Buildhttps://underrail.info/build/?HhADBAoDBQVQUMKRAMKgwqDCoMKgAAAAAAAAAA8AAAAAAADCoMKgJGNQDQ4SFcKjScOhw54nCETCtnzin4QB4p-iBOK1rgrfvA
OverviewAmong the various unique weapons in Underrail, in my opinion, sledgehammers, assault rifles, LMGs and Miniguns are exceptionally blessed. They have multiple powerful uniques that are good enough for end game, that are also not obtained at the end of the game. This build is crafted to take advantage of this.
And since there is no need to craft weapons, may as well bring it a step further, and do away with crafted armors, crafted medicines, crafted everything. Turning it into a no crafting build.
Played this on Hard Oddity and was smooth sailing the whole way, but gave up at Heavy Duty content as it was too hard for this build.
Weapon reviewThis build is first and foremost defined by its weapons. With 18 Strength this build can use every hammer/AR/LMG/Minigun in the game, Strength requirements be damned.
Weapon review - SledgehammersSledgehammers will always need to be paired with Lifting Belt. 5 less AP for every hammer swing is too good to pass up.
Quake - if I had to select just 1 hammer for the whole game, this would be it.
- Accessible very early, can be obtained immediately after Depot A.
- Locked behind a difficult combat encounter with Gubbins and several Lurkers. However, the encounter has some narrow corridors, tight doorways and two separate groups, so cheese such as poison caltrops, bear traps, firebombing whole corridors, assassinating group by group, LOS abuse, etc. can be liberally applied to tackle this encounter, even at a low level.
- Great damage when obtained during level 10+, still decent damage even when reaching end-game.
- Good critical damage bonus that will be good for a critical build, although not done in this build.
- With Lifting Belt and Tabi Boots, Quake uses 17 AP per swing. The 17 AP cost per swing, while not as ideal as 16 AP, is still a comfortable value to work with. Without adrenaline shot, Quake can only make 2 hits in the first turn, however, from the second turn onwards, as long as there are APs leftover from the previous turn, Quake is still able to make 3 attacks per turn. With adrenaline shot, Quake is also able to make 4 attacks from the first turn onwards. Also, Quake is still able to make 2 attacks when dazed.
- Quake's Shockwave does decent AOE damage. Do not expect to kill whole groups by itself, however, it can be used to finish off low health enemies by attacking another enemy next to it.
- Quake can carry The Beast encounter by itself, thanks to its Shockwave ignoring mech DT and half the mech DR. The AOE damage is great since the Bladelings tend to clump up over time.
- Quake is also great for defense. The hammer itself has a 50% chance to daze upon hit, and Shockwave dazes (its description says it has a chance, but from my playthroughs it seems to be just 100%?) every enemy that it hits. Dazed enemies have less AP and much less movement points to attack the player with.
- Shockwave destroys walls and obstacles, thus saving on Charons to buy TNTs, and saving on carry capacity to carry TNTs around. Also no need to go back to civilization to replenish TNT stock after destroying a couple of walls; just replenish Quake's battery. This is a major factor why I will pick Quake as The One Hammer, and even if my character uses other hammers, I will still bring along Quake just to smash walls.
Mindcracker – the hammer to enable the magical 16 AP hammer attacks with lifting belt and tabi boots, meaning 3 hammer attacks in a turn, every turn, even without buffs or consumables. However, Mindcracker is locked behind a hard combat encounter with numerous Azuridae Goliathus. In my playthrough, I only managed to get by this encounter after level 20, and by using the refurbished N60 Warthog to burst down the Goliathus and their Pseudo Spatial Projection stacks.
Also, Mindcracker's damage falls off late-game, in comparision to Barbaton and Balor's Hammer.
Barbaton – Excellent damage, even higher than quality 160 Steel Sledgehammer! Costs the same amount of AP per swing too! With Lifting Belt and Tabi Boots, it reduces down to 19 AP per swing, which unfortunately for me is an awkward value to work with. The attack rotation consists of 2 swings, left over 10 AP -> 3 swings -> 2 swings, left over 10 AP -> 3 swings, etc. I somehow always end up on the 2 swing turn when 3 swings are needed right in the moment. Also, when dazed, the character is left with only 35 AP and only able to do 1 swing.
