TRUE Psi-Assassin-Trapper Build (DOMINATING, MIN-MAX OPTIMIZED, COMPLETE GUIDE)

[Jacquemort]

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Hello Gentlemen,

This game has been a guilty pleasure of mine over the years. I always was fascinated with Knife builds for some reasons (Probably because I like to be deadly up close while managing positioning) I made tons of em, rerolled often, tried new stuff and finally, I think I came to an optimize build for DOMINATING. Be mindful that this build requires decent knowledge of the game since it's a pure control no evasion/low con build with few defensive options (but full of offensive CC to control the battlefield). You can roll this build on easy-hard and add dodge/evasion in it for newcomers.

Preface: Combat Knives are really a strong weapon type but have a lot of downsides, mostly in the AoE/CC department and against multiple enemies with high damage threshold (DT). Robots are troublesome for knife users, but with the right knife+generator, high critical damage and your mild investment in Psychokinesis (more electrical damage options) this won't be a problem anymore. In fact, it makes for a great synergistic combo (hence a true hybrid build). For playing combat knives efficiently on DOMINATING, you're gonna need to use everything at your disposal. Since Expedition came out, all builds benefit greatly for going hybrid now due to the new psi school Temporal Manipulation, which is mostly a support buff/debuff school. Pairing these two Psi schools will greatly help us. It can be challenging at first but ultimately feels incredibly rewarding once you get the ball rolling. Many options will be at your disposal to tackle all kinds of different problems. The hardest part will be early game as you will be limited on options and tactics. Still, I didn't find it THAT hard to breeze through, thanks to some trap layouts, grenades and Expertise.

So,
you want to be an actual stealthy assassin with some psi abilities controlling the battlefield? Killing and manipulating your way through the game without barely getting touch? To be effective on DOMINATING while also covering most of crafting and enjoying outdealing people with your ultimate banter? You came to the right place my friend. Come with me... and press F9

Here's the build in question; (see second post for a level 10 skills distribution for the early game)
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgMQCAMDBQgAMgDCmR4Af1ErAEx4eENbCADChABGAABwTzEmKzAGKlwSS8KHAMKFTj7CsyknGt-_

Starting Stats:
Str 3
Dex 10+ Always level this every 4 levels for AP reduction on your knife and further boosting Crit chance, you'll get 18 Dex unbuff at the end
Agi 8 ----Gonna need those movement points early on and good for stealth/initiative
Con 3
Per 3
Will 5 ---For Ripper of course, will also help your psi regen (+11/turn) and save some skill points
Int 8 ---Because crafting is king in the Underrails (You now hear NerdCommando's voice) and it will save you a lot of skill points

Starting feats:
Expertise
Recklessness
lvl 2 Opportunist
-Psi Empathy + Telekinetic Punch (for an earlier range stun + Opportunist combo)
lvl 4 Quick Tinkering (get Force Field and Electrokinesis->will be your regular range stun once we get Premeditation)
lvl 6 Cheap Shots (try to craft a Taser before this level for an extra stun option for the GMS compound)
lvl 8  Premeditation or Ripper
lvl 10 Ripper or Premeditation
lvl 12 Expose Weakness (really important from this point and on)
lvl 14 Critical Power (now you'll be extremely deadly)
lvl 14+ see build link

The order is important, you can choose between what you want first for level 8 and 10 between Ripper and Premeditation. Premeditation might be the better choice first since it will free a lot of AP for stabbing a stunned opponent and proc Opportunist by removing AP cost from Electrokinesis. Leave Expose Weakness at level 12 since you can manage just fine without it until you start meeting burrowers and other high damage threshold (DT) enemies in group.

So why Expertise on a critical build ? Because when you think about it, you're gonna hit non-criticals more often than not since this build will sit between 20-50% critical chance and it will really help your early game. Since knives have low damage and high number of hits, it will be extremely efficient from the start and will serve you along well. Ti-Chrome knives will also love it. Also works well in conjunction with Expose Weakness+Opportunist against higher DT enemies. You want to maximize your damage output early game and let Psi Spells/Taser/Trap Incapacitation handle the CC and go full on Opportunist on your enemies. I consider Expertise a must on SMG builds and a great addition for Knives in general (even underrated). Recklessness + Expertise seems odd at first but they actually work in symbiosis really well.

No Sprint on a melee build ? It makes it a bit harder earlier but it's almost a waste of feat once you get Psycho-temporal Contraction around level 10-12.

Anything before returning the Armadillo drill circuit board from Depot A to Tanner (around lvl 10 or so) is considered early game.

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Subterfuge and Combat

Stealth: 50 stealth is a breaking point for many things in the early game, since we're melee, going to 70-80 with gear is a good idea
Lockpicking: Need little investment as you're full of DEX, try to have 50 before Depot A (or 43+jackknife(+7))
Hacking: Try to get 60 hacking before Depot A as it will save you a lot of trouble by hacking the turrets down. I like to keep
                    hacking always 10 points more than lockpicking personally since it has good utilities outside extra loots
Pickpocket: 0 we won't need it
Traps: 50-60 early game is good, eventually past Depot A (especially on Dominating) you'll need to level it up so enemies have a
                    harder time detecting them. 165 at the endgame provides you the utility of removing any traps (but not keeping them all,
                    but that's fine). With 80-90 you'll be able to disarm most if not all the traps in Rathound King's lair, it seems pointless at
                    first to do so but you'll be surprised how much exp you get just disarming everything you see (in classic of course). Use
                    trapper belt+ jackknife to optimize your traps when needed.

