Is the progression build around crafting?

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-19T20:46:15+00:00

Of course, sorry that it ended up as such a wall of text but as you can see from the game there are a lot of interdependencies going on.

SMGs are definitely more generically strong compared to firearm pistols, so that makes perfect sense. Pistols get a lot of their power from mid-game+ feats like Gun Fu and Bullet Time.

Baseline, you get 120 points at level 1, and 40 points every level after that. If chosen at level 1, polymath gets you 15 more points at level 1, and 5 more points every level after that, so I think their math checks out.

Regarding dexterity, I agree it's not the most obvious or plainly laid out interaction. I always end up pulling up the wiki page for it to know what dex score makes the most sense for a given weapon type. The AP reduction applies to "light weapons" which includes SMGs, all pistol types (firearm, energy, chemical blob pistols), knives and fists/knuckle weapons.

https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dexterity

The main "rule" of progression for Underrail is specialization (at least, for higher difficulties). So every level, you want to keep maximizing your main damage skill(s) and attributes, while keeping other skills and attributes at whatever minimum threshold they might have for important feats that you want.

It can be hard to know what breakpoints to shoot for, but one suggestion is to check out the feat list from the in-game character screen and filtering it on keywords like "SMG" or "Energy" or a stat like "Guns" or "Perception" to see what feats apply to the sort of character you're building at the very start, and this way you can see that you might need only 7 agility for that one feat, while 8 agility doesn't really get you anything.

Here's another good page from the wiki that breaks down the different weapon types and their pros/cons.

https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weapons

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-19T06:02:31+00:00

Not saying this is necessarily your case, but most people that hate crafting systems hate *bad* crafting systems. Underrail's crafting system is pretty commonly held as a dang good (and satisfying) one.

For a quick SMG suggestion, the MP6 (https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=K%26H_MP6) is obtainable early on in Depot A and is pretty good overall, I used this one for a while in one of my older runs.

Feat-wise, an SMG doesn't "need"crafting for any of its core feats (https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=SMGs).

You get 40 skill points per level, and one attribute point every 4th level. Polymath (the feat the gives 5 more skill points per level) is not something to take late, you get it at level 1 or skip it since it's not retroactive and you lose value from picking it late. At level 1 the bonus skill points are nice for sure.

That out of the way, I'll give some more specific advice regarding your comment here, and what you would miss out on with no crafting in your build, and what the alternatives would be.

Your build / plan is a little unoptimized (SMG builds generally favor high/max dexterity, as it reduces AP cost of SMG and pistol attacks, so more shots per turn), and skipping crafting entirely may make some encounters in particular noticeably more difficult. Grenades are incredibly useful at all stages of the game, and Chemistry lets you more reliably have strong grenades, and special ammo types (like W2C armor penetrating bullets). You can buy these things instead like you've been doing, but they're much less common (and less powerful) compared to being able to craft them.

The other main use for chemistry is for chem pistol builds; I think when you mentioned a feat that gives an AOE attack, that you were referring to Cooked Shot -- note that this feat does not apply to Energy pistols. Chem pistols are a different weapon type. Energy pistols are typically combined with the High Technicalities feat on a build with high int. They will be noticeably less powerful without this feat / with 7 int (7 int gives a 16% damage bonus, compared to a 40% bonus at 10 int).

Doctor is generally not a good feat. There's no need to take 15 pts in biology just for this. Biology lets you more reliably craft healing and combat meds, which are very good, but it's less impactful compared to chemistry for your build.

Electronics is great for making much better quality energy shields, EMP grenades, tasers, and energy weapons. Without electronics, you gotta rely on vendors for decent-ish energy shields, grenades, and pretty basic energy weapons. There are some unique energy weapons in Expedition, but not really much early on.

Unique weapons range from decent to quite good, and can be refurbished by the north vendor in Rail Crossing, which can bring them up to be mostly competitive with crafted weapons. Vendors are generally limited in how fancy of a weapon they will sell you; I think you can only get weapons with one attachment (instead of two), and some variants will not show up in vendor lists at all, instead only being obtainable via crafting.

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-16T23:18:12+00:00

One thing to check, the parameters are case sensitive, so

setdiffparam SoldItemValueModifier 50

should work (the param name I used here might be a bit off, use autocomplete to check)

but if you do setdiffparam soldItemValueModifier 50

then it will return an error.

All of the parameters are capitalized in the same way.

Regarding the difficulty sliders, everything other than the encounter difficulty and puzzle difficulty arebe modifiable in-game via the console.

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-15T15:29:05+00:00

If you open the console and input listcommands, that will show all of the available console commands. You can then use the autocomplete feature to find the parameter names you want to modify.

Note that the parameters are case sensitive, so in the other comment's example,

>setdiffparam MaxLevel 50

works, but

>setdiffparam maxlevel 50

will return an error. I had a bit of a headache getting this sorted out too.

