Post your experiences with the new Dominating difficulty!

[SubterminalOptimization]

I always take Interloper on my stealth builds though though I do not think you can find or buy Tabis before you are done with Depot A.

Ah I think you're right other than random. I forgot that the Black Eels Quest line leading to Blaine (and his store/Blueprints) is actually right *after* this quest.  You definitely do not need to complete Depot A though or get Armadillo parts.  I guess you'd be limited to crummy +4 stealth +1 Agility boots or something like that in the general case.  I actually know for a fact that you can *possibly* get at least non-stealth +12% movement tabis or so from a mutie near the south entrance (I distinctly remember looting once) but that's likely random.

there are a lot of PSI beetles near the shrooms on the left side which you need to stand in to avoid the Bilocation proc

You do not need to visit each mushroom though.  The "middle" one on the West/left side is almost always either completely clear or you can move around up/down as needed to keep the stacks cleared.

I do not see a reliable way to get through it on a regular basis without reloading and/or without fighting.

It's definitely not 100% reliable to do without reloading, but I think it's something like ~80%, probably a bit higher with intensive practice.  You definitely have to very actively click in response to enemy movement, you cannot just click-click-click three times to three waypoints and be done.

In a nutshell "Autistic" as I call this difficulty is an explosion of effective HP and a significant increase of damage.

Even so, it can be completed at Level 6 with strategy and some patient reloading, so there's definitely a decent margin .  I haven't tried a Hardcore/Iron Man/Deathless run as another poster is doing, but I strongly believe that such a run could be done reliably (probably in 90%+ range).

Of course this game does have flaws, like any other, but I am skeptical that Dominating should be something that can be done without saveloading unless you have both *extreme* planning and deep game knowledge.  It's a strange criticism to me because that is exactly what I expected from the mode based on its description (and based on the fact that the game has virtually no real-time "action"...everything can be measured and planned out).

[Dieusama]

"everything can be measured and planned out"

COUGH* I'd like to remind you that opponents do criticals hits too.

[SubterminalOptimization]

"everything can be measured and planned out"

COUGH* I'd like to remind you that opponents do criticals hits too.

You guys are very naughty with your temptations for a challenge run here.  I have a lot of work at the moment!  I specifically beat Dominating at Level 6 (and posted my run breakdown) because of some people complaining about Dominating being too difficult/impossible at Level 25.

Now you're going to claim that critical hits, bigger health pools, etc. make it too hard / inconsistent to do a Deathless (no saveload) Dominating? :p

I hope for Shredded Cheddar to respond...I think it's worth checking for an update from him (and maybe others will be interested in investigating this?).

http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=3409.0

But for now I would remind you that opponents can only critical you when they have a chance to attack you.  If you are playing "optimally" I suspect this should actually be very, very rare in and of itself.

[TheAverageGortsby]

I haven't tried a Hardcore/Iron Man/Deathless run as another poster is doing, but I strongly believe that such a run could be done reliably (probably in 90%+ range).

FWIW, I am 100% sure that a full-game-clear (except the Carnifex fight which is uncontrollable with sufficiently bad RNG) stealth Psi run can be done on Dominating with no reloads.  I haven't done one yet but that's just because I don't much care about that sort of challenge (and as you noted, am sort of waiting to see if ShreddedCheddar has success).  Without stealth, I got to Emporion with Psi builds without dying.  Nothing on the critical path was even substantially dangerous before DC, and having a 4-turn Force Field to hide against a wall behind while you LoC Bilocate/Enrage or wait for buffs to drop off enemies pretty much just breaks everything.  Psi even makes the otherwise scary Death Stalkers quite safe to handle in groups.

Given how powerful you've shown AR builds to be, it seems you surely could do it with an AR as well.  I just know Psi better than any other build and only know how to win all encounters with it.

[destroyor]

And just like that, squadrons of deadly robots mysteriously materialize in the expansion and on the critical path of the base game for the next update.

[TheAverageGortsby]

And just like that, squadrons of deadly robots mysteriously materialize in the expansion and on the critical path of the base game for the next update.

Talk about hoist by me own petard. Cue the "Augh!" moment from Charlie Brown comics    So you're saying the new layout for the Newton rescue mission is multilevel?

Dreadnought_Factory_Floor.map
Dreadnought_Testing_Room.map
Dreadnought_Annealing_Chambers.map
Larger_Prototype_Dreadnought_With_Overclocked_AI.map
Just_Blatantly_Ripping_Off_WH40K_Emperor_Titan.map

[destroyor]

No no no, surely it won't be something so crude. It'll probably be more like:

Iris: must protect father.
You: but you can't
Iris: ...

