Crossbow, psi support, and point shot build. (Advice needed)

[A_Clever_Monocle]

So I started out going for a versatility/chem pistol/deadly snares build that used psi buffs that required almost no investment. I found out that I HATE chemical pistols but love electroshock pistols (that aimed shot crowd kill potential amiright)

So I decided to scrap that perused the wiki and decided to do the same build, drop chem pistols and go for crits and maximum actions per turn)

The core items of this build are the jkk tactful jacket, goggles of your choice, tabi boots (best you can buy) and the bolt quiver.

Starting stats are

S:3
D:2
A:7
C:3
P:10
W:3
I:7

core feats are

Aimed shot
Versatility
Point shot
Critical power
Both Psyco temporal feats
Psi empathy
Premeditaton (you can probobly ditch special tactics and take up electrokenisis instead)


I will be ignoring deadly snares and am not sure whether I should take opportunist as I dislike the playstyle.

As for skills


Guns to 25 for point shot then let versatility take care of the rest

Crossbows max out

Dodge and evasion as defensive stats

Mechanics and electronics are your core crafting stats

Both biology and chemestry are mildly important but probobly not essential.

Get temporal to 55 for the free ap and mp

Get psycokenisis to 30 or 45 for electrokenisis and electokinetic imprint respectively

Lockpicking and stealth as utility (it migt be possible to fit hacking and or mercantile idk)

As for throwing you know the drill.

I still need help filling in the rest of the build (for example, how reliable is ambush with the update changes)

And how do I get the most out of crit chance and is it worth pumping the specialization for recklessness?

[cypherusuh]

>starting Dex : 2
I hope this is typo

Opportunist is an amazing feat if you use psi and any weapon. Can be easily triggered by Cyrokinesis or TK punch / electrokinesis stun. Along with Premeditation, it's essentially a free, guaranteed damage booster. If you able to like Chem pistol, Cooked Shot + cyro pistol could proc AoE slow, which also helps Opportunist. Crawler poison could also helps with this

Dodge and evasion is kinda questionable with Agi 7, even with 16 Agi, it wasn't worth it in DC (previous area is pretty great). If you have to, dump dodge and max evasion, at the very least, evasion will helps negating explosive damage, while you could simply focus on melee or disable them.

Ambush is still good, it's more reliable with the Ambush indication. You still need good enough Throwing to minimize restart from bad Molotov (or you could pick Pyromaniac / Pyro Chem pistol)
Recklessness spec isn't that good imo, you'd better pump PER and pick Scrutinous later.

As for additional feat and stats progression, I recommend 11 PER and max INT, then pick High Technicalities, since you dump DEX anyway. This way, you'll have really high damage output, alongside with high crit damage, you could potentially kill multiple enemies with aimed shot
I also recommend 50 points on thermodynamics for Thermodynamic Destabilization. On clumped enemies, Premeditation > ThermoD > aimed shot, will almost guaranteed murdering all enemies around it

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Yep its a typo I meant 7 for starting dex, yeah I think I can dump dodge in all honesty if a enemy gets that close Ive already lost with this build.

Does thermodynamic destabalization scale, (I ask becuase this buld relies almost exclusively on psi abilities where scaling doesent matter)

[TheAverageGortsby]

Does thermodynamic destabalization scale

Oh, yes.
https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thermodynamic_Destabilization
edit: added example screenshot (with, clearly, Pyromaniac + specialization)

[goodboyblue]

Check my new post, I just finished a run with something similar.

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Is it worth the 50 points?

I know that metamantics has decent cc but this would have to be a late game investment I see it as a glorified grenade honestly is the explosive radius worth eriting home about?

[cypherusuh]

It's worth it imo. You could easily stacks people up with force field, and energy pistol should be good enough to 1shot enemies and proc ThermoD at 100% hp, dealing maximum damage, and if you used electro pistol, the bounce should take care of the rest. Even with 50 thermo, I think it's still worth it. You should have handful of spare points if you dump dodge.

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Good to know, ive dumped dodge and also evasion (about 35 ps in each , crafting isint far from the bottleneck either i guess I will grab metamantics and then get mercantile to 100 effective skill for the high quality components (You absolutely have to tak jkk for this build anyhow and why mis ouy out on the near max quality crafting components that being said you should probably save buzzer as well or pray that constane gets a high quality circular wave amplifier at some point)

[HulkOSaurus]

So I started out going for a versatility/chem pistol/deadly snares build that used psi buffs that required almost no investment. I found out that I HATE chemical pistols but love electroshock pistols (that aimed shot crowd kill potential amiright)

So I decided to scrap that perused the wiki and decided to do the same build, drop chem pistols and go for crits and maximum actions per turn)

The core items of this build are the jkk tactful jacket, goggles of your choice, tabi boots (best you can buy) and the bolt quiver.

Starting stats are

S:3
D:2
A:7
C:3
P:10
W:3
I:7

core feats are

Aimed shot
Versatility
Point shot
Critical power
Both Psyco temporal feats
Psi empathy
Premeditaton (you can probobly ditch special tactics and take up electrokenisis instead)


I will be ignoring deadly snares and am not sure whether I should take opportunist as I dislike the playstyle.

