Co-Op for Bulletstorm, Beginner Guide

This guide is for the newbie and people who are not sure how to do Bulletstorm multiplayer with groups.

This guide also helps people when communications are limited and your struggling to get points.

This a work in progress based upon in game play.

Co-Op/Multiplayer, what is it?

The Multiplayer or more accurate the co-op is a match that involves anywhere between 1 - 4 players and face waves of varying enemies.

To advance past each wave needs not kills but skillshot points.

During Single Player, you needed skillpoints to unlock abilities and this gives you a rough guide on how the Co-Op works.

At the end of each wave there is a total amount of skillshot points you have gained which can then be spent to gain better abilities, weapons and weapon upgrades.

The Basics of Co-Op

In single player, you are required to do a set action to do a certain skillshot, for instance a Bullet Kick requires you to kick an enemy then as he slows you shoot him while in this slow mode state until he is dead.

In Co-Op players need to share the actions in order to get a bigger Skillshot bonus, so a Team Bullet Kick requires one player to kick the enemy and a different player to shoot the same enemy when the enemy enters the slow motion state.

Seems simple? Not many players understand this which is why most do not make it to the final waves

A Team Skillshot typically needs one player to Kick/Leash/Slide into enemies and another shooting or Kick/Leash/Sliding for most basic skillshots to be done. The Team skill shot window is only available as long as the first hit and slow motion state lasts, if you miss it then the next hit will count as the first again.

Please note, you must only kick/leash/slide or shoot the enemy once after a teammate, if you do not the skillshot will count as a solo one.

A Co-Op game lasts 20 Waves. The amount needed to reach the next wave increases when the previous wave is completed.

Advanced Skillshots, Combos, Challenges and Last Chance Challenge

Occasionally players want more point for purchasing gear at the end of a wave or have had some bad luck with a few enemy kills and need to get better points, to do this there ways to pull off more advanced types of skillshot, combine more than one skillshot or complete skillshot challenges.

Skillshots are divided into three colours depending upon difficulty of doing them:
Blue = Basic - Simple Actions needed eg Headshot or Bullet Kick.
Yellow = Normal - Something not so easy to do on the fly but not so hard to pull off eg Gag-Reflex or Rear Entry.
Red = Complex - A series of actions needed to pull these off, quite hard to do but the rewards are good eg Gunslinger or X-Ray.

Minimum of two players are required to pull off Team Versions of these skillshots, new skillshots can also be done in Co-Op that were not in Single Player eg two players shoot an enemy at the same time get Double Penetration.

Combos are rewarded when several actions on one enemy are done, the most common is the Team Bossed and Team Double Penetration for example, it is possible to have more, I have seen five on one enemy so far but it is possible to do more.

Challenge Skillshots are made available are roughly 1-5 per wave more challenges the higher the wave. An enemy will glow blue and have a named skillshot above his head if you complete the Team skillshot on this enemy you gain 500 skillshot points, it is not possible to have combos if you complete a challenge. Please note it must be a TEAM skillshot, solo ones do not count!

Finally there is the Last Chance Challenge, if your about to lose the round the final Challenge will give you enugh points to beat the round. The points if you succeed will sill count as a normal Challange but the wave will be completed. This only works when its says 'Last Chance' over the enemy head.

Dropkits and the Buying Options

Dropkits are made available at the beginning of each wave, it is there for a set duration before the wave truly starts, multiple dropkits are deployed around the map and they can be accessed all at the same time players do not need to queue to buy things.

To access a dropkit you must do the action like the single player of leashing it.

From there you can upgrade:

Defence (Amount of damage you can take before going down)
Speed (Your movement speed and sliding duration)
Power (Kicking damage, slow motion state duration and blood symphony duration)

Unlock Thumper Access
Leash Recharge (In the Co-Op your leash recharges everytime it grabs an enemy or object takes serveral seconds)
Thumper Capacity

And a choice of weapons (No Sniper)
Also you may only have one other weapon besides your Rifle, however if you have bought the weapon in that game you do not have to re-buy it in the same game.

You can upgrade the weapons once they are unlocked (2000 skillshot points to unlock)

Each weapon will have 3 upgrades of:
Ammo Capacity (Increase Ammo Held, Clip Size if it holds more than 1 and Weapon Charge Capacity)
Speed (Reloading time and Fire Rate)
Power (Damage your weapon does and explosive radius if it explodes)

Ammo is also bought here, you can either: buy per clip, fill your ammo up to max using what skillpoints you have (if any) and buy weapon charges.

Tips for Co-Op

When communication is limited try and use the reccommened skillshots:
Sadist (Flailgun)
Pump Action (Boneduster)
Piledriver (Boneduster)
Twisted (Penetrator)

Keep an eye out for anyone leashing or kicking even if they are not doing it on purpose you can try going for a Bullet Kick/Slide or a Yoink.

