Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[lukaszek]

Also,

In this playthrough I got very crappy tactical vests from the drops, unfortunately (base DT 5 the best I got, the other two were 4s). So I decided to buy something instead.

There is a very good cheese you can do to get a good one straight out of the beggining of the game (as soon as you get access to junkyard, which is pretty early). Get yourself at least 5 poison caltrops and grenades, tier 1 grenade will do, you only need the noise. Go to the casino and open the curtain, but be careful to avoid being seen by the guards and the camera. Throw some caltrops in the room where the surveillance guy is. Then go outside, throw some caltroops at the doorstep and throw some more at the alley where the backdoor is. Chuck a grenade down there and the suckas will investigate, trampling around your caltrops. Do it 2 or 3 times and the the surveillance guy will die without aggro anyone. You can now loot his body for a decent tac vest, free shield and you can get the cash from his room. I do this every playthrough. Going into depot A with a shield makes things smoother, especially for you that is making a build that is about tanking stuff. This shield is easier to get than getting one from the protectorate prision. If you want a beefier tac vest, there's the ironhead group south of SGS, the bald guy has a heavy one most of the times.

You can kill Mordre (fisherman on way to Newton) with a gas grenade, drops a sniper, SMG, high or medium shield and the best knife for early game melee characters.

yeah but it would lock you out of perfect oculus score

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I started a character with 7 str, 7 dex, 6 agi, 6 con, 7 per, 3 will, 4 int. Feels really spread out compared to my usual characters that are a mix of 3s and 10s lol.

Maxed guns, stealth, and pickpocket, because I've never really bothered with pickpocket before so why not right? Maxing TM and dodge until I can get the abilities and feats they unlock, spreading the rest of my points out into lockpicking, hacking, and mechanics.

Made my way through the outpost quest after picking everyone's pocket I could. Killed ratula and his rats with a frag grenade, killed the rat party outside of there with a flare followed by blowing up the barrel. Always a good feeling.

Killed all the rats, got 0 XP drops from them. Oh well, plenty more rats to kill.

Here's my character at level 3. Tell me if I already fucked up.

https://underrail.info/build/?AwcHBgYHAwQZAAAAGQAZFBAZAA4AAAAAAAAAGQAAGTkrTybfvw

 

[CHEMS]

Never cared about both Gun Nut and Escape Artist feats. If Gun Nut worked like Bowyer, for example, it would be a no brainer picking it. It just gives a little damage boost to your crafted guns, not really worth it wasting a feat on that. Escape Artist i just get when i play my CHEM build because of XAL Spamming. If you do get it, make sure to spec it, the MP boost of fully specced Escape Artist is pretty good.

Here's my character at level 3. Tell me if I already fucked up.

If you're going for TM support, don't think it's worth it actually taking the pill before getting the drill parts. You can only get contraction at Rail Crossing and the available TM spells you can get before this aren't really useful besides the increment one.

 

[Trashos]

I am not feeling it with the AG investment. Secondarily, hacking and lockpicking are falling behind the curve, and it is going to be annoying in Depot A. PER will need boosts eventually. No, I don't think you are fucked, even though that's not how I would draw it up.

What difficulty setting are you on?

 

[Zeem]

Also,

In this playthrough I got very crappy tactical vests from the drops, unfortunately (base DT 5 the best I got, the other two were 4s). So I decided to buy something instead.

There is a very good cheese you can do to get a good one straight out of the beggining of the game (as soon as you get access to junkyard, which is pretty early). Get yourself at least 5 poison caltrops and grenades, tier 1 grenade will do, you only need the noise. Go to the casino and open the curtain, but be careful to avoid being seen by the guards and the camera. Throw some caltrops in the room where the surveillance guy is. Then go outside, throw some caltroops at the doorstep and throw some more at the alley where the backdoor is. Chuck a grenade down there and the suckas will investigate, trampling around your caltrops. Do it 2 or 3 times and the the surveillance guy will die without aggro anyone. You can now loot his body for a decent tac vest, free shield and you can get the cash from his room. I do this every playthrough. Going into depot A with a shield makes things smoother, especially for you that is making a build that is about tanking stuff. This shield is easier to get than getting one from the protectorate prision. If you want a beefier tac vest, there's the ironhead group south of SGS, the bald guy has a heavy one most of the times.

You can kill Mordre (fisherman on way to Newton) with a gas grenade, drops a sniper, SMG, high or medium shield and the best knife for early game melee characters.

yeah but it would lock you out of perfect oculus score

No it won't. Jack doesn't care whether Mordre lives or dies.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I am not feeling it with the AG investment. Secondarily, hacking and lockpicking are falling behind the curve, and it is going to be annoying in Depot A. PER will need boosts eventually. No, I don't think you are fucked, even though that's not how I would draw it up.

What difficulty setting are you on?

I've never beaten the game before so I decided to be a wimp and play on normal. Feel free to mock me for that, I deserve it lol. But advise me as if I was playing on hard, because I suspect when playing on normal build advice is "lol who cares you'll be fine no matter what".

