Post your experiences with the new Dominating difficulty!

[hilf]

I'm not so sure about practical physicist versus high technicalites. If i take 8 int (which is also good for a lot of bonus skill points), thats +24 % base damage, which seems betters than +25% critical damage bonus (62.5 with critical power) if you get more than  ~160 critical damage bonus (i didn't do the maths properly). Both would be even better of course

HT is much better than PP. The latter is better only if you have Crit Power, don't use Amplifiers on your guns and have 65% or more chance to crit.

[Ploluap]

I hadn't invested in tailoring(only 10 for grenades) so I had 2 sets of armor: Biohazard Suit+Boots(very useful in DC, obviously, even with such severe penalties) and... Rathound Regalia+Ninja Tabi Boots, cuz it's best "stealth" armor in my case(no tailoring, no Nimble feat), no guns/crossbows users in DC(which can oneshot you) and most enemies can be skipped; all available heavy armors(Metal/Riot) just lol for DC.

P.S. Also in DC I have found 160 quality Laser Emitter and mb it's static.

Thank you very much, i'm amazed you did'nt even use tailoring !

[Mindless]

I'm not so sure about practical physicist versus high technicalites. If i take 8 int (which is also good for a lot of bonus skill points), thats +24 % base damage, which seems betters than +25% critical damage bonus (62.5 with critical power) if you get more than  ~160 critical damage bonus (i didn't do the maths properly). Both would be even better of course

HT is much better than PP. The latter is better only if you have Crit Power, don't use Amplifiers on your guns and have 65% or more chance to crit.

Now when you said this, mb you are right. When I have played with my hybrid build I don't bother to look in this matter.
For example, we have 100% damage and 500% critical damage, so with PP we will have 562.5% final damage on crit(1.0*(500,0%+62,5%)).
With HT and even 7 INT we will have 580% final damage on crit(1.0*1.16*500%). Ofc if my calculations are right.

[Twiglard]

For me, it's sort of doable when investing in Chemistry for mk4 grenades, before even getting the Energy Shield blueprint. The feat reducing grenade cooldown helps a lot. Because of it, Depot A, aka Hell, was actually pretty easy. There was one Depot A map with a great amount of Doggies and some Mutants that was a problem. Over 3/4 of my damage was mk4 frags.

Some enemies have an absurd amount of evasion. Only burst fire at point-blank range gets them, other than grenades. Other times enemies like some Lunatic groups are instakilling my CON 3 character. Gotta keep them alive till much later.

Sometimes the amount of fodder thrown my way is just too absurd.

I applaud those who already made it to DC. What are your builds? This is mine, not sure if completely viable:

STR 3
DEX 12
AGI 4 (going for 6 for lower burst cost)
CON 3
PER 10
WIL 3
INT 7

Guns, Throwing, crafting

Grenadier, Power Management, level 11, 730 capacity shield.

[destroyor]

spoiler debuff seems to stack faster on dominating difficulty for you?

This is not even hard or difficult, just pure annoyance.
10 min mini battle which is neither difficult nor resource draining

Yes, it's faster and there are more of the creatures. And the fighting gets more intense the closer you are to the source.

But are you seriously saying it's not hard? You can handle it all without even expending significant consumables? Not even the slightest stress that your character might not make it? Now that is hardcore! How do you even stay in a fight for 10 minutes without resource drain, with a speedhack too? I know you pleaded to remove the fights, but how would you make them harder instead (within reasonable bounds)? Because Styg has no intention of making DOMINATING any less dominating and navigating the eye's domain should be perilous to your character.

First, my build: http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMNBwMKAwfCh8KHAAAAwodxADIcKFt2SzBwAAAAAAAAARkxMB5RWRZLAj4zwppa

Gear (not even top tier, just crafted item from what I located):
Seeker goggles (crit chance +16%)
Infused rathound leather armor (crit chance +11%)
Recklessness (crit chance +7%)
Laser pistol (crit chance = 6% from gun)
Plasma/Electro pistol (crit chance = 5%)
Focus stim = crit chance +15%
Ambush = crit chance + (20% + 0.3% * 113) = 53.9% <- not sure if 0.3% * base or effective so I use base here.

