Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Stavrophore]

Yo! Thanks for your advice. I read about the Temporal spell and it looks like it would be useful. I also recalculated all my skills to meet the thresholds assuming that I am using +2 Int food and workbenches. This gave me enough skill points to get Chemistry.
Could you do me a favor and look at my revised build?

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQC...8AABZKzkvJxYwPlxYXsKIGyZRQU7Csx3ipbwK4qqoBd-_

The build is coming together nicely, I think! What would you do with the leftover skillpoints? Traps or Pickpocket, perhaps? Don't want to miss any oddities. Not sure how much I need to pump Traps.
Should I get rid of Pinning + Opportunist? It seems like a fun combo, but it's probably not very good with that 30% chance. However, I was thinking poisons or gas grenades would probably trigger Opportunist.

I would do sth like that. Interlooper is largely useless with >200 stealth[and you will get more if you padd your armor]. Speaking of armor, you plan leather armor? Its pretty squishy build, but needs agility so these heavy leathers are no-go.
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQC...ABhKzkvJxYwPlhewogbJlFBTsKzwodc4qW8CuKqqAXfvw

Albeit i dont know if fatal throw health treshold increase would be better than speccing in ripper. Getting guaranteed criticals at 35% health instead of 25% is a huge difference when fighting higher health enemies, that can't be downed to 25% after your grenade throw. You basically open up with damage dealing grenade against a group, and then you go with knives[or flashbang and then knives].

If you dont like convenience of pack rathound you can get sure step to not get ganked by your own caltrops. I would advise for it, since you have opportunist and its a throwing build after all. But getting any loot will be pain in the ass. Until securing rift walking, you will have lot of backtracking to do.

Oh and Ferryman is a fucking Ted Kaczynski crossbred with Plato.

 

[Ol' Willy]

DEEP CAVERNS WITHOUT STEALTH:

I made a critical mistake by not reading the Wiki about The Eye effects and lingering there for too long. And by choosing no-stealth build.

 

[Tygrende]

- low movement points means a lotta sniper melee penalty will happen, but we still have Commando Spearheads for this problem, and we're immune to our caltrops too
- not every battle will start with us shooting the first shot, given 0 stealth and somewhat low initiative
- 0 effective stealth means Snipe won't go above 225% damage, tho that's already kind of enough

Advantages
- weird satisfaction in surviving the "death knell" of a sniper that's been reached and surrounded by his enemies
- the extreme trolling potential of sniping "from stealth" when you can't hide from even a blind man
- dirty kick is a good option if your hands and utility slots are full, and with STR 8 and metal boots it will be quite stronk

Quick sketch: https://underrail.info/build/?HggDB...zSygORMKoUsK1wqTioqMC4qeMA-KnvgXir7wE4q-9Ad-_

Even with the barrel retractor, the 12% precision penalty sucks, especially now that you're not going to be able to consistently shoot twice per turn. You'd be much better off picking strafe and using sprint/leftoever AP to make distance for a zero penalty shot.

 

[ciox]

- low movement points means a lotta sniper melee penalty will happen, but we still have Commando Spearheads for this problem, and we're immune to our caltrops too
- not every battle will start with us shooting the first shot, given 0 stealth and somewhat low initiative
- 0 effective stealth means Snipe won't go above 225% damage, tho that's already kind of enough

Advantages
- weird satisfaction in surviving the "death knell" of a sniper that's been reached and surrounded by his enemies
- the extreme trolling potential of sniping "from stealth" when you can't hide from even a blind man
- dirty kick is a good option if your hands and utility slots are full, and with STR 8 and metal boots it will be quite stronk

Quick sketch: https://underrail.info/build/?HggDB...zSygORMKoUsK1wqTioqMC4qeMA-KnvgXir7wE4q-9Ad-_

Even with the barrel retractor, the 12% precision penalty sucks, especially now that you're not going to be able to consistently shoot twice per turn. You'd be much better off picking strafe and using sprint/leftoever AP to make distance for a zero penalty shot.

True, don't think I can spare another 2 attribute points though.

 

[Jezal_k23]

DEEP CAVERNS WITHOUT STEALTH:

I made a critical mistake by not reading the Wiki about The Eye effects and lingering there for too long. And by choosing no-stealth build.

