Build for first playthrough

[destroyor]

Wildan you are correct re Weaponsmith. I was thinking of Gun Nut but due to INT 6 it wont show up in the build tool and I mistakenly copied it onto excel in error. I will need to correct this. Thanks for the correction.

Expecting newbie to explore everywhere with detection google and/or under stealth seems a bit too optimistic. It is expected for a new player to make mistake here and there; hell, at least I did.

Lets talk worst case scenario vs. a stealth knifer ambush
Turn 1 Tin can will never win initiative roll, 0 dodge, crippling strike hits (minus 2 STR), with 10 con and metal armor there is just no way you can die on a first turn.

Turn 2 Now it is tin cans turn (STR 8 minus 2 = 6 STR), suffering a 15 AP armor penalty, but you still have perfect aim as 11AP assault rifle has STR requirement of 6. You should be able to take out the knifer with one single burst (remember you are at pointblank range). Now lets assume you have bad luck and the knifer survived. You can still use pop adrenaline (STR 8 minus 2(cripple) + 2(adrenaline) = 8 STR) and taser Or toss a frag grenade at your feet (metal armor ftw) Or toss incendiary at your feet. A tin can has a lot of outs here; chances are pretty damn slim to be crippled down to 1 STR.

Lets assume an extreme case where multiple melee enemies crippled a tin can down to 1 STR, you can still toss a flash bang at your feet (shaded metal helmet ftw) and escape. A sniper without shaded metal helmet can still do this, but no longer at 100% success rate. Grenade at your feet is a perfectly viable strategy for a tin can, not so with a sniper until he/she has high evasion (late game). A sniper ambushed or surrounded by knifer will have a harder time than a tin can, even with uncanny dodge.

For early/mid game tungsten metal armor (lower mechanical resist but higher threshold) is better than anti rifle vest. Tungsten metal armors high DT work wonders against lower level enemies dealing mechanical damage (with a low freq shield to bump damage below DT enemies cant even scratch you). Anti rifle vest wont save a sniper against melee attack so now you better hope uncanny dodge is good enough (seems fine with Wildans 135 dodge build, not so much with Wildans 58 dodge build).
The armor penalties for shaded super steel helmet, super steel armor (4 plates) and super steel boots (2 plates) are as follow
Without armor sloping 14% helmet, 95% armor, 16% boot
With armor sloping 9% helmet, 59% armor, 10% boot
A tin can without armor sloping will have 2MP just wearing armor + infused siphoner tabi and should expect 0 MP in practice.
A tin can with armor sloping will have 21 MP wearing helmet + armor + infused siphoner tabi (mechanical resist 80%/30 threshold). This is good enough for your average fight. You can always switch to a metal boot for a tough fight. A load out of google + quad super steel plate armor (71%/26) + infused tabi is not out of the question (27 MP).
This is why I consider armor sloping useful.

10 con + juggernaut + 75% resist and still getting one shot? Highly unlikely, show me.
10 con + juggernaut + partial set of super steel/full set of super steel vs. psi users and die in 2(!) turns? Again highly unlikely and vastly differ from my own experience playing on hard, show me.

Edit: would someone teach me how to have special characters (apostrophe, minus sign, etc) in my post?
Testing: - '

[NEvercalled]

under SGS(starting base) there are for example 2 freezers in one camp. I died there with a bit of unlucky freeze at the end of turn.

if u are 75 % res attack protectorate in core city. 

Even in core city when you fight the gang mobs you get a powerful psi user with shades cold damage and so on.

Ambush has often 2-3 ambushers. You are crippled 4 str at begin next turn 1 str. Even when you leave embassy there are 2 knifers. They are only two so still they are easy to kill but i think they are there to teach ppl. Between core city and drones you have 1 crossbow and 2 knifers. Later you get groups of 5-6 ppl.
And when we talk about chances - you can easily miss two 95% shots. Assumption that you will kill one guy with the burst is ... rather optimistic. Especially that you start with -4 str. Flash grenades are a way to go but new players don`t use them .

Sniper is never ambushed if he doesn`t want to.

It is not worth to talk about the late game bcs it is in general easy. What i think is problematic for  new players is first 15 levels border.

And new players wouldn`t start from super steel armor. In my first gameplay i solved  mine quests at the end of game.

