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91

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by Vokial on May 25, 2026, 10:38:40 am »

Snipe is definitely a must - the opening should commence while stealthed from an already dark spot (which is a lot easier with a rifle due to it's range) for Ambush, then turn on Shooting Spree and proceed to claim the mandatory -2 member tax on the enemy with Snipe + Aim Shot. Snipe is invaluable for mobs that are immune to crits and also does even more damage that Aim Shot. If you can avoid being targeted during the enemy turn (by standing behind cover of out of their attack range for example), then just end your turn with Stealth whenever you can, so you can Snipe again in the next. Interloper is an absolute must for moving out of cover after starting with otherwise zero MP and the speed bonus when moving around boosts your Stealth in such a way that no skill points can. You just pass by enemies that would otherwise detect you much faster due to it. Once you grab that, you never want to stealth without it, I would highly recommend you to integrate that into your build and would easily switch out Sprint for it.

As for psi, TM is the most important, but I like Metathermics due to just how powerful Thermo-D is. And you can enjoy it at it's maximum 100% effectiveness with just 140 points. It is super satisfying to cause that much havoc against muties or Ironheads around a barrel, taking out multiple enemies with a single shot and hear the explosion and each death sound in chorus all at once. Also the fire damage on actively burning enemies (that are also under Fear for 3 turns) are literally walking corpses due to the DoT fire damage coming from a shot with such high damage. It's spectacular and I can never get bored of it. I remember soloing the final assault against the Protectorate with the Drones and popped a Dreadnought with Thermo-D and my speakers nearly exploded too. I reloaded several times to experience it again before moving on with the mission. It's just that good.
And for robots, armor piercing bullets just kills them. If they come from a sniper rifle I mean. Because at the end of the day, it's best to use your AP for shots and your psi points for Contractions and Increments.

But I admit, Psychokinesis has a few things going for it as well when it comes to crowd control and it would be interesting to see what it can grow to. Yet since our WIL is not high, we won't be masters of that, while we use Thermo-D to the same efficiency as someone with effective 320 points and 18 WIL. And it pairs great with the rifle as it's ideal to drain the HP of the tankiest mob of the enemy group.

92

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by laeski on May 25, 2026, 06:08:19 am »

I think it's not a good idea to waste two feat slots on grenades. Those are only meant to be used for crowd control and your pistol or sniper should do the damage. Even high-tier HE and Frag are not that powerful and you can only throw a single one in a turn anyway.
When I was planning out a pistol build, I invited Traps into the setup instead. They seemed so much better, since I could still toss any Flash or Molotov if needed and they seemed immensely better + Traps doesn't cost AP if you prepared the battlefield in advance while stealthed + you can put down as much as you want. They can even trigger each other, so multiple can go off. And you have all kinds, from Crawler poisoned BT, to Incendiary (guaranteed Fear + Ambush trigger) or you can just put 3 Frags together to guarantee the kill. Trap Expert is awesome and Quick Tinkering is super helpful against incoming melee's. And so does Kneecap Shot with the pistol. Therefore I would either focus on that (especially without PSI).

On the other hand, as I tuned the build, I realized, the sniper and the pistol make a really nice pair. Sharpshooter benefits both guns and so does all the CC ability. This led me to prioritize the rifle and just use the pistol as a sidearm. Mainly for two reasons: cheap Kneecap Shots and getting the Initiative bonus with Gunslinger. The sniper rifle simply outclassed the pistol when it came to dealing damage and soon I realized that devoting into this gun completely, would make me a lot more efficient as well.
See, the more you use the rifle, the better it becomes. In every scenario, it's just better to use that instead of anything else. It's a special weapon that is unique in a sense that it lowers your cooldowns when you kil something with it due to Shooting Spree. So to maximize the gains, you just need to drop enemies with Snipe and Aim Shot, throw a Molotov and mop up the rest with regular crits due to them being lid up and Ambush kicks in. You get AP refunds from Shooting Spree + Rapid Reloader and cooldown reduction with each kill, to use Snipe and Aim Shot more. Which again does the reductions for you - it's a cycle that can be boosted even further with Temporal Increments. So the sniper rifle is not just an opener sidearm - it should be your main instrument. Using any other weapon (even the pistol) will just break the cycle in battle, it won't benefit you in the ways mentioned above, thus never be the better option. I started out with a pistol, but came to the conclusion that full devotion to the rifle is the way to go. Once you experience it, fighting against waves of crowds will be your favorite thing due to just how satisfying it is. Every action has meaning, every bullet gives results. The one shot per enemy policy is something you can rely and plan with. It's awesome. Also you're nowhere near harms way, due to the superior range - often giving you several turns of advantage (sometimes even drop combat mode while falling back after restealth, then again that is even possbible with a Flashbang) instead of pistoling from point blank and getting hit next turn.

