I may not be the first one to tell this but: THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
You basically permitted me to enjoy the game, my first build was a suboptimal smg build I wasn't pleased with and I quickly abandon with the game altogether.
I was quite reluctant to use the psionic powers. But I actually enjoyed it A LOT thanks to your recommandation.
However, as many before me, I still do not agree with the statement that Tranquility surpasses SI Psychosis. I think it is quite the opposite. I was able to kill Naga protectors with one maniaed TK Proxyed punch when I was fully specialized in Force User, and was also able to wipe out rather easily full maps of ennemies (the savage ones) thanks to other AoE attacks including a maniaed tranced LoC Neural Overload.
I don't think you can do so with tranquility and some cooldowns would surely make thermodynamicity a bit underwhelming with the absence of criticals. However I do think it could be more fun to play because of course you could do more during each turn. I think that is the real point here?
Well, SI psychosis is still fun to play if you try not to use the force field + TD + TK punch cheese too often. Maybe it is inferior if you want to play with definitive death of course because of the lack of regenerative vest and the health requirement for Survival Instinct to actually work.
So here is my final build anyway :
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgMDAwkDEAkAAAAAAADCn0VcAABFZAk2U8KgwqDCoEYjADxQYissFCplH8KHIcKEZj0FLsK3csK5wq7CneKfmAnioYYE4qK1At-_It is not original AT ALL but I will explain it for the newcomers anyway, the thresold parts for crafting/lockpicking/hacking skills will most certainly answer the questions which had been posted just before my intervention :
The gist being to compensate the drawback of psychosis (being the very high psi consumption from both direct penalities associated to the feat and from the absence of muffler because I really wanted to enhance my criticals and damages on TK punch for the garantied one shot kill on very high health ennemies or on Neural Overload for the powerful late game AoE attack) with the
AMAZING Hemopsychosis and Last Stand synergy. I didn't have to heal ONCE (well I had a few reloads and I used the Enter trick to engage combat during the Carniflex fight) passed lvl 16 thanks to that and never run out of psi thanks to it and one or two 2 ap (doctor's pouch is mandatory of course, but I tend to find it quite early in most cases) psi booster for the REALLY long fights. Hemopsychosis and Last Stand is NOT just for quality of life. It will raise your maximum damage output during the alpha strike AND the next few turns.
I did take Empowered PK but Empowered TC may be a good choice also because the TK punch does not really need it to work while Neural Overload would greatly benefit from it. The 9 points in Force user specialization could be put elsewhere (for example in Future Orientation which is detrimental without it without Tranquility in my opinion and if you wish to sacrifice Pyromaniac which is not THAT great - eventhough it is mandatory for me being way to fun to miss out -) or even on Neural Overcloaking for a more balanced damage output repartition. Also, I put some
points in chemistry for the sole purpose of beating the Foundry quest more rapidly with
gas grenades (with house bonuses and a mere underpie). It may come in handy as well with mass neural overload shenanigans during some healthy end game genocide in expedition.
Crafting : With hypercerebrix, house bonuses and underpie you reach maximum theorical thresholds for the highest requirements
- tactical vest (
128 mechanicals for psi crab/psi bettle + strudy vest + SS sheet + black overcoat.
- infused leather armor (
156 tailoring), but you don't need as much for either Infused Hooper Leather Soft Padded (Black) Overcoat or your tactical vest (Sturdy Vest and Black overcoat), still making some great infused leather armor may be helpful from time to time.
- best theorical energy shield (
186 electronics. They could be further enhanced with the Power Management feat were you to sacrifice Pyromaniac, Neural Overload for examples, but I'd rather not personally because psion have already a lot of way to defend itself with no shield at all anyway. High electronics is still important for the psionic headbands : you'ill need 135 electronics for the more advanced ones)
- And enough
biology to craft hypercerebrix, trance with no bonuses, bullhead (and GAS GRENADE) with just an underpie and everything else which is relevant except regenerative mixture with house/hypercerebrix.
Those numbers were found on the great
Destoyer's in-depth FAQ :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165121 Hacking with an underpie and Lemurian Engineer suit is there to make a certain endgame area bearable. 110 persuasion with heartbreaker shoes and armor has the same purpose (eventhough it should NOT work in that VERY CASE, I mean... Come on, it does not make any sense).
