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Builds / Fusion Cannon Build- The Ultimate Weapon

« on: December 24, 2023, 08:10:33 am »

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Do you ever wish you could just turn off your brain while playing on the hardest difficulty? Do you like big damage numbers? Are you tired of enemies surviving more than a single shot from your build? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Fusion Cannon is the perfect weapon for you. This build guide aims to show you how to make the most of this fearsome weapon, allowing you to obliterate anything in your path on even the highest difficulty.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgsFBQMIBQk8wqAAAFoAAFBJXgAAX18KX1AAAAB9AAA8KDErO8Odf8Oew59KwprDolpNKcKHwrRLd-K0lAXivrwF4r-GBd-8

What is the Fusion Cannon?

The Fusion Cannon is a unique heavy weapon found in the new DLC area, the compound. It’s relatively easy to acquire if you know what you’re doing, you just need 100 lockpicking to open the vent at the entrance area, enough stealth to sneak past patrols (~130 should be enough), and enough perception to sneak past the laser tripwires protecting the cannon (8 should be enough).

It’s important to know that there are some unique quirks of the weapon that aren’t covered in the description. The cannon works like the Naga energy attack, dealing damage to everything caught in the blast in the same radius as an HE grenade. Enemies directly hit by the cannon take full damage, while enemies at the edge of the blast radius only take 50% damage. Additionally, if you take the Disassemble feat, you can break down the Fusion Cannon into its components and reassemble it, allowing you to replace the fusion emitter and plasma core. This improves the damage and max energy, and additionally allows you to gain the benefits of the Practical Physicist and Power Management feats. The default version of the Fusion Cannon has an ~q115 fusion emitter, but a crafted emitter can realistically go as high as q160. A q159 emitter will net you 272-350 damage, so it's well worth it to disassemble the cannon and replace the fusion emitter.

What’s the damage?

With 11 effective per at max level you’re looking at 758-976 damage, with 125% crit damage from practical physicist. That’s pretty good, but the Fusion Cannon gets a lot better when you look at the feats that it benefits from. Being a heavy weapon, the Fusion Cannon benefits from Heavy Metal, which provides an 130% damage increase with full damage spec and Iron Head/95% Armor/Reinforced Tungsten Boots. On top of that, it also benefits from High Technicalities, which with spec at 13 int provides an additional 80% damage boost. Tricky Trajectory also applies, for a 10% damage boost and 30% evasion ignore. The cherry on top is Bullet Trance, which provides an extra 50% damage when specced once you reach max stacks. With a crit, max damage roll, and all the relevant drugs the highest damage you could get with this build would be 14,675 damage (350 base * 3.72 skill damage modifier *1.5 Crit * 2.3 Heavy Metal *1.8 High Technicalities *1.1 Tricky Trajectory * 1.5 Bullet Trance * 1.1 Serial Killer/Beast Tattoo). Except that number is incorrect. On a test run of this build (15 int version, no serial killer, no bullet trance, q152 cannon) I was able to achieve a damage roll of 25936. I believe that the Fusion Cannon has a hidden damage modifier on attacks, although some theorize that the High Technicalities scaling on the weapon may be broken. Regardless, now that Bullet Trance works with the Fusion Cannon, you should be able to deal upwards of 30k damage crits with high quality parts.

Gear

Gear for this build is somewhat complex, you’ll need to use specific gear to mitigate the fragility of having 3 con/ make the most of Heavy Metal.

Weapons

• Sledgehammer- Only used in the early and midgame before we get the Fusion Cannon, helps mitigate the high ammo costs of using heavy weapons and provides a quieter alternative than a machine gun burst.
• Refurbished N60 The Warthog- We want a 35 ap LMG for when we have fatigue/temporal dilation, and the Warthog is our best option. It has cheap and common ammo, which makes it preferable to crafted LMGs, and will mainly be used when we get cornered/surrounded and can’t safely fire the Fusion Cannon.
• Fusion Cannon- We can get this as early as level 15, once we reach 100 effective lockpicking with the Jackknife and Eel sandwich. The main weakness of the weapon (apart from the crippling vulnerability to EMP grenades) is the close quarters penalty, if the weapon misfires and you get caught in the blast you’re dead. With Strafe and Contraction you can escape melee range and cook your pursuers, so ensure that you don’t get cornered or surrounded. We take 135 ™ to reduce the chance of a backfire, so on the first turn of combat cast Contraction and try to save 10 ap. On the second turn of combat you can pop adrenaline to reach 100 ap, allowing you to fire two Fusion Cannon blasts in a single turn. Also, carry lots of electronic repair kits, durability loss is based on damage, and since you do such massive overkill you usually need 1-2 repair kits after every fight.

Crafting high quality fusion emitters is a real pain in the ass, since quality is determined by the lowest quality component from the five component parts; laser emitter, electroshock generator, circular wave emitter, electromagnetic field stabilizer, and high efficiency energy converter. I recommend hoarding ~q120 parts so you can reassemble the cannon to benefit from power management and practical physicist, and then hoarding ~q150 parts to make an endgame cannon. If you aren’t using merchant refresh, you can’t realistically craft an emitter above ~q152. Don’t bother waiting until the Deep Caverns to craft your cannon, you’ll probably only find 1-2 relevant high quality parts.

Armor

Helmets

• Iron Head- This is the highest armor penalty helmet available, although it’s shit defensively. Not worth it at later levels once you’ve crafted a good helmet unless you really want the highest damage possible.
• Solid Padded Super Steel Helmet- Your best option for headgear, gives flashbang immunity while providing some crit reduction and extra resistances. The penalty loss from Iron Head doesn’t matter, you’ll still deal more than enough damage with Heavy Metal if you wear Metal Armor.