So when you add everything up crit chance = 107.9 ~ 108.9%. Setting up Ambush isn't hard in DC at all since it's so dark everywhere, one incendiary grenade (note I max out throwing AND i have backup flare) and I'm good to go. Against Tchortlings every single shot from my laser/electro pistol is a crit, I also get to toss an incendiary or Frag MKV grenade every two turn,  quick tinker a trap (mostly bear but I have MKV frag) every two turns. So yeah, even when the fight drags on it's not hard nor resource draining - ingredients for incendiary grenades, focus stim, bear traps are plentiful in DC.

Pro tip: you can tell your own darkness level, even with night vision on, by looking at your own portrait.

I'm on board with most of the changes for dominating difficulty but this increase rate of creeping dread/eye of tchort is a mistake. I ended up just resigning to the fact I must fight in DC and just brute force my way to my goal on various maps (instead of using safe spot and wait out the debuff, which wasn't ideal to begin with pre ver 1.0.2 but if you try this now it's turning the annoyance dial to eleven). I don't know how to make DC harder but this increase rate of debuff is not the answer. This change annoyed the hell out of me and I'm giving it a thumbs down. Boo.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Only freshly into DC but boy, those Tchortling spawns are amped up from Hard.  Still, with +~40% move speed I can get from safe haven to safe haven with usually only one fight en route, or none.  This build works fine for Dominating, but it's not perfect; just haven't gotten enough use out of Quick Tinkering to make it worthwhile.  Otherwise, pretty much everything comes into play every combat, which keeps combat varied and interesting.

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMIAwMDEAoPHgAAAAAAUEEARlVVIERfS8KHwoctAEErKBc_FCouFjAhZD1mZyk

On Hard, I tried not to use the (somewhat cheesy) LoC+Bilocation on groups while hiding behind the force field, but on Dominating I have no shame at all   Pretty much every significant fight with Lurkers, Lunatics, Ironheads, Protectorate, et c. has abused the crap out of AoE Bilocation.

[destroyor]

If you guys want to increase the difficulty for dominating DC maybe you should do it like Fallout: New Vegas - have a Tchortling death squad blocking the exit. I just want to loot the parts in one go instead of "fight, loot w/ 20AP, blocked by locked door, end fight, pick lock and/or blocked by wall, end fight, drill, another fight, loot w/ 20AP".

[destroyor]

Well just finished a dominating game w/ an energy pistol char.

I always considered crossbow as the measuring bar in this game, not weak and not overpowering strong, as the middle ranking class. I would say the new energy pistol class is on the same tier as crossbow now but quite a bit weaker. The laser pistol AP reduction really helps this class and it will be your work horse weapon of choice. Understanding of Ambush is a must if you want to unlock this class' full potential. The major weaknesses and drawbacks of this class applied to all pistol class - very starve on ability points, low PER due to the need to pump DEX, low accuracy (toward the middle ~ end game my accuracy hover between 6x ~ 8x%, 95% are super rare without bear traps), short range of weapons (especially electro + plasma). You are very weak against enemies that are immune to crit. I would strongly suggest you bring advanced catalyzing belt, a fire/acid chem gun and a rapid smart 7.62mm Jaguar SMG to the end game.







Spoiler ahead, do not read if you never beaten the game.
https://i.imgur.com/KchrhAi.png
https://i.imgur.com/WY1KZCd.png

Overall this is a challenging and enjoyable experience, with the exception of the changes to creeping dread/eye of tchort. If it's up to me I would also weaken Death Stalkers a bit. Next up: psi monk on dominating to test dodge/evasion.

[MirddinEmris]

I always considered crossbow as the measuring bar in this game, not weak and not overpowering strong, as the middle ranking class.

