Update 133 "Beserker" Build - Easy Overkill & Death Wish+ Loud Build

Become unstoppable! This guide focuses on a mix of defensive skills and shotgun skills to make you become an instakill unstoppable tank.

Introduction

Welcome to my second guide for PAYDAY 2! This build focuses on tank skills, as well as strong offensive abilities, to help you become an unstoppable damage output that is also capable of helping your team. The weapon of choice is the legendary Izshmash Saiga-12K, known in-game as the IZHMA 12G Shotgun. We combine this with shotgun, survivability and tank skills, mainly using the Mastermind, Enforcer and Fugitive trees. As always, make changes to suit your playstyle, and feel free to suggest them, as they may be added!

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Mastermind Skills

Mastermind

• We use Mastermind for two very powerful skills: Inspire aced and Uppers aced.
  
• Inspire aced allows us to contribute very well to teams by reviving and buffing teammates.
  
• Uppers aced means we have to rely on our team less as we can revive ourselves and teammates by pre-emptively placing First-Aid Kits.
  
• We also take Forced Friendship and Stable Shot as these are helpful skills which only cost 1 point each.

Enforcer Skills

Enforcer

• The main Enforcer skills are Overkill and Iron Man aced
  
• Overkill, along with skills such as Shotgun CQB and Shotgun Impact boost our shotgun damage dramatically!
  
• Iron Man aced unlocks the Improved Combined Tactical Vest, which gives us 221 armour with this build

Technician Skills

Technician

• For this build, we don't need any technician skills!
  
• Of course, feel free to alter the build to suit your playstyle

Ghost Skills

Ghost

• Ghost gives us three movement skills to get in and out of combat
  
• Duck and Cover and Parkour increase our movement speed, and Second Wind gets us out of sticky situations

Fugitive Skills

Fugitive

• Fugitive grants us two very powerful skills: Frenzy and Berserker
  
• Berserker can double our weapon damage when we are on low health
  
• Frenzy works with this by ensuring we always have low health but take less damage overall
  
• So, Frenzy offsets the negative of Berserker, and makes us even tankier!
  
• Bloodthirst is also handy as it makes our melee capable of killing enemies in dire situations

Perk Deck

Muscle

• We choose muscle as our perk deck as it provides the largest base health boost of all perk decks
  
• This almost doubles our base health from 230 to 414!
  
• As a result, the lower max health from Frenzy barely affects us, meaning we can take advantage of its benefits without any drawbacks!

Primary Weapon

Primary Weapon - IZHMA 12G
This is the weapon of choice for our Beserker build as it has a reasonable damage, as well as very high fire rate for a shotgun. It can also be modded for 100% Stability, and allows fully-automatic and semi-automatic fire mode. Overkill grants us a 75% damage bonus after a kill, which stacks with Shotgun Impact's permanent 15% damage bonus. We can also mod for maximum damage on this gun, boosting it from a mere 42 damage to a respectable 70.8. Shotgun CQB aced greatly improves the reload speed to a blazing fast 2.6 seconds - not that you'll be reloading often, with Close By aced tripling the magazine size from 7 to 22! Shotgun Impact and Stable Shot boost stability, helping us to reach maximum 100 stability, making this a very easy weapon to use. The following stats apply to the weapon without buffs. Bear in mind, in-game you'll have the effect of Overkill and Berserker to greatly increase your damage output.

Mods
Ammunition
The 000-Buckshot is a great choice if you have the Gage Shotgun Pack, as it boosts the base damage of the shotgun high enough to make it viable against stronger enemies.

Barrel Extension
The Shark Teeth Nozzle provides a bit of damage and good stability. This is better than the King's Crown Compensator which boosts accuracy and threat unnecessarily - two traits we don't need on a shotgun.

Foregrip
The Tactical Russian Rail gives us a good bit of extra stability.

Gadget
This is more a case of personal preference, I like the Military Laser Module

Grip
The AK Wood Grip provides the most stability, but it's still possible to reach max stability with the AK Rubber Grip

Stock
The Classic Stock is a good choice for stability if you have the AK/CAR Mod Pack. If not, you can use the Wide Stock from the Gage Mod Courier or the Standard Stock.

