Oddity or Classic?

[guyonabuffalo45]

I just purchased the game last night, as I have really enjoyed CRPG's over the last few years - Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1 and 2, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, etc. etc... The stories and gameplay were great. I heard this was challenging, enjoy the aesthetic, and also enjoy its setting (from videos / reading). Challenge and building aside, what do you veterans recommend in terms of gaining XP for a beginner from what you've read so far?

Is going the Oddity or Classic route best? I'm very curious / excited about this!

[KnifegaF]

Oddity is more engaging and encourages exploration. Also rewards the player for finding ways around combat. Doesn’t mean you neglect it entirely but every living thing isn’t an XP bump. There’s the criticism that it’s tedious to dumpster dive but I rarely felt that and on subsequent playthroughs you’ll mostly know where the oddities are. Classic can be just as tedious and I would argue more on subsequent playthroughs assuming you want to milk every XP point that’s available to you. Locks, traps, boxes, etc. provide you XP assuming you have the skill to open/disarm.
Another criticism I hear is you get too much “free xp” in oddity after a certain point in the game when there’s one area that has enough traps to provide you a full level + and another area with enough lockers to do the same on classic. Even with that “free xp” on oddity you still won’t outpace your classic counter part. They’ll hit godmode much earlier and so much of the game will be left that you’ll have little to look forward to in terms of character progression.

I might be coming off as unfair to classic but I’ve played classic hundreds of times across dozens of games. This is one of the few games that does it different so I’d rather enjoy that experience that is more unique than the others. It’s ultimately up to you though, do what you think would make the game more enjoyable to you

[haze1103]

I've always gone Oddity since I believe that's the "intended" way to play, but people tend to fall back to classic after many playthroughs, since it lets you skip content you don't want to do without penalizing your ability to reach max level.

If you intend on clearing most content, Oddity is fine. Note that I always play with Lockpicking/Hacking/Pickpocket myself, and Oddity is very rewarding for that playstyle (especially Pickpocket), while builds without thieving skills tend to level up slower. Without pickpocket, you often have to end up killing innocent NPCs to get their oddities, which might not be your thing.

Overall, I find Oddity to be one of the more interesting unique features of Underrail. It's been so fun to infiltrate well-guarded outposts freely (ie: without having a quest to do so) and be rewarded with unique oddities. It's just too bad non-DEX builds have to sacrifice so many skill points, I wish there were more STR/AGI/PER checks to get oddity duplicates for those other playstyles

[guyonabuffalo45]

So do you think your build options are limited, then, if you play the Oddity style? Sounds like you need to play a stealth-like build? Could you do psi focused and still do Oddity? I'm always open to different playstyles.

[KnifegaF]

All styles work. There are very few oddities locked behind checks that you can’t get elsewhere. You might get them a little earlier with the skill haze mentioned but most can get obtained through other means. Psi builds usually have a ton of points to play with since they need a fair amount of intellingence which will reduce the amount of points you need to invest into crafting. That said 90% of my builds do take stealth and pickpocket

[guyonabuffalo45]

I think I will go with the Oddity style. Seems like an interesting take on CRPG character XP. I definitely want to take my time with this game. Going the Oddity route seems beneficial to crafting, since you'll be digging around in things. Heard the crafting in this game is very good / helpful for character development.

[Bruno]

Oddity is clear favourite. Innovative system that rewards exploration. I would never play anything else.

Stealth system in this game can take a little while to get used to but is really really good.

Crafting system takes quite a while to get used to, but you can make items that are better/more suited to your needs than what you can buy in shops.

The gameplay, noise system, detection system, plethora of weapons and options etc work together to create a unique and very satisfying game.

[harperfan7]

Oddity everytime forever.

[Turbodevil]

Oddity was great on my first playthroughs. It limits progression so you don't overlevel content, encourages exploration instead of grinding and rewards characters who invest into subterfurge skills, promoting smart play.

But after playing couple of times you realise it's a chore to explore every map and look into every container. You still need to participate in combat for loot and securing areas, and you don't want to feel gimped for not willing to clear that lurker hideout this time around. So I grew to like classic more, as it allows more freedom in how I approach the game and rewards my actions more at the same time. See those 4 Goliathus? Kill them and get xp reward. Or sneak past them, you can make up for not getting that xp in other areas.