Total Beginner looking for a shotgun build

[MaxDucks]

Why yes, I DID come from SsethTzeentach, how did you know?

Anyways, I am indeed a true beginner. Haven't even started the game yet. I do know that I want a shotgun build, but it's really confusing looking through all the forum posts. Most of them seem to be already mapped when the characters are higher level, so I'm looking for a shotgun build that's for a level 1 character.

So, build details. First, shotgun. Love me some shotgun. Second, I'm not super interested in PSI, but I'm not opposed to it. Third, I'm looking for either a tank with a shotgun or TF2's Scout.

In terms of game settings, I'm playing with the DLC on, with classic xp, on easy, but I'm willing to turn it up to normal.

Again, I have no freaking idea what I'm doing, and I'm sorry if this came across as "Oh, and I want THIS, and THIS, and THIS, and THIS!" But yeah. I'm excited to see what you guys have for suggestions, and I'm excited to play the game.

[chimaera]

Shotguns are fun to play, but a) you want some back up weapon because they have short range, and b) you won't start out with one, so at level 1 you will be fighting with a pistol. I'd suggest normal difficulty with oddity experience. A pistol can work as back up (no str requirements, so if a melee character somehow manages to drain your strength making shotguns unusable, you can switch).

I don't like tanks, so this is for a light-armored, stealthy, mobile shotgunner:
strength 5 - this is the lowest you need for shotguns. I'd recommend putting the first two level up points here and ending it at 7 strength on level 8, for the full auto feat.
dexterity 6 - for the grenadier feat,
agility 6 - for the sprint feat,
constitution 5 - just for hitpoints (you could lower this to 3 if you like a more risky playstyle),
perception 10
inteligence 5 - after strength, this is where I'd put the next two level up points, ending with 7 intelligence at level 16 for crafting feats.
The last two level up points I'd put into perception, ending with: str 7, dex 6, agi 6, con 5, perc 12, will 3 and int 7 at level 24. Which isn't the max level, but you stop getting level up stat points here.

Starting feats: sprint, nimble, level 2: sixth shell (one of the best shotgun feats, worth specializing in once you start getting specialization points), level 4: grenadier. That should get you going, you can test out different build ideas here: http://underrail.info.tm/build/

Skills: guns, throwing, stealth, hacking, lockpicking, crafting, mercantile. You don't need to invest in crafting immediately, though, because you will have to find good components first. But in general what you can make will be far better than what you can find or buy, and some items are available only through crafting.

Psi - is it worth it? Yes, but you can do without it. You will want 55 points in temporal (it's the invested, not the effective skill that counts, so don't worry that your 3 will lowers it) and the two abilities: limited temporal increment (you can buy it at the starting location) and psycho-temporal contraction (this one you can buy only later in the game). LTI helps a lot with grenades, so it's useful early on. I'd also recommend 45 in psychokinesis for the following abilities: electrokinesis, force field, electrokinetic imprint. Electrokinesis & imprint stun living beings and short-circuit robots, force field provides a quick cover or a way to stop enemies from getting to you. Psycho-temporal contraction is basically a "haste" abiltity, which stacks with adrenaline.

But, as mentioned, you can do without psi if you don't like the idea.

One note on shotgun ammo: for lightly armored enemies 20p (hopshot) is best. If you find the enemies resist too much damage, work yourself up > 12p (houndshot) > 6p (boarshot) > 3p (tungsten trainshot). But in practice, I've found tungsten only rarely useful (and it weights a lot), because most of the time 6p did the job against resistant enemies.

edit: Since you won't have access to a shotgun at low levels, make use of whatever tools are available, e.g. bear traps require zero skill to set, molotov cocktails are very useful and remain so throughout the game.

