Post your experiences with the new Dominating difficulty!

[Altos]

I figured that it would be nice for us to have a place where we can post about how much the new difficulty is wrecking us, and maybe have a place where players can go (outside the Dev Log) to get some tips & tricks to conquer the new mode.

So far, the only build that I've had time to try is a 3/10/7/3/7/3/7 (original allotment at lvl 1) pure SMG build on Oddity mode, and I'm fairly confident that it's impossible for me to even beat Depot A with it. xD

I knew from the beginning that it was going to be a train-wreck, since it's a very fragile build early on, but I wanted to try it out anyway. I didn't think it would be this bad, though.

Presently, I'm at level 3 and I can't even kill all of the psi beetles and save Newton. The little buggers gang up on me and I'm dead in two turns. Every enemy takes at least two full bursts to kill, and I'm just going through my 7.62 ammo like crazy. Totally unsustainable in the long run. Just to clear the 8 azuridae in Newton's building requires something like 300 7.62 bullets fired from my puny SMG because I can't afford to buy one. Junkyard is of little help, either.

And don't even get me started on Silent Isle. My boy Broderick decided that it would be a good idea to shoot at the psi beetles for some weird reason, and then he aggro'd over the Goliath, which promptly used every psi skill in the book to wreck him in 2 turns. Dumbass. It would have been hilarious if it didn't leave me trapped on the island.

So, yeah, 3 CON SMG Oddity is a no-go for Dominating mode. I think even with 7+ CON it would be unsustainable. The ammo requirement is just too much for burst builds when the enemies have soooo much HP. Maybe if I ground some levels off of the Rathounds long enough to get Commando and Spec Ops (on Classic, of course), I MIGHT be able to beat Depot A, but I would surely crash and burn in DC if I ever made it that far.

Granted, a lot of my issues probably came from the build itself and the fact that I'm definitely not the best Underrail player in the world, but hey, it sounded more interesting than a LoC psi build.

What about you guys? How is the new difficulty treating you so far? Has anyone beat it yet? (looking at you, destroyor )

I expect that, if anyone does end up beating it, it'll be with a sniper build or a LoC psi build. Or maybe a crit brawler, if you can survive the early game?

[destroyor]

Well when you name drop me like that ... 

Anyway yeah the new dominating difficulty changed a lot of things and rendered a lot of old tricks obsolete.

Lower caliber weapons like 5mm SMG just won't cut it anymore, and you can no longer steamroll people with low tier grenades (due to NPC health increase and their higher evasion). The removal of INT+2 junkyard surprise buff means you can no longer rush crafting right from the start (even with INT 5 ~ 7 char). I'm not sure if I just have bad RNG or there's been a component quality adjustments but you can't craft a super tactical vest that will block all incoming bullet damage before Depot A. In fact, my tactical vest's mech threshold (10) seems to be useless so far ... maybe I should consider switching.

I started an energy weapons char and I've never used so much bear traps in my life. Quick tinkering + bear traps + incendiary/frag grenades + abuse LOS (usually in a room, micromanage trapped enemy health so I don't kill him before my quick tinkering cool down) is a must. Obviously you won't get an energy weapon right from the start so I used a 7.62 Jaguar SMG + .44 Hammerer pistol for my early game.

I had to use unlimited weight cheat using cheat engine because bear traps are so heavy. My justification is this: this is exactly the same as if I just run back to SGS every time I'm out of bear traps and slowly walk back to my original location - no point.

Right now I'm no where close to beating the game - I'm at Core city faction second quest trying to rush the crafting benches.

I get the infused leather nerf now (but I still think it hurts dodge/evasion build way too much). This is because Ancient Rathound are now cannon fodder and it's very easy to farm high quality leather early. This is both good news and bad news for brawler/psi monk as you can get good leather gloves early, but your ultimate damage potential is much lower now.

If I have to bet money on the best build to beat dominating difficulty it would be some sort of sniper/psi sniper w/ quick tinkering. Early game is a problem for every build because Rathound and Rathound Alpha rush you with their sheer numbers.  Psi build will just run of of psi point early game. I think sledgehammer build is possibly the worst build for this difficulty, as NPC have a 30% increase in dodge/evasion. When you missed a hammer swing you are fuck, especially early game when you only get 2 swings.

Sorry for the rumbling. How about you guys? What's your thought/comment/rant for the new dominating difficulty?