Max Melee each level, we can shave some points here (try not more than 5-10 points) when you need to put points elsewhere to reach important thresholds since we'll have high Dex + CC/traps covering you accuracy-wise. You absolutely need 80 melee points by level 14 for Critical Power
Throwing: 30 early game and 50 eventually (for Three Pointers). With all our DEX we'll get 100~ throwing which will make throwing your grenades as accurate as possible

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General Advice for Technology

Everything here pointwise is min-max to get everything covered. So take into consideration that you'll need to use your house workbench to craft your best stuff, but you'll have enough until then to get what you need to go through the game easily.

Mechanic: Get 65-80 early game to craft your knives
Electronic: Get 65-80 early game to add an electro generator to your knife, for taser and all other utilities
Chemistry You need 112 to craft the best grenades/traps (MK5), without workbench you'll craft MK4
                  *Get 40 Chemistry before heading to Depot A to craft Magnesium Molotovs, As grenades+traps are your primary AoE
                   damage* sit at 69 to craft Mk4 eventually
Biology: 20 is good early game to create Gas Grenades, but can be put on hold for later, you'll be able to craft Super Soldier
                        Drugs too(130 biology + super soldier drugs = max 20 dex!!)
Tailoring: 8 (10). To craft molotovs, get this before Depot A. This is where I save points on this build since you'll be using
                             Rathound King's Armor, Bataclava and some tabi boots. For Depot A, try to buy a mutated padded leather armor 
                             from Blaine. If you know your things and positioning you might not even need it (although it's nice to put on to walk
                             over acid puddles). Buy stealth Tabi boots when you first get to Blaine of course.

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Understanding your Psi bread and butter; (see second post for more psi information***)

Psychokinesis
You need a base 45 in psychokinesis to use Electrokinetic Imprint (range trap, combo-ing with Quick Tinkering makes you able to place two traps in one turn, extremely strong, try to get it ASAP once past Depot A along with Temporal Contraction!). You'll want to level psychokinesis to reach 150 points since it will increase damage of your Electrokinetic Imprint/Electrokinesis but mostly to make them harder for enemies to detect Electrokinetic Imprint and just walk by. You will mostly use Premeditation with Electrokinesis for a free range stun or even cast it twice in the same turn if needed. Level this first and temporal later. Get it to 30 ASAP to get Electrokinesis, this will be your default range stun eventually since it has no cooldown compared to Telekinetic Punch. Don't hesitate to use Telekinetic Punch and Electrokinesis for a double stun in 1 turn early game. You may go take the pill and learn Psi-empathy after clearing the first outposts quest or wait level 4.

Temporal Manipulation
You need 55 Temporal for the obvious support spells from this school (only become strong once you're past Depot A, level 10+, since you need to buy the most important blueprint in Rail Crossing(Psycho-temporal Contraction)). The early game is a bit harder because you won't have sprint but you can manage well without it with your Psi CC  and pre-trapping (use Quick Tinkering!!) to control the field, once you get Psycho-temporal Contraction and Rathound  King Armor+Tabi  Boots you'll have way enough movement speed to your liking. Limited Temporal Increment will reduce cooldown of all your spells/skills by 1 turn, so that means you wont need things like Grenadier and you'll be able to restealth more quickly making you way more deadly from the shadow. You'll get 70 points in Temporal later to get Stasis to cast on yourself and save even more cooldown turns in stressful situations.

Psycho-temporal Contraction may just be the best move in the game as it gives a whooping free 15 Action Points and 30 Movement Points that last 2 turn (but cost 75 psi to cast). Add in the Psycho-temporal Acceleration Feat and now we're talking a free 20 Action Points and 30 Movement points that last 3 turns. Then, add in an adrenaline shot on top of it and now we're talking 85 Action Points for at least 2 turns. Now imagine that a single knife stab with max DEX will cost 5-6 AP depending on the knife type. Now this is violent. It will open a lot of new different combos in your arsenal as you can do A LOT MORE in 1 turn. Really an amazing support spell for every build in the game. Get it while it's hot !

*Your Psi abilities are not your primary damage dealer, those will be your knife, grenades and special traps in that order. Still, you'll get a decent damage out of Electrokinetic Imprint/Electrokinesis by having 150 points in psychokinesis. Consider it a bonus on top of your arsenal.

