How to cryo cannon

[Trenchfox1917]

Triple gold star driller here that prefers the cryo cannon.

The cryo cannon seems to be selected far less often than the flamethrower, despite it being one of the best weapons in the game. I thought I would offer a brief guide on how to use it because many people seem to be under the impression that it is weak.

Strengths:
- Makes glyphids even in massive numbers trivial to deal with
- Sets up glyphids for melee kills giving you health back.
- Can freeze high health targets like goo bombers, and praetorians.
- If timed correctly can freeze a bulk detonator resulting in a damage free shockwave when killed
- Combos very well with high direct damage weapons, and cryo minelets.
- The best tool for dealing with breeders who happen to be in range.
- Can be used to freeze oppressors for frontal damage.
- Can freeze dreadnoughts, temporarily immobilizing them.
- Can freeze spitballers making them less of a threat at close range, and can freeze spawners keeping them from releasing tons of swarmers when they die.
- Open up enemies to high direct damage to quickly shatter them.

Weaknesses:
- Very vulnerable to mactera spawn which are too resistant to it in my opinion. While its true freezing them kills them, you have to get in range and stand near them for a few seconds which makes you very vulnerable. It is underpowered in this category in my opinion.
- Freezing progress is impeded by fire producing weapons.
- Does not actually freeze rollers or sand sharks.
- Range, but that comes with being a driller.
- Not optimal against swarmers and jellies.

Before I go into my weapon build I'll say a few notes about gear to bring with it.

Perks: Vampire is a must as you can freeze a large wave of glyphids, and then drill through them all for +5 health each. Another good perk to take is Lovable. You often run close to enemies strafing across the line of fire to freeze everything. Reduced friendly fire is better for you and better for your team particularly in chaotic situations.

Drills: Barbed drills means you do even more damage to frozen targets. This is one of the most important synergies for this build as you shouldn't use the cryo cannon to finish frozen targets. Get used to rapidly switching back and forth between the cryo cannon and your drills. An essential skill is to gauge whether everything is frozen and its safe to start drilling.

Secondaries: The subata 120 with +3 damage instead of weakspot damage, and full auto -or- the EPC specced for normal shots with the heavy hitter OC. The key is high direct damage to take advantage of the bonus damage to frozen targets. Note that freezing negates weakspot bonuses, but gives a large damage multiplier for any hits that connect. I use my secondary to finish off frozen praetorians as drills are too slow.

Pick: I recommend taking the extra AoE radius on your power attack as it makes groups of swarmers a little less frustrating.

Grenades: Easily the Neurotoxin Grenade. This is an incredible way to wipe out swarmers and jellies and compensates for one of the cryo cannon's biggest drawbacks. Additionally, you can fight inside of your cloud for stacking cc and damage.

Finally, here is my build

Tier 1: Stronger Cooling Unit, +1 Freezing Power (+20% freezing rate)
Tier 2: Overclocked Ejection Turbine, +3 range (+50% range)
Tier 3: Increased Flow Volume, +20% flow rate (+20% attack speed)
Tier 4: Larger Reserve Tank, +150 Tank Size (+150 Max Ammo)
Tier 5: Cold Radiance, gradually freezes enemies within 5m of you while firing.
OC: Perfectly Tuned Cooler, +1 Freezing Power, +10% Flow rate

Note that there is a 40% increase in freezing power and a 30% increase in attack speed interact multiplicatively for a 82% increase in the rate you freeze enemies. This is very significant when freezing praetorians, dreadnoughts, grunt guards, and goo bombers. It also helps with frost resistant enemies. This does not account for the additional freezing from Cold Radiance.

Most people seem to avoid attack speed for fear of running out of ammo, or take improved 2nd stage pump to reduce the charge up time. I say get used to the increased ammo consumption rate and the charge delay. Once you start firing you freeze things almost instantaneously and the 20% makes a big difference in effective freeze rate, especially for large targets.

How to fight:
- Against glyphids, run into the mass of them with the trigger held, trying to blanket them in frost as evenly as possible and let your aura do the rest. Do a mix of strafing and moving into them.
- Prioritize praetorians and oppressors as the ability to freeze them is a massive advantage for your team.
- Don't be afraid to freeze grabbers that come close and goo bombers.
- If you can get breeders in range, freeze them immediately as they are otherwise a huge ammo sink for your team.

