General strategy for Monsoon

[Sol_]

Hey guys need a little help to understand what I should generally do on Monsoon to succeed, especially early game.

Should I basically rush the teleporter, picking up a few items along the way for most of the run?

Should i look to buy all the items on the first level then rush the next levels?

or Should i look to buy all the items/alot of the items on most of the levels

I know time increases and the time between difficulties is extremely short (7 and a half minutes i believe), so im unsure what to do compared to rainstorm and drizzle

Thank you

[jacobellinger]

I can't speak for others but what I do is try to get at least three items and activate the telliporter in under 4 minutes. if my items are ♥♥♥♥ or if I fail to start the telliporter in time I just quit to tittle screen and try again.

[Sol_]

Originally posted by jacobellinger:

I can't speak for others but what I do is try to get at least three items and activate the telliporter in under 4 minutes. if my items are ♥♥♥♥ or if I fail to start the telliporter in time I just quit to tittle screen and try again.

Sounds like a legit strat with the increased chance for green and red items in common boxes or general large boxes.

[procy]

The best strat (and I don't want this to sound elitist), which should work for all difficulties is to never stop jumping, moving and sprinting, soon as you drop in scout the teleporter out and grab items on the way. It's pretty much the same as Rainstorm except it scales harder. But never stop moving, a split second of being stationary could spell game over.

[Sol_]

Originally posted by Lucy:

The best strat (and I don't want this to sound elitist), which should work for all difficulties is to never stop jumping, moving and sprinting, soon as you drop in scout the teleporter out and grab items on the way. It's pretty much the same as Rainstorm except it scales harder. But never stop moving, a split second of being stationary could spell game over.

Sounds about right, although should i prioritize time or items, and if so example how many items or how much time should i spend. Just want to know the balance or the goal so i don't overstay or die too early etc.

[ViperV]

The first loop and and the first area often decides this. if you manage to get lucky with a legendary very early, or good white item rng, then you can relax with a bit of confidence.

If not, restart. I often rush to the 4th area bec i notice the sooner you get there, the cheaper the legendary chest become and the legendaries (and the lunar equips) often tilt the success of a run.

Currently have had the same success with Engi and Mul-T.
(Sacrificing myself once no more bosses spawn.)

Trying the same style with Arti but the RNG is a ♥♥♥♥♥ on my recent runs. And as Lucy said, JUMP a ton. Feathers are invaluable.

[Han]

well, difficulty increases as time increases. So try to not spend more than 3 minutes before activating first teleporter. Difficulty also bumps up when you go through the teleporter. What I usually do to optimize best "items acquired-difficulty ratio" is pick up two items then activate the teleporter. After charging tp to 100% quickly scout the area for more items and proceed. you dont need to pickup every single item on the map.

about the loop. once you reach hahahaha and loop 1, teleporter event can pay for more or less every chest. So at that point, going for tp right away is your best bet to survive.

[Xilo The Odd]

yeah all advice here so far are good approaches. the 4 min per floor for the first loop is very good advice, you wont want to save up for the legendry chests on the first run of abyss as soon as you get there, its actually better to buy a lot of the little stuff first, then use cash earned from the portal event to buy it. so before you activate the portal save up as much cash as you can, clear any bosses that may be up not related to the portal, then start portal. this i find most effetive for keeping the 2nd loop simple where it turns into buy everything and anything of value.

if you got a good stockpile of lunar coins, pods are worth opening, but not everything is worth picking up. gift of the drowned is easily the BEST drop you can get, while it auto uses your item, it also reduces its cooldown. stack a few of those and some alien heads and you can get some pretty crazy action goin on like unlimited missiles, thunder storm with capacitor, faster preon accumulator shots (personal fav), and many other wacky things.

[Kaifiden]

Well if tried the monsoon dificullty now a cuple of times.
So all i can say if you know how the you doge all the enemys attacks then you can go for all the chests in each level.
But alllway prioritise on the enemys with ranged attacks like wisps.
If i do that i usually end the first map with low, the second one on hard, the third one on i see you and the last one on HAHAHAHA...
Otherwise go for the teleporter rush with 3 items.
Just like Lucy said never stop moving.
If you have the tripple markest around focus on movment items primarily and damage items that suit your charackter secondarly, until you reach a speed that alows you to quickly get out of sticky situations.

But don´t forget if you fail keep on trying, the game does not always give you all the items you might need. The more you try it the sooner you might get to understand what allows you to reach map 20 and past that.
Or in other word Fail until you Succeed.

[Harmania]

Originally posted by Lucy:

The best strat (and I don't want this to sound elitist), which should work for all difficulties is to never stop jumping, moving and sprinting, soon as you drop in scout the teleporter out and grab items on the way. It's pretty much the same as Rainstorm except it scales harder. But never stop moving, a split second of being stationary could spell game over.

I had a really good Engineer run on Monsoon earlier, second loop, melted the teleporter boss in seconds on hell. Charged up the teleporter, activated it, then stood still while waiting to port out.

