316
General / Re: A thank you and some simple advice for new players.
« on: February 11, 2016, 08:21:55 pm »
I have F4 pirated and rig that will run it flawlessly but .. i cannot force myself to play it.
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317
General / Re: Location Super Soldier Drug Blueprint
« on: February 10, 2016, 03:42:21 pm »I found one behind a west positioned door at the burrower spawn point in the Tchorist West Wing. Don't know if this is static placement so don't take my word for it.It was there! Thanks.
I'm almost positive all blueprints, excepting special ammo, are not subject to RNG.
318
General / Re: Shield Recharger
« on: February 09, 2016, 04:56:56 pm »
OP you forgot spoiler warning.
319
General / Re: Location Super Soldier Drug Blueprint
« on: February 09, 2016, 04:52:37 pm »
It's in one of the rooms in Residential building. You need to transfer power there first.
You probably don't need lockpicking/hacking to get it, don't remember exactly.
BTW i have same question but about Super Health Hypo bp.
You probably don't need lockpicking/hacking to get it, don't remember exactly.
BTW i have same question but about Super Health Hypo bp.
320
Bugs / Re: Bitlocation and Neural Overload are wrongly marked as electricity attacks
« on: February 07, 2016, 06:52:37 pm »
Marked through coloring means.
My suggestion is coloring them grey (because grey matter).
My suggestion is coloring them grey (because grey matter).
321
Bugs / Re: 1.0.0.7 Cannot ally with Faceless
« on: February 07, 2016, 02:06:19 pm »
Thanks. Looks like i'm allied with them.
In case someone wants to know: i did what player1 did and also killed their patrol near CC.
In case someone wants to know: i did what player1 did and also killed their patrol near CC.
322
Builds / Re: Build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades
« on: February 07, 2016, 12:36:33 pm »
Couple of things i forgot to mention:
1. Early game craft sturdy black overcoat laminated tac vest with burrower plates. With Nimble its armor penalty will be just 30%, it won't jeopardize our sneaking and allow for some not bad bonus from Ambush. I still recommend having 'sneaky' armor for exploration. My tact vest had 16 mechanical DT and made me immune to turrets, sentry bots and many early game gun users.
2. Stealth threshold for Ambush feat:
- 150: +65% crit chance, with good Seekers and Focus Stim we will cap,
- 200: +80% crit chance, we will cap with either Stim or Seekers, this is our target value,
- 250: +95% crit chance, possible with stealth gear and probably with very best combat gear crafted with DC components.
Recklessness is worth about 23 stealth. With this feat we will cap crit chance with best pre-DC combat gear.
3. You don't need complete darkness to make Ambush work. I could, for example utilize it in central part of Military Organization base. Too bad game does not tell you where can you ambush (Styg, you promised!) and some trial & error will be neccessary.
4. I've cleared Military Organization base. I didn't use ambush there because i abused zone transition like everyone else. What's important here is that being such a glass canon does not prevent you from doing this. On hard difficulty it shouldn't be much different thanks to very good crafted shield.
5. You can use Morphine+Aegis to get 65% damage reduction for 2 turns. I didn't have to use Aegis on normal difficulty. Farming borers is easy because bladelings die easily to acid/laser.
19 DEX is an overkill but you won't have that +2 bonus very often. I actually finished the game on lvl 22 with 15 DEX and eating sandwich for harder battles.
Chem guns generally start weak but their power grows fast with quality. That's because their damage grows, their DOT % grows and chance for DOT grows as well.
Cryo without Mad Chemist is good vs melee as chilling always lands and duration is long enough. It also enables small Opportunist bonus with every hit. 1 turn duration of freeze is rather mediocre. If you freeze with your last hit you won't benefit from big Opportunist bonus and you won't be able to Execute should you pick that feat. Sure, it's still 1 turn of CC but unlike psionics it's chance based. 2 turns from Mad Chemist are MUCH better.
Acid guns does not benefit much from Mad Chemist. First reason: unique acid pistol is the best acid pistol. Second reason: chance and DOT damage is not too large (compared to Pyro). Your chance to entagle is not affected by Chemist. There's a reason to still have normal acid gun in DC, actually two: special DC acid is BAD to use with XAL; normal acid is almost nonexistant in DC (bring a lot of acid with you).
Pyro gun is interesting because it benefits a lot from Chemist while being good without it. Chance to fear your enemy and fear durations are not affected by Chemist. But your enemy is likely to survive and use health hypo. Because DOT chance and damage are high pyro will benefit a lot from Mad Chemist. Your enemies will more often die from DOT allowing you to just fire (no pun intended) and forget about them. With Execute critical this baby can deal 2500 (total) damage. Pretty apex.
If you want to use acid gun only, skip Mad Chemist. Otherwise take it. And yes pyro and cryo guns are crafting only.
