An Average Explanation of Outstanding Psi Builds

[TheAverageGortsby]

Not sure a few points in PER matters, at least on DOMINATING. My 15 PER dominating build (will hit 17 level 26) with almost 400 detection tried exploring the caves across the river from Hathor... And promptly got ganked. I had to put on q150 motion detection goggles to even see the crawlers, and it wasn't reliable.

If you aren't stealthed, then you only have a second or so to see them before they get close enough to activate combat - no amount of Perception will really do in that terrible case.  But since we're talking about psi builds here, I figured I could assume some psi shenanigans.  5 Per (or 3 + Paranoia) is plenty enough to reliably see a Death Stalker on DOMINATING in two turns, which is as long as your force field will last even if you haven't picked up Force User.  So hopefully you looked around, saw skeletons, red dreams, bone piles, or other hints of Crawler activity, then made some noise, manually entered turn-based bode, and barriered up.  Your noise pulled the DS which kept you in turn-based combat mode, and by the time your force field dropped, you could see their outlines and deny them their main advantage - the first strike.

No amount of stats will overcome ineffective play, but you can do a lot with just a little as long as you're playing cautiously.

[bati]

Just accept the fact that death stalkers are meant to be cheesed. Throw a few molotovs around or back into a corner and spam quick tinkering+trap or the psychokinetic imprint.

[Riggs]

Hello there. New player starting my second playthrough here. I royally screwed up my first one (playing Destroyor's tin can burst AR build) and had to say fuck it once I realized that Deep Caverns was going to be miserable with the Faceless hostile. I wasn't particularly enjoying the burst playstyle anyhow, it was rather boring albeit extremely effective. So I poked around this forum a bit and found this thread. I now have a level 10 psychosis character who has just finished Depot A and the Black Eels epic slaughter of the Scrappers. It's been a real blast to play, completely engaging and drastically different than the Tin Can. I'm wondering if you could give me any pointers on gear choices however, since my previous 60+ hours of playtime revolved around acquiring/crafting the best metal armor and assault rifles I could and not much else. Currently I'm just carrying around Kohlmeier's Lucky Knife for the defensive buff and rocking Siphoner tabis and the best insulated vest I could buy thus far. I have a decent pair of mutated dog tabis and armor that made Depot A almost trivial compared to my first run through that dump. Also using a lifting belt and a universal psy headband since I didn't see any real better options. Also just found a pretty nice med freq shield at the end of Depot A. What goodies should I be looking out for as I venture forth into the greater underrail both in the short term and the long?

[Dieusama]

- Drugs. Focus Stim, Aegis and Trance. For the Trance/Aegis ingredients, go foundry's mines. For blueprints, Aegis is sold by Fixer (Junkyard), Focus Stim and Trance by Heidi (Core City). Need a 70 biology investement.

- A better energy shield emiter ie. invest in electronics and craft thy own.

- Detection googles. Invest a bit of mechanics and a lot of electronics and craft them. Help badly with traps and stealthed humanoids.

- A doctor's pouch. Reduce Drug usage to 2 ap, down from 10. Really help for long fights or just popping a Psi booster at the right time then using an AP-costing ability. I don't know if there is a fixed place to loot one (outside SPOILER BY CAREFUL Deep Cavern SPOILER OVER IT'S FINE) or if it is sold by a particular vendor.

- An universal psy headband WITH enhancements. So hop hop invest in electronics/biology (already done for your drugs)

- If you're a full PSI (you invest in all 3 or 4 psi schools), futher psi abilities sold by easy-access doctors : Enrage and Temporal Contraction in Rail Crossing, Thermo destabilization in Foundry, Telekinetic Proxy in Core city

[Riggs]

- A doctor's pouch. Reduce Drug usage to 2 ap, down from 10.

Thank you! It makes a huge difference. Appreciate your reply and help. Any thoughts on armor? Sturdy Tac Vest with Psi Carapace a viable option here? If so, is a Super Steel Sheet a worthwhile option on it or should I not bother? Planning on Infused Siphoner Tabis for footwear. Got my hands on some Boxing Gloves already too. I'm loving blowing everyone up and causing chaos with this character!

[TheAverageGortsby]

Any thoughts on armor? Sturdy Tac Vest with Psi Carapace a viable option here? If so, is a Super Steel Sheet a worthwhile option on it or should I not bother? Planning on Infused Siphoner Tabis for footwear.

