Update 100 "Gunslinger" Build (No DLC Required) | Easy Solo Overkill & Death Wish Loud Build

It's high noon! This build focuses on pistol skills and armour regeneration to make solo loud easy, even on Overkill difficulty or above.
This build is updated for update 100.

Introduction

Welcome to my guide for PAYDAY 2: Update 100! This build focuses on pistol skills to help you become the finest six-shooter in the wild west! Our weapon of choice is a Bronco revolver, and we combine this with a mix of skills, mostly from Fugitive and Enforcer to make you unstoppable, even solo on Overkill difficulty. If you'd like to learn how to become an unstoppable headshot machine with unlimited ammo, armour and health, then read on! The most important part of this build, of course, is fun for everyone! The build is designed so it can be used without DLC or Infamy, although you are welcome to make your own changes to better suit your playstyle.

Mastermind Skills

Mastermind

• The Mastermind is mainly used to get High Value Target aced. This allows us to deal up to 65% more damage against enemies such as cloakers, tazers and dozers.
  
• Rifleman and Stable Shot are useful to improve our aim down sights speed and stability.
  
• Forced Friendship is picked up as it is only 1 point and is always useful to subdue hostages.

Enforcer Skills

Enforcer

• Bullseye aced is incredibly important for keeping our armour up in firefights. Because we will be using the Lightweight Ballistic Vest, this skill will regenerate a large portion of our armour for one headshot.
  
• Die Hard aced gives us more than 40% more armour on the Lightweight Ballistic Vest. This is one reason why we do not use the Two Piece Suit.
  
• Underdog aced gives us more survivability and damage when we need it the most.
  
• Extra Lead aced and Scavenger aced will help keep our ammo up.

Technician Skills

Technician

• This is the skill tree we use the least. Only Steady Grip aced is used to give us some good stats.

Ghost Skills

Ghost

• Because we are using Lightweight Ballistic Vest, it will break often so Dire Need and Second Wind will provide us buffs to stay alive when it does.
  
• Parkour and Duck & Cover provide us useful manouverability to get in and out of cover.

Fugitive Skills

Fugitive

• Fugitive provides us many skills to turn us into a killing machine.
  
• We max out the gunslinger tree except for Akimbo as we will not be using Akimbo weapons.
  
• Nine Lives aced and Martial Arts are just useful skills which do not require many points.

Perk Deck

Perk Deck: Ex-President

• Health storage is our only way to recover health so we rely on it for survival.
  
• Ex-President also helps speed our armour recovery which is increased for having a low armour value.

Weapons

Secondary Weapon: Bronco .44 Revolver
This weapon is chosen for our Gunslinger Build as it has insane damage coupled with a high fire rate, fast reload, perfect accuracy and good stability. With the mods we add, we can reach the stats below - This is just the base stats, and can be amplified by skills such as Trigger Happy to reach as much as 280 Damage on bodyshot. This is increased with headshots and Ex-President's helmet popping to instantly kill any enemy except Bulldozers with headshots on Overkill, and take Bulldozers out in 4-6 headshots.

Mods
Barrel Extension
The Gage Courier Mod - Flash Hider can be used, but even without the DLC the weapon works fantastically.

Grip
The Ergo Wooden Grip adds to the Bronco's poor base stability.

Slide
The Overcompensating Barrel gives us perfect accuracy and more stability.

Receiver
The Slimline Body gives us a little more stability and concealment.

Why no Sight?

• I didn't add a sight in this build as I feel the Bronco suffers with it at close range.
  
• We will be using this weapon at every range, from very close to very long range.

Other Items

Below is an image of the other items I use with this build

Primary Weapon
In this build, the Bronco .44 Revolver is our main weapon.
You may use whatever primary weapon you like, I use the M308 rifle.

Melee Weapon
There are plenty of good melee weapons available without DLC.
I like the Lucille Bat for knockdown, or Electric Brass Knuckles for stun.

Throwable
The HEF grenade helps to deal with large groups of weak enemies.
You can also refill it with the grenade bag asset.

Deployable
The ammo bag is used to keep our ammunition up.
If you wish you can change this out for something else, however I have found the ammo bag to be the most useful.