Armor Suit

• Sturdy Super Steel Armor w/ Tichrome Reinforcement- Sturdy vest is by far the best vest here, a high quality vest is an ~75% hp boost at high levels and an even bigger boost at lower levels. To put things in perspective, at level 30 on Dominating a 3 con psi character with a q160 sturdy vest has 376 hp, the same as an 8 con psi character without the vest. You should always use Super Steel as the base material due to the vastly superior mechanical resistance, but that benefit doesn’t matter once you reach the 95% mechanical resistance cap from your helmet/armor/boots. Q170 super steel has the same energy resistance as q150 TiChrome but much worse heat resistance, so once you reach the mechanical resistance cap you should use a combination of TiChrome/ Super Steel Plates to maximize your resistances to heat and energy damage. Tichrome also provides 1% more armor penalty over Super Steel when reinforcing, so if you want a 95% penalty suit you’ll need 3 TiChrome plates for reinforcement. High quality TiChrome is a real pain in the ass to get, since your only options are the Waterway facility and Deep Caverns, so just use the q150 plates Leonie sells sometimes.
• Biohazard Quad Plate Tungsten Armor- This is the best option for some parts of Expedition. It’s high enough mechanical DT to block all damage from leper serpents, and the Bio DT from a good vest makes you immune to Locusts and very resistant to heartbreaker spit when combined with a gas mask and biohazard boots.

Boots

• Reinforced Tungsten Boots w/ Solid Padding- Normally your best option for maximizing penalty on boots, only worth it if you really need the extra damage.
• Undersized Buckle Shoes- Only available from the Saint Patrick’s Day seasonal event, they’ve got 22% more penalty than reinforced Tungsten at the cost of having basically no defensive benefit. Not worth it unless you want the highest damage possible from Heavy Metal.
• Reinforced TiChrome Boots- With high quality plates you can reach 95% mechanical resistance with a combo of super steel and TiChrome gear. Boots provide about twice the resistances as Helmets of the same material, so it’s better to use Ti boots over SS boots. In my playthrough I reached 95% Mechanical DR, 68% Heat DR, and 99% Energy DR with the SS Helmet/ SS/Ti Reinforced Armor/ Ti Boots, although I never got lucky with finding any q150+ Tichrome.

Gameplay

You shoot enemies, they die, they shoot you, you don’t die. Simple as. You play as a featless hammer build in the early game, an LMG build post depot A but before you reach level 15, and then become a walking WMD once you get the Fusion Cannon. The Fusion Cannon produces noise at the center of the explosion, so what will frequently happen is everyone caught in the explosion dies, combat ends due to a lack of enemies, and then everyone else in the zone congregates where the explosion landed, setting you up for another obliteration. At level 25+ nothing can withstand your blasts, but before then there’s a few enemies on Dominating who can give you trouble:

• Sea Wyrms- While submerged they have 50% resistance to all damage and +300 evasion, which makes them evade 67.5% of area damage when accounting for tricky trajectory, giving them an effective hp of ~3785.
• Naga Protector- Boasting an impressive 1.5k hp, 50% electric resistance, and 80% energy resistance, these are the toughest basic enemies to deal with, having an effective hp of ~4286. In the quad Naga fight in particular they can survive blasts if they get clipped by the edge of the explosion.
• Final Boss- The final boss has 8k hp and 65% resistances, giving him an effective hp of ~17,778. Pretty impressive, but fairly easy to oneshot since you can build up Bullet Trance stacks by killing minions.
• Carnifex/Magnar- While under adrenaline Carnifex meets the evasion cap even with Tricky Trajectory, and thanks to his 20% electric resistance his effective hp is ~20534. Magnar is a similar story, although he’s slightly weaker due to his lack of electric resistance. Magnar’s ghost is also quite tanky, he’s got ~60% resistance to the damage on top of high evasion but has significantly less hp than his base form.
• Master Skull Smasher- Probably the only enemy that you’ll have trouble oneshotting. His blast suit and resistances grant him ~90% damage reduction against the Fusion Cannon, and on top of that he’s got ~5% evasion, turning his already impressive base hp of 2360 into an effective hp of ~25813.

Conclusion

The Fusion Cannon is an absolutely insane weapon and has some of the highest damage possible in the game. While a plasma pistol crit execute with the proper special attack damage boosts could potentially deal more single target damage, the Fusion Cannon certainly blows all other weapons out of the water with its overwhelming damage and ease of use. Any build with investment in heavy guns should consider using the Fusion Cannon, as just the base weapon with the Heavy Metal feat is enough to one shot all but the toughest enemies. Despite its drawbacks, I firmly believe that the Fusion Cannon is the best weapon in the game.

Merry Christmas!

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Bugs / Intercessor Armor Incorrect Resistances

« on: November 04, 2023, 04:24:21 am »

The new Intercessor Armor says it only giver 20% mechanical resistance and 10 threshold in the item description, but when equipped actually gives 50% mechanical resistance and 20 threshold.

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Builds / General Build Guide for Heavy Duty DLC (Minor Spoilers)

« on: November 01, 2023, 12:00:05 am »

Intro

Hey everybody, ShoggothWhisper here. I had the privilege of beta testing this DLC over the last few weeks, and I wanted to share some build advice so people can plan out their builds. I really liked this DLC in general and all of the new content introduced, but it is some of the hardest content in the game by a wide margin, and if you stroll in unprepared you will be in for a wild ride. This guide is intended for Dominating difficulty, but the information inside is relevant for lower difficulties as well. Minor spoilers inside, so consider yourself warned.
 
How much damage should my build deal?

