[Underrail] Episode 1 - Introductions (DOMINATING, no commentary)

The new Underrail update just released, featuring a number of additions including new dungeons, feats and buffs to ballistic pistols and throwing knives. Since I was planning on starting a new playthrough anyway, I figured I'd record and upload it too. I'll be using my own optimized build and playing on DOMINATING difficulty, so perhaps this can serve as a guide for newer players, seeing as how any strategies employed on higher difficulties will naturally work just as well if not better on lower ones. This first episode consists of character creation, a brief glimpse at my build plans and getting to know the various inhabitants of South Gate Station. Next time, we'll be exploring the caves and restoring power to the abandoned outposts therein. Overall, I like what I've read from the patch notes, although I'm quite skeptical as to how much more viable pistols are now, even in light of the buffs and added feats. The issue with ballistic pistols has always been that they fundamentally have no identity of their own - they simply don't fill any particular niche, and anything you can do with a ballistic pistol is something you can always do better with another weapon. You want a low AP cost ranged weapon? Laser pistols exist and can deal surprisingly high damage (700-1000 in my admittedly limited experience) on critical hits, which are far from uncommon when you stack the relevant buffs and feats. Is it high damage you're after? Any decent plasma pistol build can effortlessly deal over 10k damage in a single aimed shot critical. For superior range, sniper rifles exist and the Dragunov actually costs less AP to fire than the wasteland hawk pistol, while also dealing more damage, having vastly more range and an innate 60% chance to refund 10-20 AP when fired. Crowd control? Chemical pistols with cooked shot and the advanced catalyzing belt, or just plain old grenades. Many attacks in a single turn? SMGs and assault rifles are the clearly superior choice. That said however, the worst thing you can say about this update is that the pistol buffs are seemingly insufficient. The buffs themselves certainly can't make ballistic pistols any worse than they already are, and the other changes are very much welcome, and give me a good excuse to start another playthrough. Read the full patch notes here: https://stygiansoftware.com/underrail... My build: https://underrail.info/build/?HgUQAwM... Build guide and explanation: https://i.imgur.com/EEfoQ8L.png