Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Trashos]

Dominating is designed around metagaming so I'm not sure what the problem is. It's the difficulty for people who have memorised the entire game, including all crawler locations. Death stalkers need to be threatening to make up for how easy to counter they are when you know they're there.
They're also pretty easy to skip, especially on dominating. Most of them are in optional areas that you don't need to go to, and a lot of the ones that aren't can be killed by luring them into fights with other enemies. I can't think of any that you actually have to fight before the Institute (if there are any then feel free to point them out), and by then you should be able to take them. And if you can't then again, dominating is designed around metagaming, use the beartraps.

Spoiler

In Junkyard, in the little cave where you go to plant the explosives before the Eels-Scrappers showdown. I do not remember whether it is a stalker or a crawler, but that's the first one I meet.

 

[thesecret1]

Dominating is designed around metagaming so I'm not sure what the problem is. It's the difficulty for people who have memorised the entire game, including all crawler locations. Death stalkers need to be threatening to make up for how easy to counter they are when you know they're there.
They're also pretty easy to skip, especially on dominating. Most of them are in optional areas that you don't need to go to, and a lot of the ones that aren't can be killed by luring them into fights with other enemies. I can't think of any that you actually have to fight before the Institute (if there are any then feel free to point them out), and by then you should be able to take them. And if you can't then again, dominating is designed around metagaming, use the beartraps.

Spoiler

In Junkyard, in the little cave where you go to plant the explosives before the Eels-Scrappers showdown. I do not remember whether it is a stalker or a crawler, but that's the first one I meet.

There's a death stalker there.

 

[Blaine]

Today, after >1300 hrs., I've discovered for the first time that crawlers can re-enter stealth instantaneously. I'm not entirely sure how these circumstances came to pass or why turn-based mode didn't immediately engage. I'd just descended the ladder to the Lower Passages crawler pit when I bumped into the last living crawler down there, which had wandered close to the ladder; perhaps my own combat button being on cooldown due to zone transition had something to do with it.

Regardless, all crawlers must be annihilated. They are so adept at hiding that they're absent even from the sight of the gods. Their powers clearly come directly from the Underworld—from the waters of the Styx, you might even say. Some malevolent force has uttered a vile malediction that exempts the crawling filth from all true and good laws of nature, laws to which even cannibalistic murderers must adhere.

The crawling filth must be expunged. The dirty cheaters will not prosper. They may cheat the laws of nature, but they can't cheat death.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Spoiler

In Junkyard, in the little cave where you go to plant the explosives before the Eels-Scrappers showdown. I do not remember whether it is a stalker or a crawler, but that's the first one I meet.

That one does suck, but it spawns off to the south (at least I think it does) so most of the time you can plant the explosives and leave before it sees you. Most of the time.
Not sure what they were thinking when they put that one there after years of that room being empty.

 

[Blaine]

Eels vs. Scrappers is an entirely optional confrontation. I still haven't bothered to go through with it in my current game, and I'm nearly level 24.

I probably won't go through with it, since my character is aligned with Oculus, Free Drones, and Pirates, and can't pass the Persuasion check to enlist SGS. I don't do flat-out cRPG RP, because that's gay, but I have a thematic appreciation for what I've seen referred to as "flavor."

 

[Blaine]

I remember hearing vague rumors that Phreak's questline conflicts with the Oligarchs'.

I've had Phreak on the back burner while I do other things (including doing everything I felt I needed to before finally confronting the Hunters), and now I really want My House, since my SGS quarters are crammed full of shit.

Strongly considering just blowing the old fart up and checking his shit out in a new playthrough. It's that or explore Upper Underrail earlier than I really wanted to and do puzzles at night (in real life) when I'm tired.

Ah fuck it, I'll keep filling the five containers in the SGS quarters full of shit. It has to be those five, too, for the moving-in to go smoothly.

 

[thesecret1]

I remember hearing vague rumors that Phreak's questline conflicts with the Oligarchs'.

Somewhat. Basically, the moment you are eligible for the mission to check out coretech labs (you don't need to accept the mission, just being eligible for it is enough, meaning you did all the previous quests for the oligarch of your choice AND fought enough in the arena to become a gladiator), Phreak vanishes from his hideout and his questline is cancelled, so you usually want to do his whole questline first, then do an oligarch questline.

Strongly considering just blowing the old fart up and checking his shit out in a new playthrough.

He has a unique glove and that's about it. You can access his laptop once he vanishes (you'll find it tossed in the garbage to the right of the room, if you have enough PER).

 

[Scrounger]

Blaine, if it helps, doing only Phreak questline does lock you up from free house. You can still buy it afterwards for 10k....not that I oppose wasting him though

 

[Blaine]

Blaine, if it helps, doing only Phreak questline does lock you up from free house. You can still buy it afterwards for 10k....not that I oppose wasting him though

That does help! I was indeed wondering if you'd receive an option to outright purchase the house during Phreak's questline. For whatever reason, I didn't ask.

