Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Mauman]

Styg you fucking retard. If you're going to put in God Awful shit like the Phreak quest in this game, at least have the GOOD FUCKING GRACE TO MAKE SURE IT WORKS.

I'm getting code works, all green, no door NO FUCKING QUEST ITEMS at BOTH of the phones. Good God I've lost some brain cells today.

there's more phones, you blockhead

No, "blockhead". I'm at the two phones that are supposedly the correct ones (the one near Grubbins, and the one SE of the institute), so fuck off unless you have something actually useful to say?

yeah, uninstall, you're too dumb

Actually, after venting. I found out what the problem was. I did misunderstood the deal. I didn't realize I had to do each phone 3 times in a row.

That being said, your comment about being at the wrong phone was still wrong and retarded. Much like you I suppose.

I underestimated your stupidity, blockhead
won't happen again

Ditto, retard.

Good we have an understanding.

 

[toro]

Styg you fucking retard. If you're going to put in God Awful shit like the Phreak quest in this game, at least have the GOOD FUCKING GRACE TO MAKE SURE IT WORKS.

I'm getting code works, all green, no door NO FUCKING QUEST ITEMS at BOTH of the phones. Good God I've lost some brain cells today.

there's more phones, you blockhead

No, "blockhead". I'm at the two phones that are supposedly the correct ones (the one near Grubbins, and the one SE of the institute), so fuck off unless you have something actually useful to say?

yeah, uninstall, you're too dumb

Actually, after venting. I found out what the problem was. I did misunderstood the deal. I didn't realize I had to do each phone 3 times in a row.

That being said, your comment about being at the wrong phone was still wrong and retarded. Much like you I suppose.

I underestimated your stupidity, blockhead
won't happen again

Ditto, retard.

Good we have an understanding.

I have an understanding, you're a blockhead

As a proud Zionist, you should find him, rape his babies, kill the entire family, confiscate his house, call CNN, complain how he hurt your feelings online and brag about how you are without fault.

Everything less than that is simply unacceptable.

Spoiler

also the pyramid requires more sacrifices

 

[Nikanuur]

Quite a few years ago, I chose to play Underrail with a technical/scientific adept with some psychic powers and a little persuasion, and I stopped playing sometimes after reaching the first big town.
I vaguely remember that I liked the atmosphere, that exploration was meaningful, and that the writing ranged from okay to interesting. However, there was also a growing feeling of disheartening caused by clutter lying everywhere, trying to cope with the system of having to remember what I can sell and where, what stuff I should pick up or leave lying, and, mainly, the combat.
I tried to bear with the initial, uninspiring feeling of repetitive 'press a button to attack 2x per round, wait out enemies doing the same, with little to no tactics possible' because I told myself, "Hey, it's the first levels, as in any other game." But the feeling never changed.
That was before I came to Codex.

Initially, I made a fool of myself here, criticizing Underrail in an unseemly fashion.
I still believe I did have a point—at least to a degree. However, after reading many positive things about Underrail and seeing the lovely cult created around it (I mean it as a good thing; I myself am part of several similar cults), I think that there just must've been something I missed. A lot.

With the severe discount on Steam and having just finished the awesome Colony Ship, I am thinking of revising my heretic thoughts and stand points, and try it again. After all, I may have just misunderstood, or skill-walled myself out of the good stuff, or some such.

If you'd be so kind as to elaborate on why combat can be good in this game and how to go on about it, etc., it would be most appreciated.

 

[thesecret1]

press a button to attack 2x per round, wait out enemies doing the same, with little to no tactics possible

Tactics in underrail don't come from character abilities (except for psykers, that is), but from using the terrain, chucking the many types of grenades, utilizing consumables, and placing traps before the fight even starts. If you play it the way you described, you just won't beat it (unless you're playing on easy or something). From what you said I gather you reached Junkyard and haven't gone through Depot A yet, which is the part of the game that usually forces you to tacticize, an end of tutorial mode, essentially.

