Utility Tower

Utility Tower
A soaring, abandoned, deep-frozen tower
Location information
Music	Skyless World
Located in	Upper Underrail
Areas	Level 1 Level 2
Connections	Eos Complex
NPCs	none
Technical Map file(s) dun_up_it1,dun_up_it2

Utility Tower is a location in Upper Underrail.

Description

It is accessible from the Eos Complex metro station in Upper Underrail. There's a ladder leading to it in the northwest storage room.

Zones

The Utility Tower is divided into various levels, each with its own segments from bottom to top.

Level 1

• 2 segments.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit is 5^HD.
• The NE can be accessed with a 4 Agility passage, or by opening the door using the console in the room full of Coil Spiders.
  • The path there is covered with Cryogas^D.
• The SE room:
  • Is inhabited by several Coil Spiders and Greater Coil Spiders
  • The console opens the door to the second level (by selecting the option "Access to H__ towwr")
• There is a hidden (need 9 Perception) ventilation shaft in the north room which leads to area Level 2

Level 2

• 2 segments.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 1st segment is 5^H/10^D.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 2nd segment is 10^H/20^D.
• The south of the first segment contains a glitched console repeating various letters, with the only ones visible being "hypo".
• The northern room of the first segment contains frozen Coil Spiders and a room with 3 Greater Fusion Cells.
• The western room of the second segment contains frozen Death Stalkers and a trap door leading to Level 1.

Level 3

It is at this Level that ice starts blocking the path.

• 3 segments.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 1st segment is 10^H/20^D .
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 2nd segment is 20^H/30^D.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 3rd segment and outside is 20^H/40^D.
• The northern room of the first segment contains various rooms locked with valves. 1 (2 on Dominating) contains a frozen Ancient Rathound, blocking the way to a shelf with 100-round Ammo Belt and Ergonomic Handle.
• The western room of the second segment contains frozen Death Stalkers as well as some lockers, with one containing random LMG and minigun components and another having some Graphite, Napalm C and Starter Mixture.
• North of the 3rd segment there is a glitched console that repeats the words "thala, oth, thala, oth".
• The way to Level 4 is through the west room, which leads through a tunnel leading to the outside of the Utility Tower, where it is wind-blasted.

Level 4

• 3 segments.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the outside, 2nd segment and 3rd segment is 20^H/45^D.
• The Frigid Environment stack limit of the 1st segment is 5^HD. (Bug?)
• The northern room of the 2nd segment:
  • Contains a room with 3 valves opening each room, which are blocked by ice.
  • Is likely bugged as it is wind-blasted despite not being outside.
• The south-eastern section of the 3rd segment contains a breach in a boiler in which there is a Plasma Core.
• South of the 3rd segment there is a glitched console that pulsates with tiny letters, mus and an upside-down 4. There is also a box near it that contains the Breathing Tank Regulator oddity.
• The western room of the 2nd segment contains various shelves and containers blocked by ice.
• The 2nd segment is where Ghost Crawlers and Coil Spiders start appearing.

Level 5

• Saving is disabled, however as you clear the ice in level 5, you can return to level 4 and save, maintaining your progress. This is especially useful for characters attempting the DOMINATING-exclusive boss at the top of the tower, as it means you won't have to clear the ice on the floors prior to the boss every time.
• 2 segments (3 on Dominating, conditional).
• The northern room of the 2nd segment:
  • Contains valves which open rooms full of empty lockers.
    • There's a line on the floor connecting some of lockers. If you open them and only them then the last one gives you some items, most notably two doses of Regenerative Mixture.
  • Contains a vent shaft that leads to Level 1's vent.
    • It is one-way, the player will not be able to climb back up through it.
• South-west of the 2nd segment there is a fireplace that when lit will allow you to interact with a Frozen Corpse that will give the player the Warm Trapper Hat.
• On Dominating the third segment will unlock, containing Strange Ice that will initiate the boss battle with Demise.
  • After the dungeon boss is defeated a new restless corpse will appear near the elevator shaft that takes the player all the way down to the first level that contains the Antifreeze Protein Injector oddity.

Boss Battle

The boss battle is only accessible on Dominating and if you have received an email at the start of the game mentioning "Ice T", making it mutually exclusive with the Arena Masters.

