Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Sheepherder]

Sheepherder, I watch your vids on youtube. But post it if you want so that others watch it too.
I have decided that it is a good opportunity to try Ambush this time. If Ambush disappoints me and I change it to SI, I will do something like yours (but with AG5 instead of STR5 for Sure Step).

Add Dirty Kick...

I will have a taser, so hopefully I am set. But I will have it in the back of my mind.

If you've seen mine, I can also recommend a cool XAL focused chem pistol build. XAL is a unique acid pistol which can reach 4 AP attack. But it also occasionally entangles you and inflicts acid damage. So this build wears Chemical Assault armor and some acid resistant footwear, to completely resist self damage. It relies on Escape Artist to remove entanglement and uses LTI to reduce the CS of EA.
And since it costs 4 AP to fire XAL, Fatal Throw is even more valuable here since you'll get an extra 4 shots each turn.

Made by steelydan from underrail discord.

 

[Trashos]

I have XAL001 in mind. I will decide whether I am going to use it once I see what my crafted pistols look like (I know about the AP, but I want to see the damage and the effects).

You can also get it to 90-ish effective for max accuracy at min distance (distance where you're riiiight outside of AoE).

Yeah, I play soft ironman, so I never throw grenades nearby. So around 100 effective Throwing usually covers me for grenades. The build I am planning is crafting heavy, so my skill points are bit tight. I will see if I can raise Throwing later for Fatal Throw. It is definitely a good idea.

 

[Sheepherder]

I have XAL001 in mind. I will decide whether I am going to use it once I see what my crafted pistols look like (I know about the AP, but I want to see the damage and the effects).

You can also get it to 90-ish effective for max accuracy at min distance (distance where you're riiiight outside of AoE).

Yeah, I play soft ironman, so I never throw grenades nearby. So around 100 effective Throwing usually covers me for grenades. The build I am planning is crafting heavy, so my skill points are bit tight. I will see if I can raise Throwing later for Fatal Throw. It is definitely a good idea.

How heavy? Will you use All-In (or Underpie), workbenches and hypercerebrix? The latest update also added belts which help with crafting. I'm not 100% sure, but I think each adds 15 points to one crafting skill.
I dunno if you're planning on it, but don't invest spec points into Mad Chemist. The damage bonus is so-so, but what's worse is due to scarcity of chemical pistol parts, you will not afford to recraft them often. Basically you'll have to wait 10 levels to make use of the spec points.

 

[Fenix]

I will have a taser, so hopefully I am set.

Huh, not as set as with Dirty Kick - 2 turn stun dude. What if you miss your shot? Dirty Kick solves this.

Yeah, I play soft ironman

Then you will like DK for sure.

 

[Trashos]

The funny thing with Dirty Kick is that I never take it for my beloved glove build, because I can never spare the feat. Of course, the glove build has a million ways to stun enemies regardless, so it doesn't matter that much. But here too, there are so many feats that I want to take ASAP, and I am not sure that a late Dirty Kick will make sense. We will see. Right now I am not sure what feats will prove to be not as important as I imagine.

How heavy? Will you use All-In (or Underpie), workbenches and hypercerebrix? The latest update also added belts which help with crafting. I'm not 100% sure, but I think each adds 15 points to one crafting skill.

I haven't seen the belts yet, tbh. I am not sure where in the Institute I am supposed to go receive them after I join Investigation.
Workbenches yes, All In no (too expensive for constant use), hypercerebrix no (too late, I go there just before DC).

I am planning Biology 70 (80 with bench for Bullhead), Electronics 118 (135), Chemistry not sure ~118? (for the pistols), Tailoring 118 (infused leather), Mechanics maybe 115. These are effective values with INT 8, so that's about 400 invested skillpoints. Mechanics can be sacrificed to some extend for this build I guess, and maybe I don't mind sacrificing Electronics, but I will have to think about it.

don't invest spec points into Mad Chemist

I haven't decided yet what I will do with my specs after Versatility. Probably Cooked Shot. I always finish the game at lvl28, so it won't matter much.