Other Items

Secondary Weapon
You can use any secondary weapon you want. However, with so many shotgun skills, it would be a good idea to use a shotgun. The Locomotive 12G Shotgun is my personal favourite.

Other Items
Below is a picture of my inventory with this build:

Melee Weapon
You can choose whatever melee weapon you wish, but with the Bloodthirst skill it is advisable to take one with a high damage. I chose the Shinsakuto Katana from the Yakuza Character Pack.

Throwable
You can use whatever throwable you want. I use the Javelin to eliminate Bulldozers. If you do not have any DLC, you can use the HEF Grenade or Concussion Grenade to deal with groups of enemies

Deployable
We chose the skill Uppers aced as it allows us to prevent being downed by placing First-Aid kits down. Therefore, we are taking First-Aid kits as our deployable.

Armor
We took the skill Iron Man aced in order to unlock the very strong Improved Combined Tactical Vest. This will allow us to take a large amount of damage without our armour breaking.

Gameplay

There are two main facets to this guide's gameplay - The very strong armour and powerful weaponry. Your armour should help you stay alive long enough to dispatch all foes with your strong shotguns. If it doesn't, simply drop a first aid kit and keep fighting! The various damage reduction buffs, combined with your naturally high health from the Muscle perk deck mean sometimes you won't die, even fighting enemies without your armour up.

Despite the slower movement and lack of stamina that comes from using an ICTV, the combination of skills chosen such as those within the Ghost tree should help you keep up with your teammates and complete objectives.

Aiming for the head is essential as it allows the coveted one-shot kill against all enemies except for Bulldozers and certain others on higher difficulties. It is recommended to set the shotgun to semi-automatic fire mode most of the time, to prevent wasting shots against enemies that would have died from one.

Despite the shotgun's inaccuracy, you are quite capable of taking out enemies at all ranges except for extremely long range. The way shotgun damage is calculated in PAYDAY 2 means that if a single pellet connects with an enemy, you will deal full damage. Therefore, it is not hard to kill groups of enemies at long range with a single shot.

Shock and Awe allows us to knock down shields and take them out frontally. You can also flank around them to take them out. Tazers, Medics and Cloakers are easy to take out with a single headshot. Snipers present a challenge as your shotgun falls off at extreme range and they can take out your armour in one shot on higher difficulties. It is advisable to seek cover and avoid at all costs. Bulldozers can be hard to take out, but one magazine should more than suffice if you aim for the head. Alternatively, use throwables or other weapons to help kill them.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading my guide! I hope it helps you and you find it enjoyable to use in your heists! If you enjoyed my guide, give it a like and favourite!

If you have any suggestions or improvements, leave a comment below. I will be updating this guide over time and making necessary additions or changes.

Now, are you ready to become an unstoppable tank? If so, go out there and destroy!

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[bem :)]

that helped man, thank you.

[Mem]

@SassyRiolu No, it's my build at the moment. It works wonders on Death Wish, but OD it's a little shaky. You can fit a lot of other things into the build, like I got shotgun skills and ammo bags aced.

[SassyRiolu]

@Mem I don't think you'll have enough skill points for that.

[SassyRiolu]

Actually, that helped a lot. Thanks

[HaylingZar]

You can mod your weapons however you want. I prefer less accuracy as it means we can kill more enemies in a single shot, due to the way shotgun damage is calculated, less accurate means more spread, and as each pellet does full damage, this means more multikills. Hope this helped you understand.

[SassyRiolu]

Are you aware that you can mod the IZMAH to have 40 accuracy and 100 stability at the cost of 1 damage point?

[Mem]

Use Anarchist with ICTV, Frenzy, and Bullseye aced. NOW you're a tank.

[Shaq]

y ths Hayling <3

[HaylingZar]

I'll add my loco mods in a bit, bear in mind it's only a suggestion

[Shaq]

locomotive mods?