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Social

Persuasion: 0
Intimidation: 0
Mercantile: 112 (150) So you can get better deals everywhere and earlier while getting access to that sweet unique Jetski from the DLC. Almost a must for DOMINATING economy, especially early game. Try to get 45 (60) before meeting Blaine for his special stocks. Knife build don't require a lot of money to be efficient so you'll have a lot of money to buy Chemistry materials and different medicines. You need to manage your money well before getting all the sweet Dosh from Abram's junkyard questline (1800~ Charons). Try to rush Kohlmeier's knife quest ASAP for a 300~ Charons early game, you can even keep the knife for a while before returning it to him for 1000exp. You either need some stealth +50 hacking or go by the secret tunnel with precise stealth+molotov to scare rathounds and make your way through. A single poison bear trap is also a good idea to take down the guy inside the house, trap the door + win initiative and wreck his *** by moving in and out of his line of sight. You can do this easily at level 3.

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Gear

Head: Balaclava for extra stealth/Motion Tracking Goggles for detection/Psionic Headband (Universal/Temporal Modulator + Magnifying Neuroscopic Filter: Electrokinesis  + Psionic Mufflers for boosting your psi skills, psi cost % reduction and boost your psi Electrokinesis damage further)
Armor: Rathound Regalia
Belts: Use a lifting belt+Rathound BBQ 90% of the time because of your low carrying capacity and carrying traps. Otherwise use
                    Trapper belt when needed for the extra utility and trap boost.
Boots: Ninja Tabi Boots
Shield Emitter: High Frequency mostly, but having a back up Low-Med can also be a good idea
Weapons: -Ti-Chrome knives with a electro generator, low-ap which makes you electrify some more !
                  -Plain Tungsteel Dagger/Steel Combat Knife to switch and conserve batteries when needed. Nothing wrong with
                    adding a generator to a Steel Combat Knife either (you're probably gonna do that before finding Ti-Chrome anyway)
                  -Serrated knife is nice but with all the critical bonus you won't need it. Also Entropic Recurrence can replace a bleed
                   effect once you land a strong critical hit.
                   -Again, nothing wrong with carrying multiple types of knives in general. Just use the right one for the right job. I personally
                    prefer dagger over serrated knife against organic enemies for the +25% damage buff
                   -Jackknife can actually be use offensively for fighting multiple small critters and finishing off target or applying Expose
                    Weakness since it has a low AP cost and you'll be carrying it around for utilities. It will also love Expertise !
                   -A strong Steel Combat Knife early game will really help you along since it has the best min-max damage which help counter
                   damage threshold with Expertise

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General Combat Related Advice

Use bear traps A LOT early game
 
This build starts shining at level 14 (like most critical builds due to critical power). The core of my build mostly goes to level 18, then from that you can start to customize your feats to your liking and playstyle. You'll also have all the lockpick and hacking needed with the right tools. Escape Artist is almost a must for melee builds in Expedition. Check out the alternative feats section below for more information about feats and alternative choices for this build.

Bladeling and critical resistant enemies will be hard to kill but you'll make it ! Before you get a shield you'll have to be a master at combat and not get hit often due to low-con/psi empathy, again, very doable with traps, psi abilities, cheap shots luck and some preparation. Carry a lot of Flashbangs** and strong crafted grenades and traps to optimize your damage output and deal with mobs. Don't forget to stealth kill single targets before going for the rest of the mobs, it will save you a lot of trouble and make you feel like an actual assassin (hence this build). Remember to abuse chokepoints and line of sight! A great strategy to master for everyone and especially for melee users in general. The best defense is not letting enemies pull out any offense !

Use your CC before mass stabbing a target to break their dodge and proc Opportunist, you want to abuse that as much as you can. Sometimes it will be better to leave your CC to disable another target while you kill your main target. If you face a big group of enemies like Lurkers, try to initiate by killing one guy and flashbang the rest, then try to take as much as you can on your second turn before their debuff goes out. Its sometimes a good idea to change target if your Cheap Shots incapacitation proc and you have a lot of Action Points left to go after another enemy. Your high critical damage will give you good surprises by finishing off opponents in a few shots earlier than you thought, leaving you with more options for pushing forward and control the field. Sometimes (big mobs mostly), it will be better to lay traps in stealth, bait the enemies in a chokepoint and throw grenades while they are stuck and then you go in with your knife to clean the mess you just made.

Psi-beetles quest is hard for knife users, try to hold the first room with lots of traps and molotovs while hiding in the adjacent room out of sight. I highly recommend going Siphon Hunting with stealth and traps West of Junkyard giving you 350xp per Siphoner (there's 5 of em and some oddities around). Really good early game level boosting, highly recommended.

As for invisible targets like Crawlers and Lurkers, learn where they are and in what numbers. Reloading is almost necessary here. Once you know where they are, put traps/imprint then unstealth or enter their line of sight and wait for that sweet bear trap ''click'' sound. They will be no match for you once caught in the open. Use your detection goggles while in stealth yourself to scout.

As for the Rathound King fight for his armor, the trick is to lure him out of his room with traps (he will try to go disarm it on his own if it's in his line of sight). Wait in stealth next to the door and once he pass by close the door leaving all his precious rathounds behind and solo his ***. He's strong on dominating and carrying strong traps (especially chemical bob traps) can really help you there. Leave a clear path open for you to get out of the room and close it with Imprint and Quick Tinkering, he will have no choice but to walk over traps this way. Throwing a gas grenade here can also be a good idea. I mostly go kill him at level 11-12.

