Synthetik Complete Breacher Guide [u26]

Breacher is a way more complex class than you may initially think. In this guide, I'll go over everything worth knowing about Breacher.

Introduction

I’m a sworn Breacher main, f̶a̶r̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶v̶e̶l̶ ̶1̶0̶0̶0̶. Screw that, I'm level 2000 now. While I have a guide on the full game https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2589155679 , I want to talk about Breacher way more specifically. Also, I’m much more interested in that, which is why I made this guide first. I will cover everything you need to know in order to play Breacher efficiently. And even a bit more.

This guide is far more advanced than just the basics of Breacher. It's useful for everyone, but if you want to learn the basics of the game, this guide is more helpful for you:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2325695775

Disclaimer: This is how I play Breacher and how I think it’s the strongest/most efficient way. This does not mean other methods are not viable and this definitely does not mean that I want to stop you from having fun with whatever other build you’re using. But I will not hold back my opinion.

Talents

Let’s start with Breacher perks and Talents:


Each enemy after dash ends grants a “Core stack” as I will call them. They cap at 5 of them, giving you up to 37.5% damage increase and absorb. While this may encourage dashing into big groups, doing such is actually completely unnecessary to obtain stacks. Instead, the stun grenade item grants Core stacks when used, based on item power. This means you can open every fight with it, to gain a flat damage boost for free, on top of its “normal” effect.

Now what does this actually mean for our Breacher: He has better stats then other people and you can randomly dash to increase them. Make sure you only do this when you’re safe, like in boss fights or when waiting for an enemy to come around a corner.

The 3 seconds effect duration will mainly be noticeable in boss fights, but a single dash resets the effect duration, so I recommend dashing a lot during boss fights. Otherwise, preserve it for when you need it.

The second part of the Core, the shield regain after the cores run out, is not working. You will not receive any shields by that means.


Breachers baseline talent already gives a clear direction to how the class should be played. Explosions, shotguns, hit and run. The chance to not consume ammo is affected by luck and is additive with other perks/gun attachments which grant the same effect. Having a 15% chance effectively means all your weapons have 15% increased magazine size. Reaching 100% chance is difficult but doable.

Slower regenerating shield means his shield regen delay is very high. 2nd highest behind Assassin. This is unimportant, as shown later. https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/429699411694714881/787499017855959060/Shield_Delay_seconds.PNG
The big shield on the other hand is both very interesting and powerful. It allows us to protect our plating, thus our HP as long as possible and allows some very powerful hit and run strategies which can get you through the majority of the fights flawless.

The reduced explosion damage synergizes with later talents, as well as his core item.


Having this effect means you will always leave the 30% area very fast. This is very helpful, as it makes it harder to get oneshot by most weaker enemies. Crit chance is not very useful, but after you do the insanity challenge, this will turn into a (provided you're on max HP) permanent (small) damage boost.

Getting healed each floor helps with Breachers bad sustain. Much more interesting is the injection you get. It is effectively the same effect as the stim pack item, granting Movespeed, firerate, damage output and reducing Dash Cooldown. This means you have 20 seconds to free the area around you and, if you’re unlucky enough to spawn in an unfortunate position right next to enemies, will save your life.


Dashing reloads one shot, easy to understand, you can use this to fully refill your weapon between fights, potentially to gain more value out of weapons with an empowered first shot, but there are not many guns that have this effect. Even worse, most of them are still weaker than the alternatives.

Taking less damage is always nice, especially since DoTs are not blocked by platings. Interestingly, only fire and radiation can kill you, which means this is not as important as it sounds, but still nice to have.

Much more importantly, Breacher loses less movement speed when firing. As the class with the highest base Movement Speed, he really benefits from that. Standing still is generally a bad idea, so this is effectively a Movespeed increase during combat.


This is a very, very important talent. The whole item cooldown reduction thing is very complicated, don’t even try to understand it. What it comes down to is that Breacher has slightly lower cooldowns and he benefits from explosions, more than other classes (safe demo) do.

Additionally, the brief speed boost is definitely not small. This lets you go lightning fast with akira, lets you laugh at doombas, lets you escape from exploding enemies (when many of them die bc of the death explosion of another one), lets you force a bit of movement with your core item, basically keeping you alive in some situations.

The 2nd effect is just as powerful. It means you don’t need to rely on the Hyper Accelerator attachment on shotguns and it means shotguns are MUCH better on Breacher. It means you start with 2 weapons with full penetration. I will talk about weapon choice later, but this talent is what makes shotguns viable.


Here we have the reason why it’s very hard to die as Breacher. Since plating fully block the damage of one shot, it's the most reliable defense in Loop and Hyper Adrenaline. Having more of them does not just make you tanky, it also allows amazing synergies with the Scrap Plating module.

The 2nd effect is basically 4 plating every 100 seconds, more often than not you'll have no plating when falling to a low point of HP (DUHH!). No reason to complain about free platings, it’s also a lifesaver. The Stim Pack is the same as the injection from the level 5 talent, just another safeguard if you’re close to dying.


The first effect is neat and self-explanatory.

The second effect puts the no ammo chance on the last shot of all weapons to 40%. In combination with both ammo tp attachments, you can reach up to 75% chance to not consume ammo. Since this chance scales with luck, you can reach 100% chance. But don't ask how much luck you exactly need, dude that's way too complicated. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to randomly reach 1234 luck during a run? Just pump luck and ammo tp to shoot longer and that's it. Maybe one day I'll have an answer.

