Messages

1

Builds / Re: A build (or three) for every weapon (Dominating approved)

« on: June 30, 2025, 02:07:01 am »

Not going to lie you lost me when you said ambush doesn't work with burst and to take trap expert.

Trap Expert is a must if you don't want Lurker or Native Hunters and such circle around and even disarming your contraptions below effective 120-140. It's like Interloper for Stealth. You can dash close to an enemy and deploy traps faster before they notice you, stopping them immedaitely - gaining much better distance advantage. Also able to depoy traps around patrolling enemies as well. It's a night and day difference and I assume you never tried it.

I will give you an example of what pistols are capable of, and you can tell me if they wouldn't completely overshadow the sniper part of a sniper/pistol build.

https://youtu.be/f-GyGQBN8s0

Again, you are trying to reason with a dedicated pistol build when the topic is sidearms for a dedicated sniper build. Since this is the 4-5th occasion in a row now, at this point it's safe to assume that you have either far below average comprehension ability, or intentionally sticking to this for a lack of better option and play dumb, knowing that you are loosing the argument otherwise.
Att this point, I could only repeat myself. Have fun continuing to argue with yourself with made up conversations.

2

Builds / Re: A build (or three) for every weapon (Dominating approved)

« on: June 29, 2025, 07:27:48 am »

You cannot one-shot a Dreadnought with a pistol, even if you tailor the whole build for the handgun and drop the sniper rifle. You need to Snipe/Aim Shot with armor piercing 12.7mm from a Corsair for that. Pistol can one-shot a crawler spawn or a rathound with normal shots. Regular low armor humans can drop too on lower difficulties - in cases when you get it to crit.

Pistol is not that good as you describe when you don't build your entire build around it. Yet you keep sticking to this idea and base your whole narrative and reasoning to that - effectively arguing with yourself and disregarding my points, which hints that you have nothing to say against them. I clearly mention that we only use it for CC. Here we only have 7 DEX, Gunslinger and Kneecap Shot - that's it. Going psiless frees up more feat slots, so we can also take Sharpshooter that benefits both guns - these two firearms are meant to be together. Hammerer can pack a punch if you're lucky and get high base damage on the lottery, but there's no point in wasting AP using that for CC purposes. You can totally just use even a 5mm Neo Luger. The point is the MP reduction of the enemy and to get the Initiative bonus. Also, a Hammerer shot cost almost as much AP with 7 DEX as a Spearhead - at which point you're far better off using your rifle anyway, even if they would do the same damage (which they won't, especially with the Hammerer damage being so random) solely for the mentioned cooldown reductions and the ability to use it from farther away. There's no point in using pistols for damage when you have a sniper rifle.

3

Builds / Re: A build (or three) for every weapon (Dominating approved)

« on: June 29, 2025, 05:30:26 am »

Your Arena burrower fight betrays you. Spending round after round only denting the high DR enemy.
If we want a psi-less build, then using Traps and high initiative cheap Kneecap Shots is the best alternative to employing psionics. You still pretend to not notice that the Pistol is only used here as yet another method of crowd control. Which Traps come in addition. While Increment and Contraction is not necessary in every fight, reducing the cooldown of Aim Shot and Shooting Spree is still the goal, thus using your rifle becomes even more important. While the above abilities can buy you time + you can keep the Ambush going (thus one-shotting enemies) with Molotovs and Incendiary Traps. It's just the better play that actually compliments your sniper approach and maintaining the distance advantage, making you a better sniper. Instead of doing the exact opposite - requiring you to be close and not reducing cooldown.

4

Builds / Re: A build (or three) for every weapon (Dominating approved)

« on: June 28, 2025, 04:54:04 pm »

My barrage of questions continues. On sniper builds, considering you max stealth, isn't specing Snipe ability an overkill? Is it for cool nonspoilerboss one-shot?Or geniunely uselful?

Stealth should be maxed even for the sake of sneaking conveniently. And make sure to take Interloper. For a sniper, there are so many benefits as well, like Snipe damage or Ambush crit chance.
Ambush is the easiest to trigger with a sniper due to having the best range, meaning that you are free to choose your vantage point and pick any dark area on the given map as long as you have visual on the target. Ambush also works with single shot weapons, so not with bursts.