 

[Sheepherder]

How heavy? Will you use All-In (or Underpie), workbenches and hypercerebrix? The latest update also added belts which help with crafting. I'm not 100% sure, but I think each adds 15 points to one crafting skill.

I haven't seen the belts yet, tbh. I am not sure where in the Institute I am supposed to go receive them after I join Investigation.
Workbenches yes, All In no (too expensive for constant use), hypercerebrix no (too late, I go there just before DC).

I am planning Biology 70 (80 with bench for Bullhead), Electronics 118 (135), Chemistry not sure ~118? (for the pistols), Tailoring 118 (infused leather), Mechanics maybe 115. These are effective values with INT 8, so that's about 400 invested skillpoints. Mechanics can be sacrificed to some extend for this build I guess, and maybe I don't mind sacrificing Electronics, but I will have to think about it.

I personally use Hypercerebrix and All-in when crafting the endgame stuff: 164q shields, weapons and armor. You can get 2 Hypercerebrix right after the mutie warehouse mission in Black sea. Same with All-In. That's p.early, so why not just dip into Black Sea for that and leave? That would save you skill points.

For electronics, you'll want 170 (164*0.8+164*0.8*0.3) effective at most, that's for a double energy shield.
Chemistry effective would be 131 for 164q components, but make sure you have 80 without buffs for ammo production.
Bio you'll want 100 for corrosive glands in DC, and no buffs there either.
Tailoring would be 145-150 for 44q rathound leather + 160q SS fiber + 164q black cloth + 164q soft padding. Much less in reality.
Mechanics at most 35. BUT! Get it to 115 effective for DC so you can skip getting the repair manual for the gate. Anything that makes DC shorter is a must.

 

[Trashos]

You are right that I could be more efficient with my use of hypercerebrix! I haven't gotten round to incorporating it properly to my playthroughs (I use it, but not systematically). Thanks for the wake up call!

 

[Zeem]

You can get 2 Hypercerebrix right after the mutie warehouse mission in Black sea.

You can get one from Formedicator too, as soon as you can deal with death stalkers guarding the entrance.

 

[Twiglard]

How do you go down to Formedicator? Couldn't find him on my last playthrough, at least not yet.

 

[Zeem]

How do you go down to Formedicator? Couldn't find him on my last playthrough, at least not yet.

Oculus entrance zone, at the northern side of the cliff. There should be a low AGI check (1 or 3). It doesn't appear unless you're within 3 tiles or so, but you can just walk along the cliff edge. There's around half a dozen of death stalkers and a small settlement of neutral Lunatics beyond those. Do note that this zone was added with the latest update, so if you started your game before that it might not spawn.

 

[pizza_microwave]

With a new update comes a new playthrough. This time I'll be doing my first DOMINATING run and I'll hopefully finish it. But I'm not the best at making builds that are not psi, do any of you fellas have a good stealth crossbow+traps build saved somewhere, I would be grateful if you posted it here. Until then I'll try to make the build myself but I can't for the life of me decide if I need psi or not. From what I've seen so far TM goes well with crossbows.

Any thoughts?

 

[jackofshadows]

With a new update comes a new playthrough. This time I'll be doing my first DOMINATING run and I'll hopefully finish it. But I'm not the best at making builds that are not psi, do any of you fellas have a good stealth crossbow+traps build saved somewhere, I would be grateful if you posted it here. Until then I'll try to make the build myself but I can't for the life of me decide if I need psi or not. From what I've seen so far TM goes well with crossbows.

Any thoughts?

I can show you my (it's pretty standart actually, just with TM which is a great addition) elemental version of a build. Easiest start on DOM to me (well, partially because it was my last or second to last run)

Spoiler

 

[pizza_microwave]

With a new update comes a new playthrough. This time I'll be doing my first DOMINATING run and I'll hopefully finish it. But I'm not the best at making builds that are not psi, do any of you fellas have a good stealth crossbow+traps build saved somewhere, I would be grateful if you posted it here. Until then I'll try to make the build myself but I can't for the life of me decide if I need psi or not. From what I've seen so far TM goes well with crossbows.

Any thoughts?

