Overview
Overly optimized full psi tranquility expedition build for legacy 1.1.1.6 and 1.1.3.1 with explanation, some general advice and insane crafting results. Might contain some mild spoilers! Will be updated after final content patch is out.
Foreword about legacy 1.1.1.6 and 1.1.3.1
As some might know developers did a silly thing and introduced considerable limitations on psi users on the latest patch. This effectively locks out godlike cave wizards out of new content while forcing psi users with never game version to take psi inhalant that enables psi point regeneration and probably numbs the pain of knowing that some pipeworkers who wake up at night screaming because concept of unlimited inventory exists and preferable for everyone (especially for such a long game) decided that after 5 years after release it’s imperative to take unwelcomed, unasked change to worsen the experience of thousands of players because one of many overpowered builds is a bit self sufficient while also limiting their effective psi abilities up to 8 (9 with specialized headband) out of 32 (though you still can swap them between battles), making additional psi schools less desirable and more psi abilities not used ever again.
This puts any potential psi main between 3 choices
1. Tolerate unnecessary mechanics that waste your time killing some fun while enjoying new bar + tattoos that make this game easier (not a bad thing), and introduces some new content like easy accessible through water dungeon with endgame quality loot (meaning you can get better ingredients, like in endgame boss zone, than something you can buy from the best merchants, for example electronics with 188 quality and new superior jet ski parts like 1700 energy battery) and some minor loot dungeons
2. Ignore current and potential updates while enjoying superior cave wizard experience which in right hands doesn’t require battle consumables and makes use of almost all psi
3. Create mod that fixes this atrocious changes
While the latter would be appreciated not only by community, but by any sensible sentient being, it’s understandable that not everyone is equipped with proper skills and time for such thing, so it’s up to you to decide which half baked choice to make. If you decide to stick with 1.1.1.6 you can check out this build [underrail.info] which uses same philosophy or rebalance it a bit with this build[underrail.info] that allows any oligarch choice and passing max intimidation check by sacrificing some base stealth.
Build itself and some notes about
Overly optimized full psi tranquility expedition build[underrail.info] is based on my normal 1.1.1.5 to 1.1.1.6 playthrough with Expedition DLC, some wiki[stygiansoftware.com]/destroyor info and superficial research of 1.1.3.1 and should work as expected on maximum difficulty.
Ultimate goal was to accommodate superior fighting and crafting capabilities while taking in account convenience. If you find some problems while taking in account my design choices please let me know in the comments.
To make the highest skill checks work you’ll have to choose JKK as Core City oligarch of choice, collect and craft certain equipment, and accurately follow shady man in SGS diner to the end. If you don’t want to go JKK root here is any oligarch rebalanced version[underrail.info] (sacrificed some throwing)
Feats and Specialization
Paranoia and Trigger Happy are here to combat one of your biggest weaknesses – initiative and detection. Saves lives and your time.
Tranquility because it’s tranquility build and action points are the biggest limiting factor
Force user helps at lower levels and unpleasant situations
Premeditation essential feat for any psi user
Pyromaniac creates more possibilities earlier
Meditation multi psi is multi hungry
Psycho-neural flexibility multi psi is multi hungry
Locus of control saves from stuns and helps with applying mass mental disabilities
Snooping for all the secrets
Thermodynamicity more thermal explosions per round
Psycho-temporal acceleration free action points
Neurology multi psi is multi hungry
Neural Overclocking better crits
Increased Will essential psi stat
Advanced Psi Empathy multi psi is multi hungry
Mantra multi psi is multi hungry
If you dislike some of the feats mentioned earlier you can enhance Neural Overload with Cerebral Trauma or Electrical psi with Psychostatic Electricity. Also Expanded Psi Capacitance, Clothier or Ballistics for measly gains.