If you trust Nerd Commando you can watch his scientist video, he talks about both high DEX and Mad Chemist. He's also making a glass cannon, even without traps and all his builds are hard difficulty viable.
1. Early game craft sturdy black overcoat laminated tac vest with burrower plates. With Nimble its armor penalty will be just 30%, it won't jeopardize our sneaking and allow for some not bad bonus from Ambush. I still recommend having 'sneaky' armor for exploration. My tact vest had 16 mechanical DT and made me immune to turrets, sentry bots and many early game gun users.
2. Stealth threshold for Ambush feat:
- 150: +65% crit chance, with good Seekers and Focus Stim we will cap,
- 200: +80% crit chance, we will cap with either Stim or Seekers, this is our target value,
- 250: +95% crit chance, possible with stealth gear and probably with very best combat gear crafted with DC components.
Recklessness is worth about 23 stealth. With this feat we will cap crit chance with best pre-DC combat gear.
3. You don't need complete darkness to make Ambush work. I could, for example utilize it in central part of Military Organization base. Too bad game does not tell you where can you ambush (Styg, you promised!) and some trial & error will be neccessary.
4. I've cleared Military Organization base. I didn't use ambush there because i abused zone transition like everyone else. What's important here is that being such a glass canon does not prevent you from doing this. On hard difficulty it shouldn't be much different thanks to very good crafted shield.
5. You can use Morphine+Aegis to get 65% damage reduction for 2 turns. I didn't have to use Aegis on normal difficulty. Farming borers is easy because bladelings die easily to acid/laser.
This is pretty cool. 16+2+1 Dex seems waaay overkill, but overkill is fun.
I just finished a playthrough with a non-crafter pistoleer and really wanted to use chemical pistols somehow. Found none but acid blob though (assuming the others are obtainable only by crafting), and none of those were much of a match for my laser pistol. Tempted to try a scientist dabbler or something. Is Mad Chemist essential for producing worthwhile chemical pistols? Any point in using them without it? Well, obviously XAL doesn't benefit from it and you make that sound pretty good.
19 DEX is an overkill but you won't have that +2 bonus very often. I actually finished the game on lvl 22 with 15 DEX and eating sandwich for harder battles.
Chem guns generally start weak but their power grows fast with quality. That's because their damage grows, their DOT % grows and chance for DOT grows as well.
Cryo without Mad Chemist is good vs melee as chilling always lands and duration is long enough. It also enables small Opportunist bonus with every hit. 1 turn duration of freeze is rather mediocre. If you freeze with your last hit you won't benefit from big Opportunist bonus and you won't be able to Execute should you pick that feat. Sure, it's still 1 turn of CC but unlike psionics it's chance based. 2 turns from Mad Chemist are MUCH better.
Acid guns does not benefit much from Mad Chemist. First reason: unique acid pistol is the best acid pistol. Second reason: chance and DOT damage is not too large (compared to Pyro). Your chance to entagle is not affected by Chemist. There's a reason to still have normal acid gun in DC, actually two: special DC acid is BAD to use with XAL; normal acid is almost nonexistant in DC (bring a lot of acid with you).
Pyro gun is interesting because it benefits a lot from Chemist while being good without it. Chance to fear your enemy and fear durations are not affected by Chemist. But your enemy is likely to survive and use health hypo. Because DOT chance and damage are high pyro will benefit a lot from Mad Chemist. Your enemies will more often die from DOT allowing you to just fire (no pun intended) and forget about them. With Execute critical this baby can deal 2500 (total) damage. Pretty apex.
If you want to use acid gun only, skip Mad Chemist. Otherwise take it. And yes pyro and cryo guns are crafting only.
If you trust Nerd Commando you can watch his scientist video, he talks about both high DEX and Mad Chemist. He's also making a glass cannon, even without traps and all his builds are hard difficulty viable.
323
General / Re: Preparing for Deep Caverns
« on: February 07, 2016, 09:47:53 am »If psionic damage is electric, like 80% of them are, it will help. And yes, biolocation shadows do ekectric damage, as well as overload.
Both bilocation and overload bypass electrical resistance. They are not really electrical.
324
Suggestions / Re: Let's have a chat about the Deep Caverns. (wall of text, and OBVIOUS SPOILERS)
« on: February 07, 2016, 09:34:59 am »
% reduction of damage is simply terrible mechanic and Deep Caverns show you why, especially if you have armor gimped weapon like crossbows, throwing knives or fists. Well, fists/knives at least can use one of the best designed (imho) feats called Expose Weakness but because of it's cooldown it's not exactly like 'middle finger bullets' a.k.a. W2C.
I expected to face high resistances in later stages of the game and that's why i made scientist/trapper with access to all possible damage types except mind (Neural Overload is not really electrical because it bypasses resistance). As a last resort i can use 'middle finger bullets', fortunately i didn't have to.