[destroyor]

I still don't get how you can get one shot fighting protectorate in Core city. Is it a sniper round? Crit psi or what?

Even if you are at 4 STR you can pop adrenaline to bring it back to 6. Missing a 95% chance burst, point blank, optimistic? Really? I already provided options even if you missed (taser vs. lone knifer, grenade vs. multiple targets). If a tin can can't survive this what make you think a sniper will?

Sniper is *never ambushed*, controlled by a newbie, in the whole game, right.

Even if you ignore late game you still get tungsten in early/mid game.

To all future new players, read this, test things out, and make your own call. At this point I will agree to disagree.

[sirdond]

Thanks for all the replies, I didn't forgot about this thread, I'm reading all of it, it's just an enermous amount of informations and also I'm actively playing the game in all of my freetime, while I can( and totally enjoying it)!

destroyor: actually it was me, who asked for a sniper build for my first playtrough, so that's why all the recommendations. (However, I will probably do a tin can melee tank next,because I just love those metal armors )

I'm almost lvl15 on my sniper and doing Core city missions currently, thinking about getting into Free Drones or Foundry quests after that.

[NEvercalled]

i`m not a specialist in this game it`s only my opinion. I tried to play AS heavy armor, sniper and psi/smg build and finished this game. So what i write is from practice not from theory.

I have given few places where my heavy armor died like having no armor at all or when armor was totally useless.

psi/smg i was playing as the last run and it was mediocre as i have written somewhere else on the forum. And i knew at that point game from begin to end.
Sniper was easiest for me, when you can go to higher level areas and still do well as long as you kill psi snipers(also crossbows) at the first place.

[destroyor]

Thanks for all the replies, I didn't forgot about this thread, I'm reading all of it, it's just an enermous amount of informations and also I'm actively playing the game in all of my freetime, while I can( and totally enjoying it)!

destroyor: actually it was me, who asked for a sniper build for my first playtrough, so that's why all the recommendations. (However, I will probably do a tin can melee tank next,because I just love those metal armors )

I'm almost lvl15 on my sniper and doing Core city missions currently, thinking about getting into Free Drones or Foundry quests after that.

Glad you are enjoying the game. Unfortunately tin can melee is not viable because you need mobility to get into melee range. The only other metal armor build I finished the game with is a demolition expert w/ throwing knife finisher (no gun, no xbow, no melee, just throwing nades + knives).

[mattu]

> Unfortunately tin can melee is not viable because you need mobility to get into melee range.

Nah, I finished a metal armor hammer guy recently. Keeping reasonable mobility in metal armor is a little tricky, but it is doable. Sprint + pulling things around corners works pretty well. Don't max out your armor penalty, I got just enough to trigger Juggernaut. I threw quite a few grenades, too, so not pure melee in my case.

[destroyor]

Yes you can use a single super steel plate metal armor w/ metal blade for bleeding for a sledgehammer build, but you are no longer a "tin can" (aiming for 95% mechanical resist and 96% energy resist).

[Firestalker]

Hey Wildan, not sure if this was changes in a recent patch.

it's much better to use a fast Assault Rifle as a secondary gun (11 AP 7.62 Hornet/RR 9mm Hornet/RR 8.6mm Chimera).

How do you get those AR's to 11 ap? RR 9mm Hornet/RR 8.6mm Chimera has a AP cost of 12. Sure its 14*0.2=2,8 / 11,2 but the game still puts it to 12 and not 11.
Well, this leads to 36 AP per burst or 1 burst per 70 AP which is pretty shit. In that case you have to use a RR 7.62 Marauder, 7.62 Hornet and a RR 8.6 Hornet.

So you have no 9mm acid bullets and a pretty medicore non crit dmg bonus assault rifle choice. Paired with the crippling strike problem + the move and shoot debuff. Im not even sure if its such a good idea to use assault rifles.

I would suggest switching to 2 Impala SMG's and Hornet Assault rifle or even a 8.6 Steel Cat for the flame rounds+ambush proc's. A 11 AP 5mm Smart/Muzzled Impala with Shock Bullets, a 11 AP 7.62mm RR/Muzzled Impala/Steel Cat and a 10 AP 8.6 RR/Muzzled Hornet with 8.6mm Incendiary Rounds.