I would advise against using SMG's with a sniper as they need you to be close to burst effectively (which you can also use your rifle too anyway) and they won't work with Ambush either. Need high DEX and most importantly - a sidearm should not be used for dealing damage. You already have a rifle and most importantly - WHENEVER you can use your rifle, you SHOULD. It is your best interest to make the kills with your rifle, thus always lower the Aim Shot + Shooting Spree cooldown. That's why using another weapon for damage actually works AGAINST you. A sidearm should provide utility at best and you should aim for cooldown reduction with Tranquility boosted, Future Oriented Temporal Increments and of course maximizing rifle shots.

The PISTOL is the only sidearm that kinda makes sense here. With raising DEX from the necessary 5 (for Strafe) to 7, you can have Gunslinger in exchange for Paranoia that gives +5 Initiative and lowers your AP cost with the handgun. Then by taking Kneecap Shot, you have another cheap and effective CC ability to stop incoming melee enemies and maintain distance. With 7 DEX, you can also grab Quick Tinkering - another handy ability and boost your Traps skill (enemies can circle around your Bear Trap otherwise). Take Trap Expert as well.
For me, it's either this route with a sniper (Traps + Pistol for kneecap shots and initiative) or the very potent psi-sniper (https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0).

5

General / Re: Am I Crazy for Thinking Pack Rathound Is Good?

« on: April 05, 2025, 08:36:27 pm »

It is a waste.

Even on Dominating with STR 3, you can get an immense amount of money without trying to loot everything, especially with builds that don't use bursting weapons.
Also, one just doesn't need to buy too much stuff anyway, so most of the money in this game remains unused. You occasionally buy weapon frames and armor components. Could get a 170+ super steel plate with a few rolls even without providing the refining data (which increses your chances a lot). That's pretty much it. Everything else can be looted and money just keeps piling up, as there's only one good weapon frame in the shop anyway.
 
Then you can also get +90 from gear and then some with consumables. You need lightweight expensive stuff. rest you can just break down to repair kits - no point in hauling metal armor or sledgehammers.  Pack Rathound just gives you some more money you won't use anyway.

As for Traps, their purpose is to elevate your offense and defense ability. It's not for dealing damage. It's to root people, trigger Ambush (with fire) and Opportunist. You can carpet an area with whatever Frag/HE Traps you harvest everywhere before group fights to trivialize them, but those meant to be spent as you grab them. You should not hoard these. you pick some up, you deploy them within the next fight and use BT/Incendiary/Blob intentionally.

Pack Rathound deprives you from another feat slot that could provide so much more to your character.

6

Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build

« on: March 10, 2025, 10:48:18 pm »

SMG's are DEX based, Snipers are governed by PER. Aiming to use them together will make both worse than speccing on one. This is for people who cannot make a decision and get the worst of both worlds. Probably play on a gaming laptop too.

If you're going with the sniper rifle, you aim to refresh that Aim Shot and Shooting Spree by using your rifle as much as possible. Every time you park it in favor of another gun, you weaken it's potential. Same goes for taking different feats instead of ones that buffs your chosen gun. It's a waste.

7

General / Re: Underrail on Linux guide

« on: February 23, 2025, 06:04:58 am »

I'm grateful for this post - that the topic is brought up in general.
With Win10 already on it's last lap, I now turned towards the idea of switching to Linux instead of turning my computer into an AI-based data stealing machine with Win11.

I have zero experience with Linux, thus thinking on having Mint, or simply SteamOS, for the latter probably having zero issues with games. Have you tried those and how they fare in comparison to what you suggested?

8

Builds / Re: SNIPER - OSA Division

« on: February 01, 2025, 04:51:38 am »

Late reply, but hopefully not too late:

Persuasion is a very useful skill all the way throughout the game from the start to the end. It also helps in the secret faction questline and generally provides easier solutions to most involving dialogue. And since you already have 5 WILL to boost psi skills, a good Mercantile and access to the Hypno Vision goggles, so boosting Persuasion requires little investment, but offers big gains, compared to spending that amount of skill points elsewhere. Also, when you look at all your other skills, there's zero reason to boost any of them further.

Chemistry is required for special and incendiary grenades, like Flashbangs, Gas and Molotovs all the way to Napalm Grenades at effective 60. You can be fine with 40, even 20 (as there are many Flashbangs to loot), but again - there's no point in investing elsewhere with this build, it's very optimized with it's skill point allocation.[/li][/list]

You can do a lot with effective 120, but with proper gear, bench and Hypercelebrix, you can make use of those 150q sniper frames you'll find from the last third of the game.