Think about the strongest common enemy in Expedition. Odds are, you think of the Strongman, right? Those guys have 670 hp on dominating and 70% mechanical resistance, so, not accounting for DT, you’ll need to deal ~2333 mechanical damage in order to kill one. Pretty tanky, right? Well, these new enemies are even more durable. The most common grunt has 720 hp, 40% mechanical resistance, a ~350 capacity shield, and usually has a silly little buff that grants a 40% reduction to all damage. He may or may not also have the conditioning feat, but even if he doesn’t you’ll still need to deal ~2350 mechanical damage to kill one. These guys also have 15% heat resistance, 35% energy resistance, and 50% bio resistance from their armor, so keep that in mind. They spawn in packs of 6 guys on Dominating, and if you don’t kill them fast enough additional reinforcements will arrive. The best damage types to use against them are Heat, Cold, Acid, and Electricity, so the best weapons to use against these guys are Hammers, Chem Pistols, Grenade Launchers, LMGs, Miniguns, and TC/MT psionics.

How do I defend against these new enemies?

The new enemies primarily use firearms, energy pistols, and grenades, and offensively could be considered stronger and more interesting versions of the Muties at the Waterway dungeon. The silly little buff that grants 40% damage reduction also grants a 40% increase to all combat skills and a 40% reduction to weapon AP cost, so these goofballs hit harder, better, faster, and stronger than anything else you’ve faced thus far. They are also incredibly fast, having what feels like a base 30MP and the sprint feat, so you can’t really hide behind cover to protect yourself. On top of all that, they have 26 initiative, which is only 3 less than Carnifex. I recommend a Sturdy Kevlar Tac Vest with a super steel sheet, or Sturdy TiChrome/Super Steel metal armor if you can meet the Str requirement. If you don’t have high evasion, I also recommend blast tabis and a blast balaclava since the grenade launcher enemies are extremely dangerous. I don’t recommend going over 50% armor penalty, since there are some TC enemies that can cook you with the classic MB+ Bilocation combo.

Conclusion

This DLC will push you to your absolute limits when it comes to building and crafting. It’s recommended that you start this DLC at level 20, but I actually recommend you wait until level 26 and have all of your best gear crafted/obtained. There's a new encounter that’s harder than the Quad Nagas fight, and a secret version of that fight that’s even harder. I’ve only seen people beat the normal version with Stasis abuse, and as far as I’m aware nobody in the beta test was able to beat the secret version. Best of luck to everyone in the new DLC, I can’t wait to see what builds people cook up with the new content.

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Builds / Ultimate Fishing Build- Women Want Me, Fish Fear Me

« on: October 15, 2023, 06:14:09 am »

Introduction

What skill are humans better at than any other animal? If your answer was fishing, you’d be wrong. You will never be as good at fishing as an otter or a puffin. The skill humans can claim superiority in is throwing. Though creatures such as chimpanzees can fling shit and other objects, no other creature can come close to matching the speed and precision of a baseball pitch, or the elegant lob of a basketball, or the arc of a javelin. To throw, in essence, is what separates us from the beasts. Though we’ll never be the best fishers of the animal kingdom, we can use our throwing skills (and our superior intelligence) to catch fish that other animals could only dream of. Humans fish by casting lines from fishing poles, and the definition of casting is to forcefully throw something, so humans effectively fish by throwing things. Because of that revelation, and because of the upcoming DLC, I’ve decided to create the ultimate fishing build to overcome any and all challenges you may face on your journey through Underrail.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQBAoDAwcAwqAAAB7CoEZgMgAAUGxUR1AAAAAAAABIJCYvFlhRw5M-XmNORV0fwrMOJ8KdbeKhhwTip4IC4qi6BeKouwPivY4B374

This build is a high damage high mobility tank build focused on throwing knives and grenades, capable of overcoming any challenge you may face on your playthrough. It’s also good at fishing because it has high dex. The advice in this build is made with Dominating difficulty in mind, but you should have no trouble at all tearing apart lower difficulties with it. This build is one of the strongest builds I’ve ever created and contends with AR builds and Firearm Pistol builds as one of the strongest builds in the game.

Gear:

The following is the gear recommended for this build. If you know what you’re doing it’ll take about 4 hours to get all the proper gear after finishing Depot A, and you’ll be about level 18-20 on Classic Dominating.

Weapons:

Knife Throwers Glove- The most important piece of gear on this build, it’s a massive benefit to the offensive capabilities of throwing knives. You can consistently get one from Blaine or from the Camp Hawthor leather merchant.

Leper poison knives- Against unarmored enemies these work like the concentrated fire feat, but the damage increase is only applied to damage that penetrates, so it’s not as useful against armored enemies like Psi Crabs. By far the best throwing knife option you have available.

Crawler knives- Crawler poison is excellent, but usually you’ll kill enemies before the stun has a chance to activate. Very powerful against arena combatants and bosses.

Black dragon knives- Basically neuters any psionic enemy if you can hit them before they use PSP. Unfortunately most psi enemies die in 1-2 knives anyways, so it’s best to save these for bosses.

Rusting Acid/Corrosive Acid Vials- Rusting Acid vials will be your go option for dealing with robots for most of the game, since most robots lack acid resistance, and you can get a fair amount of rusting acid glands from native villages. Corrosive acid vials are extremely powerful but a bit too rare to chuck around willy-nilly, so save them for special occasions like the quad nagas fight.