Tac vest with psi beetle is probably the best choice for a psi character (maybe riot gear if you happen to have enough strength, but generally speaking tac vest).  Sturdy vest is a good starting vest; Regenerative Vest is probably the better choice down the line, especially with Fast Metabolism.

I don't like grinding Super Steel because the quality spread is so wide and with decent Mercantile you can reasonably expect to get a decent panel of 150+ quality - but that said, if you don't mind the grind, super steel is great. YOu probably want a little for infusing leather, anyway.

If you don't mind the penalty to stealth, you might even like Infused Pig leather striders. +30 carry capacity, +1 Con, +move points, no increased chance of getting critically hit.  But siphoner tabis are great.

[Riggs]

Any thoughts on armor? Sturdy Tac Vest with Psi Carapace a viable option here? If so, is a Super Steel Sheet a worthwhile option on it or should I not bother? Planning on Infused Siphoner Tabis for footwear.

Sturdy vest is a good starting vest; Regenerative Vest is probably the better choice down the line, especially with Fast Metabolism.

...

If you don't mind the penalty to stealth, you might even like Infused Pig leather striders.

Regarding Regenerative Vest, doesn't that defeat the purpose of running SI? Figured Sturdy would be a better choice so I had a higher health pool overall to work with at that magic 30% threshold.

As far as boots go, I don't mind the stealth hit at all (I've been playing this char pretty loud tbh) and I LOVE the extra carry capacity. Infused Piggies it is! Thank you for the information sir.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Regarding Regenerative Vest, doesn't that defeat the purpose of running SI? Figured Sturdy would be a better choice so I had a higher health pool overall to work with at that magic 30% threshold.

Absolutely, I didn't see you mention SI in your previous post (though I did see you mention Psychosis so perhaps I should have assumed).  Clearly if you're running SI then you don't want a Regenerative Vest.

[Riggs]

Regarding Regenerative Vest, doesn't that defeat the purpose of running SI? Figured Sturdy would be a better choice so I had a higher health pool overall to work with at that magic 30% threshold.

Absolutely, I didn't see you mention SI in your previous post (though I did see you mention Psychosis so perhaps I should have assumed).  Clearly if you're running SI then you don't want a Regenerative Vest.

Ah, my apologies for not making that clearer on the outset. I suppose Sturdy vest is the best option then after all. Since we've touched on SI, I guess it's appropriate for me to ask if you think Specialization in SI is worthwhile? Or is it a no brainer to pump the points into Psychosis itself? Locus of Control cooldown as well as Premed both look juicy too. There are so many routes to go with Spec points I feel somewhat overwhelmed as to what is optimal.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Since we've touched on SI, I guess it's appropriate for me to ask if you think Specialization in SI is worthwhile? Or is it a no brainer to pump the points into Psychosis itself? Locus of Control cooldown as well as Premed both look juicy too. There are so many routes to go with Spec points I feel somewhat overwhelmed as to what is optimal.

I think Premeditation cooldown reduction is the best 2 points you can spend as psi. I tried LoC cooldown reduction but didn't much like it since I rarely had fights go long enough to use it twice even with the reduction.  SI Psychosis specializes in SURPRISE YOU'RE DEAD and that doesn't really lend itself to needing cooldown reduction; you just wait for your psi to regen and by the time you're topped off, most of your cooldown are good to go, too.

I'm not impressed by psychosis specialization either, but I haven't ever (that I can recall) played a psi character without Biology so I always have a great stash of drugs for when I want buffs.  The bonus crit isn't what gets you to 100%, and you'll have plenty of psi cost reduction from gear so that extra 5% won't make a noticeable difference.

SI spec might be good.  The additional health buffer gives you room to make some mistakes - though I've read from some of the veteran players here that they were able to run most of the game at 1HP and just never get hit, I don't recommend that sort of zero-margin playstyle unless you just know you want to do it.  Again, the bonus crit will be something you sort of need to decide for yourself, but it doesn't impress me.

You've got Psionic Mania for a guaranteed crit when you need it; you've got Trance and Focus Stim for when you need more than one big heavy hit at a time.  And even as Psychosis, you're still going to be using quite a few abilities that either cannot crit, or don't really need to. I would say put your first two points in Premeditation cooldown reduction and see if your playstyle doesn't show you where you need to take it.  You'll be level 17 by the time you have to think about where else points should go, and I'd bet you'll have figured out a bunch of things regarding how you play the game.

