Um, how do people get this high damage output?

[Night_Sniper]

Whenever I play, I usually end up being, you know, virtually immortal, but my damage output is either mediocre or terrible.

In multiplayer, no matter how the RNG turns out, I always keep in the back of the damage output between all players with top scores being, llike 20 mil, 15 mil, and I am sitting here with about 9 mil. I physically can't die tho, thats nice... Learnt how to build this way on nightmare atleast. (pathetic nightmare player)

But how do you manage to get THIS much damage output? Unless you get a broken weapon drop that just wins the game for you (happened even to me).

[parent child bowl]

Might just be them playing optimally while you play what's fun for you (and the fun thing is suboptimal).

It's hard to tell if we don't at least have a post-game screenshot.

[Night_Sniper]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Might just be them playing optimally while you play what's fun for you (and the fun thing is suboptimal).

*realises he's been using big hippo in every single successful run*

Yeah... I think that might be exactly the case.
Whats the reason to play optimally if its not fun? I guess thats fun for them, probably.

[letir]

You need knowledge about "better" guns and ascensions of your character, and then strive to find/pick/trade as much relevant scrolls as possible. Your final build would be defined by the luck and your own determination to make it in equal measure.

For example, you've got a Deadly Counter, which by default not that impressive. But with Fire Enthusiast, this become devastating combo of constant crits. Because your strategy relying on health self-damage, you should try to find Flesh and Bones and Resilent Life. You also will deal fire damage, so elemental scrolls/ascensions are welcome - but NOT Flame Shard, it will negate fire damage.

Most important thing is ability to recognize valuable pieces and guide build towards effective combo. There IS objectivly better ascensions, scrolls and weapons, generally useful for everyone. Even simply building "strong" build is usually enough to take top place, regardless of luck.

[Eudicots]

What character do you prefer to play as?
As of now each character (except Dog) has one real strong weapon type that they excel in.
Crown Prince is melee, Bird is Shotguns, and Tiger is snipers. For Dog it depends on the ascensions that are available since he can go explosive or high fire rate.
The most important trick is to understand what ascensions work well with each other.

[Chris.T]

Originally posted by Eudicots:

What character do you prefer to play as?
As of now each character (except Dog) has one real strong weapon type that they excel in.
Crown Prince is melee, Bird is Shotguns, and Tiger is snipers. For Dog it depends on the ascensions that are available since he can go explosive or high fire rate.
The most important trick is to understand what ascensions work well with each other.

cat does melee? hmm...

[Revalopod]

I played with someone who got 70m damage (as crown prince) and I felt so insiginificant with my 24m (as bird)

[Eudicots]

Originally posted by Kurisu:

Originally posted by Eudicots:

What character do you prefer to play as?
As of now each character (except Dog) has one real strong weapon type that they excel in.
Crown Prince is melee, Bird is Shotguns, and Tiger is snipers. For Dog it depends on the ascensions that are available since he can go explosive or high fire rate.
The most important trick is to understand what ascensions work well with each other.

cat does melee? hmm...

Try fire Tower with Cat the synergy with his ascension makes cat a monster. The highest dmg I have gotten per swing is ~3 mil. The ascension that matter for Melee Cat build are Hex Smoke (only 1 needed), Elemental Rage, Energy Blade, Any Two Elemental Dominance (depends on the melee weapon you are using and what is available). The best scrolls are deadly Counter, Coin Shot, And spirit Feline. Any Fire tower you find at +3 with etch can easily be taken to the end of the game. All melee weapons in game are currently elemental making Cat the best option for them.

[Night_Sniper]

Originally posted by Eudicots:

What character do you prefer to play as?
As of now each character (except Dog) has one real strong weapon type that they excel in.
Crown Prince is melee, Bird is Shotguns, and Tiger is snipers. For Dog it depends on the ascensions that are available since he can go explosive or high fire rate.
The most important trick is to understand what ascensions work well with each other.

Aye, sorry for such a late response, everyone. Had to do alot of stuff, heh.