Regarding the phreaking puzzles: The audio tones themselves present no problem for me at all, and the PER hint seems fairly useless except to define the pattern, which I don't need. What fucks me up is the seven-century pause between each tone as it's played. By the time each sequence reaches its end, I've started to forget the damn sequence. If the tones played rapidly, I'd be able to solve the three sequences in well under a minute by switching rapidly between "practice mode" and "entry mode."

But you see, fellas... remember when I mentioned that I can read guitar tab? There just so happens to be a physical guitar tuner sitting on my real-life coffee table.

Yes, in order to solve the phreaking puzzle in Styg's game, I have used a real-life electronic black box. I have literally phreaked the phreaking puzzle!

 

[Zeem]

What fucks me up is the seven-century pause between each tone as it's played.

Game speed affects how fast the tones are played. Set it to max to minimize the downtime between individual ones.

 

[Blaine]

What fucks me up is the seven-century pause between each tone as it's played.

Game speed affects how fast the tones are played. Set it to max to minimize the downtime between individual ones.

I also managed to turn the slowness to my advantage, Korg tuner or no Korg tuner.

I simply play the demo sequence several times, hitting practice tones quickly as each demonstrative tone is automatically played. As I find matches, I jot down a shorthand of the match's icon/color (Yl Wr, Rd Rt, etc.) in order. I identify at least one and often two or three tones and their positions per demo playback.

It seems my brain can handle the discord and simultaneity of many practice tones playing over the current "target" tone. The intervals are also short enough that I can always keep the "target" tone in mind, then shift to the next one.

 

[Blaine]

Well, Phreak's questline just petered to a halt. I assume I'll need to ADVANCE THE MAIN QUEST to UNLOCK FACTION VENDOR and UNLOCK HOUSE.

There's finally an Underrail Wiki entry for Phreak, but it seems that he hasn't UNLOCKED AS A MERCHANT for me—and that that's probably about it for him. I may need to have a very personal discussion with Phreak regarding the usefulness of Coretech's faction vendor and my keen interest in his glove.

 

[lukaszek]

there is also abomination page. Apparently it will die for good after its killed... several number of times. I guess I wasnt patient enough

 

[Blaine]

One classic aspect of later-game Merry Merchanting remains in force today:

You have a million guns.

General store owners are assholes, sitting on large piles of charons, but typically only buying a shirt, a flashlight lens, and a bottle of Tums. They always buy ammo, though.

Trade guns for tons of ammo you don't really need, then trade the ammo to general store owners. You'll take a substantial loss, but after a certain point, it hardly matters.

Now I just need to re-determine which ammo types and calibers are the most weight-efficient....

 

[Blaine]

Right. As with nearly every build, my sniper has really taken off in the early- to mid-20s.

I've settled on a Rapid Smart 8.6mm Reaper (32 AP, 175% crit bonus, >50% special attack bonus) primary, and a Rapid Spearhead Commando (26 AP, no move/shoot penalties with Strafe) secondary. As soon as I reach level 26 and grab Increased Perception, I'll have 13 PER + 2 PER from Mushroom Salads and The Juice, so accuracy will more-or-less cease to ever be a significant factor again.

My investment in Agility 10 has paid off, as it keeps Stealth quite high for Snipe and skulking about, and I find myself using Blitz regularly. Many's the time I've killed four or even five enemies on the first turn with the Spearhead without using any medication or utilities.

I don't miss Power Management much. My energy shield is very rarely used, ~120 capacity (what I've currently got) is fine for goggles, and I'm speccing Interloper, so the hit to Cloaking Device runtime is lessened for the purposes of sneaking around crowded areas in broad daylight.

I'd like to use traps a little more, but they're heavy and fiddly, so I use them relatively sparingly. Nevertheless, there is no realistic way for this character to attack silently, so traps are, if anything, more useful for a sniper even than for a Crossbows build. You generate your own noise. Can't clear rooms silently one by one, but you can cause everyone to bumble into a death field when they come to see what all the fuss is about without carrying 80 lbs. of TNT everywhere.

I've realized that there's no convenient way to create light or fire on demand while riding a jet ski, so that means very few opportunities to use Ambush, no stealth, no Snipe, no possibility of deploying traps (once again, I wish there were naval mines), etc. Since sniper rifles are extremely sensitive to any drop in accuracy, which anything less than near-perfect stability is great at bringing about, I generally feel that this build is awful on the water despite the long-range potential. I can only imagine that a Crossbows/Traps build would be in an even sadder state.

On the other hand, unlike many other builds, a sniper is incredible at surgically removing zoners from jet skis whilst entrenched on land. Indeed, when I (very belately) realized that there's now a jet ski mini-quest at the Camp Hathor docks, I found a nice little island nearby and pirated several additional skis using 8.6mm JHP. Sadly, even JHP can one-hit junk skis from full health if using Snipe, but a wreck reef is also quite handy for stopping random skiers in their predictable tracks.