For my character cuttlesnails were nothing like bladelings - they resist energy, burn well and are prone to crits.
I enjoyed hunting Tchortlings for their brains so i could made some badass meds out of them. But it wouldn't be that enjoyable without stealth.
I expected to face high resistances in later stages of the game and that's why i made scientist/trapper with access to all possible damage types except mind (Neural Overload is not really electrical because it bypasses resistance). As a last resort i can use 'middle finger bullets', fortunately i didn't have to.
For my character cuttlesnails were nothing like bladelings - they resist energy, burn well and are prone to crits.
I enjoyed hunting Tchortlings for their brains so i could made some badass meds out of them. But it wouldn't be that enjoyable without stealth.
325
Builds / Re: Build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades
« on: February 04, 2016, 05:56:28 pm »
14+1 DEX could work - with adrenaline it would allow for molotov + 5 * laser. But having 16 DEX is really good because:
laser costs 10 AP = 5 attacks,
chemguns cost 12 AP = 4 attacks,
unique acid gun costs 6 AP = 8 attacks,
plasma costs 20 AP = 3 attacks with Point Shot; it's also nice number to mix with laser shots,
At endgame you can craft a drug that gives you + 2 DEX and thus: laser for 8 AP, chemguns for 10 AP, unique acid gun for 5 AP = still 8 attacks + 10 AP (crappy ammo cap and costly reload :/), shockgun for 12 AP.
If you also eat eel sandwich you will have plasma for 15 AP, chemguns for 8, laser for 7. Pretty apex.
You don't fight Tchortists. They have best electronics and chemical shops in the game and they also give you great acid gun in one of their quests.
But since i was curious how do they fight i went to elevator area and started a fight. I was not prepared, didn't have my best armor, i intended to die and, see how many i can kill and load the game. And i killed everyone but one of them. With some preparations (placing mines under their noses) it would be doable. But battle by the fountain could be hard indeed.
Placing mines is not the fastest/most entertaining activity but can win you pretty much every encounter.
You shouldn't need sprint, with tabi you'll have about 70 MP. You can get extra +10 from Jumping Bean and their components are very abundant.
laser costs 10 AP = 5 attacks,
chemguns cost 12 AP = 4 attacks,
unique acid gun costs 6 AP = 8 attacks,
plasma costs 20 AP = 3 attacks with Point Shot; it's also nice number to mix with laser shots,
At endgame you can craft a drug that gives you + 2 DEX and thus: laser for 8 AP, chemguns for 10 AP, unique acid gun for 5 AP = still 8 attacks + 10 AP (crappy ammo cap and costly reload :/), shockgun for 12 AP.
If you also eat eel sandwich you will have plasma for 15 AP, chemguns for 8, laser for 7. Pretty apex.
You don't fight Tchortists. They have best electronics and chemical shops in the game and they also give you great acid gun in one of their quests.
But since i was curious how do they fight i went to elevator area and started a fight. I was not prepared, didn't have my best armor, i intended to die and, see how many i can kill and load the game. And i killed everyone but one of them. With some preparations (placing mines under their noses) it would be doable. But battle by the fountain could be hard indeed.
Placing mines is not the fastest/most entertaining activity but can win you pretty much every encounter.
You shouldn't need sprint, with tabi you'll have about 70 MP. You can get extra +10 from Jumping Bean and their components are very abundant.
Quote
sci-fi guns make a lot of noise, which means once you attack, everything is going to zoom on your positionWrong, watch my bonus video.
326
General / Re: Is INT=7 mandatory for a crafter build?
« on: February 03, 2016, 08:29:29 pm »
Disassemble has two problems:
- it costs you a feat
- it lowers item quality to 90%
and it's one problem too much imho. Without quality loss it would be worth considering.
- it costs you a feat
- it lowers item quality to 90%
and it's one problem too much imho. Without quality loss it would be worth considering.
327
Builds / Energy/chem pistol build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades (with videos!)
« on: February 03, 2016, 08:17:33 pm »
Build updated for Expedition. Hard difficulty. I'll try to keep Expedition spoilers low.
I removed original build since it was way outdated and could lead to confusion.
Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades v 1.1 - Expedition
This build is able to do quite a lot of things. Primary thing it can not do is getting various lore bits that require high WIL.
With Expedition i've decided to add PSI to my repertoire in a form of Temporal Manipulation. We won't be raising it from lvl 1 though, i'll explain later.
Since it's a glass cannon it's not a good build for players who want to minimize number of reloads.
It's not a build for beginners as it lacks defense. Well, passive defense, at least. I've played this build on both XP modes and it's doing fine except some early game pain. Zero passive defense can make us die really fast but our active defense can carry us.
Weapon type that fits best into this build is pistols, specifically energy and chemical.