Both the Prestige bonus and the Class Challenge Bonus are self-explanatory. Basically an improvement to all weapons you're using.


A very neat, but not necessarily required effect. Effectively means you will be at full HP whenever you take just a tiny bit of damage and then provide you with permanent 15% crit, which is less than it sounds. More interestingly, this outheals the damage you take from incubus (preloop), allowing you to use it without downsides.

Loadout

Now that I've talked about his Talents, let’s get to his items and modules, aka the stuff he starts with.


For the starter weapons, there are 2 obvious choices: the 57 and the Coil Pistol. The first, the 57, grants shields as a backpack effect. This is the best “min max” pistol for all classes.

The second, the Coil Pistol on the other hand, is single handedly and effortlessly capable of carrying you through the entire game (on Breacher). It counts as a shotgun, giving it full enemy penetration. If you don’t get to find a good weapon, you might as well upgrade coil pistol, it is not very high on the shotgun list but definitely one of the better weapon choices you can make. Since Breachers starter kit is so powerful, I usually keep my upgrade kits until I beat the 2nd boss and then (provided I get no weapon I want to use) upgrade my pistol. But said starter kit is so strong, you can reach Military Bay with just your starter items and un-upgraded starter weapons.

Speaking of starter weapons, what about the Super Shorty? It deals noticeably more damage than the Coil Pistol, but has nearly unsustainable ammo economy. I figured that the most effective way of using it is to hold it back until you face a big group. Get them to group up and shoot them all at once, dealing massive damage. Or use it when you've shot your pistol and have to reload, but sense an opportunity to deal massive damage/simply need to quickly kill something. Most of the time, that’s the case with headhunters. If you mag dump both of them, then retreat into cover, reload both of them and repeat, you can get massive value out of your starter weapons.


Next, the infamous Breaching Charge. Known by everyone to kill you when used uncarefully; this item is a fantastic multitool, which will help you in many more situations than you would expect. And learning how to not kill yourself with it is not too difficult. At first, don’t trigger it while moving forward. Instead, trigger it while standing still, while moving sideward, or, my recommendation, while moving backward. The first scenario is most likely going to happen at the end of your dash. You dash into a group of enemies, throw the charges, kill all of them. Know that you can just stop moving while dashing, or even switch the direction of your dash. Moving sideward is obvious, it helps you to get around/behind enemies and allows you to use it without getting hit. Keep in mind that using it gives you a speed boost, which brings me to my last point. Moving backward. If you Just walk into enemies (after stunning them), shoot them and then retreat by both dashing and throwing the charges, you can get out of most situations flawlessly. The charges will kill whatever survives and push you even further away than the dash could do by itself.

Even more interesting, you can use that to dodge attacks. Ever noticed how the flinch difficulty modifier/enemy riot guards make you slow down? Use your charges to get behind that wall to safety, protecting you from that railgun turret already charging its shot at you.

You can use it while moving around the map to gain the speed boost from the level 15 class talent. This will further increase your clearing speed (mainly when doing stuff after the map is clear) and save your sanity during tactical runs/loop. It also can be used to decrease the damage you take from the poison valve shrine mission. If you got the insanity class challenge, the combination of the level 5 talent, the level 10 damage decrease and the speed boost from Breaching Charge, you can do these missions without taking damage (cause it gets outhealed).

I’m not done yet. While the Breaching charge starts at 3 charges, you get one more max charge by upgrading it twice. At that point, it will be able to kill normal phasers. If you know what I’m talking about, these things are cancer.

On top of that, randomly throwing it around will not just speed you up, but also decrease your cooldowns. At the start of your run this will barely have any impact, but once you upgrade it and pick up some sort of high cd item, the effect gets more and more pronounced.

Finally, if you triggered the attention of enemies, you can wait for them to come around a corner and throw the charges shortly before they reach you. This is an effective way of dealing with Shotgun Rivals.

I checked and listed the impact of item power on CD and Charge number:


This effectively means that it's most effective to upgrade the Breaching Charge to 175% very soon and then too keep it at that. 3 Seconds Cd is reasonable and the 4 Charges are all you need to kill Phasers. Later, when you have more money you can bring it up to 300%, the point where the prices far exceed the value of the upgrades. With 2 Seconds you can almost use it once per Dash. (More about that later) Don't fully upgrade it, you would need to get it to 550% to achieve something and at that point, you have TOO MANY Charges for this to be useful. You will throw bombs for more than a second at that point. Virtually unusable in combat.

Lastly, you can intentionally damage yourself with this, to trigger the level 20 class talent. Just know how much damage it deals, so you don’t accidentally kill yourself.

Starter items are easy, Stun and Meth.


Stuns all enemies in the AoE. This gives you a time window to move up to them and kill them however you want. Also, you can use your free time to position yourself optimally, for example by getting as many enemies in a row, so you can take full advantage of your build in pierce. It stops turrets and dangerous enemies like snipers, Chronos, ions from shooting and lets you win otherwise very difficult encounters before they even start.

Next, fully removing shields is awesome, some of the strongest enemies, Chronos, have half their HP in shield, other enemies have almost no HP, just shield. Just by removing their shields, your stun grenade deals more damage than the average damage item. This also allows you to instantly win the Arena masters fight, just stun and kill the sniper, the other 2 can’t do anything.