As for skills


Guns to 25 for point shot then let versatility take care of the rest

Crossbows max out

Dodge and evasion as defensive stats

Mechanics and electronics are your core crafting stats

Both biology and chemestry are mildly important but probobly not essential.

Get temporal to 55 for the free ap and mp

Get psycokenisis to 30 or 45 for electrokenisis and electokinetic imprint respectively

Lockpicking and stealth as utility (it migt be possible to fit hacking and or mercantile idk)

As for throwing you know the drill.

I still need help filling in the rest of the build (for example, how reliable is ambush with the update changes)

And how do I get the most out of crit chance and is it worth pumping the specialization for recklessness?

OP, to be completely honest with you, if you're not going for Deadly Snares I don't see a reason to use Crossbows at all.

You could run this thing off max Dex and Versatility which will lower the AP cost of all your pistols by a lot, and will also give you a 4-5 turns single target stun at 16 AP.

Since you mentioned that you liked the Electroshock Pistol there's also the Execute feat, although I don't know if these two work together. Probably not, but worth trying.

On a side not - Biology and Chemistry are VERY important. The items that they open up are game-changing.

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Also the tactful vest is crazy with point shot I haven't gotten to craft a good electroshock pistol yet but the ability to fire a 44 forr 7 ap is amazing (even if the damadge is pretty underwhelming)

[A_Clever_Monocle]

So for biology and chemestry what are my cutoff points for effective skill

Also with will higher perception for hit chance (due to versatility feat) be more important or should I focus on Intelligence/high technicalities

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Also HulkOSuarus The main reason I take crossbows is for a silent guerilla tactics spproach they offer what I want is a moblie charicter with a powerful alpha strike and a metric ton of CC to fall bakck on when that doesent kill everything initially I tried a deadly snares chem pistol build but found it to be a bit lacking and tight on perks I found that the electroshock pistol is a great alternative to the acid pistol (due to its high upfront damadge) and stun if there was a third pistol slot I would fit it in but as it stands I prefer to lill and/or CC everything on turn 1.

However looking at it now why the hell am I taking crossbows as my primary skill, will they be servicable if I use them as CC and in that case should I just take 15 for marksman and dump with versatility (bowyer doesent even require any investment in crossbows after all)

Is elemental bolts worth 75 if I use the crossbow with versatility and should I take the specialization in that case

[A_Clever_Monocle]

Looked at the cave wizard build steadfast aim looks tempting since a pistol will always be in use, and I can swich between a crossbow and sniper depending on the situation, IDK if crossbows will be worth a damn with the reductions that come from relying on versatility but the option is nice

. Pack rathound it tempting but becuase of the jet skis and their weight limit 5 str should be fine anyhow since I dont carry a massive ammount of ammo around or use traps.

Quick slots and grenades weight wont be an issue becuase destabilization replaces damaging grenades frees up the slot and space which is certainly worth the 50pts.

Opportunist is a no brainer due to all of the CC and is free damadge on whatever I dont kill.

Dunno If I should dump agility entirety or not but starting stat spread would be

S:5
D:7
A:5
C:3
P:10
I:7

Feats would be

1.Versatility/ Aimed shot
2.Sure Step (caltrops for defensive fights)
4. Point Shot
6. Snipe (can take later)
8. Premeditation
10. Opportunist
12. Psycotempral acceleration
14.Critical power (and start pumping that specialization come lvl 16)
16.Ambush
18. Shooting spree/Other (maybe marksman)
20. Steadfast aim
22.pyromaniac ? (Basically free molotovs with premed right)
24. Cryogenic induction. ?/ (is it redundant with opportunist and super high damadge I already have)
26. Scrutionous
28.Thermodynacity ?
30. Blindsiding/ Other

How am I doing? I see a massive potential problem with psi consumption on turn one as for ap temporal contraction and adrenaline should cover it.

[cypherusuh]

Join the faction that loathes crossbow and simply use sniper and grenades 
Use this site to make planning more easier
underrail.info.tm/build/

Also, I wonder if it's possible to hijack your idea and get 10 will somehow, making the build into pistoleer Jkk agent w/ maxed thought control

[A_Clever_Monocle]

I know about the build tool the problem is that I know very little abot crossbow and psi builds.

Never tried a pistol build either but the JKK vest made me consider the posibility. Seeker goggles for headgear get some decent tabi boots and dump tailoring.

Ive done stealth smg but the damadge is really underwhelming in the mid-late game and requires massive piles of w2c ammo (gets really heavy at 500-600 rounds) not to mention normal ammo and the fact that full auto is more or less mandatory.

I want a powerful stealth build that hits hard and fast before getting the heck outta dodge.

Basic tactic is something like this for small clustered groups of enimies.


use crossbow/sniper to kill straggler with snipe

Use Premeditation/Destabilization

follow up with aimed shot/point shot using electroshock pistol

If that does not kill use CC from whatever sources you have.



For large defensive battles use sniper with shooting spree and aimed/point shot/destabilization for group mop ups.

And forcefeild for cover