Finished my second run. Couple of point on the game and my build.
Firstly, Expedition. After culling savages, I went to legit and unhindered exploration of the area with mutie refuge being the first. And, frankly, muties are the best faction in the Black Sea. They just chill out at their island, not bothering anyone - so of course I wanted to help them. Having no persuasion I lied to the doctor about Chief okaying the supplies delivery, only to be confronted by this faggot Briggs later, who cut my pay in half - for the entire campaign! OK, I'm perfectly fine with this. Guess who's not getting the ACORN now!
This I kinda like. Wages at Expedition are laughably small, probably enough to cover your expenses, no more. But at the same time, Expedition provides you with two best moneymaking opportunities, not to be seen anywhere in the game. Good stuff. Also, with stealth Hives could be completely bypassed - I haven't killed a single locust in my time there.
Then, the base game. I decided against joining the Institute and just steamrolled through the place. Much faster. This fact was acknowledged in dialogue only once - by the Faceless commander. At any rate, here I come to the elevator down. Lone Tchortist runs up from previously cleared area to warn no one about Faceless attack. Faceless, then, proceed to fill the entire room, with no Tchortists to hinder them, that is. They are hostile, so I had no choice but to engage them. This shit is hard, and I was at my fifth or sixth attempt, having good streak with about twenty dead Faceless when it dawned upon me - they will spawn infinitely. So yes, the only option is to remove Faceless from the elevator area and dash to the lift controls.
Deep Caverns are still cancer. Energy plant is almost enjoyable with stealth; labyrinth is as tedious as it was with tank (to stealth it you need 450 effective points in patience skill, so fuck this shit, I killed all the worms instead); Mushroom Forest is awful (whose idea was to make shrooms immune to crits?); doppelganger lab is pure random; Hollow Earth isn't relevant for you can just run through it; Tchort died in two turns.
About Energy build.
This stuff wrecks. Early game is meh, but then you can rush to upper Underrail to buy some good stuff from scavenger trader, level up, unlock Coretech, and by the level 20 its already too easy most of the time. Good shield is obligatory, maxing crit chance at any price as well (mine was 57-60% without drugs or food). Crowd control is necessary, but I used almost no traps and few plasma/frag grenades after reaching level 16 or 18. There is no point in using polarizer or efficiency upgrades, leaving you with cramming smart module and amplifier in every gun. I recommend having all the three guns with you - Laser, Plasma and Electroshock.
Laser was my workhorse. Base damage is shit, but crits can reach some impressive numbers, having 500-600 dmg per crit is very good, especially with people having low DT/DR to energy damage. Minimal AP cost, best accuracy and range.
Plasma is for heavy hitting. Ridiculous AP cost, but if it crits - it's fucking crits, with damage reaching 5000-6000. Due to AP cost usable only as a special tool for disposing of extremely sturdy motherfuckers.
And, Electroshock pistol; this little thing is awesome. Shitty range and accuracy, damage in between - but the jumping bolt ability is extremely useful. Bolt will always jump on crit, making for very effective alpha strikes and group attacks: late game it was very easy to kill four guys with one shot. Thing to notice, Energy guns are not very loud, so it's possible to kill enemies in groups separately from each other. The best exhibit is the first floor of Lunatic mall: I cleared it without a single shot made at me, disposing of Lunatics with Electroshock crits without alerting the whole area. Those bastards died right where they stood, right around the fucking burning barrels and inside the rooms. Electroshock pistols sometimes can stun, but it's very unreliable.
Anyway, I think one more run won't hurt, innit? I was thinking about pure pistols build, but I recon it will be similar to Energy Pistols build, only less effective. I'm thinking, maybe go full wizard, to taste the OP and finally unlock some lore? I'm kinda tired at looking at all these pillars without being able to do shit with them.