Topics

1

Bugs / Alternate utility tower tactic

« on: September 08, 2021, 09:33:27 pm »

I swear, I was just trying to break the damn ice with TNT!

2

Builds / Assault Rifle / Thought Control hybrid

« on: November 15, 2020, 01:38:47 pm »

For once I did not go for a meme build, I wanted to explore the new waterways easily. So, stealthy assault rifle build, with thoughts control support; it's no rocket science, but it's a nice change from tin can, so here it is. AR is for damage, TC for is for crowd control and defence. As expected the build is ridiculously strong: middle/high stealth, can one burst kill nearly any ennemy in the game, reliably fires 3 AR burst per turn without haste, can evade 9 attacks with Pseudo Spatial Projection, can break CC with Locus of Control, neural overload is a free AoE nuke... It can one turn kill the final boss using either two AR bursts or a single Neural Overload.

Overview:
Build link: https://underrail.info/build/?HgcDAwMNCgfCoF8AAAAAwqBPcAAAZG4rS1rCoAAAAAAAYCtPJCY7FSpKwrxJISxlBSnCtWbCu8Kdwp7CruKfogLip6oD4qe0Ct-_
Gear: 7.62 rapid muzzled hornet, Høddurform, psi sturdy stealthy tactical vest, psi headband (see below), any boots you like (I used bison tabi boots)

No critical low caliber Assault rifle:
Everyone knows AR are kinda broken, but generally people insist on including some critical. And yes, crit is good for AR, but it is by no mean necessary. I used a standard 7.62 rapid muzzled hornet. The new rapid reloader can activate on every individual shot, so it has about 90% chance of activating on a burst. The minimum AP gained this way is 4 with this rifle, which is exactly the amount needed for a second burst (27 AP for a burst, 2*27=50+4). Then we have Expertise, which is amplified by Concentrated Fire. Fully specialized Concentrated Fire goes up to 300%. Enemies are sad (and dead).


That's a naga protector dying to one burst, using W2C ammo, no active buffs at all.

10 WILL Thought control:
There are two main reasons to go TC: Pseudo Spatial Projection and Locus of Control. These, a sturdy tact vest, and a 2K energy shield makes it rather easy to survive. And then I scaled Neural Overload as much as I could. Since crit chance is low, I only use NO when Psi Mania is available. It's hardly a problem since NO is best used with either Mental Breakdown or LoC, and they both have long cooldowns too. I was a little worried that 10 WILL would be low, turns out it is fine. Specialized headbands are kinda cool.


Like, really cool! Who needs high WILL when you can just get a 40% multiplier out of nowhere.


To be fair, the final boss has quite a high INT score, so that number is clearly higher than the typical NO. Still enough to one shot most of the bosses, or nuke packs with LoC.

Final notes:
This build is not completely beginner friendly because of the 3 CON, but it is only a slight issue at the very start of the game. After that the only real problem is the usual one with AR: it gets kinda boring. Still way better than the standard tin can AR in that regard, with stealth and TC to spice up things. The build could probably be optimized a little bit to include Temporal Manipulation, for Stasis and Acceleration, but I'm not even sure it would feel stronger.

3

Builds / A mechanical immune sledge build (AKA The immortal drunkard)

« on: September 05, 2020, 01:23:17 pm »

This is more an experiment on mechanical damage reduction than a proper build, but since it was quite fun to play I decided to post it here. Before anything else: yes, there are better sledge builds, that is not the point.

So, mechanical damage reduction is not capped and can go to 100%, making the character immune. It is easily achievable with morphine shot, but the effect only lasts 2 turns and cannot be refreshed indefinitely. Luckily it is also possible to get to 100% without morphine:
- Lifting belt : 5%
- Ancient Rathound leather armor and tabis : 10%
- Conditioning : 24% (10% base, 9% from 14 CON, 5% from specialization)
- Stoicism : 36% (24% at 4% HP, 12% from specialization)
- Aegis : 15%
- Mushroom Brew : 10%
Permanent invulnerability to mechanical damage since Aegis does not have a cooldown. Yay!

Overview:
Build link: https://underrail.info/build/?HgwDAw4DBwQAwosAwqAAAABSVwBSY8KIM13CgwAAAAAAZHgIXy0NJmIxDksfVFBEKHrCtnDCreKdoAXiqZgF4quGBd-_
Equipment: Rathound Leather armor / tabis, Lifting belt, Praetorian Lawgiver (helmet), TiChrome sledgehammer.

