Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Sjukob]

So what's a good pure psionic build?

Here's what I play on hard/oddity:

Stats:
Constitution - 10
Willpower - 10
Intelligence - 8
Everything else - 3

For pure psi build core stats are: willpower - 10, intelligence - 6. Everything else is your preference: you can spec 10 int, pump agility and dump constitution if you want. I find that having high constitution is less annoying than running around with non-existent healthpool. You won't become a tank, but you will be fat enough to reliably take some stronger attacks without dying, snipers will still oneshot you though. Every attribute point acquired via leveling goes into willpower, no matter what you've done at the start.

--------------------------------------------

Skills:
Offense - ignore entirely
Defense - ignore entirely
Subterfuge:

• stealth - If you chose to dump agility then you will need this to be able to act first in battle. You won't have enough points to be stealthy, so just put enough of them here so you can initiate on enemies without them detecting you instantly, obviously it won't work on every foe in the game (crawlers), but generally you should be good.
• hacking and lockpicking - You've played Underrail before and you know how it goes, put enough points here to be able to crack locks.
• pickpocketing - you might try this if you chose to raise agility. I have no experience with it though.
• traps - you don't need this.

Technology:
Chemistry is pointless for pure psi, but you will have to invest in everything else to craft your stuff, biology requires less points than other skills to be effective.

Psi:

• psychokinesis and metathermics are your primary offensive skills, you should aim to raise them as high as possible.
• thought control - some people might say to leave it at 75, but I find that even with good gear stronger enemies will be able to resist your abilities pretty often if you do so. I personally would recommend to raise it a bit higher so that you can bypass resistances reliably.
• temporal manipulation - 70, it's an utility school, no need to go higher.

Social:
It's up to you. Thanks to your high willpower you will be able to persuade and intimidate everyone in the game, you don't even have to put that many points to achive it. You can go mercantile to get stronger gear. I highly recommend to only invest in one social skill.

Generally speaking, pure psi is skill point starved until you get to the later portion of the game, so be mindful about distributing them. You don't have to pump your offensive skills every level, you can choose to put more points into other skills instead, psi is such a powerhouse that you will still nuke and CC everything to death.

--------------------------------------------

Feats:

Pure psi either goes psychosis or tranquility:

• psychosis - get big damage while you're low on health.
• tranquility - spend less AP while you're at full health and gain extra psi energy.

I see no point in going psychosis unless you're playing on dominating, the damage it offers is a complete overkill for anything below that difficulty, even tranquility build kills any boss or group of enemies in 1-2 turns on hard, but of course it's up to you how you want to play.

Must have feats:

• Force user
• Premeditation
• Locus of control
• Psycho-temporal acceleration
• Either psychosis or tranquility feat chain

The rest is preference. Thick skull, cerebral trauma and hypothermia are useless for you, forget about them.

--------------------------------------------

Psi abilities and gear:

There's no harm in getting them all. Pure psi is all about juggling your abilities and managing cooldowns. However, you won't ever be using force emission, since you're not a melee fighter.

As for the gear. Your best armor is tactical vest with psi beetle carapace. You are going to use all of the psi schools, so get a uni-psi headband with decreased psi ability costs if you play tranquility build, alternatively go for crit damage if you're playing psychosis. The rest is up to you.


If you want more details you can read this guide, it helped me figure out all this magic stuff.

 

[Agesilaus]

I just started playing this game and currently stumbling through a psi build. I am probably spreading my non-combat skills a little too thin, but psi seems strong.

I just recently ran into an energy weapon (laser pistol). Are energy weapons a unique niche in this game?

Energy weapons can be extremely powerful. I had an energy build with a crafted plasma pistol and laser pistol. The former can one shot almost anything, while the latter has a higher rate of fire. I dont think it's niche, but like everything in underrail there are particular skills you should select in order to enjoy the full potential of the build.

 

[ItsChon]

Sometimes, persuasion being tied into so many quests kind of sucks. Hard to make the build I want when I have to spend like 50-100 points on persuasion to get the good outcomes.

 

[Sweeper]

Damn, I really need to get another psi game going before Styg ruins them forever.

I'm doing a pure PSI psychosis/survival instinct run right now.
He needs to nerf that shit into the ground.

 

[Sykar]

Damn, I really need to get another psi game going before Styg ruins them forever.

I'm doing a pure PSI psychosis/survival instinct run right now.
He needs to nerf that shit into the ground.

No all he has to do is stopping PSI Boosters from recovering PSI instantly and instead improve your recovery or maybe even give a debuff for constant chucking of them making them less and less effective until combat is over. Same with Health Hypos. Make the game more attrition based and less instant gibbing should be the goal. As it stands, castrating Psychosis when all it offers is instant gibbing will make it completely undesirable.

