Titan - MAX CON, throwing build on Dominating

[sheepherder]

This build will force you to forget the feeling of the F9 key under your finger.

Become indomitable. Unbreakable and unmovable. Impervious to damage and impossible to kill. Stand tall amidst a sea of enemies and let those fools shatter themselves against the tungsten monolith that is your body. Watch as foes throw everything they have against you, but achieve nothing. You are both the last to act and the last man standing.

Massive health, healing, heavy armor. The three key components that forge this build into a behemoth of survivability.

Shrug off hails of bullets, ignore crossbow bolts and laugh, as enemies, having exhausted all their ammunition, are forced to attack you with their bare fists.
Out of bolts: https://i.imgur.com/RTUpwfG.jpg
Out of bullets: https://i.imgur.com/lmWNXeH.jpg
Out of batteries: https://i.imgur.com/RFgjDez.jpg

Withstand barrages of melee attacks and be the one to deliver the last blow of the fight, every fight.
Gladiator: https://i.imgur.com/nI5PqhA.jpg
Invictus: https://i.imgur.com/rzMxTY0.jpg

Spit in the face of glass cannon builds and embrace attrition battle as your one and only way of waging war against all you face. This is the way of the MAX CON tank build, on Dominating.

IMMORTAL
With 18 Constitution, Juggernaut and Bodybuilding this build has over 1100 HP. Four-digit HP on Dom. Damn.
You can make plenty of mistakes throughout a battle and still come up on top, due to the massive buffer having this much HP provides. Apart from a very small handful of Though Controller bosses, nothing in the game can OTK this build. Plus 18 CON also buffs Conditioning, but more on that later.
 
INDISSOLUBLE
Have you ever specced into Fast Metabolism? Of course you haven't. And neither have I, at least not before I played this build. When specced it provides a +45% bonus to all healing received, not just from the Hypos. And it's multiplicative with the +25% bonus from the Doctor feat. Neat.
So, let's see what keeps this build going throughout the fight:

• A Regenerative Vest at 160 quality regenerates 53 HP every turn when you end a turn below 70% HP. Regardless of quality, the charge will only be enough for 10 turns. Power Management does not prolong the duration of healing. So, with specced Fast Metabolism it heals 77 HP per turn. That's 770 HP over a course of a fight.
• I love multiplicative bonus stacking, regardless what the multiplied bonuses are. With both Fast Metabolism and Doctor, Advanced Health Hypos now heal for 135 HP and Super Health Hypos for 270 HP.
• Marsh Honey is a cute lil' addition. ~4 HP each turn for 10 turns at the start of combat. Is it worth subjecting yourself to Locust swarms for some Marsh Honey? Well, you don't really have a choice - no stealth and all that. 40 HP total. Enjoy the insects.
• There's also regenerative mixture, but it comes very late. There's one dose you can find pre-DC. ~36 HP per turn, for 6 turns. ~217 HP total.

So, with all the consumables and when under 70% health, this heals 117 HP per turn plus an extra 270 HP every 12 turns.
 
INDOMITABLE
In Combat Stats window, under protection tab, you can check out your Damage Resistance (DR), Damage Threshold (DT) and Damage Reduction (the number in parenthesis listed next to DR/DT) for each damage type. In short:

• DR - comes from armor. Higher is better. Mechanical damage DR is capped at 95%. Which means only 5% of mechanical damage will be dealt.
• DT - comes from armor. Higher is better. Subtracts a flat amount from damage dealt.
• Damage Reduction - comes from feats, consumables and gear. Lower is better. This is a multiplier, so a 30% Damage Reduction means that incoming damage will be reduced to 30%.
• When calculating damage dealt, either DR or DT will be used, depending on which offers more protection. Damage Reduction is applied afterwards.
• There are attacks and abilities which partially bypass or ignore DR and DT. For example, W2C ammo ignores 65% of mechanical DR/DT and Neural Overload ignores Electrical DR/DT completely.
• There aren't any attacks that bypass or ignore Damage Reduction. However, Damage Reduction can be modified by some status effects, such as Leper poison, which directly increases mechanical Damage Reduction, thus increases damage received.

So, let's stack the shit out of DR/DT and Damage Reduction to see how it holds up under fire.
 
IMPREVIOUS
I do not like metal armor. It sucks ass. It inflicts high penalties to Movement Points and Stealth, it's heavy and expensive to make. BUT. It does one thing spectacularly - protect against damage. And with no mobility whatsoever, protection we will need.
The primary set of metal armor consists of:

• A triple reinforced, tungsten metal armor with a Regenerative Vest.
• A tungsten metal helmet with a regular, non-shaded visor for extra protection from critical hits.
• Reinforced tungsten metal boots.

Tungsten metal armor easily nets you 95% DR and by lategame, over 60 DT, against mechanical damage. Being highly resistant to mechanical damage makes survival much easier - it is the most common damage type in the game after all. Tungsten also provides great heat DR (+70%) and okay energy DR (~40%).
 
