Experiments with the Scout

[zierad]

1st off I love this game. Great work to the devs!

I had been only playing the Marine on medium and have a couple of wins. Decided to switch to the Scout and after a few terrible runs getting used to his abilities I am starting to warm up to this class.

Stealth is very powerful and so is running. This run I found a good Advanced 9mm early so I decided to mess around with son of the gun. Up to level 2 with it and I'm loving it.

Also really like Juggler, quite handy. I also took one Reloader, one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and one Hellrunner. So I have only doubled down on Son of The Gun and I thought I might suffer not focusing more but I'm feeling pretty good with my skills spread out like this. I'm at Europa 5 with Advanced 9mm and rocket launcher. Hoping for a CRI pistol.

Just curious how your Scout runs are working and what your favorite skills are for him.

[Phoenix7786]

If you commit to Pistol or SMG class weaponry, Headshot is a must. You kinda need Son of a Gun to help shore up the missing damage compared to other weapons with extra attacks. If I stick with an SMG, I also SoaB and Eagle Eye to using compensate for the accuracy.

If I decide to go with the standard assault rifle weaponry, it's the usual Whizkid, SoaB, Hellrunner.

[zierad]

I got all the way to the Summoner with that early advanced 9mm and a rocket launcher but I didn't make it. I'll try headshot this time around.

Running out of 9mm ammo was a big problem near the end. I understand that a roguelike makes you adapt to the tools you have at hand not what you want but I'd like to see a little more ammo distribution for early weapons in the late game. Love Hellrunner and SOAB.

I'm back at Europa on a new game with 2 Hellrunner, Juggler, Eagle Eye and Reloader. Using Hunter rifle and chaingun keeping general til I get a good special weapon.

[Epyon]

Scout has a lot of stuff still missing - dualgunning being the major culprit. We also think of a really fun thing for him in terms of melee.

[Tacitus]

I personally find starting with the Scout more difficult since the 0.8.1 update, largely because his 9mm pistol was switched for the .44 Magnum revolver, which, in my opinion, is somewhat inferior to the autoloading pistol. Or at least I've never been able to make the revolver work for me, as the limited range (3 optimum, 6 max) and so-so damage make it feel inferior to the 9mm pistol, which can at least be used to soften up targets from a bit further away.

However, besides early game teething issues, I'm often running into bad luck... or making stupid mistakes with my Scout near the end of Europa :P. By contrast, I generally don't have issues taking my Marines or Technicians to Io and Beyond.

Now I'm tempted to try a pistol/SMG focused run with my Scout to see if I can make the .44 Revolver work for me. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on a CRI SMG early :).

[Epyon]

I also considered adding the SMG to the scout as a starting weapon. The revolver fitted more theme-wise, and it *does* pack a bigger punch.

[zierad]

I've slowly become more into the .45 as you can use stealth to position yourself to take good advantage of it. It kind of needs eagle eye to become truly deadly. It puts those shield guys down a lot easier than the 9mm. I also enjoy the advanced 3 shot revolver I forget the name. It also allows easy transition to hunter rifle as they share ammo.

I'm still experimenting with the scout skills I can regularly get to endgame/near endgame with him now on normal but I still haven't gotten a win. I find the scout in general a little tougher to play than the marine but I find the scout skills more fun to mess around with.

[IthilionTheBrave]

One thing I've found that makes Scout somewhat easier to play is the Scavenger perk. You can stick with a rare ammo, but powerful, weapon (I'm mostly thinking of all the .44 guns) if you pick it up early. It can also keep a 9mm gun (like the Calibrated 9mm Pistol) well fed when you're past the point that 9mm starts getting uncommon. Basically anything that doesn't use rockets or cells, really. If you find a better weapon that uses a different ammo type, just drop all your old ammo, swap to the new gun, and pick it all up and you should have a decent stockpile to get started with.

If you're using 2 or more different ammo types I can see it getting a bit tedious swapping between them to ensure you're well-stocked on all of them, but that's why I prefer sticking to a single ammo type and trying to have a gun for short range and a second for long. .44 is perfect for that if you can find a Hunting Rifle to complement your revolver. Now mind you, I'm not terribly competent at the game, so any advice is best taken with a grain of salt.

[zierad]

I need to mess around with Scavenger. I kind of enjoy the weapons swapping though juggler is always my 1st pick I love coming around a corner and switching to shotgun.

[zierad]

Got my win with the Scout on normal so that's all 3 classes for me. On to the next difficulty! I destroyed the Summoner with a CRI pistol and Son of the Gun maxed and headshot it actually felt kind of easy this time around. My 1st run feeling overpowered especially on Scout or maybe I'm finally getting decent. Lots of fun.