I want to play on hard, but slightly worried that i may face a brickwall later on in the game.

[Rworqx]

Things like depot A
flippen muggers in core city that mug your life pretty fast.

Looking for some players that completed the game on hard difficulty and give their opinion about it.

I Played the game to core city and reached level 12. (please refrain from spoilers if possible)
my build than was light gunner relied heavily on dodging and had methatermics.

now i either want a psiless build relying on crafted consumables and utilities and stuff.
and a gun whether smg or assault i dont know yet. of course. or try thought control.

Why do i ask this. well I wouldnt be to happy that i could be stuck 30 hours in because of some crappy build.

Thanks in advance :)

[destroyor]

Edited 3 Jan 2020: Please note this build is outdated due to the release of DLC. Smart goggle and smart module on AR will no longer work w/ burst. Junkyard surprises no longer grant INT+2; you will need Hypercerebrix, a DLC item for INT+2. Tin Can AR below should be updated to Tin Can AR psi hybrid (another item added on my to do list for my guide ...).

As requested - Heavy Assault build, aka tin can. :)
Base Abilities & Feats[i.imgur.com]

It's strongly recommended you follow the order of feats in red, while all other feats could be taken in any order. Survival instincts & Doctor could be swap with any of the following: pack rathound, paranoia, fast metabolism, last stand, rapid fire, sharpshooter, critical power(*). Take Armor Sloping once you have 4 super steel plates.

*note: critical power only works on weapon with critical damage bonus above 100%, meaning Chimera (9mm assault rifle) and Sniper rifle only.

Skill distribution[underrail.info.tm]

Skill points in pickpocketing are optional - you can take them out and spend them (along with the 103 remaining points) on throwing/stealth/social skill/whatever.
For a new player I would strongly recommend pickpocketing. You only need 50 effective pickpocketing skill and you'll never run out of meds and ammo. Your skill screen should look something like: Pickpocketing 56 (50) - 56 is your base or "real" skill, and (50) is your effective skill. For the first couple levels max gun (max gun every level! Do not invest in a secondary weapon as you'll failed miserably if you do), mechanic, tailoring and pickpocketing every level until you reach 50 effective skill for mechanic, tailoring and pickpocketing.

Weapons:
Look for the following high quality parts: Rapid Reloader (RR), Muzzle Brake, Smart Module, assault rifle Hornet, Marauder and Chimera parts and craft:

• Rapid Muzzled Hornet 8.6mm
  
• Rapid Muzzled Marauder 7.62mm
  
• Smart Muzzled 7.62mm Hornet
  
• Smart Rapid Hornet 8.6mm
  
• Smart Rapid Marauder 7.62mm
  
• Smart Muzzled 9mm Chimera

Burst rapidly fires five bullets with reduced precision, seven bullets with full-auto. Muzzle Brake adds 2 extra bullet per burst, thus 2/5 * 100% = 40% increase in damage; 2/7 * 100% = 28.5% increase. A quality 147 smart module will increase damage of special attack by 59%. Muzzle brake is probably the better choice early to mid game, while a high quality smart module is the better choice mid to late game.

The goal is to obtain assault rifle firing at or below 11AP per shot. Using any of the above rifles you can burst fired twice with adrenaline shot, three times with commando (see AP cost table[www.underrail.com]). Another option would be burst (33AP) + grenade (15AP)/Taser (10AP) every turn.

For secondary weapon you will switch between:
Sniper rifle of your choice and
Smart Muzzled 9mm Chimera

You will burst with your fast AR and fire the slow AR w/ the free burst from Commando.

Armor:
Grind for high quality (max quality: 160) super steel plates, Siphoner leather (max: 64), Pig leather (max: 64), and boot spring (max: 129?)

• Shaded super steel helmet - immune to flashbangs
  
• Smart goggles
  
• Super steel armor (4 plates)
  
• Super steel boots (2 plates)
  
• Infused Siphoner Leather Tabi Boots - immune to immobilization (bear traps, nets, spider webs)
  
• Infused Pig Leather Striders (boots) - loot is life. life is loot.

Optional armor for stealth

• Padded infused Cave Hopper Leather Overcoat
  
• Balaclava (black cloth)
  
• Ninja Tabi Boots
  
• Cloaking Device

I was able to sneak around with 0 stealth skills with the above gears even in the end game area.

Shield:
If you are using tungsten armor:
Look for high quality Plasma Core, High Efficiency Energy Converter, Low Frequency Shield Modulator and High Frequency Shield Modulator. Use low frequency shield modulator as primary and high freq as secondary for your shield.
If you are using steel/super steel armor:
Look for high quality Plasma Core, High Efficiency Energy Converter and one single low quality (around 20 ~ 50, lower the better) Low Frequency Shield Modulator.
A bit counter intuitive but you want one single low quality low frequency shield for this build.