Specialization
Tranquility +10 enables x3 Electrokinesis or x6 neural overload per turn and more
Snooping +2 for all the secrets instantly, without drugs
Premeditation: Cooldown +2 to end more fights on turn 3 by starting fights on expiring premeditation
1 creativity point by this point you’re too overpowered, it doesn’t matter
Or you can complement your Tranquility +10 by enhancing action points use by either Psycho-Temporal Acceleration +4 or Thermodynamics +5
Abilities
Strength 3 – a bit more carry capacity is mostly useless and without maxing Corporeal Projection doesn’t worth it
Dexterity 6 – at first glance it doesn’t look so good, but you get quite nice bonus to initiative, 3 useful bonuses to skills and minor stuff like early fishing, throwing and AP cost of light weapons in case you out of psi for some reason
Agility 3 – you might think it’s good, but you get more points for stealth with dexterity, you don’t need dodge/evasion at all, movement points are overrated for psi and AGI checks are disappointing.
Constitution 3 – it’s nice, but you rely on being full hp, so it’s mostly useless (even counting Fast Metabolism)
Perception 5 – with this you will start to see shadows of crawlers without goggles and with adaptive goggles and full snooping you will see all those nice, useful and convenient secrets without drugging yourself and running around because SOMETHING MIGHT BE SOMEWHERE
Will 10 > 16 – your psi damage, persuasion, resolve, psi regen and some checks rely on it. Too good to not max after getting 12 intelligence.
Intelligence 10 > 12 – all crafting, hacking, psi regen and some checks. 9 for Philosophy III trait, 12 for 8 psi slots.
Skills
Offensive skills are rather useless for full psi except of throwing (53). While full psi doesn’t really need to use grenades it might be useful from time to time, you are obligated to use grenades at least twice throughout the game and you just have too many points to care.
Defensive skills are rather useless since our motto is kill before getting hit and over 90% of enemies will miss over 90% of the time with active pseudo-spatial projection ability.
Subterfuge
Stealth 160
Doesn’t directly work with psi, but for skill dump it’s fun and useful to gain better position, avoid fights, steal etc. With Rathound Regalia, high level tabi, cloaking device and All-in food you can lend on 300+ effective skill.
Hacking 54
Constantly used for loot and quests. Lends you on 130 effective endgame check with Lemurian engineer suit, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine (tools don’t count).
Lockpicking 63
Constantly used for loot and quite useful for quests. Lends you on 130 effective endgame check with Lemurian engineer suit, All-in food, jackknife and huxkey.
Pickpocketing 43
Previously was used for extra loot and change of events in expedition, but now obligatory for pickpocketing All-in and other cocktails from famous bar on water. 50 effective skill is enough for stealing 5-10k worth of stuff per event. At least 32 effective for stealing all-in and 38 effective for expedition base quest item. You might want slightly more on oddity exp.
Traps 38
Useful for noticing, picking up and laying down big surprises. Lends you on 95 effective skill with Lemurian engineer suit, trapper’s belt and jackknife which is enough for picking up most and laying down all mines that you can craft.
Technology
Mechanics 60
Used for crafting and useful for quests. With crafting bench for your Core City home, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine lends you on 144 effective skill which is enough for quests and should be enough for 188 psi related crafting.
Electronics 77
Used for crafting and useful for quests. With crafting bench for your Core City home, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine lends you on 190 effective skill which is enough for quests and should be enough for shield with 188 quality high frequency modulators. If you think that max possible 164 quality in sale is good enough for you lower it by 8 points since you only need 170 effective for them.
Chemistry 7
Just for extra crating. 20 effective with crafting bench for your Core City home, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine for gas grenades and some bio vests while 15 base is all good for psionic inhalant and TNT.
Biology 41
Essential for crafting because of hypercerebrex medicine. With crafting bench for your Core City home, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine lends you on 100 effective skill for Super Health Hypo.
Tailoring 63
Crafting only. With crafting bench for your Core City home, All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine lends you on 151 effective skill which should be enough for 188 quality tactical west.
Psi
Obvious maxing out for damage while keeping temporal on 70 for highest ability because temporal in general doesn’t scale much. Thought control might look weak, but it has very good stuff that works great against almost all enemies.