Crit-oriented feats are nice, but it simply does not worth to give up two feat slots for 14% crit chance when you can max it out anyway with Ambush and proper positioning. Not to mention that I would not give up any of my chosen feats, they are all important. Maxing Stealth is a must for many reasons, there are so many benefits it has and maxed crit chance is one among many. Just need to be aware of the enviroment, Stealth to a dark vantage point that triggers Ambush (you can check that even before initiating combat) on those who you spare after your Snipe and Thermo-D Aim Shot and you can pick them off with normal crits. Molotov also helps and the fire from Thermo-D too. Corners are ideal, in case you need to end combat while in cover.

9

Suggestions / Re: Stealth bonuses from gear

« on: January 12, 2025, 12:28:42 pm »

While I don't think that you can get reliable stealth abilities from gear, I definitely understand what you brought up and find it valid.

Yet I don't know how can anyone get 200 points from gear. Could wear a Balaclava and Black Cloth Tabis with some Overcoat, a Cloaking Device (that depletes within seconds) and you're lucky to get to a 100 maybe. Which is not enough for anything and basically only allows you to bypass the Initiation check and start combat... from afar. Which is not advised for a non-stealth character, as now he's stuck wearing that armor for the entirety of the fight. At that point, he should actually focus on Stealth for good and embrace all it's combat benefits, use Ambush, etc.
I also find it ridiculous and lame to carry all that gear and change completely every time he wants to sneak by.

I think one either maxes out Stealth or leave it on zero. No point in putting just 100 points into it and rely on gear to boost it further, as you loose all the cool combat benefits from related feats like Snipe or some melee knife abilities. Also in situations and quests where it's useful, you also need every point you can get. Navigating the Grey Army Base and looting everything (including all lockers)? Attaching explosives in the Tin Can base for the Free Drones without getting exposed? Trying to walk past a tunnel full of Burrowers and their spawns? Not something one can do with just gear and sure as hell impossible without Interloper. Specializing in a few things to solve most problems and not bother with others is the way to go in this game opposed to dipping in a lot of abilities. In this regard it's similar to an immersive sim. There are more than one solution for something, so you can get higher with a 10-step ladder instead of 3 with just 5 steps each.

10

General / Re: Junkyard Gang Showdown question

« on: November 28, 2024, 06:01:17 pm »

Simply do the right thing and invite SGS instead - protecting the soveregnity of the south is crutial in such dire times. Don't lead Protectorate vultures to consume a weakened town, further extending their malicious influence, praying on other people's misfortune. It does require some Persuasion skills, but that's to be expected on every reasonable character.

11

Builds / Re: Newb Sniper/Ar build

« on: November 17, 2024, 05:23:08 pm »

Traps are much-much more useful with Trap Expert. It's a lot more than QoL, like how it seems. Simply placing traps almost immedaitely allows you to set them up a LOT closer to enemies with stealth. Quick Tinkering is perhaps the best CC in-combat ability. Interloper + Hit and Run is a must, Sprint is not needed. Ambush is fundamental too.

In general, I don't see the reason to get feats for two separate weapons that both meant to be used as main source of damage. When an enemy is within AR range (or even a tile close), you can just as well kill them with a sniper rifle. Due to this, taking feats of anything else is a waste. Especially if they involve you wasting stat points too. Also you have to carry more bullets, often different caliber. A pistol can be the only exception as it won't fight the rifle, it supports it with boosting your Initiative and allows you to perform Kneecap Shot with the longest range and the cheapest AP. Excellent CC ability for any incoming melee.

In addition, with high Detection and Stealth, crawlers pose zero danger and are just sitting ducks. Even without Motion-Tracking Goggles with NV, you can easily spot them before they notice you and just pop them. They also cannot open doors. Paranoia helps your bad Initiative and is pretty much the anti-crawler feat for so many reasons. Once you are able to make crawler poisoned Bear Traps and see just how immensely OP those are, you feel like you want to farm these critters. Incendiary Traps are also amazing to trigger Fear and Ambush on demand where you want it.

Any case, here's a tried and tested DOM-proof Sniper build for reference:

https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0

12

Builds / Re: SNIPER - OSA Division

« on: August 20, 2024, 10:51:04 am »

I hate to sound like a new player, but I've only played a psionic character so I'm good on the psionic end, but my only experience with sniping was a failed first few attempts at building one ended in failure, so if you could explain what snipers to craft as a psionic character I got very familiar with crafting at least. I really wanna try this build because it sounds dope.

