Cyclops "Plasma Blaster" Metathermics Build- 6 Beams in One Turn

[ShoggothWhisperer]

Intro

In the most recent update, we have been graced with a new unique headband: The Cyclop's Eye. While others were dissuaded by it's major drawback, I was inspired, and created this build:

https://underrail.info/build/?HgMDCgUDEAYAagAAAADCoGh8AABfXw9YXwAAwqAAMgBwKzkkPz0qZEfCvB3CvmZGKC9ywrfCuOKmhgrip5cB4rmoBN-_

Plasma Beam isn't affected by any MT feats, so a lot of the feats listed here are purely quality of life feats, and can be easily swapped out or changed depending on your preferences. The rest of this guide will go into how the build functions and the required gear necessary, but before I do that I need to list some important disclaimers:
1. Cyclop's eye sucks to obtain-The Eye seems to have a small chance to replace regular goggles in any merchant's inventory, and once it has spawned it will not disappear until bought. The best merchants to check are Constantine and Olivia in the Institute of Tchort, but I've heard rumors of it spawning elsewhere. To give some context to how rare it is to spawn, it took me an hour of abusing cheat engine merchant refresh on Constantine for me to obtain it.
2. This build takes off fairly late-You need to be a minimum of Level 16 to even learn Plasma Beam, but the earliest you can get the mentor is after the cube is stolen, when the utility station 6 dungeon opens up (unless you torture yourself by going to the grand archives early).
3. This build cannot deal with Nagas- Most Lemurian robots take 2-3 plasma beams to kill even at high levels, but Nagas are a different story. Lemurian Nagas have 80% energy resist and 95% heat resistance, so you will be doing very little damage to them. You can use an energy pistol with a polarizer to reduce their energy resistance, but this is only really practical against a single Naga. Doing the quad Nagas at the Grand Archives is nearly impossible.
4. Plasma Beam cannot target locust hives- If you try to shoot a hive, your character will just run around it. This may also apply to the mutagen tanks, but I haven't tested it yet. Keep this in mind when going through the fetid marsh.

The Setup

All of this can be obtained by Level 16, so you will have 60% psi cost reduction for 28 psi cost Plasma Beams.

• Tac Vest with Psi Beetle Carapace Armor Plate
• Psi Beetle Brain Soup
• Cyclops Eye
• Psycho-Neural Optimization

I also use the regular Somibaren Staff-Spear for extra psi points, regen, and crit chance. At max level you can reach 80% reduction with advanced psi empathy, and 84% reduction with specialization points. Firing off 6 plasma beams in a turn is fairly straightforward once you have enough psi cost. We fully spec tranquility to get 18 ap plasma beams, and we use adrenaline and blitz with a spec point to get 92 ap, enough for 5 beams and a psi booster. Premed gets us the 6th beam, and on the following turns we can get 3 beams, 4 if you use vit powder instead of adrenaline, at the cost of losing the tranquility bonus when it wears off. At level 26, I was dealing 440-840 damage per beam, more than enough to kill most enemies in a single blast at optimal range. Once you reach level 25 this build can tear through any non-energy resistant enemies, but before then it can struggle if it loses tranquility. This is a super fun build to use if you want to have fun with the plasma beam ability.

[seriousfon]

I got a question.
Can the Plasma Beam Crit?
e.g will it work on Psionic Mania?

[KnifegaF]

I got a question.
Can the Plasma Beam Crit?
e.g will it work on Psionic Mania?

yes

[seriousfon]

Cool. Thank

[ShoggothWhisperer]

As of the latest update this build got a huge buff, as you now get an additional 40% damage, 10% crit chance, and 5% psi cost reduction from the buffed Cyclops Eye. You can also fire off 7 beams in one turn using the new ap save mechanic, vit powder and at least 1 point of blitz specialization. I now recommend putting 2 spec points from Psycho-Neural Optimization into Blitz, to buff with focus stim and doctors belt before blasting. You can also potentially replace the staff spear with Hoddurform late game, as it now was buffed to give +30% crit damage and + 5% crit chance, bringing total plasma beam crit chance up to 40% when combined with Cyclops Eye and focus stim, with the downside of 15% increased psi cost. You can also now use Motion to increase psi points by 30 and psi regen by 5, meeting the 150 bio crafting requirement by shifting some skill points from stealth into bio. The build was already very solid pre buff, and you now have one of the highest damage builds possible in Underrail.

[Vibos]

Good build! Also, you can up your TM skill to 160, and switch between Plasma beam and temporal distortion. It will help a lot with nagas and hives.

[ShoggothWhisperer]

It’s a bit pointless to level a skill to 160 just to fight 2 types of enemies in expedition. In my play through, I just stealthed past every locust hive, or used tnt to destroy them. You could also take off the cyclops eye and use other MT abilities to deal with hives. Against nagas, the build was barely able to kill 1 using emp grenades and spamming plasma beam pre buff, so post buff the only nagas you’ll struggle with are the nagas guarding the grand archives.

[Mitchell]

To blast hives you just need to aim a square past the hive itself.

[Kiruha]

This build like a hidden gem - the strongest glass cannon build what I have ever played!