Equipment:

Master Demolitionist Belt (Dominating Only)- This item is highly underrated in my opinion; it basically lets you ignore grenade cooldowns once every 6 turns and gives a massive ap discount on activating grenades. For a throwing build this item is terrific, as the three extra utility slots let you carry extra throwing items, and the fear immunity lets you ignore the effects of yell. With 340+ evasion we take 85% less damage from grenades, and since evasion reduces the damage before shields and armor, we generally won’t take damage from our detonations. The best setup with the belt is using 2-3 slots for grenades and leaving the rest for throwing knives, as any more grenades than that is generally overkill, especially with three-pointer. MK 3 Frag Grenades are usually the best option to detonate, since they’re frequently carried by enemies and merchants, deal enough damage to reliably 2-shot most enemies, and at 340+ evasion won’t deal enough damage to overcome our DT. You can get the belt fairly early if you use the tried-and-true combo of Bear Traps + Gas Grenades + T.N.T in the south-central room of their zone, just bring along some rusting acid if you do it at low level since your throwing knives may struggle to penetrate the Masters's Blast Suits. If you aren’t playing Dominating, I recommend using the Commando Belt instead due to the boost to throwing.

Helmet: Shaded Soft Padded Super Steel Helmet (8% armor penalty, at Q172 10%/5 mechanical resist, flashbang immunity, -4.5% chance to be crit)- There’s no headgear that benefits throwing weapons, so the only things that matter are defensive and utility headgear. This helmet is why we take armor sloping, it reaches 9% armor penalty without spec and 8% with spec, and provides some increased durability for the build in addition to the flashbang immunity. An early game alternative is a kevlar balaclava. It’s pretty quick and painless to get the 4 super steel refining data for max quality super steel, I recommend going to Lost Vault, Viridescent Quarry (you’ll go to expedition anyways for greater siphoner leather), Hecate Research Outpost, and then the Abandoned Waterway facility last.

Armor: Infused Greater Siphoner Leather/Black Cloth/Galvanic Foam (7% armor penalty, at Q 140 w/Skinner 33%/10 mechanical, 26%/11 Heat, 22%/8 Acid/Energy, 24%/8 Electric resistance, +70 Dodge/Evasion)- This armor is absolutely essential to our build as it’s where a large portion of our durability and survivability come from. The heat and energy resistance provided by greater siphoner are very welcome, and the electrical resistance helps against emp grenades/electrokinesis/naga blasts. The evasion/dodge boost is also essential for this build as it helps us reach the 340 evasion softcap. It’s inconsistent to get high quality greater siphoner leather from the native villages, so I recommend buying it from the Ferryman when he stops at the mutie refuge. Two pieces of 120+ quality are good enough for the build, especially when we boost the quality with skinner and infusing the leather.

Shoes-Infused Greater Siphoner Tabis (At Q140 w/Skinner 13% Heat, 12% Acid/Energy, +38 MP, +70 Dodge/Evasion, immunity to slows)- Tabis provide better elemental resistances than boots for whatever reason, and the immunity from slows is nice in addition to the bonus evasion.

Gameplay:

This is an incredibly well-rounded build that will wipe the floor against any organic enemies while being able to withstand more punishment than most traditional tank builds. You’ve got the damage of a glass cannon build, the durability of a tin can juggernaut, and more AP than the average 70 TM enjoyer.

Offensively, throwing knives are the best weapon against unarmored organic targets by a wide margin, but still perform well against all but the most heavily armored foes. Pinning gives a +25% damage boost with opportunist and can shut down narrow choke points if the enemy in front gets immobilized. It is possible for enemies to evade immobilization, but you’ll only see this on extremely evasive enemies like Carnifex and Magnar. Fatal Throw basically instantly kills any enemy hit with a knife while under the HP threshold in addition to providing a huge AP boost every turn. Remote surgeon is straight up just extra damage, which is always appreciated. Split Spare is probably the second best feat on this build after Fatal Throw, the cone is about as wide as a plasma grenade explosion when throwing from max range and it makes it much more consistent that you’ll kill at least one enemy and proc fatal throw. At max level your throwing knives will deal 120-240 damage per knife to unarmored enemies at the cost of 7 ap per knife when at 19 dex, letting you throw 10-28 knives per turn depending on Fatal Throw activation and Split Spare. Grenadier + Three Pointer gives excellent crowd control and lets you bring enemies down to Fatal Throw range, and synergises well with Pinning since immobilization reduces evasion to 0 and lets your grenades do full damage. Against most armored humans you’ll do well with throwing knives, since most tin cans only have ~50% DR and 30 DT which you can reliably overcome at higher levels. Heavily armored Enemies such as Burrower Warriors and Psi Crabs almost require the use of HE Grenades/MK 3 Plasma Grenades, but you can reliably kill them with throwing knives once they enter Fatal Throw Range. Most robots aren’t too dangerous if you have EMP MK 3 grenades and HE/Plasma grenades to get them into fatal throw range, but Strongmen and Naga Protectors can get you into a bit of trouble. One solution is to use the Master Demo belt to activate 3-5 EMP Grenades at once, which will obliterate the former and leave the latter weak enough to finish off with corrosive acid.

Defensively, the only enemies that can threaten you are bosses on dominating. Even at 3 Agi due to the Demo belt agility debuff we will have ~310 evasion at max level, and while using adrenaline we’ll reach 372 evasion, which is more than enough to reach the softcap for explosive damage reduction and ranged attack hit chance for every enemy except Seahorse Plasma turrets and bosses. We’re effectively immune to enemy explosions, avoid the vast majority of ranged attacks, and have more than enough MP to stay far away from any melee enemies. Even if we do get hit, we’ve got resistances similar to q100 super steel armor, and can use Last Stand to reset our health to full and continue the fight a while longer. With Thick Skull and Escape Artist we can avoid having our Dodge/Evasion being set to 0 from stuns/immobilization, so the only attacks we need to worry about are unavoidable attacks like NO and Electrokinesis.

