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Builds / Re: [1.3.0.17] Energy pistol Builds

« on: January 19, 2026, 03:26:46 am »

Opportunist is really good on these builds as you can easily target enemies who are cc'd. Like Shock Pistol, Cooked Shot Acid/Freeze, Caltrops, HIGH INT PSI SLOTS could be 7-8 CC buttons, Throwing Nets, Traps, ect. With extra enemy health this patch it will be unlikely to be meaningless overkill.

Also, even though Polymath is overkill, you can literally be amazing at every skill other than melee/crossbows/dodge/evasion/persuasion/intimidation, including high trap detection and all utility Psionics if you take it on ~18 DEX, 10 INT build. It's a high feat cost, but the perk also pays 1-1 for your Versatility's Melee skill baseline to scale. I'd probably not use it myself though.

Another thing is Versatility. It's really hard to say if it's better to go for mild PER with no Versatility, or to simply go Versatility and 3 PER. I think PER ~6-7 strait GUNS with no Versatility might be better. Max spec points melee Versatility (DEX 17) is ~270 effective GUNS skill at level 30. Whereas using The Juice, Bio-luminous Marsh Honey on PER 7(10) is 240 effective skill and saves a feat slot, 55 flat skill points and 10 specialization points. You will also have higher effective weapon skill in the early and mid-game before versatility spec points and higher DEX stat progression. But Versatility can take 3 extra attribute points into something else like both high AGI and INT. You can use Point Shot and Knee Cap Shot on PER 7 too.
It seems like Versatility is better for Attributes, but worse for Feats/Skills/Specialization points.

There's also the question of whether you equip two different energy pistols or use one slot for Acid Pistol Cooked Shot. It costs 2 feat slots, a hand slot and Chemistry ranks. You also have a lot of space to spam LTI for cooldown abuse which really breaks Cooked Shot's 2-turn cd hard. I think you go full cooldown reset build with Future Orientation, Grenadier, Cooked Shot, Mad Chemist, Infused Cave Hopper Sprint Tabis, (probably Execute, Rapid Fire and Point Shot,) or completely drop the cooked shot stuff at all. I think you want to go all in for it, Special Attacks build.

Something important to note is that Laser Pistols lock at 9 ap attack at both 17 and 18 DEX, so you can lose a max DEX and be fine, unless you were going to use an Eel Sandwich for DEX 19, and 8 ap shots. You can also go to 7 ap attacks during a Super Soldier Drug if you're buffed up to 19 DEX from 18 with an eel sandwich, but you won't see many of those so it's not too relevant.

There's also "The Stunner" but you'll get it after doing likely 95% of the entire game's content, so I don't think building directly around it is particularly great but idk for sure. I'm pretty sure that Critical Power on a Circular Wave Amplifier Laser Pistol significantly out-damages it anyways, especially with "Specialist" feat and spec points into Critical Power.

Regarding all that I made Special Attacks Demo build off of it, it doesn't take Polymath but you need to sandwich "Specialist" in at level 16 (character builder doesn't know about those feats yet). Max out Critical Power ratio and 9/10 Recklessness. DEX 19 with eel sandwich for 8 ap attack. Special Attacks, CC, CD's, Cooked Shot off-hand. (crafting skills might be wrong as new patch changed them around) I tried to fit P-T Acceleration into it but couldn't find any room .
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQBgMHAwjCoDgAAAAAVmM9JwA6blEyagDCm0ZGAABPATkrJh4WwppZEUvCiDHCkVbCs3I_4p67AuKgvQTio7oE4rGgBd--

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Builds / Re: Need help with a trapper build on Dominating

« on: January 19, 2026, 12:34:28 am »

A week ago I tried traps crossbows in the early game on Hard and I can say that they're probably one of- if not the weakest build in the early game right now. I have roughly 1k hours in the game, most of it is on Hard but I also tried Sledgehammer right after and it was extremely easy early game (no shit sherlock moment ngl). Crossbows struggle really badly against early game mechanical damage threshold and have horrid damage-per-AP ratio before you get ap-cost reduction sources on the build in the mid-game (and also crit w/ crit damage, ect...). The extra durability enemies get makes it really easy for them to stall out your early game cc spam options and walk you down into melee range where you suck complete ass (kind of even incendiary grenade fear reliant).