I took the AG from Tygrende's build. Sprint is always nice to have of course, but admittedly that AG isn't getting me all that much on this build aside from that. I sort of assumed it was for sneaky purposes but his perk list doesn't have anything that requires it aside from sprint so... I'm not sure.

Sounds like I would be smart to just stop investing in TM for now, and wait a few more levels to start bumping it up since I won't get the good spells for a bit anyway. Then put those points into lockpicking and hacking. After next level I'll have my 30 dodge and I can stop putting points in that. My science skills do suck right now, got a little mechanics but not enough to matter. Maxed mercantile might also be questionable this early, but at least it got me the best reward for the watch quest lol.

 

[flabbyjack]

I LOVE YOU UNDERRAIL!
WHY CANT MORE GAMES BE LIKE YOU!

 

[Trashos]

All right, I didn't remember that part of Tygrende's build. I retract my objection then, even though I wouldn't do that myself. Yes, it is there for Sprint and, secondarily, for the easier Stealth -but really it is there for Sprint. And don't get me wrong, that's a good feat. A bit too expensive in this case.

No mocking for playing on Normal. I played on Normal when I started.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

All right, I didn't remember that part of Tygrende's build. I retract my objection then, even though I wouldn't do that myself. Yes, it is there for Sprint and, secondarily, for the easier Stealth -but really it is there for Sprint. And don't get me wrong, that's a good feat. A bit too expensive in this case.

No mocking for playing on Normal. I played on Normal when I started.

Playing a more... survivable build like this will probably cut down on some of the annoyance of my usual glass cannon build style, which involves a lot of F9 and doing the same thing over and over.

I'm still in the awkward phase of the game where I'm just using whatever weapons and psi powers i have on hand, don't have an AR yet, don't have armor yet. I had a hard time convincing myself to use a frag grenade to kill mr. ratula guy, it just feels like wasted credits to me lol. I'm so bad at using consumables in general in RPGs. The change to psi where you need to refill your reserves hurts, I liked being able to do damage without using any consumable goods.

 

[Trashos]

A grenade is fine for Ratula, even better if it gets his pets too. It is good that you are paying attention to your finances, but generally UR requires generous use of consumables.

Alternatively for Ratula

Spoiler

You kill the early rats without destroying the barrel, then you make Ratula and his pets chase you to the barrel (you 've got Sprint, so it should be doable), and you explode it then. But even in this case the safe way to kill the early rats is by planting traps, so it still requires an investment.

 

[Tygrende]

A grenade is fine for Ratula, even better if it gets his pets too. It is good that you are paying attention to your finances, but generally UR requires generous use of consumables.

Alternatively for Ratula

Spoiler

You kill the early rats without destroying the barrel, then you make Ratula and his pets chase you to the barrel (you 've got Sprint, so it should be doable), and you explode it then. But even in this case the safe way to kill the early rats is by planting traps, so it still requires an investment.

The most reliable and cheap way to deal with the rats around the barrel without destroying the barrel (so you can use it against Ratula later) is to stealth as close to the chainlink fence as possible, throw a flare on turn 1, then open the door, get behind the fence and close it on turn 2. At this point you can just shoot the rats with zero danger.

Best strat for Ratula is to throw a molotov - if you're lucky he is set on fire and dies without doing anything while his rats run away in fear. If he's not set on fire he's still missing a good chunk of his health, might not survive going through the ground fire and rats are still feared. Worst case scenario you missed entirely and use the barrel as a backup, lure him close to it, shoot, he's dead 100% of the time. Rats are still feared so they will come after you later, if at all.

 

[CHEMS]

You can kill ratula with a tier one grenade even on Dom, just stay on the door, wait till you can get both him and his pets in the explosion and chuck it

 

[Trashos]

Well, I finally got round to the ironheads tactical vest south of SGS, and this was also a dud (base DT 5). So it is random like the others.

Anyway, at least it offers one more try at getting a good tactical vest. Although this is a fight I leave for after the game opens up, and it will require some thinking in order to do it early. If it is doable early at all.

 

[Tigranes]

Playing around with a sword boy on DOM, not really optimal, want to later mix in Brutality + Death's Grin.

https://underrail.info/build/?FAcPBwMDBQUASwBuKABuMjIeAAAAAAAAAAAAbgBuACYxJMKMKxIGXBNLwo3CgTzfvw

DEX>STR logic is that I remember being super fucked off with Flurry misses and this means great Knife secondary. Decided to go all out instead of looking at Parry related options.

May still look into Cut-Throat to go with Wicked Hook for the stun payoff.

Early game was very smooth, carving up machines and mutants, beetles and burrowers no problem. Maybe not enough ways to deal with cleverer enemies down the line.

Next up, lukaszek patented spear thrower???

 

[lukaszek]

Anyway, at least it offers one more try at getting a good tactical vest. Although this is a fight I leave for after the game opens up, and it will require some thinking in order to do it early. If it is doable early at all.

get traps laid by blaine, create choke point with bear traps at the door, make some noise for enemies to come over(both can only melee). On dom gas grenade makes it much easier. I do it before I even finish junkyard quests.

