Messages

31

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.

32

Builds / Re: Stealthy sledgehammer build.

« on: August 19, 2020, 10:32:16 pm »

Regarding Heavyweight, of course it depends on what armour/helmet/boots you use. The armour I suggested has 55% penalty, down to 30% with the feats. 30% extra crit damage is good in my book, especially on weapons that does not come with great base crit damage.

Escape Artist works against any form of root, including nets. So, good against natives, Sea Wyrms, acid dogs...

Balor's is very strong indeed, but it has its flaws. Maintaining 20 STR is annoying, crippling strike screw you badly. The hammer is ridiculously heavy. It does not have an electroshock generator, which does about 100 damage and helps clearing swarms. Also, you only get 18 STR at level 26, before that you get a rather significant accuracy penalty.

33

Builds / Re: Stealthy sledgehammer build.

« on: August 18, 2020, 10:36:03 pm »

A stealth/sledge build should work fine, but it probably won't be as good as the standard heavy sledge. I've been playing a quirky sledge build lately, so I have a few things that come to mind.

- What armor penalty are you aiming for? Without extra plates the armor will be unimpressive, and if you go full plate your stealth will be too low. I doubt there's a satisfying sweet spot. To stay close to your idea I would go for infused sea wyrm leather armour, replacing Armor Sloping with Nimble. Sea wyrm armour have a very nice base mech resist, and its bonus makes you extremely resistant to melee mech damage when crafted with dense padding (almost immune at very high quality). And you can slap a black cloth on it to get a nice bonus to stealth.
- Trigger Happy, Guard, Super Slam, and Bone Breaker are not particularly good for this build. You should definitely consider Body Weight Training, Nimble, Heavyweight, Dirty Kick and Grenadier. I personally like Doctor too.
- By dropping one STR you can get to 7 DEX, opening Escape Artist (a blessing in the Black Sea) and Three Pointer.
- By dropping one STR you can also get to 7 INT, opening Power Management and freeing a bunch of skill points.

34

Bugs / Re: Super soldier drug and conditioning

« on: July 14, 2020, 07:07:11 pm »

Just tested, it works fine, but the stat sheet is not updated until the character moves. Maybe that was the issue?

35

Suggestions / Re: Add a "shopping list" + merchant tweaks

« on: June 24, 2020, 07:17:56 pm »

Alright. After playing to nearly the end of the game. I am 100% calling anyone trying to object or argue the idea that long distance communication is not a thing or possible or appropriate for underrail. Is completely, and utterly full of shit.

Well I love hearing that I'm full of shit so I'm going to answer that!

1. The fact that the physic department of an institute with enormous resources has access to a certain technology is not very informative on the availability of said technology. Especially when the institute is almost entirely cut from the rest of the world. On top of that, "long range" does not imply "covers the entirety of underrail".

2. The Black Sea is set in one large cave. South Underrail is a maze of corridors. It should be obvious that long range communication is easier in the former.

3. I would like the quote from the game, because I honestly don't remember precisely what Lora said in Talos outpost. I'll just point that "contacting" someone can be done in many ways, not all of them being long range com devices.

So, at least it is far from being as obvious as you think. Anyway, the lore is a secondary issue here. The problem is: you still haven't convinced anyone that this shopping list would be useful. I know, we're all close minded masochistic elitists. But maybe... just maybe... you could be wrong?

36

General / Re: XP for quests in Oddity

« on: June 17, 2020, 08:26:08 pm »

Getting 30 before DC is quite a feat though, and depending on your build/faction choices it might be impossible. Siding with the protectorate will make you miss 2 oddity points (one of the Protectorate Can) and not siding with JKK is very likely to make you miss 1 oddity point (one of the Train Logs). Not having stealth will make it impossible (or at least extremely hard) to get both the Sword Handle and the Tri-Monitor Blueprint, unless you're willing to antagonize core city factions. Not having pickpocket will probably cost you some oddities too. And of course, non optimal quest resolution costs xp.

Still more than enough to get max level in DC, the area is loaded with high value oddities.

The two-headed mutant is a bit annoying and I found a lot of conflicting info about it when I was doing my full oddity run (which failed as I played Coretech/Protectorate and missed the two mentioned above...). What I can tell for sure is: you can come back later and encounter it. What is not clear is:
- Can the event happen multiple time? Is it lost for the run if it was encountered and skipped?
- Is there a reliable strat to trigger it, faster than visiting the zone after each reset? I guess that question can also be: when does the game actually decides if an event occurs?