I don't consider the character that much of a psionic, as most Metathermic spells just won't be as effective compared to what a dedicated psi user could do with high WILL stats and maxed skills. What we capitalize on here is the fact that Thermo-D's max damage cap can be attained with 140 effective score. Same with most Temporal spells at the limit of 150. These do come handy when suddenly facing a lot of enemies all at once. Only then one can use Contraction, Increment, Adrenaline. But sometimes, just tossing in a Molotov is enough to lid up the area where the enemy is standing and pick them off due to Ambush-triggered crits. For this reason, choosing a dark spot to initiate battle from is advised.

Some insights after playing the mayority of the game with this build:

It's certainly a lot of fun to combat large groups with this build. Gather the mutants in the Toxic Waste Processing Plant and just lit everything on fire with Thermo-D, some Napalm and maybe another Premeditated Pyrokinesis. I understand how a Cryokinetic Orb can be a nice, satisfying mass slow spell due to the huge area it covers, but the Panic-effect of fire and the fact that it illuminates the area is just much more effective. You can also destroy Hives together with all it's inhabitants by a single shot if you cast Thermo-D from a distance, then quickly enter Stealth and initiate combat before the effect goes away to Snipe. The Locusts will spawn to their immediate death due to the explosion. This could also be a way to use Thermo-D with Snipe to ensure the kill.
Btw, Premeditation is definitely the way to go compared to Grenadier as casting Pyrokinesis for zero AP is better than another molotov for 15AP and several turns later. But even then, once we throw an Incendiary Grenade, we don't really need to anymore - the fire will burn long enough to trigger Ambush and a Flashbang is still separately available if needed.

13

Builds / SNIPER - OSA Division

« on: August 02, 2024, 09:18:05 pm »

OSA* Sniper
a sharpshooter using Metathermics and Temporal Manipulation


SUMMARY

This build focuses solely on the use of the sniper rifle as a weapon. In combat, it is enhanced with great mobility and psionic abilities providing buffs, cooldown reduction, crowd control and offense to easily handle larger enemy groups on Dominating difficulty without any problem.


HOW IT WORKS

In hostile territories, we are moving around in Stealth by default. Should we find some targets, we can scout the area further to see who else could we alert by initiating combat, then find an ideal vantage point.

We first activate Shooting Spree, then we Snipe any annoyance wearing Antithermic armor that can save them from being lid on fire. After this, we need to target the tankiest one with a Thermodynamic Destabilization and pop'em with an Aim Shot. This is not always necessary, but it can quickly turn the tides in our favor. It's like Corpse Explosion from Diablo 2, 50/50 normal and fire damage. Do mind, that it's important to kill the target with just a single hit as the damage from the following explosion will differ depending on the current HP of the recipient - and sniper rifles are perfect for this scenario. The fireworks likely takes a few of the surrounding unfortunates down to the grave and leave the rest either near death, or - should we have the Pyromaniac feat already - actively burning and in a state of panic.

From here on, we can lay back and casually mop the rest of the now severely weakened group with regular shots or a grenade, maybe just cause even more panic with a Molotov or a Premeditated Pyrokinesis. Setting up favorable lighting conditions for Ambush this way is also a positive side effect worth mentioning.

Should your Rapid Reloader refund (between 10-20 AP) is 12 or more, by casting Contraction and taking Adrenaline, you can shoot your rifle a total of 6 times per round.
You can also cast Increment every second turn and for zero AP to constantly lower your cooldowns, making sure that you can re-stealth fast, use Aim Shot and activate Shooting Spree as frequently as possible. Supplementing psi abilities also have their advantages. Casting Recurrence is nice against some bosses when you dealt a high damage single attack (especially with the mega-bleed of Micro-Shrapnel rounds) Dilate incoming melee's or just freeze them in Cryostasis.