 

[Sweeper]

when all it offers is instant gibbing

If you're doing pure PSI you've got far more at your disposal than instant gibbing. You've literally got the most versatile build in the game.
The only downside is low detection, but that's on me cause I was retarded enough not to get paranoia.
Pure PSI is too powerful, it needs a nerf.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sykar]

when all it offers is instant gibbing

If you're doing pure PSI you've got far more at your disposal than instant gibbing. You've literally got the most versatile build in the game.
The only downside is low detection, but that's on me cause I was retarded enough not to get paranoia.
Pure PSI is too powerful, it needs a nerf.

Psychosis main strength is damage/burst. If you want to utilize a wide range of PSI powers then Tranquility is superior due to lower costs and AP cost reduction. You should use non damage abilities sparingly and only when absolutely needed otherwise you are shooting yourself in the foot especially early. It gets better with PSI cost reduction items and food but still does not change the fact that you want to pump most of your PSI points into damage, not utility.

 

[Sweeper]

Psychosis main strength is damage/burst. If you want to utilize a wide range of PSI powers then Tranquility is superior due to lower costs and AP cost reduction. You should use non damage abilities sparingly and only when absolutely needed otherwise you are shooting yourself in the foot especially early. It gets better with PSI cost reduction items and food but still does not change the fact that you want to pump most of your PSI points into damage, not utility.

True, but you have so much versatility that on the rare ocassion when killing shit doesn't work out, you still have plenty of options to fall back to.
Force User is the most OP feat in the game. It needs to be nerfed, pure PSI whether psychosis or tranquility is way to powerful compared to all other builds, especially on dominating.

Anywho, after I'm done with this gay ass pure PSI bullshit, I'm planning a psi puncher. That's another point against PSI btw, going pure anything other than PSI isn't worth it cause PSI has psychotemporal contraction and force user. It's too good not to take.

how would psi fare if you wouldnt be able to initiate fights from stealth for free?

It wouldn't. At least not on Dominating. Even Force Field with Force User wouldn't work because from what I can tell turn order is determined at start of battle through initiative, if you manually enter battles through stealth you always go first on subsequent turns.
I don't know if it's an oversight, but without that Dominating would be a hell of a lot harder.

Also what the fuck is up with the build site?
FUCKING NIGGERS WHERE ARE MY BUILDS REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I AIN'T GOING BACK TO WRITING SHIT IN NOTEPAD

 

[Parabalus]

how would psi fare if you wouldnt be able to initiate fights from stealth for free?

I have stealth only for skipping DC, you can initiate combat from range/LoS or just tank the first turn with a shield.

when all it offers is instant gibbing

If you're doing pure PSI you've got far more at your disposal than instant gibbing. You've literally got the most versatile build in the game.
The only downside is low detection, but that's on me cause I was retarded enough not to get paranoia.
Pure PSI is too powerful, it needs a nerf.

Psychosis main strength is damage/burst. If you want to utilize a wide range of PSI powers then Tranquility is superior due to lower costs and AP cost reduction. You should use non damage abilities sparingly and only when absolutely needed otherwise you are shooting yourself in the foot especially early. It gets better with PSI cost reduction items and food but still does not change the fact that you want to pump most of your PSI points into damage, not utility.

That's all true, in theory. In game you have ample PSI for everything thanks to all the reductions, especially with LTI.

From my experience I had more troubles with running out of PSI as Tranq, since it takes much more to kill stuff, but I didn't do a run with Expedition.

 

[Horvatii]

Char builder is dead, domain seems to have expired and has been taken by some scammers.
underrail.info.tm
gonsky

I once tested a full psyker PLUS ar '''build''', since autorifle needs 3 feats max. Like fullauto, concentratedfire, commando - thats it.
I had enough points for maxing guns, all psi schools but temporal which went to 60, and stealth+pickpocket for ammo and drugs. And some skills were leftovers for hack or lockpick or something else.
The kinda interesting thing is that there was no time or opportunity to brrr with the ar... There was always some kind of better option from the psi schools...

 

[hell bovine]

how would psi fare if you wouldnt be able to initiate fights from stealth for free?

It wouldn't. At least not on Dominating. Even Force Field with Force User wouldn't work because from what I can tell turn order is determined at start of battle through initiative, if you manually enter battles through stealth you always go first on subsequent turns.

You can easily build a high initiative psi. You might have to compromise on the stats & feats a bit more (to get trigger happy, gunslinger and paranoia), but a psi can afford it.

The problem with psi is that enemies can't counter some of the abilities (force field and stasis being the worst offenders). The devs would have to overhaul both how these abilities work and how the enemy ai handles them in combat, but whether that happens...