Grenades and special traps are your best friends. Try to get 50 Chemistry ASAP and start crafting MK3. Fixer in Junkyard has a lot of components you need. Get your hands on magnesium and hexogen whenever you can and buy the necessary blueprints once you get the money. Learn which grenades share cooldownstogether. For example, EMP grenade, Flashbang and Molotov have separated cooldowns. So you can throw multiple different grenades on the same turn.

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[Jacquemort]

2/2

Here's a level 10 build link to help skills distribution early game:
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?CgMMCAMDBQgAGwA8AAAmKhUAIDg4HgAIACgAGQAALU8xJiswBipc378

-Use Jackknife to reach 50 lockpicking when needed.
-Level Psychokinesis first to get 30 Psychokinesis and grab Electrokinesis and Force Field at level 4.
-We need 40 Psychokinesis before level 8 to grab Premeditation.
-Go grab Limited Temporal Increment from Ethan once you have 25 Temporal Manipulation.
-Make sure that you have 55 Temporal Manipulation and 45 Psychokinesis BEFORE level 11-12 at the least.


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No Pack Rathound early game on a trapper 3 STR build? + Inventory Management tips

Knife/Stealth build have low weightiness gears in general. Lifting belt + Rathound BBQ and some inventory management
should do the trick. Once you get Rathound Regalia that will be another extra 10 capacity, you'll be sitting at 170 carrying
capacity and 180 with Rathound BBQ when needed. Don't be afraid to use the cheat engine speed boost to overcarry
stuff from one place to another. You'll eventually grab Pack Rathound near the end of the game before tackling Deep Cavern
and the Expedition DLC where having a good loadout is now really important. Always bring just the necessary before going in a dungeon. Carrying 20-25 bear traps might be cumbersome at first but recommended. if you actually use them (and trust me you will) it will balance your loadout as you progress through the dungeon and loot around. Don't be afraid to leave stuff behind if you need to, you can always come back to grab your stuff later or even drop some gears before going into fights and loot it again after. Once you get Electrokinetic Imprint, you'll be able to free some space and not carry as many bear traps since you'll have one infinite trap weightless on the go all the time.

Make the two shelves in SGS armory your first hoarding spot. I Like to put my crafting materials in one shelve and weapons and all other utilities stuff in the other. Eventually you'll move all your stuff to your house in core city. You can leave some stuff in Junkyard early game but I would not recommend it past Depot A because there's no train going there. That means you'll need to go to SGS and pay boat trips back and forth just to go get some stuff which can be costy and time consuming for nothing.

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Further understanding your Psi options (other support spells and different combos)

Bread and butter;
Psychokinesis ---> Electrokinesis / Electrokinetic Imprint
Temporal Manipulation --> Limited Temporal Increment / Psycho-temporal Contraction

But what about all the other spells we can get and what can we do with it ?

First, you have to know that even with 0 Metathermics and Thought Control, we can go and still get the first spell from their
respective schools. So that means Cryokinesis from Metathermics and Neural Overload from Though Control. Neural
Overload will be useless for this build so don't bother. On the other hand we can get great mileages from Cryokinesis when combine
with other tools since it has an extremely long range and apply a debuf of -10 Movement Points that stack 3 times (but you will only use it once normally). If you try to retreat a fight, try to snipe your target from far away and exit line of sight to enter stealth, this will really help you exit combat. You can also add some traps in the way.

Now here are the other important and great spells that you should consider using and be part of your build. There's other
spells not mentioned here but only because we won't use them much, if at all.

In Psychokinesis:
- Telekinetic Punch (your first psycho spell, range stun, doesn't work on robots)
- Force Field (put a 3v3 grid blocking everything on its way, range can't pass through, EXTREMELY USEFUL to control where you
                       want enemies to move or create choke points on the go, get it early (25 psychokinesis points) and use it when needed)
- Disruptive Field  (break a single target's chance to hit with range and throwing attacks, with all the psychokinesis skill points
                  we're gonna get this will be above 50% making you able to be evasive from the right target at the right time without
                  investing in evasion itself. A life saver against Mobs sometimes. Always go for range targets first, cast this on another one
                  before the end of your turn to help mitigate damage receive and save the energy from your shield longer
- Implosion Do a certain % of damage that bypass threshold and shield base on the target's current health. A good opener to
                   give more critical bonus to Ripper.

In Temporal Manipulation:
- Psycho-temporal Dilation (break some AP and MP from a target, extremely strong)
- Entropic Recurrence (apply a DoT base on the last damage you just did for 4 turns, think of it like a bleed effect)
- Temporary Rewind (rewind some health, can be useful but you won't use it as much as you think)
- Precognition (grant you some dodge/evasion for 25 psi per turn, good to take pressure off your shield when needed)
- Stasis (a powerful move that freeze and grant all immunity to the target, you will cast this on yourself more often than on the
              enemies so you can waste turns to refresh cooldowns. Debuffs you already have on you will be frozen and start going
              once you unfreeze , so watch out for that. Future Orientation Feat reduces an extra Stasis cooldown turn.

