Messages

46

Builds / Re: Titan - MAX CON, throwing build on Dominating

« on: December 11, 2020, 08:47:02 pm »

Whatever do you mean? It's minmaxing at it's finest! When minmaxing glass-cannons, I minimize defense and maximize offense. With this abomination, I minimized offense and maximized defense 

And yeah, Foundry is still the go to place. The meat merchant sells 5 gizzards per refresh after the Beast is defeated.

47

Builds / Re: The Fastest Hammer in the South - Hammer ninja glass cannon

« on: December 10, 2020, 11:19:20 am »

I forgot about the psi changes thing,
did you used Metathermics for cryostatis only?
and why do you points on MT all that much? I thought most of the buff/debuff doesn't really scale off it?

Yeah, Cryostasis for exactly one fight - Magnar. But I forgot to grab it before going in and didin't feel like sailing all the way back to a Rift. So I just ran circles around him instead.

The chance for Contraction to backfire does scale off effective Temporal Manipulation. I think at 55 TM it's 60% and at 150 TM it's down to 30%, the lowest it will go.

That makes sense, after all that 190 points of Yours are from pure ability, not synergy.
That "overcap" info misleaded me, sry bout that.

no problemo

48

Builds / Re: The Fastest Hammer in the South - Hammer ninja glass cannon

« on: December 10, 2020, 10:24:32 am »

That's synergy between skills, like when psi schools are boosting each other, that kind of thing. Bonus to effective skill score from a stat is not synergy.

49

Builds / Re: The Fastest Hammer in the South - Hammer ninja glass cannon

« on: December 10, 2020, 10:10:18 am »

My dude, effective skill score  and its effects keep scaling past 160.

50

Builds / Titan - MAX CON, throwing build on Dominating

« on: December 10, 2020, 09:55:51 am »

This build will force you to forget the feeling of the F9 key under your finger.

Become indomitable. Unbreakable and unmovable. Impervious to damage and impossible to kill. Stand tall amidst a sea of enemies and let those fools shatter themselves against the tungsten monolith that is your body. Watch as foes throw everything they have against you, but achieve nothing. You are both the last to act and the last man standing.

Massive health, healing, heavy armor. The three key components that forge this build into a behemoth of survivability.

Shrug off hails of bullets, ignore crossbow bolts and laugh, as enemies, having exhausted all their ammunition, are forced to attack you with their bare fists.
Out of bolts: https://i.imgur.com/RTUpwfG.jpg
Out of bullets: https://i.imgur.com/lmWNXeH.jpg
Out of batteries: https://i.imgur.com/RFgjDez.jpg

Withstand barrages of melee attacks and be the one to deliver the last blow of the fight, every fight.
Gladiator: https://i.imgur.com/nI5PqhA.jpg
Invictus: https://i.imgur.com/rzMxTY0.jpg

Spit in the face of glass cannon builds and embrace attrition battle as your one and only way of waging war against all you face. This is the way of the MAX CON tank build, on Dominating.

IMMORTAL
With 18 Constitution, Juggernaut and Bodybuilding this build has over 1100 HP. Four-digit HP on Dom. Damn.
You can make plenty of mistakes throughout a battle and still come up on top, due to the massive buffer having this much HP provides. Apart from a very small handful of Though Controller bosses, nothing in the game can OTK this build. Plus 18 CON also buffs Conditioning, but more on that later.
 
INDISSOLUBLE
Have you ever specced into Fast Metabolism? Of course you haven't. And neither have I, at least not before I played this build. When specced it provides a +45% bonus to all healing received, not just from the Hypos. And it's multiplicative with the +25% bonus from the Doctor feat. Neat.
So, let's see what keeps this build going throughout the fight:

• A Regenerative Vest at 160 quality regenerates 53 HP every turn when you end a turn below 70% HP. Regardless of quality, the charge will only be enough for 10 turns. Power Management does not prolong the duration of healing. So, with specced Fast Metabolism it heals 77 HP per turn. That's 770 HP over a course of a fight.
• I love multiplicative bonus stacking, regardless what the multiplied bonuses are. With both Fast Metabolism and Doctor, Advanced Health Hypos now heal for 135 HP and Super Health Hypos for 270 HP.
• Marsh Honey is a cute lil' addition. ~4 HP each turn for 10 turns at the start of combat. Is it worth subjecting yourself to Locust swarms for some Marsh Honey? Well, you don't really have a choice - no stealth and all that. 40 HP total. Enjoy the insects.
• There's also regenerative mixture, but it comes very late. There's one dose you can find pre-DC. ~36 HP per turn, for 6 turns. ~217 HP total.