 

[ItsChon]

Char builder is dead, domain seems to have expired and has been taken by some scammers.
underrail.info.tm
gonsky

I once tested a full psyker PLUS ar '''build''', since autorifle needs 3 feats max. Like fullauto, concentratedfire, commando - thats it.
I had enough points for maxing guns, all psi schools but temporal which went to 60, and stealth+pickpocket for ammo and drugs. And some skills were leftovers for hack or lockpick or something else.
The kinda interesting thing is that there was no time or opportunity to brrr with the ar... There was always some kind of better option from the psi schools...

The owner of info.tm sold it so all the sites that were hosted under it went dead. The creator of the builder just migrated it over to a different service, here's the new url.
https://underrail.info/build/
Works just fine.

 

[Sweeper]

Does Heavyweight apply unmodified armor penalty to crit damage, i.e. before Nimble and Body Weight Training?

 

[Jedi Exile]

Game is super fun. I just killed a burrower with a trap! Amazing.

 

[Mac_Orion]

https://underrail.info/

is the new one (without the tm), was changed yesterday or so.

 

[Okagron]

Here's one I played a while back. Meh early game, but ends up being a beast.

Got to around level 12 and it's really meh in the first handful of levels. Thankfully it's picking up with the shotgun feats, hitting for around 300 damage in level 10 was pretty damn satisfying.

Gonna try a psionic build after this one since it seems to be a lot of fun. The psionic enemies fuck me up bad, specially in early game, so i want to give them a taste of their own medicine.

 

[Humanophage]

I've been replaying Underrail a second time after first doing most of it in 2016 (I was loving it but had a game-breaking bug). This time, I first started with an AR/sniper build on Hard, but it was turning out to be insufficiently hardcore by the time I was doing Core City quests (Depot A was easy), so now I'm restarting on DOMINATING before spoiling too much and so the game keeps feeling fresh. I'm adding psi to the mix because I want something eclectic with a lot of diverse abilities and because of the tactical potential of the Force Field.

I'm not familiar enough with the game to go full exotic weaponry like plasma pistols and crossbows, so I want to stick with a realistic build. On the other hand, I don't particularly want to play a sniper, which seems too popular. Do I understand correctly that there is a shortage of ammo in the endgame, so you're much better off being a sniper than bursting because you'll quickly run out of bullets, let alone W2C bullets? I have no trouble crafting a good retractable spearhead and I have plenty of action points, and aimed shot or snipe would synergise like magic with entropic recurrence.

I'm currently at level 9, but the plan is something like this* (tailoring was a mistake whose only use was hopper tabis, but I'm thinking I'll need it eventually anyway in some distant future). This is assuming that I will proceed with ARs instead of sniper rifles. I will be dumping everything into Perception later on. Don't know what to do with specialisation yet, I'm thinking maybe concentrated fire but I'll see what I'll be using.

* Build: https://underrail.info/build/?EgcDCgMLAwdkBQAAAABfWloAD2RfDgAZAB4ALxkAQisBOVMoPypHKRUmSt-_

 

[Twiglard]

Do I understand correctly that there is a shortage of ammo in the endgame, so you're much better off being a sniper than bursting because you'll quickly run out of bullets, let alone W2C bullets?

Sort of. SMG is very disadvantaged (3-6 bursts in a turn) despite highest overall damage to multiple targets in a turn. AR not so much since individual shots are pretty powerful and they don't bursts as much. But on medium difficulty DC doesn't respawn enough for ammo to become a problem.

tailoring was a mistake whose only use was hopper tabis, but I'm thinking I'll need it eventually anyway in some distant future

Doesn't all armor use tailoring though? It's used for vests, is it used for plate armor?

I have no trouble crafting a good retractable spearhead

Just make sure the spearhead can shoot twice a turn. Add +crit of some form. Movement malus reduction isn't that important. With some amount of stealth (75-100?) from equipment you should open on your own terms mid-late game without any issues and then movement isn't that big of a deal.

* Build: https://underrail.info/build/?EgcDCgMLAwdkBQAAAABfWloAD2RfDgAZAB4ALxkAQisBOVMoPypHKRUmSt-_

Your stats, feats and weapon don't synergize with one another at all. Look at underrail builds on youtube. Some guy has a good playlist showing how big are some of the synergies.

 

[Humanophage]

Sort of. SMG is very disadvantaged (3-6 bursts in a turn) despite highest overall damage to multiple targets in a turn. AR not so much since individual shots are pretty powerful and they don't bursts as much. But on medium difficulty DC doesn't respawn enough for ammo to become a problem.

This is pretty worrying because I'm playing on dominating (last difficulty), not medium. I was hoping to use bursts a lot with ARs, hence the feats.

