Messages

1

Builds / Re: Shotgun/Sniper build advice

« on: September 07, 2025, 11:48:51 am »

I think there's no point in mixing the two as a single form of offense in enough + these require completely different approaches.
As a sniper, you're supposed to shoot from afar and maintain distance, using the enviroment and CC. Someone with a shotgun means short range combat. Also valid, but totally diferent and excludes the other. This way, you're not going to use Shooting Spree ever again after you start combat with it, as in order to speed up the cooldowns, you need to keep using your rifle. Same for Aim Shot.
Interloper is missing. Hit and Run is also more suitable due to granting a lot more MP in fights and providing it consistently in a passive manner without being a one-time ability with cooldown. Would save you a lot of stat points and feats as well keeping AGI at 7 (for Interloper), and ditching Sprint, Expert Sprint and Blitz.

So if you're fine only using your rifle to delete two enemies in combat for free (which is not bad), then you don't need to even specialize on Shooting Spree more than 1 point on shots, activate it, take your Snipe and Aim Shot and forget it for the rest of the combat. But a sniper uses his rifle for all the kills to circulate these abilities as fast as possible, backed up with Tranquility-fused Increments. Using Ambush from the dark to ensure crits and boost accuracy (which is easy to set up when weapon range is not limiting you) and keeps distance between his enemies by kiting with Hit and Run, taking cover behind corners and should someone get close, Flashbang and disengage. Stealth, then repeat.

While you're using your shotgun, your sniper abilities are parked - often including Ambush. Yet Kneecap Shot is a good way to halt incoming melee's, but still I see no point in specializing two ways on the cost of not excelling in neither while you can only use one opposed to speccing in a single form of offense better and have more supplemental feats to elevate it's versatility further. You cannot reach 4m height if you have two separate 2m long ladder. The key is to set up something that can be effective and be kept up long-term, against continous onslaught of enemies. Circulating Shooting Spree every round, using Aim Shot and Ambush, finishing rounds in stealth to Snipe the next one behind corners and just generally making every shots count and contribute to lower cooldowns is something that I see as the way to go with the rifle to work best. The more you shoot, the more you can shoot. That's why I think snipers should stick to their rifle exclusively and collect abilities that allow them to use it fluently and to greater effect - especially when the AP cost is very similar due to shotguns not being able to use the Rapid Reloader.

At least that is my opinion, I remember a few people recommending these two weapons together, but I don't think they knew the potential of just how effective and fun a dedicated sniper can be.

2

Bugs / Re: shooting spree/Black Arrow Bug.

« on: August 01, 2025, 06:48:31 pm »

Dude, please don't apologize - you did good to bring this to the surface. It should refund the full 50AP.
By the time the Black Arrow is found, anyone who are using a sniper rifle are most likely 99.99% already has it's own crafted instrument. But Shooting Spree is meant to refund ALL the AP needed for the shot.

With that, it is totally valid to have a Spearhead with Rapid Reloader and Smart Module for casual shots and an off-hand Corsair with Smart Module and NOT Rapid Reloader, but something else, like a Bipod - just for the shots with Shooting Spree. Since AP gets fully refunded anyway, it's pointless to have it reducted. With endgame gear however, I still use it with RR though as accuarcy stopped being an issue a long time ago, the 12.7mm special bullets are OP AF and most importantly: RR can refund an additional 10-20AP per turn, making you better off with AP after the shot than before. With Adrenaline and an Accelerated Temporal Contraction, you can shoot 5 times with a Spearhead per round, so the more chance you get for this to ignite for a potential sixth shot, the better, so you'll have Shooting Spree ready at least once at every single turn if you fully specced into it (especially with Increment).

3

Other Games / Re: Shroom and Gloom

« on: July 28, 2025, 07:20:42 am »

That's the thing - the card part FINALLY makes sense. I think it's mostly a mishmash mess everywhere in other games - but here pretty much every card seems like it's been made with intent and synergy in mind. Even if one doesn't seem too inviting, it will make total sense later when you find something else that it goes well with. Plus you can also upgrade the hell out of them and not just in terms of damage, but a lot of different useful stuff, so no need to fall into the trrap of just going after damage all the time. Experimentation and exploration is rewarded here. What one needs to keep in mind is to get rid of most of the starting deck and have one that's kitted out and not too bloated. It's great fun and the final boss (at least in this demo) is well designed too.

4

Other Games / Shroom and Gloom

« on: July 25, 2025, 02:56:05 pm »

Another game about an underground odyssey with caves and mushrooms, meeting merchants, picking locks and pimping your gear - which can be knives, swords, even sledgehammers. But that's just the "surface".



This pic doesn't do it justice, the game actually has very impresive visuals and runs on any potato.
Currently, there's "just" a demo, but that feels like a full game to be honest in both content and length. You get as much gameplay in this demo as some full runs in other roguelites.
It's said to be hard, but you are really bound to win if you posess the ability to think ahead a little. Very addicting gameplay, highly recommended.

5

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.

6

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.

7

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.

8

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).

9

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.

10

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.

11

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?

12

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.

13

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.

14

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.

15

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