General Build Guide for Heavy Duty DLC (Minor Spoilers)

[Fins]

One little thing i just checked: the new merchant ("just don't call me Rag" guy) seem to have no Mercantile check for extra goods - just talked with him a few times while having 201 effective Mercantile skill, nope, no extra goods to unlock.

Sad panda.

[wandery]

I think a decent grenade launcher build could be the following stats:

STR: 6 (required to wield GLs)
DEX: 3 (standard)
AGI: 7 (see below)
CON: 5 (for feat)
PER: 9 (standard)
WILL: 3 (standard)
INT: 7 (for crafting/feats)

what bothers me is mostly the agi; don't know how much would be best. If enough agi+chems would allow an additional shot, that would be ideal.. but it seems like high agi is good for stealth feats(blind-side+interloper) and evasion. But even then high evasion isn't ideal? because I actually want to get hit by my own grenades, dominating difficulty makes it almost useless, and seems like wearing heavier armor might be more ideal later on that can make your evasion score almost useless to dump points in. Blast cloth also supplements too.

Build doesn't seem too starved for feats as well. Like Paranoia+Recklessness is pretty decent along with sprint and the crafting feats.

[deanisi]

I was thinking about making a grenade launcher build.

It's 25 AP for 25mm and 35 AP for 40mm, so I need lots of AP or being tanky enough. I choose agility route. Here's my build except It will have practiced parabola, shell shock and tricky trajectory on 6th, 12th and 14th levels respectivly: https://underrail.info/build/?HgcDCgMPAwXCoAAAAMKgwqBQeAAAAHgPNx5aAAAARgDCglorJDlEGXhBR317woXChydLMcK1wqQP4qeXA9--

I don't need dex, will and con, so I dumped them
7 STR for bigger mags, more space for ammo, and intimidation
10 AGI for blitz and dodge/evasion
 5 INT for crafting and some feats
Rest are spent inot PER

Feats:
1)Nimble for more dodge/evasion and MP
1)Sprint for blitz combo out of stealth.
2)Yell for decresing enemy accuracy and damage
4)Hit and run for breaking Los after using blitz
6)Practiced parabola for negating move and shoot penalty
8)Uncanny dodge because I couldn't take anything more useful, plus anti crawler measure, can be changed for pack rathound if needed
10)Blitz for more shooting, woul be comboed with sprint, adrenaline and TM. Spec points into more AP
12)Shellshock for decresing enemies accuracy, damage and evasion. Probably put some spec points here if they'll give good enough numbers
14)tricky trajectory for more damage and less evasion for enemies. Probably put some spec points here if they'll give good enough numbers
16)Blindsiding for more damage
18)PTA for more AP and longer TM
20)Pack rathound for DC
22)Critical power for powerful crits
24)Recklesness for more crits. Some spec points could be put here
26)Increased perception for more gun. Could be swapped for more agility
28)Scrutinous for more crits
30)Evasive maneuvers for some late game bosses, helps with surviving after exiting stasis. Can be changed for literally anything else

Equipment:
Siphoner armor with black cloth and siphoner tabis tabis, balaclava or psi headset.
40mm and 25mm GLs.
For grenades I could sacrifice some intimidation points for throwing. Would use only emp, flashbangs and stingball grenades.

Will this build work? Also what kind of attachments can be used for grenade launchers beyond bipod and airburst scope? Rapid reloader would be very useful.

[Digital Athletics]

You should also mention that they are almost blind (at least on normal) and you can do dlc with no combat at all.
I done it with no fighting at all with 86 stealth.

[haze1103]

That's a good starting point, I'd first go to 11 str for brute aim then sink the rest of the ability score increases into perception. [...]

Actually, if I'm going versatility LMG/Minigun + Sledgehammer, I should probably put only 80 points in Heavy Guns, fully invest in Melee, and keep Perception at 8 for Concentrated Fire, and max Strength instead. Heavy Guns would probably still be subpar, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be sufficient. It's just that I can't have both the Command Belt and a lifting belt

You're right about the Con though, gonna redo this char after playing a bit in Depot A

EDIT: I should probably check how much skill I need to equip endgame heavy guns too. LMG seem to have no skill requirements, but miniguns do. Not sure if intended

[deanisi]

That's a good starting point, I'd first go to 11 str for brute aim then sink the rest of the ability score increases into perception. [...]

