Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[Corvid]

I just bought Expedition and if it turns out shit I'll find those who recommended it and smear said shit on your posts.

One question: can I just install the DLC and seamlessly jump into Expedition content, or is it recommended to start a new playthrough? The risk of being overleveled notwithstanding.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

It's integrated into the game. Meaning you have to reach Core City to start it. For me doing the arena got me into the expansion quest. I think level 15 was recommended?

 

[Corvid]

K then, I shall go on a tour in search of new material that suddenly appeared after DLC install, and will definitely check Core City.

ed: Oh, one question: is there anything in the base game that grants all 6 utility slots? I only found +2 at most.

 

[AdolfSatan]

There’s a perk that gives you +1, dunno what else.

 

[Corvid]

There’s a perk that gives you +1, dunno what else.

Together with +2 from the large waistpack or whatever it was that should max it out. Thanks, HellHitler.

 

[blessed king of longing]

So, after putting it off for years, I saw that now they implemented fixes for the stuff that annoyed me the first time around (namely, slowness and backtracking) and decided to give it a try.
Man, am I having a blast, fucking A-tier game.

Love the little details, like Grimpus asking for a sacrificial animal and getting his head blown off when handed a laser cat. Didn’t even think of it as a possibility, it was just what I had in my inventory.

My only point of contention so far are the retarded puzzles/minigames, they’re boring and incoherent with every other aspect of the game’s design.

Is there an expected level I should be at when heading for the Expedition content, or can I tackle it at any time?

Also, way back when I first played it (probably around its demo/EA/first release date), I recalled getting tattoos inside some sort of train wagon encampment. Am I misremembering or mixing it up with another game? Because I checked the wiki, and it says that it’s down to a 50/50 chance of a random character spawning in the sewers, and turns out I got the hippie chick that sells amulets instead.

what did they do to change backtracking and "slowness"?

 

[Spark Mandriller]

Together with +2 from the large waistpack or whatever it was that should max it out. Thanks, HellHitler.

Standard belts aren't enough. You need one specific unique belt that gives +3. And it has some weird drawbacks that make it not work like you probably want. It's also only available on the hardest difficulty for no good reason.
https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Master_Demolitionist_Belt
It's weird but it actually can be very useful on the right build.

what did they do to change backtracking and "slowness"?

There's an inbuilt speedhack now. It only goes up to double speed but that's still twice as fast as things used to be.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Been playing a lot of Underrail over the past two weeks. Is so good, men. This time I will reach Expedition, I feel it in my bones.

I initially tried to pick back up a semi-tanky shotgun build that I'd gotten to around level 13, but it didn't feel good. Restarted with a stealthy knoife build and the game instantly became ten times more fun. I think I just can't into tank. Possibly not firearms either. It feels so limiting compared to sneaky mans and all the cool tricks you get with melee and crossbows. It doesn't help that most if not all of the shotgun-specific feats are passive, so it doesn't provide any new tools, just makes regular old attacks stronger.

New character is now level 11 and is rapidly morphing into a pure throwing build. I picked up spears as a backup weapon, but that was before I discovered that throwing spears is absolutely ludicrous. They oneshot everything. I had to laugh when, after having run around blasting through everything with a shock spear hitting for several hundred damage with every attack before even clearing depot A, I discovered that there is an attachment you can add to crafted spears that increases throwing damage by like 100%. It's glorious.

It also seems that throwing knives have been buffed since last I tried them - or maybe they simply need a hefty investment in Throwing to come online. The damage is decent and the feat that makes them auto-crit targets at <25% health as well as refunds action points is excellent. And that's not even getting into shock shurikens, which are definitely new and make a big difference. It feels great to be able to play a throwing character that isn't just a grenade monkey. In fact, I don't even carry grenades in the quick slots most of the time. Partly that's because this character is starved for skill points and Chemistry has had to be sacrificed, so no access to the best ones, but mainly it's because throwing knives/shurikens and nets are all I need. I'm having such a good time with this character, it's by far my favourite of all the ones I've tried.

However, there is one massive glaring problem. It seems that the feat that gives throwing knives a chance to pin doesn't work with shurikens. WTF is that about? Styyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyg

 

[Serus]

Together with +2 from the large waistpack or whatever it was that should max it out. Thanks, HellHitler.

Standard belts aren't enough. You need one specific unique belt that gives +3. And it has some weird drawbacks that make it not work like you probably want. It's also only available on the hardest difficulty for no good reason.
https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Master_Demolitionist_Belt
It's weird but it actually can be very useful on the right build.

What? I didn't know that. Underrail is a Diablo 2 clone, who could have guessed.

 

[Corvid]

It seems I've stumbled onto the Expedition equivalent to the Mutagen puzzle. Oh joy?

Spoiler

By which I mean some kind of musical code in the Nexus. I hope it's only music notation and not actual tones like Phreak's puzzle, my musical ear is limited to telling when the music is playing or not.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

It seems I've stumbled onto the Expedition equivalent to the Mutagen puzzle. Oh joy?

Spoiler

By which I mean some kind of musical code in the Nexus. I hope it's only music notation and not actual tones like Phreak's puzzle, my musical ear is limited to telling when the music is playing or not.

It's only notation. There's no actual audio component.
There's a tool floating around online that cracks it for you.

 

[Corvid]

Got it. Even with the title hints I got stuck way too long thinking the intervals should be absolute (like, each starting separately from the basic point) and not relative to one another. It didn't help that RNG provided no hints containing Y or Z so I could verify the line with numbers which I actually needed.

Now for the harder puzzle: remembering where I parked that damn jetski

 

[AdolfSatan]

So, after putting it off for years, I saw that now they implemented fixes for the stuff that annoyed me the first time around (namely, slowness and backtracking) and decided to give it a try.
Man, am I having a blast, fucking A-tier game.