A lot of other weapons don't really lose to mechanical threshold much at all (or at least have expose weakness if they do). Like, imagine firearm pistols which seem like they'd be bad against armor but don't need Strafe and get better rather than worse at melee(accuracy boost) with high ap-cost efficiency from early Dex value and the Gunslinger feat. And, heavier pistols are possible to just drop off enemies like a .44 out of nowhere (easy to make one too). Compared to crossbows, you would be likely to have a lower ap cost with a freaking sledgehammer with the common lifting belt loot and a 1-turn cd pummel, and you'll deal like 5x as much damage per hit after skipping mechanical threshold and the str damage bonus. (And also need like 10x less money to kill an enemy on average, and I'm not even exaggerating). Even a feat-less knife build will deal almost double the damage per round.

Expect 90% of your crossbow build damage early to come from bear traps, the rare burrower poison caltrop stack and all the incendiary grenades you can buy from Quinton in SGS. Like, the raw "value" of a single MK I Incendiary Bolt is 80% of an Incendiary GRENADE (and the attack is 25 AP instead of 15 AP, oh mama mia... you can fish for "Fear" but it's better later on). The blueprint also only makes 3 special bolts, better, but not really nearly as much (EARLY) power as an incendiary grenade honestly.

I think I would bite the bullet, and use level 1 Polymath and Aimed Shot, with attribute spread of roughly 3, 7, 6, 3, 10, 3, 8. You can use the massive overall skillpoints advantage to do a lot of throwing/crafting/trapping and subterfuge-stealth to cheat your bad early game a little. Stealth skip as much combat as you possibly can. You can also take Escape Artist painlessly if you want to, with the skillpoints and high dex/int. I'd take Strafe, Sprint at levels 2 and 4, in that order. You can instead go INT 9 instead of DEX 7 to take "Specialist" at level 16, losing 1 point of PER at level 16 (can boost with Juice, Salad, Marsh Honey for +4 PER still). It can make your late-game Critical Power really funny.

Also don't do a hybrid of melee/crossbows. It would be better to reload when you get surrounded or just go for a yolo tank crossbow troll build than to try both, sadly, and to be perfectly honest with you.

edit: oh yea and a large advantage of crossbows is that they are good against energy shields for a ranged weapon, and no enemies have energy shields in the early game.

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Builds / Re: Build changes in the 10-Year Anniversary Update (v1.3)

« on: January 12, 2026, 04:08:53 am »

Not sure if I'm understanding this correctly: It seems like the melee build took a brutal nerf in 1.3. Hit and Run and Fancy Footwork now grant about half the MP, while the minimum AP cost increased by 1, reducing damage output opportunities by nearly a 1/4. In comparison, the reduced damage bonus from skills seems insignificant.  Is pure melee build even viable anymore?

In short, yes.
Though it depends on what you mean by "pure melee" and "viable". Melee without using any psi, traps, or grenades has never been practical, and any build that does use them is gonna work fine.
I've played melee builds that didn't include Hit and Run or Fancy Footwork, and only 50% of melee builds use DEX over STR, so those aren't affected by the minimum AP cost changes.
It's a significant nerf for sure, but unless you're on dominating and really wanted to play a non-psi glove or knife build, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Also, Hit and Run and Fancy Footwork haven't had their movement points halved, they work exactly the same way as before the first time they get activated in a turn. Fancy Footwork can only give 36 MP without specialization, and 55 MP with it. That's obviously worse than before, but that's more MP than Sprint can give, so it's definitely worth taking. Not sure how the rounding works for Hit and Run, so I don't know how much MP it can give per turn, but it's never been as consistent anyway.