Example of the average fight in Underrail: throw gas grenade before fight starts into a bottleneck, wait for the gas to spread. Then start combat by attacking enemy from afar (no need to hit, just get his attention). Then retreat a bit and hide behind a corner, so that enemies have to traverse the gas cloud (deals damage and adds a damage multiplier to any further damage they receive from any source). Once they do so, pop out of cover and drop as many as you can. Then use adrenaline to get more AP and drop more. Use Jumping bean if needed to get the MP to hide behind the corner again. Remaining enemies finally reach you - time to throw a flashbang to give you those extra two rounds, and use them to finish them off.

 

[Nikanuur]

press a button to attack 2x per round, wait out enemies doing the same, with little to no tactics possible

Tactics in underrail don't come from character abilities (except for psykers, that is), but from using the terrain, chucking the many types of grenades, utilizing consumables, and placing traps before the fight even starts. If you play it the way you described, you just won't beat it (unless you're playing on easy or something). From what you said I gather you reached Junkyard and haven't gone through Depot A yet, which is the part of the game that usually forces you to tacticize, an end of tutorial mode, essentially.

Example of the average fight in Underrail: throw gas grenade before fight starts into a bottleneck, wait for the gas to spread. Then start combat by attacking enemy from afar (no need to hit, just get his attention). Then retreat a bit and hide behind a corner, so that enemies have to traverse the gas cloud (deals damage and adds a damage multiplier to any further damage they receive from any source). Once they do so, pop out of cover and drop as many as you can. Then use adrenaline to get more AP and drop more. Use Jumping bean if needed to get the MP to hide behind the corner again. Remaining enemies finally reach you - time to throw a flashbang to give you those extra two rounds, and use them to finish them off.

Wow, I certainly don't remember using such options. Probably even not having them, but that's a different story. Thanks!
By using terrain, you mean there was a cover mechanics? Or did you mean stuff like creating no line of sight, imposing AP penalty to enemies by making them circumventing the terrain, etc.?

 

[lukaszek]

By using terrain, you mean there was cover mechanics? Or did you mean stuff like creating no line of sight, imposing AP penalty to enemies by making them circumvent the terrain, etc.?

play non psi character, with 3 con, light armor and no evasion stuff. You will learn quickly what this is all about. There are a number of such builds dominating proven

 

[thesecret1]

By using terrain, you mean there was cover mechanics? Or did you mean stuff like creating no line of sight, imposing AP penalty to enemies by making them circumvent the terrain, etc.?

No cover mechanics. Line of sight is important especially for corners and the like, but you can also create acid puddles, fire, or gas on the floor, which enemies will either have to bypass or tank. That's not to mention the various kinds of traps you can use, or tacticizing around opening/closing doors. Being able to use these things to waste enemy AP, give them debuffs, or group them together for some AoE attacks is key to Underrail combat. Different builds give you a great amount of variety, too. Playing melee or crossbow, you will probably get a lot of mileage from various poisons, while probably not using them at all with a psyker or a gun build.

Before Depot A, the game is going very easy on you and doesn't really show what it's about yet.

 

[Nikanuur]

By using terrain, you mean there was cover mechanics? Or did you mean stuff like creating no line of sight, imposing AP penalty to enemies by making them circumvent the terrain, etc.?

No cover mechanics. Line of sight is important especially for corners and the like, but you can also create acid puddles, fire, or gas on the floor, which enemies will either have to bypass or tank. That's not to mention the various kinds of traps you can use, or tacticizing around opening/closing doors. Being able to use these things to waste enemy AP, give them debuffs, or group them together for some AoE attacks is key to Underrail combat. Different builds give you a great amount of variety, too. Playing melee or crossbow, you will probably get a lot of mileage from various poisons, while probably not using them at all with a psyker or a gun build.

Before Depot A, the game is going very easy on you and doesn't really show what it's about yet.

Hmm, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks again, man.

