Underrail General Topic

[eLPuSHeR]

Ventilation systems are always entirely contained to the room you're in, you can look outside each duct to see where you are, and you can always just exit a random duct if you're somehow lost.

 

Loving the game. Lack of map is annoying but the silver lining is the wonderful episodes when you get lost and try to make it out alive to some friendly settlement without dying. 

 

 

I have started from scratch after completing quest 3. It seems there are no companions aiding you in your quest(s) and this game seems to call for a min-max character build. I had made a very generic vanilla character previously. Also the bartering system sucks big time and you will probably be getting out of ammo due to this.

 

If you persevere after the first couple of quests/areas, i.e. after reaching Junkyard, there's no conceivable way you can run out of anything. You start getting a lot of money, even when merchants don't buy everything (if they did, you'd have literally hundreds of thousands) - to the point where you're soon leaving a lot of loot on the ground and only taking what you want / what is great. 

 

If you focus on one weapon style (Guns / Xbow / Throwing / Melee), and one defence style (high CON, heavy armour w/ STR, or dodge/evasion), then you'll be fine on Normal. And then you can throw in Psi, and crafting, etc., as you see fit. As long as you don't split your points across all kinds of weapon skills, or do something like pick guns and low perception, you won't be screwed, though of course you may not be optimal.

 

Agreed. Another year, another build. I have restarted again. This time I hope my char is more focused than before (too many skills covered). This time I am going to give crafting a go. It seems very useful. And yep, I restarted after reaching junkyard. Very solid game. Graphics quality doesn't bother me at all. The lack of map it does though. I get lost frequently or don't know where I am heading most of the time. Exploring on your own can be fun/rewarding too (and many times, deadly). I have discarded persuasion this time. I am looking at a sneaky ninja with guns this time.

 

As for ventilation shafts, they are pretty useful for evading enemies, snooping around and reaching certain areas.

Edited January 2, 2016 by eLPuSHeR

[Osvir]

I've only tried 2 builds.

 

A) Looter/Stealth/Pickpocketing etc. A Thief (that I completely failed with). I forgot to use all skills and utterly worthless in combat (dies in first encounter). I want an all out Thief to work, but it doesn't depends though, if you can manage to loot and find oddities at SGS (starring area), maybe you can gain a level or 2 and manage better?

 

B) Psionics focus. Terrible against Mech/Robotics. I need to figure out a gopd way to deal with those. Other than that, psionics are strong and very useful.

 

Crafting is interesting in this game, but I think and feel it's an investment for later. Lockpicking and Hacking are very important if you play with Oddity XP and want to get as much Oddities as possible (you'll find a lot of them behind locks and hacks).

 

I also realized what put me off from the game, it's that darn starting area and elevator up and down. SGS is a bit of a boring place, but as soon as you get on with it and get better missions it gets so much better.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Osvir

[Oner]

I guess I managed to spread my skill points too thin. Feels like I should restart but I'm investeeeed. >.>
Melee, both evasions, all 3 social skills, all 3 psionic skills, biology and tailor + lockpicking and hacking (and boosting stealth from items). In hindsight I don't get much out of tailoring, melee is both useful and useless. With the 100 psi cap and max 2 casts/turn I'm not sure how I could function without it.

I haven't gotten lost without a map yet, but I do have trouble finding a place or two I discovered earlier.

 

Oh well, soldiering on.

[Hurlshort]

I decided to crawl out of the airspace and finish up my mission, so I'm done with the junkyard and now robots are taking over the world, or something.  

[omphaloskepsis]

It's not entirely that simple.  First off, you are probably using the vents if you are a sneaky guy like me that wants to go into places I probably shouldn't.  So just crawling out of any old vent is a good way to get killed.  Also, the vent system I gave up in stretched across multiple maps.

Just checking, but you know that you can look through vents, right?  You don't even have to unscrew them to do this.  You can also press TAB to get highlights, and sit there watching for patrols.  Another bonus is that you remove the map "fog" for sections that you've peeked through, so you can see large sections of the layout after using the vents.

 

 

I've only tried 2 builds.

 

A) Looter/Stealth/Pickpocketing etc. A Thief (that I completely failed with). I forgot to use all skills and utterly worthless in combat (dies in first encounter). I want an all out Thief to work, but it doesn't depends though, if you can manage to loot and find oddities at SGS (starring area), maybe you can gain a level or 2 and manage better?

 

B) Psionics focus. Terrible against Mech/Robotics. I need to figure out a gopd way to deal with those. Other than that, psionics are strong and very useful.

You can get electrokinesis (kinetics, not metathermics) very early, and that does a fair amount of damage to robots and will stun them just like an EMP device.  The "fireball" attack also does decent damage, and is available early.  I got stubborn in Depot A and explored an optional map with about 6 robots.  I took out all of them without dying with a pure psion. 

 

I don't think a non-violent playthrough is possible, but sneak is pretty powerful.  And you can get overcoats and boots that grant good bonuses.  Even with a fairly small investment (20-ish plus gear bonuses to get into 40s or 50s), you can do pretty well.  In the early game, you can get within a couple of squares of most enemies (including robots) as long as you stay behind them.  Security cameras are tougher, and it's a good idea to take them out if you can't avoid their line of sight.

 

 

I'm really enjoying the game, though I have gripes like the lack of maps and the walking speed.  I also think it's the highest difficulty RPG I've ever played, in a few situations maybe too much.  I can't remember when, if ever, I had to reload so much in a game.  Most of the classic RPGs on the hardest difficulties would probably rate as an Easy playthrough of Underrail.  I restarted with about 6 different character builds and played through to Depot A (which is when you start to really see how viable your specs are), and I finally started to get it.  