This has good secret detection, good traps detection, excellent fishing, good active defense, can open any door, hack any terminal and pickpocket many pockets. It's a good build for exploring the game. One inconvenience is that a few secrets need more than 10 PER so it needs extra PER from goggles/consumables to spot them.
ATTRIBUTES
STR 3
DEX 10 (+6)
AGI 3
CON 3
PER 10
WIL 3
INT 8
We're starved for ability scores, hence no Steadfast Aim for us. But it's not too important for this build. We'll manage.
We only need 7 INT for crafting but i've added one more point here since it gives us the most - lots of skill points and extra damage from energy pistols. +1 CON is bad on a build without dodge/evasion. +1 STR is +10 carry which is QoL.
16 DEX is an important threshold for chemical guns' AP cost. It also makes electro gun shoot for 20 AP - mixes well with laser's 10.
130 carry capacity is bad for a trap user but on Hard difficulty i'd rather not pick convenience feats like Pack Rathound especially since we are feat starved due to using both energy and chemical guns. Infused pig boots with +30 capacity will help.
And we're feat starved even with 3 extra from expansion because there are some nice new feats to take.
SKILLS
Guns 160
Throwing 50
Dodge 30 (or 0)
Stealth 160
Hacking 72
Lockpicking 45
Pickpocket 50
Traps 45
Mechanics 50
Electronics 100
Chemistry 71
Biology 80
Tailoring 87
Temporal Manipulation 70
Persuasion 49**
Mercantile 70
99 unspent points. This is a lot but that will be at endgame. At early levels skill points are actually in short supply with that many skills. I put some points into Mercantile and Persuasion at the beginning to save cash. No Temporal at the start because it'd make us too squishy, we don't skill points for that (yet) and because first Temporal ability isn't good for this build. I took a psi pill when i could put at least 35 points into Temporal.
Dodge should only be leveled when/if taking Escape Artist.
Enough crafting for best components found before Deep Caverns.
We harvest some real benefits from our godly DEX: throwing, traps, lockpicking and pickpocketing can be half skills and still effective late game. We get some benefits from synergies as well. We also gain significant combat benefits. Marvelous.
But our INT is just as good as we develop all 7 INT related skills. Enough mechanics to craf adv. repair kits, breaking things apart and using metal plates for traps. Mechanics level, with all boosts, is enough to craft midgame Tactical Vest/Riot Gear and best Seeker Goggles.
Early game we can craft 35 AP sniper rifle, quaff adrenaline shot to have just enough STR and shoot twice per turn. I haven't try this but it's and option to consider.
Enough Hacking and Lockpicking for endgame checks with the best tool. You'll need food for hardest locks.
Bio/Chem get sweet synergy bonus. We'll be able to craft the best stuff. Fishing for components is easy with our DEX (and x5 speedhack). We'll also benefit from crafting chemical pistols. Synergies of this build just don't stop to amuse me.
Pickpocketing to steal some keys, meds and tons of bullets. Bullets sell well at general stores (Foundry, Core City). Expedition has at least one pickpocketing check with interesting consequences.
Traps hints: You need 80 Traps to recover most mines in Depot A. You need 90 Traps to recover Spoiler King's traps. Jackknife and Trapper's Belt can help.
60 in Persuasion is enough to pass many checks in this game. There's one 110 check in DC but it only allows to skip a fight that is easy for this build anyway.
Mercantile synergises nicely with Persuasion and fits name of this build very well. With Under-Pie it's enough to unlock best mercantile only equipment.
Unspent points can go into other psi schools for extra options, e.g. 45 Psychokinesis for Force Field and Imprint or 35 Metathermics for Cryostasis. Note that Cryostasis can't be learned in Deep caverns since there's no Mentor for it.
FEATS
Core:
Aimed Shot - Our bread and butter ability. Useful for energy guns and nerfed pyro pistol if you want to get decent damage per turn with it.
Opportunist - There will be many opportunities to use it coming from traps, taser, cryogun/acidgun/shockgun, crawler poison, net and Temporal Dilation.
Nimble - Good for our sneak and movement points.
Quick Tinkering - Great active defense, will save our butt many times. Limited Temporal Increment wil help with its cooldown.
Ambush - Crucial feat for our primary tactics.
Mad Chemist - Mandatory for cryogun as 2 turns of iceblock are MUCH better than 1. For pyro it increases duration which isn't very good but at least we'll be able to Ambush returning enemies.
Cooked Shot - AoE and short cooldown. Great for hitting hard to hit enemies.
Power Management - Makes reloading energy pistols more managable and also gives us better energy shields.
High-Technicalities - Let's make use of our high INT.
Critical Power - An obvious choice for energy pistols.
Practical Physicist - An obvious choice for energy pistols.
Psycho-Temporal Acceleration - big boost for our 'Haste' and 'Slow'.
