Let's Play: Nerfed Old Man, DOMINATING

[HulkOSaurus]

Hello, Underrailers,

This is Nerfed Old Man



A predominantly melee character(with a twist to come), which for me, despite my hundreds of hours into the game, is an entirely new experience. That's right - I've never played one, so you may want to stick around for the laughs, but be warned, you may find yourself shaking your head instead.

So without further ado, the first thing any serious melee character needs to do is to sell his guns and get some grenades on the way.



That way I know I haven't completely screwed up.

Nerfed Old Man punched some Rathounds with his bare fists in the first zone. It goes like this - 1 Rathound is worth almost your entire health. With superior punches, however, you're guaranteed to win. You still need to go back to base for free heals.



But punches alone will not get us far, so it was time to employ the real weapons:



Nerfed Old Man felt good when he ninja'd two at the same time without taking a scratch.

He then devised a superior tactic to take on the rest.



One by one at the choke. It's important that you shout ''You shall not pass'', or ''This is Sparta'' or something.

RNJeesus blessed me next.



A single egg took M'lan Ratula and both of his pets out. I can get used to that... but I know it won't last.

With power restored to four outposts I took on the next task.

Here's how you hunt Cave Hoppers... I know you all know, but just a tip for those coming from Sseth's channel.



You wait for them to come out form the hole, then start combat. Straight in the cage.



The choice is final, and so it shall remain.

Next I needed to busy myself with small things because I needed loot and XP.



Got into a knife fight with Lurkers, and it went well.

I managed to lvl up to 3 so I was able to upgrade my eggs up a tier. Do note that I ate the one and only Underpie I found to be able to do that.



Still needed more XP, so I head out to do Jack's task.



I saved my MKII Eggs and used the basic ones instead. With the help of a flare and the SGS Guard I managed to survive the furry attack.

The last bit to lvl 4 was found here:



That magic cockroach was guarding a heap of rubble in which I knew I could find the last point of XP. Magic cockroaches hurt, by the way. The way to damage them with a Dex based melee build early in the game is to make them open their heads, thus lowering their Physical resistance. Still, if you take them on one by one you'll succeed.

After lvl 4 was achieved it was time to help Newton.

Utilizing the superior tactics of closing the door after starting combat, Nerfed Old Man made his life much easier.



After that he laid some good ol' bear traps in a chequered formation around the floor with a little sideways clear to get to the door. What followed did surprise me a bit - probably why I didn't take a screenshot of it. I opened the door and lured a cockroach in, another followed. Let them bleed as much as I could, then finished them with a HE tin. Closed the door and relaid the traps. Open the door, and there are a couple of roaches there. Run back around the corner and pass turn. Hear traps spring. On my turn I peek around the corner and see six roaches all clumped up together. I can't remember if they had their heads open, but they all wiped with a single MKII egg.



So that was one of the hardest parts of the game done. I think RNJeesus blessed me there again.

Next, it was time to get busy with Gorsky's assignment. Inside the facility I got another proverbial bless in the form of a blueprint.



I got that when I needed money the most, so I will call it a blessing.

After that Nerfed Old Man concluded that it's alright to bring a knife to a gun fight, so long as your armour is tough enough... and your 'nades fly true(it's always about those, isn't it.)



Poking these with a knife is ok. But you really only do damage to them on critical hits. They also only do damage to you with critical hits, albeit single digits, but still, I wouldn't call it exciting. A vest made for bullets and reinforced with bits of dead magic roaches was the difference between a repetitive and long walk in the park and a rage-inducing experience, I guess. But hey, I felt that it's the first time when heavy investment into Dex paid off  .

After finishing with Gorsky I must have leveled to 6, because I've taken a picture of Nerfed Old Man happily stuffing an egg full of higher grade explosives.



The eggs keep getting getting tastier...

I think I busied myself with small stuff around: kill the Siphoner, meet Abram, do the gang's early tasks... things like that. I've taken a screenshot of my first serious piece of equipment right around here:



I think this was from the gang guarding the entrance to the embassy. I did wipe them with couple of eggs.

Right around here Nerfed Old Man felt brave enough to step into Styg's Personal Purgato...I mean Depot A.



Got into heavy fighting with muties and dogs. I decided beforehand that I wanted Pneumatic Gloves to take on those, but as always, I messed up.



I remember clearly that it was Rathound Reinforced Leather I needed for the lower AP, but instead I must have mashed everything and ended up with a Steel Spiked... it isn't bad, but at the moment it has an AP cost of 11, which means that if I miss a strike in a turn I won't be able to incapacitate the target. Derp. 

This is the build so far:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?BwMLBQkDAwcALQAtHh4AAAAAACgjKAooAAAAAAAALScvYRYg378

[HulkOSaurus]

This build has 3 Perception and no points into Traps.

But Nerfed Old Man knows where most of the traps are. It's a mystery, I know... In case you're not sure what you're doing - stick to the walls.



You're bound to avoid the vast majority of traps in the game that way, but if you're a newer player, don't do as I do.

