Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Ol' Willy]

Yes, please. I need a point of comparison for my own Full Metal Jacket build.

 

[Jasede]

All quests I could find completed and secured a meeting with the Tchort guy in the institute; level 25 reached.
Gonna start the 'expedition' now.

Still haven't crafted any wearable item. I guess I could make an Energy Shield...
You know, I have never, ever used my shield. Ever.

Guess you don't really need energy shields or crafted gear on Dominating, at least not until level 25. Maybe in the final dungeon or Expedition.

 

[Ol' Willy]

 

[Sheepherder]

Yes, please. I need a point of comparison for my own Full Metal Jacket build.

If you do play a burst weapon build, I recommend taking Opportunist together with Suppressive Fire. The MP decrease from Suppressive Fire procs Opportunist for a nice +15% damage bonus.
Speccing into Concentrated Fire might also be a good idea, which is afaik a "Increase damage taken" damage modifier - multiplicative with most other multipliers.

 

[Ol' Willy]

If you do play a burst weapon build, I recommend taking Opportunist together with Suppressive Fire. The MP decrease from Suppressive Fire procs Opportunist for a nice +15% damage bonus.
Speccing into Concentrated Fire might also be a good idea, which is afaik a "Increase damage taken" damage modifier - multiplicative with most other multipliers.

Also, I found speccing Commando to be absolutely mandatory: a measly cost of three spec points allows to restore 9 AP. That allowed me to make two bursts and reload/throw grenade/use chem.

 

[Jasede]

I was 100% on board with Oddity in the early game. Mid-game it was whatever, but I was glad it didn't overlevel me.
But now that I am level 25, I am sick of it. It was all fun and games when you needed 30 Oddity XP to level. But at 25, it suddenly changes to 60 Oddity XP. What?!
I will still cap because I scrounge like a rat and do 'everything' but it still pisses me off for reasons I can't even properly articulate.

 

[jackofshadows]

But at 25, it suddenly changes to 60 Oddity XP. What?!

25 is a cap in vanilla hence this surge. Was unpleasantly suprized too but then I've found plenty oddities in expedition, so don't worry much. Although in order to actually hit the cup it still requires autistic approach to exploration, was a bit too much for me.

 

[Parabalus]

Better to just play classic and not click the level up button, if worried about overleveling. Oddity is a one playthrough pony.

 

[Jezal_k23]

I don't find going dumpster diving that bad. I do think Oddity is a really fun way to play the game.

 

[Sheepherder]

Doing a run with a Chemical Pistol build. I have the feat Versatility, which raises melee/guns/crossbows to 60% of the highest of the three, or 80% if specialized into. And because melee gets bonuses from high DEX and Chemical Pistols have their attack AP cost reduced by DEX, I'm raising Melee and DEX and still have high Guns and low AP attacks. This works well together with throwing knives (which also have their AP cost reduced by high DEX) and the feat Fatal Throw, which refunds 18 AP or more on kill. So I dumped PER to 3, maxed DEX, got Survival Instincts and am melting my way through enemies.
Here's a video of the Praetorian Warehouse mission on Dominating. Of the three Oligarch quest lines, this is imo the hardest one to beat with a glass cannon build. There are no real chokepoints and a lot of enemies scattered across the map. They also used varied weapons so no single shield will protect against all of them. Also stun bolts. Bastards.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sheepherder]

Nah, no melee for me. I use two chemical pistols - red and green.

 

[Sykar]

Styg why not add a feat that increases our capacity to memorize PSI abilities?

 

[Ol' Willy]

Sheepherder do you use PSI in all your builds?

 

[Jasede]

He's got 4 psi abilities on his hotbar, old man!

I do have to laugh, though, 29 Jumping Bean? I am level 25 still and haven't crafted... a single item except grenades. I wish I had, honestly, but I keep 'waiting for the perfect part.' I don't want to make an energy shield, for example, while one part is <150 quality. And I don't really want to increase Biology for meds yet because I barely if ever use them. I'll have them for the final dungeon, and that should be enough, fingers crossed.

Speaking of which, which infused leather should I be wearing? I've been wearing the rathound regalia for the entire game because carry capacity is king, plus ninja tabi.

But maybe I should upgrade them to infused boots + leather?

Cave Hopper chest / boots, rathound leather chest (if it works with throwing knives / grenades), pig boots/chest, siphoner boots, bison chest all seem useful and viable to me.

 

[Sheepherder]

Sheepherder do you use PSI in all your builds?

I always get Temporal Manipulation for Psycho-temporal Contraction, Limited Temporal Increment and Stasis. Contraction is an extra 20 AP and 30 MP, LTI for decreasing CD and stasis is allows for some cool offensives maneuvers and basically doubles my alpha strike round. After Force Field was changed, Stasis is now the most powerful defensive psi ability. Plus it enables neat interactions with feats like Blindsiding, like if I have 10 AP left and premeditation, I can enter and leave stealth, enabling Blindsiding, then use Stasis with Premeditation. After Stasis runs out I'll have +15% damage bonus for that turn.
TM psi is cheap to get and enhance the damage dealing potential of every build. I also really like the changes made to Contraction, which now has a chance to backfire every time it expires. Before it had no drawbacks and felt a bit flat, just a bonus to AP/MP with no drawbacks. Now I need to spam LTI to make sure it's always off cooldown to cast it again in order to counteract the backfire, manage how much psi I have and when to consume psi boosters, make sure I'll be able to survive the turn if it does backfire, etc. Much more engaging and interesting.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jasede]

Do you think it'd be worth it for me to go from 60 TM to 75 to pick up Stasis? I haven't needed it yet but it might be an extra cooldown reduction option for the lategame.

