New to the game, need help with stats

[VoidsX]

Hi,

Im loving Underrail so far but since im not very experienced with Underrail's mechanics/combat yet, I have no idea what character build I should have to make the game manageable even at later stages, I have somewhat limited time and dont want to get stuck 10/20 hours in.

I know theres more than 1 way to play the game, so just to make it a little more clear I want to focus on exploration with combat/stealth to help me through with Psi as secondary. As for crafting I dont know how much I will need it and how much I can make up for it by looting, since every kind of craft has its own skill I have no idea which one I should focus on, if at all.

Here's my current character, Im not too far into the game so its easy for me to start over:

STR 6
DEX 6
AGIL 7
CONS 5
PERC 6
WILL 5
INTELL 5

Guns 15
Throwing 5

Dodge & Evasion 15

Stealth 10
Hacking 6
Lockpicking 6
Traps 6

Mechanics 10
electronics 5
Chemistry 5
Tailoring 5

Thought control 7

Persuasion 5
Mercantile 5

[Coaxl]

For starters, your stats are too balanced. Generally, you should dump stats that you don't really need to 3 and raise other stats - essentially, minmaxing. If you wanna use guns and psi together, then focus on Guns and some psi schools - personally, I would recommend Metathermics and Psychokinesis before Thought Control (I find these two schools stronger than Thought Control personally, but especially if you use psi as a secondary method of combat. Maybe focus on Guns and Metathermics - the latter has Pyrokinesis, which essentially functions as grenades, so you don't need to raise Throwing.

You shouldn't take Mercantile because money is not that hard to get. As a newbie, you don't need Persuasion that much either, but it can be helpful, so if you want to use it and have enough skills left over, feel free to pump it a little.

For stats, I'd dump Strength and Dexterity to 3 as a start. I'm not exactly sure what the best distribution of the other stats would be, but you'll want to max Perception, and balance the rest between Con, Will and Agi, with Intelligence at maybe 6 or 7 depending on what feats you want to take, but else as low as you can get away with. Low strength means light firearms are your best option, probably submachine guns or something.

As for the rest of the skills, well, I'm not sure you even need traps, Psi skills can make you very versatile and you don't want to spread yourself thin. With high Perception and the synergy from Lockpicking, you will be able to spot most traps (personal experience), even if you invest zero points in the skill, so that's fine. Focus on Mechanics and Tailoring from the crafting skills first, then probably Electronics - Chemistry and Biology will likely be secondary for you and you won't put many points into them, perhaps 10-20 as needed.

[CookingManatee]

You seem very balanced but usually maxing things is the way to go. Your Stat array depends heavily on what equipment you want to use. Strength will allow you to use the heavier guns (ar's and snipers) but your dex will not help your effectiveness with them only smgs and pistols. Choose now what weapons you want to use and change your stats accordingly. Keep in mind that perception directly influences damage with guns so unless you see a feat that you really want with your current array you would be much better suited dropping something else to raise that

Also keep in mind that if you want to use psi at all you will have a health penalty which may make you very easy to kill. Your will isn't very high which means enemies will have an easier time resisting your psionics. Hybrid builds used to be way more viable unfortunately

And crafting is great for all builds. The best gear in the game is all player made. You can rely on getting lucky from the shops and random drops. I haven't tried it on hard but honestly if you want to skip crafting on normal it would most likely be fine

[Greep]

If you've got steam, I'd just read the steam guide I wrote up

[BadGame]

In my opinion, if you want it to have a unique experience with the game ,i think you should play it  the way you want yes the game can be unforgiving at the beginning but if you find it too difficult you can always search for a guide.

[VoidsX]

Also keep in mind that if you want to use psi at all you will have a health penalty which may make you very easy to kill. Your will isn't very high which means enemies will have an easier time resisting your psionics. Hybrid builds used to be way more viable unfortunately

This is what I was wondering about, so is it either, I go all in with psi or nothing at all? is the hp penalty too much if I only use it as secondary?

If you've got steam, I'd just read the steam guide I wrote up

Will do, dont know why I didnt look there before.

[Wildan]

In my opinion, if you want it to have a unique experience with the game ,i think you should play it  the way you want yes the game can be unforgiving at the beginning but if you find it too difficult you can always search for a guide.

