Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[BING XI LAO]

I'm not even that much of a combatfag, I like Planescape Torment as much as the next Kodexer.
But replaying this a year later, this time on Dominating, is a whole different ball game. the amount of shenanigans to get through Junkyard - stealth, traps, molotovs, an EMP grenade and adrenaline and Dash feat in one room to snatch a keycard from beneath two (for my character) impregnable Plasma turrets.... closing doors against animals, looking through air vents first to see if the coast is clear. And the crucial traps/grenades can't be endlessly bought because of the fiscal changes on Dominating, I have to plan out crafting of key things like Molotovs. I did forget about crafting acid resistance gear though, and managed to cope without it.

GAME MECHANICS. Not sure any other RPG can compete.

There's a tension in many RPGs: in some you are the all-conquering Chosen One who just needs to do a bit of levelling up first. Others are more gritty, as the protagonist is very much mortal and must use his wits. I think Underrail takes things the furthest in the latter direction. Like any turn-based game whose combat isn't an unbearable slog, it's forced to have a very high damage-to-HP ratio, and what with all the other stuff like consumables, grenades, stealth, SMG bursts, it makes things BRUTAL - in a good way.

 

[BING XI LAO]

There's also a mild amount of new content, as well as doubtless many minor fixes which aren't obvious to the returning player. Just saw that the praetorians have had their uniform changed?

 

[Ghulgothas]

Just saw that the praetorians have had their uniform changed?

Them and all the other big gangs in Core City. I'm happy to've gotten into UnderRail late in it's life, shudder to imagine when the Praetors, Coretechs, and JKK's all shared the same generic portrait pool everyone else uses.

 

[CHEMS]

The Abandoned Waterways are super worth it to be done asap... I wonder what would be the earliest one could loot the place.

You'd need at least a Aegis patrol to get past the speed check. And not only passing the speed check, but having enough speed to blaze through the goliathuses and then passing another check. Think it can be done just after Depot A if you're able to steal the junk jet at Rays. Though your build must have reliable combat assets, since combat there can be very rough. The muties are very well armed. I think you should wait at least level 16 to tackle the place. You'll leave at least at level 20 if you're on classic, so much XP there.

 

[Parabalus]

The Claw! I said that I will find a use for it and I did. It causes bleeding wounds which damage by itself and proc infected wounds. Claw also stacks contamination which can easily go to 90% more damage. So, base damage, skill bonus, crit bonus, Expose Weakness lowered thresholds, infected wounds and contaminated bonuses and all of that with high Dex, giving ~150 dmg per lucky crit with 7 hits per turn. Guy went down in five or six turns.

It makes sense to swap to a real weapon after a few stacks, since the Claw is much weaker.

Lately I have been thinking to utilize the multiple entrances of the location by attacking successively from each

Extremely effective, but some meta knowledge is recommended - if you don't have another entrance you could easily bork your game (e.g. stacking 10 enemies at only zone entrance, then running).

 

[Ol' Willy]

Extremely effective, but some meta knowledge is recommended - if you don't have another entrance you could easily bork your game (e.g. stacking 10 enemies at only zone entrance, then running).

This even more effective with TC PSI. Blow a grenade to make a nice tight group of enemies, LoC - Mental Breakdown. Exit the map, wait for cooldowns, go back - Loc+Bilocation or Mania+LoC+Overload. Mass death guarantied.

 

[Parabalus]

Extremely effective, but some meta knowledge is recommended - if you don't have another entrance you could easily bork your game (e.g. stacking 10 enemies at only zone entrance, then running).

This even more effective with TC PSI. Blow a grenade to make a nice tight group of enemies, LoC - Mental Breakdown. Exit the map, wait for cooldowns, go back - Loc+Bilocation or Mania+LoC+Overload. Mass death guarantied.

Before the Force Field changes you could put it up as you were leaving and it would still be there when you popped back - impossible to fail really.

 

[Yaz]

Before the Force Field changes you could put it up as you were leaving and it would still be there when you popped back - impossible to fail really.

I imagine you could do a bit of Minecraft that way :D. I've never tried it, of course. Never was a big fan of Legacy Psi.