Love the little details, like Grimpus asking for a sacrificial animal and getting his head blown off when handed a laser cat. Didn’t even think of it as a possibility, it was just what I had in my inventory.

My only point of contention so far are the retarded puzzles/minigames, they’re boring and incoherent with every other aspect of the game’s design.

Is there an expected level I should be at when heading for the Expedition content, or can I tackle it at any time?

Also, way back when I first played it (probably around its demo/EA/first release date), I recalled getting tattoos inside some sort of train wagon encampment. Am I misremembering or mixing it up with another game? Because I checked the wiki, and it says that it’s down to a 50/50 chance of a random character spawning in the sewers, and turns out I got the hippie chick that sells amulets instead.

what did they do to change backtracking and "slowness"?

As the other poster mentioned, inbuilt speedhack. There’s also the rifts to teleport from place to place, tho the quest to enable them is so profoundly retarded and boring that I wonder if it was Styg’s way of snarking at the players that complained of the backtracking.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Just killed the Beast. Pretty sure I've done it once before, but it's been so long I can barely remember it. Not one of the better quests in the game. So much tedious running back and forth, and fighting bladelings is boring. Very slow, so kiting them is no problem, but very tough so it takes forever. Oh well, at least I have access to Tichrome now, for the first time with a character that can actually use it. Maybe I'll even figure out what this super steel is that everyone's talking about.

Which leads me to another point: is there any reason not to slap electricity on every single crafted melee weapon? There doesn't seem to be a downside, just free damage.

 

[lukaszek]

Which leads me to another point: is there any reason not to slap electricity on every single crafted melee weapon? There doesn't seem to be a downside, just free damage.

certain spiders cant wait to meet you

 

[Strange Fellow]

True, although they're quite rare.

 

[Mauman]

they're quite rare.

I just want to say, have fun exploring the underbelly of core city

 

[Spark Mandriller]

What? I didn't know that. Underrail is a Diablo 2 clone, who could have guessed.

There's also a feat that's dominating only.
https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beyond_Cold
To be more specific, there are two boss fights that only exist on dominating, and they have unique loot. Also you only get one per game. The other one won't spawn for no good reason. Again.

Which leads me to another point: is there any reason not to slap electricity on every single crafted melee weapon? There doesn't seem to be a downside, just free damage.

Electronic repair kits are rarer/more expensive than mechanical ones. Aside from that, no. Except for the opportunity cost of not having something else in that slot. Reinforcement or hammer or spikes or whatever.

 

[lukaszek]

its not always 'free' and its not just about kits. On knife build I would always attach it, but often leave it depleted. You see, it messes up cheap shots, or flashbangs. With how little that electricity dmg contributes(since its not boosted by crits) actually charging it is rare occasion for me. With number of attacks dagger gets it quickly depletes too and usually EVERY other action is better than charging mid combat.

 

[Spark Mandriller]

its not always 'free' and its not just about kits. On knife build I would always attach it, but often leave it depleted. You see, it messes up cheap shots, or flashbangs. With how little that electricity dmg contributes(since its not boosted by crits) actually charging it is rare occasion for me. With number of attacks dagger gets it quickly depletes too and usually EVERY other action is better than charging mid combat.

Oh shit, I forgot that. And when the game decides electricity killing someone doesn't really count so it breaks flurry, holy shit that's bad. No idea how I forgot that.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Does the spear throw count as a special attack, thus benefitting from smart goggles? Judging by this: https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Abilities#Attacks it should, since it has a cooldown and is listed on the Quick Invoker.

 

[ciox]

its not always 'free' and its not just about kits. On knife build I would always attach it, but often leave it depleted. You see, it messes up cheap shots, or flashbangs. With how little that electricity dmg contributes(since its not boosted by crits) actually charging it is rare occasion for me. With number of attacks dagger gets it quickly depletes too and usually EVERY other action is better than charging mid combat.

Oh shit, I forgot that. And when the game decides electricity killing someone doesn't really count so it breaks flurry, holy shit that's bad. No idea how I forgot that.

You'll also spawn a fuckton more acid on the ground when fighting mutants, and I think also trigger unintended barrel explosions and stuff like that.

 

[lukaszek]

Does the spear throw count as a special attack, thus benefitting from smart goggles? Judging by this: https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Abilities#Attacks it should, since it has a cooldown and is listed on the Quick Invoker.

with underrail you need to follow wiki on both ends https://stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Spear_Throw

Spear Throw is a feat and a special attack.

thus benefitting from smart goggles

then you read further down the line

it does not benefit from Smart Goggles since spears are not ranged weapons specified in the special attack bonus.

its odd one, id suggest to read every line in there few times

 

[Ol' Willy]

Electronic repair kits are rarer/more expensive than mechanical ones.

Solved by fully speccing Disassemble

 

[The people of Duckburg]

Just killed the Beast. Pretty sure I've done it once before, but it's been so long I can barely remember it. Not one of the better quests in the game. So much tedious running back and forth, and fighting bladelings is boring.

The Beast quest is more memorable for the parts where you figure out how to harm it than the parts where you hunt for shards and cart the dense things around. Talking to Quentin and Ezra to figure out what these things are is honestly one of the moments I think of first when I think of the game. That it's interesting having a biologist explain what these worms and rock/steel type pokemon are, is pretty impressive. The writing and world building are strong enough to carry a scene like that, when it could easy have been a case of wishing that the biologybabble would end.

Quenton was one of my favorite NPCs, since he will serve you several lore dumps if you show him certain things. I would have liked it if there was even more of that. More Quincy-like NPCs to talk lore with, if the player chooses to.