Social
Persuasion 20
Very nice to have for quests. Quite hard to calculate throughout the game, but will get you to 110 effective skill with JKK tactful vest, White dude food, Heartbreaker serpent leather boots or tabi and at least +20 out of +30 persuasion possible from JKK hypno googles (only from shop) which should be easy enough to get. In my playthrough I could buy only 1 White dude so don’t waste the last one before that 110 endgame AI check. Or steal 3 points from skill dumps like throwing, get +30 hypno googles and forget about White dude.
Intimidation
Mostly exists for roleplay and skipping quests. If you really need it steal 8 points from skill dumps like electronics and use Under Pie, Death’s Grin, Tchortist Robe, mutated dog leather boots or tabi, bullet or shell trap belt and Butcher’s Cleaver or expedition natives weapons to lend on 100 effective.
Mercantile 51
Essential for crafting and nice for quests. With All-in food and hypercerebrex medicine lends you on 110 skill which is enough for all quests (except max prices for expedition loot) plus best inventory and price in all shops. If you really want up to extra 13000 charons out of 62250 possible from expedition loot, raise base mercantile by 14 to lend on 140 effective skill.
Skill dumps like throwing, stealth and very high crafting thresholds are used to dump excessive skill points and can also be exchanged for something like more persuasion earlier, more pickpocketing or max temporal manipulation.
Innervating and psi abilities
Even though you gain 20% psi cost penalty for having 4 schools I still recommend using all schools for your usual all around set since eventually you will have sufficient psi and all of them are good for different, but regular situations. My usual set consist of:
Psycho-Temporal contraction is an obvious choice for any build and should be used all the time as long as you have enough spare psi
Neural Overload – cheapest silent attacking ability that combines with ability below
Mental Breakdown – 3 round silent stun that also applies a nice bonus to neural overload. Usually used with Locus of Control
Pseudo spatial projection – extremely useful ability that usually allows you to ignore most attacks except grenades, mines, environmental stuff etc. Because of 5 turns duration should be applied before starting a fight.
For most situations 4 of those are good enough, but you still need something against robots and more options against distant crowds, so use this.
Electrokinesis – with full tranquility specialization you can stun for 1 turn almost everything 3 times per round and still deal damage, especially against groups
Electrokinetic Imprint – essentially almost free psi trap. Deals huge damage and stuns targets for 2 rounds, but what is important is that you can set it up before a fight and it’s very cheap both action and psi wise
Pyrokinesis – good area damage with running and screaming torches. Gives action point discount to cryokinetic orb
Cryokinetic orb – great area damage with additional frosting and bleeding. Gives action point discount to pyrokinesis
Honorable mentions for switching (or additional headband slot)
Frighten and enrage sometimes work better than mental breakdown, but sadly first wastes your time and second wastes your loot
Telekinetic punch, telekinetic proxy and implosion to fight overly thick robots and certain single targets
Force Field for some “ArenaNow and chill” while your enemies are screeching through the wall
Cryokinesis for additional sniping
Thermodynamic destabilization pre apply for additional fireworks
Exothermic aura to warm yourself in this cold world
Psycho-temporal dilation to slow them down
Entropic recurrence next turn repeats your last damage with interest against the bulky ones
Stasis single target “ArenaNow and chill”
Equipment logic and insane crafting results
Head: unless you want to heavy spec on electrokinesis, cryokinetic orb or neural overload get yourself universal one with crit chance and psi cost reduction, it’s the best one overall
Suit: sturdy laminated with beetle carapace and black cloth. Bio vest is nice, but get gas mask or bio suit or bio boots instead
Belt: Doctor’s Pouch is the only one actually useful
Weapon: spirit staff and staff-spear are almost equal in usefulness, but first wastes your mind with constant laughing and second one wastes your reserves when you switch weapons
Boots: black tabi unless something is wrong with the floor
Shield made with both 164 quality dual high frequency modulators, 164 quality plasma core and 161 quality efficiency converter. On normal psi doesn’t need it at all, but sometimes it’s handy.
Ninja Tabi Boots with 154 quality black cloth, best you can find on sale. Generally the best for psi.