[mattu]

I'm trying out the new energy weapons options. Trying it with a CON 3 character, won't be surprised if I get dead ended eventually, but so far I'm getting by thanks to abuse of bear traps and quite a bit of reloading. Never played an energy weapons char before and (now) enjoying it quite a bit. A couple more free feats would be nice.

DOMINATING is great, though I'm not sure I'll play on it all the time. Grinding down high HP enemies is one part I'm not crazy about, although at the same time I'm glad "alpha strike out of stealth" got an effective nerf.

I got through Depot A without that much trouble (to me it didn't get near as much of a difficulty buff as some other places) and then ran around cherry picking some easy fights and picking up easy XP around Core City and Foundry. Saw a new and interesting area in the tunnels near Core City that I was not capable of handling just yet. Hit Level 12 and off to do Rail Crossing. Looking forward to what's changed there.

Silent Isle went out of control almost immediately, which was awesome. Watching that happen was one of my favorite moments in Underrail. I held out quite a while, Captain Nitwit less so. I probably should have gone back before now, it may be too easy at L 12. However, I don't think it will be a cakewalk, especially not with the req to keep the captain alive.

All in all, this is great stuff. Would have been happy to pay for it. Styg may need to put some points in Mercantile.

[Fenix]

I'm jelous already lol.
Feel urge to abandon my hammer build, but must resist! 

[Bruno]

These new, random encounters, can they happen on all difficulties? Have you seen any yet, and where can they appear??
I hope I will meet some on normal difficulty as well.

[Altos]

I started an energy weapons char and I've never used so much bear traps in my life. Quick tinkering + bear traps + incendiary/frag grenades + abuse LOS (usually in a room, micromanage trapped enemy health so I don't kill him before my quick tinkering cool down) is a must. Obviously you won't get an energy weapon right from the start so I used a 7.62 Jaguar SMG + .44 Hammerer pistol for my early game.

I had to use unlimited weight cheat using cheat engine because bear traps are so heavy. My justification is this: this is exactly the same as if I just run back to SGS every time I'm out of bear traps and slowly walk back to my original location - no point.

Yeah, I've been using bear traps like crazy, too. I was finally able to get past the Newton quest with them, but without quick tinkering it's very difficult to place down enough bear traps to immobilize all of the enemies before they notice me. Not to mention the issues of weight and price. I'm already spending all my money on bullets, as it is.

Crowd control skills in general are clearly a must for Dominating. I must be the patron saint of incendiary grenades at this point; it's pretty much my only rathound repellent.

Also, is it just me, or is the oddity drop rate severely reduced from what it was? It has become very difficult for me to level up in the early game.

Even with bear traps and all the incendiary grenades in the world, I still doubt that SMG is viable for Dominating, especially on Oddity. Perhaps someone with more skill, time, and patience than me could do it, but I sure as hell can't.

[mattu]

Molotovs are nearly a necessity now. Especially for rathounds, but in a lot of other scenarios too.

On that note, a little news update: my son was able to do Silent Isle before Depot A. Showed me a screen of the carnage. Pretty awesome.

I'm not sure about the oddity drop rates. It did take a long time to get all my rathound ears, but this has happened before. Other drops seemed normal-ish.

I had a random encounter with a mad scientist in Core City, responded adventurously and (spoilers redacted). Fun little thing, we'll see what else pops up.

[hilf]

These new, random encounters, can they happen on all difficulties? Have you seen any yet, and where can they appear??
I hope I will meet some on normal difficulty as well.

On Hard, I met 2 Ironheads on the way from SGS to GMS, in a location previously occupied only by rathounds. Maybe it was a random encounter.

I know i'm not really worthy to post in this elite thread for truly hardcore players since i play on Hard but i did not want to leave this question unanswered

[Bruno]

These new, random encounters, can they happen on all difficulties? Have you seen any yet, and where can they appear??
I hope I will meet some on normal difficulty as well.

On Hard, I met 2 Ironheads on the way from SGS to GMS, in a location previously occupied only by rathounds. Maybe it was a random encounter.

I know i'm not really worthy to post in this elite thread for truly hardcore players since i play on Hard but i did not want to leave this question unanswered

Hey, thanks a lot for answering! I love this new feature as it will spice things up and add some unpredictability.
I'll be playing on normal (Strict Ironman) and hope to see some random encounters too.

[Tygrende]

Molotovs are nearly a necessity now. Especially for rathounds, but in a lot of other scenarios too.

I haven't used a single molotov so far, I'm inside Depot A right now. Basic frag grenades are still enough to insta-kill normal rathounds regardless of how numerous they are and take a good chunk of alpha's HP.