Few interesting combos to use: (learn your spells and start experiencing yourself to see what and how you can rotate with your cooldowns, use Limited Temporal Increment to help you here)

Telekinetic Punch + Electrokinesis + Taser + Flashbangs + Cheap Shots luck = welcome to stun world baby!

Force Field + Traps/Imprint to create choke points and make enemies walk over your trap setup, or just waste turn to protect yourself and refresh cooldowns.

Disruptive Field + Precognition for evading purpose.

Psycho-temporal Dilation + Cryokinesis to completely break an enemy's movement point and some action points. Crazy good. Lay some traps with a gas grenade in the middle to apply that sweet and game breaking debuff that increase damage from all sources up to 200% if max stacked. I easily killed Carnifex from the Arena on DOMINATING with that strategy at level 16.

YOUR MAIN PHYSICAL DAMAGE DEALING COMBO should normally go like this:

Temporal Contraction -> Premeditation -> Electrokinesis -> Target stun/Opportunist is on -> Expose Weakness -> stab -> stab -> stab...

if you engage in real time from stealth simply start with Expose Weakness and follow the lineup. Whenever you Cheap Shot incapacitate a target that is not already stun your next hit will have Opportunist triggered, a warm welcome bonus !

So many spells, how to arrange my toolbars ?
Here's mine for reference (I'm still missing some spells here but that will give you the gist of it)
https://imgur.com/a/Qd5PZgA
Main = Bread and Butter
Shift = Alt Spells and Adrenaline Shot
Ctrl = All other utilities and medicines

Additional notes: Our bread and butter Electronic Imprint: blueprint can be hard to acquire once past Depot A. The earliest one you can find is in the Lower Passage once you have access to TNT near a strong group of lurkers. Check the wiki to help you there. Otherwise you might be lucky and find it randomly.

You will need some Biology too to craft your custom Psionic Headband. I think it's the Psionic Mufflers component (Psi cost reduction) that adds this requirement. It doesn't demand a lot, but people who will be going with my dodge/evasion variation are dropping some Biology so it should be known.

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Alternative Feats, which are interchangeable and for what?

Anything that passes my core (level 18) can be tuned to your liking.

Can be switch/replace; although I would strongly recommend keeping them on DOMINATING to be optimal:
                                    Power Management, Escape Artist and Three Pointers (in that order)
                                    Keep Blindsiding if you like to stealth initiate.
                                    keep Pack Rathound if you hate managing your inventory.

What else to consider:   Grenadier to be a AoE spamming God, along with Three Pointers (overkill with Temp. Increment)
                                     Psychostatic Electricity for better Crit chance in your main combo
                                     Sure steps if you like Caltrops/hate acid puddles
                                     Future Orientation to save even more cooldowns faster
                                     Uncanny dodge + Nimble if you intend to add dodge/evasion (see next section)
                                     Taste for Blood if you like bleed/serrated knives (we have a lot of options to waste turns, goes for poison too)
                                     Hypertoxicity if you like poison (we have 150 biology with workbench)
                                     Cut-Throat for the assassin RP element (may not be THAT useful since humanoids is not our problem) 
                                     Sprint or Fancy Footwork for more MP (we already got a lot of MP with T. Contraction)
                                     Neurology for a bigger Psi Pool (+15 max psi)
                                     Decommissioner if you REALLY hate Robots
 
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Want to add Dodge/Evasion to this build ?
Here it is;
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?HgMQCAMDBQgAMgDCoCjCoMKAUSsATHh4SBQIAMKEAEYAAAAkMSYrMAYqQVxLEsKHAE4-wrMpJxrfvw

As you may already notice, my main build has in mind that you get hit as minimum as possible. Shield Emitter is there to cover you when you actually need to tank some hits. Hopefully, this is why we have electronics to craft a decent one. Since we already have 30 points in dodge to get escape artist, I suppose grabbing Uncanny Dodge can be a decent option too. This is why I left some breathing room post level 18. If you feel the need to have dodge/evasion in your build we'll have to sacrifice most skills in Biology and Mercantile altogether. *The way dodge and evasion works on DOMINATING doesn't make those stats appealing at all since they have a cap at 70% or something which makes relying on dodge/evasion late game against strong hitting enemies not that useful. I found skill points and feats to be better spent elsewhere. But if you're playing on hard or lower difficulties, go on and drop Biology and Mercantile to get dodge to 40 for Uncanny Dodge and keep leveling Evasion + Nimble feat. We will replace Expertise with Nimble as a starting feat  but you'll need to find a spot for Uncanny Dodge somewhere between level 8 and 16 to get the most of it. It will still work well for you.  I find Evasive Maneuver to be less useful compared to Nimble and Uncanny Dodge. Just high Evasion + Nimble will get you a decent cover for range attacks/AoE and Uncanny Dodge will cover your melee range, but honestly you don't need those if you know how to rotate your CCs with Temporal Increment, good trap layout, abusing line of sight and using your shield at the right moment in my opinion. You can even tackle a lot of tough fights with restealthing/exit combat, get all your cooldowns off and start over after your enemies wasted all their medicines. Don't forget that your psychokinesis spell Disruptive Field can also break a single enemy's range and throw accuracy by more than 50% for 2 turns in this build , regardless if you want dodge/evasion or not you'll still have this option to back you up. I'm not even adding Precognition into this either. Melee opponents will just step on your traps like good boys.