Cloaking device made using only 164 quality parts. Stealth is fun.
It’s very hard to make a max quality vest so here is one with sturdy carrier 147 quality, laminated panel 164 quality, psi beetle carapace 99 quality and black cloth 154 quality. Very high quality Super Steel Sheet as panel might be slightly better, but it’s just too expensive and bothersome to care.
Motion tracking goggles with 158 quality lenses and 162 quality plasma core
Psi headband made with only 164 quality parts
Specialized psi headband made with 164 quality parts (cryokinesis filter 163, but 164 has the same damage)
Other fun stuff
Acid Blob pistol using only 164 quality parts
Incendiary Blob pistol using only 164 quality parts
Cryoliquid Blob pistol using only 164 quality parts
Leather armor with 112 quality mutated dog leather, 164 quality insulating foam paddler and 159 quality aluminized cloth
Endgame craft
Electroshock pistol with 166 quality electroshock generator, 183 quality plasma core, 182 quality high efficiency converter and 143 circular wave amplifier.
Hawker with 186 quality frame
Marauder with 183 quality frame
Why they considered insane? Because normally you have very small chance to get max quality materials on sale and even with force merchant refresh it’s very tedious.
Some general advice
+ and – keys to speed up your movement and time-based events
F for quick psi skills menu
1-9 and Shift + 1-9 mostly for tools and premeditation
This game has enough experience (especially on classic mode since it has have respawning enemies) and money (just pickpocket from waterways bar, then leave location for 10-20 seconds on x5 speed and get back) to go around so don’t care much about it until you need it.
You need around half of your inventory space for stuff you equally need, but other than that – just use cheat engine table and don’t be like those poor souls who waste hours to move their inventories from one location to another. You can also use it to rebalance your skill points if you made some silly mistakes or when testing out stuff/noting skill checks on wiki. If for some reason you can’t enable stuff on certain locations/situations try different saves first, enable it, then load your current save (obviously doesn’t work with rebalancing stats). For inventory activate main script, then enable max carry weight mod (you can modify value for even more inventory space), then disable main. Be aware that activating main script heals you. For merchant refresh and jet ski weight mod you have to interact with merchant/jet ski first, so it’s a good idea to create separate save where all of it is available.
Find the drill parts aka Depot A can be cleared easier by prioritizing stealth and lockpicking.
There are 4 ways to leave starting location after finding the drill parts
1) Free, but slightly inconvenient junkyard embassy elevator
2) Metro. Very convenient, but a bit boring
3) Boat. Very convenient, but a bit boring
4) T.N.T. Northern rocks of lower passages since it opens important root
After leaving starting location main quest is more or less irrelevant, I would even recommend to ignore it until endgame. Also grab jackhammer tool from foundry mines to remove those pesky rocks efficiently.
Recycle Item recipe can make you money on normal difficulty by crafting Leather Armor from Rathound Leather, then recycling it to make Repair Kits that can be used to repair and sell expensive armor for extra profit.
Destroying factions will cause or halt certain encounters.
If some DLC or just high level robots are dominating your ass try EMP grenade MK III, they stun robots for 3 turns.
140 quality materials are good enough. Some materials might not even scale to that number. Craft it now and stock overly good ones only if you really bored.
Stroll around seemingly big and empty location more often, that’s where all those interesting random encounters happen.
At high level (partly applies to lower levels) you usually should start your serious battles with applying Pseudo spatial projection, then simultaneously premeditation, then waiting until it’s 5 sec to expire and start a fight, preferably with costly ranged ability. This way Pseudo spatial projection becomes almost free or even free and premeditation will be available at turn 3 when enemies should be very close to death.
For jet ski since psi is usually better than all jet ski weapons so get yourself Torpedo for speed and don’t buy Freighter since almost all jets outside of shop are not sellable.
Afterword
I greatly enjoyed this game and I will be anticipating sequel with my full attention, but I do hope development team will include more convenience options and exclude late time inconvenience changes from it’s list so more players can enjoy it without a headache.