I usually go for Balor by entering his room (with the guards and the dogs) from the adjacent location. But it is very dicey and I am not happy with my tactics there. It is good to hear of a different approach.

Lately I have been thinking to utilize the multiple entrances of the location by attacking successively from each. But I have not tried it yet.

You could make use of the Vanishing Powder Grenade. To enter Balor's room you only need to kill one guy who's patrolling in the back. You could wipe the entire group in the back, as well, but depending on how loud it is it could have different outcomes.

You'd need at least a Aegis patrol to get past the speed check. And not only passing the speed check, but having enough speed to blaze through the goliathuses and then passing another check. Think it can be done just after Depot A if you're able to steal the junk jet at Rays. Though your build must have reliable combat assets, since combat there can be very rough. The muties are very well armed. I think you should wait at least level 16 to tackle the place. You'll leave at least at level 20 if you're on classic, so much XP there.

Can you do it with a vanilla Patroller? Getting the Protectorate Cruiser's parts ain't all that hard, but just wondering. Depending on how larpie one is I suppose you could actually gather enough funds for a Devastator or at least a Levitator. Getting a Patroller isn't all that hard, as well, considering you could fight the lone Aegis ST at Core City after you get the chip.

All these have their benefits, of course.

When I am thinking about a build, though, I don't think one will be able to have a lot of thieving skills to get a jet from Ray's. But I am fairly certain a Pneumatic Leather Gloves build will have a good time in there.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Yaz what's so special there? Haven't cleared the place once. Visited it on my PSI run, saw a horde of hunchbacks and by that point I had enough of fighting muties.

 

[Yaz]

Yaz what's so special there? Haven't cleared the place once. Visited it on my PSI run, saw a horde of hunchbacks and by that point I had enough of fighting muties.

I believe you're guaranteed at least one of each - Hard Foam Padding, Aluminized Cloth, Black Cloth, Soft Foam Padding, Energy Edge Emitter, of quality 150 or more. The last time I cleared the area I got some crafting components of quality 160 + and one of 170. I haven't done any Lockpicking or Hacking, but there are additional containers to be had with those. Can't say whether it's worth it or not, but I'd expect it to be.

All in all - the area is full of good crafting supplies plus a lot of loot that can be sold, although that would be more practical with the Mercantile Perk.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Trashos]

I like the Dude's Other Quest quite a bit. A lot of fun, and they nailed writing the Dude.
(it is also one of the instances where they nailed friendship, the other being Gorsky and Dan. Extremely rare to see it done that well, and UR does it twice.)

But it does look like "they got high for a week, and wrote this quest", paraphrasing the old punk saying. I mean, laser cats aside, is the Gray Army Base connected to anything? It comes out of nowhere.

The mushroom brew, man. The mushroom brew...

 

[ColCol]

I like the Dude's Other Quest quite a bit. A lot of fun, and they nailed writing the Dude.
(it is also one of the instances where they nailed friendship, the other being Gorsky and Dan)

But it does look like "they got high for a week, and wrote this quest", paraphrasing the old punk saying. I mean, laser cats aside, is the Gray Army Base connected to anything? It comes out of nowhere.

The mushroom brew, man. The mushroom brew...

I thought it was possible foreshadowing to future games, if not just an alternate universe.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I always wondered who the being of pure light the dude was talking with was while you were getting drunk with him.

 

[Yaz]

I think the Grey Army might be in to stay. They seem to be a bit more than a slap-stick faction, but who knows? Clearly some of the zoners and Kokoshka, as well, talk about their homeland, and since Kokoshka trades Zlatortyas you can guess that the two are connected.

So, yeah, I expect them to expand on those. Also, I've heard that the language they speak is not quite Serbian but like a mix of Slavic/Balkan languages. Anyone can confirm?

 

[Trashos]

I always wondered who the being of pure light the dude was talking with was while you were getting drunk with him.

I think that should be the barman asking to be paid?

 

[Ol' Willy]

I think the Grey Army might be in to stay. They seem to be a bit more than a slap-stick faction, but who knows? Clearly some of the zoners and Kokoshka, as well, talk about their homeland, and since Kokoshka trades Zlatortyas you can guess that the two are connected.

