This is not really a build guide for players entirely new to the game, as I believe new players should play blind on their first run with their own build to get the most enjoyment, and this build requires some metagame knowledge to obtain certain items. This is more of a character showcase to people who have already tried the game, however this guide does include some general stealth gameplay tips for new players.
LINK
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HAMQCAMKAwPCljkAACgAwpYAIyYkZMKHYTNjAAAAZAAIYzkBwoMwAis_wofCiBYkwpFOL0HCs3LCrcKewp_io7EE4rGgBeKyuwTfvwwithout uncanny dodge and stasis, delays tranquility for sure step
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HAMQCAMKAwPCljkAAB4AwpYAIyYkZMKHYTNjAAAAPAAIYzkBwoMwAithwofCiBY_wpFOJC_Cs8Ktwp7Cn-KjsQTisaAF4rK7BN-_Gameplay videos are at the end
XAL is a very good unique acid pistol, due to it's lower ap cost, and thanks to advanced catalyzing belt's 4 ap flat reduction, it's possible to reach 5 ap acid shots(4 with supersoldier drug), however it does have some drawbacks, this build's entire kit is centered around XAL and meant to counter these drawbacks.
PROS
-low impact speed, ignores most of energy shields.
-quiet, not silent but usually quiet enough for stealth kills.
-acid is a good damage type that shreds most robots.
-higher damage output than regular acid pistol builds.
-46 initiative with twitch drug, always go first.
-plays like a true CAU.
CONS
-damage is lower compare to some critical power builds.(still enough damage to 1 turn final boss)
-"usually" cannot facetank large groups of enemies like metal armor builds, have to make good use of environment.
-not great at dealing with beach defense crossbow users due to forced combat and lack of cover, but we join pirates for acid anyway.
-XAL cannot be used for naval combat, need alternative weapons.
NOISE
Understanding noise is very important for a stealth build, while for loud weapon builds combat noise usually means aggroing the entire map's enemies, noise can be manipulated to our advantage with grenades and tnt, lure enemies to a place you want them to be, make enemies fight each other, lure enemies into your minefield etc.
Some enemies are attracted to noise and will stay at the noise location(dogs, mutant hounds, mutants, crawlers), some enemies will return to their original location after investigating noise location (most humanoids, spiders), and some enemies ignore noise completely(rathounds, beetles), rarely there are exceptions to these rules.
Chem pistols' noise is on the lower end of the spectrum, and usually if you don't fire your pistol from within around 10 range you won't be heard, the noise is centered around you, not your target. Tnt on the other hand will always alert everything on the map. Even if you were heard while shooting, as long as you leave the area before anyone sees you, you are still safe. Wiki's noise section will show exactly how much noise each action causes.
GENERAL TIPS
- Sight range is 13, aggro range is 10, this means you can switch armor/enter combat out of stealth with full mp after detecting enemy location.
- Use adrenaline shot/psi haste to reach places in stealth you normally can not, I used to think jumping beans work too, but looking at the item description the bonus speed seems to be out of stealth only.
- Gun skill covers many weapon types, different weapons can be very useful in some situations even if you don't have feats for them.
- When not involved in combat, switching boots, helmet and utility cost no ap, this allows entering fight by stealthing to position with CAU armor with balaclava and ninja tabi, shown in the A11 video.
- Gas grenades are your best friends, if one gas grenade isn't enough to solve the problem five usually will.
- Grenades, cooked shot and a utility later have 100% accuracy in point blank range, this can be very useful when you need guaranteed damage, when an enemy is near a wall but not next to it, frag grenades can be thrown in a way such that it always hit the person.
- Crafted high high energy shield can soak a lot of damage, flames from industrial bot, energy damage, electrokinesis, ar/smg/pistol bullets, and your own point blank grenades.
- A lot of enemies can't open doors and fences, trap/gas at door is a common strategy, stasis can be used on the trapped target to stall for even longer while you shoot/grenade the other enemies.
- Quick tinkering and traps are extremely powerful early on for a stealth ranged character, while the in combat trapping mechanic is good, what makes this feat truly useful is that it allows you to place traps in stealth in places you normally can't, be creative.
- Some enemies will come close to disarm your bear traps when they they detect them, and almost all humanoid enemies will try to disarm gas grenades, can take advantage of this for sneak killing, the gas grenade method is actually very overpowered, I try to not use it too much.
- Not all humanoid enemies call for help when aggroed, some lunatics for example don't, take advantage of this for sneak killing.
- Pay attention to environment light/darkness effects to make use of ambush feat.
- Katya is my favorite merchant, she sells a lot of useful things like gizzard enzyme, gyromitrine and rustic/corrosive acid, her mushrooms/poppy can also be stolen.
- Use juice to plan merchant runs outside Katya's house, keep an eye out for high quality crafting materials.
- Jetskis can store a lot of items, use them as your expedition bases.
- I like bringing lifting belt, rathound regalia and power fist with me wherever I go, can switch to them to carry extra items.
- Upper cave crawlers and psi beetles should not be fought early on(or at all), come back later when you have much higher detection and levels, crawlers are much easier to deal with in buildings instead of open caves.
- Kill greater coil spiders first, they do emp burst, the smaller ones' electrokinesis can be shielded, spiders in general can be frozen by cryoliquid trap at chokepoints, expedition stealth spiders are vulnerable to gas field.
- Learn neural overload, might make a quest later easier.