On a side note, Barbaton would be a good hammer for a crit build, since it has increased critical chance and increased bonus critical damage. Not done in this build.
Balor's Hammer – I have seen the many legends of this hammer, but I am not keen on it, as it ties Rathound Regalia to the character's armor slot, thus denying the character valuable bio or acid protection that other armors offer. Moreover, the character has to constantly feed on rathound barbecues or bison milk; stocking these items, keep tracking of remaining stocks and their duration on the character is a hassle. Last but not least, it has a weight of 50. Together with Quake for destroying walls, these 2 hammers already occupy a weight of 75 in the character's inventory. That is easily more than half the carry capacity of 3 Str, no Pack Rathound, no Waistpack builds.
Regardless, I tried it out once in The Compound. The unarmored lunatics outside The Compound takes but 1 hit each to kill, which is excellent, while each soldier inside The Compound takes 2 hits to kill, owing to their mechanical resistance. I could see this hammer as very good for lower level content, perhaps next time I would make more use of it.
Weapon review - Assault RiflesAssault Rifles need to be paired with Bullet Strap Belt, as their high rates of fire empty the ARs' magazines very quickly. This becomes a problem when pairing an AR with a hammer in the other weapon slot, as both weapons are competing for the same belt slot.
In my playthrough, I used the K&H KH416 to great effect decimating the natives from the safety of my Devastator Jet Ski. Steyr-Auch was also very useful during the raid into Horticulture Center. More details below.
Refurbished AKX – Just an average assault rifle. On the plus side, it uses the most common 7.62mm ammo, and is easily obtained at mid game after the Free Drones or Protectorate questline. However, its combat stats are simply average: no extra burst shots, no bonus burst precision. Moreover, Its gimmick of infinite durability is not attractive to this build, since this build can already save on durability by switching to the hammer instead of the assault rifle.
Refurbished K&H KH416 – In my opinion the best assault rifle for this build. Decent damage (felt a bit lacking due to its caliber, just a bit), 10 shots per burst with Full Auto, has +10% Burst precision, and only uses 36 AP per burst. As long as the character has 1 AP saved from the previous turn, the character can still burst when even dazed. This assault rifle also faces no competition from LMG and Miniguns, as no LMGs/Miniguns use 5mm ammo. Last but not least, this assault rifle can be obtained fairly early, at the Black Crawler base fight with Gorsky.
Refurbished N16 – I forgot to obtain this during my playthrough, but it makes no difference for this build. It is simply inferior to the refurbished KH416: uses the same 5mm ammo, but less damage, less burst shots, less ammo capacity. N16 has higher critical damage bonus, but this build is not built for criticals. N16 also has a gimmick of improving the damage bonus of Concentrated Fire, but this build does not have Concentrated Fire. All in all, straight up inferior to KH416 for this build.
Refurbished NF F2500 – On paper, it makes an excellent assault rifle; good damage, 10 shots per burst, uses the most common 7.62mm ammo, even restores AP on shoot. I suppose Its minimal strength requirement of 4 is also a defining feature; not applicable for this build, but 3 strength builds can effectively use this assault rifle with a Rathound Regalia or Rathound Barbeque. However, among this list, it is obtained the latest in the game. In my playthrough I completed Expedition before heading to Deep Caverns, rendering this assault rifle useless even after obtaining it.
Refurbished Steyr-Auch – this is a hard assault rifle to love. In my opinion it has the best damage among the assault rifles in this list due to its high damage ceiling, it also has the best range, it uses the abundant 9mm ammo, which the only gun competing for it is the GlaShaG-9 (which has its own problems, explained below). Being very accessible, it is also the first gun in this list that I obtained in my playthrough. Upon using it though, its flaws are obvious: no extra burst rounds, only 7 rounds per burst with Full-Auto feel subpar after using the KH416. This assault rifle also uses 48 AP per burst, which is too high, leaving no AP for consumables or grenades. More importantly, the character will not be able to burst at all if dazed, even with 10 AP saved from the previous turn. Despite these flaws, it is still a servicable assault rifle, and still better than the AKX in my opinion if nothing else is available.
