Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Blaine]

I never found a use for the camera jammer. It seems like it'd be useful, but it never actually is.

It's a spoiler for me, but I looked it up anyway.

It almost certainly lengthens the time between the orange-lit "BEEP?" that warns the player they're on camera, and the red "BEEP!", which sends all the assholes in the camera room to your location—usually into a minefield, if I'm playing a Traps character. If it's a controlled location (read: area with merchants you'll never want to kill), you're often fucked as soon as it goes orange and the entire zone turns hostile, so no help there.

It's definitely not going to let you rob jet skis for the latter reason, or do anything but sneak past cameras a little more easily. Should be useful for min-maxers who refuse to ever take Interloper, not seeing that it isn't just a QoL skill but (aside from the marginal bonus MP while stealthed in turn-based) allows you skulk around much more easily without getting BEEP!ed by a camera, bumped into, or discovered through the suspicion system.

Trap Expert is also pretty good for the same reason, though not as good, because you can just fast-forward through setting up your traps in areas with no patrolling enemies.

But yeah, very marginal overall. The camera jammer sounds useful for uncontrolled zones if there happens to be a camera you couldn't sneak by without it, supposing you actually give a shit whether it sees you or not.

 

[Tigranes]

Are we talking about using Phreak's Orange Box? I did it by writing down the 'answer key' tones first - coding them to the dialogue option number when you're answering - and then just listening multiple times to the prompt and writing out the numbers as I did so. (So e.g. "431124") Normal speed. Occasional fuckups but got each puzzle done within 5-10 mins, and by the last Phreak one could do it with little error since the actual tones themselves are limited.

Didn't like using the dry run because of what lukaszek mentioned, and because the numbers change between dry run and real run (kind of like SGS elevator).

Anyway, did it once, never doing it again.

 

[Blaine]

At least the puzzles are so convoluted and difficult that anyone but a cryptologist cum violinist will find them exasperating, which is far preferable to matching up three shapes like a six-year-old as in a certain game we won't mention.

I was very proud when I solved the Sonocaster puzzle, especially since (aside from guitar tab) I'm sadly musically illiterate. I know more than nothing, but I can't properly read music, nor do I know or understand the jargon and nomenclature a la semi-tones, half-tones, what a scale really is, etc. I gained enough of an idiot's understanding one Saturday afternoon to do the puzzle, and felt drained.

Anyway, I should learn to read music just to get one up on the Sonocaster puzzle.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

thank god its always same

Styg found something for you to change

 

[Spark Mandriller]

I did Phreak's first quest (Acid Hunters), now on the music puzzle - is it safe to do an Oligarch questline now? Was it safe earlier - just don't go to the Coretech Lab before finding Phreak?

I would also like to know the answer to this.

Not safe. I haven't done a lot of testing, but from my experience he vanished the moment I became a full gladiator and got told to report to the oligarch for more missions. I didn't even have to accept the oligarch version of find acid hunters, just having it available was enough to cancel him. So if you want all his dialogue/rewards then make sure you do everything before the arena (or maybe you can do that as long as you don't do the first three oligarch missions as well). That said, I've only played the game a single time since the update, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something. In fact, I know I missed something, because I never got the option to buy capacitive sheets or forged train tickets, and other people have. We discussed it a little and nobody had any clue why not.

 

[Parabalus]

At least the puzzles are so convoluted and difficult that anyone but a cryptologist cum violinist will find them exasperating, which is far preferable to matching up three shapes like a six-year-old as in a certain game we won't mention.

I was very proud when I solved the Sonocaster puzzle, especially since (aside from guitar tab) I'm sadly musically illiterate. I know more than nothing, but I can't properly read music, nor do I know or understand the jargon and nomenclature a la semi-tones, half-tones, what a scale really is, etc. I gained enough of an idiot's understanding one Saturday afternoon to do the puzzle, and felt drained.

Anyway, I should learn to read music just to get one up on the Sonocaster puzzle.

Sonocaster puzzle has little to do with music though, it's just decoration there. Here that's sadly not the case, much harder.

 

[lukaszek]

I did Phreak's first quest (Acid Hunters), now on the music puzzle - is it safe to do an Oligarch questline now? Was it safe earlier - just don't go to the Coretech Lab before finding Phreak?