Escape Artist - It's mandatory for using a unique chemical pistol. If you don't want to use it you may skip it together with 30 Dodge but it's a good defensive feat.
Other considered feats:
Sharpshooter - Take it if you find your pistols' crit damage still lacking. The only way to increase chemical pistols' crit damage bonus.
Grenadier - We can make good use of this one. Works good with Quick Pockets and Three Pointer but it's also good on its own.
Skinner - To craft some badass leather armours. Skip if you prefer regen tac vests but leather armours is what i recommend. Expedition has new leather armours to craft which adds value to this feat.
Quick Pockets - We can certainly make use of extra utility slot and reduced cost of switching weapons. Handy, but second tier.
Blindsiding
Paranoia
Three Pointer - Works with incendiary nades too but it's mostly for 1HKO from frag/HE.
Pack Rathound - Useful for someone with 3 STR and traps in his backpack. But with speedhack i've managed without it. Once i got Infused Pig Boots i was doing just fine.
Increased Dexterity - Together with +1 DEX from food it allows us to fire our pistols even faster!
Increased Perception - Or go with higher damage and chance to hit.
Scrutinous - Nice bonus but requires taking Increased Perception.
SPECIALIZATIONS:
Cooked Shot 4/5 (or 5/5 if you find yourself lacking that 1 AP)
Critical Power 5/10 (or more if you don't have any better idea)
Quick Tinkering 2/2
Escape Artist 3/3 is pretty good if you want to use unique chemical pistol often
Build example in epeli's tool:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQAwMKAwjCoDIAAB4AwqBILTItMmRHUFcAAABGMQBGJCYBMALCkVYWS8KaTlopXSvCh8K1wq3CncKF4qOwAuKnvgXiqJwD4rK7Bd-_
ITEMS
Weapons:
Our weapon of choice is Amplified Laser Pistol, either Efficient or with new module from Expedition. Others will be Smart Amplified Electroshock, three chemicals and perhaps Smart Plasma. Of course we will be using SMGs early game because they just roflstomp pistols that much. We'll be using chem pistols once we'll craft them at Junkyard. We'll keep using SMGs for some time due to fast attacks, burst and plentiful ammo.
Armours:
Our target armour is Padded (high density) Infused Pig Leather Overcoat + Infused Pig Tabi Boots. That's a lot of extra health and good mechanical resistance. It's sick for glass cannon luke us. You can also use normal Infused Pig Boots for better mech resist or ninja tabis for more stealth.
For sneaking we'll have Padded (soft) Siphoner Overcoat. Light, good for sneaking around, for Ambush and protect us from acid puddles and burning ground we create. What a package. Complement it with ninja tabi.
Another notable armour is Regenerative Psionic Overcoat. 20% armour penalty with Nimble - for defensive capabilities it provides it's not much. Regeneration is BIG on Hard+. It can be crafted early into the game, i got my first regen vest by infiltrating Junkyard embassy. Good vs bullets but also vs Crawlers if used with low frequency shield emitter. And with high quality components even vs Death Stalkers.
There's an awesome leather armour to craft in Expedition. It's bad for our primary strategy but it's got other qualities.
For jet ski combat we'll have Antithermic Laminated Tactical Vest with a new component in shield slot.
Other:
For exploration and placing traps we'll use Trapper's Belt. For combat - Doctor's Pouch or Advanced Catalyzing Belt when using chemical pistol. Sadly the latter doesn't add utility slot.
Cloaking Device for extra stealth.
Seeker Goggles by default. Smart Goggles for alpha strikes with electroshock pistol.
Faction Shops:
We'll join Religuous Scientists, they have some of the best shop electronic and chemical shops. Their armoury can roll very high quality chemical collectors but it's rare.
Anarchists' shop offers high quality black cloth regularly so it's a fine choice. If you choose the other faction then keep visiting Lucas and Derica - they have a small chance of rolling q140+ black cloth.
How to play:
Use your stealth to start combat on your own terms, use bear traps to disable melee and hide behind a corner to avoid getting attacked.
More on that later. With Quick Tinkering you can place mines right under enemy noses. You can also throw various things at your enemies, nets can be really helpful. Eat eel sandwiches if they grant you extra attacks. You can use gas grenades to lure human opponents and kill them without starting combat with others.
Initiative of this build isn't good but it grows as we level up and there's Root Soda for those situations where you need to win initiative roll.
Strategy 1: Ambush!
Stay in shadow and Ambush! enemies who are 'enlightened'. If they are not then throw a molotov and make them! I can't stress enough how much i love this feature of molotovs. Underrail rocks for allowing creative gameplay like this. Here's why laser rules: your range allows you to ambush enemies at the other side of fire zone, you also don't need to move much and will get Sharpshooter bonus more often.