Comparison With AR Builds
If you ask most veterans of the game what the best build is, they’ll likely say it's some variation of an AR build due to the powerful feats the weapon has access to. I’m here today to make the case that the fishing build is better than AR builds in most regards. For the sake of the comparison I’ll be using Harperfan7’s “Best Build”.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgcHCgMLAwXCoEkAAB7CoFBGMkQAU1MjMmUAAADCi04UACsoOSQmFU4CRDtJSsKHwoMWR8KFS2zDnMKewp_Cm8Ktw4vin6IF4qKNA-KnlwPip6oD4rCuAd-_

Fishing Build

• Better matchup vs Natives
• Worse matchup vs Crabs
• Worse matchup vs Strongmen
• Very Tanky
• 90+ AP per round
• Can detonate 2-6 grenades per round in addition to throwing 7-14 knives
• Can deal an average of 5835 damage against a single target or 11670 damage against 2 targets next to each other
• Has 219 Skill points to spare
• Is not a 3 will 3 con TM build
• Has a cool hat

"Best Build"

• Worse matchup vs Natives
• Better matchup vs Crabs
• Better matchup vs Strongmen
• Glass bones and paper skin
• ~137 AP Turn 1, ~111 AP on subsequent turns
• 6 bursts shooting 9 bullets each
• Average of ~16721 damage against a single target, ~8360 without concentrated fire
• Skill Starved
• Cringe TM User
• Does not have a cool hat

As you can see, my build is better than my strawman opponent based on the criteria that I selected, so clearly the fishing build is superior. All jokes aside, the main difference offensively between the two builds is their armor piercing capabilities, single target damage and crowd control. With W2C the AR build can ignore 30% of DR, compared to the throwing knife’s 130% DR modifier, so the AR is going to win out against armored enemies. Concentrated fire is a superb feat for single target damage, which makes AR’s king for bursting down the final boss, but in most encounters enemies will die in 3-4 shots, holding back your damage potential. It’s against hordes of enemies where throwing knives really shine over AR builds, since split spare and pinning can quickly eliminate threats from the crowd. Both weapon types excel in different areas, but I prefer throwing knives because they have a better matchup against the Native hordes in Expedition. Defensively there’s no contest between the builds, the fishing build has less evasion, significantly higher hp, and immunity to stun and flashbangs.

Conclusion:

I hope this build guide has convinced you to try out the ultimate fishing build for your next playthrough. From the trailer for the upcoming DLC it looks like we’ll be fighting human enemies who will primarily be using explosives and ranged weapons, so I created this build to be the perfect counter to those foes. It may turn out that all the enemies shown were robots and that I’ve made a terrible mistake, but for now I choose to believe. Who knows, maybe the reward at the end of the DLC will be a small pond where you can catch new and exotic fish.

TL;DR: Women fear me, Fish fear me, Men turn their eyes away from me as I walk, No beast may dare make a sound in my presence, I am alone on this barren earth.

5

Builds / Ultimate Maximizing Ability Scores Guide

« on: January 01, 2023, 02:29:07 am »

I promised that I'd write another guide before the end of the year, and here it is! This guide is intended to help players maximize the benefit they receive from their ability scores, and to understand the trade offs of dumping one stat for another. This guide is more targeted towards new players, to help them understand how to assign ability scores at character creation, but also contains some useful information for veterans on the benefits of going over 20 in an ability score.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mgaiQGL51dwwFNnxne7f3zLjaZdkvX14-_G8rPg9tbw/edit?usp=sharing

I would love to hear any discussions and comments on the guide, especially if you disagree with any of the assertions I've made. I might make another guide, or I might not, depending on how busy I am. If I do make another guide, it will be on the best side weapons in Underrail, such as the Cleaver, Boxing Gloves, Hoddurform, ect. Have a Happy New Year!

6

Suggestions / Make Mounted Drill Attack and Shield Bash scale damage with melee skill

« on: October 10, 2022, 05:50:50 pm »

Both of these abilities use melee skill for accuracy, but not damage, which doesn't make much sense. They both already have a downside by requiring specific armor that each come with their own drawbacks, and right now Mounted Drill Attack and Shield Bash are massively outclassed by all other combat options. 

7

Bugs / Waterways Dungeon Muties Not Responding to Noise Bug

« on: October 07, 2022, 03:28:30 am »

Enemies don't seem to be correctly responding to noise in the mutie encampment portion of the waterways dungeon. I've fired a 12.7 mm sniper rifle and thrown frag grenades next to enemies who don't have line of sight on me, and I've gotten no reaction from them. I'm not sure if they're intentionally programed to not respond to noise, but it seems weird.

8

Builds / Ultimate Specialization Guide

« on: September 19, 2022, 11:19:56 pm »

Hey, I've written an exhaustive guide on every specialization and whether or not they are worth taking on a build. I wrote this because I feel that too many builds neglect their specialization points, which can turn a good build into a great build with the right specializations. This is targeted towards new players and old players, using my knowledge gained from 800+ hours playing Underrail.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D0h2BRsGJXLjO0Bj9KhjIoVLpzrUd349p9vUmcVzjNE/edit?usp=sharing


I would love to hear any discussion and comments on specializations, especially if I overlooked any good specialization combos or synergies. In the coming months I will be posting more guides similar to this for overlooked gameplay mechanics, and the next one is probably going to be about maximizing ability scores.

9

Bugs / Boarding Up Feat Bug

« on: September 11, 2022, 04:14:14 am »

The feat says it grants a stack every time an attack hits, but it actually grants a stack every time you make an attack, even if that attack misses.