I would also like to know the answer to this.

Not safe. I haven't done a lot of testing, but from my experience he vanished the moment I became a full gladiator and got told to report to the oligarch for more missions. I didn't even have to accept the oligarch version of find acid hunters, just having it available was enough to cancel him. So if you want all his dialogue/rewards then make sure you do everything before the arena (or maybe you can do that as long as you don't do the first three oligarch missions as well). That said, I've only played the game a single time since the update, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something. In fact, I know I missed something, because I never got the option to buy capacitive sheets or forged train tickets, and other people have. We discussed it a little and nobody had any clue why not.

ive became gladiator and finished phreak quests fine. It seemed safe to join oligarch after exiting lab but I didnt continue playing to see whole quest chain

 

[Parabalus]

Anyway, did it once, never doing it again.

Well that's the problem, it needs to be fully automated, like the sonocaster puzzle.

This one is worse though, since you'd like to do it as soon as you get to Core City.

 

[Blaine]

Sonocaster puzzle has little to do with music though, it's just decoration there. Here that's sadly not the case, much harder.

Yeah, but you still need to understand the nomenclature and how systems of tones and notes interact with each other. It could be an entirely fictionalized system having nothing to do with music, though, that's quite true.

If you mean to say that this puzzle is actually audible, that might help me. I have a very good ear for music, and can (for example) play the piano or even the guitar by ear. If I have heard a melody, I can reconstruct it in the correct pitch and key fairly accurately.

I'm also familiar with the history of phone phreaks, the original hackers, so this is a great addition to the game that will spice up some of those desolate tunnels.

 

[Blaine]

I'm a hair away from hitting level 16 on my sniper build—a crucial milestone for any sniper, since with one specialization point in Shooting Spree, you receive two AP refunds rather than one—and my experience has been a curious mix of what I expected, and things I didn't expect.

As I expected, when you miss your Shooting Spree/Snipe, for all intents and purposes spaghetti falls out of your pockets and your dong flops out for everyone to see. Therefore, in order to avoid save-scumming and always have a backup plan, you must prepare to fail your crucial burst damage roll in every single encounter by laying traps, having appropriate medication on hand, not overreaching (using too much AP/MP that you can't afford not to have if you fail), and not positioning yourself too optimistically. It really is either that or just save-scum, which anyone who wants a challenge knows is the same as cheating.

Basically, being a sniper is about planning for failure, rather than for success. It's a fucking odd feeling, because on my Spec Ops SMG build, the only thing I had to plan was how to pack all the blood-drenched loot out to my Wholesale Goods Locker.

On a different tack, when I crafted my first Spearhead with a Rapid Reloader and saw the 26 AP cost, I immediately intuited all that had transpired (I haven't played a sniper since the beta). I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Styg at some point upped the AP value sufficiently that you can't fire a Spearhead twice in one turn without medication, Blitz, etc. Once I saw the "25% chance to refund 10 to 20 AP," then I dimly recalled reading that changelog years ago.

Ah well, it is what it is. The cadence of a sniper build is quite odd to me. Clearly, once your cooldown bursts have been used, you're supposed to reduce their cooldowns by nabbing additional sniper rifle kills without their assistance. This pretty much requires high crit chance (or nearly-dead enemies from a grenade, something I'm experimenting with), which, even if you pump crit chance insanely high in every way possible, is also very RNG-dependent. So really, it's all about RNG, from the first shot to the last. Every miss is fairly devastating.

Some builds I've made just fit together in neat packages. Everything comes together, falls into place, and works smoothly. Playing a sniper seems like herding cats, trying to keep a pile of awkward, janky, and kludged-together stuff held together in your arms until the hot glue sets. Difficult to explain, really—and to be fair, insane burst damage is very powerful, so perhaps it's silly to expect it to be as neat as an Expertise SMG, which only becomes Godlike late in the game.

 

[ItsChon]

I'm a hair away from hitting level 16 on my sniper build—a crucial milestone for any sniper, since with one specialization point in Shooting Spree, you receive two AP refunds rather than one—and my experience has been a curious mix of what I expected, and things I didn't expect.