I can show you my (it's pretty standart actually, just with TM which is a great addition) elemental version of a build. Easiest start on DOM to me (well, partially because it was my last or second to last run)

Spoiler

How come you've decided against Aimed Shot?

 

[jackofshadows]

How come you've decided against Aimed Shot?

Doesn't work with elemental bolts, i.e. useful only at the very beginning.

 

[Ghulgothas]

With a new update comes a new playthrough. This time I'll be doing my first DOMINATING run and I'll hopefully finish it. But I'm not the best at making builds that are not psi, do any of you fellas have a good stealth crossbow+traps build saved somewhere, I would be grateful if you posted it here. Until then I'll try to make the build myself but I can't for the life of me decide if I need psi or not. From what I've seen so far TM goes well with crossbows.

Any thoughts?

My old Stealthy Crossbow Chronosassin perished due to a hard-drive failure, but I'd recommend sub-speccing into melee with a focus on knives. An energy-edged combat knife is the perfect sidearm, a great solution for dealing with swarming enemies where the crossbow's single-target specialization and hefty AP-cost is disadvantageous, and coupled with TM makes you a stabbing machine.

 

[pizza_microwave]

With a new update comes a new playthrough. This time I'll be doing my first DOMINATING run and I'll hopefully finish it. But I'm not the best at making builds that are not psi, do any of you fellas have a good stealth crossbow+traps build saved somewhere, I would be grateful if you posted it here. Until then I'll try to make the build myself but I can't for the life of me decide if I need psi or not. From what I've seen so far TM goes well with crossbows.

Any thoughts?

My old Stealthy Crossbow Chronosassin perished due to a hard-drive failure, but I'd recommend sub-speccing into melee with a focus on knives. An energy-edged combat knife is the perfect sidearm, a great solution for dealing with swarming enemies where the crossbow's single-target specialization and hefty AP-cost is disadvantageous, and coupled with TM makes you a stabbing machine.

This already seems like I would be spreading out too thin on my points, and even though I have never played on DOM before, I hear the golden rule is min-maxxing (with the exception that, granted, crossbow traps is the most versatile build out there). Are you playing on DOM? If yes, have you gotten to Core City without savescumming too often?

 

[Ghulgothas]

This already seems like I would be spreading out too thin on my points, and even though I have never played on DOM before, I hear the golden rule is min-maxxing (with the exception that, granted, crossbow traps is the most versatile build out there). Are you playing on DOM? If yes, have you gotten to Core City without savescumming too often?

DOM is too hardcore for me, but it did get me through Expedition and all the way up to the beginning of Deep Caverns on Hard before he met an unfortunate end. It took some time to get rolling, but played out smoothly enough. I'm certain one of DOM-inatrixes present in this thread could iterate on it more than me.

 

[Cromwell]

having stopped playing encased I wanted to start underrail. So I used the charplanner and came up with this. https://underrail.info/build/?AQMIBgMKAwcPDwAAAA8PAA8PAA8ADwAAAAAAAAAAABcn378

I want to play a character that is stealthy moves around shoots things with a pistol or smg or some small gun and kill them before they really can fight back (or in doubt run away and hide until I can shoot again). Also lockpick, and some crafting for ammo and stuff. Since I was told this game is heavy on min max I thought I ask about some pointers because I am really not sure if I should go all in on some stats or not and whats good here and I ideally dont want to have to start over halfway through, I plan on playing normal.

 

[pizza_microwave]

having stopped playing encased I wanted to start underrail. So I used the charplanner and came up with this. https://underrail.info/build/?AQMIBgMKAwcPDwAAAA8PAA8PAA8ADwAAAAAAAAAAABcn378

I want to play a character that is stealthy moves around shoots things with a pistol or smg or some small gun and kill them before they really can fight back (or in doubt run away and hide until I can shoot again). Also lockpick, and some crafting for ammo and stuff. Since I was told this game is heavy on min max I thought I ask about some pointers because I am really not sure if I should go all in on some stats or not and whats good here and I ideally dont want to have to start over halfway through, I plan on playing normal.

The game is very forgiving with your build if you don't min-max on Normal. I am by no means an expert since I only finished the game on Normal.