Ambush is rather tricky. Sometimes it wont work where you think it should. Sometimes it's the opposite. But incendiary nades were pretty consistent at enabling it. Pyro pistol and flares may enable it as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hEIzls7qPc
Stealth threshold for Ambush feat:
- 150: +65% crit chance; with good Seekers and Focus Stim we will cap crit chance
- 200: +80% crit chance; we will cap with either Stim or Seekers, this is our target value
- 250: +95% crit chance; possible with stealth gear and top combat gear with cloaking device
Strategy 2: Chemical pistols
Use chemical pistols and catalyzing belts. Acid + fire is a good combo. Melee gets owned by acid entanglement, shield emitters are mostly bypassed and Opportunist is easily enabled. Entangled enemies can be treated with pyrogun - if they catch fire they won't run away, will probably die from DOTs and maybe even enable ambush for you
Fun!
Acid + cryo isn't bad either, many human enemies are immune to burning. Remember that pyro and cryo pistols cancel each other's effects (except belt debuffs).
For jet ski battles best pistols are cryo followed by pyro. For sea creatures use cryo/energy.
When fighting robots equip acid and some energy gun.
When fighting Goliathi equip zapgun and pyrogun. Start combat with zapgun Aimed Shot to kill at least one. Cooked Shot bypasses 'Mirror Image' and burning makes them run away. Use also caltrops since beetles are slow.
SPOILER SECTION
**55 Persuasion is enough to save Buzzer. You might need to deal with Faceless group near Foundry first tho.
This build can pass Persuasion checks higher than 60 but it needs something from Expedition.
I removed original build since it was way outdated and could lead to confusion.
Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades v 1.1 - Expedition
This build is able to do quite a lot of things. Primary thing it can not do is getting various lore bits that require high WIL.
With Expedition i've decided to add PSI to my repertoire in a form of Temporal Manipulation. We won't be raising it from lvl 1 though, i'll explain later.
Since it's a glass cannon it's not a good build for players who want to minimize number of reloads.
It's not a build for beginners as it lacks defense. Well, passive defense, at least. I've played this build on both XP modes and it's doing fine except some early game pain. Zero passive defense can make us die really fast but our active defense can carry us.
Weapon type that fits best into this build is pistols, specifically energy and chemical.
This has good secret detection, good traps detection, excellent fishing, good active defense, can open any door, hack any terminal and pickpocket many pockets. It's a good build for exploring the game. One inconvenience is that a few secrets need more than 10 PER so it needs extra PER from goggles/consumables to spot them.
ATTRIBUTES
STR 3
DEX 10 (+6)
AGI 3
CON 3
PER 10
WIL 3
INT 8
We're starved for ability scores, hence no Steadfast Aim for us. But it's not too important for this build. We'll manage.
We only need 7 INT for crafting but i've added one more point here since it gives us the most - lots of skill points and extra damage from energy pistols. +1 CON is bad on a build without dodge/evasion. +1 STR is +10 carry which is QoL.
16 DEX is an important threshold for chemical guns' AP cost. It also makes electro gun shoot for 20 AP - mixes well with laser's 10.
130 carry capacity is bad for a trap user but on Hard difficulty i'd rather not pick convenience feats like Pack Rathound especially since we are feat starved due to using both energy and chemical guns. Infused pig boots with +30 capacity will help.
And we're feat starved even with 3 extra from expansion because there are some nice new feats to take.
SKILLS
Guns 160
Throwing 50
Dodge 30 (or 0)
Stealth 160
Hacking 72
Lockpicking 45
Pickpocket 50
Traps 45
Mechanics 50
Electronics 100
Chemistry 71
Biology 80
Tailoring 87
Temporal Manipulation 70
Persuasion 49**
Mercantile 70
99 unspent points. This is a lot but that will be at endgame. At early levels skill points are actually in short supply with that many skills. I put some points into Mercantile and Persuasion at the beginning to save cash. No Temporal at the start because it'd make us too squishy, we don't skill points for that (yet) and because first Temporal ability isn't good for this build. I took a psi pill when i could put at least 35 points into Temporal.
Dodge should only be leveled when/if taking Escape Artist.
Enough crafting for best components found before Deep Caverns.
We harvest some real benefits from our godly DEX: throwing, traps, lockpicking and pickpocketing can be half skills and still effective late game. We get some benefits from synergies as well. We also gain significant combat benefits. Marvelous.
But our INT is just as good as we develop all 7 INT related skills. Enough mechanics to craf adv. repair kits, breaking things apart and using metal plates for traps. Mechanics level, with all boosts, is enough to craft midgame Tactical Vest/Riot Gear and best Seeker Goggles.
Early game we can craft 35 AP sniper rifle, quaff adrenaline shot to have just enough STR and shoot twice per turn. I haven't try this but it's and option to consider.
