Let's Play: Nerfed Old Man, DOMINATING

[HulkOSaurus]

I took to sneaking around the Horticulture Center next.




Interacting with the gate's controls puts your out of stealth so I thought it was better to fight the serpents before that.




Made a cakewalk with the CAU Armour/Bio-Technician's Boots/Sec-Trooper Helm. The Sea Serpents are best fought on the ground because they can still melt the jet.

Inside Horticulture I was still sneaking, but failed here.



The good thing about it is that if the enemy is still not spotting you(red eye) you can start combat and rearrange your quick slots at no AP cost. I am not sure whether this is intended or not, but it's how it's working now. So I was able to get what I needed for this fight, and even though it's a fairly open area I found a corner to work myself into. The Rathound Overcoat was protecting against the cold.



Witty

I failed to sneak again here against a band of crabs.



But luckily there is a doorway you can use to choke them into. Gassed them, then tried some new Plasma 'nades, which did some good damage.

I think these are the two most serious encounters in the whole of Horticulture - a character with Lockpicking/Hacking will probably be able to get much more out of that place. There were a lot of locked doors and containers, as well as a whole storage department behind a console.

But not Nerfed Old Man - he was sneaking around what was left to explore.



After finishing Horticulture, Nerfed Old Man made another expedition to Nativeville. Finding a good place to land takes some time, actually. I was running constantly into crossbowman or those bone ''turrets'' they have and was waiting for combat to finish without engaging before leaving. Found an easy spot to land west of Geyser Village.



As much as he was trying to sneak - it wasn't working all the time. If there's a lone sentry somewhere it was fine, but we had to rely on good ol' punches here.



Which were working well.



In the next area to the east Nerfed Old Man got into heavy fighting with the natives. Luckily there's also a choke we could get them into to make the 'nades work better. You have to be careful with these fellas at all times. At least I am. There are those guys who launch an acid ball, so you have to make sure you take cover as much as you can. A decent shield emitter would absorb almost all damage from the crossbowman, although they shoot at you while you can't see them.
 


Over here I found one of the bits I was looking for.



I also found this guy.



He was quite easy, actually. His retinue is small - took them out easily with 'nades. He is very tanky and has Thick Skull but he didn't land a single strike. Took a while to take him down, though.



Moving to the east still, Nerfed Old Man went full conquistador on the natives by bombing them from the water and shooting their defenses down with a blaster. Melee enemies always try to stay as far from as possible, while ranged/psi enemies move in to try to kill you. Exploiting that, Nerfed Old Man was able to take half of the enemies in this area before returning on foot.



And taking down this guy:



Because of the combat earlier all the melee enemies are clumped together - basically a 'nade, flashbang, 'nade took them out, while he, as much as a badass he is, couldn't do much on his lonesome.

Nerfed Old Man plundered as much as he could:




And head back. At Expedition Island he saw that Aegis was already kaput.



He traveled all the way back to Core City, though.



And after making some precious Nidamantal Gel out of the squids, he felt powerful enough to take on Lunatic Mall in Upper Underrail.

Sneaking wasn't working bad here at all. Taking out two Lunatics from stealth alerts a small group nearby. But if you don't use loud weapons or explosives, the rest of the floor doesn't alert. Apparently the Acid Pistol isn't loud enough.



Nerfed Old Man continued to take them out small group by small group at a time.




At the second floor he couldn't sneak no more, so he, instead, started shooting them and taking cover in the lower floor. You can transition between floors quite nicely during combat, which also protects you from their ranged Psi.



Even though he wasn't seeing any enemies, combat wasn't ending. Knowing full well of the dangers of sneaky Lunatics, Nerfed Old Man ran halfway through floor one and waited for combat to end. On his way to second floor he found these guys.



Squishy as they may be, Nerfed Old Man pumped all the medicine he had and engaged directly.



There was a sneaky Psychopath here, as well. Courtesy of Bullhead, we survived.

All that was left in the Mall was Vanga.



Got admission to Institute of Tchort.




And got the XAL.



