Beginner, looking for a Psi/Sniper Build

[Krasny]

Hi All,

Just got into the game, made my first build, and enemies successfully wiped the floor with me in Depot A. I was aiming for a sniper/psi build but it seems that it fails miserably

My build at (lvl 7) currently is:

STR 5
DEX 3
AGI 7
CON 3
PER 9
WIL 8
INT  6

Skills (All at max)

Guns
Stealth
Thought Control
Metathermics
Psychokinesis
Lockpicking
Hacking
Persuasion

Feats:

Aimed Shot
Kneecap Shot
Interloper
Tranquility
Sprint

What I realized I am doing wrong:


- No dodge, No Evasion, Low Con, just ends up disasterous. I could have dropped persuasion and went for at least one defensive skill.

- Kneecap shot adds an unnecessary disabling component to already powerful psi cc abilities.

- 3 Psionic schools seems like an overkill.

What is to be done?

Since I am not sure what to expect from future psionic skills, I am currently at a loss regarding how to improve this build.  I will probably need to drop metathermics, and go for Locus of Control and Thought Control + Psychokinesis as primary. I will probably stop improving Psychokinesis at 45 since it is mostly for cc.

My major issue is with my skills, I am aware that some crafting will be needed since I need shields, but I have not even seen a single shield in the game, yet. And possibly need to craft custom armor.

The question is, how do I make a viable sniper/psi build? Do I invest in dodge, evasion at all, or rely on armor completely? If I rely on armor do I go with light armor or heavy armor? Which crafting skills should I invest in? And how many skill points? Or is a sniper/psi build is not viable at all?

I was expecting a falloutesque build would suffice, but I am completely baffled by the mechanics of this game, character creation gives you a lot of freedom but it seems like very restricted set of builds are actually viable.

Assistance would be greatly appreciated,   

Thanks in advance.

[Cynical]

Psi + Sniper is redundant.  It's like picking both Heavy and Energy weapons in Fallout; something you're probably not going to want to do ("Guns" in Underrail aren't a "Small Guns"-like skill that everyone should take).  Pick one, Psi or guns.  It seems like you're interested in Persuasion, which Psi synergises better with.

Try dumping AGL, PER, and Guns, maybe toss a couple extra points in CON (Psi can beat the game at Normal with CON 3 and no dodge/evade, but a bit of extra HP helps), maxing WIL, and either dumping STR entirely or pumping it up to 9 for metal armors.  Also, take Electronics and splash a bit of Biology in (probably at the cost of lockpicking), you're really going to want to be able to build Psi Headbands and Shield Emitters instead of using the crappy "found/bought" ones.  You need all three Psi skills if you're going Psi, don't try to skimp out.

[jubisloviu]

In my honest opinion you don't really need evasion/dodge if you plan ahead and abuse items like beartraps, throwing items and energy shields so you could make a 3CON character work, with a decent armor (i recommend tactical vests or leather armors, the later requires you to do a long quest on a specific city later on but i'd rather not spoil you it) you can mitigate tons of damage.
Don't worry about getting wiped on Depot A that probably happened to everybody, a good tip is to make a leather armor from the mutated dog's leather, it'll mitigate a lot of the acid damage but you'll need to invest into some chemistry for it.
you don't even need to level your throwing skills, so there's no shame into taking lots of molotov cocktails, throwing nets and flashbangs to depot A with 0 throwing, you need all the CC you can get early on as a low CON character.
also crafting RULES!, crafted armors, drugs, weapons and utility gear are on majority of the time the best you can get.

[harperfan7]

Honestly, pretty much any build is fine as a newbie unless you're on dominating.  Your build is okay.  What you need is maybe some mutated dog armor (you can find some, buy some, or make some) and traps.  Buy like 40 bear traps, place them intelligently via stealth, then initiate combat.  Use crowd control on groups and your rifle on stragglers (but start out with an aimed shot).  The game likes to throw big groups at you sometimes; you need a way to fight on your terms (force field is great for this, I've heard).  Basically get used to using bear traps; pretty much every build wants them.

