Author Topic: my shotgun build needs help  (Read 5194 times)

kpoxo6op

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my shotgun build needs help
« on: July 28, 2019, 10:17:11 am »
hi all, I have played the original game few years ago, tying to start again with a shotgun build with minor psi abilities.
I am getting obliterated by rats, bandits and beetles pretty much at the first encounter, I can't even retake outposts.
I am playing at normal difficulty.
I have activated my psi abilities (probably a mistake, I have 0 at my psi skills)

Can you guys improve my build as well as and advise how do I start properly?

TheAverageGortsby

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2019, 10:57:48 am »
Well, I'm not a big fan of having scores at 4.  If you really only want your psi to be support, then may as well take back that point from Will.  You're not going to accomplish anything with 4 Will that you wouldn't accomplish with 3.  You should also consider how many crafting feats you intend to take - Gun Nut isn't good enough to be worth putting extra points in Int, so it's possible you can pull a couple points from there depending on what you plan you do with your build, long-term.  Any points you freed up should probably go into Perception and then Constitution.  I also don't recommend putting any points into crafting at the very very early levels.  You're not making anything, so put those points where they matter.

Retaking the outposts is a *lot* easier once you take advantage of the fact that rathounds can't open gates.  You shouldn't need to ever put yourself at risk even once in the first two maps.  Here, you'll get an awful lot of use out of Temporal Distortion if you're patient, even at 0 skill.  Just keep stacking it on rathounds.  If you don't have enough psi to use it 4 times, pass turns.  Just go stand by the gate and slowly kill them.  In the next screen over, to the west, the best thing to do is to run over the gate but not open the door, then pass turns until the rathounds get around the long way to you.  Then open the gate, walk through, and close it.  Run over to the outpost, get inside and close the door behind you, then go walk over to the little outdoor annex are that's screened in.  Again, this will take a while, but if you're a little patient you just layer TDs on the rathounds until eventually they all die.  If you're doing Quinton's quest (any why wouldn't you, if you're psi?) you can always add in some crossbow shots to do damage while you let your psi regen.

The only hard part should be the screen due north of that, where there are four rathounds waiting for you.  But, if you've brought flares then you can fear them away while you shoot them.  In this map, you should probably not use your psi becuase it'll be so weak; here, you use that ammo.  Try not to blow up the barrel - you're gonna want to have that available if you need to fight M'lan Ratula.

Bandits and beetles can be handled nicely with grenades if your shotgun/pistol won't do for you (every guns build should use pistols and SMGs early on.  There's ammo there that won't be much use later on, and ammo is hard to come by very early on, especially with no pickpocketing).  Quest rewards should give you enough credits to buy some grenades and molotovs.

Try to set aside 25 points for psychokinesis by level 3.  Force Field will save your life again and again and again and again.  Get it ASAP and use it all the time.

If you need more specific help, I'll try to be more useful, but for general earliest-game stuff, that should do you.

« Last Edit: July 28, 2019, 11:00:10 am by TheAverageGortsby »

Doxy

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2019, 01:43:44 pm »
You've made quite a few mistakes in yoir build imho.
Main source of shotguns dmg, is crit chance+crit dmg.
Reckless should be your #1 feat. Look for visor with +5 crit. Use 12" shotgun ammo
I'd drop agi to 3 + pump con and focus on stealth as your "get close to enemy and blast them in the face".
With high con, you can drop dodge and evasion.
Also for start, don't pick your weapon from armory guy. Buy a knife/machete and wait till lvl2.
Get your persuasion to 20 and you can get a unique shotgun from him.

Here is the build im running with and i love it.
Again, highest priority better dmg shotgun and crit chance+crit dmg.

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgcHAwoMAwTCoDwAAAAAwolkRDw8woIARnh4AAAAAGQAXzFjJB7ClsKQFcKYwpdLFjAIwoPCsMKkwrXio7oB4rOsAuKztgLitIAK378

Удачи. Надеюсь у тебе билд с дробашом получится.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2019, 01:48:54 pm by Doxy »

Fenix

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2019, 03:27:21 pm »
Or this build. http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgUFCgMPAwXCoFAAAADCoMKgaTcAAMKCwoIAZMKCAAAARgAAADE5wpbCkEfCl8KYSyvCh8KwOyYoJMKkwrYV378

You don't really need Dex 6, 5 will be enough for key feats.
Same for Will - 4 gives you nothing. 3 is enough.
Int too - 5 is enough.
You can have high Agility or Constitution, or or both of them but not that high.
Supressive Fire is for burst, if you plan to use burst early - it's OK, otherwise you can take it late, and take Sprint instead.

But with Temporal Manipulations you can probably ditch Agility and Sprint, I guess, also shotgun is a very close range weapon and needs mobillity to use effectively.


As for very early game - shotgunners have a hard time there, yeah.
Shells are expensive (but not on Normal I guess), so I used everything I had - in outpost quest I used melee, nets, fences, everything.
Also I didn't sell any ammo, instead just used it, amd yeah - Temporal Distortion is a great ammo saver.
Rathounds arn't dodgy, so you can hit them even with 0 melee with 70% chance, same for nets.

Beetles are tough, if you have mobility you can kite them with Temporal Distortion, if not you need to eliminate them quickly.
For those 3 bandits - one grenade will solve this problem.

Удачи. )

Ploluap

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2019, 05:27:53 pm »
Hello everyone,

Fenix, as you said there is a choice to be made between high con and high agility, i personnally prefer high con characters, so i consider starting a new game with this shotgunner in mind :

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgUHAwoLAwfCm1EAACgAZAAAAABpaQB4ZAAAAA8AAAAxYmMWwpZOwpDCl0vCmCjCj13CsB7CpB_iq6QF378

What do you think guys ?

I'm Potoldski on discord

Fenix

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2019, 08:38:19 pm »
I think you need to think up how you will get your mobillity, because well, shotguns is melee with range 3.
Actually, you can eliminate enemiest that are farther than 3 but damage lessened stronglly.
So, mobility.
Untill you get haste, you will get hard times I guess.

Ploluap

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2019, 09:04:48 pm »
Yep you're right, i'll probably have a hard time early on and rely mostly on molotovs...

Later on leather tabis with skinner + "haste" if i go psi (which i guess i should) will probably do the trick. On some situations i might also opt for infused cave hopper leather armor (giving up a lot of survivability though).

Edit : or maybe i'll go for 6 agi and 4 int instead, don"t know what is the most optimal ? With hypercerebrix high int might be less necessary...
« Last Edit: July 29, 2019, 01:51:12 pm by Ploluap »
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Fenix

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2019, 03:03:34 pm »
I think 5 Int is enough, with 4 your craft will suffer a lot before you get that Int boosting med.

You can also rely on boots striders or what's its name, they are faster than tabis.

Also Temporal Manipulations! Absolutely nobrainer for that, its PTC is amazing. But that's only after Depot A.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2019, 03:05:31 pm by Fenix »

Ploluap

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Re: my shotgun build needs help
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2019, 12:06:56 pm »
I think 5 Int is enough, with 4 your craft will suffer a lot before you get that Int boosting med.

You can also rely on boots striders or what's its name, they are faster than tabis.

Also Temporal Manipulations! Absolutely nobrainer for that, its PTC is amazing. But that's only after Depot A.

Thank you, will try it :)
I'm Potoldski on discord