What really surprised me about Nerfed Old Man is how easy the Acid-Tripped Dogs were. I've always thought them to be incredibly annoying and dangerous in a pack, but Nerfed Old Man was handling them like they were nothing. They also couldn't land their ranged Acidic Entanglement, so I guess 30 points in Evasion pays off big time. Used a net and a few Fist of the North Star procs so controlling the choke was easy.



But Depot A is not Depot A on DOMINATING until you have to take down a Plasma Turret.



Poking that one with an electric knife isn't fun. I spend, maybe, ten batteries or so, but once it was down it looted for just as much, so it was ok.

The muties in the same area were probably the biggest hurdle in the whole of the Depot. I spent a few 'nades more than I expected, but better safe than sorry .



The way to deal with packs of ranged enemies like this is to look for those who occupy more than a single square at the front. If you entangle, or Fist of the North Star them, they will block the passage for the rest. 

Still, I have to say that regular dogs and muties with guns were more dangerous than the acid dogs or mutants.



Nerfed Old Man was dressed entirely in Mutant Dog Skin and had the Escape Artist Perk at this point, as well. Once again, control the choke with a Taser, Nets, Flashbangs and Fist of the North Star procs.

Happily finished that part of the game.



And immediately left for Core City.



Possibly the densest area in terms of XP in Oddity mode.

I got busy doing small things, looting every container I could, and fighting superior enemies with Fist of the North Star procs.



Nerfed Old Man was using a Taser, then punching them four times. Wait for the Taser to come on again and repeat. Quick good loot, and also a piece of stealth equipment with value of 33. I'd need that.

On the way to rummaging through all the containers in the Core, Nerfed Old Man stopped by the arena.



And used his companion challengers to tank Ancient Rathound attacks. Their loot is better served in his pockets.

Just make sure you have enough AP to actually loot the corpses before combat ends. It wasn't exactly an easy encounter, so Nerfed Old Man was content with only one challenger dying in the process.



Continuing to loot Core City, Nerfed Old Man joined Praetorian Security and did them a freebie by disposing of that burglar for free. He still took everything he could from that obviously expensive house... you know... for expenses.



After finishing the small stuff in Core City, an idea came to Nerfed Old Man's head. Why not visit Panacea Lab in Upper Underrail? Emboldened by the recent success with Depot A it didn't seem too bad of a plan. 

And it wasn't.



Fist weapons are silent, so you can take a number of enemies out one by one.



Those lonely Hunchbacks are nothing but Punchbags for the Fist of the North Star.

And again, armed muties turn out to be more dangerous than bigger mutants.



There's a wider choke here, but still doable with generous use of eggs, Molotovs and caltrops. Enemies generally don't like walking on a combination of flame and caltrops, so controlling them is still possible. And I did have a number of 'nades I wanted to get rid of.

What is not possible to be taken down, at least at this stage of the game, is an Industrial Bot.



I don't know how you feel about Nerfed Old Man utilizing the lack of door handle recognition algorithms in the coding of the bots, but running away from one until he is an a room with a door, and then closing it once it's inside is the best he's got in terms of dealing with them at the moment. I honestly don't know how I should take down one if I have to.

Once done with Panacea Lab it was time to go back to literally the opposite end of Underrail. On the way there Nerfed Old Man stopped by the arena again.



This time with more success, yielding two challenger corpses instead of one. More loot for the wicked.

He did get busy with small things in the sewers, but quickly went out and headed straight to Junkyard.

If Depot A is Styg's Personal Purgatory, then the Magic Roach Island of Doom is the improved version.



I went in with 10 MK III Frags, 10 Magnesium 'nades, Burrower Poison Caltrops and additional paraphernalia of things. You can see how much I spent of those. Captain Bro bravely tanked totally balanced Magic Roach magicks, meaning travelling from Junkyard will be more difficult now. But I still count that as a win. I always prefer siding with the Eels here, so it was important to finish this part of the game.

With the stealth gear looted earlier, black Tabi's purchased from Blaine and a crafted Balaclava, Nerfed Old Man got nearly 70 Stealth without a single point in the stat. He did manage to complete Abram's task with that.



I put on the best clothes for the occasion:



And proceeded to attack the Scrappers from the front. Nerfed Old Man wanted to make sure that Salas wasn't going to die because then there won't be no dinero.

And the Scrappers were putting a surprisingly good fight.



I was also hoping that a Protectorate Soldier would die in the raid, but nope. Hopes dashed. Still, that's a lot of cash made on the return to Junkyard.

It was time to check another zone of the game.

Much like in Core City, you loot containers, try to do small things at first when you arrive in Foundry... kill wives by derailing mining carts, ect.



And you also step on worms to learn more of the world.



There's also free TNT here, if you want to help yourself to it.

Foundry quickly yielded a bar worth of Oddity XP, so Nerfed Old Man was able to improve his Crafting. He also became more Versatile... by deciding to use Energy weapons and SMGs, and whatnot.





I don't know if Ancient Rathound Leather is any better for glove weapons, but I still used that patch I looted earlier from the Arena to make 6 AP per attack Combat Gloves with a Pneumatic Hammer.

It was time to finish the first task from the Praetorian Security.

The first Guard has very high Physical resistance, so we only deal damage on Critical Hits and Fist of the North Star procs.



Still no problem with him. Lone enemies in general never will be a problem, I think, unless they are Industrial Bots.

