Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Sheepherder]

Would this work as a sword SI build? STR 10, DEX 6, AGI 6, CON 9. Having insane crit chance and bonus would make the Flurry downside less painful.

If you plan on going SI with swords, you should drop Flurry. Red Dragon gets 850% crit damage bonus with specced CP and even more with Ripper. Crit chance can go over 80%. More with spec points. Add Taste for Blood and Onslaught and you get a lot of damage per turn with 15 Ap attacks. Works well with Flashbangs+Opportunist.

Also, the INT requirement on Red Dragon is only for the Decapitate and Dodge bonuses and doesn't lower accuracy if you don't meet it.

Red Dragon has a damage range of 30-40. Say a build ends up with 15 DEX. That's 316% damage bonus from skill. Let's assume you have full stacks of TfB - easy to get with Nail Bombs. And let's assume 8 stacks of Onslaught. So a crit on a 100% Hp enemy would deal ~1.9k damage.

A non SI, Dex build focusing on Flurry is still "better", but with how insane swords are, even a SI build or a non-crit STR build work.

 

[Twiglard]

Dex build focusing on Flurry is still "better", but with how insane swords are, even a SI build or a non-crit STR build work.

But all the DEX bonus does is increase crit chance by the amount of points spent. You can double the base damage by sacrificing only 15% crit chance when maxing Strength, and skip Pack Rathound.

I'm way over my head. AR/Sniper and SMG were such cakewalks compared to that.

 

[Sheepherder]

A SI sword build would have lower DEX, which means lower effective melee skill and thus lower hit chance. If you think 95% thc flurry misses are bad, you've never had 85% thc flurry misses. Without SI you'd have ~55% crit chance.
Another issue with using a SI sword build with flurry is that it deals too much damage. No, really. Past level 14 (CP level), you'll rarely build up Flurry stacks to lower the AP costs to make flurry worth using, because each hit deals enough damage to kill whatever you're clicking, so you end up better off just attacking the enemy with a regular attack.

Also, bonus damage from STR is additive with damage bonus from skill. So in case of a 18 STR build, you're not really doubling your damage, you're adding 84% to 345%. Factor in crit damage bonus, which is multiplicative, bonuses from feats (additive with each other, but multiplicative with crit and skill) and that 13% crit chance is better. Also, Ripper requires 10 Dex.

 

[Trashos]

Does anyone have an opinion on Taste4Blood and Vile Weaponry specializations? I do not use these specializations, because I do not know how to calculate their ultimate effect on my damage. I am wondering whether I am missing anything.

 

[jungl]

game is crap now when it comes to builds that ignore crit damage. Could play through the game as hybrid controller type with using all your psi powers and whatever weapon u wanted. Underrail character building is boring when its all about maximizing damage in one specific weapon/psi school but I guess that how stygs meant for the game to be played where you only worry about 1-3 cooldowns. A pretty brainless experience might as well play diablo then.

 

[Tygrende]

game is crap now when it comes to builds that ignore crit damage.

I disagree. Pure TM builds can't even crit to begin with and do just fine. Hammer (especially Balor) builds don't particularly care about crits since their base damage is obscene to begin with and they have no reliable way of getting them. Everything else benefits from crits more or less but can also be played without heavy focus on them, like ARs, SMGs or any tranq psi.

 

[lukaszek]

Does anyone have an opinion on Taste4Blood and Vile Weaponry specializations? I do not use these specializations, because I do not know how to calculate their ultimate effect on my damage. I am wondering whether I am missing anything.

they are good, but usually something you can squeeze into knife builds very late. Taste for blood used to be mandatory, after nerf I kind of like dagger without it

 

[Yosharian]

game is crap now when it comes to builds that ignore crit damage. Could play through the game as hybrid controller type with using all your psi powers and whatever weapon u wanted. Underrail character building is boring when its all about maximizing damage in one specific weapon/psi school but I guess that how stygs meant for the game to be played where you only worry about 1-3 cooldowns. A pretty brainless experience might as well play diablo then.

A wild Versatility build appears!

 

[Zeem]

game is crap now when it comes to builds that ignore crit damage.

I disagree. Pure TM builds can't even crit to begin with and do just fine. Hammer (especially Balor) builds don't particularly care about crits since their base damage is obscene to begin with and they have no reliable way of getting them. Everything else benefits from crits more or less but can also be played without heavy focus on them, like ARs, SMGs or any tranq psi.

To add to that you can make a fairly competent critless epistol build, considering almost nothing resists energy damage. You can also remember Raven's critless crossbow with its usage of Unprojector and abuse of Snipe.

 

[Trashos]

I played tranquility TC/TM for my first DOM playthrough ever, and it played fine. Well, unless I was facing huge groups of robots, but that's a different issue.

they are good, but usually something you can squeeze into knife builds very late. Taste for blood used to be mandatory, after nerf I kind of like dagger without it

I use Taste4blood with my glove build. I am pretty sure that the best specialization there is Cheap Shots, but then I am wondering if the next best one is CP or whether the Taste4Blood and Vile Weaponry specializations are competitive with it.

(against biological enemies, obviously)

 

[lukaszek]

Taste4Blood

its quite good since nail bomb introduction, can jump to max stacks in an instant, can even run it with spears and other weapons that dont generate bleeding

 

[Twiglard]

 

[Trashos]

There are certain parts of the game where it is very unclear to me what the developers have in mind for non-tanking builds. Now that I play on DOM, these places are even worse, because the concentration of enemies is more dense. The good news is that I just figured out how to deal with the Lemurian Health Center without fighting all those robots.