So, with all the consumables and when under 70% health, this heals 117 HP per turn plus an extra 270 HP every 12 turns.
 
INDOMITABLE
In Combat Stats window, under protection tab, you can check out your Damage Resistance (DR), Damage Threshold (DT) and Damage Reduction (the number in parenthesis listed next to DR/DT) for each damage type. In short:

• DR - comes from armor. Higher is better. Mechanical damage DR is capped at 95%. Which means only 5% of mechanical damage will be dealt.
• DT - comes from armor. Higher is better. Subtracts a flat amount from damage dealt.
• Damage Reduction - comes from feats, consumables and gear. Lower is better. This is a multiplier, so a 30% Damage Reduction means that incoming damage will be reduced to 30%.
• When calculating damage dealt, either DR or DT will be used, depending on which offers more protection. Damage Reduction is applied afterwards.
• There are attacks and abilities which partially bypass or ignore DR and DT. For example, W2C ammo ignores 65% of mechanical DR/DT and Neural Overload ignores Electrical DR/DT completely.
• There aren't any attacks that bypass or ignore Damage Reduction. However, Damage Reduction can be modified by some status effects, such as Leper poison, which directly increases mechanical Damage Reduction, thus increases damage received.

So, let's stack the shit out of DR/DT and Damage Reduction to see how it holds up under fire.
 
IMPREVIOUS
I do not like metal armor. It sucks ass. It inflicts high penalties to Movement Points and Stealth, it's heavy and expensive to make. BUT. It does one thing spectacularly - protect against damage. And with no mobility whatsoever, protection we will need.
The primary set of metal armor consists of:

• A triple reinforced, tungsten metal armor with a Regenerative Vest.
• A tungsten metal helmet with a regular, non-shaded visor for extra protection from critical hits.
• Reinforced tungsten metal boots.

Tungsten metal armor easily nets you 95% DR and by lategame, over 60 DT, against mechanical damage. Being highly resistant to mechanical damage makes survival much easier - it is the most common damage type in the game after all. Tungsten also provides great heat DR (+70%) and okay energy DR (~40%).
 
A secondary set of metal armor should be made from either Tichrome or Super Steel and will be used when fighting robot enemies. Tichrome and Super Steel provide excellent protection against damage types commonly dealt by robots at the cost of lower protection against mechanical damage.
 
INDESTRUCTABLE
Now on Damage Reduction and why it's good. Remember how I said that mechanical DR is capped at 95%? Well, those 5% can hurt quite a lot.

When a Naga Protector is clobbering you for 700 damage per hit, twice a turn, that's 70 damage per turn. And if there's 4 Naga Protectors on your ass, then you're getting pounded for 280 damage per turn. That hurts.
In cases such as these, Damage Reduction saves the day. Mushroom brew, Aegis, Heavy lifting belt and specced Conditioning with 18 CON bring mechanical Damage Reduction down to 42%. Thus 280 damage is down to ~120 damage per turn. Now that is a lot more manageable.

Damage Reduction is also godsent when facing Though Controllers. They have a nasty habit of casting Neural Overload and Bilocation, both of which deal electrical damage and ignore DR/DT. Hurt like hell too, especially Bilocation. To help with that, at level 26, pick up Tempered: Electricity for a 30% Reduction against electrical damage. So, the next time you see a Lunatic cast Bilocation, pop a Morphine - together with Aegis and Tempered: Electricity you'll only receive 5% of Bilocation damage. Hard drugs DO protect against your inner demons.
Here's what it looks in practice: https://i.imgur.com/1OSPO2u.jpg
 
IMPOTENT
This build deals shit damage. With all those stat points, feats and skill points going into defense, there's not much left for offense. Can't use melee or ranged weapons due to appropriate stats being so low. Psi is out of the question too, as it reduces HP by 20%. The only things that are left are Grenades, Caltrops and Mines. Neither scale off stats and skills and require minimal feat investment to be effective.