I respect it when gamers choose to play a new game instinctivly without trying to figure out the mechanics in order to min/max but Underrail is too complicated to start without any idea. The beginning is easy actually but he'll totally get roasted around Core City at the latest. Searching for a guide at that point is too late because the build he posted is already gimped beyond repair and you cant respec in Underrail.

[VoidsX]

Last question, how viable is it to make a AR/heavy armor/stealth type character and ignore psi? or does heavy armor go too much against stealth to really specialize in it?

[BadGame]

In my opinion, if you want it to have a unique experience with the game ,i think you should play it  the way you want yes the game can be unforgiving at the beginning but if you find it too difficult you can always search for a guide.

I respect it when gamers choose to play a new game instinctivly without trying to figure out the mechanics in order to min/max but Underrail is too complicated to start without any idea. The beginning is easy actually but he'll totally get roasted around Core City at the latest. Searching for a guide at that point is too late because the build he posted is already gimped beyond repair and you cant respec in Underrail.

I speak for myself, back in the days when i played Fallout 1 and 2 i finished both games without consulting any guides and i can tell you, it was very hard in some places which sometimes i did not know what to do or where to go, but the satisfaction of doing yourself without any help! man..that's what made a great game.
Since that time, i never had that fear of starting any game without having to worry too much about the stats because after all it

[VoidsX]

In my opinion, if you want it to have a unique experience with the game ,i think you should play it  the way you want yes the game can be unforgiving at the beginning but if you find it too difficult you can always search for a guide.

I respect it when gamers choose to play a new game instinctivly without trying to figure out the mechanics in order to min/max but Underrail is too complicated to start without any idea. The beginning is easy actually but he'll totally get roasted around Core City at the latest. Searching for a guide at that point is too late because the build he posted is already gimped beyond repair and you cant respec in Underrail.

I speak for myself, back in the days when i played Fallout 1 and 2 i finished both games without consulting any guides and i can tell you, it was very hard in some places which sometimes i did not know what to do or where to go, but the satisfaction of doing yourself without any help! man..that's what made a great game.
Since that time, i never had that fear of starting any game without having to worry too much about the stats because after all it

Its not fear, I understand what you are saying, I would go my own way and experiment and find out for myself except that I dont have the effort or literally the time to go through all of it, I have real life plus every other game that I play, which are plenty, everyone is not the same, this is why I came here.

Assuming you know what your doing you can sink alot of hours just playing it, add to that experimenting and trying again and again and its endless hours poured into the game.

Edit: now can we please focus on my question?

[VoidsX]

All that talk about exploring the game for myself, yeah... Im having a hard time with the 1st rat mission my guy cant shoot a target 1 square away. I can see this game is going to punish me every step of the way.

[omphaloskepsis]

All that talk about exploring the game for myself, yeah... Im having a hard time with the 1st rat mission my guy cant shoot a target 1 square away. I can see this game is going to punish me every step of the way.

I'm a newish playe, too, and I have a love/hate (but mostly love) relationship with the game for reasons similar to yours.  Even as you level up and get good gear, you'll continue to run into extremely difficult fights.  I've restarted about 6 times so far, and I took all of those characters at least to Depot A.  Though I'm continuing with 2 of them, so not a total "loss".

Anyway, there's a lot of fun in learning how the game works, because it's a good tactical game.  You wouldn't want to play a strategy game and not learn how to play it, would you?  Part of the fun in Underrail is the process, so don't rush it.  (Not saying you shouldn't ask for advice, but the game is a little like Dwarf Fortress, and you can't play it without both learning and dying.  A lot.)

You might also consider playing on Easy.  Easy in Underrail is probably like Normal or even Hard in most games. And remember that Underrail doesn't really do trash mobs (at least for the first half of the mage).  For most fights you need to stop and think about what you're doing, which means that they'll take longer than in a typical RPG or tactical game. 

There are things that make me crazy, like the slow walking speed, but the game is worth the investment of your time.  If you focus on playing it rather than beating it, you'll get more out of it.  Most games don't offer this kind of depth, so IMO, it's worth savoring.