Heavy spoilers, obviously.

Spoiler

The biggest spoiler is that all those robots are gone after you ..."meet" Dr Mason. In my current playthrough I devised my strategy around the HOPE that this would be the case. Well, I am happy to report that this is indeed the case. With that in mind, let's look into the details.

Spoiler

Deathman room: A couple of bear traps outside the rooms from where the robots are going to exit. This will buy you a few seconds for your escape. After talking to Deathman, you stealth and just go to the exit. You will be able to loot the location after meeting Dr Mason.

Lifeman room: Again, you don't have to fight much. Stealth may or may not help because of the cameras. I got caught while I was heading to the exit, but an emp grenade bought me some time to exit the area.
Note: Psi builds can of course get the implant and get the hell out of the Health Center without talking to Lifeman. They will lose some Oddities this way, though.

Reception area: As soon as I entered the reception area, it started flooding with robots, so I headed straight to the elevator area (south) in full speed.

Elevator area: Went into the eastern rooms and stealthed. Exited through a southern exit of the rooms, and sneaked towards the elevator. At the end I was caught by the camera that looks on the elevator, but it didn't matter because I had reached my goal.

Exit after meeting Dr Mason: All those robots are gone! You can now freely loot all the areas.

Now, if only I could find similarly good methods for some other parts of the game that tantalize me. On to JSHQ we go.

 

[Incendax]

Just picked up the game. Going to start on Hard + Oddity.
I'm going in completely blind except the advice of "Craft a Psi-Beetle Tactical Vest asap."

6 Con, 9 Per, 10 Will, 6 Int
Stealth, Hacking, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Traps, Thought Control, Persuasion, and some crafting to do the psi-beetle thing.
Pack Rathound + Paranoia.
Wish me luck!

 

[Trashos]

Good luck!
A comment on your proposed build:

Spoiler

You have nothing to use against robots. Thought Control only works on biological enemies.
Also, not sure whether pickpocketing is worth it with a low DEX build. I 'd probably try to invest on something I could use against robots instead.

 

[Zeem]

Just picked up the game. Going to start on Hard + Oddity.
I'm going in completely blind except the advice of "Craft a Psi-Beetle Tactical Vest asap."

6 Con, 9 Per, 10 Will, 6 Int
Stealth, Hacking, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Traps, Thought Control, Persuasion, and some crafting to do the psi-beetle thing.
Pack Rathound + Paranoia.
Wish me luck!

9 PER is completely useless on a psi build (or, really, any build that doesn't use guns or xbows), and 6 INT is also pretty low for pure psi build, since the number of innervation slots and psi point regen rate are both derived from it. Not to mention synergy with crafting skills. I'd dump PER to 3, pump INT to 10 and invest the rest into Dexterity and throwing, then pick up Grenadier and Three-Pointer down the line, EMPs and high-level explosive grenades can deal with robots very well.

 

[Trashos]

Yeah, how did I miss the PER thing, good catch. I do not agree that grenades are enough for robots however. Even if it is doable (not sure), it is going to be utterly frustrating for a new player. So get something for the robots! The Psychokinesis school is an option.

-------
In other news, the Creepers in JSHQ respawn. WTF, Styg, why on earth would you do that? Get rid of that BS.

 

[jackofshadows]

Reminder to the new player that dumping PER if highly advised, will lead to temporal (until high levels/gear) blindness against all sorts of traps and mines. Single TC as offence is a meh choice, consider taking at least throwing with it or better yet, throwing and another psi school. I would also swap pack rathound and paranoia with sprint/one of the two psi feats or even snooping.

 

[lukaszek]

just add snooping and paranoia in cheat engine

 

[Trashos]

Reminder to the new player that dumping PER if highly advised, will lead to temporal (until high levels/gear) blindness against all sorts of traps and mines.

He said he will be investing in Traps, so that will take care of detecting traps.

 

[jackofshadows]

Reminder to the new player that dumping PER if highly advised, will lead to temporal (until high levels/gear) blindness against all sorts of traps and mines.

He said he will be investing in Traps, so that will take care of detecting traps.

Well... yeah but you don't wanna invest hard/fast in it early on. Unless for that specific reason. But there's more important skills if you ask me.

 

[Trashos]

Do pirates carry the "Boat in a bottle" oddity on them or do they only drop it when they die? I have pickpocketed almost everyone, and I haven't found even one.

 

[Twiglard]

Do pirates carry the "Boat in a bottle" oddity on them or do they only drop it when they die? I have pickpocketed almost everyone, and I haven't found even one.

It's in clam shells.

 

[lukaszek]

cant remember which oddity pirates carried but indeed it could be pickpocketed. Extremely rare though

 

[Trashos]

So, after pickpocketing all pirates, I found 1 oddity. (It wasn't even on one of the major ports. He was in the outskirts.)

I am on a personal quest to reach Lvl28 before DC, so that I get Decommissioner before entering Arke. It is borderline, I am missing like 15-20 points. Some of them I will get in the Forest and the Labyrinth, but I think I will still be missing some points. I may have to do one of those areas that I always avoid, like Lurker Base, Fetid Marsh or an attack on the natives (I have never attacked the natives, frontal assaults are not something I enjoy, and I can't see a way to go stealthy assassin on them).