• Grenades. Throwing only raises the accuracy with which you can throw a grenade. Three-Pointer gives grenades a critical chance and raises it depending on effective throwing, but with 7 (6) DEX it's not gonna be much. It's a testament of how powerful grenades are, when they can carry a build with barely any other means of offense.
• Poisonous Caltrops succeed where grenades do not. Evasion reduces grenade AoE damage by up to 85%, but there's no evading Caltrops or Poison. Thus, they're very effective against Evasive enemies. Plus, even if you remain stationary, enemy AI likes to bob in and out of LoS with their spare MP, accumulating poison stacks and suffering mechanical damage.
• Quick Tinkering is the only reason this build uses mines. Grenades on cooldown? Melee enemies closing in? Set a mine next to yourself and walk over it. I'd call that suicidal, if not for the fact that Mk. V frag mine barely tickles this build through all the armor.

By the way, to wear tungsten metal armor without AP penalties, you need to have an effective strength score of 9. With mushroom brew, this build has 8. But since throwing a grenade costs 15 AP and using a consumable is 10 AP, I'm perfectly fine with that.
 
INEVITABLE
How does having high defenses, massive HP and lots of healing, combined with low damage output plays in practice? Slowly, that's how. Nearly every single combat encounter is a drawn-out battle of attrition, in which you win by out-surviving the enemy.

• Heavy armor and stacked Damage Reduction make every point of HP very valuable. With 95% DR and 43% Damage Reduction, enemies must output over 4600 mechanical damage to deal 100 mechanical damage to your HP. Four thousand six hundred points of damage. Just to deal under 10% of your HP.
• Any healing you receive is similarly valuable. Once Regenerative Vest kicks in, it usually takes enemies several turns to deal the damage you've just healed back. Oh, and remember that 120 damage that the 4 Naga Protectors can deal in a turn? You heal back 77 of that each turn. Effectively, that's just 43 damage a turn.
• There's a panic button too - Morphine. Together with all other bonuses to Damage Reduction, you become totally immune to mechanical damage for 3 turns. That's 230 HP from the Regenerative Vest. Plus, the after-effect of Morphine gets cut in half by Damage Reduction, as it's mechanical damage.
• Poison immunity! And immunity to damage from Hypertoxicity. Irongut, Canned Mushrooms and Aegis provides total immunity to bio damage. Not exclusive to this build, but a nice addition when facing certain enemies. Made the fight with Black Crawler interesting as both of us could barely damage each other
• Of the psionic enemies, only Though Controllers and psi crabs pose any danger. The rest don't deal enough damage.
• Thick Skull protects against stuns.
• -10% chance to get crit.

There's more to say about this build and how it dealt with various combat encounters, it's weaknesses and the obstacles it faced at different stages of the game and how I overcame them, but this post is long enough as it is.
 
To sum it all up - it was a very interesting experience. I mostly play glass cannons and glass cannon derivatives and this build sits at the extreme opposite end of the build spectrum. I haven't brought this build to completion yet. DC is tedious enough, without having to go through it with a slow-ass tank. Maybe one day. Tchort will be interesting.
 
Screenshots:
No videos because most battles are just me standing still and lobbing grenades at enemies. Doesn't make for very exciting viewing.

Magnar status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/CLE97RX.jpg
I'd surround myself with weaker enemies which I'd keep alive to prevent Magnar from coming closer while he died of gas, caltrops and molotovs.
 
Ornstein status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/gQ1XMub.jpg
I don't remember his name. The shaman boss. Gas, caltrops and molotovs. If he lands a double Bilocation, it's game over.
 
Fort Apogee status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/fOyRPEY.jpg
The way to tank this is not to kill the soldiers until the Dreadnaughts are destroyed. The soldiers are quicker and form a traffic jam in the corridor, bodyblocking the Dreads. So, I just let the soldiers fire at me turn after turn after turn, while I threw grenades at Dreadnaughts.
 
4 Naga status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/70qmrH6.jpg
Pain.
 
Beach invasion No. 1 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/RRMCzhr.jpg
Beach invasion No. 2 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/po40h26.jpg
Beach invasion No. 3 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/orb3jcF.jpg
Beach invasion No. 4 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/Mlx1cKI.jpg
Beach invasion No. 5 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/6lWNSZ0.jpg
Supposedly there are over 60 Natives in the 5-th invasion.
No sec troopers died in any of the invasions. My reward for tanking all the damage for them? This one speech bubble: https://i.imgur.com/esn9lbR.jpg
Fuck Aegis.
 
