Help with chemical pistol build

[just-a-random]

I intend to play a chemical pistol build but i have a few doubts about how chem pistols work
1 does the damage scale with guns or chemistry?
2 do all pistol feats afect chem pistols?
3 which are the most important feats?
4 should i focus on critical damage?
5 after acid which kind of damage is most efective?

[Ploluap]

Damage scales with guns.

Chemistry only helps for crafting more powerful chemical pistols.

Chemical pistols are "pistols" but are not firearms, so be careful that some feats which only work with "firearms" pistols like rapid fire won't work with chemical pistols (it's always specified in the descritption of the feat).

Cooked shot is the most important feat for chem pistol build.

Mad chemist is important if you intend to craft your pistols (which you should probably unless you plan on using only a specific pistol).

You won't be able to achieve super high "critical damage" stat with chemical pistol (their base critical damage is 100% so "critical power" is not really useful unless you also have sharpshooter but it's very situational), but getting higher critical chance with feats and gear will get you a significant damage boot.

Fire is super effective against a lot of targets (that is those who are note immune to burning), it causes fear.

[just-a-random]

i forgot to add it, but what stat distribution should i aim for? i get that DEX should go to 16 at the end but what about PER and INT?

[Ploluap]

Int 7 for mad chemist.

Per can be low if you use versatility and max melee. Without versatility i'd say maybe 7 or 8 per minimum, it's up to you, look  for chem pistol builds on the forum if you want to follow a precise build.

[Bruno]

I played chemgun before, and again now.
My stats are S3 D8 A6 C3 P10 W3 I7

7int for Mad Chemist
6agi for Sprint and stealth that is useful
10per to actually hit anything, and detect stealthed enemies
Rest in dex

Level ups into per and dex


Also, perhaps thos can help,
I am lazy, so I copy a post I made a while back:

Just a few pointers, as I just played a stealth/chemguns character.

-If you either have perception=8 or Versatility, you will have mediocre hit chance. You can have 95% cth against slow bricks or enemies up close, but against enemies at range, or e.g. Dogs, prepare for 60% hit chance. Cooked Shot can help as it is AOE, so does not care about target evasion.

-Max range of a chemgun is 7. You will need to get rather close to enemies. Prepare accordingly

-With melee Versatility, you will have to max melee to get any use of your chemgun, and have very high dex. At this point, when you need to be pretty close to enemies as well to hit them, you dont really need the chemgun, melee is better. So for me that kind of deafeat the point of the build. I would personally not do this, but that is personal preference. It is just a different build.

-Freezing enemies with a cryogun removes vision, so you can restealth and end combat. Occationally useful.

-Cooked Shot is awesome, take it at first opportunity.
EDIT: Cooked Shot at close range, like grenades, can have unforseen side effects. In my run, I managed to freeze myself, entangle myself in acid, and set myself on fire. Multiple times. Prepare accordingly.

-I used Quick Tinkering a lot. It works great with stealth. You craft heavy explosives with high chemistry, and blow enemies up, and set bear traps so you trap and actually hit evasive enemies, instead of missing 4/4 shots. Lifesaver #1 in the Arena.

[just-a-random]

10per to actually hit anything, and detect stealthed enemies

-If you either have perception=8 or Versatility, you will have mediocre hit chance. You can have 95% cth against slow bricks or enemies up close, but against enemies at range, or e.g. Dogs, prepare for 60% hit chance. Cooked Shot can help as it is AOE, so does not care about target evasion.

Isn't precision determined by guns skill? versatility gives when all is maxed and fully specialiced 280 efective, why wouldn't this be enough to hit enemies? are they that evasive?

[Bruno]

Isn't precision determined by guns skill? versatility gives when all is maxed and fully specialiced 280 efective, why wouldn't this be enough to hit enemies? are they that evasive?

Yes sure, at lvl 25 with full spec you can probably hit well enough.

But it is a long way to get there, and with the chemguns short range and lack of scope/lasersight, it is very painful to have poor cth and miss all your shots up close. You will need to deal with this somehow until you get to endgame. Remember, at 60% of melee skill, your guns skill is the same as if you had a perception score of 4. This is not cool at lvl 14, and equipping adaptive goggles/eating mushroom salad does not help.

And with max dex melee, as mentioned above, you can just pick up a combat knife or pneumatic glove and kick ass with that instead.