Before the last update I was mainly playing crown prince and specking him into lightning damage, pairing it with Lightning Blast or lightning Big Hippo if I got lucky to get one

However, this preety much summarises the "damage" upgrades I had, cause other than that I was going crazy on upgrading shields with scrolls/perks and slowly (but inevitably) turning myself into the scaled down version of the boss, on crazy resistance and shields regen but mediocre damage.


Now I switched to Tao, and God sees I love this new character. Using Big Hippo AND being effective? Sign me the f*ck UP!

Again, been specing ALOT into firerrate upgrades, getting those perks (ascentions, right?) that boost mainly 2 things. I was getting enemy debuff on secondary skill (slowness + damage nerf), usually dumping 3 skill points into that and also getting the +20 damage on marked enemies, while also boosting my shields and swords damage, relying on my primary to quickly stack active skill, not be the main damage source. Still, usually end up with 2 points spent into increasing sustained firerate on weapon.

By scrolls, all praise whatever makes me take less damage. "spirit feline" (its called 9 lives now, isnt it?), things that boost my shield's survivability or regeneration, it all goes there. Also, mobility. The secondary reason I keep playing Tao is how quick she is in a battle. Whatever boosts my speed, scroll that gives extra speed after dashing is god tier in my eyes.

Not throwing away lucky shot chance, but it needs a very specific set of weapon inscriptions on minigun and scrolls to work.


So, thats preety much my build. Tanky, debuffing enemies, swords boost me further and wipe things out, my main weapon is mediocre. Where have I gone wrong?

[Eudicots]

For Tao her Sword related skills are for better than her Raging Bloom skills. Her two absolute best ascensions are Sword Enthusiast and Sword Guard since there is no max stack on these two. You want to pick ascensions that can help summon as many swords as possible. In lower difficulties the sword dmg alone can carry you far, but in higher difficulties its the stack bonuses that will either boost your dmg to +100k per shot or help your shield get to ~1k.

For weapons the hippo is viable, but its slow firerate will make it harder to obtain sword stacks. You will want to use weapons like Scalpel, Gloves, Demonlore, Concealed Ammo, Star Devourer, or Fire Dragon. These weapons will help you obtain sword stacks twice as fast compared to the hippo.

For scrolls picking the defense scrolls isn't a bad option since they help any build regardless of character. However the scrolls that work best for her are Perfect Sixth, Arms Dealer, and Merciless Combo.

[Night_Sniper]

Why, thank you, I've been playing her wrong all this darned time.

I still will keep atleast one big hippo in my inventory atleast because I like the minigun XD
But I will take a closer look at the weapons, but more importantly, ascentions you have mentioned, spamming as many stacks as possible. Thank you very much.

[letir]

If you want to play with lightning, Pupil is the best weapon, hands down.

[Revalopod]

Originally posted by mar:

If you want to play with lightning, Pupil is the best weapon, hands down.

agreed

[TormentedSalad]

Originally posted by Night_Sniper:

Whenever I play, I usually end up being, you know, virtually immortal, but my damage output is either mediocre or terrible.

In multiplayer, no matter how the RNG turns out, I always keep in the back of the damage output between all players with top scores being, llike 20 mil, 15 mil, and I am sitting here with about 9 mil. I physically can't die tho, thats nice... Learnt how to build this way on nightmare atleast. (pathetic nightmare player)

But how do you manage to get THIS much damage output? Unless you get a broken weapon drop that just wins the game for you (happened even to me).

Its just a matter of figuring out what accensions work well together scrolls too you cant get the same every time but you can sure as hell pick the best of what your given

[Polyurethane]

For Crown Prince, my main strategy is that I use the gemini inscriptions to give myself a confusion weapon (fire/lightning), ideally one with piercing, because it pairs well with the decay grenade.

If you have the weapon etching unlocked, you can get a confusion weapon before the second boss.

[letir]

Originally posted by Polyurethane:

For Crown Prince, my main strategy is that I use the gemini inscriptions to give myself a confusion weapon (fire/lightning), ideally one with piercing, because it pairs well with the decay grenade.

If you have the weapon etching unlocked, you can get a confusion weapon before the second boss.

You don't need Confusion for damage. Explosion is way to go. They can't be confused if they are dead.

Also, crit-sharing geminin can be stronger.