Same with these two.



I had EMP 'nades ready for the next batch of enemies.



Again, notice how the enemy in the front is slightly off from his square. This means that in the game's logic he's occupying two squares. If you can control him, you control the group. And so with quite a generous amount of 'nades, and poking his head from the corner, shooting and whatnot, Nerfed Old Man was able to take down De Pacino and gang. Finally got a Shield Emitter.

This is the build at the moment.

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?DQMNBQkDAwcASwBLHjwAAAAAAEZLNxRLAAAAAAAAQScvYRYgTgbCo9-_

[HulkOSaurus]

I tried joining Expedition next.



Wasn't surprised that I didn't get admission. Still wanted to give it a try.

I reckoned I needed to become a Gladiator first. So I got busy with that.

Tanky as these enemies are, Nerfed Old Man is the punching master of punches... 





If this is was real time with pause, you'd see the character swinging 1.66 times per second and the enemy doing nothing but stagger. Well... it's not quite Fist of the North Star levels of punching... but we're working on it, alright.

I screwed up here and couldn't get the loot.



Derp.



Sandman?...

Strange name for somebody who punches things in the face, but alright. The Sandman it is.

So now Nerfed Old Man was a Gladiator, thus he tried getting admission again.



And failed.

I honestly expected it to work. Guess I still don't know the game well enough.

Let off some steam by blowing gangsters, instead.



But I needed to get busy with the Arena again.



Versatility is paying off here as Master Exploder has very high Physical resistance. Punching still stuns him and does small damage on Pneumatic Hammer procs, but predominantly the damage was done with the Laser Pistol.

Had a brutal opening against Chemical Agent.



And happily looted his gun, as well. I was curious to see how it was going to work. Never used one of those before. 

But punching things in the Arena, apparently, can get boring, because after that I've taken a picture of Nerfed Old Man going all the way back to Junkyard.



Yes, by that way, that was me. I'd totally do that.

Finish Abram's task is what I did here. And a piece of cake that was, because those two soldiers didn't stand a chance. Once again, the silent power of fist weapons makes sure you don't alert everybody on the level. 



That quest pays for a lot of coins, and you should always do it. You can pass by cameras in combat mode, just make sure you hide around corners.

Nothing special next - just more punchbags.




The Stygian Exorcist was by far the easiest fight in the whole of the arena. I did notice that after two EMPs Zap drops his weapon and goes melee - maybe you want to use that to your advantage in the future. 

That, however, left Nerfed Old Man with the final encounter. At this point I checked again to see if Chief Briggs had changed his mind but he still wasn't impressed. Fine... I'd give it a try. I went in with the things I had in my inventory.



I think RNJeesus blessed me here, because I think I die on Critical Hit. Still I survived first turn against Carnifex and immediately used Escape Artist followed by a Taser stun with Fist of the North star proc. I wanted to wait the Yell out.

I honestly expected Carnifex to hand me my arse back to me. I was ready to just do other things instead of save-scumming this fight.



Instead I found that Acid Guns are pretty good against him. I also started spending all the Caltrops and Magnesium 'nades I had to deal as much damage as possible - as low as it may be.

I had them everywhere. Although, if you want to do that, you're much better off gaining some more levels beforehand and using Burrower and Cave Ear Caltrops. Don't do as I did. Oh, and if you take the time to make Toxic 'nades, those are awesome against him.



I was able to recharge the Taser/Pneumatic Gloves in between all the cc/slows so I managed to keep Carnifex at a distance. At this point he helped me by popping his Morphine Shot. Sometimes you gotta love the AI.



The last few hundreds of his hp went down while he was entangled in acid all the time. I think that was another blessing blessing, because I got a lot of those procs. The Acid Gun was doing triple digits worth damage on Critical Hits... I am still amazed.

And it surprised me that I was able to finish the fight in the first go. I will let you decide if I was super lucky or what...



Small tip - don't stand in flames at the end of an Arena fight. The damage is still there while the announcer speaks, so it's possible for you to die.

But in any case, I've earned a place in the Expedition.



I don't have a lot to show for it, because basically I went to scavenge corpses. Natives and Sec-troopers alike. The defense on the beach consisted of me largely trying to stay in cover and fighting only those who came close by. I wasn't quite able to sneak to any Sec-trooper corpses yet - that may remain a task for the future. By the way, Sec-troopers are funny. One enemy shows up and they blow all their grenades on that one plus their Adrenaline Shots. When the real fight comes they don't have explosives/Flashbangs and are tired so one guy with a stick comes by and kills 3-4 troopers.

I did manage to lvl up to 14 and got a nice piece of light armour I was going to use for the next few levels. This is the build now:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?DgMNBQkDAwcAUABQHkEAAAAAAEZLNxRLAAAAGQAAQScvYRYgTgbCowcr378

After that I took a Junk Jet back to the caves. 

[HulkOSaurus]

I call this picture Stuns for Everyone.



Nerfed Old Man head back to Rail Crossing. Didn't want to deal with Plasma Sentries, so instead he chose the ''easier'' path - blowing up a band of Ironheads.

And triggering the robotic sentries in a dilapidated facility.



That said, there is a decent way to avoid the hardest fight here.