Armour
We use the Lightweight Ballistic Vest.
With Die Hard aced, it offers 70 armour, compared to the 20 of the Suit.
It can also store 202 Health from Ex-President, while the CTV can store only 140.
It offers higher maneuverability and a little bit of dodge compared to the tactical vests.

Tips

• Count your shots - you have 6!
  
• Use your high mobility to dodge behind cover if you take too much damage.
  
• If your armour breaks you gain increased speed to escape easily.
  
• Always aim for headshots even when bodyshots would kill as it builds your multiplier.
  
• Keep your multiplier up by landing multiple successive headshots.
  
• Always aim down sights for easier kills and to reduce your chance of missing.
  
• For tankier opponents such as bulldozers, build damage by killing weaker enemies first.
  
• Remember to mark specials, especially at long range to deal greatly increased damage.
  
• If you lose your armour, quickly score a headshot to instantly recover part of it.
  
• Use your high mobility to stay on the move to make yourself a difficult target.

Gameplay

This build plays very differently to some other popular builds. Instead of relying on dodge or armour to stay alive, you have to rely on your ability to consistently land accurate killing blows. This will store health from the Ex-President perk deck and regenerate your armour quickly thanks to Bullseye.

You can think of this build as a hybrid, as you have neither the great tankiness from having an ICTV nor the insane health regen from grinder, but rather good health and armour regen from scoring kills. This build also does not require DLC unlike Grinder builds, however it can help to have the Gage Courier Mod to add a Flash Hider to your weapon.

By using the high speed from your Lightweight Ballistic Vest, Duck & Cover and Parkour, you can quickly dodge in and out of cover to thin out large groups of enemies. Second Wind also grants you a great move speed bonus when your armour breaks, allowing you to retreat to safety, or move around in combat more easily.

Against smaller groups of enemies, the armour regeneration from Bullseye may be enough for you to stand your ground, as long as you deal swift killing blows with a fast eye and a steady hand.

The reduced armour regeneration time from the Enforcer tree combined with the Ex-President perk deck, along with faster reload time from the Fugitive tree means that you can spend as little time in cover as possible, enhancing your opportunities for decimating foes.

Against shields it may be difficult to line up a killing headshot. However, your damage is high enough that a bodyshot will normally kill them, even on death wish. Use your high mobility from Lightweight Ballistic Vest, Parkour and Duck & Cover to strafe around them and quickly gun them down before retreating to cover or turning your attention to other foes.

Snipers can present a threat as their high damage armour piercing rounds can destroy your armour in a single shot. Try to look for their giveaway red lazer sights, and use this to determine their position. With the accuracy of the Bronco, a single shot will bring them down every time.

Tazers can present an issue if not dealt with quickly as their stun can make you run out of your limited ammo pool. A single headshot on all difficulties should kill them, or marking them from a distance with High Value Target aced and following up with a couple of body shots if you are not confident to headshot them from long range.

Cloakers can ruin your day on solo loud, which is why I recommend bringing team AI for solo loud heists. You can gun down the cloaker while on the ground using the bonus bleedout health from Nine Lives and be revived by the A.I. bots. Bear in mind Cloaker downs do not count towards your custody.

Bulldozers can present a challenge with their high damage able to kill you in two hits on death wish. Three to five shots will remove their faceplate and a single headshot thereafter will kill them. Keeping your distance is recommended, especially with High Value Target aced, allowing you to take them out before they become much of a threat. If you do find yourself under fire from a surprise Dozer, it is advisable to use your high mobility combined with Second Wind and escape to a safe location.

Captain Winters is a powerful enemy as he not only is tough to kill but also buffs the health and damage of all enemy units on the map. It is advisable to use your high mobility to flank the formation, disrupt them with HE Grenades, and finish off his low-health minions with headshots. If enough of his minions die, he will retreat.

You may notice that a lot of damage in this build is multiplier or percentage based damage. This is because percentage based damage increases based on your weapon damage. A 50% increase on 10 damage only increases it by 5, but a 50% increase on 100 damage increases it by 50, which is 1000% as effective. This works well with the Bronco, whose base damage reaches nearly 200. Headshots are percentage based (multiplier) damage, which is why they are so effective against enemies such as Dozers (22 times multiplier), Cloakers (4 times multiplier), Green swats (3.25 times multiplier).