Finally, it grants guardian stacks, hence core stacks. It says 5, but to be exact, you get 2 on 100% power, 3 as soon as you upgrade it to 175% power, 4 at 250% power and 5 at 325% power. I recommend you upgrade it 3 times (175%) at the first shrine you see, to 250% on the first shrine after the first boss and the final upgrade can wait, but somewhere around the beginning of loop is a good time to upgrade it. The final stack can be obtained by dashing, since you'll always fight at least one enemy. Just remember to stun first ;). As you can remember, 5 core stacks equal 37.5% damage absorb and increase, so on top of all these busted other effects, you get free stats just for fun. Always use this item to open fights, also always use this during boss fights, even if the stun had no effect itself, but just to get some extra damage. This is also the reason why it is not necessarily required to dash into enemies, you just stun them and get the same effect. Until you reach 325% power, it's still worth dashing for stacks, but definitely not in loop.

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While health regeneration is neat and always nice to have, heavy damage resistance is where it shines. If you use this to heal after battle, you’re wasting charges. Instead, use it during combat. Currently it gives 25 + 5 * each 25% item power to damage absorb -> 45 on base power. This means you take a lot less damage. How convenient.

This item works very strangely in loop. It gives far more damage absorb than it should. You have to see it yourself.

Also, as all charge-based healing items, it gets upgraded by 25% whenever you receive a charge at medi chests. I don’t know why, but it will keep getting stronger and stronger over time. On top of that, the upgrade cost of meth gets reduced for the next upgrade whenever it gets upgraded by medi chests. So you take a chest, then upgrade it for about half price and repeat. Very balanced.

Modules

Unlike with items, it’s not as easy to name 2 good ones which are clearly superior. Instead I will name 4, ordered by how much I recommend using them.

One of the best modules in the game. It got nerfed “hard” in the last update, but you might as well try to stop a tank by throwing a branch in front of him. Now it’s just less broken. With this module (on base power and in overdrive slot) you start the game with 888 shield, which is the highest in the game and absolutely massive. While shields are a less powerful mean of defense than Movespeed, dodge or Platings, it is the most “direct” one.
Movespeed requires skill, dodge requires much of it and good rng, plating only block one hit, but shields take full damage until they’re gone. 888, that’s a lot. Now, more importantly, the 2nd effect allows you to easily recharge your shield by killing stuff. Since Breacher starts with 2 shotguns, a throwable bomb and increased damage, this should be no problem.
Yes, the shield you get has been decreased, but it’s still 125, more than most other modules can do. Of course it's less if you don't put in the overdrive slot, but since I recommend always putting it there, it doesn't matter. This module will drastically increase your survivability, as well as your clearing speed, since you don’t have to stop and wait for your shield to regenerate. Always put this in the overdrive slot.


I’ve already been praising Plating, now you get them for free lying on the floor. Breacher has his 4-plating cap and this module will give you 4 plating per floor on average at base power (it is affected by power, although it doesn’t say it). Combined with his massive shields, you’re nearly immune to damage for most of the game. Of course, this module has much more value for me, since my shield breaks a lot less often, given that I’m very experienced, so it might not be the right choice for you if you’re new to the game. But later, and especially in Hyper Adrenaline, this becomes invaluable.
If you happen to find the Scrap Plating item, which gives increased Plating cap when recycled, or when you have the Raider Scrap Cannon with its backpack effect, this module becomes even more valuable.
This is the moment to note something about plating, they don’t block DoTs. If you play with Hard Core 1, face an assassin or a flamethrower or whatever, you’ll still receive the damaging effect once your shields break. Luckily, these deal less damage to Breacher and falling below 20% grants you a new batch of platings, so this is no immediate problem. Just something to know and keep in mind.


This module will have a less directly noticeable effect on the game, but it will fix most of your ammo problems, since shotguns are prone to run out of ammo at some point, this will help very much. Increased stun duration means more value out of Stun Grenade. This module is much stronger on Riot Guard, but still a good choice on Breacher. As said, the effect is weaker than on the other 3, but both Scrap Plating and Warmup require you to be successful at the game to gain their value, while this will always help you and almost negate the risk of running out of ammo.


First off, forget about the heat increase, it’s not much and the effect of the module clearly outweighs this small debuff by sooooooo much. Breacher is poor af, not a single currency increase anywhere, so this module is very helpful with that. This won’t do much at the earlier part of the game, but once you reach VR and the later stages the effect starts to get more noticeable, until all your items spawn at 750% power (after looping several times).
This is Breacher's answer to the “I need money problem”, it will give far more than Commando classes's Madness module, Transmute or Engineer. But only in the late game, so don’t take this when you are just looking to beat LD, or struggle with that. Since items are the most important part of the game and upgrade kits give more damage at higher powers, you will never regret taking this. It has potential to be on the top 5 module list, but money isn’t considered very important. It is definitely the best way of increasing your currency though, so if you like money, this is your go-to module.

If you're completely new to the game I recommend you use Shielded and I-Frame until you get better, then replace I-Frame with Weapon mastery.

Stats

Let me say a few words on stats, for the sake of completion. The stats are arranged based on the order in which I choose them during the run.

-Movespeed is and will always be the best stat
-Max Shield is just good, the bigger your shield, the less damage you take
-Dodge is always good
-Luck is dope on Breacher, since the no ammo chance scales off luck. A bit better on Breacher than on most other classes.
-Health regen is not required but still good, Breacher tends to lose HP without dying.
(if you're new to the game this is probably the most important stat for you, but the better you get, the less important this stat gets.)
(-if you happen to find a 98k, shield regen is amazing. This is way too detailed and definitely not Breacher specific, I don't know why I'm listening to that guy who told me to implement it here. Otherwise shield regen is garbage)
-Max HP is not very important but still good, it widens the 20% hp window for your plating gain
-Currency increase helps with Breacher being poor
-Ammo gain can help, depending on gun


The rest is between eh and trash. Mentioned stats are all better.

