Directions for a SMG/Sniper (+Knife?) Build

[Faustina]

Hello.
As you can see, I'm trying to find out what is the best build for my first playthrough. I just bought the game a few hours ago but I'll be on a business trip for this next week, so I won't be able to play for a while, so I guessed I could use the time to research my options for my first character.
Sniper + SMG is a pretty popular build as I could see from the few minutes I spent studying the game. I wanted some directions as to where spend my points and which feats I could choose.

I know that DEX and PER will be my richest attributes, and I'm focusing on burst fire since I saw that I can pick a feat later on that allows me to shoot again everytime I kill an enemy with a burst shot. I know a lot of perks are shared between Sniper and Pistols but I don't know if they're totally worth the cost of abandoning the SMG usage. Instead, I'd like to know how viable would it be to implement knife in this build (not at all my priority, would happily drop the idea if it would mean more points towards my next focuses below). Also, daggers don't require STR, so yay.

I don't want a "perfect" build, I would appreciate some margin of error for me to learn the game myself instead of using a "fast food build" (come here, grab one, play the game). As such, I've been considering focusing on Intimidation but I wanted to know if leaving Persuasion alone would lock me out of any quests. Traps are also a skill I'm not feeling I'll be fond of, so I wanted to know how much in trouble would I be without it, and if so, if they would also work well with this build.

I'm open to any advices regarding Crafting, and if at some point I would need to choose if I would craft only weapons or only armor (seeing as Tailoring is a separate skill and as I'm going for Stealth I think crafting armors would benefit me more, correct me here please).

And as my (finally!) last questions, why do I feel like Paranoia is the equivalent of a tourist trap? Is it that good, or what's the catch here? Is Nimble a good feat? And Evasion + Dodge, those two divide a lot of opinions, so should I spend my points on them or not?

Thank you in advance for reading this, I hope you have a great day.

[chimaera]

Specialized characters are easier to build if you are new to the game, so my recommendation would be to drop the knife. A sniper rifle will work well with any type of gun, but - as much as I like them - pistols are not as strong as other firearms, so smgs will be easier. A sniper rifle on the other hand is very powerful and doesn't require that many feats to work (aimed shot, snipe, critical power, sharpshooter are the bare minimum). That leaves you plenty of room for smgs and experimenting. Btw, paranoia isn't a trap feat, but you are right in that your high per character won't benefit from it. In general I'd say focus on the offensive feats first, because the ability to dispose enemies quickly is the best defense you can get in Underrail.

As for skills: evasion can be useful if you are new to the game, but you can ignore dodge. A ranged character should never let any melee characters get close (again, offense is the best defense). Crafting can help a lot, but it's not really necessary to craft everything yourself. For a gunner I'd get mechanics, because it lets you craft sniper rifles and smgs (some weapon models are crafting-only and cannot be bought in stores) and electronics to craft goggles & other useful gadgets. Chemistry only enough to craft yourself ammunition. Biology doesn't require a high investment to craft most useful drugs, but initially you won't have access to the ingredients anyway, so you can delay raising it. Tailoring you could skip, not because it's not useful, but because a your character can get by with the armors you can find in the game.

Persuasion is more useful than intimidation, however neither is an important as being good at combat, so make sure you don't sacrifice your offensive skills for diplomacy. Either way you won't be able to discover all content and some quests are a bit complicated, so unless you follow a walkthrough it is easy (diplomacy or not) to screw them up. But that just leaves room for another playthrough.

If however you want to get the most content out of the game in one playthrough, then you need to go full psi (there is a very good guide here on the forums by TheAverageGortsby), because some lore is locked behind psi & will checks.