Personal One Down Assault Build (No DLC Required)

This is my personal alternative build for One Down loud contracts. Although assault rifle is not as powerful as pistols, it's generally easier to use and can still deal good damage against any enemies in one down. For an extra, this might also extend the life of your left mouse button.

Foreword

Before trying this build, make sure you have 2 concealment boost available to use, as they're needed to achieve 5 or lower detection rate, and they can't be replaced.

Assault rifle generally has low damage, but with this build, you can achieve good damage that is more than enough to handle enemies in one down difficulty. And yes, you can still kill Dozer pretty quickly, provided you can control the recoil, though it won't be as quick and easy as when you're using akimbo pistols.

I used and tested this build on some one down loud contracts (not all of them yet, since mostly i used pistols). It was actually pretty good and saved me from clicking too much. That's why i'd like to share this in hope to help fellow players who are looking for assault rifle build that can be reliable on one down.

This build is not suitable for solo run without bots due to lack of Feign Death and Messiah. But you can still drop some of the optional skills and take Feign Death and Messiah to make it suitable.

Most similar contents of this build are taken from my other guide. Refer to my Personal One Down Pistol Build (No DLC Required).

Skill Tree

Requires Mastermind and Fugitive (Corrupted Set) from infamy level for skill points requirement reduction. Therefore you have to be at least infamy level 2.

Mastermind

Notes:

• Inspire (Aced) is mandatory, especially if you're playing with other player, to instantly revive downed teammates. Try to conserve shout revive for teammates who are out of reach or in tight spot.
  
• Always take Doctor's Bag, and use it when you're at the last life (indicated by grey/monochrome screen) . First aid kit is almost useless in one down since you can only take 2 hits from regular swat before going down, therefore it's not worth taking.

Enforcer

Notes:

• Resilience (Aced) is mandatory. Because getting blinded by flashbang for more than 5 seconds will take precious time and it might kill you, unless you're in cover.
  
• Bullseye (Basic) is one of the primary lifesaver. When your armor breaks, always try to score headshot to recover your armor instantly, without needing to hide. The extra 5 armor points will enable you to withstand any amount of damage (except from sniper) without taking health damage. Be wary that this skill has 2 seconds cooldown, so scoring headshots continuously won't work. Also note that the cooldown will still trigger if you score headshot even with full armor. Always find cover during its downtime.

Technician

Notes:

• Steady Grip (Aced) is mandatory. It will greatly increase stability and accuracy for your weapons.
  
• Heavy Impact (Aced) is mandatory. This will give you 20% chance per bullet to knock down any enemies (except Dozer) using assault rifle in autofire mode, which will prevent them from attacking back. By firing to enemy crowd, you can potentially disable them all at once.
  
• Fire Control (Basic) is optional. But since you'll be hip-firing most of the times, it would be better to take this skill for bonus accuracy.
  
• Lock and Load (Aced) is optional. Take this only if you want to be able to fire while sprinting and for faster reload speed.
  
• Surefire (Aced) is mandatory. This skill will enable you to shoot through bulletproof vest. You'll need this to trigger Body Expertise on armored units.
  
• Body Expertise (Aced) is mandatory. Since it will be hard to maintain headshot using assault rifle, this skill will allow you to deal almost the same damage as headshot even while shooting body parts using assault rifle in autofire mode. That way it will be easier to deal damage to enemies. This skill doesn't affect Dozer.

Ghost

Notes:

• Duck and cover (Aced) is mandatory. The extra sprinting speed and dodge chance will save you when you're running for cover or accomplishing tasks.
  
• Inner pocket (Basic) is mandatory. For concealment bonus.
  
• Shockproof (Basic) is mandatory. If you get tased while using assault rifle, it will be very hard to free yourself by shooting the taser due to ridiculous weapon shake. This will give you 30% chance every second for the shock effect to backfire, which will almost guarantee that you will be freed before you get downed by the shock.
  
• Optical Illusion (Aced) is mandatory. Also for concealment bonus.
  
• The Professional (Basic) is optional. But extra stability is always good for assault rifles.
  
• Specialized Killing (Aced) is mandatory. It will give extra 30% damage to any silenced weapon.
  
• Low Blow (Basic) is mandatory. This is one of the main source of damage bonus. You'll notice a significant increase in your weapon damage if you score critical hits, even more when your score critical on headshots.