Weaponry

I'm lazy, if you want to know which weapon I'm talking about, check it here: https://synthetik.fandom.com/wiki/Weapons

While it may seem obvious to just go for shotguns on Breacher, there is a lot more to consider. Let’s start with shotguns tho.

The main Problem with shotguns is their decreased range and their damage falloff. This is surprising no-one, but still the reason why shotguns are a bad choice if you want maximum efficiency. Luckily, the Titanium Rifling (from now Trifling) attachment exists, so you’re basically praying to get that instead of Hyper Accelerator, which is now no longer required. Still, even with Trifling and the range increase from Breachers level 15 Talent, the Bullet range is noticeable lower than on ARs/SMGs.

Very good shotguns are:

RRX Coil Shotgun
Has very low deviation and recoil, a big mag and lots of spare ammo, relatively low heat generation, good base damage and most importantly, a permanent damage stacking effect. While this Weapon outperforms most other Shotguns in terms of handling, it also deals more damage than them.

Viciator Ultra
A newcomer to the “good Shotguns” list, has been buffed noticeably after u26. It has very low heat generation and deals high damage. Again, shines with low recoil (honestly, only snipers care about deviation) but has low spare ammo. Aside from good stats, this weapon has a very powerful effect. Every kill grants a short but powerful speed boost. While this is very useful in “normal” situations, you can combine this with the refresher synergy item to gain insane results. Currently the best shotgun of the patch.

Spas 12
Very good handling with low recoil and a big mag, but very low damage. The weapon is PERFECT at delivering DoTs, which it starts with (Dreagonsbreath ammo supplier). Fire is currently the best DoT in the game and you can use it for some very specific strategies. Shoot at enemies from maximum range and set them on fire. Then hide behind something and have them die while they run towards you. Note that DoT effect ignore enemy armor, making them an effective answer to the low AP of Shotguns. For “normal” gameplay, where you just try to kill stuff asap, this weapon is not top tier, but if used correctly, you can gain massive value.

Good Shotguns are:

Road Warrior
Very powerful Weapon, having all of the upsides of a single-shot weapon while none of their down-sides. Unfortunately, Road Warrior has significantly reduced bullet range, which means it falls off very hard in loop. Amazing choice if you just want to beat arma, not so much in loop.

Coil Pistol
It does extremely well for a pistol, but it’s still a pistol. (6th weakest shotgun) If the game absolutely refuses to give you a suitable weapon, it’s worth upgrading this, but don’t choose it over another (good) weapon. Coil sets a high standard for these.

T 8-00-Gauge
Comes with very high damage but only has a single shot. Some may see this as a plus, I don’t. Very hard weapon to use, but unfortunately, it’s NOT worth the effort, as it will never surpass the very good Shotguns.

Super 90
This is like your average shotgun, nothing special about it, except that the last shot deals critical damage. The only reason this is here because it’s not justified to put this in the same category as KSG. (namely the trash can) Use it if you get it, but not worth tokening.

Pressurized Impaler
A VERY interesting weapon with some unique mechanics. Instead of shooting and then producing heat, it charges up a shot and produces heat while then fully removing the heat upon shooting. This effectively means you cannot overheat. (Unless you jam, get stunned or actually try to overheat) The weapon itself is not too remarkable, but it starts off fully automatic. For gambling fans: get this weapon with the Military Spec Variant and reach 100% no ammo chance. Every Heavy Gunner will shush, seeing your weapon capable of shooting FOREVER without overheating.

‘Raptor’ Laser SG
Another weapon with potential. Basically unusable unless you get every single heat reducing thing in the game- Reload Vent and Backup Printer Attachments, Powershot and Magic Mag items should be enough, preferably Unceasing module, but I always take Unceasing anyways (if I get it). Does not require Trifling.

Battle Hymn
A very Powerful weapon with some flaws. Your main concern is to get hair trigger, but alternatively you can stop the burst by pressing Q (switching weapon in general). Does not require Trifling.

As you may have noticed, I listed all Shotguns but 5. Super shorty and that arena shotgun are just too weak, KSG is a whole other level. Never seen such garbage. Raider Scrap Cannon is a good backpack weapon and a meme weapon. But definitely not a good shotgun. Don’t even get me started on Plasma. I’d rather take KSG over that trash. Remember: you have a Pistol.

3 Types of ammo here:
-Laser Shotguns have no damage falloff. They don’t rely on Trifling, but still benefit from it. They DO NOT get the pierce from Breachers Level 15 Talent! Both Laser Shotguns have a significant disadventage compared to the others, I'm thinking about removing them from the recommendation list.
-Accelerated coil need Trifling and has a small chance to ricochet, which unfortunately can’t be changed. Something I just noticed, they have noticeably higher range than buckshot ammo. Which means that in some cases, like in HA, your pistol will do a better job then some of the other "good" shotguns. People may say stuff like "just get closer", but these people most likely haven't spent much time looping in HA.
-Gauge Buckshot needs Trifling and fully ricochets. Try to get one of the 2 DoT special ammo types, bleeding or fire. (Fire is better) Keep in mind that these deal slightly reduced damage, so if you have no problem with ricochet at all, it's better to keep the normal ammo. If you happen to run into Pressurized Impaler, remember to switch back to whatever other ammo you’re using. Same for KSG and triple slug. Both have some uses and adventages, but both fire significantly less projectiles, which results in far less total damage because "accuracy through volume" and Shock Impulse synergy.