Doesn't all armor use tailoring though? It's used for vests, is it used for plate armor?

Yes, but I don't have enough points to spare to invest in it and the found armour is decent enough. Squeezing out a bit more stealth and protection isn't worth the investment. I don't use plate and vests, just leather.

Just make sure the spearhead can shoot twice a turn. Add +crit of some form. Movement malus reduction isn't that important. With some amount of stealth (75-100?) from equipment you should open on your own terms mid-late game without any issues and then movement isn't that big of a deal.

If I do craft a spearhead, I will be using the anatomical scope (boosts critical damage rather than chance), the -AP thing, and the retractable barrel. I'll possibly just stick to using it for openers (aimed shot, followed by 5-AP entropic recurrence) or dealing with trash mobs not to waste ammo. Not sure yet, maybe just having a reaper (added crit damage) is better for an opener. Also the -AP thing seems very rare, so for now I'll be using reaper with anatomical scope and smart module instead of -AP.

Your stats, feats and weapon don't synergize with one another at all. Look at underrail builds on youtube. Some guy has a good playlist showing how big are some of the synergies.

What's wrong with the stats? You can't get full auto without native 7 strength. Agility is needed for passable initiative checks and blitz, as well as mobility. Intelligence is needed for crafting feats, which are a huge bonus to damage and shields. The rest is perception.

Aimed shot: needed for the opener
Sprint: needed to move after quitting shadows and to maximise blitz
Gun nut: large bonus to damage, although better for the larger sniper rifles rather than spearhead
Paranoia: needed primarily to bump initiative, plus some minor defence and to avoid getting attacked by invisible enemies - although I hear that DC has undetectable stealthed enemies
Tranquility: required for the opening temporal de/buffs which would otherwise cost lots of AP, as well as for the force field
Premeditation: electrokinesis is an amazing tool for crowd control, but far too costly in AP without it - it's just overall a great feat that also has a surprisingly brief cooldown (benefitting from limited temporal increment that shortens cooldowns by 1 turn)
Blitz: since I am reliant on overwhelming opening 2 turns and have high agility, this is a good 20 AP bonus
Power management: while I would hope to avoid getting hit via the force field, ranged stuns, and slowdowns, it is good to have a seriously enormous shield
Full-auto: pretty obvious huge bonus to damage, although I fear I may start running out of ammo
Opportunist: I am stunning egregiously, so this is a natural +25% damage bonus
Concentrated fire: large bonus to damage for bursts

Like I said, I am not sure which combination of weapons I will be using yet and I want to maintain some flexibility and complexity instead of putting everything into one combo. The build is made with ARs in mind and not sniper rifles, which I'd rather not use too much because they are known to be OP. At the moment, I actually find that the shotgun works sweet because it's easy to unload two turns of 20 AP shots up close on a stunned opponent, then block him out with force field and recharge. However, although I like shotguns, I heard that there's an even greater shotgun ammo shortage in DC.

 

[Twiglard]

Spoiler

Sorry if this sounds too personal or harsh. That wasn't my intention. I'm criticizing your build, not your person. Really.

This is pretty worrying because I'm playing on dominating (last difficulty), not medium. I was hoping to use bursts a lot with ARs, hence the feats.

You're missing Commando, Expertise, etc. That is, you took no actually useful feats. So late in the game it's pointless to take Ambush and Critical Power since there are too few dark areas in DC.

Take Commando, then Expertise. You don't have enough DEX for Grenadier

On Dominating you have to either burst through (see above feats) -- the mobs respawn as fast as you kill them -- or have 300 Stealth (which is actually possible due to your AGI score) if your armor penalty isn't too high. You can go for 10% armor penalty vest for stealth's stake. Just deprioritize crafting and put a ton of skill points into it every level up.

And yes, Dominating mobs in DC are fucking hard.

If I do craft a spearhead, I will be using the anatomical scope (boosts critical damage rather than chance), the -AP thing, and the retractable barrel.

That's good, then take Critical Power. Also take Snipe (doesn't proc Critical Power), requires stealth.

Agility is needed for passable initiative checks and blitz, as well as mobility.

Running doesn't synergize with assault rifles.

You should always explore new areas with stealth. Just don't come close to anyone, but that solves the issue of initiative and positioning the best.

Gun nut: large bonus to damage

Bullshit, that's a 7% bonus.

Tranquility: required for the opening temporal de/buffs

It's too costly to take PSI with AR on Dominating. It doesn't synergize well either.

Full-auto: pretty obvious huge bonus to damage

Yes, and you should also use the weapon mod giving 2 additional shots.

The build is made with ARs in mind and not sniper rifles, which I'd rather not use too much because they are known to be OP.