10

General / Rework Riot Armor for Infusion

« on: September 08, 2022, 05:49:03 pm »

It's no secret that riot armor with shields is the worst armor option in Underrail. If you want mobility, you go for a lightweight tac vest or leather armor suit. If you want protection, you go for a suit of metal armor. These armor sets don't require any feats to operate, and metal armor's only requirement is having 8-9 strength. To get the full use of riot armor, you need the shield arm feat, 5-6 strength, and you are restricted to only using one handed weapons. Riot armor is more restrictive and offers less benefits than conventional armor and needs to be reworked for infusion to stay relevant. Below are some ways riot armor could be reworked to be a viable alternative to other armors.

1. Remove the armor penalty from adding a shield- Being restricted to 1 handed weapons is already enough of a drawback to adding a shield, increasing armor penalty on top of that is overkill. Melee builds use lighter armor because they need the extra mp to run up and hit enemies, so they usually can't afford to run high armor penalty without a feat like hit and run.

2. Condense riot armor feats- Riot armor currently has 4 feats it exclusively benefits from, which is significantly more than any other set of armor. Shield Arm, Shield Bash, Boarding Up, and Iron Grip are all riot armor exclusive, and contribute to the feat bloat that makes riot armor unattractive. Shield Arm and Iron Grip's benefits should also be added to riot armor, but only have their effects active if the character has more than 8 strength. This would allow characters to use riot armor effectively without having to dedicate several feats to it. Alternatively, the benefits of shield arm could be completely removed, and you could have block chance and block amount scale with strength in a similar manner to parry.

3. Allow riot armor to block projectiles/ reduce damage from ranged attacks-It always seemed odd to me that a heavy metal shield would provide no protection from bullets, shells, and explosions. If the riot shield could block things like bullets, crossbow bolts, and cryokinesis projectiles, it would make it an interesting alternative to tactical vests. Maybe it could loose the DT increase against bullets and shells as a trade off. You could have this be an innate feature of the riot shield, or you could lock it behind a feat to require investment for the benefit.

4. Allow riot armor to block more damage types than just mechanical- Depending on the material used in the shield, riot armor could block differnt types of damage. Tungsten and burrower could block heat, Tichrome and Super Steel could block energy, psi crab could block electricity, ect.

I really like riot armor with shields conceptually, but in practice they just require too much investment for too little payoff. I'd love to hear other people's opinions on how riot armor could be reworked to make it a more appealing option.

11

Builds / "Mindblade" TC/Throwing Knives Build-Throw up to 48 Knives Per Turn!

« on: August 12, 2022, 07:10:38 am »

"Styg gives his toughest battles to his strongest builds"

Do you like using TC, but wish you could deal with robots? Do you like poisons, but wish there was a better way to apply them besides bear traps, caltrops, and crossbow bolts? Do you like making a lot of high damage attacks, but hate using burst builds or flurry? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then this is the build for you:

https://underrail.info/build/?HgQQAwMDCgcAwqAAwqAAAEZZMQAAYGBTVwDCoAAARgAASCsvJ8KVJlhRw5NcXiEqEj4WwrN2wofin4QB4qi6A-KouwPis6ID4r2OBd-_

I firmly believe that this build is the best TC build hybrid and that it is superior to solo TC builds. This build has everything you could ever want out of an offensive build:

• High Damage Attacks-At 370 Skill, Throwing Knives deal 52-97 damage, with a 275% damage multiplier to damage that passes through armor against Organic Targets.
• Low AP Cost-7 AP per knife at 18 dex, 5 AP per knife at 23 dex with All In and SSD, and you throw 2 knives for the price of 1 with Split Spare.
  
• Extra AP-Fully Specced Fatal Throw gives an extra 27 AP if you can proc it, and with adrenaline that brings your total AP up to 97 per turn (103 with vitality powder). If you take 70 Temporal Manipulation, you can go up to a maximum of 123 AP per turn (with fatal throw, vit powder, contraction, and the  psycho temporal acceleration feat)
• Crowd Control (LOC+ Enrage for humans and creatures, MK 5 Frag Grenades+Three Pointer for Robots or Spilt Spare+Pinning+Crawler Poison Throwing Knives for anything else.)
• Robot Killer- This build can deal with robots, although it isn’t the greatest at it. Rusting Acid is the best option against bots, since you can throw vials for 15 AP at 18 dex or 12 AP at 23 Dex. Anything weaker than a Plasma Sentry can be killed with throwing knives, and Corrosive Acid can be used to take down Nagas.
• Initiative- With 27 Initiative, you’ll consistently outspeed everything short of Carnifex and Death Stalkers.

This build comes online at Level 14, and from there only gets stronger as your damage scales high enough to bypass DT. Carnifex was zoned out at Level 18, and Lurker Base, Epoine Labs, and Emporion Shopping Mall were all cleared before I reached Level 22.  As a disclaimer, all of the information presented in this guide was tested with a slightly different build that I played until Level 26:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQCgMDBQYAwqAAwqAAAENfNwAAZ2cLZmfCoAAAAAAATSs5LybClVhRw5NcXipHEg0_wrN2wqbip5cD4qi7A-KzogPis6QB4r2OBd-_
Enemies frequently resisting TC abilities and being required to use the fursuit in order to throw the Javelin led to the former build being revised into the current build. LOC is better than Blitz, the extra 20 AP once per combat at the cost of shitty TC abilities simply isn't worth it.