I slighltly altered stas and feats (decided to go with 8 int and 3 con,  take 7 base int if you want Philosophy 3). Decided to side with JKK - Hypno Googles + Tactical Jacket give you +45 persuasin, you can have 110 effective persuasion (will 18) with just 12 hard points in it! Persuasion is a gimmick, but with 18 will why not take advantage of it! Also initiative bonus from jacket was useful in Arena fights.

Also took Locus of Control (75 Though Control - Just for that feat) - it saved me some times.

You can get Plasma Beam Mentor and Cyclop googles from Constantine (Effective Mercantile 95 for mentors in stock), right from level 16.

Also leveled up traps a bit - it helped in the begiining of the game, also emp mines mk III helped me to deal with some difficult fights with robots, especially Nagas. Nice to detect all traps without motion tracking googles too.

Never really used Empowered Metathermics, because most difficult  fights were prolonged, not cool to burn all your psi points for 1 turn. Maybe other veteran feat (Mantra) will be more useful.

[Richter]

Excellent build that seems really fun.

Here is my UNTESTED planned variation: Custom version w/ Dodge, Evasion and EMP MK III mines for early Archives.

Build: 1 point from WILL to CON to take Fast Metabolism at level 1, 4 or 16 depending on when you want to take Fast Metabolism, Lockpicking and Hacking ditched because of Low DEX and INT  (Edit: decided to keep enough for Depot A and vents) Persuasion ditched because I don't like it, instead I'll pump Intimidation, Dodge, Evasion* and I plan to wear Infused Siphoners leather armor and tabis (hence I can ditch most Mechanics as well, we won't use Tactical Vest past the early levels, if ever, because I don't like it, but DO NOTE THAT YOU MISS 10% PSI REDUCTION), I've pumped Biology to be able to craft Regenerative Mixture with the Bioinvestigative Belt and Motion with Hypercerebrix, Bioinvestigative Belt, house workbench and Underpie. I have enough Mercantile to pass Constantine's check with Hypercerebrix and Underpie. Nagas are dealt with thanks to traps and EMP mines MKIII (90 effective skill required, reached with Jacknife and Trapper's Belt with 83 points invested in Traps and 19 in Mechanics as soon as level 15) ;

Road: Newton's quest (use bear traps and molotovs) -> GMS (stealth through the second level, use Intimidation for the Raiders during dialogues in the third to avoid fighting them) -> Black Eels (thanks to Stealth) -> Abram's quests (thanks to Stealth mostly) Depot A (traps skill make it easier, use Bear traps and Molotovs, EMP to get the card guarded by Plasma Turrets) -> Beast quest** (Bear Traps, Mines and Gas Grenade) -> Jack Quicksilver's quests and Expedition -> Stealing a Patroller thanks to TNT in order to join the pirates -> easy Archives w/ EMP mines MK II/III to obtain Hypercerebix and Plasma Beam mentor -> Unlock last store of Constantine w/ 95 effective Mercantile to get the Cyclop's Eye (you might want to use Cheat Engine for the refresh obviously, I hope there will be a static location someday).


I think reaching level 15-16 is easy with Oddity system, high Stealth, the Black Sea unlocked and various sidequests where fighting is optionnal, I'll tell you after some testing. I'll liberally abuse Caltrops and Gas Grenades (you can craft them from level 9 on w/ 50 Biology 11 Chemistry points investement) and Stealth and Traps if needed.

* Do note that you won't obtain and use Precognition, so I don't know how will it fare in this area: that is why I put UNTESTED in capitals. Still Uncanny Dodge is good on its own and evasion helps against explosions. Not getting hit in order to not lose Tranquility is important and that's also the reason why I think Sure Step is a good addition.

** If you have Persuasion or have a female character, you can complete Jack Quicksilver's quest in Foundry without slaying the Beast therefore you just need a way to get a jetski and join the pirates, there are many possibilties to do so aside the Beast quest for you to chose.

Last remark: Do note that you can cast 5 Plasma Beams in one turn with Psychosis builds as well. With lesser base damage, higher critical multiplier and 99% critical rate for 2 to 3 of them, one guaranteed critical and 64% critical rate for the remainder. But it's very late game and assumably less easy to set up.

In progress: I'm currently starting this build slightly revised to get to level 16 ASAP.

[Kiruha]

** If you have Persuasion or have a female character, you can complete Jack Quicksilver's quest in Foundry without slaying the Beast therefore you just need a way to get a jetski and join the pirates, there are many possibilties to do so aside the Beast quest for you to chose.

You can complete it without persuasion too - you can get to the right person by picklocking one door and using ventilation shaft. Just need some lockpicking skill and no stealth at all (but watch for camera).

If you really need that one Hyberbrexis pill early, you can try to get one from Formedicator (you will need some traps and  grenades to deal with crawlers).

[just-a-random]

Just finished the game with this build, you can kill the 4 nagas without investing in traps, just go to the glass room, if you can turn on the turrets to deal a bit of extra damage, then throw an explosive close to the entrance, and EMP MK3 them. from then on deal damage, go to the oposite end of the room behind a pillar, take potshots until they are close, and sprint towards the oposite pillar for cover, then, depending on if the mk3 are out of cooldown, either atack them or run towards the ruined room with the shelf, then repeat until it's done. plasma granades help for low psi moments. 
Other than that and the 2 last fights of Deep Caverns everything gets melted in 1 or 2 turns, great build.