Sniper Rifles aren't OP. You'll revise that statement after going to Hollow Earth. SMGs and ARs were more useful while Smart Module worked with Burst.

Opportunist: I am stunning egregiously, so this is a natural +25% damage bonus

And you have no Suppressive Fire.

Power management: while I would hope to avoid getting hit via the force field, ranged stuns, and slowdowns, it is good to have a seriously enormous shield

And unless your shield reaches 1600 HP it's not OP. Shield power is a dick measuring contest and you can't not play it.

To summarize, in order of priority:

- For AR: Muzzle Brake (+2 shots), Anatomically-Aware Scope, Rapid Reloader (use rifle model for 2 bursts a turn without adrenaline)

- Commando (!)
- Expertise (!)
- Critical Power, Sharpshooter
- Suppressive Fire
- Ambush
- Snipe

 

[Sweeper]

I've been replaying Underrail a second time after first doing most of it in 2016 (I was loving it but had a game-breaking bug). This time, I first started with an AR/sniper build on Hard, but it was turning out to be insufficiently hardcore by the time I was doing Core City quests (Depot A was easy), so now I'm restarting on DOMINATING before spoiling too much and so the game keeps feeling fresh. I'm adding psi to the mix because I want something eclectic with a lot of diverse abilities and because of the tactical potential of the Force Field.

I'm not familiar enough with the game to go full exotic weaponry like plasma pistols and crossbows, so I want to stick with a realistic build. On the other hand, I don't particularly want to play a sniper, which seems too popular. Do I understand correctly that there is a shortage of ammo in the endgame, so you're much better off being a sniper than bursting because you'll quickly run out of bullets, let alone W2C bullets? I have no trouble crafting a good retractable spearhead and I have plenty of action points, and aimed shot or snipe would synergise like magic with entropic recurrence.

I'm currently at level 9, but the plan is something like this* (tailoring was a mistake whose only use was hopper tabis, but I'm thinking I'll need it eventually anyway in some distant future). This is assuming that I will proceed with ARs instead of sniper rifles. I will be dumping everything into Perception later on. Don't know what to do with specialisation yet, I'm thinking maybe concentrated fire but I'll see what I'll be using.

* Build: https://underrail.info/build/?EgcDCgMLAwdkBQAAAABfWloAD2RfDgAZAB4ALxkAQisBOVMoPypHKRUmSt-_

That's not a very good build for a multitude of reasons, but you should be able to complete the game.
As for ammo you can always craft more W2C ammo, DC shouldn't be a problem if you stealth to skip some fights and craft enough W2C for it.

 

[Sykar]

Spoiler

Sorry if this sounds too personal or harsh. That wasn't my intention. I'm criticizing your build, not your person. Really.

This is pretty worrying because I'm playing on dominating (last difficulty), not medium. I was hoping to use bursts a lot with ARs, hence the feats.

You're missing Commando, Expertise, etc. That is, you took no actually useful feats. So late in the game it's pointless to take Ambush and Critical Power since there are too few dark areas in DC.

Take Commando, then Expertise. You don't have enough DEX for Grenadier

On Dominating you have to either burst through (see above feats) -- the mobs respawn as fast as you kill them -- or have 300 Stealth (which is actually possible due to your AGI score) if your armor penalty isn't too high. You can go for 10% armor penalty vest for stealth's stake. Just deprioritize crafting and put a ton of skill points into it every level up.

And yes, Dominating mobs in DC are fucking hard.

If I do craft a spearhead, I will be using the anatomical scope (boosts critical damage rather than chance), the -AP thing, and the retractable barrel.

That's good, then take Critical Power. Also take Snipe (doesn't proc Critical Power), requires stealth.

Agility is needed for passable initiative checks and blitz, as well as mobility.

Running doesn't synergize with assault rifles.

You should always explore new areas with stealth. Just don't come close to anyone, but that solves the issue of initiative and positioning the best.

Gun nut: large bonus to damage

Bullshit, that's a 7% bonus.

Tranquility: required for the opening temporal de/buffs

It's too costly to take PSI with AR on Dominating. It doesn't synergize well either.

Full-auto: pretty obvious huge bonus to damage

Yes, and you should also use the weapon mod giving 2 additional shots.

The build is made with ARs in mind and not sniper rifles, which I'd rather not use too much because they are known to be OP.

Sniper Rifles aren't OP. You'll revise that statement after going to Hollow Earth. SMGs and ARs were more useful while Smart Module worked with Burst.

Opportunist: I am stunning egregiously, so this is a natural +25% damage bonus

And you have no Suppressive Fire.

