Messages

16

Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: September 30, 2022, 08:30:49 am »

^ I Don't know, I never tried it but Temporal Manipulation triples pistol's power.

That being said, ability to dominate everything in sight during 1 turn is so good in this game so such build should work. It would require some additional tricks to handle content, fortunately high Dex means you can get most of your grenades. I would add Grenadier, Three Pointer, possibly Sure Step, and Sprint. Typical fight would start with grenade or two, caltrops, Aimed Shot to the face, hide from line of sight, enemies come closer, next turn activate Bullet Time. I would reduce either Int or Perception and max Dexterity, possibly going into Versatility (probably not though, I hate Versatility, but still...)

As for SMGs, they are extremely viable with or without magic but I hate them as much as Versatility. Low hit chance + extremely high ammo consumption + low range + boring 'burst burst reload burst burst' playstyle = not fun for me.

17

Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: September 28, 2022, 08:01:20 pm »

Lvl 30 build link is above the meme picture in first post. After lvl 20 you should have maxed Bullet Time specialization so next step is maxing Hit and Run spec and getting crit feats.

18

Suggestions / Feat idea: Controlled Burst

« on: September 22, 2022, 01:24:39 pm »

I have some problems with playing ARs and SMGs:

- consume ammo like crazy
- accuracy falls considerably with range, I melee enemies with my guns half the time
- boring to play (burst, burst, burst, reload, burst...)
- all that for pointless overkill damage

So I suggest the following feat to stir things up:


Controlled Burst

Unconditional special attack that costs as many APs as your burst attack. Fires half the normal amount of bullets rounded up. Lessened Accuracy penalty from distance. Cannot suppress enemies.


This would allow me to choose whether I want to empty half the clip at the enemy or rather conserve my ammo, while knowing the bullets actually hit distant target. 3, 4(Full Auto) or 5 (Full Auto + muzzle break) bullets per burst would lessen the amount of ammo wasted per fight (and I could reload less often). Each time I shoot I would need to decide how I want to deal with each enemy, so the gameplay would be less brain dead.

Also, consistent with how guns operate in real life

Thoughts?

19

General / Re: What do you think about an SMG build?

« on: September 22, 2022, 07:08:16 am »

SMGs are extremely viable but I hate playing them. Extremely low range + extremely high ammo consumption makes them IMO feel like OP high dmg melee build with high maintenance costs. I moved to pistols and never looked back.

Why do you rank Pistol so high? Just because of .44 Hammerer and Bullet Time + Stasis?
Yes

In my experience they are quite bad vs. enemies with Pseudo-spatial Projection
Yes, prioritise psi targets, projections are pistol's weakness.

and damage range is horrid - only becoming somewhat reliable late game.
'Somewhat' is unnecessary but yea, they become OP late game and damage range is much less disadvantage than it seems.

I can get 9(!) 300+ damage crits with a single burst from 8.6mm Muzzled Rapid Steelcat from a single unconditional burst at similar cost to a single .44 Hammerer shot.
No, you can't. Pistols are for Bullet Time and it costs between 7 to 5 AP per shot compared to 14AP SMG burst. And they waste less ammo so less AP is spent on reloading (not to mention the logistics of crafting and carrying it around). Each shot can kill an enemy, allowing to immidiately move to another target thanks to Hit and Run.

With anti personel ammo I could crit up to 2800 dmg in my playthrough. Compared to SMGs pistols have up to 95% hit chance that doesn't decrease with distance when target is well lit, SMG burst have only up to 80% which rapidly decline with range, also lower range. Speaking of hit chance, pistols ignore huge chunk of evasion on close enemies. You definitely don't get 9 crits per bursts unless RNG gods smile upon you.

Speaking of crit, crafted pistols have higher crit chance and crit damage.

Damage is important but remember that enemies have set hit points. If enemy has 400 HP, why do you need 9 300+ crits? For pistols it's different, overkill damage increases probablility of 1 shotting an enemy so you stack it as high as possible and watch everything dying after 1 bullet.


SMG's cut through PSP like its not there and burst down crowds easily. With new refurbished Tommy Gun and Better crits, you can reach 210% crit damage. SMG damage output is honestly insane and not reliant on a small window of action or Special Attacks as Pistols are.
Pistol special attacks are bonkers. But yea, pistols need Bullet Time and special attacks to be good

20

Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: August 24, 2022, 08:22:49 am »

Do you use the TM PSI at all during early levels?

Yes, A LOT, and I recommend taking premeditation as soon as lvl 6 for this reason while keeping TM maxed until reaching 70 hard skill points. Main use cases:

- high armor enemies (dominating robots). Pistols won't hurt them at this stage, distortions are long range armor piercing 100% chance to hit thing
- kiting strong enemy thanks to dillation, with premeditation (and taking few steps back) you can disable one enemy per fight for free
- LTI when you want to throw another grenade, or use special attack

TM is cheap (both in terms of action points and in game money) so keep casting!