The secret weapon is making noise.

Then everybody show up at the same time.



The enemy of my enemy is not a friend; they're still an enemy, but Nerfed Old Man let them sort it out first. Death Stalkers kill everything, Industrial Bot kills Death Stalkers.

And Nerfed Old Man...



...keeps the Industrial Bot in the closet.

Didn't engage the Faceless directly. Instead head to the tunnels to establish level of bug punchableness.

And it went well. De Pacino's High Shield Emmiter has almost 800 capacity so it's very useful against the Burrowers. Punching the Warrior, however, does next to nothing. He can resist some of the Pneumatic procs, as well. It was the Acid Gun that was dealing with him, though.



I still got chased by Faceless, even though I was trying to avoid them.



Had to fight in self-defense. I don't know what that will trigger later on, but what's done is done.



The Mindreader didn't react at all to his buddies dying. So I still let him do his thing.



I think it will be ok in the end. Couldn't save Buzzer, but quest done, so now I head to the hijacked train.



I know there is a sniper in here, and Nerfed Old Man doesn't have any reliable way of dealing with snipers at this stage... if ever. I also don't think it's a good idea to try to force RNG in a situation like this, so instead why not let the Protectorate handle it?

It aligns perfectly with who Nerfed Old Man is:



Opened up Frazer's shop - one of my favorite places in the game.



And promptly made a large purchase. That Galvanic Vest will come in handy later on. I also found a 150 quality Impala SMG base and made another forward planning decision... no, those don't extend to my real life . 

I did find the Free Drones here.



But I didn't fight them. Too early, I think.

Instead, Nerfed Old Man head back to Camp Hathor to deal with more bug problems.



Regular Burrowers are not a problem. With Warriors and Spawn in the mix the situation is certainly something else.



Copious use of 'nades is what helped here. After only the Warriors were left, it was easy.



Dealing with the Rathound King was next. I usually always have a grand easy time with him. But getting to him is a different matter.



One Magnesium 'nade will keep most of the Rathound away for a while. There will be enough flames left to scare them even after recovering form the first time they get terrified.

The big boy would like to have a word, though.



I wouldn't call this an easy encounter. Plus all the noise I made didn't produce the desired effect I was after.

Until finally he joined when I had almost all of the Rathounds cleaned up.



Still, the Death Stalker did finish the Ancient Rathound. In a direct fight between the two, the Ancient Rathound would always win. But I already had him so low, plus the A.I. doesn't bother to change targets. Once it was only the Death Stalker left it was easy with consecutive incapacitations, nets and Taser use.

Remember - keep to the walls... although I have to say that at this stage Nerfed Old Man was starting to spot traps.



Skip.



The King fight itself was a breeze in comparison to everything else.



He never attacks first leaving you an opportunity to trap him inside and gas him out. Two sets of Burrower Poison Caltrops, a few 'nades, and that was it. I had another three Ancient Rathound Leather out of this. Plus leveled up to 16.

Here's the build:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?EAMOBQkDAwcAWgBaHkYAAAAAAEtQNypQAAAAIwAASScvYRYgTgbCowcrDOK1rgHfvw

[kpoxo6op]

wow this is the best Dominating play-through in the Universe

[Jubei]

This is great. Looks like you're well on your way to beating dominating with this build.

[HulkOSaurus]

wow this is the best Dominating play-through in the Universe

This is great. Looks like you're well on your way to beating dominating with this build.

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoy it. Hope you learn something, as well

[HulkOSaurus]

Do you like fishing?

I don't like fishing much. But it's very important that you make some time for it.

Here's Nerfed Old Man trying his luck.



Wasn't very lucky, but I found what I was looking for later on.



And derped again. Miscalculated how much Biology I needed for that. I think at the time I was looking for ways to deal with Jookhela. I did join Praetorian after all. In retrospect - it might have been a mistake. I have done Jookhela before, but on a hybrid Psi character, so it wasn't even a fight. Still, an Ancient Rathound with a Psi bar underneath it's health is, I am sure, nothing to sneeze at. So I needed to prepare.

Instead Nerfed Old Man went on to finish the Protectorate quest line.



Free Drones hit hard. I think I ate some shotgun shots here. Still, managed to block the passage with cc.



And gassed them, same as I did the King. Also Crawler Poison Caltrops and MKIV Eggs, as well. If you think you're up for a difficult fight - use gas grenades.

I can never remember where exactly the labs are, but Colonel Cathcart actually gives accurate direction on how to get there. And not a single Death Stalker on the way. I think it's the first time I listened to what he said.



Nerfed Old Man had no problems smashing bugs at this stage.



And things got fun.

A lot more fun.



But only for so long... . Power-armour fantasy ends here.



Having completed this part of the quest triggered the CAU coming to Fort Apogee. Send Nerfed Old Man after D5 mutagen. Unfortunately, there is some heavy grenade fodder on the way there.



It didn't matter to me if I was bombing a single roach or the whole group. I was throwing eggs at every one I could see. Gosh... I hate roaches for some reason.



And found the place one area after that, I think.



But of course I didn't have anything to break rocks with, so I had to travel again.

High-tech combat is easy once you have a Shield Emitter.