I wonder, do traps require complementing skills or do you just buy them, use APs, and that's it? And what about other AoEs, such as those puddles, grenades, etc.?
Or better yet, is there a buffer in builds to be good at few things, or is it a must to specialize narrowly?

 

[jackofshadows]

I wonder, do traps require complementing skills or do you just buy them, use APs, and that's it?

Bear traps can carry you in a lot of situations through the entire game except for humans (they can find and disarm the traps due to your low traps skill). So for a ranger it's a good habit to have 5 of them or so at all times. You can even use it agaisnt human enemies still w/o any skill investment by placing the traps far away while you still could aggro them with a xbow for instance. They will still disarm them but at the same time while you will be shooting them.

To raise traps and use high level ones, chemical in particular is a lot of fun though. Uninhibited, sadistic kind of fun.

Or better yet, is there a buffer in builds to be good at few things, or is it a must to specialize narrowly?

Depends on the difficulty. On normal you can get away pretty much with anything. On dom you better fucking specialize (and even then if you know every trick in the book you can still get through).

 

[thesecret1]

I wonder, do traps require complementing skills or do you just buy them, use APs, and that's it? And what about other AoEs, such as those puddles, grenades, etc.?
Or better yet, is there a buffer in builds to be good at few things, or is it a must to specialize narrowly?

Traps specifically need the traps skill to place, save for the basic bear trap (which is quite useful for any build, though). Anyone can throw grenades, though throwing skill lets you throw them accurately - without it, you'll find them falling off the mark quite often except at very short distances. Consumables have no skill requirements.

Generally, both specialized and hybrid builds are viable, though I recommend sticking to a specialized build until you know what you're doing (less room to fuck it up, basically). Really though, just play the game and get to Depot A. If you find you cannot progress, it's because you aren't using enough tactics - maybe you're playing without consumables, or you aren't using grenades, etc. The game itself will make you use these things because you cannot win otherwise.

 

[agris]

Nikanuur this is actually a good primer on underrail's systems, and more than enough to make whatever thematic character you want to and beat the game on (at least) normal difficulty.

sorry for the aspect ratio tho, it was made by zoomers on chan.

underrail primer

 

[Mauman]

Quite a few years ago, I chose to play Underrail with a technical/scientific adept with some psychic powers and a little persuasion, and I stopped playing sometimes after reaching the first big town.
I vaguely remember that I liked the atmosphere, that exploration was meaningful, and that the writing ranged from okay to interesting. However, there was also a growing feeling of disheartening caused by clutter lying everywhere, trying to cope with the system of having to remember what I can sell and where, what stuff I should pick up or leave lying, and, mainly, the combat.
I tried to bear with the initial, uninspiring feeling of repetitive 'press a button to attack 2x per round, wait out enemies doing the same, with little to no tactics possible' because I told myself, "Hey, it's the first levels, as in any other game." But the feeling never changed.
That was before I came to Codex.

Initially, I made a fool of myself here, criticizing Underrail in an unseemly fashion.
I still believe I did have a point—at least to a degree. However, after reading many positive things about Underrail and seeing the lovely cult created around it (I mean it as a good thing; I myself am part of several similar cults), I think that there just must've been something I missed. A lot.

With the severe discount on Steam and having just finished the awesome Colony Ship, I am thinking of revising my heretic thoughts and stand points, and try it again. After all, I may have just misunderstood, or skill-walled myself out of the good stuff, or some such.

If you'd be so kind as to elaborate on why combat can be good in this game and how to go on about it, etc., it would be most appreciated.

1. I've played the game with the merchant system legit one time. I'm not going to judge you if you use Cheat Engine to force merchant refreshes so you can save HOURS of time in dealing with the economy. I will never play legit like that again. I understand why Styg put that system in place, and I still consider it cancer.

