How important is crafting?

[Zadok]

Long story short: I am in my 1st playthrough (at the Junkyard's gates @level 6), didn't want to read a guide and went for dominating difficulty. So far - so good!, but I don't know just how detrimental it will become for an unarmed/psi build to go w/o any crafting...

The things I need to know to plan my own build are the only things I am looking for:
Which items exactly deem You crucial for my build and which skill investment do they cost?

Will I find light armor, a universal psi headband and perhaps a shield in "decent" qualities? Part of the build idea is rendering myself as independent from items as possible, so I play an unarmed squishy Psychokinesis / Thought Control build, going for 10 / 10 / 7 / 3 / 3 / 10 / 3 attributes. Perhaps I'll find my build incomplete unless I persuade Mister X to hand out the Über-Item? I wouldn't know. Please enlighten me!

I'd be thankful if You'd point me in the right direction, dear knowledgeable reader!

PS: I play w/o Expedition

[Tamiore]

Crafting gives you substantially better items much earlier and noticeably cheaper, and also allows huge savings on consumables.
That being said, if you somehow have a surplus of money (yea, good luck with that on dominating), not having crafting wouldn't be THAT bad.
Also, to be fair, to utilize crafting effectively you need a solid understanding of what even CAN be crafted and what different components are actually good for and why. Not something I'd expect a player to know on the first run.
Also, just FYI: junkyard is widely known as "the place where bad builds go to die". So you are about to see how viable your build really is.

[Zadok]

Originally posted by Tamiore:

Crafting gives you substantially better items much earlier and noticeably cheaper, and also allows huge savings on consumables.
That being said, if you somehow have a surplus of money (yea, good luck with that on dominating), not having crafting wouldn't be THAT bad.

Well: There IS unlimited money in the game, right? Guess I got to choose well and grind a bit more than I bargained for... The sheer possibility is plenty already - good to know!

Also, to be fair, to utilize crafting effectively you need a solid understanding of what even CAN be crafted and what different components are actually good for and why. Not something I'd expect a player to know on the first run.

Indeed that's what I thought. It's why I went down that road :)

Also, just FYI: junkyard is widely known as "the place where bad builds go to die". So you are about to see how viable your build really is.

Very good to know!

Thank You for Your solid answers Tamiore: I now know all I need to!

[PenguinBystandah]

One tip I'd like to share: if you're gonna utilize psi and crafting, up that intelligence stat higher than 3. Intelligence and Will both determine your total psi regeneration. In addition, Intelligence boosts Mechanical and Electronics crafting skills by quite a bit (I think Biology is affected as well). Those first two along with Tailoring will be necessary for headbands and armor, among other useful things.

[Qiox]

Just to give an idea, consider Energy Shield Emitters. The best you are likely to find on a vendor or as loot will absorb around 700 damage. With crafting you can will likely make one at end game that can absorb between 1800 and 2000 damage. And if really lucky with high quality components, as much as 2200.

The relative difference with weapons is almost as drastic when considering crafted vs non-crafted.

[cypherusuh]

Some build could make due without any crafting, since there's some unique that's good enough until end-game. But most build relies on crafting, since most of the shop items, excluding Balaclava and Ninja Tabi boots, are usually far worse than crafted items. Also, some item are craft-only, such as Taser and gas grenade

[Jean-Luc]

Playing Underrail for the first time on Dominating is the thin line between bravery and insanity.

[Zadok]

On to the Old Junkyard...

[minister of chlorine]

Should I pick up crafting mid-walkthrough? My current guy is level 20 and he's fine, but I could do with some better traps and grenades.

[cypherusuh]

Not sure if you could fit both chemistry and biology at the same time with only 10 level tbh. Unless you maxed all the effort (15/15,10 spare for your main skill). You need 112 chemistry for MK5 grenade, for trap, Burrower trap is usually good enough for all-purpose bear trap. It requires 20 biology. The highest poison requires 150 biology, which is vastly overkill for a bear trap. Even throwing knife build usually managed to kill most organic with 5 stack of Burrower + cave ear

[minister of chlorine]

Worst case scenario, I'll just stack cheap mines on top of each other and lure enemies into death corridors.
Bear traps don't do that much damage to begin with, but they're great area denial.