Black Crawler status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/b2wzizm.jpg
My grenades couldn't damage it as it has very high evasion, so a lot of AoE damage gets resisted and whatever damage I did do was regenerated. However, it can't damage me either - I'm immune to bio damage and outheal his mechanical damage. Molotovs and gas saved the day.
 
Grey Army base status: TANK'D
First area: https://i.imgur.com/xONI85Z.jpg
Second area: https://i.imgur.com/NtbofwX.jpg
The second area was the single longest fight in the game for this build. Holy hell it took a long time.

Every single fight with Burrowers. - https://i.imgur.com/dqdweH7.jpg

Lunatic Mall, first floor status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/rD7dHLb.jpg
Lunatic Mall, second floor status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/OmNx4FN.jpg

The build:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgcHAxADAwcAwqAAAB4AAFhZAEdpbFNTTgAAAAAAAFJQCGMWVT4vDignME4bwoNxwrJz4p2gBeKosArfvw
Don't play this.

51

Builds / Re: The Fastest Hammer in the South - Hammer ninja glass cannon

« on: December 09, 2020, 09:42:08 pm »

Enemies running away isn't a problem. This build has enough MP to run down a racehorse 

52

Builds / Re: Timeless - Temporal Manipulation psi build, with Dodge/Evasion on Dominating

« on: December 08, 2020, 07:12:03 pm »

God damn it sheepherder ... now I have to add a section within my FAQ dedicated to your meme/joke build, increasing my work load ... *mumble *mumble ... long backlog *incomprehensible muttering* ... curse you ...

*Angry applaud* Good job!

Thanks 

Not gonna lie that mental image on the toilet seat made me chuckle. Well done. That portrait though looks female to me by the way. 

Ha! I had fun writing that, glad you like it. That portrait seemed kinda unisex to me.

53

Builds / Re: Casino Underrail - a .44 Hammerer build

« on: December 08, 2020, 06:36:45 pm »

Pretty much yeah, a lower AP pistol would have been better suited for the job there, but as you said, that would go against the build concept. My goal here was to only use a .44 Hammerer.

54

Builds / Re: Underrail is a clicker game – 5mm Hawker pistol glass cannon on Dominating

« on: December 07, 2020, 10:35:52 pm »

Thanks man, much appreciated. I'll definitely write more of these. About gimmicky and min/maxed builds alike.

55

Builds / Re: Underrail is a clicker game – 5mm Hawker pistol glass cannon on Dominating

« on: December 07, 2020, 12:57:08 pm »

Ya, I know they're very good. I just don't like them. They're too good. I like playing specialist builds which try to deal all their damage with the primary weapon I've chosen. With Grenadier especially, every build feels like I'm using my primary weapon to mop up after grenades.
As I said, it's a personal preference, both those feats would be really good with any max DEX build.

Btw, where do you get 186q components? With mercantile, Efreitor Hanna sells up to 169q and Constantine up to 164q. The new Waterways dungeon? Or do you craft in DC?

56

Builds / Timeless - Temporal Manipulation psi build, with Dodge/Evasion on Dominating

« on: December 07, 2020, 12:51:34 pm »

Imagine a smelly, damp latrine of an army base, deep underground. Chunks of sickly green paint are peeling off walls and its floors are covered with moldy, time stained tiles. One side is lined with toilet booths and there are pissoirs placed next to a couple of sinks on the opposite side.

It’s pitch black _{(penalty to chance to hit with ranged weapons)} and there’s a lanky dude _{(Nimble: +15% bonus to Dodge/Evasion)} in the corner booth. He is high as a kite _{(Jumping Bean and Adrenaline Shot: +25% and +30% bonus to Dodge/Evasion)}, clad in slimy, green gimp suit _{(Infused Greater Siphoner Leather Armor + Tabi Boots: +120 total to Dodge/Evasion)} and armed with a pair of garish red boxing gloves _{(Boxing Gloves: +15% bonus to Dodge).} Like a deranged ballerina, he is dancing on the rims of a toilet seat - evading every shot _{(Evasive Maneuvers)} and dodging every blow _{(Uncanny Dodge)} with uncanny finesse _{(Precognition: chance to dodge/evade increased by ~35%)}. His outline is fuzzy _{(Personal Cloaking Field: bonus to Evasion)}, blending in with the surrounding walls.