Right now my biggest struggle with the game is 'boredom.' I've explored everything except the waterways and expedition and the final dungeon. And I look forward to expedition! But the waterways are really kind of bland and boring and it's hard to explore them without getting tired fast. Oddity really was a mistake in hindsight. Usually I like to explore for the heck of it but the idea of killing yet another 25 goliath beetles with a few grenades just isn't that exciting.

lukaszek
Yeah I just throw the knives. They're not very good, haha. Even with Opportunist + Pinning the damage is awful at best, and that's against soft targets. Against armor it's back to chucking plasmas.

 

[Sheepherder]

He's got 4 psi abilities on his hotbar, old man!

I do have to laugh, though, 29 Jumping Bean? I am level 25 still and haven't crafted... a single item except grenades. I wish I had, honestly, but I keep 'waiting for the perfect part.' I don't want to make an energy shield, for example, while one part is <150 quality. And I don't really want to increase Biology for meds yet because I barely if ever use them. I'll have them for the final dungeon, and that should be enough, fingers crossed.

Speaking of which, which infused leather should I be wearing? I've been wearing the rathound regalia for the entire game because carry capacity is king, plus ninja tabi.

But maybe I should upgrade them to infused boots + leather?

Cave Hopper chest / boots, rathound leather chest (if it works with throwing knives / grenades), pig boots/chest, siphoner boots, bison chest all seem useful and viable to me.

Jumping beans are easy to craft: a part from psi beetles, locust, burrowers, crabs etc. + blue eel, makes 3 jumping bean pills.
Fishing is very useful if you intend to craft drugs. A very good source of blood for focus stims as every dose of focus stim needs 3 blood.

The difference between 145 and 164 isn't that much for most items, sure you'll have less shield capacity or deal less damage with weapons, but I prefer to craft earlier. Makes for a more enjoyable game to be able to use the fancy gear earlier.
The crit chance from infused rat may not apply to throwing knives, although don't quote me on that. I find tabis are generally superior to boots due to the MP increase, boots can also get that, but at the cost of decreased Stealth.
If you do need carry capacity, than pig boots are a good choice. Hopper armor for MP. With high quality components, infused sea serpent leather armor can make you immune to nearly all mechanical melee attacks.

Do you think it'd be worth it for me to go from 60 TM to 75 to pick up Stasis? I haven't needed it yet but it might be an extra cooldown reduction option for the lategame.

Right now my biggest struggle with the game is 'boredom.' I've explored everything except the waterways and expedition and the final dungeon. And I look forward to expedition! But the waterways are really kind of bland and boring and it's hard to explore them without getting tired fast. Oddity really was a mistake in hindsight. Usually I like to explore for the heck of it but the idea of killing yet another 25 goliath beetles with a few grenades just isn't that exciting.

Stasis is my psi waifu. 70 TM for stasis is worth it.
Waterways got a huge update in the new experimental patch, new random encounters, a bar, a huge new dungeon, several new quests.

 

[Jasede]

Yeah it would have been good to have for sure, like an extra use of temporal increment to throw even more grenades, which are my main damage despite being a full throwing knife build. Thanks for the tips. Maybe I'll pick it up level 26, Stasis that is.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jasede]

Wouldn't want my first playthrough of Underrail to be too easy, right?

 

[Sykar]

Now do the same with virgin assault gunner and Bilocation guy.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Stasis is my psi waifu. 70 TM for stasis is worth it.

Is it really that good? I'm planning on dipping my toes into PSI by investing into Temporal Manipulation on a Stealth-Crossbow Build once I wrap up my AR Commando. The AP & MP spells are clearly useful and the damage rewind spells are ery particular, is Stasis worth the investment?

 

[Sheepherder]

Stasis is my psi waifu. 70 TM for stasis is worth it.

Is it really that good? I'm planning on dipping my toes into PSI by investing into Temporal Manipulation on a Stealth-Crossbow Build once I wrap up my AR Commando. The AP & MP spells are clearly useful and the damage rewind spells are ery particular, is Stasis worth the investment?

Is it. For two turns you are immune to damage and most status effects (except for Expose Weakness, nets and acidic entanglement, maybe something else). All while your CDs run down, psi regenerates and buffs do not expire. Stealthed enemies will expose themselves attacking you, snipers will waste their Aimed Shots and burst weapon enemies will kill their melee friends. It's great to use coming out of stealth, as after Stasis ends you start with full MP. For glass cannon builds it basically prolongs the alpha strike turn.
The damage rewind spell is meh. It's a long, single target dot and afaik the damage gets reduced by Damage reduction (not resistance).
Keep in mind, that the recent patch added a chance for Psycho-temporal Contraction to backfire upon expiry. The chance depends on the effective TM skill of the caster. It ranges between 60% and 30%. To minimize it, you need 150 effective TM and have ways to survive if it does backfire.