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ARs and SMGs. Why these, nowhere in Breachers talents are any reasons to take these types of guns. Simple answer, the stronger ones of these are so powerful, they don’t care. Even without whatever bonus, they will do an amazing job. But saying they receive no bonus is wrong, Breachers level 15 Talent fully applies and the movespeed slowdown reduction from the level 10 Talent comes fully into action, since they’re full auto. Also, the no ammo chance can fix many ammo problems and still works as a magsize increase.

LS Laser Sub
Cheating. Arguably the best weapon in the game. Only use it if you plan on falling asleep during the run

Medic FMG-9
Weaker than Laser Sub in every way, but still has a permanently stacking boost. Very powerful.

AEK Special Elite
One of the better Weapons in the game. Supplies AP ammo, heals on Elite kills and has overall very good stats. Ammo eco is slightly problematic, but no ammo chance fixes that.

AN-94 Deathstalker
Similar the AEK, but requires more skill to use effectively.

All of these are amazing weapons, some are broken in a way. Here the “normal” attachments apply, simp for Hyper Accelerator.

Explosives
This is more obvious, Breacher takes less damage from explosions and benefits from explosions. Also, Launchers are just super powerful.

M32 Multi Purpose
Annihilator ANH-5
Both Anni and m32 are very similar, while Anni is obviously much stronger, it has both heat and ammo issues (backup printer best attachment here).

Human RPG-7
Not really to be honest. This is just here because it has so many synergies with whatever Talent, but it’s not really strong.
Only 3 weapons I can really recommend here, but they’re real monsters (RPG not so much). Aim at the general direction and watch them die. Extreme power houses. DO NOT take hyper accelerator on these, you will regret it.

If you use T80, RPG or Nemesis, if you get it, you have to keep some things in mind. They all have only 1 shot, which means the no ammo chance is at 40 by default. You can extend this with the ammo tp attachments, but be very careful. Heat will be a big issue, not just because of massive heat generation, but also because there are a lot less shots to trigger powershot. Road Warrior may also be put in this category but unlike the other 3, he can benefit from reload vent, even with 100% no ammo chance while also having much lower heat production. On all these 4 weapons, the last straw attachment is amazing. But just because they have many great synergies with Breacher, their lack of synergies with the "meta items" make them not always a good choice.

I can barely believe that I forgot to mention AS VAL. Sorry to everyone who read this guide before this edit, I really forgot the tell you about a broken gun.
It has problematic ammo gain and max ammo, so you have to place your shots very carefully. I recommend you use it in combination with another weapon until VAL is maxed and you found shock impulse, otherwise your ammo will be depleted too fast. Additionally make sure to switch to 8.8 default (not that strange surpressed ammo thing), it penetrates the first enemy hit and has higher armor penetration. Hang on to that until you get AP ammo. The weapon itself could be better, but the reason why it's broken is its passive, you have a chance to gain plating on kills. Given Breachers increased plating cap, it is an excellent weapon for him (even better than on other classes).

Items

Here it gets much more interesting, I could talk about items for years, but let’s keep it short.

Refractor Crystal
Best item in the game, thus an obvious choice


Shock Impulse
Best damage item in the game, synergizes with shotguns scattered shots, as every single projectile will trigger his, causing lunatic damage.

Powershot
Has a hidden side effect of decreasing your heat by 5 every activation. This is the best heat managing item in the game, followed by magic mag. (Which is a very good alternative, sometimes even better than powershot)

Tsunami Talisman
Will negate recoil, turning even Road Warrior into a sniper. Additionally it heals.


Twin Link II
Doubles your damage for one second. Synergizes with Shock Impulse.


These 5 are your options, the last two is an either-or choice. Supply Token 4 of these. Put your power tokens on

Akira
Makes explosions everywhere. Remember, Breacher likes explosions a lot.


Incubus
Breacher has absolutely no problem with dealing big damage, which will result into insane healing from this item. If you can't deal with the damage increase and permanent hp loss (which is nothing compared to the healing), take crux of the laser caster instead. Warning: Every time you pick up this item, your damage absorb gets reduced by 20. This was implemented to prevent people from dropping and picking it up to avoid the damage. This changes nothing about my recommendation, just something you must know.

Devils Dice
Grants insane amounts of luck when recycled. Definitely worth buying and upgrading just for luck.

Black Berserker Charm
2nd worst item in the game. Luckily, it gives lifesteal when recycled. Which interestingly is the best recycle effect in the game. Buy and recycle whenever you can.

These were the items I recommend to token, but I also want to add some “honorable mentions” and also talk a bit about synergy items. Some of them synergize really well with Breacher, some others are just super good in general. If you happen to run across one of these during your run, it’s sometimes even worth buying them over one of the tokened items and definitely worth considering to keep. You may also token one of these instead, depending on personal preference.

Magic Mag
The second-best heat reducing item behind Powershot. Additionally helps with ammo economy and serves as a big damage output increase. Can really save your life in hectic situations.

