Messages

1

Builds / Re: What do you guys think of this Shotgun/Sniper Evasion Build?^^

« on: January 07, 2020, 04:23:14 pm »

I would get much higher con myself, 8 or 9 con or more, and I disagree with the guy above me, perception's influence on damage isn't that high, it's influence on accuracy is also very minimal, like 1% accuracy every point of per even on high eva units like locusts on dominating, and shotguns have leading shot feat that ignores tons of evasion naturally, 11 per is as high as I'd go for shotgun, you could probably settle with lower, 8 - 9 if stats are really needed elsewhere.
 
7 int seems overkill, none of your current feats requires that much int, 4 will should probably be lowered to 3 as well, you seem like you want to use shotgun burst fire as your main form of combat in close-mid range, but shotguns are loud and you'll likely aggro half the map, with 3 con that's rough. 10 agi seems overkill as well, I understand that you want your eva/dodge high, but you are really giving up other stats, the most I'd go is 8 agi for uncanny dodge, you should probably get evasive maneuvers as well.

You cannot dodge/evade everything, you'll eventually get hit, evasion only reduce hit chance down to 40% by itself, with other factors it can be lowered to 10%, but you'll still eventually get hit/crit, so you need a health buffer, so higher con is needed imo, 3 con is for builds that merely rely on stealth and movement for defense, not for eva/dodge builds.

Another thing is that you should probably optimize your skill points better to get some bio/chem/tailoring, electronics makes energy shield emitters and plasma grenades, chem makes gas and mk5 frag grenades, you took grenadier so I'm assuming you want to throw a lot of grenades, and tbh it's one of the most effective form of damage on higher difficulties. Eva/dodge builds don't use metal armor so you are better off crafting armor yourself with nimble to reduce armor penalty, unless you plan to stick with rathound regalia for a long time, bio lets you craft some drugs that's otherwise difficult to obtain, the most important ones for you are probably jumping beans which add 10mp/25%dodgeeva and bullshead which grants stun/incapacitate immunity, aegis reduces damage taken by 15%, stacks very well with morphine shot, and of course, hypercerebrix saves you tons of skill points elsewhere, twitch will help you also.

Persuasion isn't very useful, and while lockpicking/hacking will make some areas much easier, they are not a must have, 110 effective mercantile with hypercerebrix/underpie is the most you need even on dominating, 123 effective throwing is required for max throwing precision, anything over that is overkill.

2

Builds / Re: Feedback on knife build for Dominating

« on: January 06, 2020, 01:24:33 am »

Although I've never played a knife build on dom but I can point out some obvious things.

I consider persuasion to be generally pretty useless, you can save buzzer by saving hugo first, grenade the entrance to bypass the persuasion check and spend 1k charons, I can't think of any useful persuasion checks throughout the entire game.

Fancy footwork is probably a must have since you can get 5ap dagger strikes later.

Trap skill should probably be higher, with 3 per your detection will be relatively low, and you'll likely run into mines/webs before you detect them even with goggles, and for a 3con character that's usually a reload.

I'd put the 2 extra int into will for "ripper" feat, can't say whether it'll make a huge impact but it's certainly a damage boost for a knife build.

You should take in consideration of workbenches and hypercerebrix when putting in crafting skill points, right now it seems overkill.

TM LTI/haste/stasis will definitely help a lot, you can even invest 45 points in psychokinesis for wall and imprint

You'll probably want at least one initiative feat, trigger happy etc, otherwise bumping into death stalkers is likely reload.

With 18 dex you only need 57 points to max out throwing precision, I'd recommend doing that, because you'll likely have to rely on grenades for a lot for fights knives aren't good at.

Overrall I'd say a 3con knife build is dom viable, but will probably have a harder time compare to other builds.

3

Bugs / Minor bugs

« on: January 05, 2020, 09:21:59 pm »

Inconsistent noise behaviours

Some ironheads stay at noise location instead of returning to their original spot(2 directly nw of foundry, some in dark metro)

Mutagen bunker robots react to noise, unlike other base game robots outside DC

One of the burrowers in rail crossing will investigate tnt explosion, unlike regular burrowers



Ambush didn't seem to work  in house basement

If efreitor Mateo's regular bolts are pickpocketed, he doesn't use his special bolts, nor can the special bolts be stolen

If Dess was sneak killed during gas the drones quest, Mareth will still have dialogue with "ghost Dess" at the end of the quest

4

Bugs / Re: Vanishing grenade does not work at all against native

« on: January 05, 2020, 09:13:34 pm »

I think some guy on discord tested a while ago that you need 10 ap to use the grenade and another 10 ap to stealth, so if you have less than 20 ap when you use the grenade it does nothing, I'm not sure if it's the same case happening for you right now.

