Author Topic: New player looking for crossbow builds  (Read 3927 times)

Pig in a pumpkin

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New player looking for crossbow builds
« on: August 04, 2021, 03:10:21 am »
I am a new player who has watched a playthrough and wants to try the game
I was told that you should find builds to play and want to try a crossbow build preferably with throwing if that is possible because plasma grenades seem cool
Obviously I don't know much about the game so feel free to just show me builds

Valor

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Re: New player looking for crossbow builds
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2021, 09:58:49 am »
Throwing and crossbow do not match well together as you will lack quickslots for both. As special bolts and grenades utilize them both (and you will have only few, 3-4).

Focus on stealth, traps and crossbows. Max preception, have decent agi and dex and int.
You can add one psi school for flavour. I suggest TM for more utility or PK for more crowdcontrol.
For feats the staples are Strafe, Quick tinkering, Special tactics, Ambush, Deadly snares, elemental bolts, Critical power, Bowyer.

RewRatt

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Re: New player looking for crossbow builds
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2021, 03:24:56 pm »
A Crossbow trapper:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHBwMQAwcAS8KgAB4Awoo8NUBLZGQkNCgAAABGAABKfzkiMALCgE7Co2pLTC8nJsK1YeKjsALio7ED4qe-Ct-_
Move some feats around to your liking. Play with poisons if you like.

- Focus is on getting highest Elemental Bolts Crits.
- Versatility for some Amplified Laser Pistol action or Chem Pistol or something else, vs high armor or where you cant Acid Bolt/Shock Bolt crit (beast fight).

Left a ton of Skill Points and a free Feat slot to play around with. But I've played this build in the past and it is really strong. You can find a Bolt Quiver at Blaine's, Old Jonas' (after Depot A, when he's in Cantina) and other trader inventories randomly or just in a random box.
Before Deadly Snares, most reliable way to kill is with Ambush crits, so position yourself in dark corners and throw Flares or Molotovs. Once you get Elemental Bolts and Crit Power you will 1 shot most enemies. As for Arena, it has a ton of dark corners, but in reality you just have to step back 2-3 tiles from starting position and you already can Ambush enemies 😁

DieGo

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Re: New player looking for crossbow builds
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2021, 02:25:40 am »
I have this build lying around for my next playthrough: https://underrail.info/build/?HgMHBQMQAwkAAMKgAAAAwqBMSWBiUWooT2AAAABGNwBRASYiYTA1K8KHwohMasKASzPChcK1azjio7EF4qe-Ct-_
I'm optimizing for oddity so I'm really trying to avoid combat as much as possible. That being said, when faced with violence the best plan for this build is using crowd control to tell them to hold their horses and getting extra damage from doing so (and also, some oddities are only obtained by killing critters/robots).

Base Abilities:
DEX 7 for quick tinkering
AGI 5 for Quick Tinkering
PER Max.
INT 7 for Bowyer
I put the two remaining points in INT as well to boost related skills. If you don't want to play oddity, you could put those 2 ability points in CON, AGI, or maybe WIL, and take the missing skill points from persuasion and pickpocketing, the latter being more important.

Feats:
Opportunist, Sure Step, Deadly Snares, and Quick Tinkering all go together really well. The idea is to get the most out of bear traps, acid blob traps, EMP mines, caltrops, and many other stuns/slows. Marksman and Special Tactics help with special bolts; Bowyer, Critical Power, and Sharpshooter help with crit damage (from Aimed Shot and Deadly Snares). Elemental Bolts because more damage is always good (and, in harder difficulties, non-negotiable).
I threw in Snipe and Blindsiding because they're always useful and powerful.
Psycho-temporal Acceleration and Future Orientation allows you to cast psycho-temporal contraction again as soon as it runs out (by spamming limited temporal increment) with the added benefit of perpetually reducing cooldowns and buffing psycho-temporal dilation (the one that slows).
I threw in Concussive Shots because I didn't really know what else to put and more slows are always welcome. Kneecap shot is a valid alternative. Having multiple sources of slow is amazing because you can get many high-priority targets or just stack everything on one dude and ruin his day like that.
Left out ambush because traps kind of made it redundant, both in terms of crits and evasion. I would've like to put in Strafe but I feel like you to keep your character in focus anyway for sharpshooter.

Optionally, you could drop Bowyer, Blindsiding and maybe Conscussive Shots/Sharpshooter in favor of Versatility, Cooked Shot and maybe Mad Chemist In order to use an Acid Pistol. But that would require dropping the low AP crossbow, and putting 35 points in guns. I never really used Chem Pistols so isk how it would play out.

Skills:
Maxed crossbow. No throwing because traps and bolts fill a similar role.
Enough stealth, hacking, lockpicking and pickpocketing to get everywhere and everything.
Crafting has enough points to make anything this character could ever need (albeit sometimes needing the crafting table buff and hypercerebrix - but realistically it's not feasible to get materials with such high quality that you would need those).
70 TM to get that combo I mentioned before, use every TM ability.
Enough mercantile to get every merchant's hidden stash and enough persuasion to avoid most instances of combat where that is an option.
A few select hacking and mercantile skill checks will need a hypercerebrix as well. Couldn't budget enough skill points to make tier V explosives in any capacity, but with mines that just means placing more of them to make a bigger chain reaction.

Gear:
-Night Vision Goggles (preferably adaptative, I think smart could help with Snipe damage but that's very circumstantial)
-Tactical Vest/Leather Armor
-Bolt Quiver
-Tabi for stealth
-Jawbone - before rathound king a Zephyr with super string and anatomically aware scope would be ideal.
-Cyclone with pneumatic reloader and anatomically aware scope.
-Jackknife in inventory
-Any electrical device you can think of.
-Hacking/Lockpicking tools.

CloudWalk

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Re: New player looking for crossbow builds
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2021, 12:43:44 pm »
Hi! I'm currently on my 2nd playthrough, on hard with classic xp.
I'm trying a crossbow / traps / stealth / throwing / chemical (acid) pistol - versatility build. I'm at level 15 atm, so far I'm having a great time.
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMIBwMOAwgjRsKgAAAAwqBLSwBLZGRkZAAAAABGAABWJzkiFmHCo8KRMExqLyYrSwLCgMK1wqTfvw
I mixed some earlier builds I found here & on steam, it's not perfect, not super optimized yet, but I really like it so far.
 
You have MANY options with this, spec bolts, caltrops(poisoned), traps & mines, grenades, chemical (acid) pistol.
You can craft almost everything except armors, including weapons, poisons, medicine, explosives, electronic gear etc. You can use some temporal manipulation abilities to overcome tougher situations if needed.
Gameplay: I don't know if it's the best for the first playthrough, because you have only 3 constitution, and you really don't want to get hit, but you may try.
How to play this: ALWAYS explore with stealth, if you find enemies > lay bear traps, mines between you and them (maybe caltrops too)  > Then start combat (always TURN ON shields) > use what's the most fun or most effective:) grenades, acid pistol , bolts
Most important feats:  cooked shot (area of effect with acid pistol) and deadly snares (you always crit trapped enemies)
Why is it good ? On Hard, there are so many options you can choose from to neutralize enemies, it adds a lot of variety to the game.
Also, hack + lockpick friendly so you can open / hack basically everything, and leave nothing closed. Furthermore, for hopeless OCD item hoarders (like me) it has pack rathound feat from lvl1, and also some mercantile skill to sell the stuff and make money.

There are quite a lot of variants of this build, it's my take on it so far.