Another question I have is concerning the Premeditation skill. When you use that, are you able to perform multiple TM casts with no AP cost? Is that how that works?

No. Your next one cast costs 0 AP and less mana. That's it. Practically it's one free cast every fight. Which makes huge difference.

21

General / Re: What happened to the SMG+spec ops and questions about AR/thought control hybrid

« on: February 26, 2022, 02:11:09 pm »

I run SMGs first times I played this game and I disliked it. It's very strong, no doubt about it. But build has couple of unfun mechanics:

- short range, need to be on the move constantly to close distance if you want to be effective
- boring mehanics. All you do is keep bursting
- reliance on Versatility. Optimal way to build it is using that feat and it means slow progression early and mid game
- massive ammo consumption. You reload all the time and keep wasting bullets, need to buy/craft more all the time, it gets old quickly

Regarding AR/TC hybrid, there is massive synergy between each other, ARs first two bursts have very low AP cost thanks to specced Commando and Rapid reloader. TC (and psi in general) has one free spellcast per fight thanks to Premeditation and TC in particular has Locus of Control feat, which you can use to either to make yourself immune to crowd control, or to cast AoE nuke that shreds trhough living targets. Also lots of cc spells and defense through mirror images.

22

Builds / Re: Build Advice, TC + Guns

« on: February 26, 2022, 08:20:19 am »

Plus one of the things that really made guns in general and sniper rifles in particular really shine, W2C ammo, got nerfed so deep it emerged on the other side of the planet. Guns in general are now only slightly more effective against bots, especially nagas, than crossbows, and each caliber can only shoot one specific type of elemental ammo, unlike crossbows that can shoot all sorts of trick bolts from the same bow.

This is not true. Crossbows are not better against armored enemies than guns with W2C post nerf and I have no idea what led you to this conclussion. High calliber guns, which could mow through most armoured enemies (Nagas) without any issue completely ignoring vast majority of their over the top armor, lost around 25% damage post nerf. They are still doing great and idea that nerf moved them to the other side of the planet is ridiculous.

23

Builds / Re: Lvl15 Pistol need help on my build

« on: February 18, 2022, 07:54:09 am »

Pistol builds should go for highest calliber. Maybe 9mm would be good enough for lower difficulties, I don't know, but best returns from your feats is with biggest baddest gun which is .44' Hammerrer.

Dex breakpoints for fully maxed Bullet Time on rapid .44' are 9, 12, 14, 17 and 20. You can aim to get to 12 or 14 (if using Dex boosting food all the time). But consider putting 2 points into agility instead. It will give you access to Sprint and Hit and Run feats. This in turn will make you mobile which should solve your armor question. Because why worry about armor too much when you can simply move behind an obstacle and receive 0 damage in incoming turn?

One thing to note is that pistols receive MASSIVE benefits from having 70 Temporal Manipulation, more so than other builds. Stasis, Psychotempral Contraction and Limited Temporal Increment are beasts. Check on wiki where to get these spells if you decide to go this route.

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Builds / Re: Lvl15 Pistol need help on my build

« on: February 17, 2022, 09:43:53 am »

A lot of weird choices there but build should be salvagable on easy/normal. If you want to keep using pistols, on next level pick 1 point in Dex, take Bullet Time feat and start putting specialization points in there. You can also take Point Shot and all the critical chance feats you can find. Grenadier would also help you.

Alternatively, you have nice stats for using SMG or AR so you can move into them if that's your thing. AR with Commando feat and Concentrated Power is a beast. But you will have lots of useless feats if you go that route.

Stop investing in melee, Gun-Fu was a mistake. Use those skill points for throwing, stealth, crafting and mercantile.

You are only lvl 15, Black Sea should usually be accessed when you are 20-25. I typically go there after I'm done with University.

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Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: February 06, 2022, 08:43:20 am »

How has this build been affected by the recent update?

Not much. W2C ammo was nerfed but the nerf wasn't that big. Worst case scenario (Naga Protector, 90% mechanical resistance) -> you deal 25% less damage, so chances are you would need *gasp* 2 turns for 4 Nagas. Ammo crafting quantity nerf is not big deal to pistols which are ammo efficient. On the plus side, high quality super steel fibers are easier to access (and cap is raised), so you may squeeze 1-2 crit chance out of this.

And the mid game after Depot A got easier if you kill Wyatt and his dogs and then rob his still warm, twitching body for that sweet 23% crit chance .44' gun which now gives you one free attack every fight. You monster.