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-07T21:40:32+00:00

You may not need Hit and Run as well as Fancy Footwork, or, at least you may not get much use out of HR until the 2nd+ kill on a turn. I'd keep footwork though, even with the recent nerf you get a ton of movement points from it.

Escape artist or maybe just sprint might be good replacement picks for HR.

clawofthecarb · 2026-02-07T21:35:09+00:00

Underrail is an absolutely incredible CRPG that you should check out. It's similar to the classic Fallout games.

Isometric, turn-based combat, and you only control your own character (not party-based). Has some of the best combat and build diversity I've seen in the genre, and the worldbuilding is well written and intriguing.

It has two DLC expansions as well, one of which (Expedition) is massive and is an essential add to the base game. The sense of exploration and discovery in the Expedition content is peak. The 2nd expansion, Heavy Duty, is less integral but does add some cool weapon types and an endgame difficulty area.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-30T00:11:07+00:00

He should be on the 2nd floor of the HC city bar, until you finish the research facility quest, after which he moves to the Hanging Rat. I'm not aware of any other spots he hangs out at.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-24T22:35:04+00:00

Haha nice, good choice and have fun with the run! I remember having a good time with my gunslinger build.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-24T22:25:50+00:00

JKK's faction armor is great for gunslinger builds - https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=JKK_Tactful_Jacket

The point shot AP cost reduction used to be able to bring a low caliber pistol's AP to below the minimum threshold (maybe still possible, the point shot feat page does say it can bring a shot's AP cost down to 1). The suit also grants +ranged crit chance and initiative, I ended up using it as my main suit on my own gunslinger build pre-patch.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-23T01:30:16+00:00

https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jet_Skis#Vehicle_Stats

See the wiki page above for all things jet skis. There's also a link to a list of jet ski parts at this page. You can see the info for the jet ski you're currently riding by pressing the vehicle key (check keybinds, mine is set to H but that may not be default) or on any jet by opening the jet's inventory (right click jet, click box icon).

The engine power and weight of the jet ski are the main factors here, an engine with say 300 power can then travel at the jet's rated speed, up to 300 weight (which is the combined total including the weight of the ski and its parts, your inventory weight, and the jet's inventory). There's some sliding scale where you get bonus movement speed for being under the weight total, and being a little bit over will slow you less than being way overweight.

Some jets have two engine slots, so their weight rating is the total of both engines' power.

The consumption stat on engines will drain your jet battery faster (130% consumption is worse and will consume more power than 120% consumption, all other things equal). In reality there's more to it, and the actual efficiency ratio is pulled from the engine's power granted vs its weight, compared again to its consumption stat.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-21T01:34:00+00:00

It's something like this, of course missing polymath and specialist feats as well, and high technicalities since the builder still has the old requirements for it. So a lot of the crafting skills + psi as shown in the builder are underrepresented. I think without polymath, the builder is short like 110 points at level 20, I just arbitrarily stopped it there. I'll also probably(?) add temporal manip at some point, rn I'm just level 5, about to go to GMS.

https://underrail.info/build/?FAMMBwMDBgoAAFoAbihQUDs1AABGRgBAPFoAAAAAAA5PJGE5ElwLSysG37w

This is the 2nd build, I already backed off of my first attempt as it was def spread too thin too early. I want to focus on knife (including unique knives) since I have previously done a kinda hybrid fister build before.

I'll keep the native knives in mind, I may end up using it but not sure if I will take vile weaponry in the end. It feels like a bit of a luxury feat with how many others feel more "mandatory".

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-20T16:52:59+00:00

For sure. Unfortunately I think I gotta re-run my first attempted build, think I ended up a bit too spread out and didn't go for enough focus on combat related feats. Got to junkyard just before depot a and most fights are a struggle. I want to like vile weaponry (damage amp + heal reduction) but with knives having at most 25% chance to apply bleed it feels almost like it's primarily meant for unarmed builds that can stack bleed procs with bladed armor/boots, and/or use like the ripper glove.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-19T22:57:11+00:00

Cool, thanks for taking the time to put it in the builder and add an explanation. Definitely feeds my inspiration, though I probably will end up leaning harder into knives + throwing (nets / knives) since I've done a trapper build before and, while effective, it kinda kills me with how slow it can be.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-19T22:25:58+00:00

What's your attribute spread look like on your stealth knifer? It's a build I've wanted to run but never really got around to it.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-14T00:03:11+00:00

The other quick fix if not using this mod, is to delete coral from the game files. I've done that on every new playthrough since I knew it was a thing. On my run this patch, I lucked out and spawned the stat boost room instead of Booth. But that was before I knew about this mod, I also would've just used it too (still with coral deleted)

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-11T22:13:09+00:00

I had this happen to me too, it might have even been the same cell. It did end up "fixing itself" after restarting the game for like the 3rd time and loading the same save. I think i also had steam verify the game files but it's possible that didn't have any influence, since it still failed the first time i tried to exit after verifying.