[Fenix]

Start like this http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AQUFCQMKAwUPAAAAAAAPDw8AAA8PAAAPAAAADwAAADE5378
End up like this http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgcFCgMNAwXCoAAAAAAAwqBgZAAAeHgAangAAABGAAAAMTnCsCjClsKQK8KHwphLRzsVJsKXwqTCteKysATis6wE4rO2AuK3sAXfvw

Since you mentioned TF Scout, take Sure Step as last feat just for lulz. Or maybe take it earlier.
Or take Pack Rathound because shells are heavy. OR anyrthing you will feel you need it.
Take feats in order they are in the builder. You could probably swap Paranoia with Opportunist, and get the bonust to damage earlier.
It could be triggered with stun, root, incapacitation so useful vs single strong enemy. Later on after you get Supressive Fire all your bursts will get +15% damage.

The key feature of shotguns as weapon is that it's short-ranged.
As such you need mobility to place your character in a righ spot in order to make them work to its full potential.
So high Agility and low aror penalty is the key. You can also build character around using metal armor and boots striders - with feats that lessen armor penalty like Nimble, Armor Sloping and Body Weing Training, it will give you decent mobility and better defence, but you will get less combat feat that way, and less ability points if you intend to get BWT.
Anyway, I prefer mobility.

So, where to put your ability points after lvl 1.
At 4th and 8th lvl - Perception.
At 12th lvl - Agility so you can later take Blitz.
At 16th and 20th lvl - Strength so you can take Full-Auto at 20. You can get by without it in early-midgame, but lategame will be better with it when you need one POWERFUL burst to obliterate bunch of enemies.
And at 24th lvl - Perception again.
Also if you want to take Full Auto earlier - obviously take Str on 4th and 8th lvl.

There os 200+ skillpoints left, use them like you want, you can put them in Mercantile and Persuasion, or Evasion and Mercantile, or both threee of them.

You could also put stats in anything other than Perception though - you only really need 11 Perception, the rest is just for damage and detection rating boost.
You can put them in Intellect to boost crafting a bit - it will make it a bit easier early on.
At 7 Int you can take Gun Nut, also if you want damage Perception boosting damage for guns better then Int you spent to take Gun Nut in term of math.
At 6 Int you can take Premeditation for you expensive psionic abilities, also it isn't neccessary.

Or maybe you want to put points in Con so you can get more room for errors in combat - it's up to you, same for veteran stats boosting f feats.

P.S. This build can also wear metal armor if you really want (also do you?) with Str boosting food.

[chimaera]

@Fenix
Imo 10 agility and blitz is going a bit overboard, maybe if you play on dominating, but I'd not recommend that to a new player. With 6 agility, sprint, jumping bean, adrenaline and infused siphoner tabi boots my character had more than enough mobility on the battlefield. If you add temporal psi on top of that, it will be even more.

When you have played the game a lot, going without crowd control might be easy, but for a beginner imo it's going to be more helpful than blitz and more movement points. So if you take psi, take also 45 psychokinesis for the force field, electrokinesis & electrokinetic imprint abilities. And if you already have 5 dex, invest a bit in throwing and get that one point dex more for grenadier. It's very nice to have with the limited temporal increment ability and grenades provide both damage and crowd control.

[Fenix]

Yes, on Dominating mobility is the key.
It's either mobility, monstrous tankiness, or god-like damage dealing - otherwise you won't survive.
And mobility is never enough for a weapon that is short-ranged.

You see, problem with that "if you take psi and some of the psi-school, why not take other" is that it's very thin line when your character from a shotgunner turns into some were-something - was shotgunner, turned into wereshotgunner who use psionics for dealing with problems more, than his boomstick.
Same for grenades, which are OP.

And if you don't take psionic with its Temporal Manipulation, then Sprint for sure isn't enough.

Also don't underestimate "superfluous" 20 AP as it is one single shot from shotgun... which could be very useful.

[chimaera]

Which is why in my initial post I wrote that you can do without psi. I have played a shotgunner without any psi on hard difficulty and I've found that sprint plus other mp boosts were enough. Especially if you have crowd control and stealth. I don't underestimate the 20 ap boost, I just did fine without it.

This might be different on dominating, but like I wrote, I wouldn't recommend dominating to new players, and I'd be hesitant to recommend a 3 con build with psi but without crowd control to a new player as well.

