Best Scout Loadout

For those who aren't a fan of this class.

Primary - The M1000

M1000 is considered the best scout primary and it is very clearly shown here why.

• Hoverclock - It's an underrated overclock. It gives scout a way to completely negate fall damage even in a pinch, for example when grabed by a stingtail. It's also useful in a mission where you don't have an engineer on your team as it allows you to chip out that ceiling nitra.
  
• Tier 1. Expanded Ammo Bags - More ammo gives you the ability to take out more high priorty targets (for example: acid spitters, wardens, sceptic spreaders) with focus shots which consume 2 bullets but also get rid of smaller bugs like grunts.
  
• Tier 2. Fast-Charging Coils - This upgrade makes you able to activate hoverclock faster. It is a must have while using the this overclock so even if you don't plan on using this specific hoverclock build remember to put that upgrade on.
  
• Tier 3. Extented Clip - I recommend it on every M1000 build because of focus shots which use up 2 bullets at a time.
  
• Tier 4. Hollow-Point Bullets - With this upgrade equipped you can kill grunts in 1 shot without charging it, which is really helpful as playing scout forces you to explore caves alone and you won't always have a engineers turrets backing you up.
  
• Tier 5. Hitting Where It Hurts - Focus shots are usually used against those valuable targets so stuning them protects you and your fellow dwarves for example you can stop preatorians vomit attack.

Secondary - The Boomstick

Boomstick perfectly complements the M1000 playstyle. Instead of carefully chosing and aiming your targets to shoot you just left click in their general direction (as long as your close enough).

• Double Barrel - In my opinion it is curretnly the strongest overclock in the game. It does absurd ammount of damage with a great area of effect. You can shoot big targets like oppressors or groups of weaker bugs like grunts and take them out both ammo and time efficient.
  
• Tier 1. Expanded Ammo Bags - Here it is a no brainer because all of your boomsitck damage comes from the shockwave no the pellets themselves.
  
• Tier 2. QuickFire Ejector - Another slot without real competition as double barrel causes you to have only 1 shot in the magazine.
  
• Tier 3. Expanded Ammo Bags - Like earlier we only care about shockwave so more pellets don't help us much and stunning bugs is a job for M1000.
  
• Tier 4. Improved Blast Wave - The most important upgrade in our boomstick build. It literally just doubles our damage. It allows us to 1 shot grunts.
  
• Tier 5. Fear The Boomstick - It helps if you are getting overrun by bugs. You might also choose white phosphorus shells if you aren't using cryo grenades as it is better not to trigger temperature shock with your double barrel.

Grenades

I use cryo grenades with this build as you can :

• insta-kill naedocyte breeders with just 2
  
• freeze brood nexuses so it doesn't burst into swarmers
  
• throw it on a spitball infector, preatorian, warden or meance to trivialise them
  
• and lastly killing a mactera horde in 1 grenade will never get old

Alternatively you can use pheromone canisters with combination of white phosphorus shells to clear swarms and give your team some breathing room.

Perks

PASSIVE

• Resupplier - Run this perk on every class. It saves you during a deadly swarm or a boss fight by providing extra health. Reducing the time to grab the resupply makes you less vulnerable.
  
• Thorns - Scout struggles with small bugs like swarmers.
  
• Sweet Tooth - This one is not necessary since we have hoverclock to negate fall damage but more health is never bad.

ACTIVE

• Iron Will - The best perk in the game. Can save a mission if all dwarves are down. Especially strong on scout due to his mobility he can revive dwarves who are high up or stuck in a pit.
  
• Field Medic - This is very helpful as previously mentioned scout is the best class to revive fellow miners so a 30% increase in reviving speed is worth it on it's own.

Ending Thoughts

Your role as a scout hasn't changed with this loadout hover I find it to allow a more independent playstyle. You no longer have to wait for an engineers platform or a gunners zipline to mine minerals placed high up since you can negate fall damage with hoverclock, you don't have to go to your driller/gunner to take out packs of grunts as you can kill them easily with double barrel.
I never really liked playing scout compared to driller or gunner but this loadout made me really keen on playing him more.

[juggernautbob]

wow this is nice, but I don't even have that overclock lol.

[Rikodaster]

Well then I just haven't noticed it before. Thank you for a clearing it up, like I said in the guide I never really played a lot of scout so I could have got that wrong.

[Starlight]

Hip fire also works. 55 damage, grunts have 2x weakspots: 55*2 > 108, thus one shot is possible. Basic grunts have 108hp regardless of player amount on haz 5 and above so if you hop into a haz 5 mission without any mods on the M1k you can see that you can indeed one-shot them. T4B is great, just the reasoning for it is here slightly flawed

[Rikodaster]

Yeah I know that you can one-shot with charging but I am talking here about one bullet one kill, that is without focus shot.

[Starlight]

The M1k has just enough damage to one-shot basic grunts to the weakpoint without any modifications even on haz 5.5 with 4 players. With blowthrough you very rarely hit weakspots on all 4 grunts and since charge shots deal just enough damage, without Hardened Rounds you can't charge shot body shot a basic grunt which is why you could've felt like you can't one shot them

[Rikodaster]

Fast Charging Coils helps tremendously during big swarms. You can take down a lot of dangerous bugs faster and leave grunts to your team or group them and blow them with the Boomstick.

I never really looked into the stats (all my knowledge comes from just playing the game). From my experience (which is haz 5, 4 players) I don't one-shot grunts with T4A compared to T4B. Maybe am I just crazy...

[Starlight]

Any particular reason for Fast Charging Coils instead of Hardened Rounds in T2? Hoverclock allows you to hover when you start focusing for 1.5s or until you shoot/stop focusing. Hardened Rounds makes it so if you penetrate armour with the M1k, the shot deals full damage; this means you can always two-hit grunts no matter where you hit them, or one-shot them if you charge the shot first

Also the T4 description is slightly wrong, since the M1k has 55 base damage and grunts have 108 health at max, hitting them in a weakspot will kill them instantly. You do need it to one-shot grunts if you run Hipster however so I understand the confusion here. Nevertheless, T4B is a solid pick

[Rikodaster]

Yeah, whatever you say haters

[achifa]

I really disagree because you ready cant force someone to like and class and you should just use your own loadout

[Sarah]

I highly disagree with this build, If you dont enjoy scout the call of duty like scout build is probably a much smoother way of playing for someone who doesnt enjoy scout as a whole.