A mechanical immune sledge build (AKA The immortal drunkard)

[Koveras]

This is more an experiment on mechanical damage reduction than a proper build, but since it was quite fun to play I decided to post it here. Before anything else: yes, there are better sledge builds, that is not the point.

So, mechanical damage reduction is not capped and can go to 100%, making the character immune. It is easily achievable with morphine shot, but the effect only lasts 2 turns and cannot be refreshed indefinitely. Luckily it is also possible to get to 100% without morphine:
- Lifting belt : 5%
- Ancient Rathound leather armor and tabis : 10%
- Conditioning : 24% (10% base, 9% from 14 CON, 5% from specialization)
- Stoicism : 36% (24% at 4% HP, 12% from specialization)
- Aegis : 15%
- Mushroom Brew : 10%
Permanent invulnerability to mechanical damage since Aegis does not have a cooldown. Yay!

Overview:
Build link: https://underrail.info/build/?HgwDAw4DBwQAwosAwqAAAABSVwBSY8KIM13CgwAAAAAAZHgIXy0NJmIxDksfVFBEKHrCtnDCreKdoAXiqZgF4quGBd-_
Equipment: Rathound Leather armor / tabis, Lifting belt, Praetorian Lawgiver (helmet), TiChrome sledgehammer.

I chose to play sledge because it works well with minimal investment, Mushroom Brew makes it hard to build for anything else than STR based weapons, and I have to wear a lifting belt anyway. AR would also work though, and maybe even be better, because... well... AR are stronk. But I thought swinging a hammer was the right choice for a drunk guy yelling and running around with 10 HP. Gotta be stylish.

Pros:
- death stalkers cannot do shit against that build
- morphine shot is a 2 turns invulnerability with no drawback (the damage at the end is mechanical)
- very decent damage
- lots of HP

Cons:
- no mobility
- no stealth
- no range
- does not fully work before level 25 (lol)

The build is strong early on, but then slowly gets weaker. Things are really bad around level 16. From level 20 it get better though, and in the late game the build performs rather well. Yeah, not a particularly powerful build, but a nice weird one. I had to find new tactics against some enemies which is always fun. For example Naga Protectors stop shooting you when they are close and use their melee attack instead. So, when fighting several at once, I just had to play with LoS to get them all packed around me, then I can just sit there and tank thousands of mechanical damage while slowly hammering them down.



If it is stupid but it works...

notes on the 1.1.2 update:
The build was played entirely in the previous version. After quick testing, the CP nerf is not that bad. If Kzozel Yantar is easily available (i.e. can be bought in large quantities), then a stronger version of the build is possible.

[trashplayer]

Well done on outsmarting Styg: metal armor used to be able to do this, many moons ago.
This build doesn't actually stack mechanical damage resistance, which is capped at 95%, but damage modifier.
I am honestly surprised that damage modifiers stack additively and do not discriminate between general and specific type.
That means it is possible to be immune to bio, cold and fire at the same time.

Brace for the nerf hammer. 

[Koveras]

Yup, it's not "resistance", that's why I used the word "reduction" Actually I started this build after reading for the thousandth time that conditioning was not useful. A common misconception, probably because damage reduction has increasing returns, so it only shines with heavy investment.

Unless I'm missing something it is not possible to be heat/cold immune though. Well it is possible, but not while being simultaneously immune to mechanical, and I don't see a situation where I would trade mechanical immunity for heat or cold. But bio is indeed easy to get, and extremely useful.

And a nerf... the build is not nearly strong enough to call for a nerf. The opportunity cost of building the immunity is super high, so I think there is no balance issue here. And the fact that Styg reduced the damage modifier on the belt from 10% to 5% makes me think he thought about that already.

[trashplayer]

According to the wiki, Tempered: X feats are actually damage modifiers, too.
immunity to fire is bestowed by Exothermic Aura, bio by Bullhead, cold by Tempered: Cold.

[Koveras]

Oh yes, fair point, it is indeed possible. But exothermic aura only lasts 4 turns, and it is not really possible to use psi while under the effects of Mushroom Brew (negative regen drains psi). Plus, the build is already near immune to fire. At 4% life, even if I am not fully immune to fire damage, I can survive a 400 damage fireball.

And frost damage is so rare that picking tempered frost feels terrible, any other Tempered feat is better imo. In my build I picked Tempered Acid at level 30, as a convenience against deep worms and cuttlesnails. It worked nicely, pushing acid damage reduction to about 75% @ 25% life (95% mechanical reduction and 175 HP).

[harperfan7]

I would get tempered electricity, were it me, since it works on neural overload and dopplegangers, in addition to emps and jerk spiders.  I can't think of any situation where you go up against acid enemies without knowing ahead of time, except some unlucky map entrances with sea wyrms and maybe the CAU as a free drone, so you can just switch to your sea wyrm gear.  You dont need to worry about heat or cold damage, imo, since your shield and insulated antithermic infused ancient rat gear and conditioning all protect you from it.  Not 100% but still. 

[Koveras]

I kind of agree on Tempered Electricity, but I play on odditiy, so I only got to pick the talent in DC. At this point the only place left with lots of electricity damage was Caerus, and since I took the Tesla armor with me it was not an issue at all. So I just picked Tempered Acid because a few ennemies use acid attacks in DC. The extra resistance spared me from having to swap armors.

So yes, if anyone plays this on classic and gets to 30 earlier, Tempered Electricity might be a better choice.

Also, I did not have a Sea Wyrm set. I used CAU/biohazard boots for hell the fetid marsh.

[harperfan7]

Sea wyrm gets you 100% acid resist with some pretty decent mech dt/dr as well, no str requirement.  The problem with the (very optional) marsh is you have locusts shooting 25 mech/30 bio damage projectiles with sea wyrms shooting very high damage acid projectiles and heartbreakers shooting high damage bio projectiles.  So you want some "good" mech dt, acid immunity, and bio immunity.  The easiest way to do that is infused sea wyrm armor + tabis and irongut/aegis/canned mushrooms or the new serpent belt, and a good tungsten helmet. 

[Koveras]

Oh I know how awesome Sea wyrm leather is, I picked the CAU combination for the marsh so I did not have to use ironguts all the time (my build is using a lot of aegis, I was a little starved on gizzard enzymes, even with Katya's help). The only problem is that the CAU armor has mechanical durability, it gets destroyed quite fast by the wyrms. But hey, I had a billion repair kits and carry weight is not a major problem on this characer.

Anyway, surviving the marsh is easy, the problem was killing the ennemies. I had to clear most of the place with the Ethereal Torch...

[harperfan7]

Yep, I mainly use the torch too.

[Loyso]

Looks awesome! Tell me though, is this build still as good as it looks or some patches destroyed it? And why Praetorian Lawgiver as a helmet choice? And is it possible to swap around some stats and go AR instead of hammer?

[Valor]

Build viability - you can no longer be immune to mechanical damage. Caps at 95%. Its still fine, but some adjustments might be needed.

Lawgiver is there for better Yell imho?

Anything works with AR, but there are plenty builds for AR so you can pick whichever you like, even simple tincan AR is great (most likely strongest and consistent overall build in the game)