6 AP per attack. Although I have to wear CAU Armour/Bio-Technician's Boots.

I went around Underrail to purchase all the benches. Because Captain Broderick at Junkyard died earlier I had to travel on foot.

In the caves around SGS I found that SGS is hostile towards me - probably because of Gorsky at Core City(confirmed fix for next update, courtesy of Stygian.)




I traveled from Camp Hathor which isn't all that far, either.

And here are some stats for crafting with all the benches on.



Here's the build at the moment:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMQBQkDAwcAwocAwoctZD0AAAAAZGRBVWQAGQA3AABKJy9hFiBOBsKjBysMPiRLwofioZAD4qKWA-K1rgTfvw

[HulkOSaurus]

I tried going to the Joint Security Headquarters.



But forgot that I needed to do something else before that.



I thought that implanting the chip in Nerfed Old Man's hand would be enough. I kid you not I thought for a bit what I needed to do here.

I remembered that it was the Nexus of Technology. The place that took me forever to find the first time I played Expedition.

The good things was that by that time Sneaking was starting to stack up quite nicely.



Nerfed Old Man was able to sneak around not only crabs...



...but spiders as well. Actually remaining unseen until he can spot the sneaky ones. Every once in a while we would bump but because of high Initiative I'd be able to pretty much punch the spider and move on stealthed.



Fighting these in smaller groups is certainly better. There are quite a few Oddities to loot from them and the area in general.

Past the courtyard and through the elevator...



...and I think this is last floor of the Nexus. Not too sure.

Put the power back on and melt all the sentries that come around with the XAL. It was doing a fantastic job in general.



It's downside being that it spends a lot of ammo. The whole of the Nexus cost around 250 Acid Vials.

It also can't entangle that one.



I made it to this place... somewhere around the floors.



I know there is a puzzle here - I haven't checked anything concerning it or how to solve it. I understand only the basic idea behind it, but like the mutagen puzzle, I've never taken the time to solve it. Something to think about in the future... if ever .

I also found this, alongside with the quest item needed to gain entry to HQ.



Nice.

I must have gone on a preparation spree of some sort next, because here are some pictures of Nerfed Old Man and his inventory before going into HQ.




The Infused Ancient Leather Overcoat was changed for the superior Infused Bison Leather Overcoat. It gives +1 Con, +70 HP and immunity to chill, as well as 40 % physical resistance. If you find a decent quality like 150 + it will probably be 45 - 50 % resistance.

HQ is open...



...but we gotta naked for now.



Avoiding the cameras in combat mode, Nerfed Old Man made his way one area to the west.



Open both doors and let the statues and spiders sort things between themselves. In the mean time, because they don't target you, you can walk around them without any problems.

There's TNT in the room behind the statues. Looted that and set it up back in the first area. That, however, awakened some sentries on this floor. I can't remember if that was the case the first time I was doing it... but I was certainly surprised.

I got my weapons and 'nades from the container and fought naked.



Luckily there's not too many of them coming at once.



Got busy with clearing the Plasma Turrets.



There are Plasma Mines here, as well, so shields up at all times.

Running into that doorway here will prevent the Turrets from shooting you. Makes the whole thing easier.



Next, I found some Naga Protectors. I used the shields to tank the blasts from the two at the back while close to the first one. A bit more damage to it that way. An EMP MK III after that to take down another one, and the last one is just run around an obstacle in circles - it can never catch up to you, or shoot you.




Going down to the basement we loot the Reef Glider key and awaken some more statues.



But with the new coat and the now decent Evasion those really don't do a lot of damage anymore. With shields on they do 20 or so health damage when they throw things. An EMP MK III and just clean up with the SMG.

I quickly cleared the natives' ambush outside - made easier because of the toxic clouds. They either have to walk around them, or take a lot of extra damage. MK V 'nades do a lot against these guys.



Back inside you can loot some jet engine and battery for the Reef Glider.



Complete junk, sure, but now at least you can ride it.

And you need to take it all the way back to Core City.



And sell it to Ray.

I think I got 30k for it. Not too sure now - I can't remember .

I bought a cheap junk jet for 800 coins for the trip back.