Facing him is a contingent of soldiers. Covered in sticky glitter _{(Chemhaze Grenade: reduces chance to hit with ranged attacks by up to 35% and melee attacks by up to 15%)}, they are scared shitless by his autistic screeching _{(Yell: reduces offensive skills by up to 122)}.

The floor here is covered with bodies of dead soldiers, twisted and torn apart by fucky time magic _{(Temporal Distortion)}. And with each kill, it spread further out on its next victims _{(Continuum Ripple)}, seemingly without end.

https://i.imgur.com/6o6Zd22.jpg
This is the end result of a Temporal Manipulation-only psi build, using dodge and evasion, on Dominating.

A Question of Time
That said, Dodge/Evasion are a bit shit tbh. Especially on Dominating. Enemies get a sizable bonus to their offensive skills, which means they’re much more likely to hit. To avoid the “getting hit” part, your Evasion must be twice and Dodge - trice the attackers. Ouch.
Evasion is also soft-capped at minimum of 40% thc. This can be reduced down to the 10% hard-cap by other means. Dodge can reach the 10% hard-cap from skill alone.
Unfortunately, this 10% is THE hard-cap for both Dodge and Evasion. No amount of self-buffs and enemy debuffs will make the thc go lower. This is non-negotiable.
So, no matter how much you invest into fancy gear or raise your effective dodge/evasion scores or throw debufs at enemies, eventually... you’ll get hit.

Saving Time
And this build really, really does not want to get hit. To deal damage it heavily relies on Tranquility AP cost reduction of psi abilities. This only works when at full HP and any damage removes its effect.
So, to avoid that:

• For ranged attacks - a pair of energy shields: High/High for guns and Low/Low for Crossbows.
• For melee attacks - Uncanny Dodge. Activating this ability causes the next 2 + 1 for 30 effective Dodge melee attacks to miss. And this build has a high effective Dodge. It has a cooldown of 5 turns, but with liberal use of limited Temporal Increment can be reduced to 3-ish.
• Flashbangs and a taser for CC.

In the creative writing exercise, to which I subjected you to at the start of this post, you can find gear and consumables which are used to debuff enemies and to enhance your own dodge/evasion.
Mind you, a psi headband with Magnifying Neuroscopic Filter: Temporal Distortion reduces Dodge by 25%. Too bad, but we need the damage.

Untimely Demise
A rundown on using Temporal Manipulation as a source of damage:
The primary damage dealer is Temporal Distortion.

• It deals Mechanical and Energy damage, while ignoring shields and bypassing 50% damage resistances and threshold.
• It cannot crit.
• Damage is increase by 20% for each Temporal Distortion applied on the target.
• The two damage types it deals is not a single roll divided into two. Instead it is two separate rolls. Each damage type can deal significantly different amounts of damage than the other, depending on the roll.
• When multiple stacks of Temporal Manipulation expire, each rolls damage separately.
• Damage comes after two enemy turns. In other words, after Temporal Distortion is cast, the enemy will have two turns to act and at the end of the second turn, Temporal Distortion will expire and deal damage.

Continuum Ripple is a feat which allows to use Temporal Distortion as an AoE of sorts:

• After Temporal Distortion expires, each stack attempts to spread itself to each enemy within range. The chance of this to happen is 25%. Whether it spreads is determined separately for each enemy. So, if there are 10 enemies within range, each has a 25% chance to get a stack of Temporal Distortion.
• This chance can be raised to 45% with spec points into Continuum Ripple.
• After spreading to another target, the damage of Temporal Distortion stack is reset to base (damage shown in Temporal Distortion tooltip), regardless of what it was on the primary target at the time of expiry.
• If more than one stack of Temporal Distortion spreads to an enemy, the 20% damage bonus is applied for each stack.
• These new stacks can then spread further after expiring 2 turns later.

tl;dr: Temporal Distortion has an unpredictable damage spread, needs to be spammed to deal good damage, has a 2-turn damage delay and is unreliable as an AoE. 6 casts at 90 AP.