Stinger Jet Glider/DMR Sentry Turret
Having some sort of summon is invaluable for your survival in Loop or Hyper Adrenaline. Will also help you during your normal runs. While Stinger is clearly the best summon in the game, I personally prefer the Turret, as it can’t move and thus won’t kill me by floating over me and then exploding.

Unstable/Direct Current
Will potentially hard-carry you through VR and will always be a good protection against fast/melee enemies. Noticeably weaker than most other items here on the list, but it can and will save your life.

Granting max shields when it activates and permanently increases luck by 25 while it's in your inventory. Not too powerful, but really good for hit and run strategies, especially for newer players.

ZK77 ‘Sticky Bomb’
First off, NEVER use this in coop. This is more of an honorable mention than a recommendation, because this item is neither very strong nor very safe to use. But it greatly synergizes with Breachers Cool Down reduce and it’s something worth trying.

I’ve also noticed that most people think that an item is good just because it’s red. That’s nowhere near true. Here are the remaining good red items, the rest is garbage.
Fangs or Mordigan, Madness Classes, Orb of Lightning, Reality Ripper, Crux of the Laser Caster

Then there are a few ok red items, which are significantly weaker than many other items I’ve mentioned so far, but still usable:
Facemelter, Fire Prism, Air Com, High Command, Infinite Drill Piece, Z1 Sundering Shuriken
For all these 5 items there is a better alternative, the remaining red items are not even worth the inventory slot.

Synergy items:
You are not required to get one of these to get your build going, and most of the time it’s less likely to get one of these in combination with the right setup, but it’s definitely something worth talking about.

Refresher
Extends all buffs, which is normally pointless, but Breachers Speed boost from explosions and all buffs from Viciator are affected. Same for meth. This Can give you godmode for the effect duration if combined with the right item/weapon. Just make sure you don't get set on fire.

Shaker
If you run meth, this is good. If you happen to keep some of the targetable items around (e.g. Module Core, Hearth Core), this is super good as well. But just for upgrade kits it’s absolutely not worth it.

Lifeblood
One of the few good healing sources in the game. All 3 mentioned synergy items heavily benefit from the cd reduce.

Nitroglycerine
Makes boom into more boom. Only worth taking if you have the space for it or you happen to run into Akira. Otherwise this will simply not do enough for you to justify the inventory slot. If used in combination with Breaching Charges, it will randomly hit you.

Strategy

I’ve come to the conclusion that most people can’t play the game correctly and just take way too much damage, just because they don’t know about simple concepts like cover. Here I will talk about basic Strategies, some special stuff you can do with Breacher, but also some more advanced stuff like the Cool Down Decrease Synergy.

The very basics of combat (I’m pulling this out of my ass right now, if someone has a better “guide” or whatever on that, tell me) all come down to Positioning and Killing.

Positioning
This is the most important part of combat. It includes cover, abusing enemies as cover, lining up enemies to shoot them all at once and to avoid getting hit and more. Of course you can just Ungabunga into enemies, Breacher is a good class for that, but it won’t bring you far. All of this is very difficult to put into words, it’s probably much easier to learn this via a video, but I will try anyways.

First off: Cover
There is virtually no point in not being in some sort of cover somehow while you’re not shooting. Breacher has absolutely no problem with killing something, so the hit and run strategy is very easy to pull off. I have no idea how to explain this properly, so I’m stealing someone else’s words I’ve heard at some point: “Image a light shining in all directions from your position” (This is not a quote, I have no idea what exactly he said) You can hit everything in the light, but more importantly, it can hit you. Basically, you want to keep the number of enemies in the light (in line of fire) as small as possible. For the sake of doing this, you look for a wall or a corner or whatever else and hug it. Then you step out of cover and shoot something. Directly after that, you retreat back behind that wall. I think this is called cornerpeaking, but I think you get what I want to say. You can also wait for enemies to come around the corner and then shoot them. Always try to stay next to something, so you can go into cover whenever you need. Breacher can use his dash or his Breaching charge to get into cover very fast, but if you play correctly, you won’t need it most of the time. If you try to take all enemies to the face, without abusing cover, you’ll take a lot more damage than you had to. Lastly, everything is a cover if you just believe hard enough (except crates and concrete). As long as enemies can’t shoot through it, it will serve its purpose. Just dance around it until everything is dead.

Abusing enemies as Cover:
You have a stun grenade which allows you to randomly make enemies unable to move for several seconds. And your shots penetrate enemies. How convenient. More often that not you’ll be able to use turrets to shoot through them, protecting you from a group of enemies. Also, in hectic situations or when you just happen to have no cover nearby, just make some by stunning enemies. Even better, if you face a group of enemies which already noticed you and then lined up, only the first enemy in the line will be able to hit you. This works almost always, try to get something between you and the enemy. If it’s not a wall or some other indestructible thing, use an enemy.

Lining up enemies:
In most situations you’re going to be the aggressor. You throw your stun grenade and then shoot. But where to shoot most effectively? As heard earlier, you can just shoot through enemies. You draw a line over a group, trying to find the spot where you can hit most enemies. Then you find the end of the line which is closer to you, stun that end of the line, dash next to that enemy and shoot them all at once. It’s always good to make use of your penetration, it will drastically increase your damage output. You just had to stun someone, why not make use of it and put him in line with another enemy.

