Struggling with Monsoon Commando, any tips?

[Fennec Fawx]

This is one of the last characters I have left to obelisk on monsoon, and I am really struggling. A lot of other characters I have been able to do, some were really easy while others have taken quiet a number of hours and attemps. Commando however I've been struggling with for 2 days now.

Anyone got any tips or experience with commando monsoon to help me out? I am using his alternate m2 (the shotgun blast) and everything else default. I've been sticking to the usual rules of monsoon, getting through stages fast before staying to long, trying to get to stage 3 in under 10 mins etc.

Edit: Hey everyone thanks for your help, your advice was much appreciated and helped! Knocked it out of the park finally. Thank you. Here's the end result for anyone curious.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1954993465

[Ittrix]

Honestly Commando is really only as good as his items are. You've either gotta get a bit lucky or splurge on lunar stuff.

Corpsebloom is amazing for mastery runs.

[Zero Precision]

Spinel, gesture, fuel cells and soulbound cat. God run.

[Magenta Face]

Originally posted by 0MALL3Y:

Spinel, gesture, fuel cells and soulbound cat. God run.

Well, that sounds easy to assemble within 7 stages/s.

[osterly]

I wouldn't sweat the 10 minute rule with commando. I only finished that a few days ago myself and I definitely took more time, though I did my run without any lunars. Commando really shines with items, even if shotgun blast can carry you early on, so if detouring a few minutes ups your killing power then it's usually worth it

Would agree on corpsebloom though, that probably saved some of my other mastery runs

[Magenta Face]

Can't belilve I never thought of using Corpsebloom. Though I guess that's all the negativety of it getting to me .

[Traveler]

Wouldn't sweat the 10 minute rule with anyone. I got all mastery skins and I always clear every chest (with the odd one left because the TP didn't give me enough $), and the only one who gave me a pain in the ass is Artificer.

[Ittrix]

The ten minute rule exists because the early game economy sucks.

It's not like moving through the stages quickly magically makes you strong. It's just that if you go light on the items at first you'll be able to spend more of your time looting chests instead of farming money later.
On the contrary, looting everything in a stage early on takes more time. But you'll more steadily power up instead of getting weaker for the first few stages before spiking.

If you can't go light on items without dying, you're better off grabbing whatever you need. If you can go light on items without dying, do it.


I regularly break the 5 minute rule if the situation allows for it, though. Combat shrines and the new money making item are the common offenders of this, since they both allow me to spend more time looting than waiting for enemy spawns.

I can generally manage with going low on items. Heck, I've even done a no item run on Acrid.
So most of the time I try to stick to grabbing two items, pushing the teleport, then looting what I can and getting the heck out.

[Revolver Rez]

TBH I don't find Monsoon any fun since the "fix", its just too punishing unless you get great RNG, get decent stages, get chests that aren't scattered and hidden and certain bosses like Dunestrider can ruin everything. The lack of health is just the icing on the cake, no healing items? You're probably dead in a few stages.

I've still got a couple of masteries, but it feels far more luck based than anything else.

[Magenta Face]

Originally posted by Pun Knight:

TBH I don't find Monsoon any fun since the "fix", its just too punishing unless you get great RNG, get decent stages, get chests that aren't scattered and hidden and certain bosses like Dunestrider can ruin everything. The lack of health is just the icing on the cake, no healing items? You're probably dead in a few stages.

I've still got a couple of masteries, but it feels far more luck based than anything else.

Same. The reliance on good RNG is ridiculous.

[Ittrix]

Eh. It took some getting used to but I can pretty consistently manage in monsoon. I think the community got spoiled into thinking we could leave chip damage enemies alive and take more hits than realistic.

My main gripe with the HP regen nerf is that it doesn't matter once you get a healing item. HP gain in drizzle with a wood sprite and HP gain in monsoon with a wood sprite are basically the same.
If they wanted to stop players from getting away with taking excess damage on harder difficulties they should've nerfed all healing items in monsoon- not just regen.

[Ariortega]

Another question (don't want to open extra thread for this). I'm, trying a 20 stage in one run with commando, but I can't get past stage 11 (that Titan Planet) and the Ultimate "I have the Infinitiy Gauntlet" Alloy Unit. Does anyone have some tips how to get rid of that annoying beast? And please....don't tell me to go for the head

[Ittrix]

You don't have to fight the alloy worship unit. Unless you're having a good run already it's generally recommended to skip him by just not breaking the eggs (though he has been nerfed some recently).

[tyty]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

Honestly Commando is really only as good as his items are. You've either gotta get a bit lucky or splurge on lunar stuff.

Corpsebloom is amazing for mastery runs.

I would have to disagree here. I am fairly certain that corpsebloom stunts your ability to burst heal, making a leech build (a very essential part to a strong monsoon build I would say) ineffective. Avoid corpsebloom imo

[Ittrix]

Chief, he's talking about mastery runs. 7 stages? If you're consistently getting enough leeching seeds that you're healing more than 10% of your HP a second within 7 stages I'm envious of you.

I agree it's bad for burst healing, but you generally can't burst heal for jack diddly within the first 7 stages.

[Purple]

I've gotten the mastery on all characters, and my general strat for each is 4-6 minutes per stage, spending extra time on stage 4 (ideally the red stage, not the shipwreck one) to get all of the items.
Stages 1-3 I make a habit of locating teleporter, and finding a decent path towards it that picks up items along the way, do teleporter, use the last bit to scavenge an extra item or two nearby, but skip if I don't see anything. Shrines of combat are really nice in these stages as they accelerate your income.
Stage 4 is a really good balance between difficulty, gold, and loot. All of the tri-terminals are green items on stage 4, if your run is going well you should be able to manage all of the enemies well enough. Elites should be getting more common, meaning your income will be enough to afford most/all of the items on this stage.
Stage 4 is also when I start trying to hit newt altars, a shaped glass, corpsebloom, gesture, and strides of heresy can all help you complete a run. Also checking for red items (tesla coil, 57 leaf clover, soulbound, behemoth) can all give you the extra power to fix a run and complete stage 7.

If you get sirens call for stage 4, don't bother with the eye unless you have a craaazy strong run going, its generally not worth the time (Maybe acrid can do it in a reasonable time with poison).


Commando specific, I found ATG missles to be super useful, as well as getting one of each runalds/kjaros bands. But any on-hits are great. I think I used shotgun and the rapid fire as the abilities. The rapid fire having stun on it is too useful over the grenades.