5

Builds / Re: Dominating XAL-001 chem pistol stealth build

« on: January 01, 2020, 02:26:28 pm »

I actually tried opportunist at level 24, but ended up reloading a save and took ambush instead. My problem with opportunist is that, XAL's entangle chance is somewhat low compare to crafted acid pistols(30%), so it's kinda unreliable, and most enemies don't have enough hp to make the feat useful, and if they really get entangled, you can just break los and wait for them to die to dot/gas/acid ground. Mass bear trapping works tho, but I usually only bear trap one enemy outside door chokepoint and shoot the other enemies instead, keeping the bear trapped enemy alive so he blocks the others from coming in, so I didn't get much use of opportunist here either.

It'll make some end game bear trapped bosses and emped robots die faster probably, but they are usually as good as dead when they get bear trapped/emped, so overrall while I think the feat does have uses for XAL, I'd probably priortize other feats instead, I think if I were to replace uncanny dodge with another feat I'd go for sure steps to be able to throw caltrops at my feet for 100% accuracy, and maybe advanced psi empathy can be replaced with opportunist.

Crafted acid pistol's dot is much stronger than XAL with chemist yea,  higher chance to entangle also, something interesting I noticed in my playthrough was that fire chem pistol's dot stacks, and the damage stacks really high even without chemist, I imagine with chemist you can get some ridiculous flame dots while enemies are feared.

6

Builds / Dominating XAL-001 chem pistol stealth build

« on: January 01, 2020, 07:00:34 am »

This is not really a build guide for players entirely new to the game, as I believe new players should play blind on their first run with their own build to get the most enjoyment, and this build requires some metagame knowledge to obtain certain items. This is more of a character showcase to people who have already tried the game, however this guide does include some general stealth gameplay tips for new players.


LINK
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HAMQCAMKAwPCljkAACgAwpYAIyYkZMKHYTNjAAAAZAAIYzkBwoMwAis_wofCiBYkwpFOL0HCs3LCrcKewp_io7EE4rGgBeKyuwTfvw

without uncanny dodge and stasis, delays tranquility for sure step
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HAMQCAMKAwPCljkAAB4AwpYAIyYkZMKHYTNjAAAAPAAIYzkBwoMwAithwofCiBY_wpFOJC_Cs8Ktwp7Cn-KjsQTisaAF4rK7BN-_

Gameplay videos are at the end

XAL is a very good unique acid pistol, due to it's lower ap cost, and thanks to advanced catalyzing belt's 4 ap flat reduction, it's possible to reach 5 ap acid shots(4 with supersoldier drug), however it does have some drawbacks, this build's entire kit is centered around XAL and meant to counter these drawbacks.



PROS
-low impact speed, ignores most of energy shields.
-quiet, not silent but usually quiet enough for stealth kills.
-acid is a good damage type that shreds most robots.
-higher damage output than regular acid pistol builds.
-46 initiative with twitch drug, always go first.
-plays like a true CAU.

CONS
-damage is lower compare to some critical power builds.(still enough damage to 1 turn final boss)
-"usually" cannot facetank large groups of enemies like metal armor builds, have to make good use of environment.
-not great at dealing with beach defense crossbow users due to forced combat and lack of cover, but we join pirates for acid anyway.
-XAL cannot be used for naval combat, need alternative weapons.



NOISE

Understanding noise is very important for a stealth build, while for loud weapon builds combat noise usually means aggroing the entire map's enemies, noise can be manipulated to our advantage with grenades and tnt, lure enemies to a place you want them to be, make enemies fight each other, lure enemies into your minefield etc. 

Some enemies are attracted to noise and will stay at the noise location(dogs, mutant hounds, mutants, crawlers), some enemies will return to their original location after investigating noise location (most humanoids, spiders), and some enemies ignore noise completely(rathounds, beetles), rarely there are exceptions to these rules.

Chem pistols' noise is on the lower end of the spectrum, and usually if you don't fire your pistol from within around 10 range you won't be heard, the noise is centered around you, not your target. Tnt on the other hand will always alert everything on the map. Even if you were heard while shooting, as long as you leave the area before anyone sees you, you are still safe. Wiki's noise section will show exactly how much noise each action causes.



