Note: Questions are at the bottom if you don't wanna read walls of text.
Like most other people on the Underrail communities I usually play 3 con stealth glass cannons, however after over 1k hours I finally decided to try ironman as well as using proper armor for encounters and 5 CON instead of always Rathound Regalia and 3 CON and its amazing how large the difference between just having Dodge and or Evasion and 3 CON compared to having 5 CON as well as Dodge / Evasion and intimidation with Yell feat and the difference is massive even with only 7 AGI and 10 STR, I don't know if Yell is even necessary since with Adrenaline + basic Ninja Tabi bought from Blaine I can often dodge 30%+ shots of the enemies, sometimes even 50%+ against Burst users
And the extra durability from investing into defensive things (Vigorous Belt for 30 more HP, 5 CON over 3, making a proper shield emitter even if its low quality, proper armor) is humongous, even though most of my equipment so far is <q65 or looted from bandits I have had many fights where just because of these I was able to tank for multiple turns sometimes even against multiple enemies, compared to probably dying from 1 or 2 if I did not invest in them as I usually do
On Dodge and Evasion: I have actually not even max points in these skills for most of my run due to lacking skill points but they help massively even with just 7 AGI, especially the damage reduction from explosions, I've seen scenarios where Evasion alone saves me from taking over 40 damage from a single explosion, and often it has let me win a fight with <40% or less health, same for dodge (and for most of my run I only had 55 base points into dodge, again due to lacking points), it even let me tank a Ancient Rathound for one turn, though I might've just been really lucky, not sure how high their melee skill is
Lastly but probably the most important part: Proper Defensive Equipment, even with low quality items (so far I am running quality 47 Siphoner Tabi, quality 42 Kevlar Tabi, q60 Low-Low Amplified Energy Shield with a secondary q30 Emitter as well as a q63 Efficient Single Medium Emitter Shield, q50 Siphoner Armor with q17 Antithermic Cloth, yes, 17.) and gear looted from bandits / given from factions (Praetorian Peacekeeper, 890 Durability Steel Greaves, 1320 durability Iron Head Helmet)
I have been able to do things like leave a zone mid-fight with 4 enemies still alive (Ironhead Psionic & Grenadier, Heavy Shotgunner, Cook (the fat guy with a sledge) and re-enter and manage to live long enough to kill them with health to spare, though I will admit I fell below 50% even with recharging my shield emitter to full and tank all the Bladelings in Foundry and kill them with ease (they were doing 6 damage max with the gear I have, usually 3 or less)
as well as kill some of the pre-Depot A bandit groups in areas you aren't really supposed to go to (tip: Kevlar Tabi + a decent Tac Vest and the non sniper / AR gunners do literally no damage on non-crits, letting you focus on their friends while they plink you), at one point I even tanked a TK Punch + Neural Overload from some Lunatics and lived through the stun (at like 30%, but still)
underrail info/build/?EAsDBwYDCAYAAAAAWk5aGQ0QAAA8PAgmLQAAWgAxOgArOSRELC7ClCplwqxF4qeCAd-8
Here is my build so far, even though the early game was really painful but once I got Pyromaniac feat its become smoother and smoother, I imagine it will get really good really soon since I managed to find a q73 Super Steel Plate in the Core City Sewer and will soon be able to have both high defense metal armor while having low armor penalty
Notes: My stat point order was STR STR STR CON, I took CON at level 16 cause I liked the durability so much I decided im going to get Stoicism and Conditioning at level 20 & 22, I have actually never used those feats despite over 1k hours
I also have some questions, is it a good idea to use Dodge and Evasion with 50% Armor Penalty Multi-Plate TiChrome Armor? In theory it should work pretty well especially with Yell & Evasive Maneuvers + Uncanny Dodge + Dodge/Evasion drugs I should still have a decent amount of damage reduction from the two even after penalty
Is it worth using Expose Weakness now for Bots on a Spear build with only 6 INT? I have killed 2 Industrial Bots so far without EW but I don't know how much benefit I would gain from 21% more mech damage against them.
Is persuasion worth it? I spent some points in it because I had high WILL and my opinion is kinda mixed, I haven't really seen a situation where I gained a significant benefit from it so far except for being able to join Protectorate early (I wanted that Psi Beetle Soup)