A secondary set of metal armor should be made from either Tichrome or Super Steel and will be used when fighting robot enemies. Tichrome and Super Steel provide excellent protection against damage types commonly dealt by robots at the cost of lower protection against mechanical damage.
 
INDESTRUCTABLE
Now on Damage Reduction and why it's good. Remember how I said that mechanical DR is capped at 95%? Well, those 5% can hurt quite a lot.

When a Naga Protector is clobbering you for 700 damage per hit, twice a turn, that's 70 damage per turn. And if there's 4 Naga Protectors on your ass, then you're getting pounded for 280 damage per turn. That hurts.
In cases such as these, Damage Reduction saves the day. Mushroom brew, Aegis, Heavy lifting belt and specced Conditioning with 18 CON bring mechanical Damage Reduction down to 42%. Thus 280 damage is down to ~120 damage per turn. Now that is a lot more manageable.

Damage Reduction is also godsent when facing Though Controllers. They have a nasty habit of casting Neural Overload and Bilocation, both of which deal electrical damage and ignore DR/DT. Hurt like hell too, especially Bilocation. To help with that, at level 26, pick up Tempered: Electricity for a 30% Reduction against electrical damage. So, the next time you see a Lunatic cast Bilocation, pop a Morphine - together with Aegis and Tempered: Electricity you'll only receive 5% of Bilocation damage. Hard drugs DO protect against your inner demons.
Here's what it looks in practice: https://i.imgur.com/1OSPO2u.jpg
 
IMPOTENT
This build deals shit damage. With all those stat points, feats and skill points going into defense, there's not much left for offense. Can't use melee or ranged weapons due to appropriate stats being so low. Psi is out of the question too, as it reduces HP by 20%. The only things that are left are Grenades, Caltrops and Mines. Neither scale off stats and skills and require minimal feat investment to be effective.

• Grenades. Throwing only raises the accuracy with which you can throw a grenade. Three-Pointer gives grenades a critical chance and raises it depending on effective throwing, but with 7 (6) DEX it's not gonna be much. It's a testament of how powerful grenades are, when they can carry a build with barely any other means of offense.
• Poisonous Caltrops succeed where grenades do not. Evasion reduces grenade AoE damage by up to 85%, but there's no evading Caltrops or Poison. Thus, they're very effective against Evasive enemies. Plus, even if you remain stationary, enemy AI likes to bob in and out of LoS with their spare MP, accumulating poison stacks and suffering mechanical damage.
• Quick Tinkering is the only reason this build uses mines. Grenades on cooldown? Melee enemies closing in? Set a mine next to yourself and walk over it. I'd call that suicidal, if not for the fact that Mk. V frag mine barely tickles this build through all the armor.

By the way, to wear tungsten metal armor without AP penalties, you need to have an effective strength score of 9. With mushroom brew, this build has 8. But since throwing a grenade costs 15 AP and using a consumable is 10 AP, I'm perfectly fine with that.
 
INEVITABLE
How does having high defenses, massive HP and lots of healing, combined with low damage output plays in practice? Slowly, that's how. Nearly every single combat encounter is a drawn-out battle of attrition, in which you win by out-surviving the enemy.

• Heavy armor and stacked Damage Reduction make every point of HP very valuable. With 95% DR and 43% Damage Reduction, enemies must output over 4600 mechanical damage to deal 100 mechanical damage to your HP. Four thousand six hundred points of damage. Just to deal under 10% of your HP.
• Any healing you receive is similarly valuable. Once Regenerative Vest kicks in, it usually takes enemies several turns to deal the damage you've just healed back. Oh, and remember that 120 damage that the 4 Naga Protectors can deal in a turn? You heal back 77 of that each turn. Effectively, that's just 43 damage a turn.
• There's a panic button too - Morphine. Together with all other bonuses to Damage Reduction, you become totally immune to mechanical damage for 3 turns. That's 230 HP from the Regenerative Vest. Plus, the after-effect of Morphine gets cut in half by Damage Reduction, as it's mechanical damage.
• Poison immunity! And immunity to damage from Hypertoxicity. Irongut, Canned Mushrooms and Aegis provides total immunity to bio damage. Not exclusive to this build, but a nice addition when facing certain enemies. Made the fight with Black Crawler interesting as both of us could barely damage each other
• Of the psionic enemies, only Though Controllers and psi crabs pose any danger. The rest don't deal enough damage.
• Thick Skull protects against stuns.
• -10% chance to get crit.

There's more to say about this build and how it dealt with various combat encounters, it's weaknesses and the obstacles it faced at different stages of the game and how I overcame them, but this post is long enough as it is.
 
To sum it all up - it was a very interesting experience. I mostly play glass cannons and glass cannon derivatives and this build sits at the extreme opposite end of the build spectrum. I haven't brought this build to completion yet. DC is tedious enough, without having to go through it with a slow-ass tank. Maybe one day. Tchort will be interesting.
 