GENERAL TIPS

 - Sight range is 13, aggro range is 10, this means you can switch armor/enter combat out of stealth with full mp after detecting enemy location.


 - Use adrenaline shot/psi haste to reach places in stealth you normally can not, I used to think jumping beans work too, but looking at the item description the bonus speed seems to be out of stealth only.


 - Gun skill covers many weapon types, different weapons can be very useful in some situations even if you don't have feats for them.


 - When not involved in combat, switching boots, helmet and utility cost no ap, this allows entering fight by stealthing to position with CAU armor with balaclava and ninja tabi, shown in the A11 video.


 - Gas grenades are your best friends, if one gas grenade isn't enough to solve the problem five usually will.


 - Grenades, cooked shot and a utility later have 100% accuracy in point blank range, this can be very useful when you need guaranteed damage, when an enemy is near a wall but not next to it, frag grenades can be thrown in a way such that it always hit the person.


 - Crafted high high energy shield can soak a lot of damage, flames from industrial bot, energy damage, electrokinesis, ar/smg/pistol bullets, and your own point blank grenades.


 - A lot of enemies can't open doors and fences, trap/gas at door is a common strategy, stasis can be used on the trapped target to stall for even longer while you shoot/grenade the other enemies.


 - Quick tinkering and traps are extremely powerful early on for a stealth ranged character, while the in combat trapping mechanic is good, what makes this feat truly useful is that it allows you to place traps in stealth in places you normally can't, be creative.


 - Some enemies will come close to disarm your bear traps when they they detect them, and almost all humanoid enemies will try to disarm gas grenades, can take advantage of this for sneak killing, the gas grenade method is actually very overpowered, I try to not use it too much.


 - Not all humanoid enemies call for help when aggroed, some lunatics for example don't, take advantage of this for sneak killing.


 - Pay attention to environment light/darkness effects to make use of ambush feat.


 - Katya is my favorite merchant, she sells a lot of useful things like gizzard enzyme, gyromitrine and rustic/corrosive acid, her mushrooms/poppy can also be stolen.


 - Use juice to plan merchant runs outside Katya's house, keep an eye out for high quality crafting materials.


 - Jetskis can store a lot of items, use them as your expedition bases.


 - I like bringing lifting belt, rathound regalia and power fist with me wherever I go, can switch to them to carry extra items.


 - Upper cave crawlers and psi beetles should not be fought early on(or at all), come back later when you have much higher detection and levels, crawlers are much easier to deal with in buildings instead of open caves.


 - Kill greater coil spiders first, they do emp burst, the smaller ones' electrokinesis can be shielded, spiders in general can be frozen by cryoliquid trap at chokepoints, expedition stealth spiders are vulnerable to gas field.


 - Learn neural overload, might make a quest later easier.



USEFUL ITEMS
gas grenades, cave ear poison caltrops, crawler poison caltrops, frag grenades, bear traps, crawler poison bear traps, cryoliquid traps, plasma grenades, plasma mines, cloaking device, flares, vanishing powder grenade(for arena), torch



GENERAL PLAYSTYLE
>Can I obtain oddities/quest objectives without fighting anyone or through silent killing?
>Can I make enemies fight each other by causing noise?
>Can I fight enemies at a location where I can take cover from enemy ranged attacks?

Escape artist's base 2 turn cd with LTI allows the player to escape root 4 times on the first 5 turns, you'll need a second acid/fire pistol to deal damage when escape artist is on cd, or stasis yourself at the end of that turn, or use utilities/consumables/reload that turn.

Infused seawyrm tabi, CAU armor and night vision detection/crit goggles are the regular equipment, but for different fights equipment must be swaped, like biohazard boots/spec ops helmet for expedition spiders, tactical vest/tungsten boots for aegis patrols etc, I keep a set of pure stealth gear for getting into positions as well.



FEAT/STAT EXPLANATION
If you want more skill points you can give up some agi for int, I personally find 3 int with hypercerebrix and underpie perfectly fine for crafting.

Most of the feats are pretty straight forward, the only feat I'm unsure about is uncanny dodge, while it does unlock a more aggressive approach when fighting melee enemies, melee enemies usually die before they can reach you, I rarely got to use the feat personally, which questions it's usefulness on this build, replacement feats include sure step, interloper, recklessness, opportunist, pack rathound.

