how can you deal with early game money/killing couple of mobs witout good defence or good material to craft somthing that help your dmg .. ?
i mean like till junkyard how you deal with no lockpick/hack/barly defance and no money..?
Some tips on money management early game:
it's probably obvious, but try to avoid spending on things you don't immediately need, unless you have a somewhat decent effective mercantile skill, like at least 50+. Leveling it up ASAP helps a lot. If some trader offers you a significant discount make them your sole supplier of the wares they offer (like Old Jonas, if you let him have his watch for free). Due to the limited demand sell as many things you don't need as possible before the next restock. Compare the prices to learn which items are cheaper to buy or to craft (for example, it cheaper to buy flashbangs, but craft the other grenades yourself). It might be worth to keep on crafting components of any kind though, since a complete item is usually worth more, than the sum of it's components' price. Save on repair kits by using lower quality weapons in easy fights, recycle cheap equipment and craft your own kits, fix expensive damaged equipment with repair kits before selling it. You should have a practically unlimited supply of Cave Hopper, Rathound, Pig and Siphoner leather early game, if you farm those critters regularly. Instead of selling the leathers in bulk it's best to use them to craft leather armors, which can be sold for better price or recycled into advanced fabric repair kits. Also, there's fishing. It might net you some valuables or high quality crafting components (like 70+Q Steel Plates or Black Cloth early game if you're lucky).
My early game spending priorities list goes as follows:
A Knife (Lucas)
Fishing Rod, Bear Traps, Lockpicks and Haxxor with a couple of e-cells (Old Jonas; if you have a discount always buy all of his Bear Traps whenever he restocks)
Taser blueprint and components (Erza, Katherine; Colton might have one of the components)
Tabi Boots. This piece of equipment is vital for the build, the earlier you get it the better. Look out for it; any quality/material will do, or better yet get the blueprint. Blaine sells the latter, but he's inaccessible early game (hacking 80+ check). I was lucky enough to find Lucas selling the blueprint before I headed for the GMS Compound.
Grenades.
High Q Black Cloth and Soft Foam Padding for armor.
Psi Headband and/or Balaclava
As for combat this build relies on strong CC and single-target DPS. Early game, however, it has limited means of CC, and, as you pointed out, no defense and practically non-existent damage output.
It sure is challenging, but I'm making up for it by taking every bit of advantage I can get. In particular, that involves making use of stealth, terrain and combat utilities. A couple of general early game combat tips:
Recon the area, see if the critters stray away from each other far enough to break line of sight. If they do, and you're patient enough to wait for it you can silently take them out one by one, or at least reduce their numbers before fighting the rest. Works for human groups too, since they often have someone patrolling the perimeter. If your traps skill is low you can use it to your advantage: you can lure human opponents by placing easily detectable traps within their line of sight, which, if spotted, they'll approach in order to disable, providing you with an opportunity to silently take them out one by one.
Make use of chokepoints. Sometimes the terrain allows you to hold off a whole horde or melee enemies with a single Bear Trap. Once it's effect has expired you can retreat behind the next trap you placed beforehand. With careful planning you can make you can make full use of traps, even without Quick Tinkering perk. Alternatively, you can take Quick Tinkering for a significantly easier early game at the expense of some other less useful perk. I find Mind Subversion to be the most expendable perk in my build. Chokepoints can be used against ranged enemies as well, but you'll also need some cover nearby. As for dealing with human groups frag 'nade mk3+ followed by a flashbang seems like the best opener. Use taser if you're having trouble landing a hit. Aside from lone targets it's probably best to avoid fighting human groups at least until you get Crippling Strikes at lvl6.
Combat utilities. Get ready to spend most of your cash early on those. Combat utilities in order or importance early game: Bear Traps>Taser>Molotovs>Flashbangs>Frag and HE nades>flares>nets
Bear Traps. The most cost-efficient and reliable combat utility you get. Particularly useful early game. Aside from it's stated effects it allows you to land your hits efficiently even on highly agile targets. It allows you to reliably farm far superior targets (like warthogs and siphoners) very early.
Taser. Your only means of CC against robots aside from EMPs. A lifesaver early game since since it's cost-efficient and works on anything.
Mollies. Cheap and versatile, great CC, efficient against armored targets. Works wonders paired with Bear Traps: the immobilized targets patiently sit on their backsides as they're being slowly cooked into a crisp.
My build makes use of strong CC and crits, but doesn't fully invest in either, which (maybe) makes it good enough to make it through DOMINATING, but certainly not reliable. There's another psi assassin build on this forum
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=5458.0 that focuses on stable damage output instead, while also taking full advantage of crits. I think it should be more suitable for beginners. And, unlike mine, it's a complete guide. Also, it has a link to a really helpful guide for surviving early game on DOMINATING.