What not to do:
- Don't hold down the trigger when you are not freezing something.
- Don't use the cryo cannon to finish off frozen targets. Use your drills or secondary
- Don't try to use it to fight mactera spawn unless they are really close together and close to you, as they sometimes spawn in clusters.

I hope this is helpful!

[Bongwater Pizza]

I use exactly the same build as you. Down to the OC on the side arm. People who say the cryo sucks, clearly don't know how to use it.

This build absolutely wrecks. I love freezing a dozen grunts with a puff, and then grinding them into health.

Except I use extra damage for my power attack, since drills clean up swarmers and jellies well enough. And I use axes for nades, as I find a ranged power attack with no cooldown hard to not choose.

The extra power attack dmg means I can easily freeze a praet, power attack him, and drill him for 1 fuel or less and he pops.

[John]

Publicado originalmente por Trenchfox1917:

Triple gold star driller here that prefers the cryo cannon.

The cryo cannon seems to be selected far less often than the flamethrower, despite it being one of the best weapons in the game. I thought I would offer a brief guide on how to use it because many people seem to be under the impression that it is weak.

Strengths:
- Makes glyphids even in massive numbers trivial to deal with
- Sets up glyphids for melee kills giving you health back.
- Can freeze high health targets like goo bombers, and praetorians.
- If timed correctly can freeze a bulk detonator resulting in a damage free shockwave when killed
- Combos very well with high direct damage weapons, and cryo minelets.
- The best tool for dealing with breeders who happen to be in range.
- Can be used to freeze oppressors for frontal damage.
- Can freeze dreadnoughts, temporarily immobilizing them.
- Can freeze spitballers making them less of a threat at close range, and can freeze spawners keeping them from releasing tons of swarmers when they die.
- Open up enemies to high direct damage to quickly shatter them.

Weaknesses:
- Very vulnerable to mactera spawn which are too resistant to it in my opinion. While its true freezing them kills them, you have to get in range and stand near them for a few seconds which makes you very vulnerable. It is underpowered in this category in my opinion.
- Freezing progress is impeded by fire producing weapons.
- Does not actually freeze rollers or sand sharks.
- Range, but that comes with being a driller.
- Not optimal against swarmers and jellies.

Before I go into my weapon build I'll say a few notes about gear to bring with it.

Perks: Vampire is a must as you can freeze a large wave of glyphids, and then drill through them all for +5 health each. Another good perk to take is Lovable. You often run close to enemies strafing across the line of fire to freeze everything. Reduced friendly fire is better for you and better for your team particularly in chaotic situations.

Drills: Barbed drills means you do even more damage to frozen targets. This is one of the most important synergies for this build as you shouldn't use the cryo cannon to finish frozen targets. Get used to rapidly switching back and forth between the cryo cannon and your drills. An essential skill is to gauge whether everything is frozen and its safe to start drilling.

Secondaries: The subata 120 with +3 damage instead of weakspot damage, and full auto -or- the EPC specced for normal shots with the heavy hitter OC. The key is high direct damage to take advantage of the bonus damage to frozen targets. Note that freezing negates weakspot bonuses, but gives a large damage multiplier for any hits that connect. I use my secondary to finish off frozen praetorians as drills are too slow.

Pick: I recommend taking the extra AoE radius on your power attack as it makes groups of swarmers a little less frustrating.

Grenades: Easily the Neurotoxin Grenade. This is an incredible way to wipe out swarmers and jellies and compensates for one of the cryo cannon's biggest drawbacks. Additionally, you can fight inside of your cloud for stacking cc and damage.

Finally, here is my build

Tier 1: Stronger Cooling Unit, +1 Freezing Power (+20% freezing rate)
Tier 2: Overclocked Ejection Turbine, +3 range (+50% range)
Tier 3: Increased Flow Volume, +20% flow rate (+20% attack speed)
Tier 4: Larger Reserve Tank, +150 Tank Size (+150 Max Ammo)
Tier 5: Cold Radiance, gradually freezes enemies within 5m of you while firing.
OC: Perfectly Tuned Cooler, +1 Freezing Power, +10% Flow rate

Note that there is a 40% increase in freezing power and a 30% increase in attack speed interact multiplicatively for a 82% increase in the rate you freeze enemies. This is very significant when freezing praetorians, dreadnoughts, grunt guards, and goo bombers. It also helps with frost resistant enemies. This does not account for the additional freezing from Cold Radiance.

