both hit-chance and damage. But I might be wrong.
For everything else, there's google: https://steamcommunity.com/app/250520/discussions/0/458605613392442813/

 

[Doktor Best]

Yeah thanks but i already found that thread, doesnt answer my question about range though. I quicksaved and took the feat, it has a range of 8 tiles fyi. Success rate about 50% until now.

 

[Sykar]

These feat descriptions are so fucking cryptic. Whats the range of yell? Does it cost AP? Does it only reduce hitchance or also damage? Does it make sense for my SMG-build?

It makes sense for builds which relies on overcoming enemy evasion and dodge so probably yes since SMG builds do roll against enemy evasion.
It is useless for PSI builds.

 

[PlanHex]

It makes sense for builds which relies on overcoming enemy evasion and dodge so probably yes since SMG builds do roll against enemy evasion.

I think you've got that backwards. Doesn't it only decrease enemy guns/throwing/crossbows/melee skills? So it is good when you have high evasion/dodge.