2. Combat tactics evolves radically depending on your weapons, skills, items, and especially feats. My current playthrough actually heavily focuses on light sources of all things as I get extremely heavy bonuses when attacking from shadows to those in the light. This isn't even that hard to pull off as most (not all, but most) places have shadows to hide in. Even areas that you might not think is the case, like a bloody arena. And making light sources isn't hard either. I can use flares, molotovs, or even psionic abilities to make light sources to get those sweet "fuck you" hits in. I still have other options available if need be. Various stuns, abilities that make my enemies fight each other, various kind of grenades. Hell, if all else fails, I can always tactically retreat by throwing down a smoke bomb and high tailing it. Or freeze my character for two turns while deciding what to do while laughing as my enemies try hurt me to no avail. There's all sorts of tactical variety in the combat of this game. And that's just my current build.

edit - oh, and I'm going to get some flack here I'm sure. But I personally don't care for oddity xp.
2nd edit - normie Love you too retard.

 

[Twiglard]

That's technically true, but it's not the whole story. So you have a difference between the amount of base points to spend on crafting that result in the same effective crafting skill. It's a difference between spending 60 points and spending 140 points for a mid-game item.

With 18 intelligence attribute you get 2x the effective points for the base points you spend. With 3 or 4 intelligence you get something like 0.75x.

Your effective crafting skill determines the quality of components you can use. To create top-tier mid-late game electronic items for a noob-ish crafting build, you'd need at least effective 125 electronics skill. To be honest, for DOMINATING hardcore players you might go even higher than that, even to 150-180 (especially with both DLCs and latest patches that increased max item quality). It's not that difficult to see 165+q components for sale by vendors.

 

[jackofshadows]

Yes but then you need to take into account workbenches and drugs that are boosting INT if there's left any after all the patches.

 

[Mauman]

Yes but then you need to take into account workbenches and drugs that are boosting INT if there's left any after all the patches.

While All-in got nerfed into oblivion (sad, I know), Cereberix still gives a +2 int and Jon's special still gives +5 to all skills.

Nevermind gear like the lemurian tech suit, phreak's glove, the boning knife, and the Tchort belts. Or Booth's tattoos if you really want to get crazy about it.

 

[Nikanuur]

Man, I play a crossbower with some dodging and thieving skills for a change. Wow, it's actually cool right from the start. A bit of persuasion too—that's a must in RPGs for me. I have talked the psionicist into giving me four instead of two hypos, picklocked some doors while being invisible to cameras in stealth, stole some bandages or whatnot. Nice. But most importantly, careful exploration of the caves in stealth and sniping singled rat-wolfos before they get to me works surprisingly well. If there are more, I try to bottleneck them, as you said, usually getting dangerously low on health, but generally managing to kill two or three, and then I heal. I also took some throwing points, minding your advice about later combat procedures. All in all, thanks for helping me change my mind! Now, to cope with the 'original system of selling stuff', eheh. How do you do that, guys? Do you take notes on who buys what, or are there some in-game utilities for that?

 

[Nikanuur]

I can close the fence and shoot them through! I am in love :3

 

[thesecret1]

Now, to cope with the 'original system of selling stuff', eheh. How do you do that, guys? Do you take notes on who buys what, or are there some in-game utilities for that?

Personally, I just unlock the best fast travel option (no spoilers) and then just quickly go from vendor to vendor, super fast, selling as much shit as I can.

I can close the fence and shoot them through! I am in love :3

Now you know what "tactics" means in Underrail

 

[Mauman]

Now, to cope with the 'original system of selling stuff', eheh. How do you do that, guys? Do you take notes on who buys what, or are there some in-game utilities for that?

Well....

It's fairly self-explanatory who buys what and where, but there are a few notes to be taken. For instance, electricians will always buy electrical parts and equipment. They might also buy psionic components/equipment and/or goggle components/equipment. Ezra, for instance, will buy all three. The electrician in Junkyard will only buy general electric and goggle stuff. The Core City electronic store will NEVER buy goggles or psionic stuff.

Guns are fairly universal. Every armory and general store will buy a few and selling guns will probably be the bulk of your income. Crossbows are tricky. Not a lot of places buy them. The SGS armory often will. Armories will also often buy a few armor pieces.