Power management: while I would hope to avoid getting hit via the force field, ranged stuns, and slowdowns, it is good to have a seriously enormous shield

And unless your shield reaches 1600 HP it's not OP. Shield power is a dick measuring contest and you can't not play it.

To summarize, in order of priority:

- For AR: Muzzle Brake (+2 shots), Anatomically-Aware Scope, Rapid Reloader (use rifle model for 2 bursts a turn without adrenaline)

- Commando (!)
- Expertise (!)
- Critical Power, Sharpshooter
- Suppressive Fire
- Ambush
- Snipe

Expertise is pretty meh for AR at best and useless for sniper riles.

 

[Humanophage]

Spoiler

Sorry if this sounds too personal or harsh. That wasn't my intention. I'm criticizing your build, not your person. Really.

This is pretty worrying because I'm playing on dominating (last difficulty), not medium. I was hoping to use bursts a lot with ARs, hence the feats.

You're missing Commando, Expertise, etc. That is, you took no actually useful feats. So late in the game it's pointless to take Ambush and Critical Power since there are too few dark areas in DC.

Take Commando, then Expertise. You don't have enough DEX for Grenadier

On Dominating you have to either burst through (see above feats) -- the mobs respawn as fast as you kill them -- or have 300 Stealth (which is actually possible due to your AGI score) if your armor penalty isn't too high. You can go for 10% armor penalty vest for stealth's stake. Just deprioritize crafting and put a ton of skill points into it every level up.

And yes, Dominating mobs in DC are fucking hard.

If I do craft a spearhead, I will be using the anatomical scope (boosts critical damage rather than chance), the -AP thing, and the retractable barrel.

That's good, then take Critical Power. Also take Snipe (doesn't proc Critical Power), requires stealth.

Agility is needed for passable initiative checks and blitz, as well as mobility.

Running doesn't synergize with assault rifles.

You should always explore new areas with stealth. Just don't come close to anyone, but that solves the issue of initiative and positioning the best.

Gun nut: large bonus to damage

Bullshit, that's a 7% bonus.

Tranquility: required for the opening temporal de/buffs

It's too costly to take PSI with AR on Dominating. It doesn't synergize well either.

Full-auto: pretty obvious huge bonus to damage

Yes, and you should also use the weapon mod giving 2 additional shots.

The build is made with ARs in mind and not sniper rifles, which I'd rather not use too much because they are known to be OP.

Sniper Rifles aren't OP. You'll revise that statement after going to Hollow Earth. SMGs and ARs were more useful while Smart Module worked with Burst.

Opportunist: I am stunning egregiously, so this is a natural +25% damage bonus

And you have no Suppressive Fire.

Power management: while I would hope to avoid getting hit via the force field, ranged stuns, and slowdowns, it is good to have a seriously enormous shield

And unless your shield reaches 1600 HP it's not OP. Shield power is a dick measuring contest and you can't not play it.

To summarize, in order of priority:

- For AR: Muzzle Brake (+2 shots), Anatomically-Aware Scope, Rapid Reloader (use rifle model for 2 bursts a turn without adrenaline)

- Commando (!)
- Expertise (!)
- Critical Power, Sharpshooter
- Suppressive Fire
- Ambush
- Snipe

No worries, I'm all up for criticising builds. I am not trying to come up with the strongest build, but rather something that wouldn't be too straightforward or too popular whilst still packing a punch. It is good that ARs and psi are not seen as a popular combination.

The issue here is that 'synergy' seems to mean simply taking all the feats that mention assault rifles and sprees. I would prefer to have a more interesting unit than just an auto-gunner with repeated feats to maximise the burst, especially early on. I was already playing the gunner on Hard, and it was uninventive. The force field adds a significant new dimension to fights, I find, and the temporal spells are a good bonus. I actually might take psycho-temporal acceleration later down the road.

Stealth: I am already maxing out my stealth. I max out crafting whenever I want to switch from one weapon to another. No crafting = no fast sniper rifle with smart module.
Initiative (and paranoia): of course, I attack from stealth. Unfortunately, sometimes you just accidentally bump into someone or you have an unexpected fight. Simply reloading in such cases seems unfair. Also the invisible enemies are annoying.
Sniper rifles OP: well, smart module doesn't work with burst any more. Also psi sniper is a bit stereotypical and seems to be widely used so it needs to be diluted with AR.
Mobility: I find that I'm constantly running away or towards enemies.