Here's the build:
https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0
It is specialized to boosting AP and cooldown reduction with using Thermodynamic Destabilization to turn the tides immediately at the start. Can switch out Premeditation or maybe Advanced Psy Empathy to Polymath if you want due to the recent update that makes decent crafting require more skill points.

Had to ponder about this a bit, and made this: underrail.info/build/?HgUFBwMNBQjCoABdAAAAAMKgS10AAFpaKjBaAMKMAMKLAAA8KwEZfzk1An4zSyrCvcKHP2dywrXCpOKnvgrir7wE4q-9Ad-8

Took some ideas from your build, but changed the metathermics to psychokinesis. I understand that the thermodynamic destabilization gives a nice boom AoE, but I was thinking that psychokinesis gives more CC abilities. Telekinetic grounding, force field, electrokinesis, electrokinetic imprint, and then the psychokinetic chain could give some AoE. It's only 156 damage transferred through the chain, but it's in the secondary category of things. Psi is mainly for CC, and self buffing now. Also, electrokinesis helps with bots a lot.

How's that then?

93

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by laeski on May 24, 2026, 05:57:25 pm »

I think it's not a good idea to waste two feat slots on grenades. Those are only meant to be used for crowd control and your pistol or sniper should do the damage. Even high-tier HE and Frag are not that powerful and you can only throw a single one in a turn anyway.
When I was planning out a pistol build, I invited Traps into the setup instead. They seemed so much better, since I could still toss any Flash or Molotov if needed and they seemed immensely better + Traps doesn't cost AP if you prepared the battlefield in advance while stealthed + you can put down as much as you want. They can even trigger each other, so multiple can go off. And you have all kinds, from Crawler poisoned BT, to Incendiary (guaranteed Fear + Ambush trigger) or you can just put 3 Frags together to guarantee the kill. Trap Expert is awesome and Quick Tinkering is super helpful against incoming melee's. And so does Kneecap Shot with the pistol. Therefore I would either focus on that (especially without PSI).

On the other hand, as I tuned the build, I realized, the sniper and the pistol make a really nice pair. Sharpshooter benefits both guns and so does all the CC ability. This led me to prioritize the rifle and just use the pistol as a sidearm. Mainly for two reasons: cheap Kneecap Shots and getting the Initiative bonus with Gunslinger. The sniper rifle simply outclassed the pistol when it came to dealing damage and soon I realized that devoting into this gun completely, would make me a lot more efficient as well.
See, the more you use the rifle, the better it becomes. In every scenario, it's just better to use that instead of anything else. It's a special weapon that is unique in a sense that it lowers your cooldowns when you kil something with it due to Shooting Spree. So to maximize the gains, you just need to drop enemies with Snipe and Aim Shot, throw a Molotov and mop up the rest with regular crits due to them being lid up and Ambush kicks in. You get AP refunds from Shooting Spree + Rapid Reloader and cooldown reduction with each kill, to use Snipe and Aim Shot more. Which again does the reductions for you - it's a cycle that can be boosted even further with Temporal Increments. So the sniper rifle is not just an opener sidearm - it should be your main instrument. Using any other weapon (even the pistol) will just break the cycle in battle, it won't benefit you in the ways mentioned above, thus never be the better option. I started out with a pistol, but came to the conclusion that full devotion to the rifle is the way to go. Once you experience it, fighting against waves of crowds will be your favorite thing due to just how satisfying it is. Every action has meaning, every bullet gives results. The one shot per enemy policy is something you can rely and plan with. It's awesome. Also you're nowhere near harms way, due to the superior range - often giving you several turns of advantage (sometimes even drop combat mode while falling back after restealth, then again that is even possbible with a Flashbang) instead of pistoling from point blank and getting hit next turn.