Become well-versed on crafting and read about the requirements for items since with crafting you can acquire them earlier than say through a merchant or looting. Chemistry and Biology are the two skills I'd read the most about. Some requirements examples of good items would be: Adv Health Hypo (50 Biology), drugs that enhance your base skills are usually between 70 and 130 Biology.

Flashbang (40 Chemistry); Molotov Mk.III (60 Chemistry, with an odd 10 Tailoring).

All elemental/special bullets have a min requirement of 30 Mechanics.

And so on and so forth, you get the idea. Crafting was essential in my playthrough and I could hardly survive without it; but then again you could always put points into Mercantile.
The reason why you need to meta-game a bit is to not spend points on skills you don't need to. The highest check for hacking (and even then, only if you're interested in lore dumps) is 135. I don't feel familiar enough with builds to help yours out. I would personally spend my last 15 points into Hacking instead of Pickpocketing, but that's just me.

Also do the coughing dude's quest.

 

[Trashos]

I 'd also switch Pickpocketing to Hacking. You don't really need Pickpocketing, especially on Normal.
Hacking has an important 130 check in DC, btw, in Arke.

 

[jackofshadows]

having stopped playing encased I wanted to start underrail. So I used the charplanner and came up with this. https://underrail.info/build/?AQMIBgMKAwcPDwAAAA8PAA8PAA8ADwAAAAAAAAAAABcn378

I want to play a character that is stealthy moves around shoots things with a pistol or smg or some small gun and kill them before they really can fight back (or in doubt run away and hide until I can shoot again). Also lockpick, and some crafting for ammo and stuff. Since I was told this game is heavy on min max I thought I ask about some pointers because I am really not sure if I should go all in on some stats or not and whats good here and I ideally dont want to have to start over halfway through, I plan on playing normal.

^ Yeah, secondary skills like crafting/lockpicking etc have some sort of invisible thresholds here, learning them yourself or ask/read about is up to you. The initial distribution seems ok to me, I'd recommend swapping pack rathound with sprint and change chemistry priority onto something else like mercantile or electronics. Evasion could be learned much later as well if ever.

Overall, your stealthy glass-cannon approach will work perfectly in this game, just stack offence: related feats, crit chance and so on, keep your gear upgraded etc.

As an alternative you can look at OP build which is similiar to what you have described and start on hard or DOM right away if you up to the challenge at the beginning.

 

[jackofshadows]

I 'd also switch Pickpocketing to Hacking. You don't really need Pickpocketing, especially on Normal.
Hacking has an important 130 check in DC, btw, in Arke.

You can make the same remark about normal regarding hacking. Don't need that. Pickpocketing is quite useful. The DC check isn't that important either if your character is strong enough.

 

[Trashos]

Stay away from DOM until you are comfortable with the game's systems. Don't listen to our beloved nutjobs around here on the difficulty. A lot of us have played the game for thousands of hours, and forget how it was in the beginning. A strong build alone won't save you.

Pickpocketing is really one of the least useful skills on any difficulty other than DOM.

 

[pizza_microwave]

Don't get over-obsessed with crafting since we all seem to praise it mightier than Jesus. You will get crafting tables later on in the game that will ease up the burden of making DIY homemade IEDs and Molotovs. Just as there are items that ease up Hacking and Lockpicking requirements.
Synchronize your crafting skills with the blueprints you find.

If you wish to dig in the lore as much as possible for your first playthrough the same way I did for mine, I'd suggest doing psi. There are many psi checks in the game that are connected to lore dumps, and some really neat at that. This game, narratively speaking, has the best setting, pace, and lore you could ask from a game.

 

[jackofshadows]

Stay away from DOM until you are comfortable with the game's systems. Don't listen to our beloved nutjobs around here on the difficulty. A lot of us have played the game for thousands of hours, and forget how it was in the beginning. A strong build alone won't save you.

Pickpocketing is really one of the least useful skills on any difficulty other than DOM.

I remember Jasede not only went on DOM for his first playthrough, but with his own build... throwing only. He did good up to some point but then so happens it were his very last posts on this forum. It couldn't be related, right? Just a coincidence.