Deep Caverns are fucked up, but you seem to be able to handle yourself...

 

[Stavrophore]

Would you dear codexers consider a biogas/napalm grenade a cheese/exploit combo? I feel like its kinda cheating, throw two gas grenades in the passage, throw two napalms, and watch as everything melts.

 

[Tygrende]

- low movement points means a lotta sniper melee penalty will happen, but we still have Commando Spearheads for this problem, and we're immune to our caltrops too
- not every battle will start with us shooting the first shot, given 0 stealth and somewhat low initiative
- 0 effective stealth means Snipe won't go above 225% damage, tho that's already kind of enough

Advantages
- weird satisfaction in surviving the "death knell" of a sniper that's been reached and surrounded by his enemies
- the extreme trolling potential of sniping "from stealth" when you can't hide from even a blind man
- dirty kick is a good option if your hands and utility slots are full, and with STR 8 and metal boots it will be quite stronk

Quick sketch: https://underrail.info/build/?HggDB...zSygORMKoUsK1wqTioqMC4qeMA-KnvgXir7wE4q-9Ad-_

Even with the barrel retractor, the 12% precision penalty sucks, especially now that you're not going to be able to consistently shoot twice per turn. You'd be much better off picking strafe and using sprint/leftoever AP to make distance for a zero penalty shot.

True, don't think I can spare another 2 attribute points though.

You can easily afford those 2 points by dumping either INT, PER or both. Strafe is a no brainer with spearheads compared to those two. You don't need maxed out PER, you will get heavily diminishing returns, like 1 or 2% of difference in precision. Even 15 is just fine. You don't really need ballistics either, it's kind of garbage for anything other than DT stacking on tac vests.

 

[jackofshadows]

The build is coming together nicely, I think! What would you do with the leftover skillpoints?

I'm not sure (Dodge/Evasion seems like a weak choice) but I can say that you can squeeze a bit more if you like by considering Under Pie food for crafting (+2 INT is a drug so it stacks).

I made a critical mistake by not reading the Wiki about The Eye effects and lingering there for too long. And by choosing no-stealth build.

Well, Six explicitly saying that "name for tchortlings is legion, trying to clear them is futile". After that and seeing how they're retreating when I came out from hatch I figured mechanic out back in the day but I had stealth, yeah. Without it Hollow Earth can be tiresome. By the way, thouse lags when you blow TNT there...

 

[Jasede]

Thanks for all your advice. I went with Snooping over both Soft Step and Pack Rathound. First, it will force me to learn not to keep trying to sell every tiny scrap I pick up. Second, combined with 6 Perception, it should at least let me find a decent chunk of 'secret' things, which I consider important for my first full, proper playthrough. Obviously this is a wasted feat if you are a more experienced player on your fifth, sixth run.

Thanks to all your advice and my experience with the SMG in normal, my funky Throwing Knife Grenadier is currently cruising through Depot A. I don't want to call it easy because it is anything but - there is plenty of reloading with 3 CON - but I am making decent progress. In retrospect, Oddity will probably infuriate me in the long run with all these giant enemy packs, but hey, if Styg says this is the 'intended' way to play...

Thank you again. So far so good! As long as I use plenty of traps, grenades and such, I am doing okay.
Hope the throwing knife damage increases a lot soon, though. For now they're really my secondary weapon just used to finish weak enemies, but they don't really hit hard at all. This, however, is fine because I have grenades.

 

[Stavrophore]

Thanks for all your advice. I went with Snooping over both Soft Step and Pack Rathound. First, it will force me to learn not to keep trying to sell every tiny scrap I pick up. Second, combined with 6 Perception, it should at least let me find a decent chunk of 'secret' things, which I consider important for my first full, proper playthrough. Obviously this is a wasted feat if you are a more experienced player on your fifth, sixth run.

Thanks to all your advice and my experience with the SMG in normal, my funky Throwing Knife Grenadier is currently cruising through Depot A. I don't want to call it easy because it is anything but - there is plenty of reloading with 3 CON - but I am making decent progress. In retrospect, Oddity will probably infuriate me in the long run with all these giant enemy packs, but hey, if Styg says this is the 'intended' way to play...