Next up, @lukaszek patented spear thrower???

depends what are you asking for. I did low str spear thrower that could one throw most dom bosses. I think it was this: https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQB...xJh0WEwZcUUvClQASwoVCwrN2PuKfhAHiqLsD4rOiA9-_
mind you it was before javelins were a thing. Spear throw being picked up so late is odd though, found this build in my archives.
If you want to max dmg dealt, you must max str and do some other crazy stuff. Mind you that in my playthrough I found throwing precision to be an issue so I stand by maxing dex. You throw twice your crafted BIG winged tungsten spears per turn. Or stab enemies with a knife. Or use throwing knives. Thrown spear is silent, when I planned this build I didnt expect assassinations with it to be so fun

I didnt give javelins much thought, 1st impression without doing math was that they are early/mid game novelty that is outclassed by awesome crafted stuff. But I had mindset of stealthy/mobile glass cannon.
Could be wrong, you might be able to throw many of them by pulling out of your backpack. Maybe such build could go tanky/heavy since you wouldnt care about running around and pick them up, thus changing how you play and plan things completely.

 

[Trashos]

lukaszek, I was talking about the ironheads who are south of the SGS train. Three by a fire, and two walking around.

 

[CHEMS]

lukaszek, I was talking about the ironheads who are south of the SGS train. Three by a fire, and two walking around.

Well... there's still another tac vest you my try to get, but i doubt it you can win the fight at this point of the game. Going to the underpassages eventually leads you to an encounter with a bunch of lunatics and some dogs, you have to get pass those to another zone that has two stealthed guys in a small room. They're both melee, so they're actually the easiest part, just cheese them with traps. But the lunatic encounter before this is very hard early one and not doable without some heaving cheesing. There's a brawler, some gunners, crossbow pk dude and of course the invisible TC asshole that fucks you up in the end.

 

[lukaszek]

lukaszek, I was talking about the ironheads who are south of the SGS train. Three by a fire, and two walking around.

Well... there's still another tac vest you my try to get, but i doubt it you can win the fight at this point of the game. Going to the underpassages eventually leads you to an encounter with a bunch of lunatics and some dogs, you have to get pass those to another zone that has two stealthed guys in a small room. They're both melee, so they're actually the easiest part, just cheese them with traps. But the lunatic encounter before this is very hard early one and not doable without some heaving cheesing. There's a brawler, some gunners, crossbow pk dude and of course the invisible TC asshole that fucks you up in the end.

actually tahts the one i talked about previously, where awesome armor is ensured to spawn. I sneak past lunatics. I actually did beat lunatics on a number of occasions, but it was always from the other side where ambushing them is somewhat easier thanks to friendly pillar

 

[CHEMS]

I think they raised the chance of getting hypercerebrix blueprint. Got it twice from non expansion vendors. Either that or RNGesus is smiling at me.

 

[Tigranes]

Yeah, level 22 and the build is actually quite strong. Cut through most things like butter on the way. Two flurries for Balor. Lunatic mall no problem. Carnifex just needed some luck on a barbed net throw.

Though to be honest, it was really a knife build until you get everything you need (crit power, good crafted sword, Haste) for relatively efficient flurrying. But I enjoy being able to add in big chunks of energy damage to every hit. Not sure how good the damage is on a 3STR swordboy?

 

[Trashos]

What do you do when flurry does not connect?

 

[Tigranes]

What do you do when flurry does not connect?

Well, basically:
*Knife - I mean it's mostly a knife build already sans feats, so especially early on, knife can gib enemies even with low AP or at least trigger Cheap Shots
*Trusty Taser, which I am using almost all game
*Trusty Flashbangs
*Trusty Stasis
*Die

But honestly, I do it the other way round - I try to ensure I'm flurrying at 90+% by starting with the above. It's really the first flurry that's crucial to hit, and after that it's diminishing risk in terms of AP. It's also why I went DEX rather than STR.

I'm still not super sold on Swords - given that Flurry is their one trick it's too unreliable compared to high-crit energy pistolero, cooked shot chempistolero, etc. But this build has definitely done well enough to breeze DOM so far.

 

[Trashos]

Cheers. I am still trying to convince myself to play a sword build. It reminds me of that Maori war chant that goes "we came here to die, but somehow we won instead" (or sth like that).

Although swords were probably not put in the game for players like me, I may still try them at some point. So thanks for the ideas!

 

[CHEMS]

I never go too far with sword builds, i get frustrated too often relying on flurry to proc.

 

[Twiglard]

I never go too far with sword builds, i get frustrated too often relying on flurry to proc.

The virgin Quickload Flurry vs the chad Survival Instincts 300% crit bonus Critical Power build.

What do you do when flurry does not connect?

Well, basically:
*Knife - I mean it's mostly a knife build already sans feats, so especially early on, knife can gib enemies even with low AP or at least trigger Cheap Shots
*Trusty Taser, which I am using almost all game
*Trusty Flashbangs
*Trusty Stasis
*Die

No you can't. Not in most cases. Not with CON 3 on Dom. If flurry fails shortly after initiating combat, you're dead and you have to reload.

Flurry requires lots of feats. The SI build is similar, but you can skip (based on the Flurry build by normie above):

• Onslaught
• Opportunist
• Blindsiding
• Cheap Shots