[Bruno]

I guess it depends on how much save/loading you are comfortable with.
3 CON, no evasion, lowish initiative, poor armor defense, 25% HP loss due to psi powers.

If you initiate combat from stealth, great. In any other case, like dialogue/area transfer initiated combat, or random screw-ups, like enemies noticing you in stealth, or bumping out of stealth, or Lurkers/crawlers who out-stealth you... You are toast. One grenade, one mine stepped one, one stun effect - BLAM, reload.

I would up CON to 7, take conditioning+stoicism, also max out the evasion skill. Also drop thought control and metathermics and focus on psychokinesis instead, it is IMO the best "hybrid" skill (for now).

[drealmer7]

some of the stuff in this thread may be helpful?

http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=3364.0

maybe not ?

[destroyor]

Psi Sniper hybrid is one of the most powerful class in the game. OP you are correct the lack of defensive skills and three psi school are detrimental.

I cleared version 1.0.2 hard w/ the following psi sniper build:
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AwGloJgVhGDYQHYQGYQEYFoelMXhhHoRq4yGECcAHBuqInTVRsBEQCwzlGHogODQR2iosdTh05ooAqLPhpEyqEA

You might raise your eyebrow at 3 WIL, but hear me out:
At 3 WIL, thought control psi skills are now a gamble. Late game enemies will resist your thought control when you need it the most, so thought skill = 0
You need 25 Psychokinesis for Force field, 30 for Electrokinesis, and 45 Electrokinetic Imprint. You don't care about the damage output from these abilities as you will use them for crowd control. 3 WIL = perfectly fine.
At max level, max Metathermics and 3 WIL, Thermodynamic destabilization (ThermD) = 189% of target's HP <- this is good enough, therefore you don't need to pump WIL.

ThermD is the bread and butter for this build. Snipe kill straggler from stealth, premediation ThermD the enemy w/ the highest hp near the center of the group; aimed shot kill ThermD enemy -> BOOM -> if need, adrenaline, toss a high grade frag grenade -> most of the time battle over.

If you want to try out my psi sniper build, please keep in mind version 1.0.3 changed junkyard surprise so it no longer offer +2 INT buff. You will need to adjust crafting skills accordingly.

You can find skill check thresholds and crafting skill requirements from my faq:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165

I heard you can also do a thought control sniper hybrid. I can't comment on that build as I don't have any personal experience w/ it.

[Krasny]

Hi All,

I started a new build, pure psi this time, Agi, Will 10 and INT at 8. So far so good, I have not made it to the Depot A yet, but this character currently performs far better than my previous one. We shall see. I dumped guns/hacking/persuasion in favor of evasion/dodge and crafting. Possibly will not drag stealth/lockpicking to max level and pour more stats into crafting.

@Destroyor: Thanks for the build, I will definitely try this sort of build at this point. I did go through your faq, when I was deciding on this build it is of great use.

The game is great and all, but I feel disappointed with character builds, almost every build I see utilizes extreme min/maxing and every character is kind of forced to focus on one particular playstyle. I mean hyrbid playstyles seems to have been punished, and almost undoable, a pistoler/steathly psi, an rifle maniac who is also massively strong to bash people with melee, talkative crafter scientist with weak offense but shines with non-conventional guns, a character who utilizes all conventional guns etc. etc. seems to not exist in the game.

Maybe I am wrong, we shall see, But all in all I am glad that this game exists, it really feels somewhat like the "true" Fallout 3 that never happened.

[Cynical]

Everyone always says speech is weak, but I'm not sure I can agree with that at all.  While it's not a solution to everything, when it does come up, it can be a game-changer; there's two times in particular I can think of when it's absolutely huge:

(No spoiler tags here?  Black text follows with heavy spoilers, highlight it to read it, don't highlight it if you haven't beaten the game before)

Being able to stay friendly with the Faceless and while keeping Buzzer alive is utterly game-changing for any build that wants electronic parts, and being able to skip Iris without needing enough mechanics to fix the gate yourself means skipping the hardest fight in the game.  There's lots of smaller things too, like getting a better ending by convincing SGS to help in Junkyard or not having to fight the raiders in GMS compound (which can be a really rough fight for low-level characters).