Yea, the Contraction tin-can Sledgehammer builds are thriving with 1-turn cd, 0 ap pummel and with LTI also on both Infused Cave Hopper Tabis Sprint and Super Slam cooldown. Other than the Stasis nerfs that hits most of the builds, it's nearly all upside for Sledgehammer stonks imo. Pummel accuracy buffs on low cd is big too. The nerf to Expose Weakness from 50% to 40% isn't that big (read the min INT scaling), and it is possible to skip the feat and not really cry about it. I like to instead slot an Energy Spear with Impale on the off-hand and one-tap to proc Hit and Run at 2-range, and to have the energy damage type available and two different "energy magazines" to skip a battery reload ap cost. You'll miss out on a spiked sledge, but the electroshock generator will often damage-match the empowered super slam anyways as dumb as it sounds (with Psi empathy). The LTI also resets the Impale too which feels great. You also don't need INT 5 if you drop Expose Weakness.

In other news, I really don't think it made sense to nerf the Fists/Unarmed so crazy hard and also leave Firearm Pistols generally untouched other than the (fairly reasonable) moderate light weapons nerf. I know the movement points on punching builds are crazy but they also got nerfed from low-ap attacks by 25% in 4 ap -> 5 ap, Expose Weakness cd nerf, Heavy Punch becoming cooldown-based and Cheap Shots incap nerf. On top of all that is also the light weapons damage nerf and the melee builds vs. +50% increased enemy health "nerf" on Hard and Dominating, melee builds being "feast or famine" due to proximity to enemies means a failure to kill is punished harder. Melee also got hit the hardest from the nerfs to stasis since they would use it aggressively, self-cast to cover their engage. I guess those melee nerfs also hit sledge builds a fair bit too. It's a lot of fist nerfs, but maybe it's not actually that bad? Idk for sure.

I think the biggest winners of the patch are Throwing Knives builds with high INT and full PSI builds with high INT. And obviously also builds that use both of those  . I think a build similar to this with "Pack Rathound" swapped out for "Polymath" being pretty damn cheesy (you can't take PSI feats or Disassemble at level 1, although some other crafting feats are on the table, and also the build is just a placeholder to reference off of):

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQAwMDCggAwqAAAAAAPEo0Ml8uaDxRY8KgAADCoAAATy8nKz9AFlFcKiFewojChlg-wrNyduKitQLipoYK4qi7A9--

Flashbang, LOC mental breakdown with Temporal Distortion damage bonus headband is really fucking cheesy, especially since the pop happens when their turn ends when it awakens them, so you have full freedom to proc Fatal Throw on their stupid heads if they barely survive.

Oh yea and full INT 10 builds with High Technicalities can get doubled spec points if they take "Specialist" at exactly level 16. I don't think any builds other than Laser Pistol or Chem Pistol are particularly stat-min-max'ed for doing that though. Maybe you can make an Energy Knives build op at INT 10 though. I think other INT 10 melee builds will generally just over-kill enemies and have bad ap-target finding economy and are kind of meh. The energy edge on Energy Spears does deal a fuck ton of damage though, so it might one shot sometimes, being fairly decent when it does so against medium health targets. I forgot that fist weapons get an electroshock generator, but I feel like pushing the fist build to INT 10 is a bit of a stretch personally. But I could be wrong.

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Builds / Re: Please help a newbie choose a build

« on: January 12, 2026, 02:24:07 am »

Here's a pretty beginner friendly long-range Crossbow and Traps build that can stealth kill from traps and/or caltrops fairly well while being beginner friendly. It has good skill points for crafting a lot, and Crossbows can use all the crafting stats a lot in practice.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHBgMPAwkAKMKgAAAAeE9NSsKgZmZBN2YAAABGAABKOX8rYUAnJiIWTMKASy9qMMK1eMKk4qKMA-KmkArippEC374

Some of the new changes aren't reflected on the character planner right now, like the existence of the Polymath feat (of which I didn't put any of those in the build though). There's other strong options you can take as feats for the build like psi feats, but I prioritized feats that help you use crafted Special Bolts and traps/caltrops better (like quick pockets' slots and pack rathound's carry capacity when using the Bolt Quiver item with a lot of traps and caltrops).