Minibosses that are in armour are tough to put down, Charged shots from a Boneduster or normal shots from a Flailgun are good things to have when this happens

Try not to kill challenges when you see them. Sometimes it is good to try and save them till your in a good spot. Good luck if you have people that have never heard of 'Teamwork'.

When using your boneduster or kick, try to not buy power upgrades as this extends the life of your victims if things go wrong.

When using the Boneduster, try not to get too close as it might result in a Headshot, Topless or Legless and they do not count as Team Skillshots.

If you hear someone use Blood Symphony while in a team, it usally means things are bad going or they have not heard of Team Skillshots.

Creeps can only be Slided before any skillshots can be done the other two ways to get them are a little risky depending on your team and where they are. Making them stagger after a rifle shot makes them leashable for a second or two while thumping them also work (careful about ceilings and other enviromental hazards).

If your team actually knows what it is doing, then take your time.

If points are plentiful then try to upgrade Leash Recharge as much as possible.

Ideally try to pickup the Thumper around waves 6 - 8 as this is when the Slamdunk Challenges starts to appear.

Unless you have a good reason, avoid buying charged shots for anyweapon except the Rifle as skillshots for charged weapon are hard to pull off if your finding it hard going.

Blood Symphony, Lag and Final Words

Killing a certain amount of enemies will charge an ability known as 'Blood Symphony', when skillshots are hard to come by or you are on your own, this is a good way to quickly gain Skillshot points, however you cannot gain Team Skillshots while using you Kick/Leash/Slide as this does something different while Blood Symphony is active.

Kick/Leash/Slide into enemies while in this state will cause enemies to blow up in a gory fashion rewarding 250 points per kill, however shooting can still be used for Team Skillshots and Solo Skillshots. Please note when your on your own this is pretty good to have, when in a team please avoid using after waves 8 -10 the points you gain are not enough, you need to hit those team combo skillshots to make it past the wave!

On occasion Lag can be an issue between clients from a little stutter to down right un-playable warping, Team Skillshots are almost impossible to do for the latter, it is recommended to exit the lobby and try again if you can to find a better game, sometimes inviting friends to host your own games is a better option to avoid Lag (Although bear in mind this game does not have a kick button so if a laggy player turns up and causes more grief than gain you might want consider setting up a Private lobby)

The final stuff, the one thing this game lacks is good communication channels, the ingame voice is not very good and the message system (via GFWL) is awful. It is best to setup a voice conference via steam to stay in communication or to use a VOIP server, TeamSpeak, Vent and Mumble to name a few.

Anything I missed, not spelt correctly or needs adding? Put it in the comments for me to update

This is my first guide so if this turns out not so good, that will be why.

Guide Version 1.1
Turns out Challenges cannot have combos, so you can have them OR combos whichever has more points to you. Also made the weapons upgrades a bit clearer.

Guide Version 1.2
Have seen a lot of people touch an enemy twice when doing challenges, you can only touch them once for the challenge to count. Added Tips for Co-Op. Also added Last Chance Challenge.

Guide Version 1.3
Added Challenges MUST be TEAM skillshots versions, solo ones will not count!
Added some Info about boneduster for Team skillshots.
Added more guidance for Blood Symphony.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you in-game!

[Ghostbear]

@dennisw100 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2103449932

[dennisw100]

yer I used the fullclip version we found one way muting the voice but I think that also mutes what our characters say

[Ghostbear]

@dennisw100 Also the guide you posted on is for the Original Bulletstorm, were you trying for the Full Clip version?

[Ghostbear]

@dennisw100 it has been a while but the simple way is to mute each other as the sound is controlled through GFWL. The sound via GFWL is not too bad considering all the other features it offers is very disappointing.

[dennisw100]

you said that it would be good to not use the ingame voice chat I did not find any way to disable it how can you disable it?

[Ghostbear]

When Full Clip launches, I will see if there is any differences before copying this guide over to the other game (I do not know if the weapon wheel will be available in Multiplayer or more than two weapons can be used)

[Ghostbear]

Have been noting a few people are not getting Challenges, the skillshots MUST be Team Skillshots, Solo ones will not count.

[Ghostbear]

Know the feeling mate and tbh alot of people are reading this guide, alas not all. Still nice to know people are trying

[Lord Essedess]

I wish everyone would read this, alot of people i played with tonight are doing things like leashing an enemy back the other way just as me and another guy are about to finish a team challenge kill. (i.e. enemy about to fly over the cliff for vertigo kill then "thwip" they get "spider-maned back the other way) :D

[Ghostbear]

I try where i can