I came prepared with EMPs and HE Tins, as well.

In fact, Nerfed Old Man was so brave that he faced the nefarious Industrial Bot.



Eh... ok, it wasn't that big of a deal. Just had to craft a few Acid Vials more.

The turret I ignored on the way in greeted me for goodbye.



The right thing to do is to put the shield on when you leave. I didn't 

It was time to gas the Drones.



And that fight was surprisingly tough. Nerfed Old Man got frozen, but luckily they shot at him in the same turn, so he was able to stabilize.

Quite eerie when all was said and done.



I took a Morphine Shot and put on the Shield before entering the next area.



If you want to be serious about this, though, you'd need Aegis, Jumping bean, Lifting Belt, Initiative boost, and a better armour, probably a better shield, as well. But that's more for when Ironman Mode comes out, if ever. Still, managed to survive from the first try - but only because one of the snipers missed *cough* Evasion *cough*. Don't do as I did... although I did get a low Initiative roll, you know.   

''I am not a dog, Captain. I am a man.''



After earning cool points with Captain Mareth, Nerfed Old Man head to Foundry to finish Balor.

Not much to show getting there. Using fist weapons means that Nerfed Old Man won't raise a ruckus when fighting a certain group of enemies. He was able to take out singled out patrols and sentries, or small groups of enemies quietly. And while there were gunshots here and there, surprisingly, the alarms did not raise. Mostly a methodical, if somewhat slow progress.

I entered the Balor area from the west, which means that I got spot directly by a sledge-hammer user and a dog. Taking those out before getting seen by more enemies, however, means that the alarms won't raise. Enemies come to check out what the dog is barking about, but they go at the spot where the dog barked, so you can actually hide.

I attempted some more ''stealthy'' takedowns with the help of Flashbangs and Adrenaline Shots. This would work a lot better if you have Fancy Footwork, but we managed to make do without.



Enemies still come at the sound of the Flashbang, but they take some time to get there, so Nerfed Old Man had the time to hide around the corner.

When all was said and done, taking down these enemies before the big fight was... cool, but unnecessary.

Because once again I guard the doorway with stuns.



And gas everything inside.

Balor himself was quite easy. He has 100% armour penalty, so Nerfed Old Man was able to keep out of reach of his melee attack only by spending his moving points.

The build at that point:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?EQMOBQkDAwcAXwBfHkYAAAAAAFVVODJVAAAAIwAASicvYRYgTgbCowcrDOK1rgLfvw 

[HulkOSaurus]

Fist weapons incur a large nerf to damage due to increased enemy physical threshold when using them.

Still, Bladelings did take some damage, although that was entirely for testing purposes.



Dissolving them works much better.



Nerfed Old Man felt like punching The Beast for good luck.



And continued on with the Foundry quest line. Doing it is mostly menial work by now, but if you want to have fun, you have to prepare well.

And Nerfed Old Man is anything but not prepared. #Illidan



He build a rainbow corridor of death out of three different types of Captrops, ending with Crawler Poison. Saban, Dan and the bot didn't take a scratch.



Gas Grenades were great here.

Everything left to do in Foundry was saving Todor - made easy once you deal with The Beast.



Having finished that I collected one of my most favourite pieces of equipment in the game.



And head back to Core City to take the next step with Praetorian.



A large Ancient Rathound with a Psi bar underneath it's health. I correctly assumed that I won't be able to finish this thing at all if I don't bring Black Dragon Knives with me. I also put on a Doctor's Pouch, and had a few other bits and bobs equipped. All correct decisions, mind you.

But Jookhela has to be one of the hardest enemies in the entire game.



Her special Adrenaline Rush gives her 100 % bonus to Dodge and Evasion. I missed a few throws with the Knives, and if this game ever gets Ironman Mode, don't take on that quest with builds like that. If RNJeesus decides to be a bitch, you can miss enough throws so as to be unable to do other important things to survive.

Still, I landed a throw and popped all the medicine I needed, plus a pouch of Caltrops and a slow on her.



The Psi Shadows did a ton of damage but she managed to strike only once. It was time for Nerfed Old Man to bee-line outta there with haste.



If she has something cool for drops, I don't know about it. But if she wants to become my pet I'd consider it.

Next, I continued doing Abram stuff.



I did this the very hard way by paying all the money to all the different guys. Praetorian wasn't open with the info at this stage.

Finishing all the minutiae with that I head to the Hanging Rat.

I waved the Roaches hi from the shadows.



And met Azif.



Opened up one of the best stores, if not the best, in the game. And made a big purchase right away.



Nerfed Old Man wasn't done with spending money.



I'd say I got decently lucky here.



Made some new shoes.



Though I don't know if I will ever use these...

Then I head back to the Black Sea.



I wanted to check how punchable the natives are.

Turns out they're quite ok.



I found this guy.



He's in charge of several defenseless women who didn't volunteer to become grenade target practice or punching bags...



But they held interesting things in their stashes. Between fighting serpents in the open sea with a huge melee/ranged nerf and killing weak women to plunder their stashes, Nerfed Old Man chose the later. Sensible.

Deeper inside the grave site I exercised a few stealthy kills more.



And bombed the rest.