Tbh, i consider crossbows to be closer to lower end of the power. Not the lowest, but not in the middle either. They have several weaknesses that are very hard to work around (like no way to deal with high mech resist outside of special bolts) and require a lot of specific build choices that will hurt you very much unless if you don't take them.


On the topic. I just got in the DC with heavy sledg build and i want to say that i like the new difficulty, even if sometimes it was pretty frustrating (especially in the beginning). My sledg build for new difficulty differed from previous one only by the 40 point put into traps to help at the start and i probably could have done it without this investment. Most dangerous enemies for me till this point were big groups of lunatics.

[Yonaiker]

Well just finished a dominating game w/ an energy pistol char.

I always considered crossbow as the measuring bar in this game, not weak and not overpowering strong, as the middle ranking class. I would say the new energy pistol class is on the same tier as crossbow now but quite a bit weaker. The laser pistol AP reduction really helps this class and it will be your work horse weapon of choice. Understanding of Ambush is a must if you want to unlock this class' full potential. The major weaknesses and drawbacks of this class applied to all pistol class - very starve on ability points, low PER due to the need to pump DEX, low accuracy (toward the middle ~ end game my accuracy hover between 6x ~ 8x%, 95% are super rare without bear traps), short range of weapons (especially electro + plasma). You are very weak against enemies that are immune to crit. I would strongly suggest you bring advanced catalyzing belt, a fire/acid chem gun and a rapid smart 7.62mm Jaguar SMG to the end game.







Spoiler ahead, do not read if you never beaten the game.
https://i.imgur.com/KchrhAi.png
https://i.imgur.com/WY1KZCd.png

Overall this is a challenging and enjoyable experience, with the exception of the changes to creeping dread/eye of tchort. If it's up to me I would also weaken Death Stalkers a bit. Next up: psi monk on dominating to test dodge/evasion.

Did you tried the extra optional boss? I haven't updated the game yet and wanted to know how crazy would be fighting that armored commander.

[destroyor]

@MirddinEmris - I respectfully disagree because xbow have a lot of outs against high mech resist in the form of special bolts. Xbow even have Deadly Snares + Elemental Bolts specifically design for that. I could be wrong tho - what would you consider to be the middle ranking class in Underrail?

@Yonaiker - well my char can't fight them in open space after the final boss as their emp grenade destroyed me. I'm pretty sure this char can take them on in the small room w/ the captives in the back by abusing quick tinkering + bear traps.

[Twiglard]

Can you detect Death Stalkers with detection goggles, and Paranoia?

[Fenix]

Well, someone wrote that with Perception 15 and Paranoia and goggles he coudn't do that.
But I could be wrong.

[Fenix]

Also, Dominating just rocks!
Fights are very interesting, like when I started to play Underrail back then.
Thank you Styg!

[harperfan7]

Entering Depot A with my heavy gunner (actually just made my first suit of metal armor; I've been a kevlar anti-rifle tacvest gunner up until now and I'll probably switch back and forth)/submachine gunner with occasional sniper use.  This feels just right; it's just hard enough that I have to really try, and I have to use all my resources pretty frequently, but not so much that it's frustrating.  Sure, there's been a few times where I've save scummed to avoid having to spend forever being painstakingly careful (like when placing traps near enemies - I should have crafted stealth gear earlier because now I don't need to do that).  Also, when wearing bulletproof stuff, I still get hurt and have to be at least a little careful; in my last hard playthrough I did a sledge juggernaut with a regenerative vest and it was like playing a literal tank albeit one with no horse power.

I've done the two early game burrower dungeons and in both of them I killed the last one right before I was about to die after using most of my available expendables; it's such a great feeling.  Shush Atoll was particularly hard, but there's a trick to getting it to work that I figured out before too long (it involves caltrops and a certain shoreline's proximity).  I've got quick pockets and a utility belt and I am really using them.  I carry 15-25 bear traps with me when I go out, and like 40-50 for burrower dungeons. 

If I weren't using bear traps and nets/caltrops/mark x frags/incidiaries/taser and/or emp/flashbangs, it would be virtually impossible.