But instead went to Foundry to make some more super steel.



I didn't level up during this whole time.

[HulkOSaurus]

I got busy with doing the Institute of Tchort quest-lines.



The first step were the Lunatics in Hapocres Station.

You may not be able to see it at first - sorry for taking such a bad screenshot, but there's a crawler there. At this point, even at 3 Per, Nerfed Old Man was able to spot them while being stealthed. Moving very carefully, of course.



There is more space between Lunatics groups here than in the Mall, so sneaking around was much more easy, actually.



Get really close from stealth, then just punch the entire group and place them into cc.





Completed the whole thing without a scratch.

Sneaking to the mutants was easy, alright, but you just take out a dog or two and a Hunchback.



Blocked the doorway with Crawler Caltrops and blew them up with a single 'nade. Had the CAU armour ready to loot the whole area of Oddities.



Nerfed Old Man went to Core City next - that lab next to Foundry.



Managed to get caught into a trap from the Lurker ambush. Luckily only the gunslinger moved before him - Kneecap Shot still is a solid response to the build. There is also a sniper here, so you always gotta be careful.



A Flashbang 'nade works really well against them.

For the lab itself Nerfed Old Man equipped the Tesla Armour and some new Insulated Infused Ancient Rathound Leather Striders with 150 + quality foam on.



Got 100 % resistance for the fight in the maze.




You can even walk over the electrified floor tiles, though you have to be careful because the Tesla Armour has low durability and it's losing it quite fast.

I found the Power Fist - a very nice weapons, although I can't utilize it with this build.



Completely stomped the Zone Boys on the way back.



Got wasted in the name of science.



I think it's called shlyokavitza

I found the first decent Pneumatic Hammer I've seen in the game so far...



...which I won't be able to use now.

I picked up the quest for Median Samuel and the West Wing next.



With the build so far I had no problem getting there.

The Efreitor himself is not hostile, and we better not make him so.




After talking with him, you can actually spot all those bugs around him.



No cheating.

The Mediant still wants him dead, though.



So knowing the position of the bugs now, this is what Nerfed Old Man did.

He worked himself behind the Efreitor and used Force Wall to block all sides except for a choke blocked by a crawler.



He then punched the Efreitor until his head fell off.



And blocked the choke with a stunned bug.

When the Force Wall wore off he Flashbanged the crawlers and ran for it.



There are still a couple of bugs around - one of which will sting you. But by the time the poison takes effect, Nerfed Old Man was so far away, the crawlers either couldn't catch up, or were not aggressive towards him anymore.



No bugs came to attack him while he was stunned.

Finishing that, he went to collect his super steel at Foundry.

Got lucky here.




This is the build at the moment:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GgMQBQkDAwcAwowAwowyZUsAAAAAZWdGVWUAGQA3AABKJy9hFiBOBsKjBysMPiRLwq3Cm8KewqDCh8Kz4qGQAuKilgPita4F378

[HulkOSaurus]

I continued with the Institute shenanigans.



Finding the vent does not require any Per from your character - only that you start the quest. I actually wasn't completely sure of that.



I forgot about the Coil Bugs here. Wasn't prepared with the usual 100 % Electric resistance stuff.



Lucky for me and despite them being very perceptive, I was able to somewhat sneak around them.

Found a lone bug here.



Took it out, but right after walking a tile to the back I got trapped in one of those electric cob web trap-things. The bugs get alerted if this happens.

One of them, however, blocked the choke and spent it's entire AP pool on an EMP. That makes the whole fight incredibly easy.



After that not-so-smooth experience Nerfed Old Man found Nevil.



The whole place goes alert and the swarm of bots comes to wage some high-tech warfare.



Used a Laser Pistol at first, but switched to the Acid Pistol after that. It both entangles them and does very good damage with the Advanced Catalyzing Belt.

Nevil, in the mean time, got set on fire and ran in the opposite direction.



An EMP, HE 'nade combo did a ton of work here.



Also, Nevil ran to me this time.

Seeing that I might get a shot at saving him, I decided to go full bodyguard on his ass.