Consumable:
Taser, Frag/HE Mk V, EMP Grenade Mk III, Napalm Grenade, Flashbang, toxic gas grenade

In the early game use aimed shot + tactical vest and pickpocket everyone for meds + ammo. If you are in a sticky situation and need a way out just toss a flash bang at your feet (shaded metal helmet ftw) to escape. Remember grenade at your feet is a perfectly viable strategy when you are wearing full metal armor set. As you progress you will use SMG/Assault rifle until you have commando. Once you have commando you want to start crafting those assault rifles which would fire at or under 11 AP. The beauty of the 11 AP assault rifle is you can either burst twice with adrenaline or burst once + grenade without adrenaline. Plus you are still able to burst once when adrenaline wears off. Switch to full steel/tungsten (use Rathound BBQ to use tungsten) armor set once you have access to Core city. Start saving up charons and try to finish Foundry quest as early as you are able. Around mid to late game you will be rocking a full set of super steel armor (translation: 95% mechanical resistance) - a critical sniper round would be a scratch to you at this point.

If you don't want to grind super steel it's possible to beat the game using tungsten set (remember to adjust your shield accordingly). However you will have bad energy resistance and zero movement point. Don't bother taking Armor sloping if you planned on using tungsten for the entire game. Detail explanation between super steel vs. tungsten here.

The armor penalties for shaded super steel helmet, super steel armor (4 plates) and super steel boots (2 plates) are as follow:
Without armor sloping 14% helmet, 95% armor, 16% boot
With armor sloping 9% helmet, 59% armor, 10% boot
A tin can without armor sloping will have 2MP just wearing armor + infused siphoner tabi and should expect 0 MP in practice.
A tin can with armor sloping will have 21 MP wearing helmet + armor + infused siphoner tabi (mechanical resist 80%/30 threshold). This is good enough for your average fight. You can always switch to a metal boot for a tough fight. A load out of google + quad super steel plate armor (71%/26) + infused tabi is not out of the question (27 MP).
This is why I consider armor sloping useful.

A couple things of note:

• Remember to buy all the W2C (armor piercing) ammo when you shop.
  
• Use junkyard surprise to get INT+2 and use your house's crafting bench for those high quality crafting. Super steel armor with four 160 quality plates would need 167 mechanics skill and you only have 127 without this bonus.
  
• Focus stim is just godly - plus its ingredients are plentiful.
  
• EMP grenade MKIII stun robots for one additional turn compare to MKI/MKII.
  
• Carry Jackknife and Huxkey if you have them
  
• Toxic gas grenade has its own separate cooldown from frag/HE/incendiary grenade and is a very effective crowd control early/mid game.

[Rworqx]

Thank you very much for this indepth information :)

[Dude_Man]

Very useful info. Thank you for a new perspective on this type of build.

[Jean-Luc]

PSI with crafting is pretty safe for hard.

[Bier]

Even the build by destroyer is from 2016 i got a question:
How is Opportunist working in this build?
I dindt play range-weapon build for some years and cant remember assault rifle stunning, rooting or slowing enemies?
What im missing?

[King Fossil]

Originally posted by Bier:

Even the build by destroyer is from 2016 i got a question:
How is Opportunist working in this build?
I dindt play range-weapon build for some years and cant remember assault rifle stunning, rooting or slowing enemies?
What im missing?

He's getting slows off suppressive fire.

[Bier]

Oh :D
I see...
Ty for waking me up ;)

[Lt. Kitsuragi]

Originally posted by destroyor:

Edited 3 Jan 2020: Please note this build is outdated due to the release of DLC. Smart goggle and smart module on AR will no longer work w/ burst. Junkyard surprises no longer grant INT+2; you will need Hypercerebrix, a DLC item for INT+2. Tin Can AR below should be updated to Tin Can AR psi hybrid (another item added on my to do list for my guide ...).

As requested - Heavy Assault build, aka tin can. :)
Base Abilities & Feats[i.imgur.com]

It's strongly recommended you follow the order of feats in red, while all other feats could be taken in any order. Survival instincts & Doctor could be swap with any of the following: pack rathound, paranoia, fast metabolism, last stand, rapid fire, sharpshooter, critical power(*). Take Armor Sloping once you have 4 super steel plates.

*note: critical power only works on weapon with critical damage bonus above 100%, meaning Chimera (9mm assault rifle) and Sniper rifle only.

Skill distribution[underrail.info.tm]

Skill points in pickpocketing are optional - you can take them out and spend them (along with the 103 remaining points) on throwing/stealth/social skill/whatever.
For a new player I would strongly recommend pickpocketing. You only need 50 effective pickpocketing skill and you'll never run out of meds and ammo. Your skill screen should look something like: Pickpocketing 56 (50) - 56 is your base or "real" skill, and (50) is your effective skill. For the first couple levels max gun (max gun every level! Do not invest in a secondary weapon as you'll failed miserably if you do), mechanic, tailoring and pickpocketing every level until you reach 50 effective skill for mechanic, tailoring and pickpocketing.

