What kind of characters do you build and how do you play?

[SmellofNapalm]

I just thought it might be interesting for people to share which characters they use, on which difficulty and on which maps the play and so forth.

Do you have a Gray Master that you use during most of your playtime or do you use a more specialized class? Or perhaps you switch between different characters?

Me for example, I have a Level 93 Gray Master lying around, but have also spent a good amount of time on other characters such as a Death Wind, a Divine Lightning and others. I have been playing on Master for a while and most of the settings I use for the AI are a bit higher than is the standard. I play through the campaign once with each character and then spend much of my time in the side missions (i.e. Street, Sewer etc.). I'm just trying to keep it fresh in terms of playstyle, mostly dependant on the character in question. At times it can feel really different. Like when going from a 100+ Agility-character to a Hack Master with just 13 Accuracy and maybe 40 Agility.

Though ever since I switched to Windows 10 the game keeps getting confused about my campaign progress. I recently was almost finished with Mars before the game decided to put me back to the beginning of Monolith. Except there were already Metastreums everywhere, the turrets weren't hacked and I couldn't get an objective :D

[Darklord7192]

I have only one character, a Grey Master who is level 53. At the beginning I specialised in psychic powers, working my way up to Dragon's Breath. I would use an assault rifle and the Damocles sword as my weapons and I wore heavy armour. Later I learned everything else and I mostly used cloaking, Cybernetic conversion, and sometimes the shielding power I forget the name of.

Currently I use the Katana instead because it now kills everything well enough to substitute for the Damocles, I use Dragon's Breath to get around faster, and sometimes I lay down turrets.

I experimented twice, once I used light armour instead. It was fun to run around killing everything at breakneck speeds, but I died too much. I also tried light armour with dual Katanas for a "ninja" build, but I still dies too much because must enemies used ranged attacks.

Interesting topic, by the way. Its a pity no-one else had responded.

[SmellofNapalm]

Originally posted by Darklord7192:

I experimented twice, once I used light armour instead. It was fun to run around killing everything at breakneck speeds, but I died too much. I also tried light armour with dual Katanas for a "ninja" build, but I still dies too much because must enemies used ranged attacks.

Interesting topic, by the way. Its a pity no-one else had responded.

I have never gotten along with melee combat all that well. The Damocles can be useful of course, but the Dual Blades can feel rather clunky. Still feels much better on a character with high agility and strength though. Running around in light armor certainly sounds fun, but honestly even with heavy armor melee is pretty risky while playing on Master. Though hit-and-run tactics with Cloak help.

[Jack left town]

You can abuse the hell out of cloaking with melee since block absorbs the damage that would decloak you. Use cyber ghost to backstab people for optimal fun.
Also Arrancadora is legitimately the best weapon in the game, but it takes time to get used to how to maximize its kill-tastic potential.
Light armor dood should stay cloaked at all times on higher difficulties or run Cyber.Sheath to replace lackluster armor with subdermal armor.

There aren't so much "builds" in this game as there are loadouts. The way I do cyber ninja is dual katanas, 3 scrabuldiors (dont forget to hotkey drone control) and a morta with 3-4 kinder grenades for when you have to take out a large group of enemies and minimize the chances of being 360 noscoped in return. No medkit to run faster and stay cloaked most of the time.
Also cloak + Dermal sheath at the same time means you'll never decloak from fall damage, tiny as it is with good legs.

[SmellofNapalm]

Originally posted by Jack left town:

There aren't so much "builds" in this game as there are loadouts.

Yeah, I know, but it can still be interesting to play characters with limitations and very specific advantages. My Hack Master cannot use the Bearkiller and I'm not always interested in taking the Trk with me, so I'll usually get rid of Snipers and Shock Troopers in annoying positions by hacking them and letting others use them for target practice. I recently did Electric Sheep (campaign) with this character and it was a nice feel to have both a Sniper to cover me and an Interceptor to keep the sewers... hm... well, let's say "clean".

Ad cyber ninja:
That's a very cool way to mix it up a bit. I don't use Scrabouillors enough. For some reason I haven't even bought them yet with my current character.

[Darklord7192]

Originally posted by SmellofNapalm:

Originally posted by Darklord7192:

I experimented twice, once I used light armour instead. It was fun to run around killing everything at breakneck speeds, but I died too much. I also tried light armour with dual Katanas for a "ninja" build, but I still dies too much because must enemies used ranged attacks.

Interesting topic, by the way. Its a pity no-one else had responded.

I have never gotten along with melee combat all that well. The Damocles can be useful of course, but the Dual Blades can feel rather clunky. Still feels much better on a character with high agility and strength though. Running around in light armor certainly sounds fun, but honestly even with heavy armor melee is pretty risky while playing on Master. Though hit-and-run tactics with Cloak help.

Its that Dual Blades are fast. You can unleash very fast barrages of blows with them, so it really helps with the "Cyber Ninja" theme. It might work better against the Meta-Steums, Though I never tried it out on them.

[SmellofNapalm]

Originally posted by Darklord7192:

Its that Dual Blades are fast. You can unleash very fast barrages of blows with them, so it really helps with the "Cyber Ninja" theme. It might work better against the Meta-Steums, Though I never tried it out on them.

I did the campaign-version of Forgotten Center with Dual Blades once and it worked ok most of the time. Not really what they are for though. I don't remember exactly, but I think the Damocles is much heavier, isn't it? That's one nice advantage at least.

[Darklord7192]

Originally posted by SmellofNapalm:

Originally posted by Darklord7192:

Its that Dual Blades are fast. You can unleash very fast barrages of blows with them, so it really helps with the "Cyber Ninja" theme. It might work better against the Meta-Steums, Though I never tried it out on them.

I did the campaign-version of Forgotten Center with Dual Blades once and it worked ok most of the time. Not really what they are for though. I don't remember exactly, but I think the Damocles is much heavier, isn't it? That's one nice advantage at least.

The Damocles is completely broken. Whatever it touches explodes. They should call it the Boom Stick. Basically, Katana is default, Dual blades are fast, Damocles is instant death.

[Jack left town]

Damocles instagibs weaklings but so does the katana with decent strength (minus the thick red mist). Tough enemies take 3-4 damocles power attacks and over 10 katana power attacks. That's where you need the hammer to 2 hit bosses and cyberdemons.

[SmellofNapalm]

Originally posted by Jack left town:

Damocles instagibs weaklings but so does the katana with decent strength (minus the thick red mist). Tough enemies take 3-4 damocles power attacks and over 10 katana power attacks. That's where you need the hammer to 2 hit bosses and cyberdemons.

Yeah, as you said it's mostly about cyber-lifestyle anyway. If I know what I'll be facing I can be reasonably sure that the Dual Katanas will be enough. Which is one of the reasons why I have spent much of my time in the side missions. It's just more predictable and thus encourages (less safe) experimentation.