Deep Caverns - Frustration

[fxluk]

Hi All,

Just wanted to point out that I am having a great time with Underrail.
Well, I had actually I got something like 90 hours now and I was hooked very fast.
Although this game really needs conversation history log and fast travel (dunno if I could make it without a speedhack), rest of it is super fun.

Ok lets go to the point now.

I am playing first time on Hard with full PSI build.
I like the challenge, so it was quite a fun with first burrowers fights. Game gets a bit easier later, but not that easy to make it boring.

At the moment I am in deep cavers. I was exploring, was at Arke Station, saw Faceless base, Muchrooms caves and some of middle grounds with Tchortling.
And this is where my problem starts. Tchort Eye debuff.

I was just going from one location to other and the debuff was stacking. At some point I get the eye, was managing so far, mostly avoiding the fights or fight and run.
Stealth is rather not an option as i never skilled in it.

After each transition of the map, it was getting worse and worse. Now I am at the point that I am stuck between two maps and everywhere I go, I got smashed by Tchortlings.
I do not even know what to do yet, as I never get to the gate, so I am running like stupid.
I am aware that there supposed to be some bunkers in those areas but I cannot seem to find any.

After 2345234523 reload I am kinda frustrated and lost interest in ending the game.
IMO this neverending enemies mechanic is quite tedious to be honest :/

I know that I can load older save, but I kinda don't want to redo areas that I already did and explored (got many parts for the gate - at least I think they are for it).
Any suggestions ?

[MirddinEmris]

Well, Hard is Hard for a reason, you know) Though i do say that some of the design choices are rather poor in the final area.


First of all, you can do the Leo quest. Pick up the bone knife from tchortist corpse (you can look up the wiki for more precise info on location) and give it back to the man who live in a shack near the faceless outpost (there is a chasm with burrowers between them, so you will know when you are there). This will make the debuff to take longer between each stack.

Second, use hatches that are located in several areas with the debuff. When you are in them the debuff stops stacking on you and you can wait till it's gone. There are couple building in those areas that is outside of the thcort's reach too. Use TAB key to highlight them. If you tell the exact name of the map you are on, i can even tell you where you can find nearest one. Use wiki, user created maps or picture of the ingame map (if you are using latest version of the game) to learn where are you exactly.

[Altos]

I am playing first time on Hard with full PSI build.

I think I may have found your problem.

But, in all seriousness, MirddinEmris offers some good advice. Look for the hatches that are littered around throughout the Hollowed Earth complex. There are 3 of them in total, IIRC. (Four, technically, but the fourth one doesn't count. It's different. You'll understand if you beat DC.)

One is in the center of the zone that has a bunch of dead Tchortists everywhere and a handful of vehicles in the northwest corner. (This is the screen directly north of where you met Six, and directly east of where the Tchortist outpost is.)

Another is southwest of that zone, in the zone with all of the destructible walls and Leo's lost bone knife. It's the most useless of the 3 in my opinion, and the hardest to access.

The third is north of the complex itself, in the northeast corner of the screen with all of the toxic gas and cuttlesnails. You'll know the screen when you see it.

If those hatches are inaccessible to you (lock-picking skill too low, for example), then you can get the Creeping Dread / Eye of Tchort to go away by simply exiting the Hollowed Earth section. This can be accomplished either by exiting to the south back to where you meet Six, or by traveling west-southwest to where the Faceless are stationed. If you're not at least neutral with the Faceless, then you're going to have to dispose of them if you want to make it through the Deep Caverns.

If you think the Tchortlings are bad, wait 'til you meet the Faceless Gaunts and the Mushroom Forest. Oh, and ARKE.

Really, all of Deep Caverns is difficult. It's that last mountain you have to climb before you reach the finish. But it's a rewarding finish, so it's worth completing. Plus, the final boss is awesome, so you definitely don't want to miss out on that.

