In my first playthrough of Underrail I've used AR build I borrowed from forums and I didn't enjoy it (in Institute I just surrendered and looked up a guide to just finish the game).
But some time ago I've decided to replay, this time with my own build- stealthy pacifist (at least towards humanoids) with a crossbow.
And the game was really fun this time.
I was honestly surprised how many quests you can complete without killing any humanoids (I've had to skip rest of the Arena, Gauntlet and majority of Protectorate). And it's not only just sneaking around hostiles. Both persuasion and intimidation were really useful in my playthrough.
Big bummer for me is MQ. Most of the game is rather open, but to track Cornell you NEED to fight in the Arena. Couldn't my character do anything else to impress his Oligarch? (Though it seems that Styg understands the lack of choice seeing all the possibilities you have to impress Briggs, including the Persuasion option, so maybe they'll add more options in one of these smaller patches)
Some highlights of my playthrough:
-I've spent over an hour, 2 flashbangs and 2 tranquilizer bolts on the Scrapper- Black Eels firefight to avoid any casualties on my side
-45 minutes, molotov, flashbang and two incendiary bolts on the siphoner Arena fight, as the PSI challenger would run into the pack and die
-over 2 hours (around 12 reloads) on the first fight with the Natives in Black Sea. (I think it was my 10th try where I've discovered that you can't use antidotes on NPCs- Yahota and another trooper died form heartbreak poison after the fight)
-over the course of the whole Expedition I've used around 40 basic frag grenades- early on I've discovered that you can lock enemies behind those electronic doors skipping most hordes (you can lock them in combat too).
I plan my next char to be unarmed, with the ultimate goal of killing as many people as possible. Any tips?
The thing with arena is you do have options there to subvert it, if you can incapacitate your target with Cheap Shots, Cryostasis or good ol' Flashbangs, then you can enter stealth and treat it as an assassination mission.
With unarmed I had a lot of fun with this build
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?Hgg...sKpecKtwrPioZAC4qeCAeKnvgHitrUC4ra2A-K2vgbfvw
Add all the spec points right and you can wear a Sturdy Tungsten Shield Riot Gear, with the heaviest and most damaging shield for Shield Bash, and still have Lightning Punches active and 4 AP punches early on, while able to block up to 150 damage and with your full buffed Shield Bash dealing around 150-300 damage for no action point cost, up to 600 if it crits.
Can swap Recklessness for Sprint if you want more reliability especially againsted ranged enemies, but I prefer more crits.