Enemies moving around corners:
As you will notice, some enemies react exceptionally fast. It’s nearly impossible to consistently get the first shot on Shotgun Rivals/Snipers and even if you do, they might shoot before your shot hits them. If you’re the aggressor, it’s fairly easy. You can aim and shoot, or just stun, but if they noticed and rush you… Of course you are in cover ;) but what will you do to kill them? (For this scenario, stun grenade is on cool down) You could leave cover and kill then, but as I said, reaction time too short. This holds true for every single enemy in loop btw. Answer: you wait and shoot while they move around the corner. Simple as that. They don’t immediately shoot, SOMETIMES. This is still the safer strategy than to just get out of cover and get shot hard, so how to fix this entirely. You wait around the corner and throw your Breaching Charge shortly before they reach you. But this is just some little extra, most of the time you will be fine by just shooting stuff and then retreating into cover after you shot. With some practice and extensive use of Stun Grenade (almost sounds like it’s a broken item) you will greatly decrease the damage you take.

Dashing into enemies:
Ask yourself: what do I get by dashing into enemies? More often than not it’s safer to use your trusty wall to kill your enemies. But sometimes that’s simply not required. Instead, stun, dash in and throw your Charges after the dash ended. After end because you want the extra Core Stack. This will consistently kill most enemies during the first 4 floors. But you always have to keep it mind: dashing into enemies means exposing yourself. At least try to dash into a position where your Charge hit all enemies at once or a position where only one enemy can shoot you. Some other times, it might just be the perfect thing to do. If one of the weaker enemies or one of the big but slow enemies is approaching you, you can dash DIAGONALLY (please not directly in his face) to the left/right and just casually dodge his shots. This also puts you in a convenient spot behind him, making this an easy kill. Just don’t forget that there might be some other enemies behind him, so make sure you have either your charges ready or some way of defending yourself.

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Moving while fighting:
In some situations, there is no option to cover. And you also can’t always rely on your trusty stun grenade. Rule number one in bad situations like these: Move. Doesn’t really matter where, just make sure you gain value out of it. Good ideas might be to run away, run around enemies or just dash through them, although this can be very dangerous. But DON’T just stand still and take the damage. You use a shotgun, who cares about movement stabilization? That thing is reduced on Breacher anyways. In situations like these all plans already died, but try to stay away from the really dangerous ones. Abuse enemies as cover, you know. It’s fine to take some hits by one of the weaker dudes, but don’t even let that ION hit you even once. Staying away doesn’t mean bring distance between you and them, but it means get out of their line of fire. Either by getting something between you and them or by getting behind them. Doesn’t work with all enemies, but better than nothing.

METH:
I’ve been throwing around strategies here and there, what to do when you must fight in close range, but all it comes down to is: meth. It’s comparably hard to die while meth is active. This should be the first reflex you develop. Not some fancy dodge strat, cause that takes time and won’t always work, but meth will do. The better you get, the less important meth will become to you preloop, but it will always stay an “I-win-button”. That’s why you don’t waste your charges to heal yourself, you use it to keep you alive. Also, if you took damage in fight A, you can use meth in fight B to survive AND heal. There is simply no need to always be on max hp. It’s completely enough to run around with 500 instead on 1000 hp. And if you happened to be on 1 hp, trigger meth on first sight with an enemy, so you still benefit from the defensive abilities.

Breachers Cool Down Reduction:
Level 15 Class Talent reduces running cool downs. First off, running cooldowns are gray cooldowns. An item you just activated will have an orange “cool down”, that’s called effect duration. So there is no point in trying to reduce the cd of an item you just activated. Next, which explosion sources do we have? Anything that explodes will do. Maining a weapon which shoots explosion, using an item that creates explosions, even enemies dying. The cd reduce has been nerfed, but stays potent. One use of Breaching Charge on 750% halves your running cooldowns. So what is actually worth using to use this cd reduce? (for some reason I’m into QnA today) You start with a very potent source of explosion, Breaching charge. Once at 300 power you’ll be able to use it basically once per dash, but even before that point you can throw it very often. Spam it after you used one of your big items and you will see your cooldown reduced noticeably. Then there is Akira. If you happen to find, it your cds will go crazy. Literally any other explosive item will cause an effect, but it only makes it worth keeping them, not actually tokening or choosing them over a better alternative. Only one honorable mention, Gun drone Spawner will spawn a lot of drones which will then explode and trigger the cd reduce. This holds true for all of the “moving summons”, making Breacher is in fact a better summoner than Engi. Anyway, this whole cd thing also means that Breacher gains more value out of items with high cool down, since the reduction is % based.

I made a commentary run which you can watch, I tried to explain stuff.
https://youtu.be/We-aphV9IO8
Maybe it's helping you, maybe not. This was my 2nd commentary video and it is definitely better than the last one, although there is still room to improve.

So this was for the people who like reading, for visual learners, there is youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZxcF7h73GsJ7C8DbEmYxDQ
https://www.youtube.com/user/badzx161616

Kill priority

Killing is simple, isn’t it? Yeah, sort of. The only thing I have to say about it is that there is some sort of “order of Importance”. Some Enemies just have to die asap, while some other simply can’t do anything, even if you let them.

Enemies I sorted out to kill asap:
If you don’t know what I’m talking about: https://synthetik.fandom.com/wiki/Enemies
Please keep in mind that I don’t use the names of the wiki, but how I call them. They’re quite close and often it’s easy to figure out what I mean, but don’t get confused. Also, you will die to all of them at some point, so you’ll know who I mean at some point.

Training Floors:
Alarm Bots (if they happen to appear)
Kill, because they make Chronos Spawn. If that happens, you have a problem

Ballbots
Kill, because you can’t get close to them.