Weapon review - LMGs The main advantage of pairing a hammer with an LMG is that LMGs have high ammo capacity, and does not need constant reloads (especially when alternating between melee and shooting in a single fight). Hence LMGs do not need to compete with Lifting Belt in the belt slot.
The main disadvantage is the lack of a single shot mode.
In my playthrough, the N60 was used to win the Magnar fight. It was also used when fighting serpents around Fetid Marsh, and fighting spiders all around Black Sea that loves to keep the character permanently rooted in place.
Refurbished Brno LMG – the only gun in this list that uses 8.6mm ammo. Decent damage, +5% burst precision, 30 AP cost means an attack rotation of 1 burst -> save up 10 AP -> 2 burst -> repeat without adrenaline shot. Shortest optimal range among all the guns in this list. Would have used it to expend 8.6mm ammo, but the entire game is over before I can finish expending all the other ammo types that were looted throughout the game.
Refurbished N60 Warthog – highly damaging LMG, no burst precision penalty unlike the MG3-42, lowest move and shoot penalty among the LMGs (but not by much). Uses the most common 7.62mm ammo. The biggest draw about this weapon has to be the damage; the lower bound is the same as the Brno at 38, but N60's upper bound is 72 while Brno's upper bound is only 44. The biggest drawback would have to be the strength requirement, which 2 higher than other LMGs, however, it is a non-issue for this build. I took this LMG as my main expenditure of 7.62ammo. Still can burst when dazed. With adrenaline shot, it can burst twice a turn.
Refurbished MG3-42 – uses 7.62mm same as N60, damage is lower than N60, more burst precision penalty than the N60. Balanced by being able to output far more bullets than the N60, since it has 5 innate extra shots per burst, and more importantly, it takes 25 AP for one burst. Implying that even without adrenaline shot, it can fire 2 bursts per turn, every turn, indefinitely. Tried it out once for Heavy Duty content at level 30, was disappointed with the damage. It was constantly hitting for 1xx damage per hit, sometimes dropping below 100, while the N60 was constantly hitting for 1xx damage per hit, sometimes going above 200.
Weapon review - Miniguns With 18 Str, this build is well suited to handle miniguns, the biggest guns in Underrail with the highest strength requirements. However, in practice, miniguns do not gel with this build. Miniguns' wind up mechanic require constant firing in order to build up stacks, all stacks are dropped in any turn when the minigun is not used. This conflicts with the flexibility of this build to use melee or ranged depending on the situation, e.g. save ammo by using the hammer instead of a burst, or some enemies may have higher chance to be hit with melee weapons than ranged weapons.
Refurbished GlaShaG-9 – the only unique minigun, uses the common 9mm rounds. Tried it once and never used it again, for reasons mentioned above.
Weapon selectionAfter clearing the base game up to DC with sledgehammers, and looted every gun and ammo along the way, with the exception of Lunatic Mall and Gray Army Base, I had:
- ~2.8k 7.62mm rounds
- ~2.6k 9mm rounds
- ~2.5k 5mm rounds
- ~1.6k 8.6mm rounds
This is from memory, I didn't take note of the exact number of rounds I had, but the order of abundance from most to least is correct.
It would be folly to carry all these ammo and all those ARs/LMGs mentioned above on the character at all times, so weapons/ammos are selected for the mission at hand.
In my playthrough, I exclusively used hammers from level 1 until level 21, clearing through base Underrail only. South Underrail is much more melee friendly than Black Sea, with narrow corridors, tight corners, doors and vents available on almost every map. I did try out the N60 once, inside Lunatic Mall. On the second floor of the Lunatic Mall I managed to kill 5 lunatics with 1 N60 burst, that was exceptionally satisfying.
The Assault Rifles/LMGs came into play specifically for Expedition content. It is especially important for jet ski combat, since melee users cannot reach mobs on land when on a jet ski, and cannot reach mobs in/on the sea while on land. In anticipation of ranged jet ski combat, in my playthrough I bought a Devastator (the high Mercantile skill helped discounted the price to its lowest), immediately went over to Abandoned Waterway Facility to obtain and install BArm Large Jet Shocks for maximum stability on a jet ski (96%?). This turns the Devastator into a mobile shooting platform, and is terrific for skirmishes and raids against the denizens of the Black Sea.