[cypherusuh]

Bear trap's damage is much more apparent if you have Opportunist. 25% free damage boost is huge

[harperfan7]

You don't need crafting. Crafted items are undeniably better than what you can find or buy, in that they can have things that simply won't exist in the game otherwise, but found/bought items can otherwise match what you can craft. If you skip crafting, you can have a very well-rounded character, however. Ive played without crafting and in some ways its actually better. Depends on the build, too.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by harperfan7:

Crafted items are undeniably better than what you can find or buy, in that they can have things that simply won't exist in the game otherwise, but found/bought items can otherwise match what you can craft. .

That is enormously false. You will never find armor that can match the defenses of what can be crafted. You will never find a weapon with damage output, or crit profile that can match what is crafted. And as already mentioned, Energy Shield Emitters are as much as 3 times the capacity of what you will find.

Yes, you can get through the game without crafting. But it is not true that what you find is just as good.

[harperfan7]

It depends. You can find efficient shields for instance, but they're very rare (the 2000+ ones are mercantile, power management, etc, not just crafting skills). You'll never find multi-plate armor, that's true. The especially high components you can get via mercantile are going to beat anything that can be found or bought, but you need an extra skill to get them, a skill which also lets you buy even better items which may match those better components (I haven't tested this, but I bet I'm right). Since expedition, you can also find higher quality metals after the beast quest from leonie.

In general though, I'm right. I can craft special attack goggles that give like +35% damage or something, and I can find some that high as well (though typically in DC, but to be fair I crafted them right before DC). The damage range on your rapid muzzled hornet isnt going to be much higher (if at all) than the basic hornets you can find or buy. Sometimes uniques are even better than crafted (balors hammer, rancor, double-barreled shotgun, etc). I just noticed last night that the lemurian blaster is both amplified and polarized with good damage; not bad for a non-crafter.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by harperfan7:

It depends. You can find efficient shields for instance, but they're very rare (the 2000+ ones are mercantile, power management, etc, not just crafting skills). You'll never find multi-plate armor, that's true. The especially high components you can get via mercantile are going to beat anything that can be found or bought, but you need an extra skill to get them, a skill which also lets you buy even better items which may match those better components (I haven't tested this, but I bet I'm right). Since expedition, you can also find higher quality metals after the beast quest from leonie.

Mercantile does not make higher qualities available that you could not get without having the skill. It only increases the volume of high quality items meaning you don't have spend as much time checking vendors and waiting for restocks.

Originally posted by harperfan7:

The damage range on your rapid muzzled hornet isnt going to be much higher (if at all) than the basic hornets you can find or buy.

Not even close. And the crafted one can have a crit profile that you will never find as loot.

Originally posted by harperfan7:

I just noticed last night that the lemurian blaster is both amplified and polarized with good damage; not bad for a non-crafter.

Actually, it is terrible compared to a crafted Plasma Pistol.

Lemurian Blaster
Damage: 40-60
AP Cost: 35
Crit Chance: 4%
Crit Bonus: 100%
Precision: +5%
On hit 80% chance to apply polarization.
Energy per shot 10 out of 70 total. Meaning, you have to reload after 7 shots.

Aimed Shot damage before any other modifiers: 80-120


My crafted Smart Amplified Plasma Pistol
Damage: 52-80
AP Cost: 40
Crit Chance: 5%
Crit Bonus: 307%
Damage of special attacks increased by 60%.
Energy per shot 28.3 out of 147 total. Meaning, you have to reload after 5 shots.

Aimed Shot damage before any other modifiers: 339- 521

Actual damage range taking into account my Guns skill (239) and my total crit multi of 618%: 1585 - 2458

I tried the Lemurian Blaster and it is a pea shooter compared to a crafted weapon.

A weapon tailored with chosen optional components will far surpass anything you find.