37

Builds / Re: A Below Average Explanation on how to Improve Your Own Creations

« on: June 13, 2020, 10:20:48 pm »

Many Underrail vets may have burned eyes after seeing this, and for that I am sorry. But this is why we're here.

It did burn my eyes. Ouch!
In all seriousness, I wish I did that good on my first build.

There is one thing I'd like to point out. Judging by how you talk about Cheap Shots and Critical Power, you missed something. Critical power applies to all your critical damage bonus, regardless of the source. In particular, it applies to Cheap Shots added damage. So after you took Cheap Shots, Critical Power is actually an additive 95% crit damage bonus. With specialization it becomes stupidly good. The optimal amount of points to allocate to CS/CP can be calculated depending on the build, it is generally a mix of both. For example the critical damage of a tungsten spear is:

100 + ​(70 + ​CS_spec*​5) * ​(2.5 + ​CP_spec*0.15)

If you have 10 spec points, the optimal allocation is 6 points in CS and 4 in CP for 410% critical damage. Long story short, pick Cheap Shots and Critical Power as soon as you can


While I'm here, random thoughts:
- Snooping is indeed terrible, probably the weakest feat in the game as it is almost entirely useless (a 3 PER build can find every secrets by using the right set of gear/drugs)
- Specialization in Spear Guardian is sweet, 100% block chance is no joke.
- Impale is great, I'm curious about your reasoning here. Especially considering you kept Recklessness, which is inferior in nearly all situations.
- I agree that Expose Weakness is not super important for a spear build, but you should still pick it at some point. And I don't see how Hypertoxicity could even compare in terms of usefulness.
- 6 INT was actually better I think, it would free a fair amount of skill points, and give you access to Weaponsmith and Premeditation, two good feats to pick later on (I mean, Premeditation is god tier, but in this build it will just be a nice QoL).
- With 30 points in dodge you could pick Escape Artist, which is always nice on a melee build.
- Quick Tinkering is... well it's Quick Tinkering. Can't go wrong with that one.

38

Builds / Re: New Player

« on: May 15, 2020, 08:49:11 pm »

a effective min max build that doesn't lack to much in any category

That's quite a strange thing to look for. Min max literally means attributing your skill/stat points in a way that minimizes some and maximizes others. As such, any min max build is lacking in some categories, by definition.

39

Builds / Re: A blind laser pistol build (aka Stormtrooper)

« on: May 14, 2020, 12:33:10 am »

@kamax3

Yes, your build is closer to the "standard" energy gun build and should work quite well. It's smoother early on, but my build has slightly more damage in the later levels. All the feat you picked will work. Sharpshooter, in particular, is very good. I did not miss it though, I just don't have the required in my build PER ^^ Steadfast Aim and Execute work but are not amazing.

You should consider picking Ambush. It's not too hard to trigger in most scenarios (molotov to light the ennemy) and it will let you reach 100% crit chance. Personally I don't like playing with it, but it is a very strong feat.

Also, maybe try to reach the 14 dex threshold. That's an extra shot per turn in most scenarios (11->10 AP cost), which would be a very significant damage upgrade.

@l0cus77

My off hand is an amplified/polarized plasma pistol. High quality plasma pistols are good for polarization, because they are reliable: mine has 94% chance to apply 2 stacks. But there is only one type of ennemy in the game that requires it, in expedition. Just don't use the polarizer on your main laser weapon, it's not worth the massive energy cost increase (since it would replace the efficient mod).

40

Builds / Re: A blind laser pistol build (aka Stormtrooper)

« on: May 13, 2020, 12:44:07 am »

Actually, I originally planned the build with an off hand knife, and I ran some quick tests during my playthrough. It is quite nice, the build can be very decent with a knife by just picking Cheap Shots, as you did. The problem I ran into is simple: the energy gun will be vastly superior in most situations, if not all. The damage of the energy gun is higher, energy damage is immensely better than physical damage, and it has some range. What does the knife get you? More attacks, more accuracy, and a completely silent weapon. Nice, but not nearly enough to justify using it.

