Build guide/discussion: Heavy Metal LMG

Also known as the **ONE TRUE DAKKA**^(TM) \- alright, AR tin can'ts and SMG peashooters, make way and clear out from the hall. ^(Just kidding, the Ministry Of Overwhelming Dakka doesn't discriminate.)

If you like overwhelming enemies with volume of fire while tanking their attacks with impunity, look no further. The *Heavy Metal LMG* build philosophy is simple: Wear heavy armor, carry heavy guns, and if anything shoots at you, keep spraying bullets until they stop shooting back. With each burst firing anywhere from 11 to 15 shots, and each shot almost one-shotting most mobs you'll be thinning down those hordes in no time at all! One powerful burst can easily take out 2 or more enemies, and with some LMGs you even get to do that *TWICE* a round!!

Hmm?

...

Whazzat? *"What if you're unlucky and miss and are left with some bunch'a pissed off Lurkers waiting to zone your face off...? And being a tin can with a proclivity for brrrting into groups, your escape options are pretty much inexistent...?"*

Well, guess what? You're dummy thicc, whatever they can throw at you will just tickle - laugh in their faces and unleash more DAKKA^(TM)! Heavy is where it's at, go **\*BIG\*** or go home!

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# LMGs: An Overview

Introduced in the Heavy Duty expansion, light machine guns are Heavy Guns which exclusively fire bursts. Compared to ARs, LMGs have lower accuracy, though this is compensated by the sheer number of bullets they spit out. The good news is, your enemies will die faster than you can yell "DAKKA DAKKA!!"; the bad news is, your ammo stockpiles will drain as quickly as their health bars. Expect to buy \*a lot\* of ammunition.

When firing bursts, any bullets which miss the primary target have a chance to hit other targets within the firing arc. Thus, the LMG's relatively low single-target accuracy at medium range is actually a boon, as it allows LMGs to mow down hordes of enemies in a way few other weapons can. At the same time, in close quarters the increased chance-to-hit lets you rip apart any jack that manages to make its way near you. By controlling your range, you control how the weapon operates - crowd decimation vs. single-target elimination.

Without going into detail, an **ergonomic compensated 9mm Ratchet** is your best DAKKA^(TM) pal.

There are also 3 unique LMGs to be found in the Underrail; while their stats are nothing to write home about, they do utilize 8.6mm and 7.62mm ammo which none of the common LMGs use. Given how ammo-hungry LMGs are, having the option to deplet- I mean, use other calibers is more than welcome, and I usually carry one of the uniques as my secondary LMG.

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# The Build

Disclaimer: Only played until L19 on Dominating/Oddity with LMGs, so I can't say much about how it plays in later parts of the game; it's also the only build I've gotten this far with, so I don't have much to compare with - opinions and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Initial build (L1): [https://underrail.info/build/?AQcDAwoJAwUADw8AAAAAAA8PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA8mUN-8](https://underrail.info/build/?AQcDAwoJAwUADw8AAAAAAA8PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA8mUN-8)

Final build (L30): [https://underrail.info/build/?HgsDAwwJAwU8wqBaAAAAAABcZwAAcHBQLWIAAAAAAABhJlAIYzsVw59KVcOdw6EfccK1Gm3CnsOcw4Tin6IF4qGHBOKijQPip7QD37w](https://underrail.info/build/?HgsDAwwJAwU8wqBaAAAAAABcZwAAcHBQLWIAAAAAAABhJlAIYzsVw59KVcOdw6EfccK1Gm3CnsOcw4Tin6IF4qGHBOKijQPip7QD37w)

^(Ignore the 60 points in Guns, it's just there to enable some feats in the planner.)

For stat benchmarks, you want **11 STR** for Brute Aim and **12 CON** for Tempered: Electricity, 1 or 2 into INT, and the rest in PER to boost Heavy Guns.

Stat progression: STR > STR > STR > STR > CON > CON

For feats, the only one you have to get ASAP is **Heavy Metal**. Thick Skull comes slightly later since that's when you start encountering enemies with stuns. The suite of feats related to bursts only become useful once you acquire your first LMG, so stagger their acquisition a bit later; you'll lack Guns skill to effectively use the ARs you find at that stage of the game, while early-game SMGs are hot garbage.

Skillpoints-wise, **max out Heavy Guns**, aim for **90 effective Throwing** for grenades, and at least **105 effective Mercantile**. For crafting, invest in high Mechanics (for armor and guns) and Electronics (for shields), moderate levels in both Biology and Tailoring (for regeneration vests), and some in Chemistry (for grenades, 40 eff. Chem is sufficient). Note that you can buff your effective crafting levels later on, so don't over-invest; \~120 effective skill before buffs for Mechanics and Electronics at max level is more than enough.

As with any tin can build, this build is highly susceptible to snipers and psionics; paint the rocks with their blood before they smear it with your brains.

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# Feats Outline

**Suppressive Fire** and **Opportunist** complement each other very well, as the former applies to all your LMG attacks while the latter will always activate on the same burst. Essentially, they give you almost unconditional +15% damage to your bursts, and more if you specialize into *Opportunist: Slowed Target*.

**Full-Auto** alongside **Mag-Dump** = more DAKKA^(TM). Just make sure to check your mag size and burst thresholds. Complements **Concentrated Fire** well (note that CF applies a debuff to individual enemies rather than a buff to yourself).

**Heavy Metal** is the feat that makes your dakka go DAKKA^(TM); at max armor penalty it gives your shots a whopping +47.5% more damage! The damage reduction is just the cherry on top.