Time to go
The 2 turn delay of Temporal Distortion means that unlike other glass cannons, this build cannot simply outkill enemies as they appear within LoS. It needs to survive long enough for Temporal Distortion to do its work. Plus, as this is a single psi school specialist, it also lacks the CC abilities usually available to multi-school psi builds.
Thus Dodge/evasion and TM complement each other well. Dodge/Evasion allows the build to stay unharmed while it spams Temporal Distortion. TM has Precognition which enhances dodge/evasion and Limited Temporal Increment which reduces the CD of Uncanny Dodge. There’s also Stasis. I like Stasis very much; she is my psi-waifu.
Temporal Distortion is also very fun to use. Very different from other damage dealing psi abilities too. Requires planning ahead of time and keeping track of turn order.

Did all the content, didn’t use traps or damage dealing grenades etc. etc.

Screenshots:
Fort Apogee that one time when Temporal Distortion was all the rage:
https://i.imgur.com/U2TvLrl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JlW0xZX.jpg

Faceless Commander ran out of time:
https://i.imgur.com/YinEdH1.jpg

Tchort, after his time:
https://i.imgur.com/3uBB0Pd.jpg

Praetorian Warehouse mission gave me a hard time:
https://i.imgur.com/Fowcqq5.jpg

The timely death of Oyensorm:
https://i.imgur.com/7U1WIjv.jpg

Video:
Magnar. The single hardest fight for this build. It felt good after I beat him after all that time trying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmGwCjNO_oE

The Build:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMDCgMDEAgAwokAAMKgwqBkAAAAABRhDC1VAAAAwqAAwqBFJDkrP8KGKkEPZClXwrzCiMKHRHLCt8Kd4rGMCuK5qAXfvw
Feat order up to lvl 8 is set in stone. After that, pick what you think you need most at that time.
No Blitz, because while on paper Blitz seems to be perfect for this kind of build, on average all it provides is at best, a 1,33 cast of Temporal Distortion every now and then. Blitz drains ALL the MP to generate the 20 AP, regardless of how many MP you have at the moment. So the feat is too situational and high maintenance, because you need to ration your MP to be ~60 in order not to waste MP, then you need to have means to regenerate the lost MP (in this case it'd be contraction, sprint and jumping beans), but those means may be on CD or just not enough. MP is probably the strongest means of defense in this game. So, in the end, even if you spec into Blitz, the 20 AP are not worth the 60 MP.

57

Builds / Re: Underrail is a clicker game – 5mm Hawker pistol glass cannon on Dominating

« on: December 06, 2020, 10:12:29 pm »

Yeah, SMGs are no doubt better. But this was a challenge run with gimmick build. I really wanted to make 5mm pistols work.
Plus I've already done a 5mm Jaguar with 18dex and 8ap bursts run before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8np2McLGPYg. Made some mistakes in that SMG build. But it worked out alright.

No Grenadier and Three-Pointer because I don't like using damage dealing grenades. It's a personal preference. They'd be great here, though.

58

Builds / Re: Casino Underrail - a .44 Hammerer build

« on: December 06, 2020, 03:19:57 pm »

Ring-a-ding-ding, pipeworker.

59

Builds / Re: Casino Underrail - a .44 Hammerer build

« on: December 04, 2020, 03:44:15 pm »

Thanks, I will. I've played some of these a while back, so it takes a bit to remember the how's and the why's of each one.

60

Builds / Casino Underrail - a .44 Hammerer build

« on: December 04, 2020, 02:01:12 pm »

The Big Dick option of firearm pistols, .44 Hammer has an absurdly wide damage range and high AP cost. Critical hits sometimes deal less damage than regular hits and a single shot can either destroy an enemy or barely tickle them.
If you like gambling, this weapon is right up your alley. The payoff? Two-shotting a Dreadnaught on Dominating difficulty with one of the weakest weapon types in the game.

To prove that I’m not exaggerating, take a gander at this screenshot. In one turn I managed to score a hit for 358 damage and a hit for 1132 damage. That’s a difference of over three times!
https://i.imgur.com/7TgGkg7.jpg

But let’s not leave everything up to luck. If I’m going to gamble, I’ll be using loaded dice.