[Riggs]

I think Premeditation cooldown reduction is the best 2 points you can spend as psi. I tried LoC cooldown reduction but didn't much like it since I rarely had fights go long enough to use it twice even with the reduction.  SI Psychosis specializes in SURPRISE YOU'RE DEAD and that doesn't really lend itself to needing cooldown reduction; you just wait for your psi to regen and by the time you're topped off, most of your cooldown are good to go, too.

...

I would say put your first two points in Premeditation cooldown reduction and see if your playstyle doesn't show you where you need to take it.  You'll be level 17 by the time you have to think about where else points should go, and I'd bet you'll have figured out a bunch of things regarding how you play the game.

Once again, many thanks for your insights. Premeditation CD does seem like the biggest bang for your buck investment by a large margin. The character is 16 now, just took the first point. She's been burning, shattering, frying, and terrifying everything in her path with reckless abandon. I'm leaning towards the SI health threshold buffer for the future, simply because I feel it will allow for a slightly more aggressive and dynamic combat style. The number of resources and tactics that a psy character has at its disposal is insane and I find myself wanting to put as many of them to good use as possible, as often as possible. My biggest fear now is how will I ever go back to playing non-psy in the future now that I've tasted such power?

Thoughts on shield emitters? What's ideal for a psy char? My Tin Can just stuck with the highest quality efficient low-high he could manage crafting for early/mid game and then transitioned to an efficient low quality single low once he was in Super Steel. For this psy girl wearing far less armor and having far more mobility and utility I'm not sure which of the shield flavors is the best option. I'm leaning towards an amped low-low (or med-med perhaps?) because the scariest opponents are generally xbow users. Just not familiar enough yet with crafting SEs to know what's best.

[TheAverageGortsby]

Thoughts on shield emitters? What's ideal for a psy char? [...] I'm leaning towards an amped low-low (or med-med perhaps?) because the scariest opponents are generally xbow users.

I don't use shields on my psi characters.  I find shields to be too powerful as they are; coupled with psi, it trivializes the entire game.  However, if you want to use shields, I'd say go with efficient high/high or high/medium.  You're not going have anybody come in close enough that melee will be a concern; the only thrown weapon that's going to damage you will be grenades and that's high speed damage; and your alpha strikes are going to disintegrate lightly-armored crossbow sorts so again, all you need to worry about is enemy tin cans with ARs, enemy snipers, and maybe the occasional stealthed enemy when you get too cocky and start making mistakes 

[newageofpower]

I don't use shields on my psi characters.  I find shields to be too powerful as they are; coupled with psi, it trivializes the entire game.  However, if you want to use shields, I'd say go with efficient high/high or high/medium.  You're not going have anybody come in close enough that melee will be a concern; the only thrown weapon that's going to damage you will be grenades and that's high speed damage; and your alpha strikes are going to disintegrate lightly-armored crossbow sorts so again, all you need to worry about is enemy tin cans with ARs, enemy snipers, and maybe the occasional stealthed enemy when you get too cocky and start making mistakes 

It's possible for player characters to do thousands of damage with Snipe/Aimed Shot or Plasma Pistols. Even a very high quality shield won't help much vs that kind of attack, though I haven't seen it on enemies.

[zion563]

Great guide-make some more! I learned a lot with the details this contains!

[Jubei]

I'm currently playing a tranquility build on classic Dominating difficulty, level 16 right now. I was thinking about experimenting with some feats to make a spammable neural overload strategy since the ability got a buff with the spirit staff from the DLC, the build is going to look like this. http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgMDBgYDEAkAAAAAAADCmzxjAABGZAA-WsKgwqDCoEYZAEU5UCs_FCouZD0hZsKHwohXBcK3csK7wp3iorUC4qaGCuKxoAPfvw

So with 10 spec points in tranquility it will drop neural overload's cost down to 11 action points and with 90 actions points from haste and adrenaline shot I will be able to cast it 8 times in one turn. Empower thought control should take my TC skill up to 540 and with the 35% bonus damage from the spirit staff and cerebral trauma I'm hoping the damage will be quite significant. Just a strategy to use to clean up a fight or finish off a boss. Don't think I would activate Empower until around 50% Psi.

Any thoughts?