The only way to do this, I think, is to completely prevent him from doing stupid stuff... like, you know, fighting the bots.

Despite my best effort, an Industrial Bot went around me and ignited Nevil from a tile next to me while Force Wall was on.



There's no saving him now, plus Nerfed Old Man had to take a step back because shields had taken a beating, as well.

The rest of the bots weren't that big of a problem. Dancing around the corner and throwing an EMP or two, Nerfed Old Man cleaned house pretty well.

Got this for his effort.



Interesting weapon. Don't think it can stand up to the 6 AP, +2 bullet per burst custom Impala he had made for himself, though. I think you could make this work on a crit build.

That was the last task I had form the Institute. After that Median Samuel invited Nerfed Old Man to meet Eiden, but he had something else to do before that.

Namely, collect more oddities.



One thing I left for pretty late in the run were the Lurkers. I find them to be a very dangerous bunch, and usually go about very carefully when fighting them.

This is, however, the first time I do a stealthy melee character, and I have to say that it really has it's benefits.

Basically, all around the tunnels there are these small groups of Lurkers which won't get alerted if there are no gun shots. I was also moving around a tile at a time to try and spot and ones who are stealthed.



I used Morphine, Bullhead here - entirely unnecessary. Still, better be safe than sorry.

Sneaking further in the tunnels, Nerfed Old Man found the main Lurker Base.



Also learned this little trick, although it might be a little too late in the run to make good use of it.

In the room to the east the suspicion bars were filling too quickly on the enemies, so instead Nerfed Old Man threw a bag of Caltrops and hid behind that barrel over there, thinking it would provide cover.



He was, instead, wide open for the whole gang to shoot him, but he also had the shields up.

That, however, also makes the entire gang come together in one tight spot.



Just look at them... begging for a 'nade.

An egg, flashbang, egg combo wiped them completely.

The Butcher was nothing.



After looting the area of Oddities - quite a few around here, mind you, Nerfed Old Man boarded his Protectorate Cruiser and head back to the Black Sea. I just wonder, though... is the Black Sea and the whole Native, Pirate, Aegis stuff somehow related to the real Black Sea...?



He did some more Oddity hinting.



And tested some new Laser Pistol he had made for himself.



It was doing alright, even without being a build fully focused on energy weapons.

The whole wildlife thing in Expedition is very important for Oddity XP. Make sure you always collect everything.



He found the Submarine.



Snuck past all the crabs without any problems.



And without engaging in any combat, put the power back on.



While the crabs and the statues were having a go at each other, Nerfed Old Man just ran past them with all the haste and adrenaline he had. Didn't want to deal with them anymore, although, he still threw a flashbang on his way out.

Next, he head a little to the west and landed on a busy shore, bustling with Natives.

He made a complete mess out of the place.



Every Psi user was bombed - MK V 'nades with Three-Pointer on one shot them. The shields completely tanked the crossbowmen's shots, and between the punches and the SMG the rest of the natives were no problem at all.

Observing a bit of Native aesthetics, he noticed that skull which might have a wig.



Nerfed Old Man made his way to the Shrine of the Serpent Eyes.



Sneaking in was filling their suspicion bars too quickly, plus there are Sea Wyrms in the water beneath. So instead, Nerfed Old Man barricaded the corridor to the entrance with Crawler Caltrops and Toxic Gas.



Took out the few isolated shamans close to the entrance, alerting the whole shrine in the process.

Using SMG single bullet fire and 'nades, he had no problem cleaning the natives coming through the gas cloud. Serpent Eyes himself took a ton of damage with a single 'nade.



BTW, how much Thought Control do you need for 21 images...?

I blocked him with a net and Force Wall combo to prevent Psi shenanigans and wait the images out.



Hunting Nets land on a Psi user with Pseudo Spacial Projection on... neat, although logically I think it shouldn't. I am sure it was made deliberately for balance reasons.

After the images went away, Serpent Eyes was a sitting duck.



Deeper in the Shrine we find an interesting piece of lore for Expedition.