One MKIV egg one shots the Psi users. Very helpful. Although I had Three-Pointer at this stage.

I continued going around the Black Sea, avoiding the serpents and looking for all the Oddities I could find.

The last one I got here.



This is the build at the moment:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?EwMOBQkDAwcAaQBpHkYAAAAAAF9fODxfAAAANwAASicvYRYgTgbCowcrDD7iopYB4rWuA9-_

[HulkOSaurus]

Jumping from Underrail to the Black Sea always feels bad because everything is a tier above. Melee enemies hit like a truck, ranged enemies root you, or poison you all the time and some things have too much physical resistance.



Dealing with the crabs under the Mutie Refuge took some Gas Grenades as it's the only thing Nerfed Old Man has to deal with incredibly high armour at this point. I covered as wide an area as I could with gas and lured them in. The acid pistol was doing work - mostly the entanglement. After a few HE 'nades the way was open. Shields helped with absorbing the Psi Crabs' ranged attack, though there was a stun or two.

Avoiding as much combat as he could, Nerfed Old Man went a level down and met these fellas.



Had his custom crafted SMG with W2C bullets, so dealing with them wasn't that much of a problem. It still felt like spending too many bullets, though.

Later on I found that crabs and statues don't like each other.



Useful info, although I didn't know how to utilize it now. Instead Nerfed Old Man took to sneaking through the caves.



The Cloaking Field from Constantine was doing work.



One by one the statues are not a problem, but four at the same time sounds like too much of a trouble.



Rearranged the quick slots while in stealth, then tossed an EMP and ran out of there. Don't have the money to spend dealing with these things now. The important thing was that I grabbed the arm and was done with the first part of the Expedition.

Nerfed Old Man opened the Arch Keep, the Professor got kidnapped, and the Invictus wasn't quick enough to evade being grabbed by the neck. Still, he didn't start a fight there, but instead boarded his jet and went into the open sea.

He waited until there was only one Aegis patroller left in sight and attacked him while he was alone.



I know that you know, but if you're having trouble with these guys, and I expect you do, just wait while they are leaving the area and attack the last one. They are quite tough, and melee builds have it especially hard.



Nerfed Old Man even landed on the small mass of rocks nearby. He was fighting much better with two feet on the ground.



After spending his Adrenaline Shot the trooper got chain cc'd, and the Aegis Jet itself was untouched.

Nerfed Old Man presented that to the pirates; they let him join them.



The Professor was there, as well.



Aegis also came to try and save the Professor.



But they are vastly outnumbered, and the Pirates make easy work out of them. Basically just free loot to sell, but not much to show.

Katya had interesting things to say about the Natives. I can't remember if that conversation were there the last time I did Expedition, but it seems to me that they are only available when you rest at Aegis' camp. Interesting bit of lore, if you want to take a look.




Nerfed Old Man boarded his new Aegis Patroller and head for Joint Security Headquarters. He wanted to prepare the ground for later.



After that he exited the sea and found a small Protectorate Outpost nearby.



After leaving no witnesses, he found an interesting piece of armour and the keys to a Protectorate Cruiser.



Outfitted that with the best engines he could find and now he had decent means of transportation between Core City and the Black Sea. Choosing this path, unfortunately, deprives us from Jenkins.

Didn't gain a level here.

[HulkOSaurus]

It was time to finish Core City's quests.



Paid Rubin only 50 coins to go in and be served the pleasure of having to deal with Spider-Scorpions.

That one just kept stinging Nerfed Old Man all the time, and Nerfed Old Man kept crawling back into the vent to wait it out.



I don't remember how many times it repeated, but finally the Spider-Scorpion decided to attack instead of stinging.



It melted in a turn.

Nerfed Old Man threw Caltrops around the corner and observed to see when they will disappear. He caught the rest of the bugs with a flare and a Flashbang.



The Protectorate soldier was no problem.



Before entering the Warehouse Nerfed Old Man put all the sneaky clothes he had and managed to get to Wilkins without getting seen.



He got a few more stealthy kills, including an Acid Pistol one - that one apparently doesn't make much noise.

He did get spotted and worked himself into a corner in the office.



The old tactics of punching the first guy that comes through the door - made easier from the fact that one punch was worth 5 AP. Keep the first guy cc'd then punch the ones behind him. There's a Juggernaut in here, as well.



But we had the SMG ready with W2C bullets.

Cleared all the soldiers, grabbed the shields and went outside only to get assaulted by the two sentries.



Despite being a member of Praetorian, the guards did not help at all 

Gave the Shield Emitters to Gorsky and we were on our way to assault the Black Crawler's base.



That was a very easy battle. I believe Gorsky was made tankier in a recent patch, so he just takes all the heat while Nerfed Old Man was flinging grenades and punching people.



Only one Zone Rat died.

On the way out, however, after engaging the mutants outside, Gorsky and the rest of the Zone Rats went hostile. No idea why.



Gorsky got dominated.



Well, no rest for the wicked.

Nerfed Old Man made a new coat.



And went on to try his luck in the Core-Tech Warehouse.

Now, this area is extremely hard, in my opinion. Praetorian quest-line in general is kinda hard, but this one must be one of the hardest parts of the game.

Had some luck sneaking and spot these guys before they spot me, even with 3 Per.