Best of luck. Let us know if you have any questions. As always, most of your questions can probably be answered by perusing the Underrail Wiki @ http://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Deep_Caverns

[Twiglard]

You tell me. After the full version of Underrail came out, there were no hints or maps anywhere. DC wasn't nerfed either. My mediocre Psi build ran outta mana potions and couldn't kill the devil. DC was so hard to navigate for me, had I reloaded at the beginning of DC, I would've run outta 150+ mana potions again.

But what killed my resources, wait for it...

endlessly spawning Faceless Gaunts

[fxluk]

Thanks for the responses.

Actually I was in ARKE and in Mushroom forrest and those were hard too but there is nothing that stopped me from progressing.
Tchortlings are simple worst, because I cannot avoid them and I cannot fight them either. I also cannot outrun them and I ended locked between maps.
Even on earlier saves, I am still unable to traverse those areas without dieing or getting locked...
Leo quest helps, but it is not something that make a big difference to me. Same goes with bunkers when I finally found them.

Faceless armies actually are neutral to me.I just didn't go to the commander talk and they didn't attack me on spot for the first time.

Like I said I don't mind hard encounters. I ended Baldurs Gate 2 with SCS and I liked changing tactics for a fight and so on, but restarting a whole DC area just for that seems like an overkill to me. Especially, when I don't really know if I would't just get up locked again at some point.

Well dunno, maybe I will give it another try someday

[Twiglard]

What is your build? What's your level? What are your weapons?

Tchortlings have Thought Control attacks and these are very short-range.

Since you can't respec at all, I recommend looking at optimized builds and making your own basing on them. You don't have to follow them to the letter either. Just that some skills are game changers for some builds. Ambush, Commando.

[Twiglard]

For me personally a large part of the DC frustration is the music and tileset. Playing it right after the full game came out (no maps, no tips, no spoilers) was an outright depressing slog. Wish the atmosphere was more like The Glow and not to make me feel bad through the whole thing.

The Glow had this "dangerous place, but with forgotten amazing stuff" vibe. DC have a grimdark vibe.

[Kaarel_K]

Am I the only one who thought DC one of the most interesting and coolest parts of the game?

[Cmdr. DuctTape]

Am I the only one who thought DC one of the most interesting and coolest parts of the game?

It's my favorite place as well  . I had some problems when I went there the first time, but after I finished Leo's quest and realized that I can just run from bunker to bunker without fighting a single enemy it was a walk in the park. Honestly, the Free Drones questline was more difficult than DC.

[Twiglard]

How do you do it on Dominating? A single Mental Subversion followed by a BAM is enough to kill me. The lousy psi-louses hide behind walls, etc. My turn is over, it makes a few steps and BAM.

[Fins]

How do you do it on Dominating? A single Mental Subversion followed by a BAM is enough to kill me. The lousy psi-louses hide behind walls, etc. My turn is over, it makes a few steps and BAM.

The simplest way is to quickly sneak through all areas with "Eye of Tchort" debuff - not fighting at all. A lvl 25+ character with 7 base Agility and maxed Stealth skill does it quite OK even without using any stealth-boosting consumables / device, even without Interloper feat. All other areas - ones without the debuff - play as usual, things don't respawn and there's no huge penalty to skills from the debuff.

For characters with insufficient or zero Stealth, two kinds of tactics work in Eye of Tchort areas, and both gotta be used depending on which area and how many tchortlings are present.

1st is quick and silent removal of all enemies alerted by an attack - either killing them in a single turn or disabling any survivors with low-noise incapacitation / freeze / etc, in general not allowing them to alert enemies out of line of sight. Much depends on how well any particular build is able to dish out silent and almost-silent (Implosion, Cryokinesis, etc) burst damage, of course. This is obviously best vs 1...2 tchortlings which are not being seen by any others.

And 2nd is some or other kind of hit-disable-run tactics: flashbangs, loud psi stuns / incapacitations (like setting them on fire with Pyrokinesis hit), bear and other traps, etc. Then pop up consumables / abilities for extra mobility and defense and outrun them to desired exit zone to leave the map alive.

P.S. I'm over 5 years too late to answer this, yet search still shows this topic upon relevant queries. So maybe my 2 cents would help someone, still.