Author Topic: It's my 2nd playthrough and opted to refine my first failed attempt at a build  (Read 2462 times)

GUN JEDI

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I just started the game a few days ago and was instantly hooked(RIP last week of December), and probably like most people who went in blind my first character was a miserable failure. I got distracted by way too many shiny new things and didn't understand the game works so I ended up with a pretty damned character by level 10 though I didn't have much difficulty up until Junkyard where I got absolutely ****ed by dogs and acid.

After junkyard I was having a fairly rough time and figured it's only going to get much worse so I decided to start over and try to make something that somewhat works. After all who could have known that perception is essential to using a gun? ???

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?EAQIBwMHCAdaHgAAAFooAD4AAVoAAABaAFojAD4AKCthOUgmOzcUZyRT378
*disregard the feat order since I don't really remember the order I took them lol.
**35 Metathermics was a mistake I decided to use either Thought Control / Temporal Manipulation as my secondary school instead but the ability to make rathounds GTFO and remote mine disposal is pretty cool so...

My plans post level 16 is either to get my will to 10 and use the Veteran Feats to bump my Dex to 10 for Locus of Control earlier or get my dex to 10 first and postpone Locus of Control.

I just got to level 10 on my new character with a more coherent build and that's my plan for the next 6 levels. This game is awesome and I'd love to hear what I'm doing wrong/right.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 01:08:52 am by GUN JEDI »

chimaera

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http://underrail.info.tm/build/?EAQIBwMHCAdaHgAAAFooAD4AAVoAAABaAFojAD4AKCthOUgmOzcUZyRT378
*disregard the feat order since I don't really remember the order I took them lol.
**35 Metathermics was a mistake I decided to use either Thought Control / Temporal Manipulation as my secondary school instead but the ability to make rathounds GTFO and remote mine disposal is pretty cool so...

My plans post level 16 is either to get my will to 10 and use the Veteran Feats to bump my Dex to 10 for Locus of Control earlier or get my dex to 10 first and postpone Locus of Control.

I just got to level 10 on my new character with a more coherent build and that's my plan for the next 6 levels. This game is awesome and I'd love to hear what I'm doing wrong/right.
If that link is your new build, you are still trying to do too many things at once. Perception is important for guns, which means if you want to play a gunslinger, you start with 10 perception. The general rule is to focus on one type of offense and the corresponding stat. (now you can create interesting characters by breaking the rules, but I'd leave that until after finishing the game, when you know at least what enemies to expect and where)

If you want to use psi for support for your gunslinger, then you leave will at 3 and only invest enough psi skills to learn the abilities, not more, e.g. 45 into psychokinesis, 50 in temporal. You might consider picking premeditation feat when using psi as support, but not locus of control or psychostatic electricity, because these are for pure psi builds.

Btw, here is a very good guide to pure psi:
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=4149.0
Imo the tranquility build is one of the easiest characters altogether you can play on a first playthrough, if you combine it with stealth.

GUN JEDI

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If I tried to switch tactics and start pumping PER instead will I end up with something more viable?

I'm also playing classic XP and apparently I level up much faster compared to Oddity so it might work maybe???
« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 07:04:59 pm by GUN JEDI »

Benight

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Yeah, in general it's best to start with your most important stat at 10, and put most of your future points into it.

For example a Sniper usually wants 16 Perception.
A melee build using combat gloves wants at least 14 Dexterty.
Pure psi builds likely want 16 Will.

For psi, I think that it really depends on how/what you are planning to use it for.
As an example you can run 3 Willpower and most Temporal Manipulation abilities still work fine, as most of them don't scale.
A psi Sniper can have 3 Will and take Metathermics mostly just for Thermodynamic Destabilization, as it's still really strong for such a build.


So, in general, you should take most of your attributes only just barely high enough the get the feats you want, and sink everything else into your "main stat".

One big problem I see with your build is that SMGs are stat hungry.
They want 10 Perception and a lot of Dexterity (16?) to reduce their action point costs.
That doesn't really leave you with a lot of attribute points for things like Will.

You also have 4 STR for... some reason?

I'd also argue that Clothier isn't a great feat to pick.
It only applies to Black Cloth, Kevlar, Blast Cloth and Aluminized Cloth.
A 20% quality bonus to those isn't too impressive.

I'll admit that I've never played an SMG build, but I would imagine that they would always want Expertise.
It's bonus applies to each bullet separately when using burst fire.

I think that assault- or snipers rifles would work better for a Psi gun hybrid.
You'll need 5 STR and as much Perception as you can get, but you could dump dexterity to 3 and put those points into Will.
(Edit: 7 STR if you want Full-Auto for Assault rifle.)

Mind you that's not to say that you need a completely optimized character.
My current dagger-psi hybrid will only have 15 Dexterity instead of 16 because I put 1 point into Will for Locus of Control.
...but if your main stat is below 10 you'll almost certainly be in some trouble.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 09:36:27 pm by Benight »

chimaera

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If I tried to switch tactics and start pumping PER instead will I end up with something more viable?

I'm also playing classic XP and apparently I level up much faster compared to Oddity so it might work maybe???
If you are playing on normal, then yes, you should be able to finish the game. Keep maxing guns (and maybe raise throwing a bit more) and perception. You should get two more stat points, goggles add one more, which is 10 total and works just fine on normal. After level 25 (very doable on classic with the expedition expansion) you can also pick up a feat that raises one stat (but only one) by two points.

But I'd skip both psychostatic electricity and locus (force user on the other hand isn't a bad choice, because it extends the duration of the force field). Instead I'd recommend premeditation on level 12; it's an amazing feat regardless whether you use psi for support, or are a full blown psion. Also, it seems like you are using smgs? If so, take commando on level 14.

I'd also recommend investing 55 points in temporal psi (you can stop raising persuasion if you are looking for skill points; it's nice to have but combat is more important). Learn the limited temporal increment & psychotemporal contraction abilities. One is great for reducing cooldowns, the other is basically like an adrenaline shot. If you then take the psychotemporal acceleration feat, your psychotemporal contraction will last 3 turns. Which means if you use contraction and pop an adrenaline shot, your character will have 90 action points to use for 3 turns. And now your average dexterity isn't that much of a problem. :)

Another feat to consider is grenadier. With limited temporal increment you can spam grenades like there is no tomorrow, and this is great for both damage and crowd control (flashbangs and molotovs are plenty in Underrail).
« Last Edit: December 28, 2019, 09:43:44 pm by chimaera »