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Builds / Re: Throwing build looking for feedback

« on: December 05, 2025, 06:27:13 am »

It looks pretty good.

I think swapping out Power Management for Grenadier at level 4 is the right call. Your throwing accuracy is so high, and your lategame crit-chance potential on Three Pointer is so high, that it's weird to not include those feats honestly. You can take Power Management at high level like 24 or 30 and reserve the feat for lategame super energy shields instead I'd recommend.

Spear Throw and Thumper have slight anti-synergy since it only allows you 1 spear-hand for throwing from instead of two. But it's not bad enough that I'd recommend against taking both.

Escape Artist isn't too bad of a choice on a build with high DEX. But a lot of the other feats are also pretty competitive for their slot so I'm not sure if it's worth it somehow, I'm not sure either way.

I think Future Orientation is also probably worth it even if it gives LTI an ap cost. Possibly even over the P.T.Acceleration feat, as you can still get a sprint and mini-adrenaline on a non-feat-boosted P.T.Contraction, base-line.

An angle to consider might be taking out Str 6 and Spear Throw for Cooked Shot and Mad Chemist, since you already have Versatility, you'll only need 35 raw guns skill and you already have the exact INT requirement of 7. Although I admit the early game is probably harder with that angle as you don't get early spear tosses. But the early game for DEX-stealth builds aren't that bad. You can just take Sprint or Sure Step instead. You can also let TM cap out at 70 raw to save points. And one of either the Acid or Ice chem-pistol will always screw over high DT targets, adding a throwing net or taser can chain immobilize cheese too.

I also think putting on Sprint at some point, since you're already at exactly AGI 6, is a great idea.

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Builds / Re: Returning player. Quick check on sniper\traps build please?

« on: December 03, 2025, 01:30:19 am »

Well Eidein didn't include Traps and Vokial included Psi. OP wanted a psi-less, trapper-Sniper.

I'm not gonna lie, Eiden's builds he posted are good. He just didn't include any traps (traps + sniper isn't too op but, that's still what the thread-poster wanted) and just posted his own best Sniper builds. His second build he posted also uses both Psi and no traps...  LOL

And I must also say sorry in advance Vokial, because Paranoia on a full-Stealth, CON-3, trapper-sniper is just not good. You enter combat without an initiative check and are too squishy for dodging low-chance criticals to be relevant for you. The extra Detection is decent, but you're 10-18+ PER and can definitely use Detection goggles... Even though traps alleviate the need for Sprint, it's a bit awkward to not take it on AGI-7 glass-cannon when your Sniper alerts the entire map. There's also infused cave hopper tabis that can halve the Sprint cooldown too. Your trap detection difficulty is a bit mediocre even with trap expert, it's not a huge issue but you can typically only place like a few traps instead of reenacting Armageddon. You also want Strafe as soon as you can make use of a solid Sniper Rifle, I wouldn't take it too late personally. You can use a basic scope or Spearhead type to hit close to 95% hit while moving w/ Strafe pretty darn quickly.

The OP's build is not that bad for his concept. I would probably slam Sprint on there somewhere, like instead of Hit and Run, if I'm going to be 100% honest with you. Allocating a tiny bit of skillpoints for a throwing effective skill of like 50 or so by level ~20-ish is probably also worth it. You have DEX-7 so it won't take too many points and you can use combat utilities to help you make a get-away too. And earlier Strafe is probably a good idea, I'd probably swap it with Interloper since Sprint fills a similar re-stealth role, but is more flexible.

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Builds / Re: Melee & Gun hybrids?

« on: December 02, 2025, 05:55:30 am »

I think Sledge + LMG is better than Sledge + Minigun.

