Author Topic: Psi-Sword ninja build (featuring Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden)  (Read 5148 times)

deanisi

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    Recently I've discovered Ninja Gaiden and thought that Ryu-like build would be pretty cool, so here we are.
https://underrail.info/build/?FAcPBgMDBQYAPABuQVAeSzIAABkAAAAAAABGRgAAACs5JDHCjGHCiypRXMKNHADisogF378
If someone unfamiliar with Ryu Hayabusa here's what he uses in game:
  • Sword as main weapon
  • Throwables as secondary
  • Ninjutsu as ultimate (usually some flavor of fireball)
  • Ninja speed and acrobatics

Now how to adapt this to Underrail?
Sword and throwing are self-explanatory.
For ninjutsu I use MT, and for speed TM and bio for adrenaline and other drugs, for acrobatics I use dodge/evasion. And some stealth because ninja.
Also we need mandatory underrail crafting and lockpicking/hacking skills

As you see we have our skills spread on too much categories, so how do we balance it out?
As said above our main focus is Swords, then Throwing, then psi, then dodge/evade, then lockpicking/hacking.
After we get enough dodge/evade and lockpicking/hacking only then we can start investing in our crafting skills, except chemistry because we have methathermics so grenades will be used less.

Now time for feats:
  • Sprint - it's a melee build with 6 AGI
  • Nimble - dodge/evasion + more MP
  • Recklessness - we don't use EW and go for crits
  • Flurry - it's a melee SWORD build
  • Sure step -  ninjas don't step on their caltrops
  • Decapitate - because Ryu used this alot, also it's cool
  • Premeditation - to use one of our psi abilties in a pinch
  • Hypothermia -  softening targets up via cryo orb. Can be replaced with Pyro or dirty kick
  • Fatal throw - more AP
  • Ripper - works well with Fatal throw, decapitation and shatter
  • Onlaught - SWORD build
  • Weaponsmith - more crits = good


Now we have our Ninja guy, but ninja is still pretty weak without his tools.
EQUIPMENT:
  • Armor - every stealth armor with less than 15% penalty is good enought untill we find Infused Rathound Leather
  • Boots - Siphoner or black cloth Tabi
  • Head - psi headband with additional slot, or one that increases MT abilities
  • Main weapon - sword (Red dragon for fun)
  • Secondary - thrownig glove
  • Belt - doctor pouch

Psi abilities:
  • Psycho-temporal Contraction - I'm fast as fuck boiiiiii!!
  • Cryostasis - disable, gets replaced by stasis later
  • Stasis - best for long fights or disabling one strong enemy
  • Pyrokinesis - early nuke, gets replaced by Cryo orb
  • Cryokinetic Orb - nuke + softening targets up via hypothermia
  • Exothermic Aura - for molotov or stasis combo, also helps against crawlers.
  • Cryokinesis - loooooong range where throwing knives don't reach, also hypothermia.

That's pretty much it. I won't be showing lvl30 build because every build gets OP after 20th level.

Please share your opinions and suggestions, preferably ones that don't go too far from original idea.[/list]
« Last Edit: March 27, 2023, 05:30:54 pm by deanisi »

Enchat

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Re: Psi-Sword ninja build (featuring Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden)
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2023, 09:55:08 pm »
1. Any sword build is a crit build, it is suboptimal not to take crit perks:
Cheap shots
Crit Power

2. In my experience taking Fatal Throw on knife/sword builds is a waste, your flurries and crits are fatal 90% of the time, so its almost impossible to get this 27AP when you actually need them.  Its works very well on combat fist users and chem guns though.

3. The most dangerous enemies have good armour, any melee build without expose weakness will struggle against them.

4. Hypothermia is one of the worst psi feats in the game, almost anything else will be better. I tried playing swordsmen with all four psi schools and metathermics was the worst. PK is much better, stuns and net are working on all enemies  and help a lot to flurry with a 95% chance.

5. I don't like Sure step. Despite the usefulness of caltrops in early game they are of little use later, not to mention the fact that you can just carry iron boots with you to the same effect.

6. If you are going into Evasion Dodge build you have to max them out, and even then it is quite unreliable on glass cannon builds.

>I won't be showing the lvl30 build because every build gets OP after 20th level.
Why don't you play domination then?

harperfan7

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Re: Psi-Sword ninja build (featuring Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden)
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2023, 01:51:57 am »
Don't take weaponsmith if you intend to use the red dragon.
*eurobeat intensifies*

deanisi

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Re: Psi-Sword ninja build (featuring Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden)
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2023, 05:04:10 am »
Don't take weaponsmith if you intend to use the red dragon.
Red dragon isn't a main weapon choice, more just for flavor and decapitate. Most of the time I'll be going with straight machete untill I get my crit chance high enough, then curved machete.
I took weaponsmith so late only because I don't have any decent mechanics skills to make a decent sword.

deanisi

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Re: Psi-Sword ninja build (featuring Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden)
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2023, 07:08:13 am »
1. Any sword build is a crit build, it is suboptimal not to take crit perks:
Cheap shots
Crit Power

2. In my experience taking Fatal Throw on knife/sword builds is a waste, your flurries and crits are fatal 90% of the time, so its almost impossible to get this 27AP when you actually need them.  Its works very well on combat fist users and chem guns though.