Actually, if I'm going versatility LMG/Minigun + Sledgehammer, I should probably put only 80 points in Heavy Guns, fully invest in Melee, and keep Perception at 8 for Concentrated Fire, and max Strength instead. Heavy Guns would probably still be subpar, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be sufficient. It's just that I can't have both the Command Belt and a lifting belt

You're right about the Con though, gonna redo this char after playing a bit in Depot A

It's better to keep perception at 6, only concentrated fire and tricky trajectory require 8 perception, those feats are good, but you're playing a CON build, so damage isn't your first priority anyway. I think that having 10 constitution is more important for hp, conditioning and thick skull.

[haze1103]

Yeah I suppose Tricky Trajectory is only useful for the Fusion Cannon... which might be good? I have no idea where it is and what its stats are.

[Fins]

Yeah I suppose Tricky Trajectory is only useful for the Fusion Cannon... which might be good? I have no idea where it is and what its stats are.

It's a 40 50 AP single fire, AoE weapon which does 100-129 base electric and 100-129 base energy damage per shot to an area (it has "ground attack" mode). Ammo is battery packs, and it drains itself in just 5 shots. Str 8, 130 skill requirements. It's definitely good against all the high mechanical resistance enemies, but soft targets - which is the most of enemies - something with lower AP cost and/or larger AoE (say, a minigun) will definitely be better.

[Ploluap]

wow thx, looks terrifying,

Do they also all have thick skull or will i be able to use my favorite cut throat build ?

The grunts don’t have thick skull, but the support unit does.

Thx !

I was afraid when you compared them to strongmen but my cut throat pk build works quite well so far, glad i have more ennemies to slice

Those guys are really fun to fight, really great dlc

[VidMasterEon]

I made the mistake of putting a compensator on a ratchet which reduced the spread way more than i expected. A word of advice is to put one of those on an LMG that you intend to use as a single target weapon otherwise you will be wasting ammo expecting to share some pain with a group of foes

That is something that should be improved in future installments, more detailed information on weapons and attacks
Burst is a total black box and the inability to have a good idea where i am putting hundreds of charons down the firing line cripples the heavy weapons

[haze1103]

I made the mistake of putting a compensator on a ratchet which reduced the spread way more than i expected. A word of advice is to put one of those on an LMG that you intend to use as a single target weapon otherwise you will be wasting ammo expecting to share some pain with a group of foes

That is something that should be improved in future installments, more detailed information on weapons and attacks
Burst is a total black box and the inability to have a good idea where i am putting hundreds of charons down the firing line cripples the heavy weapons

Spread angle is shown in the description for LMG and miniguns, just between Base AP and Range. This can be determined before crafting, before going to go for a field test. I agree there could be more emphasis on which stats are being affected by a component somehow

[Amannamedsquid]

It's a 40 50 AP single fire, AoE weapon which does 100-129 base electric and 100-129 base energy damage per shot to an area

It's also the only unique weapon that you have to put together yourself, meaning that depending on the quality of the components you use to assemble it, it may perform better or worse than the example you gave or the one that the wiki gives.

[Fins]

It's a 40 50 AP single fire, AoE weapon which does 100-129 base electric and 100-129 base energy damage per shot to an area

It's also the only unique weapon that you have to put together yourself, meaning that depending on the quality of the components you use to assemble it, it may perform better or worse than the example you gave or the one that the wiki gives.

You _can_ put it together yourself, but you don't have to do it. Further, you can't learn the blueprints required to craft it if you got no Disassemble feat - and i recon, most builds don't take Disassemble. So even to craft it - you gotta find a Fusion Cannon (ready to be used weapon) 1st, anyway. Otherwise, there would nothing to disassemble to learn the blueprints from.