The Bronco deals up to 280 damage with the passive Trigger Happy. This can be boosted with Underdog by 15% if you are surrounded by enemies, to 322. Marking far away enemies with High Value Target aced will increase the damage they take by 65%, to 531. This is your bodyshot damage. Headshots deal from 1.5 times to 4.5 times multiplier of damage. For example, a cloaker takes 4.29 times headshot damage on every difficulty but deathwish. This gives us 2279 damage, which is amplified by Helmet Popping from Ex-President to deal a total of 2849 damage. On Overkill or below, cloakers have 600 health, meaning that a single headshot kills them more than 4 times over. Such is the power of this build.

Explanations

Why the Bronco?
Simply, it is the highest damage of all the pistols. It also can be modded for full accuracy. The only reason to choose the deagle over this is the increased ammo, which I don't see as that important with a reload time of less than 1.5s on the Bronco

Why no Agressive Reload or Ammo Efficiency?
Sadly these perks do not work with pistols as they only work with sniper rifles, assault rifles and SMGs.

Why skill Desperado when you have 100 Accuracy?
Desperado aced is essential for the Bronco. The 3 points for Desperado basic are negligible.


Why skill Gun Nut when the bonus clip size does not apply to the Bronco?
Same as above, Gun Nut aced is essential for this build.

I wish Overkill would switch Desperado basic with Gun Nut aced. That would give me 6 more skill points!

Why is this guide formatted badly?
Mobile :c

What Bronco skin is that?
Quickdrawn Hunter

Strengths and Weaknesses

Like any build, this cannot be without faults. But that is not to say it is not powerful. Here is a comparison of the various strengths and weaknesses of the build.
Strengths

• Fun!
  
• Incredibly powerful
  
• High sustain
  
• Self-reliant (health, armour, ammo)
  
• Suitable for solo play
  
• It's high noon
  
• Encourages skilful play
  
• No DLC required

Weaknesses

• High skill point investment
  
• Can take practice to aim well and quickly
  
• Difficult on Death Wish due to low health
  
• Vulnerable to burst damage (snipers + suprise dozers]
  
• Careful, precise shots needed to preserve ammo

Improvements and Changes!

This section is purely for suggestions by you, and if you have any to add, please add a comment below!

Iron Man Basic
This skill gives us significantly more armour, which is great as we are only using the Lightweight Bulletproof Vest. Feel free to swap out a few points for this.

Matever .357
This weapon requires the Alesso heist DLC, but is more damaging, has higher stability, and is more accurate than the Bronco .44. This makes it an excellent substitute.

Grinder Perk Deck
Again, this requires DLC, but offers a small amount of consistent regen instead of a large amount of burst regen compared to the Ex-President. Definitely worth a try.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading my guide! I hope it helps you and you find it enjoyable to use in your heists! If you enjoyed my guide, give it a like and favourite!

If you have any suggestions or improvements, leave a comment below. I will be updating this guide over time and making necessary additions or changes.

Now, are you ready to become the fastest gun in the wild west? If so, go out and have fun!

[moustache]

i think akimbo bronco actually works really well with this.

[XP]

nice, i've been looking for other bronco builds but this is the best one

[HaylingZar]

@crossedkiller it does not benefit from pistol skills because it counts as a shotgun not a pistol.

[Crossedkiller]

What about the Judge Shotgun?

[Kreavill]

i keep trying to look for a build thats like Solo and No Bots but there's barely any and i can't find a single one and this is the closest

[brrrd-man]

I want a Wild Western feel for a Gunslinger type of build and here it is! Thank you so much! :D

[lyoko]

could this build also work with stryk 18c?

[HaylingZar]

I think it's better IMO

[Vin]

Do you think the new Castigo can now replace the Bronco?

[HaylingZar]

@Hard Drive, yep they do, although akimbo skills don't work on single pistols and some pistol skills don't work on revolvers.