Speaking of SGS, getting SGS cash is still useful througout the game. You can sell them in junkyard for a decent price with 40ish mercantile. Speaking of mercantile, it's actually really important in this game as it improves many merchant stocks. 105 effective skill is the best breaking point (there's higher checks but they just give money and by the time you get to those it won't be THAT important). There's a belt that increases the score by 15. You can also use temporary bonuses to make those checks such as food and drugs. Though drugs that increase int are very rare until you get into the mid/late game, so probably not worth doing that. There's a food item in Core City called "Jon's special" that must be unlocked by talking to a guy called Jon the Beautiful and asking about certain topics. It's expensive (200 charons), but increases EVERY skill by 5. Very useful for various checks (crafting, lockpicking, whatever) throughout the game. There's a much rarer food item that increases persuasion by 15, but unless you know what you're doing it's not worth to build around that.

Any items you still want to sell but don't currently have a buyer for, you can safely drop in a garbage can or barrel or something. The items will never be removed and you can come get them later when merchants refresh (generally about an hour, I think).

edit - you don't need to go over 110 effective persuasion. So don't invest TOO much there. There's also a few gear pieces that can improve it too.

 

[thesecret1]

You can sell them in junkyard for a decent price with 40ish mercantile.

Much better to find the couple merchants that let you directly buy stygians with SGS cash. Off the top of my head: Blaine, Jonah, John Quicksilver

 

[Mauman]

You can sell them in junkyard for a decent price with 40ish mercantile.

Much better to find the couple merchants that let you directly buy stygians with SGS cash. Off the top of my head: Blaine, Jonah, John Quicksilver

The UI is horrible when you do that. If you try to auto trade, it'll return the cash back to your inventory. So you have to manually put the amount needed on trade into the trade window.

Also, you sell items to these people for their cash (you'll have plenty to go around), and THEN trade the sgs creds so you ultimately get more. The Trade in at the junkyard is WAY more useful as it's infinite.

 

[thesecret1]

The UI is horrible when you do that. If you try to auto trade, it'll return the cash back to your inventory. So you have to manually put the amount needed on trade into the trade window.

Yeah, but it's not that big a deal.

The Trade in at the junkyard is WAY more useful as it's infinite.

Even with high mercantile, you're paying 4 cred for 1 stygian, while with Blaine, you trade 3. Trading the creds with other merchants is just more effective no matter how you slice it. Only case where I'd consider the trade in at junkyard is if I somehow accumulated far too many SGS creds

 

[CHEMS]

The UI is horrible when you do that. If you try to auto trade, it'll return the cash back to your inventory. So you have to manually put the amount needed on trade into the trade window.

Yeah, but it's not that big a deal.

The Trade in at the junkyard is WAY more useful as it's infinite.

Even with high mercantile, you're paying 4 cred for 1 stygian, while with Blaine, you trade 3. Trading the creds with other merchants is just more effective no matter how you slice it. Only case where I'd consider the trade in at junkyard is if I somehow accumulated far too many SGS creds

SGS money is alright. Buy ammo and batteries while you're at SGS, charons for anything else around the world

 

[Piotrovitz]

Dudes, is DOM possible without any dip of psi? Specifically hit-n-run SMG/grenadier dex build?

I've finished base game years ago on hard/oddity without any issues. Did a second run with the same build when Expedition came out, but got so overlevelled that I dropped it in mid-expansion areas, because I was going on autopilot.

Now, I've tried DOM once, pre-expedition times, and couldn't get past Newton's quest lol. I assume I would do better now, but still - would DOM without psi not be a too much of a chore/cheesefest x1000?

Would be cool to have some diff between hard and dom, or even better - custom one. But why bother, eh?

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Dudes, is DOM possible without any dip of psi? Specifically hit-n-run SMG/grenadier dex build?

Yes.
Newton psi beetle warehouse is probably the hardest part of the game on dominating. You need some sort of cheese to win there. There are just too many beetles.