Weapons:
Look for the following high quality parts: Rapid Reloader (RR), Muzzle Brake, Smart Module, assault rifle Hornet, Marauder and Chimera parts and craft:

• Rapid Muzzled Hornet 8.6mm
  
• Rapid Muzzled Marauder 7.62mm
  
• Smart Muzzled 7.62mm Hornet
  
• Smart Rapid Hornet 8.6mm
  
• Smart Rapid Marauder 7.62mm
  
• Smart Muzzled 9mm Chimera

Burst rapidly fires five bullets with reduced precision, seven bullets with full-auto. Muzzle Brake adds 2 extra bullet per burst, thus 2/5 * 100% = 40% increase in damage; 2/7 * 100% = 28.5% increase. A quality 147 smart module will increase damage of special attack by 59%. Muzzle brake is probably the better choice early to mid game, while a high quality smart module is the better choice mid to late game.

The goal is to obtain assault rifle firing at or below 11AP per shot. Using any of the above rifles you can burst fired twice with adrenaline shot, three times with commando (see AP cost table[www.underrail.com]). Another option would be burst (33AP) + grenade (15AP)/Taser (10AP) every turn.

For secondary weapon you will switch between:
Sniper rifle of your choice and
Smart Muzzled 9mm Chimera

You will burst with your fast AR and fire the slow AR w/ the free burst from Commando.

Armor:
Grind for high quality (max quality: 160) super steel plates, Siphoner leather (max: 64), Pig leather (max: 64), and boot spring (max: 129?)

• Shaded super steel helmet - immune to flashbangs
  
• Smart goggles
  
• Super steel armor (4 plates)
  
• Super steel boots (2 plates)
  
• Infused Siphoner Leather Tabi Boots - immune to immobilization (bear traps, nets, spider webs)
  
• Infused Pig Leather Striders (boots) - loot is life. life is loot.

Optional armor for stealth

• Padded infused Cave Hopper Leather Overcoat
  
• Balaclava (black cloth)
  
• Ninja Tabi Boots
  
• Cloaking Device

I was able to sneak around with 0 stealth skills with the above gears even in the end game area.

Shield:
If you are using tungsten armor:
Look for high quality Plasma Core, High Efficiency Energy Converter, Low Frequency Shield Modulator and High Frequency Shield Modulator. Use low frequency shield modulator as primary and high freq as secondary for your shield.
If you are using steel/super steel armor:
Look for high quality Plasma Core, High Efficiency Energy Converter and one single low quality (around 20 ~ 50, lower the better) Low Frequency Shield Modulator.
A bit counter intuitive but you want one single low quality low frequency shield for this build.

Consumable:
Taser, Frag/HE Mk V, EMP Grenade Mk III, Napalm Grenade, Flashbang, toxic gas grenade

In the early game use aimed shot + tactical vest and pickpocket everyone for meds + ammo. If you are in a sticky situation and need a way out just toss a flash bang at your feet (shaded metal helmet ftw) to escape. Remember grenade at your feet is a perfectly viable strategy when you are wearing full metal armor set. As you progress you will use SMG/Assault rifle until you have commando. Once you have commando you want to start crafting those assault rifles which would fire at or under 11 AP. The beauty of the 11 AP assault rifle is you can either burst twice with adrenaline or burst once + grenade without adrenaline. Plus you are still able to burst once when adrenaline wears off. Switch to full steel/tungsten (use Rathound BBQ to use tungsten) armor set once you have access to Core city. Start saving up charons and try to finish Foundry quest as early as you are able. Around mid to late game you will be rocking a full set of super steel armor (translation: 95% mechanical resistance) - a critical sniper round would be a scratch to you at this point.

If you don't want to grind super steel it's possible to beat the game using tungsten set (remember to adjust your shield accordingly). However you will have bad energy resistance and zero movement point. Don't bother taking Armor sloping if you planned on using tungsten for the entire game. Detail explanation between super steel vs. tungsten here.

The armor penalties for shaded super steel helmet, super steel armor (4 plates) and super steel boots (2 plates) are as follow:
Without armor sloping 14% helmet, 95% armor, 16% boot
With armor sloping 9% helmet, 59% armor, 10% boot
A tin can without armor sloping will have 2MP just wearing armor + infused siphoner tabi and should expect 0 MP in practice.
A tin can with armor sloping will have 21 MP wearing helmet + armor + infused siphoner tabi (mechanical resist 80%/30 threshold). This is good enough for your average fight. You can always switch to a metal boot for a tough fight. A load out of google + quad super steel plate armor (71%/26) + infused tabi is not out of the question (27 MP).
This is why I consider armor sloping useful.

A couple things of note:

• Remember to buy all the W2C (armor piercing) ammo when you shop.
  
• Use junkyard surprise to get INT+2 and use your house's crafting bench for those high quality crafting. Super steel armor with four 160 quality plates would need 167 mechanics skill and you only have 127 without this bonus.
  
• Focus stim is just godly - plus its ingredients are plentiful.
  
• EMP grenade MKIII stun robots for one additional turn compare to MKI/MKII.
  
• Carry Jackknife and Huxkey if you have them
  
• Toxic gas grenade has its own separate cooldown from frag/HE/incendiary grenade and is a very effective crowd control early/mid game.

gotta save this page for the great build

[UFO]

Sorry to necro, but even following the outdated guide by mistake resulted in a fun time. Really, good guideline nonetheless.

[SilkRoadV3]

used this for my first run, was 100% fun