Here's the build:
https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0
It is specialized to boosting AP and cooldown reduction with using Thermodynamic Destabilization to turn the tides immediately at the start. Can switch out Premeditation or maybe Advanced Psy Empathy to Polymath if you want due to the recent update that makes decent crafting require more skill points.

Hmm hmm.... You make valid point with the grenades. My idea of a build stopped at level 18 or 20. You can use the sniper as a tool with 14 dex and 10 perception, but it's gonna suffer some precision there, but not a huge amount, I think. Taking anatomically aware scope and rapid reloader for a Reaper model would be great. One shotting most things that get in the sights. Problem is, if a zerg happens, then it could cave in the pressure. So, to counter that, bullet time and a good sidearm is needed. With 14 dex and a .44 hammerer, With 14 dex, the base 32 AP goes down to 23, and if I calculate correctly, the rapid reloader for that gives -20% AP cost, so 18 or 19, depending if it takes floor or ceiling. Let's say 18, so from that activating bullet time gives you 9AP attacks and fatal throw gives back 18 points, so it'd be 68 AP, and from that we take the knife throw, which gives the pistol 68 - 10 (with knife thrower's glove and -AP with dex) = 58 AP of shooting. Not considering reloading, you'd get 58 / 9 = 6 shots off with that. That'd cover the close range quite well.

So, I don't really know if I'd be kneecapping myself with putting points in DEX rather than PER, but I like to have a balanced short and long range capabilities. Have to see, if it causes problems, and then just roll back with my saves, if it proves to be bad.

But, I'm gonna change the grenade feats to something better. Maybe snipe, and quick pockets (which is quite good value for what it is).

From grenades, I'm mainly going to use gas grenades (cryo, toxic) and incendiary for some good CC and debuffing. Throwing knives are going to be finishers for some extra AP. 25mm grenade launcher for some AoE stuff, if need be (not really sure, but grenade launchers are easy to use, even without the feats). Then the rifle and pistol. I don't really want to carry traps around that much, maybe some regular bear traps, so that I can block off some corridors potentially. They can be used without skill, and the enemy will just walk into them, if there's no way around them. Also, swapping the fatal throw health threshold specialization for both shooting spree specializations seems to be far better investment.

94

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by Vokial on May 24, 2026, 04:49:00 pm »

I think it's not a good idea to waste two feat slots on grenades. Those are only meant to be used for crowd control and your pistol or sniper should do the damage. Even high-tier HE and Frag are not that powerful and you can only throw a single one in a turn anyway.
When I was planning out a pistol build, I invited Traps into the setup instead. They seemed so much better, since I could still toss any Flash or Molotov if needed and they seemed immensely better + Traps doesn't cost AP if you prepared the battlefield in advance while stealthed + you can put down as much as you want. They can even trigger each other, so multiple can go off. And you have all kinds, from Crawler poisoned BT, to Incendiary (guaranteed Fear + Ambush trigger) or you can just put 3 Frags together to guarantee the kill. Trap Expert is awesome and Quick Tinkering is super helpful against incoming melee's. And so does Kneecap Shot with the pistol. Therefore I would either focus on that (especially without PSI).