BUILD

https://underrail.info/build/?HgUFBwMNBQjCoF0AAAAAwqBEVAAAWloqMFoAAHbCgTgANAEZHX81An4oSyvCh8K9wog_LipywrXir7wE4q-9AeKxoAXfvg





General information to know at the start:

• The build shown here is like a regular sniper suddenly dual-classing into a psionic - the feats are separated to two columns for an easier view. Yet it is strongly recommended to follow the sequence shown up to level 10. Those are the core sniper feats you need to get early, but you can pretty much tailor this to however you like it after. Could use psionic skills from the start and change the order of feats to your preference from then on.
• You can reroll your game until you get the Mushroom Cove Scavenger quest, involving the Water Treatment Facility random dungeon with Alev and the Acolytes. This is indicated by a body with severe burn wounds in SGS Medical level. What's really cool is that Alev can be looted for a Thermodynamic Destabilization "scroll". Getting that so early is amazing.
• The build has many ways to avoid getting attacked, but be on the look for a Regenerative or at least a Sturdy Vest. Grab it from Gort or anybody who has it and craft a Tactical Overcoat from the highest Black Cloth you manage to find together with a Ninja Tabi + a high Corsair or preferably a Reaper frame. Alternatively, there's two Lurkers holed up in Lower Underrail to the north and one of them wears a very high quality Tac-Vest Overcoat for you to loot. You can access them in the early limited game world already anytime
• Max Guns and Stealth at each level up.
• If you complete everything the game can offer you in terms of all possible exploration, quests and oddities with the only thing left is to venture to Depot A - you should just reach level 10. Which is a huge turning point due to Shooting Spree. setting out to find the drill part should be a casual experience at this point (also, you can always stealth past the mutants).
• Start specializing Shooting Spree at level 16 and spend all 5 points on it, starting with "Shots".
• Make sure to get Future Orientation at level 20, so you can immediately start specializing on it at level 21 without suffering it's disadvantage for long.
• I want to say (before some of you do), that it's totally doable to leave WILL at 3 and still reach effective 140 MT and 150 TM. Having INT at 7 and raise PER up to 18 this way. But that would mean us completely loosing Persuasion for good. And a bit of Throwing/Chemistry (this is fine as basic Molotovs and Flashbangs are enough). But all in all, I like having Persuasion better:)

Level 1
https://underrail.info/build/?AQUFBwMKAwcPDwAAAAAPDw8AAA8AAAAPAAAAAA8AAAEZ374

• Just bump WILL from 3 to 5 during level 4 and 8. It's better to get this over early.

Level 10
https://underrail.info/build/?CgUFBwMKBQc8EwAAAAA8MC4AACgAAAAoAAA1IzMAHAEZKx1_NQJ-374

• The character has 60 in Hacking and Lockpick (with the Jackknife) to crack everything in Depot A, from safes to turrets.
• 60 in Persuasion to convince SGS instead of the Cans to aid the Black Eels (+ lure Elwood outside) and 45 Mercantile to get the full stock of Blaine.
• 50/50 in Mechanics and Tailoring to craft repair kits
• Enough skill points to cast Increment and Thermodynamic Destabilization, should you got lucky with the Water Treatment Facility.
• Taking Strafe later at level 12 in favor of Paranoia is also a viable way to go. You probably won't find a Spearhead frame this early anyway, but it's nice having the Initiative bonus early.
• At level 12, you can raise INT to 8 and from then on, all stat points can go to PER.

STATS

STR: 5  - Enough to wield our instruments.
DEX: 5  - As required for Strafe.
AGI: 7  - To have Interloper, have good numbers in Stealth, enough MP and get past fences.
CON: 3  - We barely ever allow the chance to get attacked, so going glass cannon is appropriate and armor mostly serves as utility.
PER: 15 - For good damage and detection.
WIL: 5  - To have enough skill points for our psionic and social abilities + being able to wear Hypno Goggles. We can also get the Outer Visions feat with a Tchortist Noble Robe.
INT: 8  - Pretty much to have enough skill points for everything. Crafting, Hacking, Mercantile and might as well take Psycho-neural Flexibility. It's also handy in some dialogue checks.




SKILLS

Everything is nice and rounded, satisfying all OCD levels:)

• Guns maxed.
• Throwing at a reliable 100.
• Stealth maxed for effective prowling, Snipe damage and Ambush crit chance.
• Hacking and Lockpicking at a natural effective 100.
• All Crafting skills are boosted enough to make top quality gear using bench and Hypercelebrix. Also enough Chemistry for Napalm Grenades, enough Biology for Hypercelebrix.
• Metathermics at 140 for to reach 100% target health damage cap. It's advised to invest in this skill to raise this percentage with every other level up. 100% will only happen at level 26.
• Temporal Manipulation at 150 to reduce the chance of getting Dilated after a Contraction to the possible minimal 30%. This will only happen at level 28, so you can leave this be after for a while upon reaching base 60 for Future Orientation. But it's best to start boosting it a few levels before 27.
• Persuasion at a natural 70. Can reach 90-100 depending on a Hypno Goggles and JKK jacket can boost this with an additional +15. Siding with JKK is strongly advised with this build.
• Mercantile at a natural 80. Can be raised to 95 with Large Waist Pack for Constantine and 107 with Hypercelebrix + Under Pie for Hanna.