Thank you again. So far so good! As long as I use plenty of traps, grenades and such, I am doing okay.
Hope the throwing knife damage increases a lot soon, though. For now they're really my secondary weapon just used to finish weak enemies, but they don't really hit hard at all. This, however, is fine because I have grenades.

Knives will shine when they get that guaranteed critical at 25%. Also hoard crawler poison and make knives with it.

 

[Jasede]

I am having fun. The big problem with the game for me was the too small font size. But by now they added an option to make fonts and UI elements bigger, so I set them all to max size, and now it is fine. Another problem is how tiny the inventory icons are. Makes me wish back for a nice 4:3 monitor where they would look bigger on. However, once you get past those two things it's a fun junk selling simulator!

 

[Stavrophore]

Ive made extensive comparison between Constantine/Kiro and Coretech, and Coretech trader is really bad. There's absolutely no point getting Coretech trader unless you play energy pistols and want that ai scrambler. All other electronic parts have better selection with constantine, and similar with kiro.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Finally, I'm done. Tchort was definitely a pushover - three brrs with W2C ammo and he's done. But now I can see why Deep Caverns are hated so much. Solving cryptic puzzles while being constantly harassed by infinitely respawning enemies is no fun whatsoever. Thankfully, Hollow Earth could be ignored almost completely.

Or, I'm entering mushroom forest and I have awesome Biosuit that completely negates almost all damage from the local inhabitants. What to do? After googling the stuff, I see that it's necessary to stack 30 (!) spore infestations to come down. Who the fuck is able to figure this out by himself?

Anyway, now it's time for Dominating and I'm looking for a valid build. I'm interested in sneaky knife fighter or shotgunner, preferably no PSI. Any variants?

 

[Jasede]

In Elwood's quest, what's a good way to deal with the Plasma Sentry on Dominating? I can't really hack it or lure it away, and if I do kill it the hard way with my throwing knives + grenades build, that's easily 5 EMP mines and 5 EMP grenades. Seems a little expensive. Guess I can come back with a few Frag IVs?

Edit: ended up cheesing it with my 0 melee skill electrical knife. No need for skill when they're entangled/shut down/whatever.

 

[Alexios]

Anyway, now it's time for Dominating and I'm looking for a valid build. I'm interested in sneaky knife fighter or shotgunner, preferably no PSI. Any variants?

I can speak to shotgunner and I don't think it's possible without psi. I rely heavily on psycho-temporal contraction. If I didn't have it I would probably get killed much more often.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Funny questions time:

- what will happen if you attack Tanner? Is he immune to everything like Rahm Umbra?
- follow up: what will happen if you wipe out entire SGS?
- has anyone managed to kill Rahm-Umbra? Some exploits maybe?
- any builds that max out INT?
- any builds that use various suits (bio, blast, fireproof) as a main armour?

 

[jackofshadows]

what will happen if you wipe out entire SGS?

Nothing, you'll just stuck. There's plenty of ways to self-lock from plot progress.

has anyone managed to kill Rahm-Umbra? Some exploits maybe?

As far as I know, he's a pretty good defense even from exploits.

 

[Ol' Willy]

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHC...ADChwEpJMKaWhYxKCcCJhkRwqTCtXdH4pyaBeKqlArfvw

Rough sketch for planned Energy Pistol char. Offense - energy guns and grenades; defense - dodge/evasion/shield/stealth; mercantile as dump for excess skillpoints. How hard will this suck?

 

[Jasede]

Probably better than throwing knives.

 

[Sykar]

- low movement points means a lotta sniper melee penalty will happen, but we still have Commando Spearheads for this problem, and we're immune to our caltrops too
- not every battle will start with us shooting the first shot, given 0 stealth and somewhat low initiative
- 0 effective stealth means Snipe won't go above 225% damage, tho that's already kind of enough

Advantages
- weird satisfaction in surviving the "death knell" of a sniper that's been reached and surrounded by his enemies
- the extreme trolling potential of sniping "from stealth" when you can't hide from even a blind man
- dirty kick is a good option if your hands and utility slots are full, and with STR 8 and metal boots it will be quite stronk

Quick sketch: https://underrail.info/build/?HggDB...zSygORMKoUsK1wqTioqMC4qeMA-KnvgXir7wE4q-9Ad-_

Even with the barrel retractor, the 12% precision penalty sucks, especially now that you're not going to be able to consistently shoot twice per turn. You'd be much better off picking strafe and using sprint/leftoever AP to make distance for a zero penalty shot.