Critical error, primary OS offline, loading OS backup. Threat reassessment completed - probabilities of stopping intruder. 0%

System override per omega directive.

Iris offline
Skynet bootup ... successful
Terminator squadron: ready
Grievous reporting for duty.
Ultron operational status: ready
Sentinels operational status: ready
Remote connection to Unicron: communication hand shake successful, target acquired.
Anti-EMP field engaged.

Starting threat reassessment ... completed. probabilities of stopping intruder. 100%

[Twiglard]

How do you get "late bloomer" builds through the Newton azuridae quest? I've hit a roadblock with several. Should I roam Lower Underrail looking for trouble and XP?
Edit: what's so special about AR builds? My SMG is stronger, though it has no sniper rifle sidearm. Of course barring DC and infinite respawning enemies.

[MirddinEmris]

How do you get "late bloomer" builds through the Newton azuridae quest? I've hit a roadblock with several. Should I roam Lower Underrail looking for trouble and XP?
Edit: what's so special about AR builds? My SMG is stronger, though it has no sniper rifle sidearm. Of course barring DC and infinite respawning enemies.

Molotov's and abusing closing doors (bugs can't open it). Or just don't doing it, it's not mandatory

AR is simple and effective. If we are looking at damage/turn, then SMG can eventually pull significantly bigger numbers, but AR doesn't need high Dex to be as effective as it can, meaning you can start with 10 Con, for example, increasing your survivability.

[jubisloviu]

How do you get "late bloomer" builds through the Newton azuridae quest? I've hit a roadblock with several. Should I roam Lower Underrail looking for trouble and XP?

molotovs, beartraps, caltrops and throwing nets are going to be your bread and butter in early dominating for "late bloomers"

[Yonaiker]

I only play in Normal mode since I'm not that hardcore enough to try the hardest difficult level but makes me wonder...

How tough are the Lunatic levels, specifically one when you have to retrieve the Tchortist figurine and the other when you get your first assignment from Mediant Samuel.

 

[TheAverageGortsby]

How tough are the Lunatic levels

Not at all if you have decent stealth ability and come prepared.  Probably need a couple grenades and perhaps a few traps unless you just want to stealth past most of them, which you can do.

If you do fight, it can be a little tricky.  There are a lot of Lunatics on Dominating, but as long as you've explored around enough to be properly levelled you shouldn't have too much trouble.  Might need a couple reloads, especially if you don't know the area layout.

[harperfan7]

I always take Interloper on my stealth builds though though I do not think you can find or buy Tabis before you are done with Depot A.

You can find them early; I've got some during the first quest before (not sure if I found them or bought them from jonas).  I think you can find the blueprint randomly as well, but I'm not positive.  You can get blaine as a merchant before setting foot in the wormhole or depot A in general. 

You can also get shield emitters very early; I've got one before saving newton before, without exploring outside SGS.  Ezra sells them sometimes, and I happened to have the 6k cash when he was selling one.  It was the worst shield I've ever seen, but there it was.  Katherine sells them too, and the guards in the maura quest have them.  Also, on DOMINATING, the lunatic nuker south of GMS has one.

I play early game an awful lot, because I just really like it.  After depot A, the game really slows down for me, and I have to reallllly want to finish the build I'm playing.  I've only beat the game once and only played after depot A one other time (to lvl 17).  So when I say you *can* find these things, it's still pretty darn rare.

edit:  go figure, I just had Gort sell me an energy shield blueprint; I'm doing depot A but haven't found the circuit board yet

[harperfan7]

So I'm currently playing a sledge juggernaut and just finished depot A.  I fought the lurkers in the cave near GMS and found a fantastic anti-rifle tacvest (DT 25, which is 75 vs bullets) and with a good tungsten helmet and boots, I've got a DT of 32 or so.  Apparently, the spines that burrowers shoot are considered bullets.  I've been doing the burrower dungeons and the only threat in them is the burrower warriors, the spawn and regular burrowers can't even hurt me.  The only difficult part of the game for me so far has been lunatics; the psychopaths and their damn bilocation bullshit are instadeath for me, so I have to win those fights without the psychopaths even getting to act.  Otherwise I just make good use of bear traps, caltrops, corners/doors and grenades (against crowds, against individuals I make good use of nets/tasers/pneumatic strikes to keep them stunned or stationary).

So far, it's been easier than my heavy AR run, and roughly comparable to my sneaky crossbow traps run. 

[Sykar]

Has anyone here being able to do the Epione Lab mission for the Free Drones by sneaking through?