Spoilers

The final level contains a boss fight, a slow-moving apparition that shoots ice shards at the player and can inflict the Shattered Will debuff in melee. The boss is impossible to damage or incapacitate and in order to defeat it, the player must navigate a square room with no exits, approach 6 different restless corpses in each corner of the room and provide them with medical assistance by choosing the correct dialogue options. The task is made harder by the ice that fills the room after each correct answer, time not stopping during the dialogue and the Shattered Will debuff that is inflicted when the player chooses a wrong answer. In addition, after each corpse is assisted the boss will deal incrementally more damage with its attacks. There are 8 restless corpses in total, 2 don't require medical assistance and must be left alone. A corpse can only be assisted after a text box has appeared over its head. Otherwise, the player will be given a dialogue box with no correct options. The order in which these text boxes appear seems to be random. If player has the Doctor feat, you will get a tip suggesting the correct option The correct options are: Offer mildly warm non-alcoholic drinks only. Move it away slowly. Remove its wet clothes only. "Up to the north." Heat up neck, chest and groin parts. Keep them upright and awake. Defeating the boss rewards the player with the Beyond Cold feat.

Enemies and other hazards

• There is a constant Frigid Environment debuff in that area, making you more vulnerable to cold.
  • The maximum amount of stacks increases the higher you go, and you also lose Warmed Up stacks depending on difficulty and how high you are, eventually making it impossible to stack it on Dominating. It will also start adding up to 5 stacks of Chilled at about 20^Verify stacks.
  • A lit fireplace will remove 10 stacks of Frigid Environment every turn.
  • The Frigid Environment limit on Hard is 20, while on Dominating it's 45.
  • Fireplaces will extinguish faster the colder the area, depending on level^Verify or ambient Frigid Environment^Verify.
• All of the enemies above Level 1 are frozen and there's no need to fight them, but do take note that setting the fireplaces near them on fire will unfreeze them.
  • Coil Spiders and Greater Coil Spiders.
  • Death Stalkers.
  • Industrial Robots.
• Certain areas on the higher levels are wind-blasted, and will deal a serious amount of cold damage every turn spent there, which can quickly become fatal when combined with Frigid Environment.
• Ice Barriers become more and more common, which will block the way forward and have to be destroyed to proceed.
• Ghost Crawlers and Coil Spiders that inflict Shattered Will debuff (upper levels).

Strategy

Thanks to its environment, The Utility Tower is a dangerous place and can become a death warrant to those, who come unprepared. The entire area is full of Cryogas and Frigid Environment will both reduce the player's cold resistance and threshold as well as increase cold damage taken, causing the gas to deal exponentially more damage. First of all you need to have ways to counter all the effects of cold, that you meet here. The list of the gear, that can help with that:

• Armor with high cold resistance/threshold:
  • Leather Armor made of Infused Bison Leather (makes you immune to Chill) with Insulating Foam Padding (makes you immune to Freeze) - definitely shines here and is a must for Dominating difficulty.
• Other options are (sorted by descending of effectiveness):
  • Leather Armor made of Bison Leather with Insulating Foam Padding
  • Leather Armor made of Infused Ancient Rathound Leather/Ancient Rathound Leather with Insulating Foam Padding
  • Lemurian Security Marine Armor
  • Protectorate Marine Armor
  • Any armor that uses Insulated Vest in its blueprint.
• Headgear
  • Balaclava
  • Metal Helmet with Insulating Foam Padding
• Footwear
  • Boots made of Infused Bison Leather/Bison Leather with Insulating Foam Padding
  • Boots made of Infused Ancient Rathound Leather/Ancient Rathound Leather with Insulating Foam Padding
  • Tabi Boots made of Infused Bison Leather/Bison Leather
  • Tabi Boots made of Infused Ancient Rathound Leather/Ancient Rathound Leather
• Food items
  • Canned Fish - reduces all cold damage taken by 15%
  • Any other food, that increases Constitution. With Burrower Burger (+1 Con for 20 minutes) being the easiest obtainable.
• Other useful stuff
  • Lots of Coal and a Lighter to light those bonfires scattered around. Especially for Dominating where the Utility Tower becomes significantly harder, as Frigid Environment will stack even higher and more abruptly, and Warmed Up becomes impossible to stack past a certain level.

You can find quite a lot of coal in The Utility Tower itself, but it just can appear to be not enough.

Generally, characters with high Constitution and Conditioning will have an easier time getting through the Utility Tower because they will still block a percentage of the cold damage, as the resistance reduction only applies to armor.

The ice barriers have a high amount of damage threshold, thus it is advised to carry a Sledgehammer due to its ability to ignore damage thresholds.

The other radical mean of fighting off cold is using loads of Molotov Cocktails together with some heat-protection gear. Just bear in mind, that this way you can unfreeze some unwanted enemies.

Map gallery

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  Level 1

• Dun up it2.png

  Level 2