IntroI've never much liked the idea of crit-focused melee, except for swords, which don't need much investment to dominate with crits.
Outside of knives and fists, too few attacks per round and inability to boost crit chance as plentifully as with firearms made them seem inconsistent and potentially a source of endless reloading whenever RNG decided to be a pain.
The only way I could see of getting reliable results and avoiding savescumming was with a build that included a combination of low AP cost per attack and Survival Instincts.
Knives suck and use too much AP, bare fists don't need crits and so the obvious choice was combat gloves; the prospect of massively powerful pneumatic strikes was too much to resist.
Without further ado, here is the baseline setup for the build:
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMPBwkDAwUAwqAAwqAoAFAAAAAAZGQAGWkAAAAAAABPYjEkIBMGPAdLEsKz4p2NCuKnvgXfvwBuild RationaleThe skill points, base attribute stats and feats are all what I would consider to be absolutely necessary for the build, but the rest is up to personal preference.
With 18 Dex, maxed throwing, a knife thrower's glove and all relevant feats, throwing knives make an excellent long-ranged supplement to your primary melee weapon. Grenades can also be boosted with Three-Pointer and/or Grenadier if you so desire.
An extra point in Int will give you an extra Psi slot and premeditation and allow dabbling more thoroughly in a Psi school of your choice.
A point into either Agi or Con will give Uncanny Dodge or Thick Skull respectively.
There is a degree of room for specialization so plenty of skill points and feats have been left deliberately unspent to allow for it.
How Does the Build Play?The build is strong both defensively and offensively.
Low AP cost per attack (5/4 once levels 16/26 are reached), powerful crits, CC from Cheap Shots, Combo and Pneumatic strikes make neutralizing the biggest threats on the map simple, whilst Fancy Footwork will give you the MP to run and hide after dishing out your beatings.
The build is weakest when it has no room to retreat and the lack of HP under the 30% threshold really demonstrates how deficient it is in raw survivability, but the many CC options available allows the reliable creation of blockages in choke points.
If you're ambushed, bad luck. You always want to be going first, so sneak is a priority for positioning and if you're unfamiliar with an area you're entering.
The only times I really found the build struggling was when facing the robotic hordes of Lemurian facilities, but even they could be put down with massive critical damage output and a bit of luck.
Important GearHead: Psi headband if you're making a hybrid/psi dipping, Tchortist Bioscrubber, Death's Grin for a bit of crit chance, motion detection goggles.
Body: Unencumbering armour, Infused Rathound Leather for crit chance at later levels.
Belt: Serpent slaying sash for initiative, doctor's belt for drugs, merchant packs to make up for your puny strength.
Feet: Tabi boots of your preference, you can guarantee crafting a good pair early by savescumming your first arena match until you get a 100+ quality ancient rathound hide.
Weapon choice is very important for the build.
The Claw is an obvious choice for any combat glove user as it can be obtained early, easily and has great on-hit effects as well as dealing bio damage.
You'll also want crafted pneumatic gloves for tough enemies and for getting those long incapacitations.
I usually make two; one reinforced with a metal plate and with the highest quality pneumatic hammer possible. This one is used for situations where you absolutely, positively got to kill every robotic motherfucker in the room.
Disabling on-hit effects won't work on them, so you want the highest base damage and hammer damage output possible.
Reinforcing the second glove with a serrated blade and using a pneumatic hammer around (but no less than) either 50 or 100 quality will allow you to bleed targets to activate Taste for Blood and get the longest incapacitations for the smallest energy cost; this one will be best against organic targets and for general use.
Offhand weapons are also important. Of note, the Kukri is always excellent for its ability to apply Expose Weakness.
The knife thrower's glove, as previously mentioned, will allow you to dominate with throwing knives.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with the build, even with managing my health levels - I enjoy working out the maths to keep me under the Survival Instincts threshold.
I know that managing health to be <30% can be a drag for normal people, but remember that your enemies can't injure you if they're already dead with a critical punch hole busted through their skull.
Well, most of the time they can't.