• Minguns reduce their ap cost per-burst, and due to how buff-timers work (-1 at the end of the turn you get the buff), you need to burst attack every turn or you lose all wind-up value.
• The base-ap cost of the LMGs are already very convenient at 25 ap. Miniguns start out pretty high at ~40+ ap cost and need to wind-up for as high number of shots-per-burst.
• The number of burst-shots fired on a Ratchet LMG is a ginormous 13, unconditionally. (5+4 weapon, +2 full auto, +2 mag dump)
• LMG's have no guns skill requirement, whereas Miniguns have a high guns skill requirement.
• You can use Suppressive Fire to control enemies for less ap, especially on turn 1 and with caltrops.

I think fist-weapons + Shotguns is OK. (somewhat similar thing for Knives + shotguns)

• You can use the Fists weapons' bonus movespeed on Fancy Footwork to kite, and then build sixth shell stacks and use Leading Shot easier. Kneecap shot also plays into this, especially with caltrops and boot-spring metal boots.
• Leading Shot and natural pellet spread/range means that either high or low Guns skill doesn't make as much of a difference compared to other weapon types. Especially since it uses enemy evasion formula, instead of dodge, on top of those things.
• Heavy Punch and Vindicator both want exactly Strength 5. Leading Shot requires Dex 5 on a non-light weapon with no other shotgun-related dexterity feats.
• Easy to interchange weapon types as 4ap melee and 20 ap shotgun shots are both divisible by 20. Neither weapon really needs a specific belt-slot item, so you can fit doctor's pouch medicines or utility belt actions in there easily too.
• Expose Weakness can be combo'd with sixth shell stacks to completely obliterate a tank enemy.

Starting the character like this and maxing Dexterity should work. https://underrail.info/build/?AQUKBwMHAwUPAAAPAAAAAAAAAA8AAAAPAAAAAAAAADE5374
Agi 7: fancy footwork, Per 7: kneecap shot, Int 5: Expose Weakness
Do note that you can use The Juice + Bioluminous Marsh Honey to gain 3 extra PER, in the lategame, on top of your food buff to jump to PER 10 or 11 on top of maxed out DEX. 
Your feat slots are pretty tight here so I wouldn't bother with the Versatility feat as you'll barely gain any Guns skill at all, and the 2 optional buffs aren't removed by any other buff items.

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Builds / Re: My experience playing a riot shield glass cannon up to level 17

« on: August 24, 2025, 05:17:47 pm »

The painful thing is that I use Riot Gear on a gunslinger pistol build, but even then I drop the shield for the movespeed, being way better to move good.

If you could use a shield on a super steel regen vest build, it could do wonders with a psionic grenadier tank. But since it's tied to riot gear (lighter character types), and it weighs a shit ton... it just makes you scratch your head.

The worst part is that the shields have a max block of ~55%, whereas the spear has a max block of 100% (2 spec points only into spear guardian, although I'll be fair and say I haven't tested if it's additive or multiplicative in game IIRC at the moment, probably is 100% though). And the spear is still, generally pretty low on the tier list for weapons overall.

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Builds / Re: is this hammer build for dominating ok or should i just restart

« on: August 24, 2025, 05:07:07 pm »

Well, here's some pointers for the build, although non-min-max can still win and weird builds can still win. It might just be too hard to be worth it if you're not a giga expert. (because super hard mode)

Dodge/Evasion is generally low value on Dominating as the enemies have very good hit-rate. Especially requires very high Agility (and other dodge/evasion buff effects), not as low as 3.
Will 3 for PSI if trying to hurt enemies with psi, won't do good damage. It'll be really hard on the max difficulty, maybe impossible. There's good psi feats that need Will stat too.
Armor Sloping is bottom 5% of feats in the game, it's a lot weaker than it seems. Regen Supersteel later has exactly 50% penalty for Juggernaut and armor sloping just makes that gear worse. It's mostly only good on glass cannon sledgehammer builds (like con 3 or so) that don't take juggernaut, trying to get any durability and/or movespeed where they can.
You got dexterity 6 but not a single feat or weapon is using it all, so it's not doing as much. You'd save a huge number of skill points just dumping it all into intelligence, for this set up specifically.

In any case I'd give myself a big pat on the back if I made it all the way to level 12 on this guy on Dominating. It sucks that the character sucks but you played really well to win that much.