An Ace Up My Sleeve
Special Attacks and Special Attack damage bonus. This bonus is applied only when a Special Attack is used. It comes from goggles crafted with Smart Lenses (~40%) and from Smart Module (~60%) attachment on a weapon. Regular attacks get none of it.
Firearm pistols have access to 5 Special Attacks:

• Aimed Shot – a guaranteed critical hit (3 turn CD)
• Kneecap Shot - removes enemy MP and inflicts a DoT (5 turn CD, down to 3 with spec)
• Point Shot - a shot at 50% AP cost with reduced accuracy (1 turn CD)
• Rapid Fire - three shots at 150% AP cost with reduced accuracy (3 turn CD)
• Execute - a short range, high damage attack on Stunned/Incapacitated enemies (5 turn CD, down to 3 with spec)

One problem. All of these have cooldowns. So, let’s try and fix that. With Expedition, we get access to Limited Temporal Increment - a psi power which reduces all active cooldowns by one turn. It too has a cooldown of 3 turns, but Future Oriented reduces its cooldown down to 2 turns.

Put My Money Where My Mouth Is
If rolling dice to determine whether an attack hits or misses, and whether it blows heads off or stubs toes isn’t enough, let’s add more random to the mix. Critical hits. But this time, if I want some of that BIG DMG, I’ll have to work for it.
You see, one of the main sources of critical chance for ranged weapons are goggles made with Seeker Lenses. With up to 18%-20% critical chance from goggles alone, by lategame a lot of glass cannons can comfortably reach over 90% crit chance. But this time, I’m using goggles for special attack damage bonus, and end up missing a good chunk of critical chance.
Enter Steadfast Aim. A feat which adds critical chance based on how much it costs to fire a pistol, and it costs a lot to fire a .44 Hammerer. Trouble is, it has a STR requirement of 5 and it’s not a stat mechanical pistols normally need. This build is also a bit strapped for stat points as it needs 14 DEX for attack AP cost reduction, 9 CON for Survival Instincts (another source of critical chance) and 11 PER for Scrutinous (again, more crit chance).
Thus, with a heavy heart and in the name of gambling, I make it a 3 INT build. A 3 INT build which NEEDS crafting. The things I do for BIG DMG.
That gets me ~85% critical chance. Not bad.

Hedging my bets
.44 Hammerer has a base AP cost of 32. To make use of the Special Attack damage bonus, high critical chance and to shoot as many times as I can to offset low damage rolls and misses due to mediocre Guns skill, I need to reduce it as much as possible.
A Rapid Reloader reduces base AP cost to 26. Dexterity further reduces it down to 18 and Gunslinger leaves it a comfortable 15 AP per shot. At 70 AP per turn with Contraction, that’s 4,5 shots. Point Shot costs x0,5 AP of a regular attack and Rapid Fire - x1,5 AP. It all fits quite nicely.

Sweeten up the pot
With that out of the way, I head over to Fort Apogee and pledge myself to the cause of Protectorate in exchange for a can of gun lube (+10% more damage for 50 shots).
Execute requires Opportunist. A very situational +25% damage bonus, as this build has barely any ways to proc it.
And Ambush to top off critical chance, but it is not necessary and pretty much anything else can be taken instead.

High Roller
All in all, the build had garbage early game. 3 INT on a pistol build is not ideal as it delays crafting a good deal. .44 Hammerers NEED Rapid Reloader and it’s rare to find one as loot or for sale.
But past midgame? Each and every attack is like pulling a lever on a slot machine! Will it hit? Will it crit? How much damage will it do!? Let’s find out in Casino Underrail!

Videos of the build:
Fort Apogee. A gambling addict storms the main base of Protectorate in South Underrail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCe3gPw2qOE

Lunatic Mall. All in one go, no reloads. I have to say that I do not appreciate Lunatics using Molotov Cocktails against me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTOC6KoT2M

The Build:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgUOAwkJAwPCoEQAAAAAwqAAAAAAZ8KHETZ1AAAAwqAAAGcrYjEBFx5bwocmSxFZwogCOsK1wqRQ4p67AuKgvQTip74J378
I played it before the Psi patch. This is the updated version. No MT or PK and maxed TM.
With the exception of The Beast, no damage dealing grenades, traps or smoke bombs past Depot A.
Did all the content – Apogee, native bosses, 4naga, Tchort OTK, Faceless Commander etc.