Gear

The gear for this build is pretty simple, mainly taking advantage of some of the newer gear added in recent updates:

• The two weapons you want are Knife Thrower’s Glove and Javelin. Knife Throwers Glove is used with Throwing Knives, and to apply Expose Weakness. Javelin costs 1 AP to throw with fully specced spear throw, and deals ~500 damage when thrown at max range, making it extremely AP efficient.
• Recommended Utilities are MK 5 Frag Grenade and as many standard throwing knives as you can carry. You burn through throwing knives incredibly quickly, so poison knives should only be saved for special occasions. Of the poisoned knives, the only ones that matter are Black Dragon, Crawler, and Leper Knives, since they have good secondary effects. The poison damage is negligible since the base knives deal so much damage. Shock Shurikens are a waste, since their damage doesn’t scale with throwing skill. You’re better off throwing Rusting Acid or Corrosive Acid (buy from Tchortist Chemist with 120 Chem check) at robots. AI Scrambler is also quite good for forcing robots to fight each other.
• Recommended Headwear is Psionic Transceiver, since it gives a larger boost to TC skills than any crafted headband with just a single psionic enemy nearby. Muffled TC psi headband is also a good choice. Night Vision Goggles are also excellent to have for dark areas, as throwing knives suffer a precision penalty in darkness.
• Rathound Regalia provides extra MP and is usually your best bet, although the Tchortist Noble Robe provides a boost to TC and Will. CAU armor with biohazard boots are quite useful, as they allow you to have 100% acid resistance, which helps when farming rusting acid.
• Ninja Tabis are generally the best option for footwear, as they improve MP and stealth. This build was originally intended to use Jumping Stilts, but as of writing this build they are currently bugged and don’t spawn in game.
• Large Merchant Belt is usually the best belt, since it allows you to carry extra throwing knives, but utility belt and doctor’s belt are also good options.

Game Plan

Most encounters go something like this:

• LOC+Premed+Enrage as many enemies as possible.
• Throw knives until the nearest enemies are pinned and you run out of AP.
• Break line of sight and end turn, let enraged enemies draw agro.
• Subsequent turns, throw a grenade if enemies are clumped up, throw javelin at highest health enemy, then throw knives to finish enemies off. If only a single dangerous enemy is left, use frighten or PSP to avoid attacks.

Why Throwing Knives over Neural Overload?

For the longest time, there has been a sentiment in the Underrail community that throwing knives were the worst weapon. Up until recently, this was true. If you played a throwing knife build when Expedition first released, the lowest AP cost you could get was 9, and there was no modifier to damage that goes through armor. Now, Throwing Knives have received the largest buffs of any weapon in the history of Underrail, with the addition of the bonus to unresisted damage, Knife Throwers Glove, Remote Surgeon, and the removal of the Base Ability Score Cap at 20. Below is a comparison between Throwing Knives and Neural Overload, using sheepherder’s Tranquility NO build for the comparison. Crits are not factored into the comparison, since both builds have the base 5% crit chance.   https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=6139.0

Neural Overload

• At 370 skill, average of 261 Damage per NO, with all of the relevant stat boosting gear (Hoddurform, ~50% damage boost Magnifying Filter, Mental Trauma with Spec, assuming 5 Int)
• Bonus damage against high Int targets
• No damage against robots, TC completely useless against robots
• Damage ignores DR and DT
• Attack never misses
• 6 (7 with outer visions) range
• 13 AP Per Cast (With Tranq), giving 9 casts on first turn, and 6 casts on subsequent turns.
• ~20 damage per AP
• ~3393 Damage First Turn (Assuming 4 targets in LOC), ~1556 damage second turn.

Throwing Knives

• With 370 skill, average of 206 (257 with opportunist) damage against an unarmored organic target, 126 (157 with opportunist) against a burrower (30% DR), 27 (73 with opportunist) against a closed shell Goliathus (50 DT/55% DR), and 0 (25 with Opportunist) against Psi Crabs (65 DT).
• Can reliably get +25% damage from opportunist with Pinning, stingball, ect.
• Can be poisoned with every variety of poison.
• Effectively instantly kill any enemy hit at 24% hp or less, with 100% crit chance from fatal throw and 175% crit damage from ripper (without opportunist at 24% HP, 566 damage vs unarmored target, and 88 average damage vs Psi Crab)
• With 307 Skill, average of 26 damage against Plasma Sentries, 4 damage against Industrial Bots. Additionally, throwing skill allows the use of acid vials  against robots.
• 130% DR and DT penalty
• Attacks can miss, but immobilizing a target with pinning gives 95% chance to hit. Attacks are very accurate even without pinning thanks to the precision bonuses from Knife Thrower's glove and Expert Throwing
• 8 Range
• 7 AP per throw, throw 2 knives if 2 targets are nearby, gain 27 AP upon killing an enemy, 17-34 knives thrown per turn.
• Damage per AP (regular knives)- ~27-73 damage against unarmored, ~17-45 against burrowers, and ~3-21 damage vs Goliathus.
• Damage Per Turn (regular knives)-~3502-8738 against unarmored, ~2142-5338 against burrowers, ~459-2482 against Goliathus.

Since there is no benefit to overkilling enemies in Underrail, making many weaker attacks is generally better than making a few powerful attacks, as long as you bypass DT. Throwing Knives outperform Neural Overload against unarmored targets, moderately armored targets, and robots, while Neural Overload only outperforms Throwing Knives against heavily armored organic targets. 18 Dex is better than 18 Will since Dex boosts initiative and gives more skill points, while Will only boosts Resolve, Fortitude and Psi skills. At 10 Will you have more than enough TC skill to get enemies to consistently fail their resolve saves against your TC abilities, so the extra TC skill from 18 will isn’t worth it.

Maximum Potential
Warning: The following information is completely hypothetical and speculative. Recent studies show that Hercules may cause adverse side effects, and it is highly recommended that you consult your local physician before consuming Hercules.