Lvled up to 27 during this run:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GwMQBQkDAwcAwpEAwpEyalAAAAAAZWdGVWUALQA3AABKJy9hFiBOBsKjBysMPiRLwq3Cm8KewqDCh8Kz4qGQA-KilgTita4F378




 

[HulkOSaurus]

Nerfed Old Man found himself in this place.



Proceeded under stealth to the next area.



And scored a kill or two before the natives got alerted.

Magnar showed up pretty quickly.



He didn't manage to attack on his turn, so Nerfed Old Man tried stunning him instead. Spent quite a few AP doing that because Magnar's defences are superior. Nerfed Old Man had 50ish % to land a melee strike. He got lucky with a Cheapshots proc and spent the rest of the AP dealing with the entourage - stun the other guy, throw some Caltrops, block the choke with Napalm 'nade, ect.

The rest of the natives weren't too slow behind.



Nerfed Old Man applied Pneumatic Hammer proc to Magnar and started pelting the natives with SMG single fire, all the while keeping all the melee enemies stunned and the Psi users at range.

The next Napalm 'nade was huge.



He threw another one just in front of him without touching Magnar.



And dealt with the natives' stragglers by using the SMG.

When only Magnar was left alone, Nerfed Old Man trapped him with a Hunting Net...



...which has maximum accuracy when Magnar is stunned and lasts for a turn. That allowed him to permanently keep Magnar under Pneumatic Hammer proc while the flames were dying out. Nerfed Old Man also looted the bodies of the natives while in combat to replenish the Hunting Nets.

Once the fires died out, so did Magnar.



And Nerfed Old Man proceeded deeper into the throne chambers, looting everything he liked. He was in combat mode all the time because of the women, but he didn't kill any of them. He wanted to stay in combat mode to see if he could escape the chambers before the Magic Dust came.

That may have bitten him in the ass, though, because as he was making his way out he encountered four patches of Magic Death Dust.



The first time I did this fight there was only one of it, but now even the lights were going out.

Still, with Haste and Adrenaline Nerfed Old Man escaped the throne chambers without much of a problem.

Next he went to see the Ferryman and got him to move the Submarine to the Creeper's Bay.



He did learn some interesting lore concerning the natives from him this time around.

He hopped in the submarine...



...and arrived at Abyssal Station.

The whole area is quite rich in oddities. You better give it a good shake.



Nerfed Old Man convinced Todd to open the door.



And arrived at the Shadowlith.



You can clearly see that the cut piece is the one from the Black Rock Shrine. The lore from this area together with the one learned from Todd really explains who the natives are and how they came to be, as well as their brutal religion.

Nerfed Old Man grabbed the AconR...



...and ran from the additional Magic Death Dust balls that came to chase him.



He boarded the submarine. Todd was already inside, so they both escaped.



He spoke with the Ferryman about taking care of Todd and head to Pirateville.

He ended the Expedition's quest-line by speaking with Captain Grim.



In turn the Captain asked Nerfed Old Man to join him to see the Professor.




The Captain revealed some interesting lore here.




He then released the Professor.



Katya reacted to Serpent Eyes being dead.



After that Nerfed Old Man boarded his Cruiser and head back to Core City. Expedition was done.



He met with Aran who swore that he'd be his mortal enemy now.



And then gave the AconR to Azif, who reveals what the AconR actually is.



Nerfed Old Man gave Underrail one last shopping trip and loaded as many supplies into his inventory as he could carry.



With that he head back to the Institute.

Didn't lvl up during this run. 

[HulkOSaurus]

Went straight to Eiden for the interview.





After that I decided to fight him.



Opening with a Fist of the North Star proc.

In fact Nerfed Old Man managed to get all the guards on the same turn.



Pretty impressive for a build without Fancy Footwork.



That was the end of Eiden. Looted his keycard and took the elevator behind him.



On the lower floor Nerfed Old Man was sneaking to see what he could do around.



The suspicion metres were filling quite quickly for the guards. Nerfed Old Man decided to fight them instead.

From all the enemies present in the room the only ones that can do something to the build are snipers and crossbowmen.



