Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[toro]

Are there any ways to increase crit chance? The shotgun is ridiculous when it crits, especially the way I'm building it, and if I can get my crit chance to around 50%, the damage output will be ridiculous.

EDIT: Also, does each pellet have its own roll for whether or not it crits?

https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Survival_Instincts

If you have big balls and no brain

Edit: https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hardcore_Chips

Start crunching

Edit 2: Recklessness and Scrutinous Or Ambush

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Are there any ways to increase crit chance? The shotgun is ridiculous when it crits, especially the way I'm building it, and if I can get my crit chance to around 50%, the damage output will be ridiculous.

EDIT: Also, does each pellet have its own roll for whether or not it crits?

Seeker goggles give you up to 19% crit chance (though it'll be hard finding ones of that high quality, and you'll need pretty high electronics to make them).
Focus stim drug gives you +15%. Takes 50 biology to make, but they use common ingredients so they're easy to mass produce. They also last a minute so they barely ever run out before fights are over, even if you use them ahead of combat.
Infused rathound (regular rathound, not ancient) leather armour gives you a bonus. 100 quality is worth +8%. 120 quality is worth +10%. 155 quality is worth +13%.
Core chips give you +2%. Hardcore chips give you +5% but also make it more likely for enemies to crit you.
Recklessness feat gives you +7% but makes it more likely for enemies to crit you. Body Horror feat gives you +3% against non insect animals. Scrutinous feat gives you +7% with no drawback but needs level 26. Pellet mayhem gives you +3% per enemy hit with your shotgun (but the bonus resets per shot, so you need to keep hitting multiple enemies every time you fire for it to be worthwhile). Ambush gives you a huge crit chance bonus but it requires the lighting on both you and the enemy to be right, which can be hard since shotgun optimal range is pretty short. Survival Instincts also gives you a massive bonus but it needs very high constitution to take and only works when you're at low health.
Psychostatic Electricity feat means electric psi abilities increase the chance for enemies to be crit every time you hit them, but that's way too much effort. Energy pistols with polariser are the same story.

I think that's everything. If we assume you use seeker goggles worth 15% then focus stim+hardcore chips already gets you to 39/40% crit chance without having to give up anything important. That's enough to make vindicator/despot pretty nice already. If you can afford to take the feats or use rathound leather then it just gets better.
Each pellet does crit individually. Look at the combat log, it'll say x/y pellets crit when you shoot.

 

[hell bovine]

Are there any ways to increase crit chance? The shotgun is ridiculous when it crits, especially the way I'm building it, and if I can get my crit chance to around 50%, the damage output will be ridiculous.

EDIT: Also, does each pellet have its own roll for whether or not it crits?

Chips, focus stim, rathound leather, goggles, feats: pellet mayhem, recklessness and survival instincts. Imo the agile, mobile shotgunner is easier than tin can, unless you go temporal.

Edit: Spark Mandriller
Ambush description says "single-target ranged weapon", so I don't think it triggers on shotguns.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Edit: Spark Mandriller
Ambush description says "single-target ranged weapon", so I don't think it triggers on shotguns.

I just tested and it does. According to the description it shouldn't, but it does. Though it can still be hard to set up.

 

[Blaine]

I think the distinction is between weapons that must be aimed at one specific target in order to be used at all, and weapons that can be aimed at a grid square whether or not there's a target present, i.e. AoE weapons. The latter are pretty much always grenades or psi powers.

Are shotguns AoE-targeted or do you have to aim at a specific enemy? I wouldn't know, haven't even used one yet.

 

[Blackmill]

I think the distinction is between weapons that must be aimed at one specific target in order to be used at all, and weapons that can be aimed at a grid square whether or not there's a target present, i.e. AoE weapons. The latter are pretty much always grenades or psi powers.

Are shotguns AoE-targeted or do you have to aim at a specific enemy? I wouldn't know, haven't even used one yet.

You aim at a specific enemy. Though it would be nice to see the cone of fire. I'm sometimes left wondering if I didn't hit secondary targets because they were outside the cone of fire or random chance.