Damage number i gave above are from a Fusion Cannon i found in my 1st going, wiki lists a bit different damage numbers, so it may be that Fusion Cannon can spawn with a bit varying damage range / quality.

And yes, if one goes to craft it, then it can be much different damage / durability / energy capacity. I've crafted one with 183 plasma core and 159 emitter, which in practice pretty much the best possible to get (with a lot of shopping), unless supremely lucky to find all the fine needed electronic components significantly above quality 160 in DC, which is on the screenshot.

[Vagabond]

I've recently finished the DLC story and now am curious, what is the new encounter which is harder than 4 Naga and unbeatable with it's secret version?

Is it tied to a difficulty? So far I haven't found it, maybe I've missed it. Judging from what I've seen, it doesn't look like part of the ending to the DLC (both versions). Same for the return journey. Nor is it the new roaming gang.

In the Compound, only one place resembles a training killhouse arena, which may fit the description, as there is zero cover and it's the only place Stasis makes sense. It's where you can call in a certain amount of enemies, but I've killed Cognator before I got to it, so when I activated the console, zero enemies appeared. I did play on Easy and speedran the DLC, so that may be a factor also.

I don't mind the spoilers if it's sent into PMs.

As for builds, I am testing a Jin-Roh build. Refurbished MG3-42 with 15 bullet burst, Super Steel + Seeker NVG, Strafe to compensate for move and shoot penalty, armor slope + nimble + body training for a 49% armor penalty (can add a heavy helmet for 69% ) and 7 Con for Juggernaut, Fast Metabolism + Gunner's High, topped it off with Ambush (the icon is very similar to a scene in the movie) and the synergy with mobile tincan works well.

Specialization: Maxed out Concentrated Fire, Mag Dump and last 3 points into Full Auto.

So far, the most fun I've had, chews through 7.62 like a kid through candy, but it's totally worth it. When I finish it, will export for a DOM test run, if I like the results, might further optimize it for square one DOM, like swapping out Strafe + Fast Metabolism + Gunner's High for Conditioning + Stoicism by dumping 5 Dex for 7 Will with Veteran Feat, for extra tankiness. Although Gunner's High is actually good on DOM, since it heals more than a bandage, does so during and after combat and can stack with Regen Mixture and Regen Vest.

The biggest downsides I was able to find were Coil Spiders, Acid, GL, W2C, 6p Shell Shotgun and surprisingly Native's sword users with Onslaught. Even on easy with 1000 hp I got one-two turn killed. Of course TC users are the archenemies and first to die, luckily 15 bullet bursts don't give a **** about their projections. Second weapon are the new unique GLs, all of them are amazing, although Punisher least of all. Of course I also dipped into traps for detection and having the bare minimum for MK3 and MK5 mines, didn't need on Easy, but most certainly will on other difficulties.

[ShoggothWhisperer]

I've recently finished the DLC story and now am curious, what is the new encounter which is harder than 4 Naga and unbeatable with it's secret version?

Is it tied to a difficulty? So far I haven't found it, maybe I've missed it. Judging from what I've seen, it doesn't look like part of the ending to the DLC (both versions). Same for the return journey. Nor is it the new roaming gang.

In the Compound, only one place resembles a training killhouse arena, which may fit the description, as there is zero cover and it's the only place Stasis makes sense. It's where you can call in a certain amount of enemies, but I've killed Cognator before I got to it, so when I activated the console, zero enemies appeared. I did play on Easy and speedran the DLC, so that may be a factor also.

Yeah, it’s the training room, when activating the console you’ll get 3-4 squads of soldiers depending on the options chosen, activating all quadrants spawns 4 squads of 6 soldiers which include 2 intercessors and 3 technomedics. If you kill all the soldiers in the compound (amount depends on difficulty) they won’t spawn. If you do it before killing cognator all of the soldiers will have 4 stacks of the buff. The secret version is if you kill too many patrols, where all of the enemies in the encounter are replaced with psychophracts, who have extremely high damage psi abilities.