On the other hand, as I tuned the build, I realized, the sniper and the pistol make a really nice pair. Sharpshooter benefits both guns and so does all the CC ability. This led me to prioritize the rifle and just use the pistol as a sidearm. Mainly for two reasons: cheap Kneecap Shots and getting the Initiative bonus with Gunslinger. The sniper rifle simply outclassed the pistol when it came to dealing damage and soon I realized that devoting into this gun completely, would make me a lot more efficient as well.
See, the more you use the rifle, the better it becomes. In every scenario, it's just better to use that instead of anything else. It's a special weapon that is unique in a sense that it lowers your cooldowns when you kil something with it due to Shooting Spree. So to maximize the gains, you just need to drop enemies with Snipe and Aim Shot, throw a Molotov and mop up the rest with regular crits due to them being lid up and Ambush kicks in. You get AP refunds from Shooting Spree + Rapid Reloader and cooldown reduction with each kill, to use Snipe and Aim Shot more. Which again does the reductions for you - it's a cycle that can be boosted even further with Temporal Increments. So the sniper rifle is not just an opener sidearm - it should be your main instrument. Using any other weapon (even the pistol) will just break the cycle in battle, it won't benefit you in the ways mentioned above, thus never be the better option. I started out with a pistol, but came to the conclusion that full devotion to the rifle is the way to go. Once you experience it, fighting against waves of crowds will be your favorite thing due to just how satisfying it is. Every action has meaning, every bullet gives results. The one shot per enemy policy is something you can rely and plan with. It's awesome. Also you're nowhere near harms way, due to the superior range - often giving you several turns of advantage (sometimes even drop combat mode while falling back after restealth, then again that is even possbible with a Flashbang) instead of pistoling from point blank and getting hit next turn.

Here's the build:
https://stygiansoftware.com/forums/index.php?topic=10837.0
It is specialized to boosting AP and cooldown reduction with using Thermodynamic Destabilization to turn the tides immediately at the start. Can switch out Premeditation or maybe Advanced Psy Empathy to Polymath if you want due to the recent update that makes decent crafting require more skill points.

95

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by laeski on May 24, 2026, 03:25:56 pm »

Generally you are better off with throwing gauntlet and using throwing knives to restore AP. But honestly it does not matter what you put into your offhand with firearm pistols build. They are that strong.

As for specifics.

Polymath feels like waste.
10 int for specialist .. its very strong feat sure. But power from it comes so late I generally prefer not to pick it and have easeir early/mid game (Which are the hardest on DOM).
I would take gunslinger earlier. In place of recklessness maybe?

Hmmmmm.... Seems like the planner isn't working properly with the specialist being moved around. Oh well... Had to go back to the old underrail.info and here I use "Expertise" as "Specialist" feat. underrail.info/build/?HgUMAwMKAwrCoADCoAAAAADCoFVVAABkZGRkZAAAAAAAAAABFyc6AlF-w5JLTzPDkxY-wrMxXuKkjgXiqLoF4r2EBd-8

I was planning on having W&S ASAP as my main, refurbish it at some point, and then craft a better one when possible. In the second slot, I was planning on using mainly sniper rifle, as it synergizes with sharpshooter feat. Pistol for close range, sniper for long range, if I haven't moved in turn, and for opening shots. Going to also take a 5 or 6 shell 25mm grenade launcher for some rapid AoE damange, as it requires 5 strength to use, and throwing glove would actually be good addition. Doesn't weigh really that much, but gives a lot.

Polymath is.... Well, it's a free 160 points to 1 skill. So, I swapped it out, so that I can take Aimed shot and Gunslinger at lvl 1. Specialized is something I want, cause the double specialization points is just too good. Took a pack rathound also, for extra space, switched point and rapid fire out to more throwing centric (fatal throw and remote surgeon, for AP recovery).  For the other 15 points in specialization, that is not visible in the link, I was thinking of adding the 5/5 in remote surgeon and maybe 10/10 for critical power, or ambush. Might be ambush, for more consistent crits.

So, how about it?

96

Builds / Re: Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by Valor on May 24, 2026, 12:48:54 pm »

Generally you are better off with throwing gauntlet and using throwing knives to restore AP. But honestly it does not matter what you put into your offhand with firearm pistols build. They are that strong.

As for specifics.

Polymath feels like waste.
10 int for specialist .. its very strong feat sure. But power from it comes so late I generally prefer not to pick it and have easeir early/mid game (Which are the hardest on DOM).
I would take gunslinger earlier. In place of recklessness maybe?