So Nerfed Old Man did a true stealth takedown on the sniper.



And pelted the crossbowman with the SMG.

The AR users won't punch through the shield and the melee enemies can't get in reach due to their low MP.



The rest of the fight was a piece of cake.

In the next area Nerfed Old Man took out all the enemies with true stealth kills. They are too far from each other to notice anything.



That was a nice change of pace.

Met with the Old Reject and despite his interesting lore, I couldn't free him, so I just looted the oddities and carried on.



Pushed the elevator button in stealth.



And the Faceless came.



Nerfed Old Man backed away and hid in the corner in the mean time.

Once they settled down He snuck past the few guards that went ahead and blocked the area behind him with a Force Wall.



Punched out the one guy that blocked the elevator during their turn and went in without further casualties for the Faceless.





We arrived in Deep Caverns.



He immediately head to the Faceless patrols to the east.



Those, naturally, guided him to their base. And in the base, surprisingly, the Commander was all happy with Nerfed Old Man.



Ok, I thought it wouldn't work, but it's nice that the game recognises that. More AP ammo, although I doubt I'd use it all.

I took a small detour and fought the Faceless here for shizz and giggles.



The Commander was permanently under Fist of the North Star proc, and the rest of them were outside, slowly bleeding out. Spent quite a number of 'nades and Caltrops, but won it in the end. It was more annoying than anything, to be fully honest. The Gaunts are especially nasty.

Anyways - it wasn't really my intent to go hostile on them. Fighting them all around DC would be too much of an annoyance. So reloaded a save and continued on normally.

Went to visit Leo. Grabbed the Jackhammer from his place.



Gave back his knife which I had stashed earlier.



And had that conversation with the Hole of Reason.



After that I went sneaking around Hollow Earth, gathering a few oddities and demolishing walls. I met the the Tchortists after that.



Kudos for those who actually read the report .

Nerfed Old Man checked all the junk in Warehouse Block B afterwards.



And found this together with a few other pieces of 160 + quality. Never seen anything like it. Wonder how much shield capacity I'd be able to squeeze out of it. Either way, I wasn't going to be able to use it.

Stocked up on Ancient Rathound Leather.



Leo likes those and they trade for a good number of ampules and other things needed for crafting.

With that out of the way, Nerfed Old Man went sneaking towards Arke.



The bugs are alright in terms of detection, but nothing too hard, so sneaking past them wasn't that big of an issue.

Nerfed Old Man scored a few stealthy kills...



...and entered Arke.



Pain incoming, I guess .

The build at the moment:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HAMQBQkDAwcAwpYAwpY3bloAAAAAZWdGYGUALQA3AABKJy9hFiBOBsKjBysMPiRLwq3Cm8KewqDCh8KzduKdjQHioZAD4qKWBOK1rgXfvw

[HulkOSaurus]

Sneaking around Arke is relatively easy. The bots really don't have that much detection, but there is one huge obstacle to making the whole thing accessible - 4 Plasma Turrets.



So Nerfed Old Man snuck to the turrets then blocked one side with a Force Wall. Tossed an EMP on the other side, followed by an HE MKV 'nade and after a few shots those two were down. The only thing left to do now was to retreat to the next area.



Nerfed Old Man proceeded to sneak around all the cameras and bots. The cameras are indestructible but you can use combat mode to pass by them easily.



In one corner room - I can't remember exactly which one, there was the key for another corner room, the location of which I also can't remember. Arke is fun...



After getting that one Nerfed Old Man put on the shields and returned to the previous area...



Underrail magic still persisted. The Force Wall insured that the Plasma Turrets won't fire even though Nerfed Old Man was moving last for the turn due to -1000 Initiative nerf. The whole floor of bots, alerted from the noise made last time, was also moving in to strike. Nerfed Old Man responded with an EMP 'nade to make the choke difficult for the bots to come through. He had another Force Wall ready for the Turrets.

Once the bots clustered up in the choke Nerfed Old Man blew them all up with an HE MKV, MKIII Plasma and finished the industrial bot with W2C bullets. He used the corner around the entrance to take cover from the Turrets.