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Specializations

are pretty open but I highly recommend putting at least 5 points to further boost Critical Power. More than that might be overkill if you're playing on lower difficulties. If you feel untouchable, further specialization in Recklessness can be a good idea since it gives +1% critical chance TO YOU AND YOUR ENEMIES compare to Weaponsmith which only gives +0.5% critical chance per level with no drawback. Consider dropping a single point in Expose Weakness too so it can last 3 turns instead of 2. Maybe 2-3 points in Quick Tinkering AP cost reduction if you like to trap a lot in fights. Imprint will stun the target for 1 turn after your target fall into it so consider bear traps a better tool for locking enemies in place for more turns. Opportunist: disabled target is excellent too!

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Food

You will mostly use Rathound BBQ early game for the extra strength to help your carrying capacity. Eventually, you'll start using Eel Sandwich for the +1 Dex to obtain an additional AP reduction on your knife when needed to get more hits per turn. Once you're stack in DEX or when the Eel Sandwich won't cut it or be useful anymore start using Hardcore Chips to grant you an additional 5% critical chance. Use food often and slow down the cheat engine when you go AFK to not waste the 20 mins buff too fast. Food is inexpensive and should be use A LOT.

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Hypercerebrix and even more skill points saving

Hypercerebrix is a late game pill that you can craft to increase your intelligence by 2 for 25 seconds, granting you even more extra points in technology for crafting. Using it and now we'll sit at 10 int ! My build does not take it in consideration so think of it as an extra feature if you are starving for some skill points (which normally you should not if you've been following this guide). You could also lower Mercantile to 100, pop the pill and pass the skill check of 150 for the Jetski in the DLC to save some points there. Just consider its availability. Check underpie too.
https://www.underrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hypercerebrix

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Some tips if you're playing on DOMINATING

I highly recommend rerolling your character until you get a decent knife option in the SGS Armory Shop. Sell the guns and bullets that you receive for free and buy the knife. It should leave you enough to buy some lockpicks and traps from Old Jonas.  You are looking for a Steel Combat Knife with 9-15 damage or optimally 9-16 damage if you're lucky. It's important to make your early game as breezy as possible. You might also be lucky and get a decent electro Knife from one of the invisible stalkers lurking down the metro station (Lower Passage) when you head toward the GMS compound. Kill all the stealth guys on the East screen(there's 3 of em, use preemptive bear traps to catch em) and hope you're lucky. You'll probably get your first decent leather armor from them at the same time. Really good to go there at level 3 to help reaching lvl 4 earlier. Loot everything and head straight to Junkyard to sell your useless treasures and acquire some Charons early game to buy some decent components/grenades/blueprints/gears. Elwood has a decent knife so it's worth rushing to kill him too. Buy some more traps and go siphon hunting (South West of junkyard) for more exp earlier. You want that extra edge for the psi-beetles quest. Prioritize buying some flashbangs, molotovs, traps and a some adrenaline shots early on. If you find a Ti-Chrome metal early game ABSOLUTELY BUY IT unless it has really subpar quality. Put a generator on it and enjoy spreading more misery per turn. Another important thing to look for early game is a low quality generator from Old Jonas (24 and less in quality). If you see this , absolutely ruin yourself and buy it. Pair it up with a decent plasma core (30 and + in quality) and craft a Taser ASAP. Ideally you want a 5 energy cost taser with more than 30 maximum energy. The AP cost of a taser is 10 AP which will free you more stabs for your opportunist combo until you get Premeditation + Electrokinesis. It won't be as useful later on but will always be a nice extra stun option and a blessing for the early game. You really want this before meeting robots in the GMS compound (if you plan on killing those).

I found this old post to be quite useful when you first wanna get into DOMINATING.
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=3696.0
(credits to Shredded Cheddar)

--------------------------------------------

Here's the whole thing in a Google Doc format

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14cxBhE724dBKzqD79ACy50VwGqvbv_KUzMJO6kEY_T8/edit
(for some reasons, some information are repeated so just use the Outlines to browse around for what you need)

--------------------------------------------

Closure

I've given up on some DOMINATING runs because of how much brain power and saves/reloads I needed on certain builds, which won't be the case if you follow this guide closely and get through the early game. Underrail has so much room for optimization that it makes for an extremely great cerebral experience. This build is a cumulative of knowledge and adaptation over the years and from different game versions. Although I'd be happy to see people try and roll with it to share how efficient it is, I firmly believe that people should experience on their own as much as possible. I played this game over 300 hours without ever barely going/doing anything in Core City since I was fascinated with character buildup, rerolling, optimizing and trying new things (but that's just me and some gaming autism). It will be rewarding once you put the pieces together and learn how the many mechanics of this game can work together to create unique turnarounds. This game is PURE SYNERGY and now it's up to you to make it go in full blown SYNCHRONICITY.