Got one, but the entire Warehouse goes alert as soon as you do that, so running away is the only option. No way to fight these guys directly.

Deescalated the situation by showing my face from the windows.



Wait in the corner until combat ends and go back inside.

This feels extremely cheese-y, but all those guys were in the corner hugging each other.



Easy targets for grenades. There are also hunters in the area, as well, so Nerfed Old Man had to run each time he flung a 'nade. I repeated the thing once or twice before the snipers went down so I could fight normally. Even though with the new coat Nerfed Old Man can take a sniper round crit, it's not wise to fight while those are around.

But finishing that means we open up Praetorian's special store and meet with Cornell, as well.

I put on the CAU armour and explicitly went hostile with them.



The advanced Catalyzing Belt is looted from Cornell and that is one hell of a good item to have.

After that Archibald sends us to Core-Tech's basement. Which is full of bugs.



One step at a time and always a flare in front of him, Nerfed Old Man found not one.



But three Spider-Scorpions. Iced one and ran out of there.



This can possibly be more cheese, but apparently when you leave the area and come back, the first thing the bugs do is restealth. 



You, however, see them. Not exactly sure how it works, but you go back in with -1000 Initiative and the bugs go back into stealth wasting their turn - they are trying to sting you after all.

Fine, not going to look that horse in the mouth.

Putting on the new Catalyzing Belt, Nerfed Old Man happily melt all the robots on the lower level.



And punched a line through the mutants without taking a single hit.



Saw the Tchortists taking the Cube, went past the ambush without a problem...



...and leveled to 21.

Here's the build:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?FQMPBQkDAwcAcwBzHksUAAAAAGRkP0lkAAAANwAASicvYRYgTgbCowcrDD4k4qGQAeKilgLita4D378

[ciox]

Pretty entertaining read, would like to hear more about the thinking behind making Nerfed Old Man.

Also you can steal arena loot even without enough AP, if you are close enough to the body just end turn then spam click on it and the A key to take all, works every time.

[HulkOSaurus]

Pretty entertaining read, would like to hear more about the thinking behind making Nerfed Old Man.

Have some spare time so made a thread asking what people would like to see and mixed out a build out of the responses

Still, trying to play as seriously as I can without save-scumming.

Also you can steal arena loot even without enough AP, if you are close enough to the body just end turn then spam click on it and the A key to take all, works every time.

Never tried it. Sounds hard, but thanks all the same.

[HulkOSaurus]

Nerfed Old Man was running low on cash. I shouldn't have made that super steel earlier.

Still, he decided to get busy with Talloski's Manor.



Got a Borer.



And gained entry to the 1st floor.



Released the spawn and fixed the 4 m 8k monitor.



Sadly, he couldn't pick pockets and didn't have any means to finish that peacefully, so he just ''took'' the key from Vlatko while being alone with him on the 2nd floor.

There he met his long-lost twin brother.



Who unfortunately died shortly after.

Still, earned some good cash for that.

With the money, Nerfed Old Man went on a trip around Underrail to get some materials he needed. He even paid visit to the natives to check their stashes again.



After checking all the shops, underneath the Mutie refuge in the Black Sea and some of the natives' stashes, he threw together some additional gear he'd need.





Nothing too fancy. Some of the components were of low quality, but still they would be useful.

Putting everything on...



...Nerfed Old Man went underneath Core City in the caves past the sewers.



And met these fellas.

One would think that with 98% resistance they wouldn't touch you, but Nerfed Old Man still had to use two Advanced Health Hypos and a number of 'nades to make it out. 10 damage on critical hit with 98% resistance means that they must be doing 500 damage. Can they charge each other multiple times?

Despite that, Nerfed Old Man cleaned house and collected all the oddities he could from the area.

He moved on to another part of the sewer.



There are more shock bugs here, but not as numerous as in the previous cave, so they are not as much of a trouble.

Getting past those, Nerfed Old Man tried sneaking up to Zaman...



...but got caught in a trap.

Nothing we can't handle here, though.



With that we were finally done with Core City proper, so Nerfed Old Man took his new gear and boarded his jet back to the Sea.

He had some unfinished business with Aegis.

He used the same small island from earlier so that he could fight better.



The Troopers themselves could only do damage with 'nades.



So Nerfed Old Man cleaned those with relative ease, healed up, and it wasn't long before a new batch showed up.



Basically rinse and repeat.

After finishing that job, Nerfed Old Man went east all the way to the pirate lighthouse. Underneath it he opened the Lemurian evacuation tunnels, or rather, the archive behind them.



Opening the door to the archive itself activates Naga Protectors - an enemy I am sure would be too much of a hassle to fight now, but Nerfed Old Man instead managed to sneak around them. There are Plasma Turrets here, which, apparently, can be activated with enough Hacking. I am expecting those to fight the Naga Protectors, but I am not sure.



I don't know whether this is a guaranteed drop or not, but I'd call it a blessing because I found a Hypercerebrix Blueprint in here.



The rest of the loot was good, as well.

Nerfed Old Man made two precious portions of that and used one to open up Katya's shop.



One of my favorite places in the game. If nothing else it always has Gizzard Enzymes.