As I expected, when you miss your Shooting Spree/Snipe, for all intents and purposes spaghetti falls out of your pockets and your dong flops out for everyone to see. Therefore, in order to avoid save-scumming and always have a backup plan, you must prepare to fail your crucial burst damage roll in every single encounter by laying traps, having appropriate medication on hand, not overreaching (using too much AP/MP that you can't afford not to have if you fail), and not positioning yourself too optimistically. It really is either that or just save-scum, which anyone who wants a challenge knows is the same as cheating.

Basically, being a sniper is about planning for failure, rather than for success. It's a fucking odd feeling, because on my Spec Ops SMG build, the only thing I had to plan was how to pack all the blood-drenched loot out to my Wholesale Goods Locker.

On a different tack, when I crafted my first Spearhead with a Rapid Reloader and saw the 26 AP cost, I immediately intuited all that had transpired (I haven't played a sniper since the beta). I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Styg at some point upped the AP value sufficiently that you can't fire a Spearhead twice in one turn without medication, Blitz, etc. Once I saw the "25% chance to refund 10 to 20 AP," then I dimly recalled reading that changelog years ago.

Ah well, it is what it is. The cadence of a sniper build is quite odd to me. Clearly, once your cooldown bursts have been used, you're supposed to reduce their cooldowns by nabbing additional sniper rifle kills without their assistance. This pretty much requires high crit chance (or nearly-dead enemies from a grenade, something I'm experimenting with), which, even if you pump crit chance insanely high in every way possible, is also very RNG-dependent. So really, it's all about RNG, from the first shot to the last. Every miss is fairly devastating.

Some builds I've made just fit together in neat packages. Everything comes together, falls into place, and works smoothly. Playing a sniper seems like herding cats, trying to keep a pile of awkward, janky, and kludged-together stuff held together in your arms until the hot glue sets. Difficult to explain, really—and to be fair, insane burst damage is very powerful, so perhaps it's silly to expect it to be as neat as an Expertise SMG, which only becomes Godlike late in the game.

Dragunov was buffed to be 25 AP again, so I'd say use that until you get later into the game.

 

[Blaine]

Dragunov was buffed to be 25 AP again, so I'd say use that until you get later into the game.

I have it, but until I find the part to get it refurbished, it's... lacking. My Speahead has +10% precision, no CQ/M&S penalty with Strafe, and deals more damage; the standard Dragunov has no precision bonus, a -10% CQ/M&S penalty even with Strafe, and lower damage. That's a lot of lost precision, which is crucial on a build where every shot counts. Once I find the part and get it refurbished, it'll essentially offer a tradeoff of -5% precision and a bit less damage to reach 25 AP, which is more acceptable.

I'm sure it'll be fine once I have it refurbished.

Currently, I'm using a 12.7mm rifle with an anatomically aware scope, smart module, and bipod to maximize Snipe/Aimed Shot damage, glean as much precision as possible, and return 50 AP at the end if both Snipe and Aimed Shot land. Then there's the Spearhead with high-resolution digital scope, retractor, and RR, with which I then attempt to kill something using my 50 returned AP bolstered by Blitz (once I've got it at level 20), an optional adrenaline shot, and a focus stim (with doctor's pouch if need be), achieving something like a couple of shots (which hopefully land and crit), and then Sprint to help retreat after all the bursting.

Also, though, the Spearhead is there as a backup so that my to-hit doesn't fall to 28% in case shit goes south. The need for a backup weapon is why I strongly considered a shotgun sidearm and a few feats for it rather than any feats spent on crit chance at all (though I'm aware shotguns benefit from crits), but it's a bit too late now.

Perhaps I'm doing it wrong. Also, enemies do seem to skirt around traps much more often in this version, so I'm opting not to invest in Pickpocketing later and instead pump Traps through midgame and trade some later feat for Trap Expert.

 

[Parabalus]

If you make peace between the RHK and Camp Harthor (persuade option), do you still encounter RHK in DC?

