Skully too weak?

[Blaizeus]

Soo I have had one successful Skully run since the update..on loop 0, normal mode.

How are you guys building your Skully? I've had this issue now on 3 different runs (Normal mode loops 2 and 3) where I get really unlucky with finding good chips for him and by Ovelord/Monolith/Database he is insanely weak. Like, weaker then default peashooter on the other ships even with a full chipboard.

I feel like the no ammo damage nerf on him is way way too much whenever you don't get lucky enough to find chips that add extra attacks to him. On other ships even with your peashooter you can normally beat bosses decently fast, but I can not stand watching how slow their health goes down when using a 0 ammo skully.
I'm wondering if I'm not loading the board enough with damage ups, but there's hardly room for them + unique ones.

[catsgomeow]

I think I beat like hard mode loop 7 or something with him. Definitely got a bit lucky but in general stacking multiple copies of the same weapon addition chips seems super powerful. I won with 3 razors+burst but getting something like 3 swords seems like it would make you practically invincible. Only take ammo chips if there's nothing better, replace them immediately with anything else given the opportunity. In general it sounds like you're way overvaluing how important ammo is for skully, the damage nerf when you're out really isn't that bad and its better to go for any other chip type 99% of the time.

Question: do you have the enemy type damage modifier and swarmer keywords disabled in the shop? Ive actually not checked whether or not these things can even show up for skully but I always leave them all disabled since they just dilute the keyword pool with worthless garbage during runs as any other character. Maybe that could be considered a bit cheap but I find all those weapon modifiers extremely boring and leaving them off just makes runs more fun. Always found it a bit strange that many of the purchasable "upgrades" from the shop hub just make the game harder by adding a chance to give you downright bad or mediocre stuff.

[Ћ Abomination Jones]

Honestly since his rework I've barely played Skully, despite how much I like the concept

I like the modular puzzle-pieces setup but I'll be real it feels like there's not enough space to be strong compared to how other ships get later in the game.

[Sumac]

Yeah it feels like his builds get locked in pretty early, and there's often no real upgrades for many floors at a time. He also burns through ammo so quick, that many of his runs feel very samey - like you can get stuff done with him without ammo, but there's not much variety from one run to the next compared to his old design.

The grid system is also kind of stifling imo. The rare upgrades feel pretty bad to take because of their often awkward shape and how you have to bulldoze so much of your existing build to take them, often leaving unusable empty space. I'm pretty much always unhappy and conflicted about my build after taking a rare upgrade with him.

[Blaizeus]

Originally posted by Sumac:

Yeah it feels like his builds get locked in pretty early, and there's often no real upgrades for many floors at a time. He also burns through ammo so quick, that many of his runs feel very samey - like you can get stuff done with him without ammo, but there's not much variety from one run to the next compared to his old design.

The grid system is also kind of stifling imo. The rare upgrades feel pretty bad to take because of their often awkward shape and how you have to bulldoze so much of your existing build to take them, often leaving unusable empty space. I'm pretty much always unhappy and conflicted about my build after taking a rare upgrade with him.

Okay I'm glad it's not just me. I feel like a lot of the bigger chips need their size cut; memento mori is great, but that's the different between 2-3 damage/firerate/crit chips, whenever a normal ship can get all that and more from a free keyword on a gun.

There's some awesome chips but they're so rare. My run I won had two buzzsaws and a runic gun surrounding me; I shredded things. But that was one run..