I tried to make a similar character for you at level 12 as an example but trying to be tanky, use a sledgehammer well, and psi attacks well, but it is just too spread thin. It's a bit too tight on the feats you have and the attributes slightly. It's probably better to drop either the tankiness, the sledgehammer, or the psi attacks.
https://underrail.info/build/?DA0DBgcDBwQAHABGAAAoISUAAENGFBQ3AABGAAAAMjkIK18tJlUkUN--
I couldn't fit in pyromaniac or premed or thermodynamacity. It's spread too much.

A good middle-ground might be the Sledgehammer + Psychokinesis build because it can scale the damage of psi ability off of Strength with corporeal projection, and stun a whole lot at mid-range to make up for bad movespeed. Maybe looks similar to this:
https://underrail.info/build/?EA4DAwgDBwYAQgBaAAAAAAAAAFpaKSZaAFoAIwAAWghfK2kULSpVJFBg4qOTAd--

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Builds / Re: Help Crafting a Comprehensive Sword Guide

« on: August 24, 2025, 03:58:32 pm »

Am I wrong for thinking the Swords should be considered good against armored enemies since you can use the electroshock generator and crit against their very low dodge, of which, dodge is actually the very worst weakness for sword builds? Crafted, a Tichrome shock machete actually has way higher electric damage than mechanical, it's not even close. I think it's likely better to min-max around options that remove enemy dodge to 0 like an extra utility slot for taser + throwing net + flashbang, ect. If you have a lot of combat utilities and/or psi powers to overcome enemy dodge, then limited temporal increment (probably without future orientation) could help to sustain lock-down availability for extended fights, although not strictly a priority.

Also, I played a dedicated tank temporal distortion build that was solo TM. I think continuum ripple is not good here as its best advantages would be lost if you're not doing 90% of your damage on the build from temporal distortion explosions alone. Distortion will never be good aoe as a back-up weapon, even with continuum ripple, just use it to help snipe one enemy (or build pre-damage and run about in annoying boss encounters) in addition to grenades and whatnot.

If you have a rough time versus robots and metal armor foes, I think Grenadier + base LTI is the strongest idea (especially since you're typically already DEX 6+) as the emp grenade goes from 6 turns to 3 turns without LTI, and 2 turns with LTI. If you have any other effective stalling tools on that robot, you can dance around them and chip away at them (EMP stuns are long and can go to 3 turns at MK III). The metal armor enemies can be left there with flash bang which helps a lot if you can out-maneuver and re-flashbang later too, effectively ignoring them until fully isolated.

Also, if you're taking INT 10, DEX 16, and versatility, you should probably take High Technicalities for laser pistol as it would deal 40% more damage for just 1 perk slot and works good as bonus 5% accuracy ranged back-up compared to other options in general. The electroshock pistol only stuns the primary target, at optimal range: 5, so you'll often be better off just using something else as the second-hand slot is really expensive to eat up for just 1 turn ranged cc that will have way worse accuracy and ap cost than throwing net, taser or flashbang . For example you could equip both the Chainsword to ramp up your Onslaught and Taste for Blood, then slam enemies with an option that ignores mechanic threshold while still being fully ramped like an energy or shock sword (probably carry all 3 at once with you in general). In any case though, I would always dodge INT above ~6 unless it's a crossbow (bowyer), full PSI, or dedicated laser pistol min-max build. If you put those 4 points into Agility you could have Blitz, Fancy Footwork, +12 MP, and easier stealth. +4 in CON, you'd have like 60% more health. +4 STR would be like 21% more sword damage.

This demo build I made should be reasonably easy to deal with Depo A acid dogs and scale to deal 219% damage from strength alone (23 with vitality powder + strength food) even though it sucks at crits. I think dropping all of the crit perks is a good idea if your dex isn't high as you'll be missing like ~13 raw crit chance as well as Ripper access. Cheap Shots also the incapacitation will be interrupted by flurry re-hitting a lot. As well as Flurry just killing without a crit with high strength.
https://underrail.info/build/?HhAHCgMDAwQAeADCoCgAbhkyUADCh8KHKSZkAEYARgAAajlhKxnCjBNOLxY8RybCh8KNwovCtiR84qeXA-KxvwXisogF4rKJAt--

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Builds / Re: SMG stealth build with Temporal Manipulation

« on: February 16, 2025, 03:51:36 pm »

I'm late but I would actually recommend Perception over Dexterity on SMGs myself.

