No weapons, no damage grenades, no caltrops, no damage psi, no traps. Just throwing knives.
The build itself is not very complex - 18 DEX plus all the throwing knives related feats sprinkled with some mobility and disables. Playing the build is where the complexity comes from. It’s very fun but weak at the start and slow to get going. Had a terrible time in DC - fuck the Labyrinth.
Only used damage grenades/traps up to Newton, then against the Beast, against Joint Security Headquarters turrets and against the mushroom root.
Snuck past most robot fights, like 4naga and skipped doing Apogee entirely. Any fight with big bots or strongmen was a no-go.
Actually, it’s a flashbang build
This build survives by controlling its enemies:
- Grenadier and Spec Ops with 2 spec points for flashbang CD reduction.
- Hyper precise throwing nets for single target disable.
- Stuns from either a taser or Crawler Poison.
- Pinning gives every thrown knife a chance to immobilize an enemy for 1 turn. Unreliable, but VERY useful nonetheless.
- Psycho-temporal Dilation for slows.
With LTI this builds can throw a flashbang every two turns, allowing to lock down whole mobs of enemies and create a traffic jam. Enemies in front of the pack are kept permanently incapacitated, while I pelt their friends at the back with throwing knives.
A rotation of net immobilization, taser stun and flashbang incapacitation can keep a single enemy in a doorway or a 1x1 sized chokepoint perpetually disabled. With LTI spam, if one disable fails, there’s usually another one available, so it’s very consistent.
When dealing with bosses, Crawler poison works very well combined with flashbangs or Psycho-temporal Dilation. Apply Crawler poison, then flashbang a boss and wait out the 2-turn poison duration, after which the boss is stunned for 2 turns. If the boss resists the flashbang (which isn’t uncommon), apply Psycho-temporal Dilation for -15 AP and -50 MP and simply keep away until the boss is stunned.
There’s also Pinning, which is unreliable due to RNG proc chance, but removes a targets evasion when it does proc.
Wait, no, it’s a poison build
Forget about killing enemies with mechanical damage. At the start of the game, single digit damage is what awaits you. While damage output sloooowly picks up with levels, it’ll will never be “good” due to throwing knives incurring 125% mech DR/DT. Oh, and none of the usual crit chance sources work with t.knives, so forget about SI/Focus Stim/infused rat. Thus, poisons are the name of the game and Hypertoxicity is a lifesaver. Or lifetaker, I guess.
Best poisons are:
- Leper: increases the mechanical damage dealt to organics and deals good bio damage - 8 (16) per stack, stacks 6 times. It increases the target’s mechanical damage reduction modifier, which in turn increases mechanical damage the target receives. Damage reduction is applied last, so you still need to get through mech DR/DT and only the damage which gets past is then increased. 144 bio damage per turn at max stacks and with Hypertoxicity and Cave Ear.
- Burrower: I used it a lot due to its availability from merchants. 7 (14) damage per stack, stacks 5 times. 105 bio damage per turn at max stacks and with Hypertoxicity and Cave Ear.
- Cave Ear: +50% bio damage received. Apply after 2 or 3 stacks of other poison is already applied.
- Blinding: upgrade to burrower poison. Deals the same damage per stack but stacks up to 8 times and lasts shorter. 168 bio damage per turn at max stacks and with Hypertoxicity and Cave Ear.
- Crawler: 2 turn stun after 2 turns. Invaluable.
- Heartbreaker: 675 bio damage after 3 turns with Hypertoxicity and Cave Ear, plus some minor damage each turn before the BIG DMG. Obviously, combine it with other poisons. Btw, wiki is wrong, each new stack applied refreshes the duration.
My mistake, it’s a trader build
The most reliable way of getting poisonous knives are merchants:
- There's one merchant who sells poisonous throwing knives pre depA - Kendrick. Blaine too, but it’s RNG and he doesn’t sell many. Lucas only starts selling poisonous throwing knives after depA, stingy asshole.
- Once depA was finished, rush Camp Hathor. One of the Freds sells poisonous throwing knives.
- Kevin, the weapons merchant at Foundry sells poisonous throwing knives.
- Free Drones merchant Becket sells poisonous throwing knives (crawler t.knives too!) and some poisons.
- Katia, the pirate healer, sells poisons and crafting materials for poisons.
- Ola, of JKK fame sells poisonous knives.
- Over at the institute, Vuk sells poisons.
In GMS, on the storage level, there’s a freezer with Cave Ears. I used those to make some cave ear throwing knives. Not necessary for depA itself but were invaluable when clearing embassy prison. Later, there are some respawning Cave Ears you can harvest East of Camp Hathor.
Natives are a great source of Expedition poisons.
Screenshots
depA mutant areas. Park a mutant dog in front of a door and keep it under control. Throw knives until everything ded. Neither mutants nor dogs have any mech DR/DT.
https://i.imgur.com/DFELfqT.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/lZUvEiV.jpgEmbassy prison. Parked a tacvest guy in front of the door. Other enemies are either too evasive at that level or have high enough STR to reduce net duration to 1 turn. Didin’t have 3 turn CD flashbangs yet, so a 1 turn net was not helpful.
https://i.imgur.com/Q75phnc.jpgFree Drones mission. You can see the pattern here.
https://i.imgur.com/vYbK8bq.jpgKing, Rathound. It’s like the scene from Benny Hill, when Yakety Sax starts playing.
https://i.imgur.com/GIMM9Wm.jpgThe things I do to for some Crawler poison. That one Crawler at the front held the line for me like a champ.
https://i.imgur.com/FCMMeeq.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/lVE8F19.jpgBalor. Can you guess where I made my stand?
https://i.imgur.com/ZWD9I5F.jpgJookhela. The most trial-and-error fight of the whole run.
https://i.imgur.com/UDtUFQo.jpgPraetorian Warehouse. Joined the Praetorians for this fight alone, JKK might have had a better merchant for this build, but the Praetorian version of the warehouse fight is my favorite Core City fight.
https://i.imgur.com/J3aTQC3.jpgLunatic Mall. Doorway build strikes again. First floor was the longest fight of this run.
https://i.imgur.com/K4B4IPs.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/QPWHgcK.jpgAnd the hardest pre-DC fight of this run. No chokepoints, enemies coming from all directions.
https://i.imgur.com/AOz7HBa.jpgVideos
Carnifex. A dance around the Arena pillars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5knwy6cCwMMagnar. Good fight. Love the fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJfNr92EGS4And Tchort. Not as bad as I thought it’d be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_h1brQNnHoThe build
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMQBgMDBQoywqAAAAAAwqAAAAAATVcVYk0AAADCiwAAPSs5Ji8WG1g3wodeUVzCiD_CvsKzduKktgLiqLoD4qq8Ct-_Don't play this unless you know what you are doing. i also made a huge mistake of not getting Pack Rathound.
