Tired of walking all over Underrail in search of that very specific crafting component to update your build's weapon of choice only to find out none of the merchants has it at a decent quality?
Tired of praying for the RNG for a crit and having to plead further with F9 every time it doesn't happen because without crits your build is kaput?
Do you want to have a vastly more predictable damage output?
Critical hits begone!
Current Iteration:
https://underrail.info/build/?Hg4JCAMDAwYANQDCoCjCoHhNPgAdK2cAAG8AwqAASAAAWmFPK2kgEkFOBxMqwqgdwocaw47ChcKpwrZswq4k4p2XBeKsqgXitqAF378Original Prototype:
https://underrail.info/build/?Hg4ICAMDBwMASwDCoMKgAMKgcEQAACQAAAB9AMKgAGsAAHUkOU8rIMKoQWlOGhQNB8OOwoVSQ8KpwrZ8bMKu4p2XBOKopgXirKoG378Second Prototype:
https://underrail.info/build/?Hg4ICAMDBwMASwDCoCgAwqBwRAAAJHgAAH0AwqAAawAAdWFPK2kgE8KoFE5BwocaDSYHw47ChcKpwrZswq4k4p2XBOKopgXirKoG378Third Prototype:
https://underrail.info/build/?Hg4JCAMDAwYARwDCoCgAwqBWPgAdK2cAAHQAwqAAwqAAAFphTytpICrCqBITQcKHGg0dB8OOwoXCqcK2bMKuJOKdlwTiqKYF4qyqBt-_In short this is about getting as much damage from Expertise as possible and a high enough damage that the lack of crits will barely be noticed, as expected from a build that will never, ever have a critical hit outside of psionics once it finds the item it was designed around. After some thought I concluded an unarmed STR psi monk is possibly the best choice for this. Most ranged weapons either have a myriad of special attacks that benefit from smart goggles which make the Unprojector undesirable or are all about the crits, and no weapon can both hit so fast and rack so much damage bonus from STR as unarmed. However, this one makes a big compromise to deliver the high tier, expertise-enhanced damage: 3 WIL, but it still hits hard with psionics thanks to (almost) fully specialized corporeal projection. Add to that being a 3 CON glass TK cannon that is supposed to stunlock or beat down everything up before being endangered to boot because I took the risk of betting on Uncanny Dodge instead of 5 CON, yet this has the speed to deliver a devastating alpha strike and enough stealth and/or initiative to not be gimped in combat by not having the first moves.
9 DEX for Lightning Punches giving 5 AP punches with tabi, yet going with STR as primary combat stat are the results. Starts with 9 STR, 9 DEX and 5 INT. Raises STR always except at level 16 where it is INT instead for Premeditation. Possibly this has the highest effective carry capacity of any build out there because it will use light armor and not require ammo at all outside of combat utilities. It forsakes chemistry and biology, only raises mechanics enough to use super steel fiber for the infused leathers, a bit into traps to compensate 3 PER and not have to replace the Unprojector with motion seeking goggles just for trap detection. The only gear that will ever be crafted will be energy shields, tabis and eventually infused leather armor. PK and unarmed will win the day and TM will give even more power to expertise 5 AP punches.
GearVery simple. The Unprojector, of course the core of this build, all the time as soon as it is found. Armor penalty must remain below 20% for lightning punches. Light tactical vests may be chosen but crafting them is likely impractical with how little SP will be put into mechanics, so in general leather armor will be the first choice, and which leather is better is a good question.
Belt is utility. One more combat utility is handier here than anything else.
For armor infused greater siphoner leather armor is a definite choice. Combined with insulated foam padding it has resistance to a lot of different damage types and a major bonus to dodge and evasion, the latter is mostly pointless but the former improves Uncanny Dodge. Here there won't be any sacrifice of tailoring when distributing skill points until the desired breakpoint that should suffice for some very good leather armors with the bonus of the leatherworking workbench. Infused rathound leather obviously is pointless in here, but either ancient rathound leather or one of those encumbering serpent leathers may actually serve a purpose to make this a bit more resilient in the endgame once the very late choice of Nimble is in to ensure armor penalty will be below 20% with heavier leathers because there is nothing that much better than such feat at that point. One or two batches of 3 super steel plates each should be enough for all crafting needs unless the RNG decides to really hate me.
Tabis will be infused greater siphoner for the dodge bonus too.
Then add nets, a taser or caltrops, flashbangs and damage-dealing grenades. No need to pray there will be x available at the next mechanics or electronics shop because you got fists of steel. You will barely need repair kits too as a bonus.
Possible alternatives1 ) Go back to 7 WIL, 8 DEX and 3 INT, Escape Artist and Force User instead of Premed and Expose Weakness. Base game is very hard for unarmed without EW while in Expedition, it's like this: I saw a psicrab the other day. Horrible creatures, I avoid them whenever I can. Considering psi crabs are pretty much immune to electricity Electrokinesis won't help either.
2 ) Ditch evasion for more into throwing and temporal manipulation. Does missing slightly a grenade or contraction reverting result in death more often than explosions and long range special attacks by crossbowmen and snipers? Not in my experience.
3 ) Sacrifice AGI for 7 CON to get stoicism + conditioning instead of Uncanny Dodge. I wouldn't do it because while there are some tricks to have decent MP with even a 3 AGI build, I wouldn't gimp a melee-oriented build that way.
4 ) Reduce AGI to 6, forsake Uncanny Dodge, replace Fancy Footwork with Sprint and start with 10 STR. For a nimble can defense setup this would be OK, but without armor sloping only very late it would be possible to have any significant defense without losing Lightning Punches and Nimble can defensive setups are much better with 10 CON. Besides, trading mobility for more damage is a very risky bid for a 3 CON melee build.
5 ) Replace Interloper with Opportunist: At level 20 this build is already very powerful. A QoL feat is preferable to just going all in with minmax at this point.
General Questions and AnswersQ: Where is the Unprojector?
A: It spawns in one and possibly only one of the game stores, randomly it seems. While playing a nimble can AR build it spawned in Foundry's General Store. In another game it spawned in Dirty Tom's store located in former Black Crawler's lair now run by Gorsky. Maybe whenever all trader inventories are refreshed in game, it spawns in only one of the available stores and won't show up again once you buy it as if it were an unique item, or once spawned in one of the stores it will never despawn and stay in the store where it first spawned forever. I'm not sure.
Q: Was this tried in-game?
A: Nope. 100% theorycrafting as of the moment of the OP but it should work. Will try it eventually on Dominating, because it is likely less difficult than an all-schools pure psi (hemo)psychosis Survival Instincts build.
Q: Is this build useless without the Unprojector?
A: Useless is not the correct word to describe a build that is designed to not need critical hits to get things done. Of course the meager crit damage bonus of unarmed makes having the unprojector together with expertise arguably better than having a crit chance at all.
Q: Is the Unprojector a meme item?
A: I'd call it poor man's smart goggles for 4 AP attack expertise melee builds wearing light armor which boosts damage for all attacks and disables crits. I suppose that it also could be of use with an AR build that goes with nothing but a pair of Hornets, full auto, muzzle brake and concentrated firing or for a SMG with <=8 AP bursts and expertise since smart goggles no longer buff bursts. Or with a meme 5mm silenced Neo Luger pistol build that has very predictable damage output as its only strength, but then maybe it automatically becomes one by the nature of such build.
PS: Previous time I checked this one still lacked a wiki article which is why I attached a snippet screenshot of the item in question this build was designed around.