Grey Army is the armed forces of that state in the West whatever it's called. Kokoschka says it quite clear that they have real state over there unlike small city-states in the South.

The language is mostly mumbo-jumbo with some real slavic word thrown in for a good measure, although heavily distorted.

I suspect that Kokoschka doesn't react if you talk to him wearing Grey Army uniform? Some reactivity would be nice here, I know that Yngwar reacts to Regalia.

 

[CHEMS]

Can you do it with a vanilla Patroller?

The protectorate one? I think it could pass the speed check but i don't think it's fast enough for you to get to the other one without being attacked by the 10 goliathuses. But since it's a bulky jet, you wouldn't need to pass the speed check anyway. Should work.

Yaz what's so special there? Haven't cleared the place once. Visited it on my PSI run, saw a horde of hunchbacks and by that point I had enough of fighting muties.

The part with the hunchback muties is boring, but after that it's the coolest dungeon in the game. It's like Depot A on steroids, but without the boring stuff. LOTS of loot, very high quality components, top tier jet parts and i found D5 mutagen there once. Don't know if it's static loot but should be. Also you find the exoesqueleton armor, though it's a little impratical to carry around. And there's a secret passage to the junkyard in the end.

 

[Yaz]

The protectorate one?

A vanilla Aegis Patroller, i.e., without any additional parts. You can easily add the Protectorate Cruiser parts on top of it, in which case I think it shouldn't have any problems doing any of the checks.

 

[CHEMS]

The protectorate one?

A vanilla Aegis Patroller, i.e., without any additional parts. You can easily add the Protectorate Cruiser parts on top of it, in which case I think it shouldn't have any problems doing any of the checks.

The problem it's not really the speed check, the real problem is having enough movement points to pass through the bugs and cover the second check. But by the time you get a Aegis Patrol, you should be able to get additional parts. If you're lucky they may even spawn inside Ray's shop when you're robbing the place. Also it's possible to easily steal the parts from the protectorate cruiser at the Rig if you have stealth and a vanish powder bomb.

Before the last update doing that outside combat would crash the game, but now you can do it with no issue.

 

[Scrounger]

I suspect that Kokoschka doesn't react if you talk to him wearing Grey Army uniform?

Actually he does! I've played with a girl in a full suit of borrowed Spec ops commando suit and he was double confused!

 

[CHEMS]

Won't these Black Eels fags take a hint that they LOST? There's gotta be at least 40 destroyed jets around the Rig and they keep spawning everytime i visit there. I don't mind the extra loot, but it's really annoying when they pop out of nowhere and kill you by surprise.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Tested the Claw in the Arena - went straight from Pulverizer to Exorcist; didn't bother with Carnifex because of his impressive Dodge skill. Works smooth as fuck, most guys went down easily in four-six turns, except Surgeon - his high Dodge hinders the clawing. With big stacks around damage was max 200 per hit - not much, but considering humble 7 AP per attack, is fine.

 

[Ramnozack]

Should I drop onslaught to get grenadier? Had to drop grenadier earlier to get escape artist, and I'm kind of missing it

 

[Tigranes]

Lol. Managed to silently shank Balor. I was thinning the herd, blowing up grenades to pick up guys one by one and then I'm noticed that Balor is chilling out in a room, all alone. Went in to make him a company.

Now, Taser and Cheap Shots allow to stunlock him. Not 100% reliable, but works. And what weapon I used? The Claw! I said that I will find a use for it and I did. It causes bleeding wounds which damage by itself and proc infected wounds. Claw also stacks contamination which can easily go to 90% more damage. So, base damage, skill bonus, crit bonus, Expose Weakness lowered thresholds, infected wounds and contaminated bonuses and all of that with high Dex, giving ~150 dmg per lucky crit with 7 hits per turn. Guy went down in five or six turns.

Gotta try it in the Arena.

This is very incline. Mind sharing build for ideas? Feels like for most chars the key is having a reliable disable loop - my current pistolero's too reliant on acid entanglement on that front, with its relatively low %.