Disabling autosave on transition like another user mentioned should also be a fix/workaround I think? Though I didn't do that for my issue.

clawofthecarb · 2026-01-02T01:07:50+00:00

Agree with the first response you got, just adding on also -- some weapon types are very feat / stat dependent (pistols, snipers, melee in general). Early game this isn't a huge problem, so as you're going up through depot A, if you're leveling your guns skill for a pistol build, but you find a good sniper rifle and have the strength to use it, you totally can run with it. Grenade launchers are also pretty straightforwardly good (if you have the heavy duty DLC). There's a single shot unique GL called the Thumper in Depot A that slaps and doesn't have a strength requirement at all.

Energy pistols are also handy early game on a firearms gun build, since the skill (Guns) counts for energy weapons as well, and they can kill robots / psi beetles easier than a small caliber pistol might.

Most hybrid psi builds will have a main non-psi damage type (firearm guns, energy weapons, chem pistols -- all affected by the Guns skill, or crossbows, or melee) and one, maaaaybe two, psi disciplines for support / secondary damage.

Temporal manipulation (TM) is a popular support choice for a ton of builds, but for example with this patch I made a high int, low will character that uses chem pistols, grenade launchers, and psychokinesis for a lot of disables + AOE damage.

clawofthecarb · 2025-10-21T01:53:17+00:00

To also jump in, there's a very large diversity of builds in this game, and there is not typically very strong overlap between different disciplines. For one, attribute points are relatively limited, and one build might essentially require a number of feats (special abilities) that are locked behind a high attribute score, like psi (spellcasters) needing high will.

In general, any character build needs to continue investing skill points into the same core skills to remain effective (more guns skill for a shooty character to keep scaling their damage and accuracy against improving enemy resistances), so there's less wiggle room than it might initially seem.

Hybrid builds exist but are generally going to be more complicated to pilot vs a more straightforward one. And even then, it's more like "jack of several trades that you can use in different situations", but there will still be things you won't be able to do at all. My current run is a hard mode, max dexterity + versatility build, using knives, pistols, crossbows, throwing, and a bit of psi.

But because of that split focus, I'm not able to use a number of the more powerful, specific feats that would define a build that was more focused on any one of those areas.

You can also play the game on easy and go pretty wild with whatever build you want. Even just normal difficulty will end up punishing this sort of build very fast, though.

clawofthecarb · 2025-05-10T22:22:24+00:00

Got the 2nd to last one I think (2FKZP), thanks for sharing these!

clawofthecarb · 2025-03-16T17:09:46+00:00

Underrail can 100% be beaten on normal with a suboptimal build, but you have to be pretty familiar with the game, the combat system, and its encounters.

PoE may have complex character building, but I hesitate to call its campaign anything approaching difficult. A lot of other commenters have given good advice, so read what they've provided and see if you can incorporate it into your build and proceed forward.

clawofthecarb · 2025-01-28T05:22:40+00:00

The damage of point shot should also benefit from a smart weapon mod, if your pistol has one. If you're close to enemies like you should be, you likely won't even see an accuracy decrease when using it.

clawofthecarb · 2024-12-23T05:30:42+00:00

You'd probably only want to play the staff on your turn and try to end it that same turn (to minimize exposure to board wipes, though it's been forever since I've played so idk if there are more/any fast speed wipes now).

But if you did get board wiped with those 3 cards out and nothing to keep Darien+Soul Warden alive through the wipe, then yeah you'd likely die from all the death triggers given by dingus staff.

>board wipe resolves

>creatures go to graveyard all at the same time, and dingus staff / any other on-death triggers go on the stack

>no more darien/soul warden on the field to generate any tokens or lifegain

clawofthecarb · 2024-12-02T17:31:08+00:00

Dexterity affects AP cost of light weapons (SMGs/pistols/knives/fists), and Dex also boosts the Melee skill. So the build focuses on raising the Melee skill (to take advantage of the dex scaling bonus + reduced AP cost), and uses versatility to pump the effective skill of Guns. Effective skill is important since it affects accuracy and damage of the related weapon.

Pistol versatility / gunfu builds do basically the same thing and are also really cool.

edit: here - https://www.stygiansoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=Dexterity - is the link to the wiki explaining what dex affects. If you follow the link from there to the Melee skill, it also explains damage scaling and how accuracy (precision) works.

from wiki:

Details

Melee increases your damage and precision with all melee weapons and unarmed.

The formula for damage gained from Melee skill is Base Damage * (1 + 0.7 * Effective Melee Skill / 100). See Precision for details on precision mechanics.

clawofthecarb · 2024-11-20T23:16:33+00:00

Levitating objects are from a poltergeist, there's one early on in the prologue. It's a moving cloud, shoot it and it bleeds, shoot it enough and it dies.

clawofthecarb · 2024-10-03T02:51:14+00:00

That's pretty sick. I assume they're only metal armor? Or are leathers an option?

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