Some of the FEATS explained

• Interloper is a must for anyone using Stealth for it's move speed bonus and is crucial for us to be able to use MP to step out of a corner after restealthing the previous round.
• Hit and Run + Strafe can mean an extra attack when you took down an enemy but cannot shoot the other behind cover despite having the AP to perform an attack, not enough to move a bit to have visual on them. It's also handy to have the MP to step back to cover after coming out from stealth.
• Paranoia is important. We perform the alpha-strike in most fights due to stealth, but having 22 is the bare minimum so that we can achieve 27 with an occasional Root Soda should we need to. JKK jacket also adds another 5, which is enough even to win against the Arena boss and the Detection bonus is welcome (417 with Fine Tuned).
• Tranquility is amazing to have as it reduce our Increment cost to zero AP and lowers anthing else with -5.
• Premeditation is not as useful, but can help when casting some other spell with an expensive AP cost, like Pyrokinesis or... maybe Stasis - but I've yet to cast these. No wonder I saved this feat for last as I didn't really miss it. Nimble can be a good alternative.
• Psycho-neural Flexibility is handy as it offsets the cost increase of using dual psi-schools early in the game, as Advanced Psi Empathy only becomes available at level 26 earliest. And the cheaper we cast spells the better. This way just by opening with Thermo-D and casting Contraction every 4th round and Increment every second, we can keep doing this for quite a while if needed.

SPECIALIZATION

• Shooting Spree needs to be maxed ASAP
• followed by Future Orientation
• The remaining 5 points is up to you. Putting it on Critical Damage is a safe bet as you'll be critting reqularly with frequent Aim Shots and the exploitation of Ambush.

GEAR

At the beginning we are just going to use whatever guns we find, depending on which has some ammo and durability left... Make sure to persuade a .44 Hammerer from Lucas at the start.

HEAD:

• Smart (Night Vision) Googles - boost the damage of special attacks like Snipe and Aim Shot. Have a Motion-Tracking version also around against the occasional Crawlers.

ARMOR:

• Infused Pig-Leather Overcoat - boosts HP and CON with pretty decent defense stats. Make sure to use the 120+ quality leather you got from Fatso with some good Super Steel Fiber. I took the Black Crawler tattoo to boost my stealth further.
• Alternatively, you can also wear a good Regenerative Overcoat with the Abomination tattoo. Those two will passively heal you up to 100% everytime, so Tranquility will always be in effect. Very convenient.
• The Rathound Regalia while not really protecting you from anything, it has some serious mobility and stealth bonuses due to it's stats and the fact that it has zero armor penalty.

BELT:

• Bullet Strap Belt for faster reloads
• Doctor's Belt for heavy chem use
• or Large Waist Pack to carry more are all viable choices depending on the situation.

BOOTS:

• Ninja Tabi for extra stealth and mobility
• or Infused Pig-Leather Boots to extend your carrying capacity and enjoy another +1 CON.

WEAPON:

• Smart-Rapid Spearhead in the main hand
• with a Smart-Rapid 12.7mm Corsair in the off-hand (8.6mm Reaper is also nice btw)
• Have some armor piercing ammo with you. Micro-Schrapnel also works wonders due to the high damage per bullet and Contaminated Rounds are OP.

UTILITY:

• just Molotovs / Flashbangs / Vanishing Powders
• with a Taser and occasionally a Cloaking Device.
• Once every blue moon I toss in some Crawler-poisoned Caltrops or EMP if the situation demands it. I never have Frag or HE as they do far too less damage in my opinion, especially compared to Plasma Grenades which are actually good. Wanted to like Nail Bombs, but ended up not using them.

*appendix:
OSA is the psionic branch of Tri-Optimum Security in System Shock 2, still by far the best FPS/Survival Horror RPG in existence.
...They do have access to Psychokinesis as well, but it is voluntary and two schools are more than enough here:)

Should you have any question or feedback, feel free to reach out. Enjoy!

