Grey (and MeatMorning)'s CSP Volatile Impact Mixture + EPC TCF Persistent Plasma build [Archived]

by Mouse on 26/06/2023

Salutes 2

Corrosive Sludge Pump

Corrosive Sludge Pump icon
x2 Magazine Size
+40% Projectile Velocity
x1.25 Sludge Puddle width, x1.1 Sludge Puddle height
+24 Charged Shot Area Damage
+4 Charged Shot Fragments
+8 Regular Shot Area Damage
x1.5 Corrosive DoT duration, x1.5 Sludge Puddle duration
+40 Max Ammo
-1 Ammo per Charged Shot
x0.4 Charge Time
Increases Corrosive DoT's Slow from 35% to 51.25%, and increases the Sludge Puddle's Slow from 45% to 72.5%
Increases the Corrosive DoT's average DPS by +8.8, and increases Sludge Puddle's average DPS by +4
Volatile Impact Mixture

Experimental Plasma Charger

Experimental Plasma Charger icon
+5 Regular Shot Direct Damage
+24 Battery Size
+15 Charged Shot Direct Damage, +15 Charged Shot Area Damage
x0.4 Heat per Second when fully charged
+25% Regular Shot Velocity
-2 Ammo per Charged Shot
x2.5 Charge Speed
+50% Cooling Rate
+1m Charged Shot AoE Radius
+24 Battery Size
+15 Charged Shot Direct Damage, +15 Charged Shot Area Damage
Charged Shots now deal their Direct Damage to enemies hit by the projectile while in-flight, but it no longer explodes upon impact (functionally removing Area Damage). Deals x3 damage vs Frozen targets. Additionally: x0.3 AoE Radius. Regular Shots do [5 plus 25% of their Direct Damage] Heat per shot which can ignite enemies, and 70% of the Charged Shot's damage is converted to Fire-element + Heat.
Shoot the Charged Shot with a Regular Shot before it impacts anything to make it detonate for 240 Damage and carve terrain within a 3m radius. Additionally: x0.8 Heat per Regular Shot and x0.8 Heat per Charged Shot.
Regular Shots now do 10 Fire-element Area Damage in a 1.5m Radius in exchange for -10 Direct Damage.
Persistent Plasma

Reinforced Power Drills

Reinforced Power Drills icon

Satchel Charge

Satchel Charge icon

Heavy Drill Suit

Heavy Drill Suit icon
Neurotoxin Grenade
Neurotoxin Grenade icon

Loadout Guide

Build premise: Sludge Pump that doesn't suck your teammates' FPS and their will to live. This build plays the weapon differently - you're making use of the fact that single shots have a small AoE component attached, allowing you to hit 2 grunts with each shot if they're close enough to each other and let them tick out. This also means you have to actively maneuver around and goad the Grunts into going for you in small groups. Requires Potent Goo Mix on T2 to hit the 1-Normal Shot + DoT kill breakpoint. Charged shots are only used to CC large groups of enemies. Paired with Persistent Plasma TCF EPC to clean up Mactera groups / puddle survivors.

CSP Build
T1: Better Air Pressurizer is the best choice for Volatile Impact Mixture OC. Speeds up both normal and charged shots, ensuring they connect with the target and deliver the deadly chemicals.
T2: Potent Goo Mix, the required pick because we're fishing for Grunt breakpoints here. One direct hit and the DoT will tick the Grunt down guaranteed. 2 shots + DoT should kill a Slasher, 4 + DoT will kill a Guard. This also allows you to actually do some damage to large targets with normal shots - did you know that Corrosive Sludge Pump actually does 75% Kinetic / 25% Corrosive damage on Normal / Charged shots and Fragment damage?
T3: More Goo Canisters, as Superaturation is irrelevant and doesn't improve the ammo economy of a Normal Shot build. DoT duration increase doesn't get us any new breakpoints either.
T4: Spillback Extension fixes the Charged Shot ammo economy issues nicely and allows you to become the Goo Bomber you always wanted to be.
T5: Fluoroantimonic Acid allows VIM to retain Grunt breakpoints with the DoT from single-shots and increases DoT damage in general.

OC overview:
After U36, this build must be played with Volatile Impact Mixture; it incentivises you to shoot Charged Shots and Normal Shots directly at enemies instead of bothering with puddles. This OC allows Normal Shots to reach 250+ dps on a single target, which is something that only Ice Storm can match.

EPC Build This is my usual EPC build. T3 mod selection depends on what charge speed you learned the TCF distances with, same goes for T2.

T1: +24 ammo, TCF explosion damage is fixed and can't be improved by mods.
T2: Faster projectile velocity allows you to set off the Charged Shot projectile at higher ranges faster. Heat Shield is also viable here, I actually prefer it on all of my builds as I've relearned the timings of TCF blasting without the projectile mod as it gives me some spare time to aim the charged shot better.
T3: Crystal Capacitors because TCF blasting in combat is nearly impossible without it.
T4: +24 ammo is the only pick that actually works with TCF.
T5: Thin Containment Field, the build cornerstone. Does 240 Fire damage in a 3m, which destroys most Mactera / Grunts. Puddling and smashing with this also works.

OC: Persistent Plasma. Think of it as "even more damage after I TCF'd the target". Penalties are irrelevant because a) the field it spawns does bonkers DoT damage - 32-40 Fire DoT DPS for 7 sec. Additional 0.6 sec are added to the DoT duration ONCE per field duration if the target leaves / enters the field; b) the penalties apply to default Charged Shot damage, which TCF ignores as it has its own stats. This funky plasma ball also nullifies the issues of Sludge Pump as it deletes common Mactera from existence and gets rid of Swarmers / weakened Grunts quite efficiently and spectacularly, too.