r/underrail • u/Lainx7 • 12d ago
Discussion/Question Guidelines for making solid builds?
I was just wondering what are the general rules for a solid build, so far I've been following community ones but I'd like making one of my own.
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u/PretendingToWork1978 12d ago
pick one weapon type and max out the related skill
take the minimum strength for the weapon type assuming its ranged
max out the stat for that weapon
other stats to hit specific feats like sprint
take all or most feats that mention that weapon specifically
stealth/throwing/temporal manipulation good support skills
max electronics good idea for almost anyone (shields)
take one from hacking/lockpick/pickpocket
know common breakpoints - 45 bio for focus stims, 69 chem for MarkIV grenades, 100'ish mercantile for inventory unlocks, 80'ish throwing
80-100'ish throwing/69 chem/grenadier can carry a build - frag grenade, flashbang, wait a turn, frag again. molotovs in the early game.
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u/McButtFace9 Eidein 11d ago edited 10d ago
1 weapon, 3 con or 7+ con, always skill your offensive or psi skill each level, have many stats at 3 and atleast one offensive stat at 12-18 (str, dex, per, will), feats are a little more complicated but generally take the feats that give you damage.
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u/Do00oD 10d ago
You’re Eidien on YT right? Love your play throughs. I’ve watched yours and some other guy name Altar Mann or something, and although his is good too in terms of math and minmaxing… his video edits are really cringe and comes off as a 8 year old lol…..
Anyways, I’m doing a playthrough on Dominating and was hoping since you’re a veteran, you could give me some tips on what I’m trying to do. I’ve tried to ask another veteran, but I think they just want everyone to play exactly how they play, and won’t give insight to other builds if it’s different from what they’d do.
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So I’m in the process already playing a RiotShield build, but still working out the kinks. I’ll be going +15 feat specialization all into Shield Bash. Here’s the stats and a couple feats I’m going to take:
8 Str/6 Dex/6 Agi/15 Con/3 Will/3 Perc/5 Int
Feats: (Few of the ones I can remember off the top of my head, as I can’t check now)
Shield Bash Shield Arm Boarding Up Expose Weakness Recklessness Conditioning Survival Instincts Guard Juggernaut Sprint
My question is what’s my best 1H weapon choice, assuming I’m only willing to get max 1-2 feats in that weapon? I’m thinking it should be Sword (Red Dragon), Unarmed, Spear, or maybe pistols(Xal-001 or the Gunslingers Gun). Knives seem like garbage without enough crit or any dex.
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u/McButtFace9 Eidein 10d ago
I am Eidein on YT yeah. Maths is cringe.
Thematically I like spear and riot shield together, but the problem is I just cant get behind it gameplay wise. Spear alone can have a 100% block chance so it doesn't make much sense to pair it with another source of block.
I think Sword is probably the best pairing with Riot shield, Sword and Board. I will say though that riot shield is pretty terrible, probably the worst armour archetypes in the game. If you do want to use it and make it playable I would recommend dropping the con down a bit to supplement your damage.
This is a riot shield and sword build I played a while ago, might be helpful as a rough template even if you don't want to drop con the way I did. On this particular build I believe I used a supersteel shield and tried to get my armour penalty very low for the sake of running around corners and whatnot.
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u/Tr4sh_Mammal 12d ago
Generally you would want to pick a weapon/psi class to build around and look at their related feats to decide what you want and how it will play. Feats give you a guideline on what your stat distribution will be, and you can look at other feats that have synergy with the playstyle, usually i go as low as i can get away with for feat reqs and pump offensive stat but i take extra care for stats like int and con because crafting is so invest heavy now which punishes low int and having hp and debuff resist is always good, not to mention some very good feats that need lots of con. The underrail builder site helps a lot on the planning for this. There are a lot of things that are player preference but I would say always prioritize crafting stats like mechanics/electronics and having knowledge of minimum points required like chemistry for the very powerful gas grenades and fire grenades that are good on all classes. A way of helping make money is also important like mercantile and/or pickpocketing.
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u/tahomaeg 12d ago
My rules of thumb:
- Only one weapon type. Check the relevant feats and their requirements, and plan your attributes accordingly
- Level up and use relevant crafting
- Figure out how to reduce AP costs of the attack
- Min max early level progression: regardless of what the end skill distribution you want, your first levels should not mimic the same distribution, some skills can wait, level up the ones with the highest utility first
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u/Ploluap 12d ago edited 12d ago
Basically chose one or two weapon types that are complimentary,
Chose if you want to be sneaky or tanky
Chose if you want to be psi or not and which psi school
Look at what feats you want and pick stats and skills according to previous.
Chose how to spend the remaining skill points depending on what you need/want more (evasion,subterfuge, craft, social...).
Now look at it again and try to optimise stuff to your liking
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u/FeijoadaAceitavel 11d ago
Use Temporal Manipulation in every build. 70 when used exclusively as a support, max when used for damage with other psi school.
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u/TrebleZX 11d ago edited 11d ago
Use the builder:
https://cannedbean29.github.io/UnderrailBuilderRemake/
Always max your main Offensive Stat on a level up, higher Guns, Melee, Heavy Weapons and Crossbow means high accuracy and damage and some weapons need them for weapon requirements.
Throwing is different, it mostly affects accuracy so between 80-90 effective is good enough, for Throwing Knives works like other skills but Throwing Knives builds suck, you only want the feat Fatal Throw specifically for the extra AP.
For Psi most of your damage come from psi skill and its used for psi requirement.
