Tech X or Brimstone? DEBATE!!

[KosmicKitten16236]

which is better? Provide detailed evidence. (cringe I know)

[Nazemec]

Mmh... Let's recap some data for both of them (off the top of my head).

Both:
- Infinite range.
- Piercing/spectral shots.

Brimstone:
- Decent to slow charge time.
- Narrow-ish area of attack, but can be moved while firing to cover more.
- High damage.
- Stays active a fairly long time.
- Several ticks of damage on anything it passes through.

Tech X:
- Can nearly-spam attacks instead of having to fully charge (reduces most DPS-related downsides).
- Can change how wide the attack is (larger if charged longer).
- Decent to low damage.
- Once shot, it goes in one direction and nowhere else.
- Stays active a short while when hitting the back wall.
- Only a few ticks of damage when passing through something.


Conclusion:
Hard to decide.
Haven't mentioned synergies because they are very similar for both of them (since they're both laser-based attacks). But since they synergize together, why not both?

[CraigTheThing]

The above comment sums up my basic thoughts of the two items pretty well, but I'd say that I would go with Tech-X over Brimstone.
My reason being that low-damage Brimstone (around 3.5) is MUCH worse then low-damage Tech-X, plus Tech-X is much more easy to spam/melt bosses.

[Банубас]

Soy milk

[MoonBeech]

Depends on a lot of things: my build, the Fate I've chosen, my mood that day

Overall, I think I would prefer Brimstone, especially if I'm going to fight something like Hush, simply because of one factor: aiming. I can sweep across rooms, hitting multiple enemies without worrying about shotspeed or the laser ring, and it gives me more flexibility once I fire.

You can't resize or change the altitude of a Tech-X shot once you fire it, whereas Brimstone offers that kind of full-room sweep, especially on large rooms.

And, on top of that lovely surgical movement, Brimstone ticks extremely fast. Pair it with poison, fire, Guppy, anything that triggers on hit and you're sitting pretty with exponential damage scaling.

Both are slick though and definitely promise to take a run in a fun direction.

[Hiroko]

Brimstone hits faster and has stronger god run synergies. Its also far better dps and more accurate as a single item. There are arguably a lot of items even stronger, but many of them require 2 or 3 specific items to abuse whereas both of these lazers are good by themselves. Tech X is more fun.

[The Renderer]

Both together, of course. What a question. :P

[Banshee]

If we're just talking about the items alone, then Tech X is stronger, and it's not even a close competition. I would go as far as to call it the single strongest item in the game.

I've cleared Boss Rush, Hush, and Mega Satan in one run with Tech X as my only item, and it never even slowed down. I attempted the same with Brimstone, and it really starts to drop off in power around the Cathedral if you have no other upgrades, since it heavily relies on being able to kill enemies as you enter the room. If you can't kill enemies immediately, then the charge time requirement to shoot starts to become an issue. That's something you never have to worry about with Tech X, it's far more versatile.

Brimstone has a few more synergies though that can make it situationally better. Like, you'd be pretty disappointed to find that Tammy's Head doesn't work like you'd expect with Tech X, but it does with Brimstone. Ditto with stuff like Rubber Cement, although at least Tech X has a very strong Continuum synergy (Brimstone currently does not).

[Mimicute]

I get a lot more excited to see Tech X in my runs than I do Brimstone. Depending on tear rate, Brimstone can still result in me taking too much damage through the run just based on how long I have to charge it. With Tech X my preferred method is just to button mash my controller's buttons to throw out as many little-large (tear rate depending) rings as possible, I find my DPS a lot better with Tech over Brimstone and would take it over Brim any day, and decide the run is already a win the second I see it (and right 99% of the time)