Advanced psi empathy allows LTI and haste to be used in the same turn, but the same effect can be achieved with psi beetle brain soup, so it's generally not that important either, can drop TM to 60 points if you really want skill points for something else, stasis is kinda overpowered and isn't really required for this build.

Ambush is a great feat despite not always being active, I took it kinda late myself, the crit chance is a nice damage boost to the build, especially when paired with cloaking device, but what I really appreciate is the evasion reduction, extremely useful when trying to hit some of the end game bosses.

Cooked shot is a really strong skill, it has very short cd when paired with LTI, aoe damage is always good on dom. It has 100% chance to hit in close range, at longer ranges it has a fixed 90% hit rate, which ignores evasion, and it ignores thought controller's mirror images, a good way to deal aoe damage and finish off the thought controllers your grenades failed to kill.

Specialization points wise, 5 should go into future orientation first, then 4 points into cooked shot, I think that's enough to reduce the ap cost to 5, I can't remember how many times I was 2 ap short for a grenade or ammo reload.



SOME IMPORTANT STEPS

Rescue newton should be done at lvl 5, requires 30 hp belt and laser or plasma pistol from elwood's house, I'm not sure whether you can pickpocket enough money to craft/buy a laser pistol yourself.

Save hugo by frag grenading the cave entrance, can talk to the leader directly and pay without passing the persuasion check, this will save buzzer.

Laser, AFW, ZC 99, bieretta 99, gluck 17, K&H and mk4 grenades will carry midgame, I switch to acid pistol when I obtain the belt from main quest, around lvl 18-19.

Rathound king at around lvl 15 or 16, gas/trap/frag grenade and few gunshots should easily bring him down, before this fight you can stealth around the map for a lot of exp and barely requires any fighting.

Blow up dess with mines to loot her CAU armor without angering protectorate.

Steal the metal figurine from shopping mall.

Start expedition and steal aegis patroller with 2 tnt(100 hotwire lockpicking skill required, kill a jkk to get +10 lp jacket).

A pair of biohazard boots can be obtained from a perception check in northern chancer's bay.

Mutie refuge, must say you are from aegis to gain access to merchants, use intimidate check later otherwise getting shard will be complicated

Obtain hypercerebrix and twitch blueprint, naga can be lured away with a grenade if you don't feel like fighting them right away.

Most spiders should be killed by expedition robots, crabs will also often kill things for you.

Most natives should be killed from sea on a jetski with lemurian blaster and grenades, jetski should be either torpedo or phaser, torpedo has lower stability but higher speed and allows ambush, remember to break los from crossbow/cryoorb users on some maps while fighting.



VIDEOS
Some gameplay videos to show that this build is viable on dominating.


Omega outposts quest naked in 6 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH6bwnsnv_s

Rescue Newton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ED71Ul2BEo

Depot A naked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpymeZFcds

Army base in 6 mins without persuasion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtNjemS3bA

Beast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkoq_IxgqQ

Bull's eye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nklesH-AE

Master exploder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0xMaY-yHU

Cornell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVqedFAEtg

CAU armor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh4WqZo1_dg

Shopping mall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-gRr3a0S1k

Joint security
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vTLBRAvP0

Eldran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Ma2aCCovI

Baenkraster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfdV5jPRN0U

A11 native village
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lPM7Fdy458

Magnar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfS09y5vwOE

Hunting Aegis patrols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRcj5IYAxMI

UPCCS Armstrong pirate raid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4I7Aer0KAQ

Nevil battle(image)
https://i.imgur.com/hKz4ht5.png

Arke IRIS battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKYqtAPSQm8

10 x goliathus beetles in DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiHdJK17lfw

Tithonus lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k773quBBwbI

Final boss 1 turn kill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJIUz5gqbPs


While I do believe the build can handle almost all the optional content in the game, I didn't do all of them because I got kinda burnt out towards the end, so I ended the game at level 28, This game is probably the longest rpg I have ever played but it was a fun journey nonetheless.

7

General / Re: Getting all three faction armors in one playthrough

« on: November 27, 2019, 06:19:40 am »

I think it might be possible, choose JKK faction, then you can kill the praetorian guards in lower passage entrance with mines or something, then there is a coretech guy outside the institute, attacking him won't make the institute hostile but everyone else will, however I haven't tested whether this will turn core city hostile or not. And finally I believe you can always go high pickpocketing and pickpocket the armor?