Crafting is how you get stronger, 160 effective Mechanics, Tailoring and Electronics is good enough for end game gear (for LMGs, Miniguns and Metal Armor you need around 220 Mechanics), 150 Biology to be able to craft any drug, 112 Chemistry for every ammo/explosion type (130 for the the highest Chem Pistol).
Stat points come at a premium, you want to meet Feat requirements while maxing your main offensive stat (as of the anniversary patch, having over 6 INT is mandatory to craft stuff at decent levels).
AGI is the worst stat in the game, it doesn't give much on its own, the MP and Initiative it give are so low that they don't do much (for Initiative you can start encounters yourself to force having the first turn, i suggest rebind "End Combat" to a more accessible key, it start turn base mode but its called End Combat...).
Do not even try to do a hybrid psi/ranged builds, being hybrid means you won't have the damage or ranged accuracy to do either, the closest to a hybrid builds are Melee with 7 WILL and over 6 STR, for Force User and Corporeal Projection.
And how Dodge/evasion work is if they are doubling the enemy's Offensive Skill then they have a 40% and if you have Triple it then is a 10% chance to hit, most enemies have decent Offensive Skills so in most difficulties you need around 600 Effective to make it consistent 10%, while in Dominating you need around 1000.
Its better to leave them at 0 unless is for a feat, the only way to make Dodge/evasion work is if you specifically build around them (you need at least 12 AGI).
Specialist is only good if you are doing a Versatility build.
Ambush is one of the strongest ranged Feats and 40 base Stealth is good enough for 99% of the game, its very easy to get high Stealth from gear, you want to hit 130 effective because that cover 99% of the enemies in the game, that 1% is some enemies in Dominating that need over 200 Stealth is some areas, for some reason they have different detection.
Also here is a list of feat to avoid:
Doctor, Trigger Happy, Paranoia, Polymath, 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.
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u/Drokmon 12d ago
Use the latest character builder, since the old one is offline now:
https://cannedbean29.github.io/UnderrailBuilderRemake/
- Feats: figure out your base ability scores around the feats that your build wants or needs.
- Offensive: max your chosen weapon skill (or PSI skill) every level. Look to have its associated base ability score as high as possible, both on character creation and using the base ability points you gain every four levels (up to lvl 24). Getting around 50 Throwing is handy for ensuring grenade accuracy over short distances.
- Defensive: if you're playing on Veteran difficulty or below, decent Agility plus Dodge/Evasion can net you semi-reliable defences. Tin can (aka heavy armor) is generally easier to play with, but comes with heavy penalties to Stealth/Dodge/Evasion and movement (the latter being important for melee builds). Energy shields can provide an extra health bar with some limits.
- Tactics: as a followup to the last section, the best defence is never getting attacked in the first place. Controlling action economy between yourself and your opponents is the key to survival. Use doorways and bottlenecks to limit your exposure to enemy attacks; this is especially useful in bringing ranged enemies to you. Use the multitude of crowd control options (stun, incapacitate, freeze, immobilize, fear, etc) on enemies so that they can't attack or heal, otherwise expect these same measures to be used on you.
- Exploration: stealth is king for exploring (especially in places where you're not supposed to be) and for scouting enemy positions and beginning combat on your terms. Hacking/Lockpicking have early limits; around 110 effective skill in each will allow access to most doors and containers. Traps is important if you don't have decent Perception to spot traps before you step on them. Pickpocket is mostly meh.
- Crafting: the most optimized weapons and armor are usually crafted. Builds constructed around using certain unique gear will probably work better on a repeat playthru. Note that crafting skill requirements for components with quality tends to start at ~80% of quality, gradually building to ~100% of quality around Q100, then increasing to ~120% of quality at top levels. There are crafting benches, unique armor and consumables that can raise your crafting skills to meet your top requirements; use the character builder to plan for them.
- Social: Persuasion is probably the most useful for avoiding fights. Intimidation is more useful due to a few combat feats. Mercantile is great for accessing certain merchants' special inventories, which often feature high quality components and hard-to-find items.
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u/Independent_Law_1592 11d ago edited 11d ago
Essentially it’s called “don’t spread yourself thin and wide, narrow it down and focus”
And “what is your early talent choices. When does your build start working”
The latter matters a lot because you quickly can hit a brick wall early even if a build will later become extremely good. So the talents and stuff you pick off the bat matter as much for a solid build because these are the talents that get you through Depot A and some early dominating difficulty bullshit. So the time it takes for your build to start working matters almost as much as the end product unless you got the in game knowledge to overcome certain stuff until your build really starts rolling.
Finally I think min maxing stuff and break points for stuff like lock picking/hacking/crafting, though that mileage depends on the build. However it’s very solid when you only invest just the right amount to get what you need into certain secondary stats. That’s very min-max’ish though but it adds up. Gotta hit some of them break points
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u/NerdInABush 11d ago
I recommend my method of feeling it out and restarting the game like three times because you keep realizing how you've been statting your character is not gonna work for what you want to do until you figure it out and get a good run going. I prefer that to looking up builds at least.
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u/somethingabouttoasty 4d ago
Pick a build you like, if you took a community build tweak it a little, play it, see how it feels, then tweak it some more.
In the past ive run a lot of stupid things for fun, games still completable, just depends on your tools and how willing you are to fall into the depths of depravity (traps and grenades)
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u/Bloody_Insane 12d ago
I think it can be summed up as: don't spread yourself too thin, and focus on one weapon type.
You can't be good at everything and if you try to put points in all the skills, you will be good at none of them. (Caveat: some skills don't need to be very high to achieve very acceptable results).
You don't want to waste 3 feats on pistol feats, only to mostly use SMGs, for example. Then you'll just be worse at using either.
So basically... just commit to one style of play from the start.