All in all, that was an easy encounter.

Nerfed Old Man immediately went in stealth and proceeded to sneak around the floor before the new batch of bots came in.

In another unknown corner room, opened with the key from the last corner room, Nerfed Old Man found a key for... another corner room somewhere in Arke.



Got gassed here, but managed to put on all the protection before the clouds built up.



I can't remember if there was a key in the gassed room, but the way to Arke's basement was now open.



Once inside Nerfed Old Man took it real slow - a tile at a time. He managed to spot the bugs before they spot him.



It's not very clear from the screenshot, but if you look carefully you will notice the Death Stalker's outline and shadow.

It's a lot more clear after a flare.



There are more bugs on the floor that get alerted but with a generous use of flares they are not that big of an issue.



Continuing to sneak around Nerfed Old Man spot more bugs here.



He made sure he was ready for the fight.



And continued cleaning the floor.



He found yet another corner room key.



And made it to the third large area of Arke.



There was, I believe, yet another key looted from somewhere, but finally, the key to the main console was looted back in the first large area of Arke.



After allocating power through the main controls, Nerfed Old Man opened the way to IRIS.

I think this build can do it without having to fight the AI, but Arke always causes a bit of frustration, so fighting the bots for real always feels good.





After explicitly being told to throw everything it has got IRIS summoned a horde of bots plus some Shock Turrets for Nerfed Old Man to fight.



Nerfed Old Man pumped the temporal haste on and ran out of the room immediately. Took a cover in the room to the north before the bot army could surroundshim. From there he systematically bombed the bots with EMP, Plasma and HE 'nades, filling the spare AP with W2C bullets. This build actually doesn't struggle against the robots. It was rather easy.

Didn't level up during this run. 




 

[HulkOSaurus]

After finishing with Arke Nerfed Old Man powered up the residential block and went straight there.



Met some Rathounds on the way. Even though they are immune to stun and incapacitation they posed very little threat simply due to their low MP.

On the floor above Nerfed Old Man changed into full insulated costume.



Then he looted his favorite drug recipe in the entire game.



After getting done with that he head for the Mushroom Forest.



Dressed for full Bio/Acid resistance the wildlife was causing no problems.

The area also has quite a few oddities.



Soon after that Nerfed Old Man put all the clothes away and bathed in some mushroom spores.



After emerging(or submerging) in the new area he set up a fishing spot here:



And went on to challenge the... boss of the area.



Nothing much to show here, to be honest. Full Bio resistance makes this a very straightforward fight.



Nerfed Old Man collected the Mycokardia and traveled back to Arke. There he powered the Hollow Earth research center and head to Tithonus lab. He made the Biocide 'nade along the way. 



The Psi shadows at Tithonus are quite annoying. You can walk around them in combat mode and the trick to passing the area is to keep a distance of at least two squares away from them. That is, of course, unless I am mistaken. Either way - there's a lot of them and in the absence of Neural Overload your only way to deal with them is to wait for them to create enough space so that you can walk past. If you start combat the shadows won't move(unless they ''see'' you) which is the saving grace for non-Psi characters.

I can't tell you how happy I was to pull those plugs away.



Switching back to full Acid/Bio resistance, Nerfed Old Man traveled to the Labyrinth.

Much like the mushroom people before, the worms in the area weren't that much of a deterrence other than being bullet sponges in need of filling. They use acid blob attacks so Nerfed Old Man, naturally, came prepared.



And there's a lot of them, as well.



Kudos to those who understand the reference.



You can use this Tunneler as a landmark to orienting yourself to the way back.



Getting done with the Labyrinth, Nerfed Old Man collected all the necessary parts to fix the gate leading deeper into the Mutagen Tanks.

He made a bee-line for the room underneath the gate, stopping only briefly at the refuges along the way to hide from the Eye of Tchort.



He didn't need the AI cores to get he job done.



He quickly darted through the gate and arrived at the final room.



This is the video with the final boss and the showcase of the build together with the items used throughout the game:

https://youtu.be/f54VHB1tXCs