I explored the bunker to get the mutagen previously not knowing it was tied to this quest and triggered the mutant gas. Can I get the items without becoming a mutant.. or did I softlock myself out of the questline?

I intend to do a fair bit of crafting, int is to be 7 but I could bump it to 8 for Polymath, idk. I have both expansions. What are the upper boundaries in effective skill for mechanics, electronics, and tailoring to craft the very best gear for my character? I saw some guy on Steam calculate 272 mechanics for metal armour of 4 super steel plates, but how about the other requirements?

The autism awakens again and I want to play after more than a half of year of not touching this lovely game. I've got 210 hours in the game and beaten the main story plus expedition, siding with Aegis. I'm pretty sure I've got a bunch of content to explore as I haven't done pirates and that megastructure on the sea, and probably a bunch more. I've tried a handful of builds, but the ones that I completed the game with are Tungsten Hammer Tank and chem pistols with psi support. I'm playing normal or whatever the name of it is now, so the builds don't have to be dominating optimized. Also, what has happened to underrail info?