Solo play on Hazard level 5

[linkfire12]

I greatly enjoy challenging myself and playing on high difficulties in games, and I've gotten to a point where I can consistently play and beat Hazard 5 in multiplayer. I love that instead of creating bullet sponges, they made the game more dynamic, interesting, and challenging by diversifying combinations of enemy spawns to pose new threats and made it a challenging onslaught, whilst still keeping a careful balance of nitra and ammo cost.

I first of all wonder if enemy spawns are different if you select the solo play option vs the private match option (without anyone joining), does it stay the same challenge level and amount of mineral deposits provided for each? Do Dreadnoughts have the same roar time in Solo vs Solo private to allow for weakpoint damage? And can you get play solo achievements in private mode, or only solo?

I also wonder if there is a viable way to play solo, whether that be player or Bosco builds. With my experiences, I tend to not have issues with combat, but how incredibly quickly I use up all my ammo, verses the amount of Nitra deposits. The rounds I have played often devolve into kiting enemies whilst Bosco sloooooowly kills them (and then a new horde spawns).

When I played a mule recovery mission, it was infuriating that after successfully exploring and looting the entire cave, I lost because the uplink timed out (as it was physically impossible to stay on the beacon, as there was a giant exploder, not to mention web spitters and other enemies swarming it), and I'm not sure what I could do to play it differently.

I am wondering if it's possible to consistently play solo Haz 5, like it is in multiplayer, without using cheesy tactics or kiting endlessly, or if there needs to be some balancing and fine-tuning done (such as with the uplink timers and beacon, the insta mission fail is infuriating).

[Dozey]

Solo play is always possible but this is a game built around cooperative game play.

[linkfire12]

While this is true, there has been an extremely commendable amount of work put into balancing solo play, the most obvious of which is the extremely fleshed out Bosco, but also including damage, health and spawn scaling.

A little detail I love is how clever the four charges on a supply drop is, perfectly balancing different team sizes, providing more ammo for smaller teams to make up for the larger amount of ammunition expended individually.

The balance of combat and ammo feels off for solo 5, the constant onslaught of enemies Bosco is unable to deal with, and that you run out of ammo very quickly fighting, doesn't allow for a consistent flow of mineral gathering and mission progression in between waves, like multiplayer does, with players covering each-other.

I might test it out more, but I was just curious if there was any builds or strategies for either the player or Bosco people have that allow for consistent play at solo 5.

[King Fossil]

Solo hazard 5 is easy as long as you're playing the right class for the mission type. If you play gunner on point extraction things are going to be hard (actually that might not be too bad now that Bosco can carry things). If you play scout on salvage things are going to be hard. You play the right class and things are okay.
I'm fairly certain solo and multiplayer with 1 player are functionally identical aside from achievements and the game not auto pausing when you go to the menu in MP.
Oh yeah, I play solo haz 5 a lot more than I should (like, hundreds of games done), and I do okay. Just play the right class.

[linkfire12]

What would you recommend for mule salvage? Oh and maybe Bosco upgrades.

[King Fossil]

Originally posted by linkfire12:

What would you recommend for mule salvage? Oh and maybe Bosco upgrades.

Engineer with SMG/Breach Cutter, MK2 defender turret, lures. Bosco goes damage/revive/freeze/electric bullets at all times.
Defending is a breeze as engineer as long as you've gotten enough nitra for 2 supply pods (which is easy since you get free nitra just for fixing mini mules). You just camp out with your turret. If you're getting swarmed throw a lure to take the heat off and then BC the enemies once they're grouped up around it. If a detonator shows up throw a lure to distract the small enemies and then spam it with BC. If it's too close to you so you're scared of the death explosion get Bosco to freeze rocket it before killing it, if it's frozen it doesn't explode.
Syn did a video of him soloing haz 5 (with no Bosco!) a while ago so you can watch that if you want to see how he does it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAWcIrbEhw

[linkfire12]

Interesting, do you recommend electric or dmg build on the smg's? I'm guessing electric for CC since Breach Cutter.
I wonder if Driller and Gunner are viable at all, hmm. I'll experiment more with solo. Thanks for the info!

Edit: I'll watch the video too! Thanks!

[Syncourt]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

Syn did a video of him soloing haz 5 (with no Bosco!) a while ago so you can watch that if you want to see how he does it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAWcIrbEhw

I've put a few more on that channel too now for driller and scout. If you learn to use them like I did in these videos, success will be guaranteed with Bosco at your side. I'll likely be adding more to the channel as I go too, co-op and with Bosco included since I found I can actually record DRG without impacting my performance .

I'm new to youtube though, so do excuse the 'noobness' of my video editing.

[King Fossil]

Originally posted by linkfire12:

Interesting, do you recommend electric or dmg build on the smg's? I'm guessing electric for CC since Breach Cutter.
I wonder if Driller and Gunner are viable at all, hmm. I'll experiment more with solo. Thanks for the info!

I go ABAAA on the SMG. ABAAB is popular too but I like conductive bullets better since it helps with praetorians/goo bombers. Electrocution builds are more for team support, and if you don't have a team that doesn't really work.
Driller/gunner work but I really like having the platform gun on salvage, since sometimes you get given terrible places to defend and you need to expand them/block off approaches with platforms. If I want to play driller/gunner I just pick a different mission type.