I chose to play sledge because it works well with minimal investment, Mushroom Brew makes it hard to build for anything else than STR based weapons, and I have to wear a lifting belt anyway. AR would also work though, and maybe even be better, because... well... AR are stronk. But I thought swinging a hammer was the right choice for a drunk guy yelling and running around with 10 HP. Gotta be stylish.

Pros:
- death stalkers cannot do shit against that build
- morphine shot is a 2 turns invulnerability with no drawback (the damage at the end is mechanical)
- very decent damage
- lots of HP

Cons:
- no mobility
- no stealth
- no range
- does not fully work before level 25 (lol)

The build is strong early on, but then slowly gets weaker. Things are really bad around level 16. From level 20 it get better though, and in the late game the build performs rather well. Yeah, not a particularly powerful build, but a nice weird one. I had to find new tactics against some enemies which is always fun. For example Naga Protectors stop shooting you when they are close and use their melee attack instead. So, when fighting several at once, I just had to play with LoS to get them all packed around me, then I can just sit there and tank thousands of mechanical damage while slowly hammering them down.



If it is stupid but it works...

notes on the 1.1.2 update:
The build was played entirely in the previous version. After quick testing, the CP nerf is not that bad. If Kzozel Yantar is easily available (i.e. can be bought in large quantities), then a stronger version of the build is possible.

4

Builds / A blind laser pistol build (aka Stormtrooper)

« on: December 23, 2019, 03:11:47 pm »

This is a versatility build, taking advantage of the DEX->melee->gun conversion, and using a laser pistol as primary weapon. The core idea is to dump PER completely, which may look like a terrible idea but is actually not a problem at all. Our gun skill is perfectly fine thanks to versatility, and we don't miss on any significant feat. This allows us to meet the CON requirement for Survival Instincts while also getting hight INT. This stat allocation (max DEX/high INT) gives the build high skill point efficiency, and it ends up reaching most skill thresholds in the game.

Finished build link:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQAwkDAwkZOQDCoAAAwqBKMEIwS2RCQFoAGQBGVgBCKygmwqMWMMKaYlpLKR8xwocqwrNdwoXCneKnvgXita4K378
Stats: 3/18/3/9/3/3/9
Core feats: Versatility(+10), Survival Instincts, Critical Power(+5), Practical Physicist, Hight Technicalities, Recklessness
Equipment: amplified efficient laser pistol, seeker goggles, infused rathound leather armor

pros:
- Very high and continuous damage output
- Amazing skill point efficiency

cons:
- Only starts working around mid game
- No defenses

To give some figures, on the finished character I have a 9 AP laser pistol (8 with eel sandwich). At 8 AP we attack 8 time on a single haste round (adrenaline or PTC) and 11 times on a double hasted round (adrenaline and PTC). The gun does 56-77 base energy damage, +32% unconditional boost from High Technicalities (+48% with hypercerebrix!), 88% crit chance (6 base + 30 SI + 7 Recklessness + 18 goggles + 12 infused rathound leather armor + 15 stim focus), 796% critical multiplier (Amplified + Practical Physicist + Critical Power). So, on a typical round, out of 8 attacks we can expect 6 criticals dealing about 800 damage each. If we go all in (hardcore chips, adrenaline, super soldier, hypercerebrix), factoring blindsiding in: expect 9 criticals dealing 1080 damage each.

The skill point efficiency is ridiculous: my character can pass all lockpicking, hacking, pickpocketing, trap, persuasion and mercantile checks, has max accuracy on grenades throws and can craft any useful item with max quality components. And despite having 3 AGI, he ended up with about 200 effective stealth.

Of course the character is extremely fragile and anything going through the energy shield is pretty much a death sentence. But nothing should ever hit you with high stealth, high initiative, Force Field, Stasis, and 6 killing blows per round.

However, the character does have one major issue: it takes a long time before it actually works. At the start of the game, versatility is too weak to be effective, the available energy weapons are considerably weaker than the crafted ones, no critical multiplier is 90% of our DPS missing, we don't have Aimed Shot and our crit chance is low. So, early on we play a suboptimal knifer/grenadier/trapper. It gets the job done, but it would certainly be a miserable experience as a first character. The build starts shining at level 16, and is mostly complete at level 26.

Final notes:
If you're new to the game, don't play this. There are better laser pistol builds out there on the forum. But this one is a little quirky and I like quirky builds. And it worked well for a full oddity run. As a conclusion, I'll put the full final fight log. Not as stupid as a sniper, but still...