14

Builds / Re: "Ghost" - triple-psi sniper build

« on: June 20, 2024, 05:11:35 pm »

>Triple School
>3 will

People should not post builds that aren't normal difficulty viable.

I agree, people shouldn't.

In this case, though, all the psi skills in use do NOT require high psi skills - they do the things they do not based on resolve or fortitude checks by targets. Which is the whole point of the build.

P.S. Oh, also forgot to mention one more especially cool feat for the build, above: Pyromaniac. Thing is, Thermodynamic Destabilization triggers Pyromaniac alright, even while wiki says nothing about it. Meaning, if you take the feat, then whatever secondary target lucky enough to survive your TD'd Snipe-more-like-a-bazooka hit - is often set on fire, and that fire deals major damage to their already badly ruined health. Very situational though very fun feat to go with - potential alternative to Sharpshooter.

The wiki about Pyromaniac mentions Thermo-Destabilization and even states the percentage of it triggering.
Tapping into 3 different schools is probably a bad idea, two should be the most. If you use Thermo-Destabilization, Contraction and Increment, you exhausted all your psi points anyway. I think as a Sniper, you're not supposed to do that much casting to validate dipping into 3 schools. Even 2 is far fetched. All things considered, I think the overall best is a sniper solely focused on Temporal Manipulation and Traps. Having Tranquility with fully focused Shooting Spree and Future Orientation to cast Increment every second round consistently for no AP, thus being able to use Shooting Spree as much as possible while keeping the enemies at bay or lid up on fire with traps. This also require a certain intent of psi point conservation, which kinda rules out using even more spells. Also we should be using our AP to shoot things with their rifle, not slinging spells, because most of the time it does not even worth-; sometimes we're not even able to use both. Psionic abilities should only function to enhance and frequent our shooting performance, to elevate our original, main ability.

Regardless of that, I am now currently playing with a Sniper/PSI hybrid using two schools.
5 WILL is a good idea even with a single school - if you want to boost it to 140-150. Otherwise, you have to invest way too many skill points above 100. Not to mention that reaching effective 140 is pretty much impossible - the penalty due to the low WILL stat will barely allow that even if you pour 160 points into it (which is a waste) and the cost of spells are also going to be higher. I use two schools and I have WILL at 5 so that I'm able to get both raised to the necessarily amount with adequate points. Also to level Persuasion cheaper to 70 which can be boosted to 100 with Hypno Goggles (requiring 5 WILL to wear). JKK Vest is handy too.
With two schools, 8 INT is indeed nice here for the above mentioned reasons of OP - otherwise with single innervation, INT can even be 6 or even 5 as we don't even need that many slots.

According to my experience, Thermo-Destabilization is fine but only at high levels. Even if you pick the tankiest Lunatic to pop, the others will likely survive even at effective 100. Making this a late game ability. Pyromaniac is a must to somewhat mitigate that and the panic effect is perhaps even more useful. It's nice to have another Molotov that also happens to be a lot more powerful too yet without burning (thus lighting) the area. But the nature of the spell itself and reaching effective 140 will actually make this a quite situational ability to use. I let go of the idea of using Traps for this and still hold up my original opinion that Traps are better overall - they are just more versatile, the effects are guaranteed and also a LOT more fun to use them, but I'm not complaining. Burning enemies are sitting ducks for Ambush, and due to the lowered HP of survivors, even non-crit shots that follow up are often end up being lethal.

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Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: June 11, 2024, 07:16:54 am »

Question!
How did you take "snipe" at lvl 8, if it needs 10 perception?

Looking at your lvl 30 planner, I see 11 perception. With Increased Perception feat, taken at lvl 28, it means that base perception is 9 in the end, right?

So how is it possible to take "Snipe" with 9 perception then? Or am I misunderstanding something?

That's a good question - I did not take that into account.
If one does not want to take it at level 28 (which would defeat the purpose), then INT needs to be lowered to 6 in order to get PER to 10, like so:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgUMBwMKAwbCoE4AAAAAwqBfPgBKZ2cvP3AAAABGZQA0KxcBHRkqNX7DkjE6HlszS8KFwrXCpOKgigXio7oE4q-9AeK9hAXfvg

This is fine, as some crafting skills were unnecessarily high anyway. One could also use Trap Expert/QT instead of Blindsiding too if they really want to utilize Traps, but a build about 1 turn might not find the opportunity to use them, so that skill can be lowered. It's just that they are really powerful and we have the point capacity with high DEX.