Screenshots:
No videos because most battles are just me standing still and lobbing grenades at enemies. Doesn't make for very exciting viewing.

Magnar status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/CLE97RX.jpg
I'd surround myself with weaker enemies which I'd keep alive to prevent Magnar from coming closer while he died of gas, caltrops and molotovs.
 
Ornstein status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/gQ1XMub.jpg
I don't remember his name. The shaman boss. Gas, caltrops and molotovs. If he lands a double Bilocation, it's game over.
 
Fort Apogee status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/fOyRPEY.jpg
The way to tank this is not to kill the soldiers until the Dreadnaughts are destroyed. The soldiers are quicker and form a traffic jam in the corridor, bodyblocking the Dreads. So, I just let the soldiers fire at me turn after turn after turn, while I threw grenades at Dreadnaughts.
 
4 Naga status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/70qmrH6.jpg
Pain.
 
Beach invasion No. 1 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/RRMCzhr.jpg
Beach invasion No. 2 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/po40h26.jpg
Beach invasion No. 3 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/orb3jcF.jpg
Beach invasion No. 4 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/Mlx1cKI.jpg
Beach invasion No. 5 status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/6lWNSZ0.jpg
Supposedly there are over 60 Natives in the 5-th invasion.
No sec troopers died in any of the invasions. My reward for tanking all the damage for them? This one speech bubble: https://i.imgur.com/esn9lbR.jpg
Fuck Aegis.
 
Black Crawler status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/b2wzizm.jpg
My grenades couldn't damage it as it has very high evasion, so a lot of AoE damage gets resisted and whatever damage I did do was regenerated. However, it can't damage me either - I'm immune to bio damage and outheal his mechanical damage. Molotovs and gas saved the day.
 
Grey Army base status: TANK'D
First area: https://i.imgur.com/xONI85Z.jpg
Second area: https://i.imgur.com/NtbofwX.jpg
The second area was the single longest fight in the game for this build. Holy hell it took a long time.

Every single fight with Burrowers. - https://i.imgur.com/dqdweH7.jpg

Lunatic Mall, first floor status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/rD7dHLb.jpg
Lunatic Mall, second floor status: TANK'D - https://i.imgur.com/OmNx4FN.jpg

The build:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgcHAxADAwcAwqAAAB4AAFhZAEdpbFNTTgAAAAAAAFJQCGMWVT4vDignME4bwoNxwrJz4p2gBeKosArfvw
Don't play this.

[Trashos]

So when you said there is going to be minmaxing, this is not what I had envisioned exactly!
This was the most hilarious one yet. Just picturing the fights in my head was fun.

Has the Aegis availability changed lately? Or is it all trips to the Foundry?

[sheepherder]

Whatever do you mean? It's minmaxing at it's finest! When minmaxing glass-cannons, I minimize defense and maximize offense. With this abomination, I minimized offense and maximized defense 

And yeah, Foundry is still the go to place. The meat merchant sells 5 gizzards per refresh after the Beast is defeated.

[Ploluap]

Aren't neural overload and bilocation bypassing all resistances ?

[sheepherder]

They bypass Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold, but not Damage Reduction, or Modifier or whatever it's called. It's the number in the parenthesis which can be found in the Combat Stats window, Defenses tab next to DR/DT of each damage type.

[Ploluap]

oh ok, so much i didn't know, i'm very impressed you did great with this post and other builds you posted.

Do you plan on trying a spear or sword build someday ?

[sheepherder]

I've already played a build for each. But I don't think I'll be making a post about either of them, they weren't very interesting builds. Spear was a SI+TM build, while sword was a DEX crit build with TM. I recently tried a max STR sword with no crits at all, but didn't finish it.

[Ederson]

Interesting concept, imagine can be adapted to a sledgehammer/spear build.

I guess intimidation and the yell feat can also fit into it. Already have high strength anyway and reducing enemy attack is a certain way to increase defence.

I dont know how you fight ONLY with grenades, mines and calltrops. Though they are strong, they are expensive, I can only imagine having to spend a grenade every time crossing by a critter.

[sheepherder]

Yell would have been quite good here. I don't remember why I didn't pick it.

And yeah, my heart ached every time I had to waste nades on random critters I encountered on my way. Or worse, when I had to waste toxic gas nades on crabs and whatnot.

[MrSean]

The max con build plays so much better with spears.

Here's my take on it: Go 9 str, 5 int. Take expose weakness. This combined with crits from spears helps you take down things so fast - and you don't die of boredom in the process compared to just having throwing skills. Unfortunately, it took almost 24 levels before i could finally muster the resources to build a high end armor set with 95% resist. Before that, a lot of the gameplay revolved around quick tinker and trapping the entire fields with mines/beartraps before fights began.

https://underrail.info/build/?HgkHAxADAwUAwqAAwqAeAABQPAApwofCgkBTbgAAAAAAAGEIYw5OMBYGwpRLElU-wpVQwrJx4p2gBeKfhAHio7AC4qiwB9-_