Commando: I plan to take it later on after level 18.
Critical power: will probably take it, although not sure it would work so well with ARs because they only potential bonus to crit comes from the crit damage scope - and that reduces the chance to crit since you're not using the +crit scope.
Expertise: doesn't work with SRs, and might not synergise so well with ARs either if I focus on crit - which I should. Seems kind of mid-level when your level is high enough for a significant bonus, but your crit chance is still low.
Grenadier: I wish I could have it, but I'd rather put those points in Per if they were free. Although it would have been beautiful synergy with the no-AP psi cooldown boost.
Ambush: as you say, I doubt that I will be able to use it in DC, so it will be a waste of a slot. It's cool that it affects positioning and it would work with my stealth, but it seems a little too finicky. Also I am not sure I'll be able to burst from afar and I'm using aim with the sniper rifle.
Snipe: I am very much on the fence about this. I fear that I will switch even more to sniper rifles if I take it. Other than aim, it is the only feat to be used with sniper rifles that benefits from smart attacks, which get a large multiplier. Also my stealth is obviously high, plus it's amusing to boost this attack further with the cloaking device. The downside is that the critical multipliers are wasted on it, plus it has a high miss chance because you can't paralyze the target first. Missing with sniper rifles is very unpleasant. Lastly, I don't re-enter stealth in combat much, although that may be a question of habit and it may work well with the force field.
Gun nut: it's not 7.5% - that would be if every weapon had fixed damage instead of a range. It boosts both ARs and SRs, unlike other more particularistic feats. Also it uniquely affects base damage that is later multiplied instead of being added to skill bonuses like other feats. In addition, it reduces the chance that you will roll one of the lower range numbers that benefit less from multiplication.
Suppressive fire: I used to have it on my gunner and found it pretty useless because the effect is minor. I can see the synergy with opportunist, but it probably applies after the burst, so it's just every second burst. In any case, if the target is serious, it's already either stunned for accuracy or slowed.
Sharpshooter: it's nice, but doesn't affect ARs. Might take it but critical power goes first, as you say. This would make the reaper look like a pretty attractive competitor to the spearhead, though I still love the flexibility.
Power management: I'm at level 12 and my most recent shield is already 1000. I'm certain it will be a lot bigger eventually.

There is also an issue with equipment. With sniper rifles, you do not really need to increase your crit chance because you have Aim and Snipe, so you're better off with smart goggles. With ARs, you should go for the crit goggles.

 

[Sheepherder]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Sorry if this sounds too personal or harsh. That wasn't my intention. I'm criticizing your build, not your person. Really.

This is pretty worrying because I'm playing on dominating (last difficulty), not medium. I was hoping to use bursts a lot with ARs, hence the feats.

You're missing Commando, Expertise, etc. That is, you took no actually useful feats. So late in the game it's pointless to take Ambush and Critical Power since there are too few dark areas in DC.

Take Commando, then Expertise. You don't have enough DEX for Grenadier

On Dominating you have to either burst through (see above feats) -- the mobs respawn as fast as you kill them -- or have 300 Stealth (which is actually possible due to your AGI score) if your armor penalty isn't too high. You can go for 10% armor penalty vest for stealth's stake. Just deprioritize crafting and put a ton of skill points into it every level up.

And yes, Dominating mobs in DC are fucking hard.

If I do craft a spearhead, I will be using the anatomical scope (boosts critical damage rather than chance), the -AP thing, and the retractable barrel.

That's good, then take Critical Power. Also take Snipe (doesn't proc Critical Power), requires stealth.

Agility is needed for passable initiative checks and blitz, as well as mobility.

Running doesn't synergize with assault rifles.

You should always explore new areas with stealth. Just don't come close to anyone, but that solves the issue of initiative and positioning the best.

Gun nut: large bonus to damage

Bullshit, that's a 7% bonus.

Tranquility: required for the opening temporal de/buffs

It's too costly to take PSI with AR on Dominating. It doesn't synergize well either.

Full-auto: pretty obvious huge bonus to damage

Yes, and you should also use the weapon mod giving 2 additional shots.

The build is made with ARs in mind and not sniper rifles, which I'd rather not use too much because they are known to be OP.

Sniper Rifles aren't OP. You'll revise that statement after going to Hollow Earth. SMGs and ARs were more useful while Smart Module worked with Burst.

Opportunist: I am stunning egregiously, so this is a natural +25% damage bonus

And you have no Suppressive Fire.

Power management: while I would hope to avoid getting hit via the force field, ranged stuns, and slowdowns, it is good to have a seriously enormous shield

And unless your shield reaches 1600 HP it's not OP. Shield power is a dick measuring contest and you can't not play it.

To summarize, in order of priority:

- For AR: Muzzle Brake (+2 shots), Anatomically-Aware Scope, Rapid Reloader (use rifle model for 2 bursts a turn without adrenaline)

- Commando (!)
- Expertise (!)
- Critical Power, Sharpshooter
- Suppressive Fire
- Ambush
- Snipe

No worries, I'm all up for criticising builds. I am not trying to come up with the strongest build, but rather something that wouldn't be too straightforward or too popular whilst still packing a punch. It is good that ARs and psi are not seen as a popular combination.