I would also switch concentrated fire for Spec ops as this gives you 22 ap burst -> 24 AP Spearhead shot, 24 AP Spearhead shot, 22 AP 7.6mm Impala Burst for exactly 70AP or 3 Impala bursts for 66 AP.

Also Im not sure about ambush, how do you effectivly put enemies into the right light conditions. I also have the problem that this build has no throwing skills so molotovs and flares are pretty shit for the Sniper distance.

Anyway nice build/guides as always Wildan, thank you.

[Firestalker]

I would suggest this alternative Smg/Sniper Build

I know its kinda weak on the defence but I don't think its fun to abandon all crafting in the beginning of the game.

To the Build:

Build without Junkjard Suprise because I hate wasting time eating that stuff. With crafting benches and huxkey

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AwGloJgVhGGYQA5YgIwDYQM6uNxizK4yoSgCcALGhBIaKrmqqFQnAkwOwN8GoQ9CBSyY4oqIKgIovdDG6huCbjW6KKQA

Level: 25

BASE ABILITIES
___________________________

        Strength:    5 (possible to go for 4 with +1 Rat Barbeque)
       Dexterity:   3
         Agility:    8   
    Constitution:    5   
      Perception:   10 (16) 
            Will:    3   
    Intelligence:    6 (Possible to go with 7 for Balistics/Skinner and Gun Nut)

SKILLS LVL 25
___________________________

   OFFENSIVE
            Guns:  135(272)
        Throwing:   0
   DEFENSIVE
           Dodge:    58 (90)
         Evasion:   135(180)

   SUBTERFUGE
         Stealth:  120(160)
         Hacking:   94(135) with Huxkey
     Lockpicking:   122(135) with Huxkey

   TECHNOLOGY with Crafting Bonus
       Mechanics:  113(151) enough for best Sniper/Smg
     Electronics:  110(147)(169) +2 int form Junkjard Suprise will give enough for best NV-Smart Googles/Energy Shield
       Chemistry:   43(60) special bullets
         Biology:   33 (50) focus stim and special bullets
       Tailoring:  117(156) enough for siphoner or tacvest armor

FEATS
___________________________
   lvl 0   - Aimed Shot
   lvl 0   - Sprint
   lvl 2   - Pack rathound (can't stand low weight, especially with multiple smg's/Snipers, bullet types in inventory)
   lvl 4   - Interloper (quality of life but replaceable)
   lvl 6   - Balistics (if you go with TacVest)
   lvl 8   - Snipe
   lvl 10 - Uncanny Dodge
   lvl 12 - Spec Ops
   lvl 14 - Expertise
   lvl 16 - Commando
   lvl 18 - Nimble
   lvl 20 - Critical Power
   lvl 22 - Sharpshooter
   lvl 24 - Ambush

Gear:
NV-Smart-Googles because the Burst/Aimed Shoot/Snipe skill counts as special attack
TacVest with Black Cloth or Infused Siphoners Leather Armor 15% armor penality (soft padded with Kevlar coat or black cloth) Infused Siphoner Tabi
Steelcat 8.6mm with Smart Module and Muzzle (Incendiary Bullets)
Impala 5mm with Smart Module and Muzzle (Shock Bullets)
Impala/Steel Cat 7.6mm Rapid Reloader, and Muzzle
Spearhead 7.6mm Rapid Reloader, Smart Module, Scope or Anatomically-Aware Scope
Corsair 12.6mm Bipod, Smart Module, Scope or Anatomically-Aware Scope (Contaminated Bullets)
Reaper 8.6mm Bipod Smart Module, Scope or Anatomically-Aware Scope (Incendiary Bullets)


Shield: Double High or High/Medium if high caliber bullets like sniper rifle or assault rifle bother you, double low or low/medium if melee attacks are a problem (although energy shields are always better for bullets). Unsure about High Efficiency Energy Converter or Circular Wave Amplifier

Thanks for any Reply!

[Fenix]

I think OP need to determine first what style will be most satisfying - kill opponents with bare hands? cut them lke a pig with a knife? opress them with your gyrus? or you'll use a crossbow like Burt Reynolds in "Deliverance" (actually there was a bow but anyway)?
For example I was frustrated with snaper rifle experience I had when played for the first time.