I always liked the idea of ''can your build make it through DOMINATING?''.

And there's only one way to find out...
Godspeed you derailed!

--------------------------------------------
version 1.1.1.6
Feel free to ask more questions or share interesting ideas.

2/2

[rafner]

I'm in the middle of my first proper playthrough (after restarting and tweaking my build over and over again for about 20 hours) so I'm not sure when and if I'll try your build. But I gotta give kudos for the beautiful presentation. Excellent guide!

[Jacquemort]

Extra post

Some more tips: Anything electric produces a little bit of noise so try to use a plain knife to eliminate targets in pure silence (unless the target is really far away), otherwise you might attract things around. This goes for Electrokinesis too. Watch out for when using Electrokinesis in team fights as it can randomly bounce on friendly targets and turn them hostile, thus you'll need to reload. If you are fighting a target and you know there's another one stealth nearby, use Electrokinesis as it will bounce, damage and reveal the sneaky bastard ! Force field is not in my ''bread and butter'' section but it might as well be in it since it's extremely useful for buying turns and controlling the field. Use it a lot ! Late game you'll be such a killer that you will barely rely on traps but will always have them available. More options = the better. Lurkers, Lunatics and Psi users in groups can be deadly to you, your target priority goes like this: Psi users -> Range users -> Melee users. At some point you will barely use adrenaline shots anymore and only in really hard situations, don't be afraid to pop it up to get those extra movement points to exit line of sight. Don't be afraid either to cast Premeditation to use other high costy spells too when Electrokinesis is not needed. Even though Psycho-Temporal Contract cost a lot of psi (75) I prefer not to use premeditation with it and keep it for offensive tools (and force field), popping a psi booster anytime will be easy with all our AP. Enemies will go look up to the exact place you entered stealth so try to move away as quickly as possible once you exit combat. Flashbanging enemies (2 turns incapacitated) assure you of exiting combat but make sure to move as far as you can on the first stun turn and exit their line of sight. You'll know when things are really going well for you once you realize you're not saving as much anymore, that's how you know when your build is efficient.

My personal SPECIALIZATIONS that I used on DOMINATING:
Critical Power 6/10
Opportunist: Disabled Target 3/3
Expose Weakness Duration 1/1
Cheap Shots Damage 2/10
Cheap Shots Incapacitation 3/5

Maybe this would be more optimal that said:
Critical Power 6-7/10
Opportunist: Disabled Target 3/3
Cheap Shots Damage 2-3/10
Cheap Shots Incapacitation 3/5

I notice that I almost kill all my opponents with Expose Weakness in  less than 2 turns, so the extra duration might only be really useful on certain bosses on DOMINATING. Blindsiding (+15% damage after exiting stealth for a turn) + Opportunist disable target give you a total of +47% damage boost increase, quite the strong combo combine with expose weakness + some critical hits. You'll be able to clear easily 2-3 opponents on your first turn making the rest of the group easier to finish. Leave room for some AP to flashbang the rest or activate you shield if you know damage is coming. Use foods to increase your critical chances.

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OTHER USEFUL LINKS

Custom Portraits
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rhorvrv20i3jpd2/Underrail_extra_avatars_1.2.zip/file

Drop those in
C:\Users\[Name]\Documents\My Games\Underrail\CustomPortraits folder

(credits to Nines for making those (I think) and HenitoKisou for re-uploading the link)

Original thread here
https://www.gog.com/forum/underrail/realistic_portrait_pack

Some more on the main forum thread:
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=1304.0

&

Alternative music for SGS station and Core City
Long time player and want some FITTING and ALTERNATIVE music for SGS Station and Core City?
SGS Station -> something calm with a starting/hope thematic (Perturbator - Last Kiss)
Core City -> a slow starter which turn into a BANGER making Core City turn into HARDcore City (Perturbator - She's Young, She's...)
Both of these songs are from [Perturbator - Dangerous Days] and are arranged to be in correct format (.OGG) with correct volume adjustment. Download and replace CityStation.ogg and and Corecity.ogg with the correct track in:
Underrail/data/audio/music

Make sure to rename the tracks like the one you wanted replaced (CityStation / CoreCity) otherwise it won't work. MAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL SONGS IN CASE
Here's the download link:
https://mega.nz/#!z6ZQACoB!QSQLr1zGKncBOrZMVgNToe3-mir-x_Ke40aNGkGfpY4

Music sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vsf3zYppP4

*I do not own the rights of Perturbator's music and highly encourage people to buy the album from him. You can even get the album for free with the name your price option. Perturbator's bandcamp here:
https://perturbator.bandcamp.com/album/dangerous-days

Big props to Josh Cullor for making the original Underrail OST !