I think you should wait to be about level 16 and see for yourself. I'm sure you will embrace the greatness of laser pistols!

Here are a few thoughts on what you asked:

- In my opinion the least useful feats in the build are: Premeditation, Skinner, Grenadier, Blindsiding, Opportunist, Practical Physicist and Last Stand. They are all quality of life or minor improvements. You can replace them with whatever you like.
- High Technicalities is a crazy good feat: an unconditional 32% damage increase with the energy gun is just too good to pass, and it can be buffed to 48%.
- Dropping 2 INT for Ripper is okay. Keep High Technicalities, it's still 16% more damage. The real issue is skill points, as INT benefits many skills while WILL is practically useless here.
- If you use a knife and an energy gun, it probably makes sense to put 5 specialization points in Versatility and 10 in Critical Power, since Critical Power benefits all the weapons while Versatility only helps the energy gun.
- Fatal Throw and Three Pointer are very good, no doubt they will work well.
- Surviving in melee range with that build might be very challenging. Maybe consider a low frequency shield and the Parry feat (about 60% chance to block 40 damage)
- I mostly picked persuasion and pickpocket because it was funny being able to pass every single skill check in the game, you can pick these points and put them somewhere else. Stealth can also be lowered, as most of the stealth will come from the gear and the points invested in stealth are inefficient anyway with 3 AGI.

So, I would drop Premeditation, Skinner, Blindsiding and Practical Physicist to pick Cheap Shots, Ripper, Fatal Throw and Three Pointer, adjusting stats/skills accordingly. And I would transfer 5 specialization points from Versatility to Critical Power.

41

Builds / Re: Terminator build for dominating difficulty

« on: April 16, 2020, 06:04:18 pm »

First dont get me wrong, I have no doubt that this is an extremely strong build. AR are kinda broken....

I did watch your videos already, and I must point out that you did not evade a single shot during the free drone assault

Fair point for the late game part. I play nearly all my runs as oddity, so I have a slightly different perspective on this.

For Juggernault: unmodified does not apply to Armor Slopping, you need your chest piece to have 50% armor penalty.  So your effective armor penalty will never go under 35% at best (moddified by nimble), which I used in my calculation. And if you used reinforced SS boots on top of that, your effective armor penalty will be 52%, lowering your dodge/evasion to about 100. With crit goggles your dodge is down to 75.

But why not, you get a 7 hit uncanny, and 25% aoe damage reduction from evasion. I would still prefer mercantile for easier crafting, especially on a no lockpicking/no hacking build. Or go for Power Managment, I'm pretty sure 35% more shield is a better boost to effective HP.

42

Builds / Re: Terminator build for dominating difficulty

« on: April 16, 2020, 10:15:46 am »

Quick question! You have 50% armor penalty for Juggernault, down to 35 with nimble. That leaves you with about 135 base dodge/evasion. Even with very good tabis, how helpful can this really be in Dominating? It seems like a huge point investment for not much. And if the points in dodge are just for Uncanny, it is a little sad considering you wont get this feat before level 28, at which point you are already an unstoppable killing machine anyway.

43

Builds / Re: Build help for expedition

« on: April 15, 2020, 07:54:06 pm »

Also, laser pistol builds are ridiculously strong against all robots, except naga. And you can still OTK nagas with a polarizer. As far as robot destruction is concerned, I would consider those builds the best. They lack the tankyness of an AR build and the control of a cave wizard though.

44

Builds / Re: Opinions on this Spear / Nade / Temporal Build?

« on: April 13, 2020, 02:14:57 pm »

Well, stealth is one of the OP mechanics of the game when you know how to (ab)use it. It let you choose exactly how you engage almost every fight in the game, and because every turn count in Underrail, this is a massive advantage.

But I still 100% recommend you play the build you planned, with minor adjustments. If you try too hard to play what is best, you alway end up with a Psychosis Cave Wizzard ^^

45

Builds / Re: Opinions on this Spear / Nade / Temporal Build?

« on: April 11, 2020, 09:20:00 pm »

Mercantile is a quality of life skill, so it will never be as impactful as your combat and crafting skills. That being said, it is a HUGE quality of life improvment when you want to craft anything. It makes finding high quality component immensly easier. For your build, the interesting components will likely be energy shield parts,  electroshock generators for the spear, vests for the armor and springs for the boots.