With hypercerebrix you pass the highest 'computer hacking' (no tools involved) in the game (130, it is NOT mandatory, it just permits you to have some more lore, nothing else, it doesn't even permit you to change any ending slide, etc. I was wondering when I first read about this...) and also the highest 'chest opening hacking' check in the game (135, but it is not worth it at all so you may lower a bit hacking...) with the right tool (and if you don't have it just use hypercerebrix)
130 lockpicking with an Eel Sandwich (easy to find, DO NOT be afraid of food management, it is NOT time consuming or tiresome at all, food merchants are many and easy to find), Lemurian engineer suit and best tool (which is easy to miss out, but without it you still get 125 which is enough for most checks anyway), and 100 is enough to steal some jetskis for a certain quest if you make certain choices...
105 effective mercantile with hypercerebrix and underpie, which permits you to have access to the best endgame shop for tactical vest parts (not essential at all but still nice), 95 is MANDATORY if you want to get good quality shield emitters and psionic headbands in a certain shop which is once again easy to lock.
On low TM investment: I think this school is mostly interesting for Tranquility build for it may have more psi consumption reductions and can keep activated Precognition all the time. I don't really know how to use Temporary Rewind. I think, with the exception of Temporal Distortion which is clearly underwhelming for a non Tranquility psion, those are the only abilities that do scale linearly with skill points. 160 base (180-190 with psi beetle caparace) points is enough to ALMOST maximize Entropic Recurrence (according to the wiki) which I do not need to use that much anyway. 70 invested points is mandatory if you want to get a certain abilities (which has VERY GOOD synergies with our current build, because it permits us to keep the double haste and hemopsychosis+last stand state for another turn and is easy to manage with LoC feat : i'm speaking about Stasis)
Another aspect which is great with PSI builds is that there is no faction you are required to work with in order to optimize your build. Well except maybe a certain well hidden organisation which won't prevent you to join any other one whatsoever anyway. I mean: sure Coretech will give you from time to time some cool googles and psi headbands components, but it is quite rare and you can find them elsewhere in most cases. They mostly will give you energy shield components but someone else does to... Sure the Praetorians and Protectorate can give you the good laminated fabric ballistic panel and sturdy vest but once again someone else does on a fairly regular pace too.
In fact in most of my runs, the only merchants I DO miss when I choose not to join their factions are Katya for some of her good medicinal components and Becket from the Free Drones for his unparalleled high qualities Black Clothes stock (But I really don't like the latter ones or their questline and I actually prefer to have to defend the expedition camp eventhough I like the pirates as well) . But you won't need neither being a pure psi.
Also I am quite hesitant on the ideal end game armor. For the boots, I do think either ninja tabi boots or infused pig leather striders whether you accept to sacrifice stealth or not (I sure don't!) are optimal. But I am not really convinced abouth the Sturdy Vest + Laminated panel/SS sheet + Psi Beetle Caparace + Black cloth choice. Sure it looks good but the psi abilities bonuses while not negligeable are not that important after some point in the game. It is quite cool being able to stall SMG bursts from the pirates but you're still dead if you don't take cover. And the psi consumption bonuses are meaningless with hemopsychosis and fully specialized Last Stand and Advanced Psi Empathy. I really tend to enjoy the Infused Hooper Soft Padded with black overcoat more for the few extra movements points, the quality of life of better stealth and the velocity of my character outside of combat. But it looks really bad so I still tend to keep the first one and switch to second one when needed. (For example in the dreaded Crimsom's Meadow Horticulure Center... It makes me uneasy just to remember what a calvary it was when I tried the brutal approach...) And finaly Psi Crab Caparace seems detrimental except maybe for jetski fights. But Sea Wyrm leather or CAU armor are far superior in that very case against snakes. And for sole look purposes (because it DOES count) had I not pick the Jack Quicksilver's portrait, I would pick either Phamton Dancer or Tchortist Robe (I do like the Tchortists for many reasons btw).
Well I did speak too much so :
TLDR Stealth SI psychosis may be the most noob friendly build to play if you buy the psionic imprints from doctors and go visit a certain Ironhead camp early on. It is plenty of fun, gives you access to most content of the game and really DIFFICULT not to build well if you follow the nice advice from TheAwesomeGortsby right here.
PS Please excuse my bad english. It is not my mother tongue, but do not hesitate to point out any mistake by private messages if needed.