• Mechanical damage threshold value: increased Rate of Fire or increased Damage per Shot can legitimately be the difference of as much as 3x effective damage or more.
• This massively increases the consistency of the super light, Rapid (reloader) Muzzled (break) 5mm Jaguar. Base ap cost is 8ap, 16ap burst on 3 dexterity. Just using this is a RoF boost itself.
• Accuracy isn't an issue but the effective DPR (damage per round) increase to go from ~50% to ~70% hit-chance like is an extra like 1.4x multiplier on top of the damage per shot.
• The carry weight of MORE repair kits and MORE ammo gets crazy. You also have better WTC round ammo efficiency on Perception SMG.
• You can get the drop on Stealth enemies easier and access Hidden interactables.
• There is not a single SMG related Dexterity Feat in the entire game. Firearm Pistols get Gunslinger and Bullet Time as a minimum for grabbing dex, and have an extra evasion bypass mechanic.
• You can also spend the Attribute points to be a mobile tank instead, trust me it's amazing. You already want Str 7 for Full Auto, 1 more for metal armor is easy, and there are a lot of open attribute points you are free to dump into high Con. You won't ever see 10% melee hitrate like a low Strength melee build, you floor at 40% with high RoF, so you can steadily chip away at anything as a tank build.

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Builds / Re: First time playing dominating. Survival Instincts sword build. Feedback welcome.

« on: February 15, 2025, 09:04:01 am »

I am baffled you got past the psi beetles with a sword but, maybe I just got annoyed by them too fast on a Sledgehammer run I did way back.

If mechanical damage stuns are an issue, you might be able to eek the flat damage with a "low-type" energy shield emitter, maybe even the low capacitance, better flat value version instead of total shield "hp" upgrade. I'm pretty sure the energy shield works stupidly and allows for your damage reduction sources to apply to the damage the shield takes before you do, but it could be only armor-based reductions and not medication, yet as much it's still worth testing it out and seeing if it solves it.

I'm guessing if you want to cycle cooldowns, you can push for stasis with 70 Temporal Manipulation to stall for cds again. Also I could be wrong but, I think you can use a 3-turn cd ability and then Limited Temporal Increment (LTI) after on the same turn and get the LTI on your third turn (1+[3-1=] 2 cd will be turn 3) because of Future Orientation to get the cd reset after on the same turn again. Future Orientation also will allow empower cycling Infused Cave Hopper Tabi's 5-turn sprint cd, Psycho-temporal Contraction and Adrenaline Shot(debuff cancel) a lot better. It also gives you 2-turn cd grenades here. Stasis can also cheat an additional turn of all buffs for you while also stalling cds.

Your Melee skill is very low so I'd definitely make sure to use Energy Edge (no shock aoe) and Flash Bang (emp vs robot instead) at every available opportunity. If there's one reason you'll get fucked, it's going to be Strength ~9(buffed ~10) until you hit level 26, which will force you to face hitrates of ~20% at times. Energy Damage + robots have shit Dodge if any, means this build is one of the best vs robots in the game almost, so I'd focus on tagging more anti-fleshbags options, plausibly even Dirty Kick (*shudders) in this situation.

Dex might also be better on this build over Strength potentially (sorry) as you have insane crit potential with a Will stat at 5 or above. With Dex 10/11 instead of Strength, you can take Ripper and basically oneshot if you crit two melee hits onto basically anything in the game barring weirdly energy resistant enemies. You could also have an easier time landing some throwing nets with dex, and then ignore the hitchance when it really hurts badly to have to roll (probably well below 40% chances on some glass cannon enemies).

