Claymore (Strategy)

[parallaxis]

Claymore is very underrated. After finishing 3 playthroughs, I can say that Claymore is one of your best offensive ally. When fully promoted and trained, he can throw up to 4 grenades (2 shrapnel grenades + 2 of your own choice) in one turn. Plus, he has this awesome ability where the utility grenade you made him carry can be used again on the next encounter.

Plus, his shrapnel grenades causes rupture which let's your team deal more damage to ruptured enemies.

Suggestions for utility grenade:
A) Acid grenades causes rupture and can shred armor. With claymore fully promoted and trained, he can throw two grenades per encounter.

B) Plasm Grenade - nothing fancy. Your typical grenade with a slightly higher damage.

Now, try putting him as your first officer to come in on the encounter, then throw a motile inducer to him. He can throw grenades again! If you use the team up ability, he can throw another 2 grenades! That's a lot of damage! If you have terminal on your squad, put Terminal on 2nd and let her do a cooperation and give another action to Claymore.

You can also apply a reflex grip to a mastercrafted shotgun for him to shoot twice per turn. Equip Caustic or Talon / Fire rounds which adds 1 damage plus a chance to inflict a status. With him shooting twice, that's a higher chance of inflicting more damage.

For defense, he is armored. Top it of with an armor plating for more protection.

How about you, are you using Claymore? What is your strategy for him? If not, would you now consider using him?

[juliejayne]

I missed out on Claymore, but I could have really used his AOE grenades in the final few missions.

[parallaxis]

Originally posted by juliejayne:

I missed out on Claymore, but I could have really used his AOE grenades in the final few missions.

Maybe you can use him on your next playthrough. Cheers!

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by parallaxis:

Claymore is very underrated.

Since when is Claymore underrated? Nearly everyone puts him in S tier.

[parallaxis]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by parallaxis:

Claymore is very underrated.

Since when is Claymore underrated? Nearly everyone puts him in S tier.

That's something I noticed. I browsed the discussion boards here and see so less of him. YouTube stramers / gamers playing Chimera Squad typically chooses Axiom / Shelter , etc.

To be honest, I did not choose him on my first playthrough.

[One Man Army]

Claymore is a beast all game long, especially late game.
Very tanky with 2 armor (3 with plated vest), carries a shotgun (best weapons in the game), a lot of aoe potential and he is able to replenish a grenade each encounter which is massive for a game with such small rooms.

Always have him go first and he is able to clear 2-3 enemies just on his first round.
I use plasma grenades after throwing a shrapnel grenade to detonate it on the same turn and cause havoc.
Armor shredding, rupture, cover destruction and a ton of damage on the same turn.
What more can you ask?

The Shotgun with the Run and Gun ability is also great for him, because it allows him to reposition himself after throwing your first round of grenades, so you can reach other targets further back, or use your shotgun/sticky bomb as an alternative.
I either use Caustic Rounds(Armor shred) or Dragon Rounds(Burning to prevent ability use) with his shotgun.

[Black Sheep Wall]

I don't think he's underrated at all.
Most people are getting a lot of value from him.

I'm on my 4th Impossible run, first Hardcore/Ironman.

Claymore is my front man.

Throw a keycard on him and go in whatever door gives you the best bonuses, period.
He has excellent first turn options and is damn good at setting up takedowns.

I find Fortitude is superior to Improvised Explosives. It might just be a personal preference thing though, because they are both good. However, IE incentivizes blowing your load on encounter 1, and I prefer saving it for encounter 3, and it also literally does nothing on 1 encounter missions. Fortitude on the other hand allows him to danger close every explosion in the game, his own, or enemy or even incidental explosions, like cars that like to randomly explode while you're using them for cover. Claymore has mobility issues, and while it doesn't come up a ton, it does happen where you just can't afford to go around the puddle of ♥♥♥♥ that's on the ground, and Fortitude just lets him truck right through it. Finally, and most importantly, slap a plated vest on him and let the enemy cry that they can't strip his armor anymore (the only exception are the Mech and Andromedon guns specifically, he still shrugs off the Andromedon gloop grenade).

Having said all that, IE is still undoubtedly good.

I'm not sold on the Rupture however, I find that ignoring cover makes his Shrapnel Bombs that much better, thinning numbers way better than the alternative. 3+ targets under a 5x5 template all taking 5 damage is doing pretty good, and the difference of 1x2 extra damage from Rupture rarely makes the difference between the follow up shot killing or not. I much prefer hitting 3 targets to only hitting 2 but applying Rupture as well. Still, neither choice is objectively bad.

Next, I see no reason to ever put anything but a Frag grenade or a Plasma grenade on him.
Terrain destruction in this game is a rare option, and the elemental grenades do NOT destroy terrain. If you look for the opportunity, you can often find an excellent target to grenade while also removing a wall and opening up sight lines and shots for your other agents, so they don't need to sacrifice position or actions to angle on an enemy and take it down.

Finally, while there are many effective ways to kit out each agent, and specifically their weapons, especially on a shotgun, and doubly so on Claymore with his cumbersome movement score, I think doing anything other than Talon Rounds/Laser Sight/Scope is a sin. Also, Run and Gun is absolutely essential for him in order to angle in on a solid flank/crit shot, while using the Scope to make up for the few tiles he is often short on.



Bonus hot take: Motile Inducer is completely broken and you have to try really hard to find a Combination with any agent that actively makes it bad. It's a free turn. Even Shelter becomes an absolute monster if you Motile Inducer him.

Bonus bonus hot take: Reflex Grip is overrated. Not everyone is Blueblood and they cannot usually afford to shoot twice in a round, nor are they anywhere near as reliable. Scope/Laser Sight all day, every day. It's especially bad on any Agent that has abilities that outshine their shooting action, like Claymore. And yes, I know you can shoot and then move, but that doesn't come up that much nor do I find it worthwhile to give up the consistency of hitting my target and avoiding my low roll damage.



But that's just how I use him. If what you're doing works for you, don't stop because someone on the internet doesn't have the same view/playstyle you do.