&

A really useful In-Depth Guide if you are unfamiliar with some of the game mechanics and thresholds
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843557165

(credits to Destroyor)

&

A great SMG build for people who would just like to breeze through the game
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MTseAjhW_vJCJ316P39EzR0lAzTdzhJua12ZeTuAQmg/

original post on Reddit here
https://www.reddit.com/r/underrail/comments/crcd8l/my_smg_guide_for_beginners_needs_expedition_dlc/

(credits to HappyRBX)


--------------------------------------------

Thank you Styg personally for making such a marvelous game! This goes for the rest of your team too. Stay cool~
AND THANK YOU FOR READING MY GUIDE

--------------------------------------------

I'm in the middle of my first proper playthrough (after restarting and tweaking my build over and over again for about 20 hours) so I'm not sure when and if I'll try your build. But I gotta give kudos for the beautiful presentation. Excellent guide!

I appreciate the kudos ! I hope your run is going well and you're having a good time.
Feel free to ask questions regardless of your build, I'll be happy to help out.

[barrosoman]

Hello, I'm at core city with this build and I would like an advice on which Oligarch to pick for the components for the build.
Thanks 

[Jacquemort]

Hello, I'm at core city with this build and I would like an advice on which Oligarch to pick for the components for the build.
Thanks 

Coretech seems to be a general favorite for easier access to high quality electronic components. It's also really helpful for this build since we don't need any stealth/heavy stuff from the other oligarchs. Try it out and craft better shields, psionic headbands and other electronic utilities ! It's always fun to go try another oligarch on another run eventually. Don't be afraid to get Power Management first (level 20-24) if you want to craft strong shields and better battery for your knives earlier.

[Ikafati]

Any changes you'd recommend for new players? Like investing more into CON and it's respective feats or something like that?

[Jacquemort]

Any changes you'd recommend for new players? Like investing more into CON and it's respective feats or something like that?

Yeah, just use my dodge/evasion version on lower difficulty. You don't need con at all on an assassin build really since midgame you'll destroy any targets you want in a single turn, including bosses. It's more about learning how to use the tools you have at your disposal. I know it sounds a bit non-noob friendly but you'll really learn the mechanics of this game quicker that way. Try some stuff and reload when you're not please, it's that simple ! A shield emitter is your actual defense but its hard to find one early game but it's possible (check Ezra's inventory sometime), otherwise pray on those evasion probability for range and pop uncanny dodge/traps for melee. Godspeed !

[ghostfire231]

I've finished all main and sidequests up to the institute questline on dominating difficulty with this build and so far it works very well. 

 I've decided not to invest in chemistry and biology beyond 20 (for gas grenades, which make finishing the  foundry questline much easier) and have been neglecting both psi schools beyond the minimum requirement for important spells in favor of leveling tailoring to ~120.   rahound regalia is a great early/midgame armor but being able to craft high quality tabis and  that flat 10% crit chance bonus with infused rathound leather is too good to pass up. 

So far I haven't had much need to level psi skills beyond the minimum req for important spells.  Tele punch gets resisted more often than not but this build still has no shortage of stuns or CC.  Once I get closer to lategame I'll have more of a reason to dump into TM (for stasis) and Psychokinesis to increase trap potency, which I imagine will be more important as I hear DC enemies are ridiculous on dominating. 

[Geomir]

Hello everyone! New here, new to the game. My free time is very limited, so I appreciate all these guides / builds.

Sorry for the late question, is this build still viable? Or it's not anymore, since the last update that changed PSI? Are there significant changes that make this build essentially useless now, or can I try this like it is? I am planning playing in normal by the way. 

[ghostfire231]

Sorry for the late question, is this build still viable?   

Even with the critical power nerf it's still a top tier build. 

[Geomir]

Great! Good to know! Now it's up to me to decide if I am going to try a stealth melee assassin, or a stealth crossbow assassin. Thanks for letting me know that this build is still great, even after the last patch.

[Jacquemort]

Even with the critical power nerf it's still a top tier build.

Glad to hear it made it through the patches.

[MrSight]

Extra post

I appreciate the kudos ! I hope your run is going well and you're having a good time.
Feel free to ask questions regardless of your build, I'll be happy to help out.

Im not sure if you'll see this or not but i just got the game yesterday and havent made my character yet. If I wanted to go about tweaking this build by simply using a gun instead of a knife, what would that look like as far as attribute/skill point distribution goes? Also which feats should i drop/pick up? I basically just want the crowd control aspect of the build and to also be able to use a gun. The stealth and traps are really cool too; but if something needs to be taken out to compensate for the change, so be it. I was thinking either a sniper or a shotgun. Thank you so much in advanced if you're able to help me.

[yickers]

Extra post

I appreciate the kudos ! I hope your run is going well and you're having a good time.
Feel free to ask questions regardless of your build, I'll be happy to help out.

Im not sure if you'll see this or not but i just got the game yesterday and havent made my character yet. If I wanted to go about tweaking this build by simply using a gun instead of a knife, what would that look like as far as attribute/skill point distribution goes? Also which feats should i drop/pick up? I basically just want the crowd control aspect of the build and to also be able to use a gun. The stealth and traps are really cool too; but if something needs to be taken out to compensate for the change, so be it. I was thinking either a sniper or a shotgun. Thank you so much in advanced if you're able to help me.

Look at the timestamps on this post. It is quite out of date. Also, changing from knives to guns drastically changes a build's attributes, skills and feats.