Fugitive

Notes:

• Nine lives (Aced) is mandatory, since it will add 1 more down limit before going to custody, which makes it 2 down limit before going to custody in one down.
  
• Swan Song (Aced) is mandatory. During Swan Song, try to kill as many enemies as possible (ammo is unlimited during Swan Song, if aced), interact with objectives, or help teammates before going down. It will save you more than what you'd expect. But be wary, Swan Song will not activate if you get downed by explosion, fire, or falling damage.

Perk and Equipments

All of these are mandatory for the best result, unless stated otherwise.

Perk Deck:

Rogue
Since the damage of enemies is too high for armor to be effective, dodge is a better option since it will enable you to ignore any damage should the dodge activates. The downside of this perk deck is that you have to rely on your luck (RNG) for it to be effective. It might save you a lot if you're lucky or not, if otherwise. But most of time this perk deck is the most preferred by experienced players for one down.

Primary Weapon:

JP36 Assault Rifle
This weapon have average damage for assault rifles and good concealment when modded properly. But the main value of this weapon is that it has a very high ammo pickup rate. You won't have much trouble with ammo reserve when using this weapon.

Primary Weapon Mods:

• Medium Surpressor
  
• Concealment Boost
  
• Compact Foregrip
  
• Tactical Laser Module
  
• Solid Stock

Secondary Weapon:

Five Seven AP Pistol
Your main weapon will not be able to pierce shields. This is why you should bring AP Pistol to save you from trouble caused by shields. Even with assault rifle build, this weapon will still have high damage. Reserve this weapon for use only against shield most of the time due to low ammo reserve and low ammo pickup rate.

Secondary Weapon Mods:

• TiN Treated Barrel
  
• Roctec Surpressor
  
• Concealment Boost
  
• Micro Laser
  
• Extended Magazine

Melee Weapon:

Electric Brass Knuckle
Arguably a better substitute for buzzer, since this weapon can hit faster than buzzer. It will help you to dominate cops or to interrupt them for several seconds.

Throwables:

Incendiary Grenade or Concussion Grenade
Both are mostly used to interrupt enemies instead of killing them. The difference is that incendiary grenade can deal some fire damage while concussion grenade can stun enemies for several seconds then induce accuracy penalty for several seconds.

Deployables:

Doctor's Bag
This is your lifeline. Don't substitute it with anything else.

Armor:

Two Piece Suit
Rogue Perk Deck only works with suits, so don't wear anything else other than this.


By using the skill tree and equipments as stated above, you should have 4 detection rate which is enough to provide 30% critical chance with Low Blow (Basic).

Additional Notes

Additional notes that might be useful (from my personal experience):

• (Optional) If you have Gage Spec Ops Pack DLC, you can ignore Lock and Load (Aced) skill and instead use Speed Pull Magazine for faster reload speed without sacrificing skill points. Also if you have Gage Mod Courier DLC, you can take Compact Laser Module instead of Tactical Laser Module for extra 1 point of concealment. And lastly if you have Gage Weapon Pack #01, you can use Auto Fire mod for extra stat boosts.
  
• Heavy Impact still works on Captain Winter, despite its in-game description. (Needs further confirmation)
  
• If you're playing with Bots, take the following Crew Skills in order: Bot 1 (Sharpeyed + Healer), Bot 2 (Quick + Accelerator), and Bot 3 (Inspiring + Distractor).
  
• When you're trying to clear an objectives or to slip away from enemies, try to shoot less and get near a bot or convert. By doing so, the enemies might target you less or ignore you even if you're close to them.
  
• If you're playing with other players, you need to be more cautious, as there will be no one (except converts, which are much less useful than bots) to distract or tank for you. Also try to reserve ammo since other players will also need ammo packs, while bots don't.
  
• When playing solo with no bots, you will need to be very cautious. Always use doctor's bag after you get downed 2 times or if you have used your Messiah charge.
  
• If you need to clear objective on a certain spot on the map, you can try to lure enemies far away from that spot, then quickly run to the objective after the enemies have been lured away.
  
• In some cases, camping and waiting for enemies to retreat is a bad idea, as it will delplete your supplies a lot when fending them off (unless there's a very safe camping spot), and the retreat time on one down is very short, around 10 seconds or so, which won't be enough to clear objectives. Sometimes rushing is a better way.
  
• Some loud contracts with stealth options are sometimes easier to do it loud. For example: Firestarter 2nd day (FBI Center).
  