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Builds / Re: DOMINATING Crit Energy Pistols with Ambush

« on: August 26, 2023, 07:36:19 pm »

I prefer generic ROF dex-versatility on Energy Pistols. You have to use melee knives for the first 6~ levels (wouldn't have an energy pistol yet anyways) but your scaling effective skill and ROF are really massive. It also S.A.D.(single ability dependent)'s so hard that you can just brainlessly grab INT-10 High technicalities and Con-5, with a super-massive available total skill point pool. This build I have for it has max hack/lock and crafting and throwing and melee(versatility) and reaches up to 90% skill(+10% commando belt and +20% spec points) for 320 effective guns skill by max level. It can easily mix-n-match out points of throwing for traps and grab trap-expert instead (huge dex means need less investment for same effective skill) too.

Aimed shot and Ambush are also somewhat at odds if you don't also have other pistol perks to proc more "conditional attacks" modifier bonuses on the energy pistol(off-hand?). You also hit max crit anyways so aimed shot mid-ish. Early game you can typically just use a melee weapon to save your sanity on dominating imo(money).

If you're going for both high-ish per/dex, I think taking advantage of the powerful pistol perks is a good idea(often they need both attributes). You can layer 1-2x bonus multipliers on Energy Pistols for conditional attack modifiers with those. A real ball-buster is the Future Orientation-LTI -> 1 turn cd Point Shot with the accuracy bonus of the Laser Pistols. You can still fuddle a good crit-rate to like 50%~+ with a Focus Stim even with the conditional attacks goggles on and deal a surprisingly potent oneshot on the Point Shot half of the time.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQBgUDAwpGwqAAwqAAAGRQRgAAV3sjVGUARgBGAABGYSY5wqPCmhYrwodaS8KIKlERPsKzdnfip74C4qi7A-K1rgrfvw <- PER 3 EP

^There enough skillpoints to grab Escape Artist instead of something and has a lot of filler that can be switched out for Ambush and any other optionals.

TL;DR: I think if you are peeking at nabbing those generic power perks instead of doubling-down to some heavy pistoleering perks, you can min-max for Per 3 and go full hog-wild with it.
^It reaches 8ap shots with an Eel Sandwich. (Up to 12 shots per turn)

14

Builds / Shitty fat-ass uses pistols as a club to finally hit anything

« on: August 26, 2023, 06:35:27 pm »

https://underrail.info/build/?HgoDBw8DAwVGfQDCoADCoAAAAAAAwpHCoHBqwpEAAAAAAABhDghVwqPDkTlQJBkfYCYRG8Kyc27inrsC4qGHBOKpognfvw

• Strength 10-capped melee trying to (consistently) hit through enemies dodge skill  <- PAIN
• Targets evasion instead 
• Ignores 40% evasion 
• Laser Sight 
• Min-Maxed for Dex 3 even though it's a light weapon  <- Ironic poop-eater build
• Actually has sprint and hit-and-run with nimble 
• 100% versatility conversion due to Gun-Fu
• Is fatter than your mom and also is not not cringe 
• Reaches nearly 1900 max hp at full level  ahhh
• Also didn't forget Super Slam in the back with the hp pool  Oooh mama mia

This is a build for the real ones who just wanted to equip a riot shield for once in all its glory. <- Memes we still don't do that. once we get super slam

15

Builds / Re: New player looking to do a shotgun/trap/granade build and looking for sugestions

« on: August 26, 2023, 06:01:53 pm »

Well be careful about "single target ranged weapon" feats because shotguns count as "aoe pellet" machines pretty much. The most extreme pellet type is accounting for 20 projectiles for 1 attack.

Here is a pretty legit level 10 filled-out build that you can finish the rest as you please. I put in the most mandatory feats for that build you want to be very legit.
https://underrail.info/build/?CgUGBgYMAwQ8KwAAAAAoAAAAPDw5MgA8AAAAAAAAMmE5wrAWwpZAHt-_

The starting Perception is 10.

Final tip is you have to "use" the blueprints you buy before you can make stuff with them. They're in the crafting tab of items.