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General / Re: W2C ammo did not need a nerf

« on: February 04, 2022, 05:49:16 am »

yeah they did, W2C is the best way to deal physical damage to physical immune things and it is limitted only by carry capacity

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General / Re: Underrail has such a contradictory design

« on: February 02, 2022, 10:33:25 am »

All your points boil down to the genre. This would be unacceptable in, say, aRPG. But Underrail is classic cRPG. These are intentional game design choices. Let's take Grenades for example. They are power equalizer. No matter how bad your build is, you can always throw that Mark IV and solve the problem. But it's not free: you spent precious utility slots that could be used for nets, stun rod, caltrops or flashbangs. They are not mandatory: you can have similar effect with mines or metathermic. Or you can go all in into them, max throwing to make them crit 75% of time. But even then, they have cooldown for balance reason (and you can only craft/carry so many of them) so they won't solve all your problems.

All this allow for great freedom on how you choose to play (and not to play). Which is typical quality of good cRPGs.

Your build is meant to fail for some encounters, and this is fine. The game offers you plenty of options to figure out how to deal with seemingly undefeatable opponents. Invisible crawlers ruin your day? Make yourself immune to melee and/or poison, flashbang them, flare / yell them out of stealth etc. Or avoid them until you overlevel the area. Options and tactics can matter more than your build. Which again is cRPG style.

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Builds / Re: sniper psion buiild request

« on: January 21, 2022, 06:19:37 am »

This is a draft I plan to play one day, can't comment on how viable it is.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgUGBwMHCgjCoEYAAAAAwqBBQTIAS0s8NzzCoAAARjwARgE5PysFKgIdfiHCvRZkwoco4q-8BOKvvQHfvw

The idea is to use snipers for shooting spree+aimed shot, ambush and robots. Low perception shouldn't be a problem, ambush gives high hit chance, robots are easy to hit and if I'm against evasive enemy I can just melt his brain.

Endgame weapon would be Hoddurform because it boosts NO damage and make you darker even if held in offhand, making it easier to trigger ambush.

Again, no idea if this is good or not. But will probably play it on next update so...

29

Builds / Re: One Turn Man | .44' pistol Bullet Time | DOMINATING | OP(aF)

« on: January 04, 2022, 12:36:15 pm »

I like Interloper more than it deserves, but I also think it works nicely on DOMINATING difficulty. I stealth a lot during early sections so ability to do it faster and have 15 MP more after opening salvo which hits like wet noodles (yet) is helpful. But that's my preference, Aimed Shot could be better, Sprint could be better, I just dislike the sluggish movement (and don't use speed hack)

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Builds / Re: Versatility pistol builds

« on: January 04, 2022, 08:32:59 am »

Ambush is universaly good if you want to trigger it but stacking it with evasion reduction at close range is completely redundant. Eva reduction is for when you can't / don't want to ambush that evasive enemy.
Energy pistols does have small subset of resistant enemies, pistols (thanks to W2C ammo) work on everything.
JHP ammo is massive damage boost and helps a lot when fighting natives.
Having real chance to finish enemy off even when non-criting is huge boon.
High caliber pistols have consistently higher critical chance than energy weapons when using steadfast aim, except for plasma weapons if you want to use them for some reason. Even then, the difference is 3% crit chance and if you really want to have equal cc to plasma, you can use 9mm falchion.
Laser sight (+RR) can be used with Smart module (+RR) because you have 2 weapon slots. As for special attacks not having +10% precision, it's your choice which weapon to use: LS against evasive enemy with low hp, Smart module agains tanks, or simply run up to enemy and Point Shot with smart module to the face when it has both high HP and evasion.
Initiative has huge random element and enemies are varied, so +7 initiative makes huge difference even on high dex build if you want to consistently start the fight first.
Bullet Strap belt is not downside, you can use other belt and reload for 11AP more if you want Doctor's pouch for some reason. It's just too good to pass, especially since you can switch ammo types. Having something too good to pass is an upside
Crit special attack with smart .44 will delete anything as well, costs 1/3 of electroshock on bullet time, non-crit can kill things as well, pistols have access to Rapid Fire which is absolutely devastating against single target and for electroshock to shine, you need lucky roll on special effect.
It's true bullet time shines later in the game, that's why I advice to not go Versatility route and stick to perception.
The fact Stasis benefits everyone is not relevant, what is important here is the Stasis is specifically even better for firearms pistols because Bullet Time is a buff (very powerful buff) and Stasis, in addition to everything else, extends buff duration. 2 turns of Bullet Time is enough to win most of encounters in the game.

As for anecdotes, I cleared entire upper floor of Lunatic Mall in 3 turns using .44 on level 22-ish and insta deleted every arena fight with rapid fire.

And I strongly disagree with "slightly better turn 1". It's not slightly better, it's absolutely devastating turn 1 and turn 2 with no counter and leaves energy weapons behind in every aspect.

Not saying Energy weapons are bad, or universally worse than firearms btw, they obviously have their uses, unique gameplay, better reward for critting, better for consistent fights, better for drug junkies and are cool. Just want to have fair assessment of both playstyles and firearms, in my opinion, dominate energy weapons during first 2 turns and have many other reasons to pick over lazors.