• The fastest way to kill any kind of dozer is to engage them on close range (but still outside of their melee range), then spray bullets on their face using your assault rifle. Make sure to control the recoil to maintain concentrated fire. Use AP Pistol in case if your assault rifle magazine run out of ammo and have no time to reload.
  
• Force Captain Winter to retreat as soon as possible, as their presence will cause all other enemies to gain damage reduction over time, which making them harder to kill. Use AP Pistol during Swan Song and shoot them in the head to kill them quickly without draining your ammo.
  
• Sniper can drop you in a single shot if your health is below 70% or so. Stay low and kill them as soon as possible.
  
• Mark shields before shooting them so you can see their outline, which will make it easier to shoot their head.
  
• When being blinded by flashbang on open areas, try to memorize the area and get away from there to possibly find cover. Somehow the enemies will shoot you less when you're blinded.
  
• If you need to run to open areas to get somewhere (For example: at the beginning of Heat Street), throw concussion grenade first. Then just run and

Revision

Revision 1:

• Changed Stable Shot (Basic), Underdog (Basic), and Scavenger (Basic) to Shockproof (Basic)
  
• Changed Low Profile Surpressor to Medium Surpressor, since Medium Surpressor has better stats than Low Profile Surpressor, and will still result in 4 detection rate.

Closing Remarks

This guide is not perfect and this might not suitable for some players.

Remember that your personal skill (and luck) matter as much as your build.

Thanks for reading. Any constructive suggestion is appreciated.

[Cypher]

@[RD] XxX_ShadowSlayer_XxX991
Can you specify why you can't use the concealment boost?
Clarion rifle has almost the same stats as JP36 with better base concealment, therefore it's good as JP36 replacement for those who own the DLC.

[Azreal]

I have 2 concealment in stock but i cannot use it on the rifle, is clarion rifle ok?

[Cypher]

@Mar!0
If you feel that the 10% dodge bonus helps you then suit yourself. It's your choice after all.

[Cypher]

@hugojmaia
I was referring at Parkour (Aced) for reloading while sprinting, that's why I compared it with Lock and Load (Aced). Not sure if that was what he meant, though. And yes, Lock and Load (Aced) can be ignored, that's why I made it optional. And dodge chance in this build is 60% (not 50%) while spriting. Compared to 70% from the addition doesn't seem to make much difference in the actual game. But if you really like high RNG number then just remove some skills and take it. Also you will only get 75% if you play with bot with Distraction crew skill. For me, the skill points used to unlock Sneaky Bastard is better to be used for another skills.

[mid]

Agent Zero, I am really unlucky with the dodge, feels like I have 5% from 500%, so when I have 60 Dodge% I feel more confortable.Oh and if you have dlcs I recommend you use Connor Shaw's OD dodge build, almost every ytber like morti, b33croft, peasemaker and a lot more use that dodge build

[Hugo]

Yo, parkour is +10% movement speed, Lock and Loaded is +40~100% reload speed. They don't interfere with one another in any way.
You could ditch lock and loaded entirely, pick parkour, ace shockproof and then have a point left for something else.
Dodge isn't diminishing returns, 75% as a max while sprinting means you dodge twice as much as the 50% sitting still.

[mid]

Yeah I get it, but more dodge chance is better, I am pretty unlucky with it, so I consider getting sneaky bastard

[Cypher]

@hugojmaia
Speaking of cost and benefit, the skill points needed to unlock Sneaky Bastard is not worth the skill effect. And since rogue already has 50% dodge chance, the 10% bonus doesn't give much due to diminishing return. Anyway, since it's RNG based, even with 70% (75% if you have bot with Distractor) you'll still get hit often if RNG doesn't favor you. I've tested both with and without the skill many times, and doesn't seem to have any impact on my survivability, so i decided not to take it and invest the skill points for better skills. Sneaky Bastard is better used to improve dodge rate on perk deck with low base dodge such as Sicario, Ex-President, and Crook

[Cypher]

@Mar!0
As for Parkour, it's not necessary since there's Lock and Load (Aced) for fast reload. And why shockproof, try equipping assault rifle (in this case JP36), then getting tased. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to free yourself easily without shockproof. Unless you're lucky that your random bullet hits and triggers heavy impact.

[Hugo]

You're missing sneaky bastard basic, which is an extra 10% dodge that'll be needed.
Also parkour is something you should have as well, don't underestimate the value of being able to zip through the map with 70% dodge.