97

Builds / Pistol / Sniper build advice / comments

« Last post by laeski on May 24, 2026, 07:11:20 am »

Hello!

I'd like to get some comments on the my build. Been pondering on a build that could clear the game all the way through to Heavy Duty.

Some background. My first playthrough was with a full PSI build, when they were OP. Second was a sword / throwing knife stealth build. Both of these were prior heavy duty dlc release. As a side note, was wondering if the sword / throwing knife would be viable for a new start all the way through to Heavy Duty, considering that int 10 is really damn good now for polymath and specialized feats.

Third is a chem pistol (acid) / crossbow. Aim was to entangle enemies in acid and then deadly snare them down. But, as it is very AP heavy build and requires preparation to entangle / trap enemies, it's not feeling that good. Having trouble with Expansion DLC's colossal crabs and other heavy armored enemies.

SO! My new plan was to start anew again, but this time go with pistols and sniper rifles. Idea is to utilize pistol mainly (bullet time, W&S free attack, pistol whip), and have sniper as backup. Pistol for close range, and sniper for round openers, if enemy is far away, but visible. Throwing for caltrops and grenades. Link to the build here (using the new builder from cannedbean29 for Heavy Duty feats): cannedbean29.github.io/UnderrailBuilderRemake/?HgUMAwMKAwrCoADCoAAAAADCoFVVAABkZGRkZAAAAAAAAADDpwExOgIXfsOSS8OoM1lbFsKzPlPinKQK4qSOBeKllAXip74F4r2EBd-8

I'd like comments on whether this would work for heavy duty (also comments on whether throwing knife build is viable for heavy duty)? I haven't ever even started Heavy Duty, so I'd like to go through it all with this. Difficulty is Dominating. There's still 130 points left, so most of them are going to Mercantile, and don't know about the rest.

98

Development Log / Re: Dev Log #16: Targeting and Projectiles

« Last post by 2001_Toyota_Tacoma on May 22, 2026, 07:03:28 am »

A bit of a preemptive question but will dialogue work any differently from the first game? Besides the intimidation feats, it and persuasion weren't extremely useful barring a few choices. I'm wondering if there would be ways to go through the game in some part without combat or have it take a slight role in ways certain quests could be completed. Just a thought, in the end I'm not making the game. I just think it'd be neat.

99

Builds / Re: Jack of all crowd controls (versality chemgun + grenade launcher)

« Last post by Enchat on May 21, 2026, 05:51:56 am »

Ok, after finishing the game with this build I've several more things to add

Additional feats:
Point shot - garbage, extremely unreliable, at the end of the game we will have 10 AP attack for chemguns, this ability allows us to save 5 AP for, but it miss oftener than it hits, and its exacerbating the late game problem of chempistols - 8 rounds magazine and constant need for reloading. Although if you are going to take High technicalities and carrying smart plasma/electroshock pistols - this maybe of some value

Execute - it works much better than previous one, but still it is hard to use it because of how many conditions need to be fulfilled, the hardest one - close range for 3 agi build.

Steadfast Aim - the value depends on many factors, but according to my calculations its about ~7.6% dps increase for high-end chemguns. The same amount you will get from high quality infused rathound leather armor. Much better that two previous options

Future orientation - on paper it doesn't sound like a big deal, but in practice it makes a big difference. With it, the uptime of temporal contraction will raise to almost 100%, and it increases the amount of cooked shots - our main source of damage and control. Highly recommended, it should be in all chemgun builds

High technicalities - With this feast at the end of the game smart plasma pistols deals ~1500 dmg with aimed shots. It allows us to reliably snipe down priority targets. It also helps on stealth missions and pairs well with ice guns.

Fatal throw - works at maximum efficiency in the middle game, but damage of chemguns grows faster than hp pools of enemies. Acidic entailments from high end pistols occasionally tics for 300-500 damage, which is often enough to skip 25% of the window entirely. I still like this ability, and in this game the further you progress the easier the game.



