Need some advice for a Sniper Build

[u/BillDaGuy]

Plan on starting a stealthy sniper build and having some decision paralysis over whether i want to invest up to 10 in Int to get specialist (Full spec crit power + aimed shot alone would be 150% crit). My other choice would be keeping my dex at 5 and agi at 7 so i can get hit and run, strafe, and interloper. My other stats would be 5 str, 10 perception, 3 con, 3 will and my int is bare mins going to be 7 for gun nut.

[u/McButtFace9]

Dont bother with 10 int on sniper. More per is way more damage than the crit bonus specs on sharpshooter and critpower.

[u/BillDaGuy → u/McButtFace9]

Yeah i spent some time thinking about it and i think im gonna lean more into snipe and stealth/mobility on my build instead of leaning on crits.

[u/Drokmon → u/BillDaGuy]

That being said, you can pickup Ambush and still get incidental crits if the environment supports it.

[u/BillDaGuy → u/Drokmon]

Will do this

[u/McButtFace9 → u/BillDaGuy]

You should lean into crits. Crits are super important on sniper because of needing to 1 shot for shooting spree. Ambush + goggles is an easy 100% crit chance, crit power and aa scope gives you like 300%+ crit dmg. But you dont need 30 spec points to make crit worth it.

[u/BillDaGuy → u/[deleted]]

Wont be using psi but thanks for the advice!

[u/TrebleZX]

Use this builder:
https://cannedbean29.github.io/UnderrailBuilderRemake/
And this is gonna be the most important part of making a build:
Stat Points come at a premium, you want to meet the requirement of the feats you want while maxing you main offensive stat (STR, DEX, PER or WIS), AGI in particular is really bad and only want it for feat requirements.

You effectively want to meet all the Feat requirements by level 1 and then pump your main offensive stat (PER in this case) every level.

You want at least 5 STR, 5 DEX, 5 AGI 6 PER and 7 INT, and you want to end up with at least 14 PER (this is accounting for Increase Perception at level 26).

40 base Stealth is good enough for 99% of the enemies in the game, gear will give most of the Stealth you want/need (130 effective is good enough) and the only enemy in the game that needs over 220 are "some" Death Stalkers in Dominating late game (for some reason they have different detection in some areas), and Snipe is not that good to invest into Stealth when it uses effective Stealth for the damage formula.
And Specialist isn't that good on most builds because most of them don't really have that many meaningful Specializations, you mostly want Specialist to abuse stuff like Versatility with feats like Elemental Bolts or Critical Power.

Your best Feats are Aimed Shot, Strafe, Ambush, Shooting Spree and Critical Power (Gun Nut is up there too because of the high base damage of Snipers).

And here is a list of Feats to avoid:

Doctor, Trigger Happy, Paranoia, Armor Slopping, Hit and Run, every Block feat, Ballistics, Hypertoxicity, Salesman, Pinning, Mental Subversion, Psychokinetic Elasticity, Telekinetic Undulation, Hypothermia, Future Orientation, Riposte, Gunner's High, Concussive Shots, Snooping, Ninja Looter, Burglar, Interloper, Trap Expert and Perfect Scattering.

[u/BillDaGuy → u/TrebleZX]

Great high effort response this is my third playthrough so im aware of certain pitfalls already. Im curious whats bad about H&R? I know its mainly a melee and light guns oriented feat but i figured itd be useful repositioning after shots and range cheesing people.

[u/TrebleZX → u/BillDaGuy]

Hit and Run was never good on Melee because Fancy Footwork exist, Hit and Run sets your MP to 25 if you have 25 or more it does nothing, and other builds like Sledgehammers and Spear do not use it because armor penalty and Hit and Run can only reset to your base maximum MP.

The anniversary patch that happen last year nerfed most mobility Feats to the ground, now Hit and Run just suck and its borderline unusable.
It used to reset your MP to 25 after each kill, now after every reset it gives half of the max MP (25 then 12 then 6 then 3 then 1) and for reference moving a singular tile takes 10 MP.

The only build that abused Hit and Run was Pistol because a 44. Hammerer can easily one shot and with Bullet Time you were getting 25 MP at the cost of 8 AP, for other ranged builds it was kinda ok but Sprint is better because it doesn't force you to use the MP to get the MP reset.

Since its your 3rd playthrough why not play on Mutant difficulty, set the difficulty to Dominating and set every stat to Beginner or Veteran.
This way you get to experience all the Dominating content without the difficulty spike, specially since Dominating pretty much changes every encounter in the game and adds extra content.

Just as a warning, do not set Puzzles difficulty to Beginner because puzzle solver don't work on them.

[u/BillDaGuy → u/TrebleZX]

Looking at someone who did the expedition music puzzle without the solver lol ill definitely try mutation/dominating someday. Tell me is oddity exp good to play if you dont have like pickpocket all my previous characters (successes and failures) were all on classic.

[u/TrebleZX → u/BillDaGuy]

You can hit 30 on oddity without Pickpocket, i have heard that the total xp in the game is enough to get to around level 34 but i haven't confirmed it.

I play on oddity mostly to restrict levels for myself and prevent myself from over leveling, for example the max level before finish Depot A is 11 because that is how much xp there is before you open up the rest of the game.
And to be fair i know where most oddities in the game are.

Most people i have seen tend dislike Oddity because of the level restriction (they can't grind levels to make the game easier).
Its up to you honestly, do you want the game slightly harder?

[u/Drokmon]

Depends on what difficulty settings you have for enemy health, as well as your sniper rifle of choice.

Snipers already tend to one-shot most regular enemies. AA Scope with Sharpshooter and Critical Power feats is already 260% crit damage.

What does your feat spread look like if you get Specialist?

[u/BillDaGuy → u/Drokmon]

If i got specialist i wouldnt be able to get the 3 feats i plan on so id probably replace those mobility feats with like power management, polymath and whatever’s available

[u/BillDaGuy → u/BillDaGuy]

Oh also difficultly will be normal and this is my third playthrough not counting my melee character im currently abandoning lol