The issue here is that 'synergy' seems to mean simply taking all the feats that mention assault rifles and sprees. I would prefer to have a more interesting unit than just an auto-gunner with repeated feats to maximise the burst, especially early on. I was already playing the gunner on Hard, and it was uninventive. The force field adds a significant new dimension to fights, I find, and the temporal spells are a good bonus. I actually might take psycho-temporal acceleration later down the road.

Stealth: I am already maxing out my stealth. I max out crafting whenever I want to switch from one weapon to another. No crafting = no fast sniper rifle with smart module.
Initiative (and paranoia): of course, I attack from stealth. Unfortunately, sometimes you just accidentally bump into someone or you have an unexpected fight. Simply reloading in such cases seems unfair. Also the invisible enemies are annoying.
Sniper rifles OP: well, smart module doesn't work with burst any more. Also psi sniper is a bit stereotypical and seems to be widely used so it needs to be diluted with AR.
Mobility: I find that I'm constantly running away or towards enemies.

Commando: I plan to take it later on after level 18.
Critical power: will probably take it, although not sure it would work so well with ARs because they only potential bonus to crit comes from the crit damage scope - and that reduces the chance to crit since you're not using the +crit scope.
Expertise: doesn't work with SRs, and might not synergise so well with ARs either if I focus on crit - which I should. Seems kind of mid-level when your level is high enough for a significant bonus, but your crit chance is still low.
Grenadier: I wish I could have it, but I'd rather put those points in Per if they were free. Although it would have been beautiful synergy with the no-AP psi cooldown boost.
Ambush: as you say, I doubt that I will be able to use it in DC, so it will be a waste of a slot. It's cool that it affects positioning and it would work with my stealth, but it seems a little too finicky. Also I am not sure I'll be able to burst from afar and I'm using aim with the sniper rifle.
Snipe: I am very much on the fence about this. I fear that I will switch even more to sniper rifles if I take it. Other than aim, it is the only feat to be used with sniper rifles that benefits from smart attacks, which get a large multiplier. Also my stealth is obviously high, plus it's amusing to boost this attack further with the cloaking device. The downside is that the critical multipliers are wasted on it, plus it has a high miss chance because you can't paralyze the target first. Missing with sniper rifles is very unpleasant. Lastly, I don't re-enter stealth in combat much, although that may be a question of habit and it may work well with the force field.
Gun nut: it's not 7.5% - that would be if every weapon had fixed damage instead of a range. It boosts both ARs and SRs, unlike other more particularistic feats. Also it uniquely affects base damage that is later multiplied instead of being added to skill bonuses like other feats. In addition, it reduces the chance that you will roll one of the lower range numbers that benefit less from multiplication.
Suppressive fire: I used to have it on my gunner and found it pretty useless because the effect is minor. I can see the synergy with opportunist, but it probably applies after the burst, so it's just every second burst. In any case, if the target is serious, it's already either stunned for accuracy or slowed.
Sharpshooter: it's nice, but doesn't affect ARs. Might take it but critical power goes first, as you say. This would make the reaper look like a pretty attractive competitor to the spearhead, though I still love the flexibility.
Power management: I'm at level 12 and my most recent shield is already 1000. I'm certain it will be a lot bigger eventually.

There is also an issue with equipment. With sniper rifles, you do not really need to increase your crit chance because you have Aim and Snipe, so you're better off with smart goggles. With ARs, you should go for the crit goggles.

AR don't mesh very well with snipers. They're more of a stand alone weapon because commando needs both weapon slots to be ARs.

Even so, I'd recommend getting commando as soon as you can. Even if you plan to use one weapon slot for snipers isntead of hornet+chimera, it's too good to put it off for later.
Don't use +crit% scopes, +crit% is piss easy to get. Drugs, food, armor, feats etc. Without SI ARs can comfortably at least 34% crit% without using goggles or scope right after Depot A. Over 44% crit% with goggles and over 74% with SI.
Grenadier is a crutch imo.
Gun Nut is not worth 4 points in INT. The measly 7% increase to base damage shouldn't matter when all the rest of the multipliers come into play. Power management is meh for shields alone, as shields without it can go up to 1600 at oculus store component quality. Plenty enough. With power management, shield go over 2k. If these are your only int feats, you'd be better off leaving int at 3.
Suppressive fire activates at the first bullet of the burst, so the second bullet get the bonus. With high PER ARs can burst down several enemies per burst, so an aoe +15% dmg is very good.
Don't get Blitz. It's too big of an investment. I don't think it's ever worth it to get 10 AGI for blitz alone.