But I am biased against Versatility for ranged glass cannons because low per =low detecton= instant death by steslthed Lurkers, Crawlers, Death Stalkers, Muggers etc. If you don't mind that, or are good at dealing with such foes, it can probably be a fun character to play, with many shots per turn

[RewRatt]

Link to the Versatility Chem Pistol build I played recently on DOMINATING: https://underrail.info/build/?HgUQBgMGAwcjwqAAwqAeAHhAJi0tS2RdLlAALQBGAABKOcKjJjDCkVYWKz4vTgLCh2EqwrM6duKlvAXita4K378

- I considered PER and DEX/Versatility and went with Versatility. Otherwise you have to spend spec points to reduce the cost of Cooked Shot and only get 30 odd gun skill more over a Versatility build, that can fire of way more shots.
- Mad Chemist is a must for non-crit (Survival Instincts) build, as you will be crafting your pistols.
Thing is - control is good, but damage is Over-Time and sub-par for quite some time. But control is excellent and you deal a lot of little resisted damage.

Video of Arena at lvl14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGiKzxJbs6c&list=PLJIz8SEgMJ1oJ2v62gl5SzIt8iSZ4CmC1
*I will upload more vids - Silent Isle and Maura Rescue, for example. They were surprisingly easy on this build. But damage and hit chance is really not there, until Advanced Catalyzing Belt and Versatility picks-off.

Also, consider Sure-Step for when you craft an Infused Rathound Leather armor. Towards end-game (lvl 22+) you should have 51% crit chance = 4 base +9 Armor +18 goggles +15 Focus stim +5 Hardcore Chips. Later on, when you grab Steadfast Aim you will add another 7%(8% if rounded up), so 58% total. 11AP attacks at level 26, or 10AP if you eat Eel Sandwitch instead of Hardcore Chips.
At that level, you chem pistol proc chances will be great, so with that many attacks per round you will be laughing 😄 Hardest part is mid game, when enemies are max level and you will lack hit chance (Cooked Shot helps greatly).
This build will also have 70% crit chance MKV grenades... so AOE will never.. ever be a problem.. 😅😅🤣🤣

edit: had a wrong build linked.

[ringring]

you don't need dex to go past 11 if you have the advanced catylyzing belt, which is pretty easy to get once you finish the core city oligarch quest line.  that will take you to 16 AP per shot, and let you put more points in other stats like perception.  You could try to go for 4 shots per turn (12) but you are capped at 10 dex to start and won't get there until you are near veteran levels.  Also you are going to be using cooked shot as your bread and butter with a chem pistol build, which is +50% ap. 

[ringring]

i think the classic rookie mistake is not knowing how a builds going to play out until you reach near the level cap.  you don't think about what a slog it will be carrying a bunch of feats that don't go off until way later in the game.  You really need to think about the early and mid game especially. 

A lot of people take some sort of gimmick armor not thinking about how well it will actually protect you, or build their build around a gimmick like having to eat food all the time, popping adrenaline during every fight, constantly being at below 30% health for the crit bonus from survival instincts, ect  People also tend to spread their skill points too thin and forget that many quests are skill-locked, or that workbenches require (at least) 50 mercantile and 30 persuasion.  New players also tend to take a lot of quality of life feats, which are a neat little circumstantial bonus that doesn't really help optimize your build, but help you through a particular area or problem you are having.  These are good on your first playthrough, but when you come back to the game you might want to ditch them for something that synergizes better with your build.  Maxing one stat at the expense of all others is another common rookie mistake, it makes for a miserable playthrough and often doesn't pay off until very late in the game.

[RewRatt]

you don't need dex to go past 11 if you have the advanced catylyzing belt, which is pretty easy to get once you finish the core city oligarch quest line.  that will take you to 16 AP per shot, and let you put more points in other stats like perception.  You could try to go for 4 shots per turn (12) but you are capped at 10 dex to start and won't get there until you are near veteran levels.  Also you are going to be using cooked shot as your bread and butter with a chem pistol build, which is +50% ap.

Why not to go with PER for Chem Pistol build:
- PER is a useless stat for this build, apart from Gun skill, finding secrets (which can be done later with buffs as we still have 6 base) and detection (which is easily compensated by Motion Detection goggles and character levels).
- DEX on the other hand drastically increases - Throwing, Traps, Pickpocket, and Lockpick. And we invest in all 4, but throwing is a focus thanks to Three-Pointer and ability to craft MK5's. Also AP reduction is so big, that without any buffs by level 26, Cooked shot will cost the same as regular shot on PER build. And there is no discussion on how much more effective it is to land more shots - you will Root and Fear more targets and will cause ever greater damage, due to those effects stacking + Catalyzing Belt requires hits on enemies to start granting bonuses.