USEFUL ITEMS
gas grenades, cave ear poison caltrops, crawler poison caltrops, frag grenades, bear traps, crawler poison bear traps, cryoliquid traps, plasma grenades, plasma mines, cloaking device, flares, vanishing powder grenade(for arena), torch
GENERAL PLAYSTYLE
>Can I obtain oddities/quest objectives without fighting anyone or through silent killing?
>Can I make enemies fight each other by causing noise?
>Can I fight enemies at a location where I can take cover from enemy ranged attacks?
Escape artist's base 2 turn cd with LTI allows the player to escape root 4 times on the first 5 turns, you'll need a second acid/fire pistol to deal damage when escape artist is on cd, or stasis yourself at the end of that turn, or use utilities/consumables/reload that turn.
Infused seawyrm tabi, CAU armor and night vision detection/crit goggles are the regular equipment, but for different fights equipment must be swaped, like biohazard boots/spec ops helmet for expedition spiders, tactical vest/tungsten boots for aegis patrols etc, I keep a set of pure stealth gear for getting into positions as well.
FEAT/STAT EXPLANATION
If you want more skill points you can give up some agi for int, I personally find 3 int with hypercerebrix and underpie perfectly fine for crafting.
Most of the feats are pretty straight forward, the only feat I'm unsure about is uncanny dodge, while it does unlock a more aggressive approach when fighting melee enemies, melee enemies usually die before they can reach you, I rarely got to use the feat personally, which questions it's usefulness on this build, replacement feats include sure step, interloper, recklessness, opportunist, pack rathound.
Advanced psi empathy allows LTI and haste to be used in the same turn, but the same effect can be achieved with psi beetle brain soup, so it's generally not that important either, can drop TM to 60 points if you really want skill points for something else, stasis is kinda overpowered and isn't really required for this build.
Ambush is a great feat despite not always being active, I took it kinda late myself, the crit chance is a nice damage boost to the build, especially when paired with cloaking device, but what I really appreciate is the evasion reduction, extremely useful when trying to hit some of the end game bosses.
Cooked shot is a really strong skill, it has very short cd when paired with LTI, aoe damage is always good on dom. It has 100% chance to hit in close range, at longer ranges it has a fixed 90% hit rate, which ignores evasion, and it ignores thought controller's mirror images, a good way to deal aoe damage and finish off the thought controllers your grenades failed to kill.
Specialization points wise, 5 should go into future orientation first, then 4 points into cooked shot, I think that's enough to reduce the ap cost to 5, I can't remember how many times I was 2 ap short for a grenade or ammo reload.
SOME IMPORTANT STEPS
Rescue newton should be done at lvl 5, requires 30 hp belt and laser or plasma pistol from elwood's house, I'm not sure whether you can pickpocket enough money to craft/buy a laser pistol yourself.
Save hugo by frag grenading the cave entrance, can talk to the leader directly and pay without passing the persuasion check, this will save buzzer.
Laser, AFW, ZC 99, bieretta 99, gluck 17, K&H and mk4 grenades will carry midgame, I switch to acid pistol when I obtain the belt from main quest, around lvl 18-19.
Rathound king at around lvl 15 or 16, gas/trap/frag grenade and few gunshots should easily bring him down, before this fight you can stealth around the map for a lot of exp and barely requires any fighting.
Blow up dess with mines to loot her CAU armor without angering protectorate.
Steal the metal figurine from shopping mall.
Start expedition and steal aegis patroller with 2 tnt(100 hotwire lockpicking skill required, kill a jkk to get +10 lp jacket).
A pair of biohazard boots can be obtained from a perception check in northern chancer's bay.
Mutie refuge, must say you are from aegis to gain access to merchants, use intimidate check later otherwise getting shard will be complicated
Obtain hypercerebrix and twitch blueprint, naga can be lured away with a grenade if you don't feel like fighting them right away.
Most spiders should be killed by expedition robots, crabs will also often kill things for you.
Most natives should be killed from sea on a jetski with lemurian blaster and grenades, jetski should be either torpedo or phaser, torpedo has lower stability but higher speed and allows ambush, remember to break los from crossbow/cryoorb users on some maps while fighting.
VIDEOS
Some gameplay videos to show that this build is viable on dominating.
Omega outposts quest naked in 6 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH6bwnsnv_sRescue Newton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ED71Ul2BEoDepot A naked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpymeZFcdsArmy base in 6 mins without persuasion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtNjemS3bABeast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLkoq_IxgqQBull's eye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nklesH-AEMaster exploder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0xMaY-yHUCornell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVqedFAEtgCAU armor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh4WqZo1_dgShopping mall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-gRr3a0S1kJoint security
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vTLBRAvP0Eldran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Ma2aCCovIBaenkraster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfdV5jPRN0UA11 native village
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lPM7Fdy458Magnar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfS09y5vwOEHunting Aegis patrols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRcj5IYAxMIUPCCS Armstrong pirate raid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4I7Aer0KAQNevil battle(image)
https://i.imgur.com/hKz4ht5.pngArke IRIS battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKYqtAPSQm810 x goliathus beetles in DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiHdJK17lfwTithonus lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k773quBBwbIFinal boss 1 turn kill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJIUz5gqbPsWhile I do believe the build can handle almost all the optional content in the game, I didn't do all of them because I got kinda burnt out towards the end, so I ended the game at level 28, This game is probably the longest rpg I have ever played but it was a fun journey nonetheless.