Got sniped by several crab mortars from across the map and died from full health.

[Hunta]

Originally posted by ViperV:

The first loop and and the first area often decides this. if you manage to get lucky with a legendary very early, or good white item rng, then you can relax with a bit of confidence.

If not, restart. I often rush to the 4th area bec i notice the sooner you get there, the cheaper the legendary chest become and the legendaries (and the lunar equips) often tilt the success of a run.

Currently have had the same success with Engi and Mul-T.
(Sacrificing myself once no more bosses spawn.)

Trying the same style with Arti but the RNG is a ♥♥♥♥♥ on my recent runs. And as Lucy said, JUMP a ton. Feathers are invaluable.

pidgeons man(wax quail) its the dream

[Liro Raériyo]

Always pop gold shrines and take gold portals, time (and difficulty) doesnt advance in a gold portal, so you can work on an extra level or two, each gold portal has 4 chests and a titanic knurl to scoop up, assuming you are good at fighting the boss its essentially a reprieve, if not... well its time to "git gud" as they say

[BattleBuddy]

Originally posted by Innocent Harmania:

Originally posted by Lucy:

The best strat (and I don't want this to sound elitist), which should work for all difficulties is to never stop jumping, moving and sprinting, soon as you drop in scout the teleporter out and grab items on the way. It's pretty much the same as Rainstorm except it scales harder. But never stop moving, a split second of being stationary could spell game over.

I had a really good Engineer run on Monsoon earlier, second loop, melted the teleporter boss in seconds on hell. Charged up the teleporter, activated it, then stood still while waiting to port out.

Got sniped by several crab mortars from across the map and died from full health.

That's hilarious. I hunt those bastards down like they stole my wallet. They are the bane of the game for me.

[Kadji]

To add something to the discussion: I also think that you strategie in Monsoon also depends on the Survivor you are playing.

- With Commando I try to open as many chests as possible while paying attention to the time. I try to initiate the first boss at around 5 minutes. Depending on the Items i have gotten after the boss dies I will decide if it is worth continuing the run. I usually reset if I don't have at least one of the following items: Ukulele or Willow the Wisp or Gasoline (Commando lacks in AOE damage which is crucial on Monsoon)

- With Engineer I just go for all chests, then proceed to kill the boss with my turrets while protecting me with the shield / keeping myself out of the fight. I don't realy watch the timer with him since I am basically "3 players" during the Boss Fights so it does not matter if I took 5 or 7 minutes for the first map. I should mention that I don't realy like Engineer (passive playstyle) and have not played that many rounds with him. Maybe someone else can add some more tips.

- Huntress: Feels *very* RNG dependant especially with her lacking DMG output without items.
Some bosses can be very hard for her since she can't reliably hit floating enemies with her 'R' skill (Arrow Rain). I like to play her with a focus on movement (to compensate for her low health pool) and multiple Laser Glaives (which needs a few stacks of Backup Magazine). Stay out of trouble and throw glaives into the enemies and hope that they proc other items / kill enemys to proc your on death items. Bucklers are also very good since you can sprint while shooting.

- Artificer: Focus on Movement Speed items (especially goat hoove) and survival items (infusion, Tougher Times, Buckler, maybe some Shield Generators). I try to rush the teleporter as soon as possible with her. If there are any chests nearby I loot them after the teleporter event. With only Piercing Bullets you should have enough DPS to quickly take out the first few bosses.
Most white Items provide a huge DMG boost to her since the base DMG is already very high (Crowbar, Sticky Bombs, Crit Glasses, Piercing Bullets for Bosses).
Definitely one of the "harder" characters to tackle Monsoon with.

- Mercenary / MUL-T: No "successfull" Monsoon run with them yet, so I will hold back my opinion about them.

Some other general notes:
- Never stop moving
- Use the terrain for your advantage: Most Enemies won't spawn on high cliffs so if you are overwhelmed by enemies try to get to a *higher* location and not only away from the enemies
- You see Stone Golems on the map? Approach them in a way so you can hide behind other big enemies (they do block the laser from the golem) or so that you can hide behind the terrain. Even the small cosmetic things on the side of the teleporter can be used to block the laser. Do not try to dodge the laser, it is not very reliable and the Boss Version of the Golems is *perfect* in Tracking you (even when old war stealth kit kicks in!). Get used to approach them with that in mind.
- Check your back from time to time. Floating Fire Skulls can be very sneaky and I have dies more than once because there were like 15 behind me, with me realizing when it was "too later"...

- Most Lunar Items are run killers. The only good ones I would concider picking up are:

#Glassmakers Lenses (Double Damage, Life is halved, especially good if you are playing a range survivor)

#Transcendence (Convert all but 1 health into regenerating shields, gain 50% maximum health which is easier to regenerate than to stack life reg / life leech if you can get out of combat)

#Gesture of the Drowned (Reduce Equipment cooldown by 50%, forces Item to activate once CD is off).

I hope this was helpfull.