 

[Ramnozack]

Should I worry about killing pirates? I'm trying to get to the Lemurian Health station and these somalian cosplayers are getting in my way.

Spoiler

Does breaking the 'truce' do anything? Will I regret it?

 

[Tigranes]

My scientist is going crit-based and took ambush, but fuck me it's such a bother to actually stand in the right square, I end up not using it much.

Focus Stims, Seeker Goggles, Chips, Recklessness would be the easy and quick way to be hitting ~50% crit chance reliably even at, say, level 10.

 

[ciox]

My scientist is going crit-based and took ambush, but fuck me it's such a bother to actually stand in the right square, I end up not using it much.

Focus Stims, Seeker Goggles, Chips, Recklessness would be the easy and quick way to be hitting ~50% crit chance reliably even at, say, level 10.

If you're going to make a crit build you might as well use a rifle, sniper rifle or crossbow, then you can put on a blue scope for extra 7 or 10% crit chance.

 

[Blackmill]

My scientist is going crit-based and took ambush, but fuck me it's such a bother to actually stand in the right square, I end up not using it much.

Focus Stims, Seeker Goggles, Chips, Recklessness would be the easy and quick way to be hitting ~50% crit chance reliably even at, say, level 10.

You'll find it much more useful in...

Spoiler

the deep caverns. Nearly every tile there is considered dark. So it's just a matter of illuminating the enemy without illuminating yourself. Tchort, the Faceless Commander, pretty much every enemy not in the mushroom forest can be easily ambushed.

 

[Tigranes]

My scientist is going crit-based and took ambush, but fuck me it's such a bother to actually stand in the right square, I end up not using it much.

Focus Stims, Seeker Goggles, Chips, Recklessness would be the easy and quick way to be hitting ~50% crit chance reliably even at, say, level 10.

If you're going to make a crit build you might as well use a rifle, sniper rifle or crossbow, then you can put on a blue scope for extra 7 or 10% crit chance.

Definitely, I just wanted to play a scientist and then make the best of it. On Hard, it's certainly good enough; your Aimed Shot can regularly one-shot or nearly one-shot weaker enemies. Chem pistol Cooked Shot to disable enemies, then Hate spell + Adrenaline + Focus Stim = plenty of shots to trigger more crits. Or just Execute.

Carnifex spent the entire fight on running around on fire, then swamped in acid. The Beast swarm kept dying before the next wave could come in, giving me time to scratch my butt.

 

[Sam Bixby]

Anyone know if it's worth maxing throwing skill with Three-Pointer?

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Has anybody managed to find natural marble and frowning mushroom oddity? I feel like I was searching up whole Black sea for these (and this fucking third Ikebana) and no result

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tigranes]

IIRC clearing a computer terminal with pesticide should lead you to more. There's more than one elevator

 

[Fenix]

does each pellet have its own roll for whether or not it crits?

Yep.

Ambush gives you a huge crit chance bonus but it requires the lighting on both you and the enemy to be right, which can be hard since shotgun optimal range is pretty short.

Doesn't work with shotguns.

I just tested and it does. According to the description it shouldn't, but it does. Though it can still be hard to set up.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Reported!
Or maybe I didn't understand the description.

 

[Ramnozack]

Spoiler

What do you think you should do in the Lemurian Health Center at the end? Because I resisted all of this things psionic mindfuckery, I have the option of leaving without getting the body horror feat. But I could also help the poor bastard out and survive it due to my high will. Is resolve that important of a stat? I'm kind of thinking it doesnt really matter that much, especially since i have Locus of Control feat.

 

[oneself]

What are the best skills to dump specializations in for a shotgun build? I'm leaning towards Sixth Shell and Gun Nut. Gun Nut seems uniquely good as when maxed the bonus obtained from specialization exceed the actual feat itself. Most offer maybe 50% of feats value.

The balance for specializations seems all over the place. Some seems way better than others.

 

[Blackmill]

Spoiler

What do you think you should do in the Lemurian Health Center at the end? Because I resisted all of this things psionic mindfuckery, I have the option of leaving without getting the body horror feat. But I could also help the poor bastard out and survive it due to my high will. Is resolve that important of a stat? I'm kind of thinking it doesnt really matter that much, especially since i have Locus of Control feat.