Items:
Here we have basically two approaches - area denial or stealth+mobility.
First one implies heavy use of incendiary grenades and poisoned caltrops, hence we need antithermic overcoats and metal boots, it is a defensive style where you want to provoke enemies to attack you in some enclosed space and then hold the line.
The second approach is  more offensive, it allows you to scout enemy positions in stealth and dispose of isolated targets with an ice gun + plasma. For items it utilizes leather armor and tabi boots. Armor either is infused cave hopper or infused rathound, i prefer the cave hoppers because our main weapon have 4 effective range and we have 3 agi. Infused rathound armor gives like 11-12% crit chance, in theory this means 7% increase for damage of chemguns, that not much, and in practice it even less because with ambush and focus stim crit chance easily reach 100% anyway, and you constantly use aimed shots. For boots are wider but less impactful, I've played with ninja, but an infused mutated dog or infused  siphoner looks good as well.
Unlike feats choice we can change approach anytime, in my experience the further game progresses the stronger offensive style becomes, so I suggest to start with first approach and convert to second when you finish beast quest and gather all super steel refinery data.

Guns:
Our main source of damage - acid pistols. I've seen some other chemgun builds that suggest that fire pistols outdamage them. It is understandable why such opinions have a place, in attach characteristics of high-end chemguns, acid DoT have  60% chance for 351% damage and it doesn't stack,  fire DoT on the other looks much better with 75% chance for 645% and it stack with itself. But the problem here is the inexplicit mechanic of mad chemist feat, it works differently for each gun: for acid it increases damage per round, as expected, but for fire one it increases the length of the DoT, damage per rounds remains the same. That means that this big numbers of fire pistols are indeed big only in prolonged fights. I did calculations for high-end weapons and according to it acid gun significantly out-damaged the fire one in the first 3 rounds, around the 4th fire one catches up and at 5th and further starts to lead. But the thing is that nothing except a maybe final boss lives that long.
There are also additional factors that i didn't include in this calculation, like acid trap proc opportunist, and fire dot set up ambush. This may make some fluctuations in damage charts, but under simplified conditions in terms of pure damage acid gun killing stuff almost  twice as fast than fire.

Ice gun is not for damage, it is still invaluable for its controlling capabilities. Although in the first round before dots tick it still outdamage other contenders.

Conclusion - acid for dealing damage, ice for stealth, fire for control and for some root immune enemies like coil spiders.

Additional weapons:
Grenade launcher to soften targets from afar, additional aoe, killing psionics with mirror images. Despite zero feats investments damage is still good, especially on targets in acidic trap
Plasma pistol - alpha strike, stealth assassinations. Helps to conserve acid on naga and industrial robots.
Additionally i've tried sniper rifles, knifes and pneumatic gloves. While not being completely useless there still better contenders for weapon slot

Specialization:
Specialist feat is a big deal for this build, because now we are able to full spec both versatility and mad chemist. The latter is often overlooked, I've seen builds that take opportunist spec instead of it, this is a mistake. I did the math and each spec point of mad chemist giving us about a 3.5% increase of damage(calculated it for acid, for fire it will yield more), but its works despite the condition of a target, so in the majority of situations each point spent on mad chemist yields more damage. An exception is the ice gun, mad chemist spec only increases slow duration, so my final ice pistol slows targets for 16 turns.
We have 3 specializations that clearly stand out from the rest: versatility, mad chemist and cooked shot cost, they will take 25 points. The rest 5 are not that important, and maybe spent according to personal preferences. I've taken fatal throw AP and premed CD reduction


I would be very grateful for any feedback, and feel to ask any questions about chemguns.

100

Localization / Re: Why is this object name not translated?

« Last post by OOgmaa on May 18, 2026, 12:34:49 pm »

In my opinion, the problem probably comes from the forward slash (/) which messes up the key reading, but I don't know for sure.

On my end, I've coded a Python script that automates the translation via the Google Translate API. Since you've done an exceptional, painstaking job tracking down these lines, would you mind sharing all the English keys you've already found? It would save me a massive amount of time so I can feed them directly into my script!

Thanks a lot!