 

[jackofshadows]

Noise isn't a big deal when you have vanishing powder. Sometimes even a flashbang is enough to re-stealth after a kill-streak. Traps - yeah, not worth it outside of good old bear ones very occasionally just to stall someone.

And weren't incendiary grenades working on water? Not 100% sure rn.

 

[lukaszek]

few opportunities to use Ambush

would staff from shaman in off hand help?

 

[Blaine]

Noise isn't a big deal when you have vanishing powder. Sometimes even a flashbang is enough to re-stealth after a kill-streak. Traps - yeah, not worth it outside of good old bear ones very occasionally just to stall someone.

Why stall them when you can blow them up? One trap not strong enough? Put down two or three! Acid and cold chemical traps are also just spicier versions of bear traps. Actually, the cold ones can entirely disable, which is handy all on its own.

I know it's considered mostly a convenience, but I do like being able to disarm and recover traps as well. You can collect tons and create free, if lower-powered, minefields.

Furthemore, if your Traps skill is low, human enemies will readily see and skirt around your bear traps when feasible. They do for me in the latest version, anyway.

And weren't incendiary grenades working on water? Not 100% sure rn.

I tried a magnesium grenade, and water tiles don't remain lit.

Actually, this is realistic when it comes to magnesium grenades, though not so much with gasoline and napalm grenades—but I imagine all function identically on water. Actually, "lights water on fire" would be a nice bonus for both gas and napalm grenades, the first because it adds more life to the cheapest component, the second because it enhances one of the rarest components in the game.

 

[jackofshadows]

Why stall them when you can blow them up? One trap not strong enough? Put down two or three! Acid and cold chemical traps are also just spicier versions of bear traps. Actually, the cold ones can entirely disable, which is handy all on its own.

I mostly mean bloated bosses on DOM or random targets at choke-points.

If you actually like to tinker with traps - then why not but their damage is pretty much neglectable and special effects like crawler poison or freeze are nice but not exactly reliable. Unless you make a whole field but that's... quite a hassle.

Yes enemies are eager to disarm traps but it takes time and that's rarely matter in general since you decide when and where to start a fight.

 

[agris]

Blaine, if it helps, doing only Phreak questline does lock you up from free house. You can still buy it afterwards for 10k....not that I oppose wasting him though

That does help! I was indeed wondering if you'd receive an option to outright purchase the house during Phreak's questline. For whatever reason, I didn't ask.

Regarding the phreaking puzzles: The audio tones themselves present no problem for me at all, and the PER hint seems fairly useless except to define the pattern, which I don't need. What fucks me up is the seven-century pause between each tone as it's played. By the time each sequence reaches its end, I've started to forget the damn sequence. If the tones played rapidly, I'd be able to solve the three sequences in well under a minute by switching rapidly between "practice mode" and "entry mode."

But you see, fellas... remember when I mentioned that I can read guitar tab? There just so happens to be a physical guitar tuner sitting on my real-life coffee table.

Yes, in order to solve the phreaking puzzle in Styg's game, I have used a real-life electronic black box. I have literally phreaked the phreaking puzzle!

Only way that could be better is if you held up a phone to the speaker and looked for what number it dialed

 

[Blaine]

Only way that could be better is if you held up a phone to the speaker and looked for what number it dialed

You could also download a guitar tuning program (or navigate to an online tuner) and either use a physical microphone or route the digital audio output from the game into said program, possibly with the use of "virtual audio cables"; I messed around with that sort of thing a few years ago.

 

[agris]

Since we’re talking about phreaking, I’ll go ahead and plug this: Kevin Mitnick’s book Ghost in the Wires is excellent, I recommend it to anyone with an interest in engineering and hacking. It’s also more heavy on the social engineering side of things than one may reasonably estimate.

 

[Trashos]

The fish dive underwater if you set them on fire, so I never got much use out of Ambush against them. Not even when I was rocking the incendiary pistol.

I do not know much about snipers (I like fast weapons), but I would at least consider a different gun while on the jet ski.

 

[Axie]

Oddity NFTs?

 

[Blaine]

I do not know much about snipers (I like fast weapons), but I would at least consider a different gun while on the jet ski.

If I can get the Steyr-Auch refurbished, with my high PER, seeker goggles, and W2C/acid ammo it'd probably be all right.

There's really not all that much jet ski combat beyond the sea serpents, anyway, and some of that involves boarding. Still, this character will probably be the most screwed out of all the post-Expedition builds I've run. Everything related to stealth and traps is kaput.

It's not too difficult to obtain a jet with optimal stability by shelling out cash money, in which case an Aimed Shot with W2C will almost certainly blow up whatever is hit, but the problem is ensuring crits when it's on cooldown without Ambush to help.

We'll see how it goes. At least I'll soon finally have completed a playthrough with a sniper after all these years.