Spoiler

Resolve is most important for reducing the damage you take from Neural Overload and Bilocation as well as resisting Mental Breakdown, Psi-Cognitive Interruption, and Flashbangs. If you're a hybrid and use weapons, it's also relevant to resisting Yell and attacking through Pseudo-Spatial Projection.

The Body Horror feat could make a reasonably large difference and reduce your resist chance by about 25% (i.e. from 95% resist to less than 70% resist) in the worst case. Do you have low health? A failed save against Mental Breakdown may still kill you if immediately followed by a Neural Overload. Locus of Control obviously helps but only if your survive to take your turn.

 

[Tweed]

For my run in DC I never could find the part to give my goggles night vision so I finally gave up and just ran with what I have, some 112% seeker goggles and a set fo 19% crti goggles. In the end DC was actually a cakewalk compared to everything else that came before, but then I already knew what to expect and I was on good terms with the faceless. Stealth didn't hurt either

What are the best skills to dump specializations in for a shotgun build? I'm leaning towards Sixth Shell and Gun Nut. Gun Nut seems uniquely good as when maxed the bonus obtained from specialization exceed the actual feat itself. Most offer maybe 50% of feats value.

The balance for specializations seems all over the place. Some seems way better than others.

Don't take my word as gospel, but Sixth Shell is amazing since it got patched and gun nut is a must for anyone using shotguns even unspecialized. From my own personal experience though you should skip over short barreled shotguns until you have a lot of skill, they just seemed to miss too much to me until I was very far along.

 

[hilfazer]

What are the best skills to dump specializations in for a shotgun build? I'm leaning towards Sixth Shell and Gun Nut. Gun Nut seems uniquely good as when maxed the bonus obtained from specialization exceed the actual feat itself. Most offer maybe 50% of feats value.

The balance for specializations seems all over the place. Some seems way better than others.

Sixth Shell has hands down the best specialization of shotgun feats and this is saying a lot since shotguns specs are generally good.

For 5 points you get 67% damage increase instead of 33%.
0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 200% instead of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 100%.
400% extra damage over 6 attacks. Beat that.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Has anybody managed to find natural marble and frowning mushroom oddity? I feel like I was searching up whole Black sea for these (and this fucking third Ikebana) and no result

Frowning mushroom is in Fetid Marsh sector L5. I don't know about the marble though.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Reported!
Or maybe I didn't understand the description.

Yeah, it has to be a mistake. Aimed shot says single target only so it doesn't work for shotguns. Ambush says single target only but it does work for shotguns? No way that's right.

 

[oneself]

Tweed hilfazer Sixth Shell and Gun Nut specialization definitely stood out. Exactly 15 points to boot.

Guess those are what I am rolling with.

 

[Black Angel]

Can we talk about how Expedition is bad for non-sneaky characters... even psi ones? Like, a hundred strongmen to kill with electrokinesis which only removes 5% of their health at a time, how is that supposed to be enjoyable?

If there are multiple of them, using Premeditation and having Tranquility helps casting Electrokinesis multiple times against each of a maximum 3 strongmen/handmaiden, thus preventing them to gang on you for 1 turn. If lucky and scores some crits, you could pretty much clear them in 2 turns. I reckon Psychokinesis + Psionic Mania characters would have much easier time because of this.

Still badly designed encounters, wish Styg and co would tone them down reasonably.

Nope, it's either DR or DT used for damage negation, whichever has better results in mitigating damage.

I know, that's why I specifically said 'NOT both of them'.

I think you shouldn't confront assassin at all. Just gather all clues and report to Lenox - that's the optimal solution.

Nah, I confronted Mordre, provoked him to attack me, and still gets to meet Azif. Twice in two different playthroughs I've done it now.

 

[hell bovine]

edit: Yep, img link got deleted once I've logged out of the codex.

On a side note, so far combat in Expedition has been decidely unfun. The point of an army vs army battle in turn based is that you control one team. Not one character out of thirty+ and therefore spend the majority of the encounter watching the computer play against itself.