With Aegis' presence thinned out enough, Nerfed Old Man sneaked through the small beach...



...all the way to Chief Briggs.



After punching the life out of him, he left inflicting no more casualties. 



It was time to raid the waterways.

The build at the moment:

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?FgMPBQkDAwcAeAB4HksZAAAAAGRkP0lkABkANwAASicvYRYgTgbCowcrDD4kS-KhkALiopYC4rWuA9-_

[HulkOSaurus]

Fighting on jets is hard.

Fighting on jets while being a melee build is harder.

But it was time to get busy with the pirates' quest line.



The mates tank a few shots. There is a sniper on the boat - totally op. And there's nowhere to hide, as well. The only way to do this, I think, is to  EMP the turrets, bomb the crew, then flashbang them. The escorts are still a problem, but once landed on the boat dealing with them is much easier. The Eels do join a few turns later on. This generally felt like a scrappy battle. I'd say it's quite hard, although a different build would fare better here, no doubt.



By the time the Eels came, Nerfed Old Man could use the Flashbangs, EMPs and explosive 'nades again. The Lemurian Blaster was the weapon of choice. It's the only one that has decent accuracy from jets and it's stacking crit chance is very nice with Focus Stim. I think some goggles for ranged crit chance would have been even better, but I didn't have them at the time. I took a sniper round earlier - of course, managed to survive because of the overcoat.

I must have been close to leveling up after that because next we see Nerfed Old Man dressed in 100% Bio/Acid resistance and hunting serpents in the marshes.



They do have Oddities to drop.

Same with these guys.



Dealing with them wasn't hard. With Adrenaline Shot and Psi Haste Nerfed Old Man punches the hives in a turn. Then bombs the bugs, and hides from the rest who come out at the sound of 'nades.



The Locusts do have lower engagement sight range so that makes life easier.

Going south to the Creeper Bay, Nerfed Old Man ogled that statue over there.



That's not entirely safe for work, I guess, but I am fine with it. That's how I like my games .

Around here you'll find toxic clouds, as well as a fair number of spiders who do Bio damage. So going around with CAU armour is a nice choice.

He found a lone Naga Protector.



Spent a few bullets and an EMP to deal with that. I think it was because of the Oddities again.

After punching, blowing, and shooting his way through what felt like innumerable amounts of spiders...



...Nerfed Old Man found the Tesla Armour.



He quickly hatched a plan to use that for the next task at hand.

Namely - the Hospital of Horror.



No way out until we get to the bottom of this. Time to get busy.



After putting the floor in a state of alert, Nerfed Old Man observed the area and decided to work himself in that corner over there.



That way he could shoot only one robot and block the passage with enough space to not get attacked. Using the Acid Pistol here. Although the Strongman hurl a lot of things around the room



This looks really hairy, but it's also the time when an EMP MK III flew out and did a ton of damage. Cleaned the rest of the robots with the Tesla Armour's Shock aura plus some Shock Gloves I had crafted earlier. The Tesla Armour has a cool gimmick... but it mostly feels like that - just a gimmick. I think it's 85 % electric resistance is the best thing about it. Not sure, maybe it's just me.



Here's more horror for your coffee. Cheers.



The rest of the combat encounters weren't as hard as the first one. Generally just using the Acid Pistol/Advanced Catalyzing Belt for safe takedowns.



I implanted the microchip and gained a cool new perk for finishing the hospital.



At Pirateville I beat D'Flinger at flingin' for some cash.



And continued on with the quest line.



The Protectorate ship raid is really, really tough. If the first boat was hard, this is a tier above in every way. I don't think you will have an easy time if you approach the ship from any direction but the east. There is also an Initiative nerf of 10 here - that's a sniper round crit that came first thing in the turn. Again, survived because of the coat. I should have popped all the defensive medicine before entering the area... still, the Juggernaut and turrets don't move until after Nerfed Old Man, so he was able to bomb and shoot the sniper. After that he produced the biggest smelly block of blue cheese you've ever seen by hiding here:



That way nothing will shoot back. Razor totally got sent under 

And Nerfed Old Man patiently continued bombing the ship.



Shot down the Juggernaut with the Lemurian Blaster.



And stopped by his favourite band of Zoners on his way back.



The last part of the quest line is the Rig. A wide space with a lot of lonely enemies - perfect for sneaky takedowns.

Nerfed Old Man was so happy to finally feel like an assassin...



...that he must have gone overzealous with the kills.



The pirates didn't want to raid the Rig together with him anymore. I must have screwed something.



We had to do it alone, then.

Getting back there and killing as much as he could all sneaky like, Nerfed Old Man had to openly engage them in the end.



There are snipers here, therefore this is already harder than most other combat encounters. The Rigmaster is no pushover, either. Nerfed Old Man did a 'nade, reduce cooldown, run, 'nade, flashbang, 'nade, Force Field, 'nade combo here. The Rigmaster is the last one left standing, but just like any other lone enemy - they're only punchbags.

That finished the pirates' quest line.



And I leveled to 23:
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?FwMPBQkDAwcAfQB9I1AkAAAAAGRkQVBkABkANwAASicvYRYgTgbCowcrDD4kS-KhkAPiopYC4rWuA9-_