Most people seem to avoid attack speed for fear of running out of ammo, or take improved 2nd stage pump to reduce the charge up time. I say get used to the increased ammo consumption rate and the charge delay. Once you start firing you freeze things almost instantaneously and the 20% makes a big difference in effective freeze rate, especially for large targets.

How to fight:
- Against glyphids, run into the mass of them with the trigger held, trying to blanket them in frost as evenly as possible and let your aura do the rest. Do a mix of strafing and moving into them.
- Prioritize praetorians and oppressors as the ability to freeze them is a massive advantage for your team.
- Don't be afraid to freeze grabbers that come close and goo bombers.
- If you can get breeders in range, freeze them immediately as they are otherwise a huge ammo sink for your team.

What not to do:
- Don't hold down the trigger when you are not freezing something.
- Don't use the cryo cannon to finish off frozen targets. Use your drills or secondary
- Don't try to use it to fight mactera spawn unless they are really close together and close to you, as they sometimes spawn in clusters.

I hope this is helpful!

https://steamcommunity.com/app/548430/discussions/1/1745643424482531502/

[Cactus-Cat]

I use the cryo cannon a lot, but my favourite build is very different:

(1) -40% pressure drop rate
(1) +50 ammo
(2) -40% pressure drop rate
(3) +150 ammo
(2) cold radiance
(OC) +25 ammo, -25% pressure drop rate

My build is more focused on swarm freezing instead of big targets. Oppressors still freeze fast enough that they can't fight back and I can freeze them around 7 times before I run out of pressure.

[Nightwolf]

both the flamer and cryo are equally good and yeah the cryo is pretty rare. i think that is just do to the fact that the flamer is more noob friendly so they feel they get easier results with it but a experienced cryo player can really make a difference in mission espc vs the more pain in the butt targets like a bulk or oppy or waves of praes.

one of the best combos in any mission is a experienced cryo player and a gunner working in tandem. waves of anything melt and controlling a swarm becomes a work of art

[Vash(88)]

tldr

All i have to say is "cryo all the way!" There are just too many reasons for me to bring the cryo (freezing dets, freezing dreads, freezing oppressor, freezing spitballers, freezing nexuses... nexi?) You get the point. Cryo plus a good gunner or engie provides all of the dps in the world and allows for the benefits of freezing the bugs

...Unless I'm in the Glacial Strata.

[Mortal]

Yep, i use this build, however i prefer ammo on tier 2 and more freezing power on tier 4. This build is specially good when paired with ECP Heavy Hitter OC (weakpoints dont work against frozen enemies).

[livinghell]

Dont like it if not configured to 17 direct damage and 3 freeze (ice shards OC). Most drillers I met were sadly useless with it and didn't manage the swarms, but were just overrun....while they concentrated on few single enemies. With flamethrower you can STOP the swarm and use subata synergy too..

[WiseDuck]

I've been using my Dr Freeze Scout a lot lately and I love it when I bump into drillers with Cryo cannons. I use Cryo grenades, Cryo Minelets and Bullets of Mercy. So much fun!
That's the type of driller I like to fight together with.

Not really much point in staying near a driller with a sticky flames build anyways. (tho I suppose Bullets of Mercy do kill enemies that are on fire real quick, but the flamethrower seems to kill everything fast enough as it is already so eh) You can't see anything past the flames, your own ice weapons are nullified and why would I want to fire past the inferno anyways? I just go do something else instead.

[Deja Vu]

Despite opinions Cryo is not weak, it's just flamer is a little OP. I still prefer Cryo, CC is my favorite role in co-op games.

Impact Axes synergize with it as well.

[[DSD]DukeNukem]

200% agree with OP. I don't use flame anymore, because cryo can owns pack in 2/2. And with the good overclocks, it freezes even faster.

[Unato]

Actually a pretty good post, I'll keep that in mind. However :

Publicado originalmente por Trenchfox1917:

Strengths:
- If timed correctly can freeze a bulk detonator resulting in a damage free shockwave when killed

Why would someone do that?! this is madness!

[Lunacy]

My build: get as much freezing power as possible, puff out a stream, and finish an entire group with 1 second of drill damage

[Tornado Head]

duck: quacks
drg players: look at my build

[Droolguy]

EPC thin wall is better with cryo than Suba, but does take some practice.

Freeze pack, step back, EPC combo attack.

Leaves drill fuel for actually drilling, and EPC can also be used to mine entire ore veins in under 2 seconds.