True, don't think I can spare another 2 attribute points though.

You can easily afford those 2 points by dumping either INT, PER or both. Strafe is a no brainer with spearheads compared to those two. You don't need maxed out PER, you will get heavily diminishing returns, like 1 or 2% of difference in precision. Even 15 is just fine. You don't really need ballistics either, it's kind of garbage for anything other than DT stacking on tac vests.

Also the damage difference is almost 0 since Snipe and Aimed Shot cause so much overkill damage that whether you kill by 500 more or 400 more damage just makes no difference except against some very tough boss monsters and even there you will be hard pressed to need more shots effectively.

 

[Stavrophore]

I wonder if there's any way to negate evasion with sniper rifles, aside status effects like incapacitation/stun? Seems even with high perception like 18, some enemies are still hard to hit.

 

[Stavrophore]

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHC...ADChwEpJMKaWhYxKCcCJhkRwqTCtXdH4pyaBeKqlArfvw

Rough sketch for planned Energy Pistol char. Offense - energy guns and grenades; defense - dodge/evasion/shield/stealth; mercantile as dump for excess skillpoints. How hard will this suck?

You need some mechanics even if you go for infused leather. For 140quality infused leather you need 32 mechanics, so get yourself 35 and be on safe side. Then you have goggles and they need something like 70 mechanics at 150 quality. A build without temporal manipulation is just gimping itself.
Question is what you want to specialize? Laser, plasma or electroshock pistols? From my playthrough i can advise you against electroshock pistol as your mains, since you will eventually get hit by your own shot and drop dead :D. Its good as side arm. Plasma is also good as sidearm, since you can deal massive amount of damage with aimed shot. So your main damage dealer will be laser pistol. You want to get it down to 10AP per shot.You need 14 dexterity for that. So that stat is non negotiable.If you dont mind running all the time with eel sandwich, then get 13 dex, and you can invest that into intelligence in the agility build.

This is my take on energy pistol[laser build]
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMMA...XEAAAA8AABhwrMrMQFiWR5OFiTCh0szwoXCiA7CpALfvw
Or this one with higher agility
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMLB...ChAAAADwAAGXCsysxAWJZHk4WJMKHSzPChcKIDsKkAt-_

 

[Jasede]

Oddity + the patch that makes you get XP for quests might actually be legit the most 'perfect' XP system ever made. Great job, Styg
Although it does gimp me in DOMINATING because I'd be swimming in XP from all these enemy hordes by now. However, that's okay. I like having incentive to skip trash fights.

 

[Tygrende]

I wonder if there's any way to negate evasion with sniper rifles, aside status effects like incapacitation/stun? Seems even with high perception like 18, some enemies are still hard to hit.

Ambush cuts evasion in half.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHC...ADChwEpJMKaWhYxKCcCJhkRwqTCtXdH4pyaBeKqlArfvw

Rough sketch for planned Energy Pistol char. Offense - energy guns and grenades; defense - dodge/evasion/shield/stealth; mercantile as dump for excess skillpoints. How hard will this suck?

You don't really need dodge since you can just run away from melee. I assume you're going low armour penalty for ambush so you'll have pretty great MP from your agility+tabis. Easy to back up.
Not sure why you're at 11 agility when you only need 10 for all the feats you want. If you think you really need the extra evasion/stealth from it then you don't.
Hacking/electronics/tailoring are all too high. Mercantile is way too high. Though you said this is a rough idea maybe so you're planning on adjusting them later. You need a little mechanics for infused leather. You're also missing lockpicking and biology. You don't absolutely need lockpicking but you know it's useful, and biology is important for energy pistols. Focus stims for extra crit chance are useful when you're in areas that are too light for ambush to work, and hypercerebrix is great since with high technicalities it becomes a damage buff pill. And since the int bonus increases your other skills you can just lower them to afford bio, so you don't even have to sacrifice anything.
You don't have critical power, why don't you have critical power? Energy pistols can hit like 300% critical bonus if you use a good quality amplifier and have practical physicist (and you do), so critical power takes that up to 500% bonus. Pretty crazy for one feat.