If you really want to fly too close to the sun, you can throw up to 122 throwing knives in a single turn and throw Javelin. For whatever reason, Throwing Knives don’t have the standard 4 ap minimum cost, so you can go down to 2 ap per knife with 18 Dex, All In, SSD, and Hercules. If attacking 2 infinite HP immobilized unarmored creatures next to each other, you would deal ~38000 total average damage with all knives and the spear throw. If those targets were at 1% hp with full stacks of leper poison, and every knife hit for max possible damage, you would deal ~236,000 damage.

Conclusion
Give this build a try if you're interested in throwing knives or TC. This build has an incredibly easy time against any humanoid or critter enemies, and for the most part doesn’t struggle too much with Robots. So far I’ve had no trouble clearing out Port Zenith, and I anticipate I won’t have too much trouble clearing out Fort Apogee and Faceless Commander. Since this build can use Corrosive Acid, Quad Nagas shouldn't be too difficult either, since the Corrosion debuff will dramatically increase the damage of the plasma turrets. The only encounters I could see this build struggling with are the Robot Waves with Rassapphore Nevil, the massive Strongman horde in the Lemurian Health Center, and any of those nasty encounters with 6+ Psi Crabs. Throwing Knives are now arguably one of the strongest weapons in Underrail (I'd say stronger than Shotguns, pure unarmed, and pure PK) and with this build you should have no trouble dealing with Dominating's hardest encounters.

12

Bugs / Phreak Never Restocks CACS or Forged Tickets

« on: March 05, 2022, 03:19:18 am »

Based on Phreak's dialogue, it sounds like he needs time to make more batches of CACS and Forged Tickets, but he never restocks them. I've had time to complete Phreak's questline, the Coretech questline, and all of the Institute of Tchort Quests, so unless he restocks once every 20 hours, he seemingly never finishes his batch.

13

Bugs / Abomination Bugs

« on: February 09, 2022, 02:44:39 am »

Bug 1: Abomination respawn timer is active in turn based mode, respawning in real time. If you have game speed set to the fastest, this means he almost immediately respawns on top of you before you've had a chance to end your turn.

Bug 2: If you quicksave and quickload while the Abomination is respawning, it resets his spawn position to the center of the gas filled room, instead of where you killed him.

14

Bugs / Superintendent Rubin won’t give Dock Key

« on: February 05, 2022, 02:27:55 pm »

When attempting to steal the shield emitters for Gorskeys quest on the experimental version, Rubin’s only dialogue is “We have nothing more to discuss”. There is no option to bribe him or intimidate him into giving you the key, making it impossible to progress the quest in this way.

15

Builds / Cyclops "Plasma Blaster" Metathermics Build- 6 Beams in One Turn

« on: August 28, 2021, 04:53:38 pm »

Intro

In the most recent update, we have been graced with a new unique headband: The Cyclop's Eye. While others were dissuaded by it's major drawback, I was inspired, and created this build:

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMDCgUDEAYAagAAAADCoGh8AABfXw9YXwAAwqAAMgBwKzkkPz0qZEfCvB3CvmZGKC9ywrfCuOKmhgrip5cB4rmoBN-_

Plasma Beam isn't affected by any MT feats, so a lot of the feats listed here are purely quality of life feats, and can be easily swapped out or changed depending on your preferences. The rest of this guide will go into how the build functions and the required gear necessary, but before I do that I need to list some important disclaimers:
1. Cyclop's eye sucks to obtain-The Eye seems to have a small chance to replace regular goggles in any merchant's inventory, and once it has spawned it will not disappear until bought. The best merchants to check are Constantine and Olivia in the Institute of Tchort, but I've heard rumors of it spawning elsewhere. To give some context to how rare it is to spawn, it took me an hour of abusing cheat engine merchant refresh on Constantine for me to obtain it.
2. This build takes off fairly late-You need to be a minimum of Level 16 to even learn Plasma Beam, but the earliest you can get the mentor is after the cube is stolen, when the utility station 6 dungeon opens up (unless you torture yourself by going to the grand archives early).
3. This build cannot deal with Nagas- Most Lemurian robots take 2-3 plasma beams to kill even at high levels, but Nagas are a different story. Lemurian Nagas have 80% energy resist and 95% heat resistance, so you will be doing very little damage to them. You can use an energy pistol with a polarizer to reduce their energy resistance, but this is only really practical against a single Naga. Doing the quad Nagas at the Grand Archives is nearly impossible.
4. Plasma Beam cannot target locust hives- If you try to shoot a hive, your character will just run around it. This may also apply to the mutagen tanks, but I haven't tested it yet. Keep this in mind when going through the fetid marsh.

The Setup

All of this can be obtained by Level 16, so you will have 60% psi cost reduction for 28 psi cost Plasma Beams.

• Tac Vest with Psi Beetle Carapace Armor Plate
• Psi Beetle Brain Soup
• Cyclops Eye
• Psycho-Neural Optimization

I also use the regular Somibaren Staff-Spear for extra psi points, regen, and crit chance. At max level you can reach 80% reduction with advanced psi empathy, and 84% reduction with specialization points. Firing off 6 plasma beams in a turn is fairly straightforward once you have enough psi cost. We fully spec tranquility to get 18 ap plasma beams, and we use adrenaline and blitz with a spec point to get 92 ap, enough for 5 beams and a psi booster. Premed gets us the 6th beam, and on the following turns we can get 3 beams, 4 if you use vit powder instead of adrenaline, at the cost of losing the tranquility bonus when it wears off. At level 26, I was dealing 440-840 damage per beam, more than enough to kill most enemies in a single blast at optimal range. Once you reach level 25 this build can tear through any non-energy resistant enemies, but before then it can struggle if it loses tranquility. This is a super fun build to use if you want to have fun with the plasma beam ability.