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Guys, big question for people who stayed up to date with Underrail. I completed it in 2016 (I remember there were a lot of complaints about Deep caverns). Since then, a fair number of updates and an expansion came out. But I'm kind of a storyfag. Since I already know how it ends (and I remember the ending being not very satisfying, in my opinion, in terms of answering questions)
Namely - SPOILER ALERT -

Spoiler

Who were the Faceless/getting to know more about them

Spoiler

Some mysterious NPCs were introduced in almost the very end but nothing explained

Spoiler

A mysterious location (I think it was like a very small alien-looking room with a mirror/portal or something - wtf?

Spoiler

A cliffhanger-like "there's more to this than we thought" epilogue

Were these fleshed out in the updates since 2016 or not? Does the ending feel satisfying now or is it pretty much the same?
I wanna replay the game but wonder if it's worth the 70+ hour investment.

 

[Parabalus]

Guys, big question for people who stayed up to date with Underrail. I completed it in 2016 (I remember there was a lot of bitching about Deep caverns). Since then, a fair number of updates and an expansion came out. But I'm kind of a storyfag. Since I already know how it ends (and I remember the ending being not very satisfying, in my opinion, in terms of answering questions)
Namely - SPOILER ALERT -

Spoiler

Who were the Faceless/getting to know more about them

Spoiler

Some mysterious NPCs were introduced in almost the very end but nothing explained

Spoiler

A mysterious location (I think it was like a very small alien-looking room with a mirror/portal or something - wtf?

Spoiler

A cliffhanger-like "there's more to this than we thought" epilogue

Were these fleshed out in the updates since 2016 or not? Does the ending feel satisfying now or is it pretty much the same?
I wanna replay the game but wonder if it's worth the 70+ hour investment.

Answers to all of these are in-game, expansion and updates added more of it, but everything is indirect and requires both in-game and RL stat checks.

 

[Sykar]

I'm a hair away from hitting level 16 on my sniper build—a crucial milestone for any sniper, since with one specialization point in Shooting Spree, you receive two AP refunds rather than one—and my experience has been a curious mix of what I expected, and things I didn't expect.

As I expected, when you miss your Shooting Spree/Snipe, for all intents and purposes spaghetti falls out of your pockets and your dong flops out for everyone to see. Therefore, in order to avoid save-scumming and always have a backup plan, you must prepare to fail your crucial burst damage roll in every single encounter by laying traps, having appropriate medication on hand, not overreaching (using too much AP/MP that you can't afford not to have if you fail), and not positioning yourself too optimistically. It really is either that or just save-scum, which anyone who wants a challenge knows is the same as cheating.

Basically, being a sniper is about planning for failure, rather than for success. It's a fucking odd feeling, because on my Spec Ops SMG build, the only thing I had to plan was how to pack all the blood-drenched loot out to my Wholesale Goods Locker.

On a different tack, when I crafted my first Spearhead with a Rapid Reloader and saw the 26 AP cost, I immediately intuited all that had transpired (I haven't played a sniper since the beta). I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Styg at some point upped the AP value sufficiently that you can't fire a Spearhead twice in one turn without medication, Blitz, etc. Once I saw the "25% chance to refund 10 to 20 AP," then I dimly recalled reading that changelog years ago.

Ah well, it is what it is. The cadence of a sniper build is quite odd to me. Clearly, once your cooldown bursts have been used, you're supposed to reduce their cooldowns by nabbing additional sniper rifle kills without their assistance. This pretty much requires high crit chance (or nearly-dead enemies from a grenade, something I'm experimenting with), which, even if you pump crit chance insanely high in every way possible, is also very RNG-dependent. So really, it's all about RNG, from the first shot to the last. Every miss is fairly devastating.

Some builds I've made just fit together in neat packages. Everything comes together, falls into place, and works smoothly. Playing a sniper seems like herding cats, trying to keep a pile of awkward, janky, and kludged-together stuff held together in your arms until the hot glue sets. Difficult to explain, really—and to be fair, insane burst damage is very powerful, so perhaps it's silly to expect it to be as neat as an Expertise SMG, which only becomes Godlike late in the game.

This is why I like Snipe even if it gets outclassed later by Aimed Shot. Chances of missing both are miniscule. If you want to be OP you can add TM into the mix but TM feels.... wrong.