Playing a sniper/pistol build, no quick tinkering, no trap abuse (I do use them occasionally, but no more than I would on Hard), no cheat engine, etc. The only thing I kind of "abuse" are doors. For example, I saved Newton by letting a single psi beetle wander inside a room, close the door, kill him, repeat until all are dead. In most cases it's easy enough to sneak past groups I'm not able to tackle yet, at least so far.

Oddity drops seem perfectly fine. I would say they are even better considering how many enemies there are, I never maxed beetle brains so early.

[Sykar]

I am using my Hybrid PSI/Sniper/Stealth character for another playthrough and this build did well in Hard mode though it is a bit weak until you have Premeditation and Snipe.

As someone who loves to sneak past enemies I feel this is a mixed bag especially in Depot A. There is just too much now and it is almost impossible to skip combat. While killing isolated targets is this builds forte, it is of little use here due to the insane amount of enemies alongside the increased damage and HP and limited ways to isolate targets to take them out one by one.

I am fine with the increased HP and damage. I am also fine so far with the new monsters like the new PSI beetle which is a huge challenge.
But the stupidly high amount of enemies without giving sneaky builds additional routes to evade them makes me question at least that part of the difficulty.

Alongside Depot A this also applies to the abandoned Warehouse behind the Mushroom Cave with Newton in it. It takes a lot of patience to lure the psi beetles into the starting room to close the door and then killing them one by one which is the only way to defeat them.

I said I was fine with the new monsters but I urge you, Styg, to remove PSI-cognitive Interruption from the new psi beetle. It basically one shots any PSI user unless the build goes max Con, or maybe you can survive it at very high levels.

Also giving PSI beetles TK punch instead of Cryokinesis when there are two of them is imho total overkill with everything else included. If we could at least get energy shields around that time it might be doable but as it stands, this is imho too much for basically all builds. By the time the stun wears of you are dead meat, almost guaranteed.

[destroyor]

Not to mention the issues of weight and price. I'm already spending all my money on bullets, as it is.

There's a solution to your money problem. If you look at coslie's excellent research:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/250520/discussions/0/1291817837625196247/

You'll see at 0 mercantile you are paying roughly 2X for crafting components. You can make money by buying + crafting tact vests, riot gears, metal armors, chem pistols, pistols, and xbows.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Trying out the 3/7/4/3/3/10/10 no-stealth psi crafter that worked so nicely on Hard.  It doesn't work as nicely on Dominating.  Some things I've noticed:

I can't do without Force User.  Those extra two turns of protection, when I've gotten myself in a corner or against a wall, are just too valuable. I use a whole lot more skills and items in combat (as, presumably, does most everyone else on this difficulty) so two more turns of psi regen and cooldown ticks are immensely powerful.  I don't know if it's absolutely and objectively necessary now, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to beat this difficulty as a Tranquility psi crafter without Premeditation and Force User.

I really wanted to go into crafting early but I just can't spare the points.  Had to pick up Grenadier at level 10 to be able to handle Silent Isle because traps alone weren't doing it.  Probably won't have any significant investment into crafting skills before level 16 or so (have 20 each in Mechanics and Tailoring to be able to recycle heavy items and reduce the trips back to SGS).  Paranoia + Gunslinger are even more valuable and represent my 1st level choices.

Whole lot of door abuse when fighting dogs, rathounds, etc.  Didn't end up using it on the psi beetles when rescuing Newton, though, thanks to the two-stage LOS break, plus Force barrier and traps+grenades.

Really enjoying this difficulty level.  Currently getting my face punched off trying to rescue Maura.  Almost every fight requires re-thinking action sequences, which is great; no more Premeditation -> Pyrokinesis -> grenade -> Cryo/Electrokinesis -> loot bodies boredom.  Pretty sure I won't make it to Tchort, but I'm happy to keep trying for now.

[Sykar]

So how exactly are you supposed to get the key card for the inner gate of Depot A which is behind the two now plasma turrets? You cannot out range them. They have huge amounts of HP. They can one shot you. There is no console which can disable them.

Did you screw stealthers over on purpose?

[ciox]

I guess you need agility and drugs to get in and still have ap, and then an EMP grenade, wouldn't be the first time that stealthers are screwed over in a situation.

Dominating doesn't sound like it's for me anyway, I never go full hardcore or try to break the game too much so this difficulty will just annihilate me, maybe i'll try the shotgun+temporal build on this difficulty first as a joke before I do it properly on hard.