Enough Hacking and Lockpicking for endgame checks with the best tool. You'll need food for hardest locks.
Bio/Chem get sweet synergy bonus. We'll be able to craft the best stuff. Fishing for components is easy with our DEX (and x5 speedhack). We'll also benefit from crafting chemical pistols. Synergies of this build just don't stop to amuse me.
Pickpocketing to steal some keys, meds and tons of bullets. Bullets sell well at general stores (Foundry, Core City). Expedition has at least one pickpocketing check with interesting consequences.
Traps hints: You need 80 Traps to recover most mines in Depot A. You need 90 Traps to recover Spoiler King's traps. Jackknife and Trapper's Belt can help.
60 in Persuasion is enough to pass many checks in this game. There's one 110 check in DC but it only allows to skip a fight that is easy for this build anyway.
Mercantile synergises nicely with Persuasion and fits name of this build very well. With Under-Pie it's enough to unlock best mercantile only equipment.
Unspent points can go into other psi schools for extra options, e.g. 45 Psychokinesis for Force Field and Imprint or 35 Metathermics for Cryostasis. Note that Cryostasis can't be learned in Deep caverns since there's no Mentor for it.
FEATS
Core:
Aimed Shot - Our bread and butter ability. Useful for energy guns and nerfed pyro pistol if you want to get decent damage per turn with it.
Opportunist - There will be many opportunities to use it coming from traps, taser, cryogun/acidgun/shockgun, crawler poison, net and Temporal Dilation.
Nimble - Good for our sneak and movement points.
Quick Tinkering - Great active defense, will save our butt many times. Limited Temporal Increment wil help with its cooldown.
Ambush - Crucial feat for our primary tactics.
Mad Chemist - Mandatory for cryogun as 2 turns of iceblock are MUCH better than 1. For pyro it increases duration which isn't very good but at least we'll be able to Ambush returning enemies.
Cooked Shot - AoE and short cooldown. Great for hitting hard to hit enemies.
Power Management - Makes reloading energy pistols more managable and also gives us better energy shields.
High-Technicalities - Let's make use of our high INT.
Critical Power - An obvious choice for energy pistols.
Practical Physicist - An obvious choice for energy pistols.
Psycho-Temporal Acceleration - big boost for our 'Haste' and 'Slow'.
Escape Artist - It's mandatory for using a unique chemical pistol. If you don't want to use it you may skip it together with 30 Dodge but it's a good defensive feat.
Other considered feats:
Sharpshooter - Take it if you find your pistols' crit damage still lacking. The only way to increase chemical pistols' crit damage bonus.
Grenadier - We can make good use of this one. Works good with Quick Pockets and Three Pointer but it's also good on its own.
Skinner - To craft some badass leather armours. Skip if you prefer regen tac vests but leather armours is what i recommend. Expedition has new leather armours to craft which adds value to this feat.
Quick Pockets - We can certainly make use of extra utility slot and reduced cost of switching weapons. Handy, but second tier.
Blindsiding
Paranoia
Three Pointer - Works with incendiary nades too but it's mostly for 1HKO from frag/HE.
Pack Rathound - Useful for someone with 3 STR and traps in his backpack. But with speedhack i've managed without it. Once i got Infused Pig Boots i was doing just fine.
Increased Dexterity - Together with +1 DEX from food it allows us to fire our pistols even faster!
Increased Perception - Or go with higher damage and chance to hit.
Scrutinous - Nice bonus but requires taking Increased Perception.
SPECIALIZATIONS:
Cooked Shot 4/5 (or 5/5 if you find yourself lacking that 1 AP)
Critical Power 5/10 (or more if you don't have any better idea)
Quick Tinkering 2/2
Escape Artist 3/3 is pretty good if you want to use unique chemical pistol often
Build example in epeli's tool:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQAwMKAwjCoDIAAB4AwqBILTItMmRHUFcAAABGMQBGJCYBMALCkVYWS8KaTlopXSvCh8K1wq3CncKF4qOwAuKnvgXiqJwD4rK7Bd-_
ITEMS
Weapons:
Our weapon of choice is Amplified Laser Pistol, either Efficient or with new module from Expedition. Others will be Smart Amplified Electroshock, three chemicals and perhaps Smart Plasma. Of course we will be using SMGs early game because they just roflstomp pistols that much. We'll be using chem pistols once we'll craft them at Junkyard. We'll keep using SMGs for some time due to fast attacks, burst and plentiful ammo.
Armours:
Our target armour is Padded (high density) Infused Pig Leather Overcoat + Infused Pig Tabi Boots. That's a lot of extra health and good mechanical resistance. It's sick for glass cannon luke us. You can also use normal Infused Pig Boots for better mech resist or ninja tabis for more stealth.
For sneaking we'll have Padded (soft) Siphoner Overcoat. Light, good for sneaking around, for Ambush and protect us from acid puddles and burning ground we create. What a package. Complement it with ninja tabi.