[Fenix]

Well, I don't use grenades. And shotgun's burst is a crowd control tool in itself. 
Also, you can relocate points from Perception to Constitution.

[chimaera]

And I understand limiting yourself when you're a very experienced player, but Underrail is not an easy game. I try to recommend 5 con myself even though I lower it to 3 on most builds, because I recall how much difference those few hitpoints could make on my first playthrough.

[Fenix]

It's even 7 Con.
It's not limiting - it's just pouring everything with grenades isn't fun.

[chimaera]

Fun is a subjective argument. I find that the less tools a character has to play with  (and this is not limited to Underrail), the more boring I find it to play them.

[Fenix]

If you want more possiblities then don't play with firearms - it's straightforward as it possible.
Play crossbows, play psi.
Otherwise, it's all the same grenadier type of build. Your buid is what you are using.

PS Аrom firearms shotguns are more intersting tactically then any other weapon exept maybe SMG.

[chimaera]

Ah, the good old roleplaying police, lecturing on the correct ways of playing a game. 

[Fenix]

Nobody lecturing you - just pointing out that it's hardly shotgun, or crossbow, or insertbuildname build if you eleminating half of the enemies with grenades. It's grenadier with a mix of shotgun/crossbow/psi etc.
Why pretending that it's not grenadier but other build then?

[ComedianteBR]

Start like this http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AQUFCQMKAwUPAAAAAAAPDw8AAA8PAAAPAAAADwAAADE5378
End up like this http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgcFCgMNAwXCoAAAAAAAwqBgZAAAeHgAangAAABGAAAAMTnCsCjClsKQK8KHwphLRzsVJsKXwqTCteKysATis6wE4rO2AuK3sAXfvw

Since you mentioned TF Scout, take Sure Step as last feat just for lulz. Or maybe take it earlier.
Or take Pack Rathound because shells are heavy. OR anyrthing you will feel you need it.
Take feats in order they are in the builder. You could probably swap Paranoia with Opportunist, and get the bonust to damage earlier.
It could be triggered with stun, root, incapacitation so useful vs single strong enemy. Later on after you get Supressive Fire all your bursts will get +15% damage.

The key feature of shotguns as weapon is that it's short-ranged.
As such you need mobility to place your character in a righ spot in order to make them work to its full potential.
So high Agility and low aror penalty is the key. You can also build character around using metal armor and boots striders - with feats that lessen armor penalty like Nimble, Armor Sloping and Body Weing Training, it will give you decent mobility and better defence, but you will get less combat feat that way, and less ability points if you intend to get BWT.
Anyway, I prefer mobility.

So, where to put your ability points after lvl 1.
At 4th and 8th lvl - Perception.
At 12th lvl - Agility so you can later take Blitz.
At 16th and 20th lvl - Strength so you can take Full-Auto at 20. You can get by without it in early-midgame, but lategame will be better with it when you need one POWERFUL burst to obliterate bunch of enemies.
And at 24th lvl - Perception again.
Also if you want to take Full Auto earlier - obviously take Str on 4th and 8th lvl.

There os 200+ skillpoints left, use them like you want, you can put them in Mercantile and Persuasion, or Evasion and Mercantile, or both threee of them.

You could also put stats in anything other than Perception though - you only really need 11 Perception, the rest is just for damage and detection rating boost.
You can put them in Intellect to boost crafting a bit - it will make it a bit easier early on.
At 7 Int you can take Gun Nut, also if you want damage Perception boosting damage for guns better then Int you spent to take Gun Nut in term of math.
At 6 Int you can take Premeditation for you expensive psionic abilities, also it isn't neccessary.

Or maybe you want to put points in Con so you can get more room for errors in combat - it's up to you, same for veteran stats boosting f feats.

P.S. This build can also wear metal armor if you really want (also do you?) with Str boosting food.

hey dude nice build! im testing it right now but why not barrel stare instead of perfect scaterring? im a complete noob

[chimaera]

Regarding perfect scattering, I took it for my character but counted next to none damage increase (that was a hotfix or two ago however). No idea if it's even working.