Shotgun Rivals
Nobody here deal as much damage as these guys do. Biggest threat to your unbeatable Plating/Shield Combo. Additionally, their reaction time is way too short and the can dash, which makes them uncontrollable at some point.

Headhunters
They don’t always appear, but if they do, expect them do stab you in the back. Nothing you can do against that, they always spawn in the worst situation possible. Or maybe that’s just me.

Stinger Jet gliders
They show up VERY rarely. But if they do, you have a problem. They take low priority, because you can’t kill them fast, but they’re a big problem

Ballistic Silos:
Alarm Bots
Same as above

Shotgun Rivals
Again, same reason.

Hyper troopers
They deal massive damage, but they’re slow. Usually you can bait them until other stuff is dead.

Devastator
Bratatatatatatata. You can just run in circles around them and they will never hit you. But if they do…

Stinger Jet gliders
Same as above, they just so happen to be hard to kill.

Shield Generator Drones
If you have small dps or use laser, kill these first, otherwise you’ll fight the group forever.

VR:
Chronos
No explanation needed. I ignore the entire map and hunt for Chronos until all of them are dead.

Hyper Trooper
VR offers little cover, so they’re a big thread. Luckily, they’re very rare.

Shotgun Rivals
Again, no cover.

The other enemies can virtually be ignored, provided you have Movespeed (Breacher, you know)

Military Bay;
Everything here takes high priority(almost, Riot Guards can’t do anything) , since can deal damage. But some do more than others.

Nemesis Snipers
There is no meme, die. Super funny Idea to give a SNIPER who deals extreme damage a grenade and some of the highest Movespeed in the game.

Chronos
Rarely appear and thus not very important, since they deal less damage compared to others. Still dangerous

Ion Trooper
Big damage

Shotgun Rivals
Yes, you heard me right, they appear on every single map.

Big red floating thingy (B Defenders)
You can’t really dodge their attacks, so they make up a thread.

Phasers
Every time I see one of them, I want to punch my computer. Get your Breaching Charges Ready.
Lasty there is a bunch of hard hitting enemies, but nothing special about them, just abuse cover and stun. Thing about turrets: they all hit like trucks, but instantly die to stun Grenade. You can stun them, rush them and use them as cover to fight whatever is behind them.

If you encounter elites, make sure you don’t ignore them. (Cause I do sometimes, bad habit) Even if they’re ignorable otherwise, Elite MAY make them a thread.

I’m not saying you have to kill these enemies in the order I listed them here, but all these enemies are a bigger threat then the average dude. While I virtually pick off SG Rivals and Chronos before anything else, I just keep an eye on these enemies while fighting and (try) to make sure they don’t get a shot.

Closing Words

Thanks for reading through all of this and I hope I was able to help you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment section. Also, sorry for this being just a massive wall of text, but I don't know how to express these mechanics in a different way.


Picture Sources: the game and here: https://synthetik.fandom.com/wiki/Items

(To avoid complications, uetzelgruetz and Simonsis13 are the same person, I have a good reason for this, but I will not explain it. If you want something from me, uetzelgruetz will never respond.)

[Valkayrie]

a note on the t 8-00, that weapon is hilarious to use with ammo tp, custom fitting, and last straw AS LONG AS you don't get a variant that increases mag size. what ends up happening is a 30% (or more with luck) chance to fire without consuming ammo plus both the last straw and custom fitting's "first shot" bonus. i've popped off 3+ damage boosted shots without reloading.

unreliable to get? yes and definitely meme category. worth it? absolutely. you can increase your chances of getting this attachment combo by playing with a heavy gunner and having them use attachment kits for you.

[ixutiini]

haha them boom booms are good

[Levan Shprota]

For those struggling with gaining stacks with Laser Sub or Medic FMG (since they ARE kinda weaksauce initially, especially for the newer players), there's a neat little trick. Once you kill an enemy, or a group of enemies, with ANY weapon, you have a small window to quickly switch to another weapon, and the game will count as if you killed with THAT weapon for the purpose of stacks! So you can kill somebody with a Super Shorty, immediately switch to Laser Sub for a moment, switch back to Super Shorty, and you'll still have your max shield bonus despite never having fired a single shot from Laser Sub.

It also counts if you killed enemied with any other sources while holding Laser Sub, such as your breaching charges - and heck, you can even soften the enemy up with another weapon and then finish them off with Laser Sub, if you're so inclined.

[Mr. n]

Link is dead, could you repost to imgur instead of discord and re-link?

[AeonHeals]

Is there any curse worth taking for breacher? Or just ignore?

[Simonsis13]

I don't think there is much to be said about artifacts. Cario, zion and mael are good, the rest is somewhere between good and ignorable.

[generic hooman moat.gg]

What about artefacts

[Simonsis13]

This guide doesn't contain jokes. The thing with guns in synth is that because of broken items like Shock Impulse and Twin link, damage as a stat doesn't actually matter much. If you remove the lack of damage from LS, you're left with a very accurate and fast laser SMG that increases your max shield with every kill. Ofc you need kills in the first place (luckily Breacher is very good at that), but then you'll just keep stacking more and more shields. And that is objectively op, even after several patches.

[HaylingZar]

Great guide! I found all the information really helpful! However, I didn't realise the thing about the LS laser sub being a God gun was a joke - when I finally got it I was ready to try out this crazy good weapon, cue minutes of running around to kill a single enemy! Learnt from that one haha

[sev]

how to play breacher: run fast eat ass