3. The most dangerous enemies have good armour, any melee build without expose weakness will struggle against them.

4. Hypothermia is one of the worst psi feats in the game, almost anything else will be better. I tried playing swordsmen with all four psi schools and metathermics was the worst. PK is much better, stuns and net are working on all enemies  and help a lot to flurry with a 95% chance.

5. I don't like Sure step. Despite the usefulness of caltrops in early game they are of little use later, not to mention the fact that you can just carry iron boots with you to the same effect.

6. If you are going into Evasion Dodge build you have to max them out, and even then it is quite unreliable on glass cannon builds.

>I won't be showing the lvl30 build because every build gets OP after 20th level.
Why don't you play domination then?

1. I don't usually take cheap shots on sword build because enemies die in fewer hits than on knife build and incapacitate doesn't proc that frequently. 50% crit dng is good, but ripper is much better because it's multiplicative and better for decapitation.
Critical power on other hand sounds awesome on this build, I'll probably take it instead of something else. Maybe I'll take cheap shots too

2. I took fatal throw because dex is very high and basically it's free AP. Because of ripper it works much better. Main idea was to start turn with Premeditation Cryo Orb, enemies get seriously damaged and hypothermia will decrease their hp even further, so I can use throwing knive at least on one of them. But after looking at what CON does it's kinda useless to take hypothermia. I'll probaly take points from throwing and spend them somewhere else.

3. I thought that with crits i can go without EW. I don't know what is better, having high crit chance and damage or having 1 enemy take more mechanical damage.
Let's do quick math. I'll take robots for example because I can bypass most of orgaincs enemies armor by throwing knives or MT, or poison, or grenades.
automatons usually have Mechanical: 50% / 20
Q50 steel machete have 16-24 (we'll take 20 as average) dmg and 7% crit chance and 140% crit damage.

Now if take effective melee skill 100 for example we'll have 34 dmg, plus 7% from 7STR and we have 36. So after attack we'll deal 16dmg without crit. If we include 140 crit damage we'll have 48dmg, and 24 after armor. If we include Critical Power we'll have 63 before and 32 after. If we also include cheap strikes, then we'll get 95 before, and 48 after.
 
Now do the same but with EW.
After EW enemy will have Mechanical: 25% / 10
No crit = 26 vs 16
default crit = 36 vs 24
Critical power = 47 vs 32
CP + CS = 71 vs 48

Expose weakness is clearly more effective, only problem is that you can do it only once in a fight, or twice with TM. Unlike dagger, sword can be just fine without EW, especially with utilities such as plasma or emp grenades, or with MT. Also we can get an energy or shock sword. Only problem as you said are boss enemies with high mechanical armor, but they're rare and usually closer to endgame. I'll probaly take EW if I have a spare feat.
 
4.Yeah, I kinda gathered that Hypothermia is kinda weak. I thought that -CON will also decrease their current hp and not max hp. MT was taken because it's cosplay build and Ryu used fire/ice/lightning based ninjutsu.
TC is out of question because I don't have enough will for that,
PK I usually take only for unarmed or high STR builds. PK abilites are strong together and I don't want to spend AP on doing them. And don't forget about nets, stingball grenades and tasers, they can stun enemies too without any feats.
MT on other hand gives me AP free nuke that can give debuffs (burning, bleed or chill(Could it be possible to take opportunist and use free cryo orb for it?)) or anti crawler utilites aka Fire Aura, also cryostasis can be a good disable.
TM is pretty much must have on any build, especially melee ones.

5. It's a ninja build and ninjas use tabi. Tabi boots give too much good stuff to use anything else. Also I'm planning to go poison on those caltrops, and as a bonus caltrops are great against invisible enemies or just ones that want to get close to you. Also you can abuse AI by moving from one end of caltorop field to another. But it's more of QoL feat and can be replaced for something more essential.

6. Main idea was to use evasion for surviving at least 1 turn with energy shield on, then 2nd turn and stasis, and then kill leftovers. With decent shield, mobility and positioning I can go without any dodge or evasion, but I kinda like to have defensive option beyond shield. I'll probably either take points from throwing to spend on evasion, or scrap it all together.

7. I don't play domination because even after 400h I still haven't finished it on normal and all I do is try different builds.

Here's my new iteration of this build. Pretty much the same sans throwing and hypothermy
lvl 20 https://underrail.info/build/?FAcPBgMDBQYAAABuUG4eUDIAAFBQAABQAABuRgAAACs5JDHCjBIqwosGS1zCjcKH4rKIBd-_
lvl 30 https://underrail.info/build/?HgcQBgMDBQYAAADCoMKgwqAyUDIAAFpaAEFaAADCoEYAAAArOSQxwowSKsKLBktcwo3ChwA8wrPCuHjip74K4rKIBd-_
« Last Edit: March 28, 2023, 07:13:59 am by deanisi »