Another notable armour is Regenerative Psionic Overcoat. 20% armour penalty with Nimble - for defensive capabilities it provides it's not much. Regeneration is BIG on Hard+. It can be crafted early into the game, i got my first regen vest by infiltrating Junkyard embassy. Good vs bullets but also vs Crawlers if used with low frequency shield emitter. And with high quality components even vs Death Stalkers.
There's an awesome leather armour to craft in Expedition. It's bad for our primary strategy but it's got other qualities.
For jet ski combat we'll have Antithermic Laminated Tactical Vest with a new component in shield slot.
Other:
For exploration and placing traps we'll use Trapper's Belt. For combat - Doctor's Pouch or Advanced Catalyzing Belt when using chemical pistol. Sadly the latter doesn't add utility slot.
Cloaking Device for extra stealth.
Seeker Goggles by default. Smart Goggles for alpha strikes with electroshock pistol.
Faction Shops:
We'll join Religuous Scientists, they have some of the best shop electronic and chemical shops. Their armoury can roll very high quality chemical collectors but it's rare.
Anarchists' shop offers high quality black cloth regularly so it's a fine choice. If you choose the other faction then keep visiting Lucas and Derica - they have a small chance of rolling q140+ black cloth.
How to play:
Use your stealth to start combat on your own terms, use bear traps to disable melee and hide behind a corner to avoid getting attacked.
More on that later. With Quick Tinkering you can place mines right under enemy noses. You can also throw various things at your enemies, nets can be really helpful. Eat eel sandwiches if they grant you extra attacks. You can use gas grenades to lure human opponents and kill them without starting combat with others.
Initiative of this build isn't good but it grows as we level up and there's Root Soda for those situations where you need to win initiative roll.
Strategy 1: Ambush!
Stay in shadow and Ambush! enemies who are 'enlightened'. If they are not then throw a molotov and make them! I can't stress enough how much i love this feature of molotovs. Underrail rocks for allowing creative gameplay like this. Here's why laser rules: your range allows you to ambush enemies at the other side of fire zone, you also don't need to move much and will get Sharpshooter bonus more often.
Ambush is rather tricky. Sometimes it wont work where you think it should. Sometimes it's the opposite. But incendiary nades were pretty consistent at enabling it. Pyro pistol and flares may enable it as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hEIzls7qPc
Stealth threshold for Ambush feat:
- 150: +65% crit chance; with good Seekers and Focus Stim we will cap crit chance
- 200: +80% crit chance; we will cap with either Stim or Seekers, this is our target value
- 250: +95% crit chance; possible with stealth gear and top combat gear with cloaking device
Strategy 2: Chemical pistols
Use chemical pistols and catalyzing belts. Acid + fire is a good combo. Melee gets owned by acid entanglement, shield emitters are mostly bypassed and Opportunist is easily enabled. Entangled enemies can be treated with pyrogun - if they catch fire they won't run away, will probably die from DOTs and maybe even enable ambush for you
Fun!Acid + cryo isn't bad either, many human enemies are immune to burning. Remember that pyro and cryo pistols cancel each other's effects (except belt debuffs).
For jet ski battles best pistols are cryo followed by pyro. For sea creatures use cryo/energy.
When fighting robots equip acid and some energy gun.
When fighting Goliathi equip zapgun and pyrogun. Start combat with zapgun Aimed Shot to kill at least one. Cooked Shot bypasses 'Mirror Image' and burning makes them run away. Use also caltrops since beetles are slow.
SPOILER SECTION
**55 Persuasion is enough to save Buzzer. You might need to deal with Faceless group near Foundry first tho.
This build can pass Persuasion checks higher than 60 but it needs something from Expedition.
328
General / Re: Is INT=7 mandatory for a crafter build?
« on: February 03, 2016, 05:40:42 pm »Even 3 INT is enough if you eat Junkyard Surprise (with a bit of luck +2 INT) and 15% crafting bonus in Core City player home basement. Maxed 135 points at level 25 translate to as much as 167 effective skill and I don't rememeber ever needing more than 154-156
In DC the game can throw something like this on you:
but it's far from mandatory for beating final boss.
330
General / Re: Is INT=7 mandatory for a crafter build?
« on: February 03, 2016, 03:58:07 pm »
6 is fine too, but it's all about crafting feats. Check wiki to see which crafting feats would be useful for you (most of them are at lvls 1-3).
You'll probably need 7 for Clothier that will boost your stealth and Snipe. It's kinda bull***t Clothier needs same amount of INT as Practical Physicist or Neurology but that's how things are now.
You'll probably need 7 for Clothier that will boost your stealth and Snipe. It's kinda bull***t Clothier needs same amount of INT as Practical Physicist or Neurology but that's how things are now.