**Brute Aim** gives you more PER for Heavy Guns while retaining higher STR. Win-win! Possible to get at L4 if you start with 10 STR. Later, grab **Increased Perception** to further boost Heavy Guns skill.

**Thick Skull** lets you keep shooting even when stunned. 'Nuff said.

**Conditioning**, **Fast Metabolism** and **Juggernaut** for survivability. **Tempered: Electricity** to protect against psi, which you're very susceptible to.

The final build can be padded out with:

* More damage - Expertise, Survival Instincts, Recklessness, Gun Nut (7 INT), \*edit\* Bullet Trance (5 WIL) * More survivability - Doctor, Gunner's High, Bodybuilding * More utility - Quick Pockets, Pack Rathound, Versatility, Major Supplier (6 INT)

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# Equipment Choices

Best-in-slot body armor will be **Regenerative Quad-Tungsten Metal Armor**. Pair these with **Strider Metal Boots** for caltrops-immunity (you'll be using them often). You'll also want a **Shaded Metal Helmet** to protect from flashbangs, which will be a common occurrence as you'll be facing off many enemies at once.

Focus on getting **High Frequency Shield Emitters**, as these provide the most protection from snipers which you'll need; your armor takes care of most other sources of mechanical damage.

For combat utilities, I eventually settled on these:

* **Flashbangs**: Great for getting a breather to reload or reposition. Your lack of single-target damage options means it's harder to dispatch enemies without waking some of them up (not without overkilling single targets anyway), but at the same time you can afford to allow some of them to attack you due to your durability. Practice discretion and choose your firing arcs wisely. * **Caltrops**: Amazing area-denial tool, slow enemies at a chokepoint so you can shoot them more. Crawler-poisoned caltrops later on can be employed to utterly devastating effect. They do cost more AP than grenades to employ in combat, however. * **Incendiary Grenades**: Another good area-denial tool similar to caltrops. Incendiary grenades deal more outright damage and can cause fear, but are less proficient at restricting movement. Plus, enemies charging into the flames can usually get a shot off at you, which is less likely to happen with caltrops. Still, they don't share a cooldown so you can use both. Also doesn't play nice with flashbangs as flames pop incapacitation right away.

**Tasers** are amazing for getting through the early and middle game, but once you get your first LMG and metal armor it becomes less useful.

A **Bullet Strap Belt** is amazing to have early on since LMGs have massive reload times, but this becomes less an issue once you have LMGs with larger belts/magazines. This is also a good time to switch to a **Doctor's Pouch** as that's when you start acquiring some of the more potent stims:

* **Adrenaline** is the BFF, as always. * **Morphine Shots** and **Aegis** are useful in ensuring you stay alive in tougher encounters; after all, nothing quite like dying to stop your rain of impending DAKKA^(TM)... * Morphine Shot has nice synergy with Last Stand - you can pop the latter when the former is about to expire to offset the resulting damage from any health deficit. * **Focus Stims** are a great option to go ham on your enemies. Most LMGs have a crit chance of 4%, so focus stims will increase their one- or two-shot potential by almost four-fold. * **Bullhead** can replace supplant Thick Skull and allow you to avoid the dazed debuff. A high-quality regenerative vest needs >80 effective Biology, so Bullhead falls within the threshold we're aiming towards. * **Regenerative Mixture** is amazing for survivability, though it comes with a jump in skillpoint investment at 115 effective Biology. At that point, you may as well grab **Supersoldier Drug** at 130 effective Biology as well. Shoot yerself up, shoot *'em* up!

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# Some Observations

**Arc of fire**: With such a burst-focused weapon, I wish I was able to fire in a direction rather than being forced to target specific enemies. At the least, I want to see which targets are in my arc of fire (helps reduce friendly fire) and what my chances-to-hit for each of them are.

**Barrel attachment**: Muzzle brakes are a large improvement earlier on, but once we get Full-Auto and Mag-Dump the relative damage increase drops. Later on, the precision bonus from burst compensators becomes far more impactful, as we're usually looking at 40%-70% hit chances, and in turn it also allows us to engage enemies effectively from further.

**Yell**: In theory, boosts survivability greatly. In practice, rarely able to debuff enemies since they were usually too far away, and those that came near were already dead. This kinda delegated it to crawler-bustin' duty, but even then I got minimal use out of it due to the very long cooldown. Probably a better pick for melee or mobile characters. 'Tis a pity - I always envisioned my character screaming "WAAAAAGH!" before unleashing DAKKA^(TM) on his unsuspecting foes.

**Gunner's High**: Provides mediocre sustain at 10HP/tick at max stacks before any healing bonuses apply. For comparison, \~Q90 regen vests give 55HP/tick, although Gunner's High can be sustained indefinitely. Useful to have in protracted fights, but your enemies will be very, very dead before you feel the impact from this feat. Grab Doctor instead; if you still need more survivability... aim towards crafting Regenerative Mixtures.

**Expertise**: A middling damage increase. LMGs rarely inflict criticals and almost always benefit from this feat, but at the same time they deal very high base damage, further bolstered by Heavy Metal. Hence, Expertise is pretty much overshadowed. Grab it if you want to push your damage that bit further, but it's not very impactful in the larger scheme of things.

**Versatility**: Decent QoL feat. However, Guns have 65% synergy with Heavy Guns, so the actual use case would be for LMG/sledgehammer builds. However, you would be torn between donning a Lifting Belt (-5AP cost to sledgehammers) or a Commando Belt (increased Versatility effectiveness), and either way you slice it, the sledgehammer will be less effective than it can be and will eventually be relegated to just clean-up duty. Besides, for really tough fights you really want dual LMGs instead ^((insert Rambo meme here)), and those are the fights that you should be prepping for.