Sneaky Crossbow + traps good enough alone or need other weapons?

[MirddinEmris]

Concussive Shots is meh, you may consider dropping it. But Elemental Bolts is a true powerhouse, so take it as easrly as you can - 14 or 16 lvl. Sharpshhoter is useful too, since you are going to need additional crit damage.

My last crossbow build was something like that http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMHBwMQAwcAAMKHAAAAwodfRgAybnhVUHgAAAAAAAAoMQEiNTgzS2owHScmXQ

As you noticed, i don't have Deadly Snares, mostly becayse it's usefullness is very limited. First, because enemy that is caught in a trap is not a danger to you for the most time and you can wait before finishing him. Second, because my build had critical chance around 75%, so most of my shots were already critical. For the same reason you probably should avoid taking Ambush, because you crit chance will already be close to 100%.

I used two crossbows: Pneumatic Cyclon + high res scope and Monsoon + superstring + high res scope. Other gear was infused rathound leather armor and seeker goggles, all increasing crit chance. With all of that it is possible to have a very high crit chance and with Elemental Bolts it will even negate most glaring crossbow weakness - high mech resist. With Expedition, you can boost you crit even higher, to almost 100%.

Crossbow is the strongest when you start the combat out of stealth (though it will be a bit boring after a while, since you are making mostly dame thing over and over). For other battles there is food that boosts your init (which is already decent). Maybe even take Trigger Happy in place of veteran feat to be sure.

Shock bolts are best out of bunch. They have nice damage and they stun both oraganic targets and robots. Couldn't be better, really. And you can even buy them from vendors.

As far as crafting goes, you should get a very good shield, you will need it for a couple of tough fights. You should have enough chemistry to craft mkIII fire bolts (60 effective chemistry i think), they gonna serve you great in a final fight. Corrosive Acid is also good, since it reduces  the resistances, takes a bit more chemistry (around 70-80). Poisons...are meh imo, at least compared to elemental ones. The only solid use i had is hunting bladelings with them (and gas grenades for a big fight).

P.S. Ambush became better after Styg tweaked illumination mechanics.

[Quidam Craft]

As people noted, Temporal manipulation is a nice addition.

Psychokinesis is also good, for force field and electrokinesis.

Electrokinesis need Premeditation feat however to be fully functionnal, it give you a ranged stun for free every five turn.

Force field is great combine with bear traps as you can force targets to go through your bear trap a lot easier. Plus forcefield can be life saving sometimes.

It maybe cost a lot (45 skill needed if I remember correctly) but also electrokinesis imprint combine well with traps of any kind.
It's a "kinda" a two turn stun. Wich is rare among the game, and it does not cost a lot of AP to place.

So if you have some skill points to spare and since you already took the HP debuff of psi empathy, might as well put some more point in it. And, if you have a spare feat, take premeditation, a free action every five turn is good anyway.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Can you elaborate on why ambush is good now? Last time I played Underrail some times ago, it was generally regarded as a pretty bad feat. And now I see people saying it's good in expedition, why though?

Also, what is it you get from 55 temporal manipulation, some good spell or something?

For a stealthy ranged character, Ambush can get you into guaranteed-crit territory.  Guaranteed crits are always nice, right?  And it's easy to make sure someone is in a lighted square if you set them on fire first.  If you're used to sneaking around and getting good positioning anyway, pushing your crit chance high enough to be reliable is quite valuable.

55 TM gets you psi haste.  With the feat, that's 3 turns of +20AP and +30MP as well.  It's quite the buff.

[Fewd]

With specialization that could apparently be pushed to +22 AP, which is 3 AP short from having three shots per round with a non-Cyclon crossbow. Are there any ways to get permanent or non-consumable +3 AP on top of specialized haste?

[bati]

https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bolt_Quiver

[Fewd]

Oh yes