Drillers Cryo gun vs Toxic Gun

[wolfsrainxo]

I see so much online discourse about which gun is best. I don't get it, personally feel like the Cryo Gun is just better in every way, especially paired with the microwave gun. Maybe my settings for the Toxin gun is not ideal? Just feels like i run out of bullets so fast.

[sam]

I've never really felt that the sludge pump is as good as the other two primaries, just lacks the ammo capacity and damage of cryo especially. Feels pretty obsolete now that cryo has crystal nucleation, but its my least used primary by far so IDK

[TABula Rasa]

I like the sludge pump with the overclock where it drops sludge as it flies so you can create huge lines of it. But it's probably not the best

[Blargo]

I find the Sludge Pump is a nice general-purpose weapon, but the other two primaries have better specializations.

An immediate advantage of the Sludge Pump is that it's Driller's longest-range primary weapon - you can hit targets from much longer distances, especially when you have the high ground.

You don't need to shoot grunts multiple times to kill them - one shot is enough and the DoT effect will do the rest. There's also a not-really-well-stated aspect of the sludge in that it will actually strip armor off enemies over-time.

All of Driller's secondaries have ways to combo with the Sludge Pump as well, such as:

- Subata with the Neuro-Corrosive Toxic Catalyst T5 mod. Shooting enemies affected with sludge causes them to explode on death, damaging nearby enemies.

- Wave Cooker with the Contagion Transmitter T5 mod. Does extra damage against enemies affected with sludge and has a chance to apply neurotoxin.

- EPC with the Burning Nightmare T5 mod. Pair it with the Combustive Goo Mix overclock for the Sludge Pump to make the sludge explode when ignited.

I like to build the Sludge Pump for maximum AoE, so I equip all the area effect/damage mods and the Disperser Compound overclock for more charged fragments.
The only times I can recall ever running out of ammo with the Sludge Pump is when using the Sludge Blast overclock, but I've never really run out of ammo with it besides that.

[Chris!!]

Stop spamming single shot projectiles on enemies and let the DoT from puddles and direct hit do the work.

Freeze Gun is only really good if you stick with your team - because if you're on your own, you still have to go finish the enemies yourself with either more freezing or a secondary after they're frozen, which is lame as hell.

With Flamethrower and Sludge Gun you can just coat the enemies and floor with fire / sludge and they will eventually die, leaving you with only the tanky enemies that will also get slowed down tremendously by the DoT. You can then either take it down with minimal risk using your secondary, or just continue doing the objective while the enemies slowly die.

[Chibbity]

They are both good, just depends what you're trying to do and how you play.

[Derpykat5]

The sludge pump is better at DPS for crowds. You have to let the debuff tick though, don't just spam it. The Cryocannon is almost always a debuff-focused weapon with lower DPS than the other driller options.

[Arbitrition]

the sludge pump is better for missions with rival tech enemies. compared to the cryo cannon which its completely useless against robots.

[Sokaku]

Sludge is a great choice for area denial at range, and hit & run gameplay. For instance Escort missions I camp the hearthstone and with 3 charged shots I can keep nippers off all sides of Doretta without moving. During the cage stage you can just run around dropping charged shots to coat the area.

Similarly with Point Extraction I can put a charged shot in the path of swarms and carry on doing objectives. I tend to marry the sludge pump with a TCF EPC for range projection. Helps with beamer towers and dislodging items/gold/oil shale.

Where sticky flames/ice are much better options is when you want to coat walls, like the drillevator, or commonly on Salvage.

[gurt: yo]

Originally posted by TendingArthur:

the sludge pump is better for missions with rival tech enemies. compared to the cryo cannon which its completely useless against robots.

Salvage, escort and osr really bring out the best in the sludge pump too imo

[Steelz Cloud]

Cryo is a very special weapon, it's a support weapon, CC weapon and potentially a swarm clearer at the same time. I don't think it has any competition since it acts very differently compared to all weapons in the game and relies on other sources of DMG (EPC, microwave gun, drills, axe, etc.) to give varying results. Not saying it's broken but it's a weapon of its own class so very hard to compare to anything.

A better comparison I'd say is the flamethrower and sludge pump. Both try to fill in the role of an AoE swarm clearer generally.

Flamethrower usually outperforms sludge pump in this aspect especially with sticky flames. It's very ammo efficient and can clear swarms within moments. Only issue is its short range and not the best at dealing with enemies like mactera, which EPC usually fills the role of but other secondaries can also do decently well.

Sludge Pump on the other hand is more generalized. It can swarm clear with a bit more work and is also pretty ammo efficient imo but it brings better single target DMG to the table especially when you consider Volatile Impact Mixture (goto for single target DMG) or some other OCs like Sludge Blast. Another benefit is it offers better range and ability to deal with macteras.

Overall if you're trying to have just an AoE clear, I'd say flamethrower generally is better, but sludge pump is offering a bit of everything you might need, like a Swiss army knife. I am excluding other stuff like face melter since they're more uncommon OCs which have their niche but felt this would make the msg too long.

[bacon]

sludge gun is effective against almost all enemies. robots, dreads, bulks, mactera, grunt density, rollers, etc. pretty much everything except the flying rocks in dozer mission, but not like flamer or cryo are any good either.

cryo is really bad against heavy enemies. flamethrower is ok, cycling with microwave gun for the temp shock.

people who like cryo gun like it because they run rich on ammo. kind of like fatboy people.

[kestrel]

you shouldn't be pairing cryo with tempshock CWC, it's just more work for the same payout that you'd get using it with CRSPR which gets much better range and ammo efficiency

in general though, cryo is ok, but it's extremely overrated. it rides and dies on its radiance mod to the point where the entire gun and all of its OCs is centralized around its usage and there's only like 2 secondary builds worth using with it

pump has a lot more build variety and is generally better for solo carrying. it's extremely powerful for defensive and is arguably better than sticky fuel if you're playing missions like salvage or escort where you aren't moving around much. 12 seconds base uptime is no joke. however, pump's low ammo means you're generally going to be spamming charge shots more often than not

try disperser compound CBBAA and get into the habit of covering the ground with puddles rather than shooting enemies directly. secondary pick doesnt really matter (they all suck in comparison to TCF anyway) but subata with T5C can be pretty ok

[Torres, The Devourer]

Yo OP. Could you feel us more about what you personally think of the weapons, how you use them, and your builds? I’m interested to hear them and I think it would be good insight for us to help you out and further explain our own thoughts.

[Lyam]

The cryo gun is the best for beginners/mid gameplay, because it can forgive a lot of placement errors and save your team easily (with the frost radiance, 5th on the cryogun). Couple it with the microwave shatter and you can destroy a lot of things.

[Tyyne]

Sludge /w Dispenser Compound 22122, use charged shots to create big pools of goo. Kind of a "fire and forget" weapon where you let your long lasting pools to take down swarms.

Cryo /w Crystal Nucleation 32232, creating areas of frosty goodness. Unlike the Sludge Pump, you will need to still kill the bugs or let your team mates deal with them, this is more of a crowd control weapon than an AoE cannon.