[Tigranes]

I guess I managed to spread my skill points too thin. Feels like I should restart but I'm investeeeed. >.>

Melee, both evasions, all 3 social skills, all 3 psionic skills, biology and tailor + lockpicking and hacking (and boosting stealth from items). In hindsight I don't get much out of tailoring, melee is both useful and useless. With the 100 psi cap and max 2 casts/turn I'm not sure how I could function without it.

I haven't gotten lost without a map yet, but I do have trouble finding a place or two I discovered earlier.

 

Oh well, soldiering on.

 

You basically picked 13 out of 22 skills. You can't have your guy be good at basically everything, so you'll need to make some choices. Social skills have their moments, but they are all skippable, and taking 3 is defintiely overkill.

 

Melee is super good, and synergises well with psi, but you'll want to try and build a core competency - i.e. do you go high STR and sledge hammer (in which case, go find a shock steel sledgehammer for some super damage), or unarmed/knives with dex for some rapid killing? 

[HoonDing]

looks liek something I'd play if it were 1993.

[eLPuSHeR]

I am enjoying it a lot but I do agree that it's pretty difficult sometimes. My char is a sniping ninja. I have a gripe with weapons in this game. Most guns suck and Assault rifles feel specially underpowered (man, those frigging burrowers take a lot of damage to go down). Also, it seems there are no shotguns at all, as far as I am concerned.

 

Melee is okay but you cannot win with just melee.

 

As for someone talking about ventilation shafts earlier: you can actually eavesdrop through them even when opened: just use right mouse button + eye icon.

 

I am right now at the railroad crossing, core city (not visited yet), hathor camp, part. This is getting more and more interesting.

Edited January 6, 2016 by eLPuSHeR

[eLPuSHeR]

I am having a very hard time after reaching railroad crossing. Now I am being one-shot killed by some enemies. I have almost 100% stealh/sneak but isn't enough. On top of that you are alone against the world, so sometimes it's pretty difficult to clear some areas (and you must do it). I am thinking about restarting again but with easy difficulty and normal xp mode. I think I am going to ditch crafting for the time being too. The reason is I am usually encumbered due to the massive amount of junk I hoarded.

[omphaloskepsis]

I am having a very hard time after reaching railroad crossing. Now I am being one-shot killed by some enemies. I have almost 100% stealh/sneak but isn't enough. On top of that you are alone against the world, so sometimes it's pretty difficult to clear some areas (and you must do it). I am thinking about restarting again but with easy difficulty and normal xp mode. I think I am going to ditch crafting for the time being too. The reason is I am usually encumbered due to the massive amount of junk I hoarded.

You level up faster with Oddity than Classic, especially during quests, but it might depend on how you play.  You have more control with Classic because you can just keep fighting until you level up, but that might take a long time.  XP from kills is related to your level vs the enemies, so fighting rathounds and similar creatures becomes a slog if you're doing it for leveling.  Plus respawns are fairly slow.

 

I took a break during the Rail Crossing quests to explore and try to level up to craft shields and better armor.  You can buy shields, too, if you look around, but they might be pretty expensive at this point.  Also, if you do the side quest to disable the Faceless shields/robots, it makes it much easier.  And you can do that sidequest no matter which outcome you want.

[eLPuSHeR]

I wasn't able to locate the place for that quest. I finished it the hard way... Not very satisfying though.

[apolloooo]

here is my review of the game if anyone is interested:

 

http://steamcommunity.com/id/hoboForEternity/recommended/250520/

 

be sure to spread this game around! the world deserve more games like this to be made

[Tigranes]

 

I am having a very hard time after reaching railroad crossing. Now I am being one-shot killed by some enemies. I have almost 100% stealh/sneak but isn't enough. On top of that you are alone against the world, so sometimes it's pretty difficult to clear some areas (and you must do it). I am thinking about restarting again but with easy difficulty and normal xp mode. I think I am going to ditch crafting for the time being too. The reason is I am usually encumbered due to the massive amount of junk I hoarded.

You level up faster with Oddity than Classic, especially during quests, but it might depend on how you play.  You have more control with Classic because you can just keep fighting until you level up, but that might take a long time.  XP from kills is related to your level vs the enemies, so fighting rathounds and similar creatures becomes a slog if you're doing it for leveling.  Plus respawns are fairly slow.

 

I took a break during the Rail Crossing quests to explore and try to level up to craft shields and better armor.  You can buy shields, too, if you look around, but they might be pretty expensive at this point.  Also, if you do the side quest to disable the Faceless shields/robots, it makes it much easier.  And you can do that sidequest no matter which outcome you want.

 

 

You don't have to do Rail Crossing right then and there. Just go to Core City and do some stuff. Or explore the caverns and other 'wilderness' areas if you like.

 

You should have some kind of shield by the time you've got access to TNT, since by that point you have a ton of money and you'd have looted a couple off enemies.

 

There's a lot of junk to carry, so it's usually a good idea to have somewhere you leave a lot of the crafting junk.

[eLPuSHeR]

I am totally hooked up to this game. I keep trying builds over and over and over...

 

@apolloooo

 

Nice review. Enjoyed reading it.

Edited January 14, 2016 by eLPuSHeR

[apolloooo]

i just did occulus quest. it really feel unfinished somehow :s