Riding on a Devastator, I brought the refurbished KH416 and a Bullet Strap Belt to bear against the natives. I brought an Assault Rifle, as ARs are much accurate at range than LMGs. The KH416 was chosen as it uses 5mm ammo, and I wanted to conserve 7.62mm ammo for the N60 Warthog. The slightly lower damage on the KH416 was not an issue, as the natives do not sport much armor. It was so much easier than other runs that I had done on foot. Half of the natives are melee only, and cannot reach the Devastator at all; the Devastator provides good cover against crossbow users; balistae are the biggest threat, but easily dispatched with a KH416 burst or Fusion Cannon blast; the shamans protect themselves against the AR rounds with Pseudo-spatial Projection, but PSP cannot protect them against the Fusion Cannon. Even when dismounted, the melee natives are very susceptible to the AR burst fire. Skaedars, for example, take at least 3 hammer hits to take down, with chance to hit about 83%, but the KH416 takes but 1 burst, which is at 95% accuracy, to take one down.
Most notable is that one time the natives got bottlenecked on a bridge. One fusion cannon blast from the Devastator, and 10 were dead.
I brought the N60 Warthog against Magnar and all the natives in that one map, as the KH416 did not have enough firepower to win against Magnar. I also brought the 99 7.62mm W2C ammo that I looted throughout the game and used them against Magnar. With W2C ammo, the N60 took just one burst to burst down Magnar in his first phase. With W2C ammo, the N60 took 3 bursts to take down Magnar in his second phase.
I brought the refurbished Steyr-Auch, but without Bullet Strap Belt, to the Crimson Meadow Horticulture Center. I needed an accurate ranged attack to quickly dispatch locusts. Locusts can be scattered all around the character, and running after each of them with a hammer is too tiresome. Locusts die in 1 shot, so it makes no sense to bring an LMG either. The best candidate for this mission is also the KH416 assault rifle, as it has +10% precision, and uses 12 AP for 1 shot, hence taking out up to 4 locusts per turn. However, I had just expended 2000+ 5mm rounds for the natives, and 5mm rounds were running low. So, the Steyr-Auch is a close-second, also sporting +10% precision. 16 AP per shot means up to 3 locusts per turn, not bad. Last but not least, the Steyr-Auch has the highest range of all ARs, perfect for this mission.
I brought the N60 Warthog against spiders in LemCo, and in the spider cave. The spiders do not have much mechanical protection, and any gun will do, but I chose the N60 because 7.62mm is the most common ammo type that I had looted, and the N60 offers the most damage for each 7.62mm round. In the naval mines area I managed to kill 5 spiders with one N60 burst, that was another very satisfying moment.
I brought the N60 Warthog to Fetid Marsh to shoot down the Sea Wyrms. The N60 had enough damage that Sea Wyrms can be brought down in one burst. The locusts were a pain though, as I did not want to waste N60 bursts on them, so I ran after each of them with a hammer instead.
I used the N60 Warthog to fight Tchort. Used Expose Weakness against Tchort, and 2 N60 bursts were enough to win the fight. No solving the mutagen puzzle, no destroying mutagen tanks. The damage on the N60 is really good.
Build explanation – Attributes | 18 Str | The core stat of a hammer user. Start with 10, end with 18. |
| 3 Dex | Dump stat. Melee users could always use 7 Dex for the Escape Artist feat, but this build is an exception, since Versatility allows for ranged weapons to be used even when the character is immobilized. |
| 4 Agi | Dump stat. Supposed to be 3 Agi, but I have one extra ability point with nowhere to go, so I placed it in Agi to remove the skill point penalty for stealth skill. |
| 10 Con | All of my builds have 10 Con and Thick Skull. 10 Con offers a good amount of health not to die in 1 hit from all the bullshit that Underrail throws at you. Thick skull explained below. |
| 3 Per | Dump stat. Although Per is requirement for the very useful burst feats, Suppressive Fire and Concentrated Fire, there isn't enough abliity points to go around. |
| 5 Wil | For the Bullet Trance feat. |
| 5 Int | For Versatility and Expose Weakness feats. |
....continued in the next post