 

[thesecret1]

Just got through the abandoned waterway facility for the first time (I only did completionist runs back when the game released, prior to expedition, so I didn't encounter this place before). Holy shit. Feels like this is one of the biggest "dungeons" in the game. Had to make several trips with an overloaded jet ski just to haul all the loot out. Amazing loot though – high grade crafting components often in the 140-150 range, enemy gear worth insane moneys, oh and supreme jet ski parts, and even a free scooter (if you're doing this prior to Black Sea like me). Genuinely wonder whether there's another "dungeon" location like that in the game outside of DC, because I cannot remember one.

 

[Parabalus]

If planning to join the pirates, can the initial defense of Aegis be ignored?

 

[Spark Mandriller]

If planning to join the pirates, can the initial defense of Aegis be ignored?

Yeah, just buy the junk jet from the guy in Hathor and go to the Black Sea that way. Don't even need to talk to Aegis, let alone defend them.

 

[Parabalus]

If planning to join the pirates, can the initial defense of Aegis be ignored?

Yeah, just buy the junk jet from the guy in Hathor and go to the Black Sea that way. Don't even need to talk to Aegis, let alone defend them.

I'd like to buy the SS drugs from Ladelman though, and trigger the rift.

How does this affect Oldfield, if you join the pirates without talking to Aegis?

 

[Spark Mandriller]

I'd like to buy the SS drugs from Ladelman though, and trigger the rift.

How does this affect Oldfield, if you join the pirates without talking to Aegis?

Oh yeah, have to defend for the SS drugs. Ladelman won't talk to you until you finish defending, no way around it.
Not sure how the Oldfield kidnapping goes. Might look into it one day. One day.

 

[KateMicucci]

I finally got around to playing this. I'm about to go to Junktown.

I hate when games force you to create your character's build before you've had a chance to play around with the game. I wanted to go full psychic and maxed all three psychic abilities because there was no warning that the different schools are dis-synergistic. So I have 25 wasted points in metathermics because I'm using only telekinesis and thought control.

I am disappointed that these abilities seem to have only combat use and I can't use thought control to persuade or intimidate, or telekinesis to pick up and interact with distant objects, at least so far.

 

[Parabalus]

I finally got around to playing this. I'm about to go to Junktown.

I hate when games force you to create your character's build before you've had a chance to play around with the game. I wanted to go full psychic and maxed all three psychic abilities because there was no warning that the different schools are dis-synergistic. So I have 25 wasted points in metathermics because I'm using only telekinesis and thought control.

I am disappointed that these abilities seem to have only combat use and I can't use thought control to persuade or intimidate, or telekinesis to pick up and interact with distant objects, at least so far.

There are RP uses of Thought Control, lots of them, but don't think there are any for the other schools.

All PSI schools have a use, don't worry about it too much.

 

[Blaine]

This is why I like Snipe even if it gets outclassed later by Aimed Shot. Chances of missing both are miniscule.

The way I'm playing, if Snipe misses, in essence so does Aimed Shot—because my AP are gone, since Shooting Spree has missed. Even if using a Spearhead with a RR, I would need to inject an adrenaline shot and/or blow Blitz to get off one more shot, neither of which are ideal—because instead of two dead enemies, I now have (probably) just one dead enemy, and retreating further away has now become a greater priority, while being Fatigued mid-combat has become more of a concern, considering I now have more enemies to finish off.

The Dragunov is a possible partial solution, but even refurbished, it is underpowered (in terms of both precision and damage, and no possibility of Smart Module) in order to justify its 25 AP cost and AP refund proc, and "underpowered" clearly isn't something you want a sniper rifle to be, even if you can fire an extra shot during a turn.

I suppose 8.6mm with a RR and no bipod might allow you to meet in the middle: doesn't cost 50 AP, but more breathing room if you do miss. Yet it lacks any of the outlier advantages of either a 12.7mm with a bipod and or a 7.62mm with a RR and retractor.

That's pretty much what I mean when I say that playing a sniper feels janky to me.

If you want to be OP you can add TM into the mix but TM feels.... wrong.

Yes, yes it does.

 

[Parabalus]

Where are all the phones into which you can plug the Orange Box in?

Ones I found are in front of Shopping Mall, and the two with quest items in Upper Underrail. Any else?