Grey's Explosive LOK Build with Explosive Chemical Rounds and RtS Breach Cutter [Archived]

by Mouse on 26/06/2023

Salutes 1

LOK-1 Smart Rifle

LOK-1 Smart Rifle icon
+6 Direct Damage
+72 Max Ammo
x0.2 Acquire Lock Threshold, x2 Lock-On Range
+1.3° Acquire Lock Threshold, x1.5 Lose Lock Threshold
+10m Lock-On Range
+20% Damage to Electrified Targets and +20% Damage to Burning Targets
Lock-On now prioritizes low health enemies, and will only place as many Locks on an enemy as are required to kill it.
+3 Penetrations
x0.85 Lock-On Time
+6 Max Number of Lock-Ons
Targets with 3 or more Locks are Electrocuted by the first Locked-On bullet that damages them. The Electrocute DoT does 12 Electric-element Damage per Second, slows enemies by 80%, and lasts for 3 seconds.
Full Lock adds 20% more Direct Damage to all shots fired during the burst.
Every time you release a Lock-On burst, the last bullet fired emits an aura of Fear to all enemies near you. For every bullet fired during the Lock-On burst, add 0.15 Fear to the aura (ranges from 30% Base Fear Chance at 1 Lock to 375% Base Fear Chance at 24 Locks). The aura's radius starts at 2.4m and each bullet fired during the Lock-On burst increases it by +0.15m (ranges from 2.55m at 1 Lock to 6m at 24 Locks).
Explosive Chemical Rounds

Breach Cutter

Breach Cutter icon
+1.5 Projectile Lifetime
+3 Magazine Size
+6 Max Ammo
+175 Beam DPS
+3m Plasma Beam Width
-0.2 Plasma Expansion Delay
-0.6 Reload Time
+200% Armor Breaking
+100% Stun Chance, 3 sec Stun duration
After firing a line and a 0.4 second delay, the player can press the fire button again to manually detonate the line dealing 40 Explosive element Area Damage in a 3.5m radius and leaving behind a 3.25m radius sphere of Persistent Plasma that does an average of 35.56 Fire Damage per second and slows enemies by 20% for 4.6 seconds. If the player doesn't detonate it manually, the line explodes at the end of its lifetime.
Leaves behind a Persistent Plasma field that does an average of 20 Fire Damage per second for 4.6 seconds. The Plasma field's width is 2/3 of the beam's width, and extends along the entire length of the beam's path.
Adds a line above and below the primary projectile (multiple lines hitting doesn't increase DPS)
Return to Sender

Platform Gun

Platform Gun icon

LMG Gun Platform

LMG Gun Platform icon

Engineering Suit

Engineering Suit icon
L.U.R.E.
L.U.R.E. icon

Loadout Guide

Build premise: a LOK build that clears waves nicely coupled with HVT-busting secondary that can also do a bit of swarmclear. Note: the explosion on 3rd lock from ECR OC allows you to easily clear out Swarmer waves by locking 3 times on one Swarmer and letting loose, which will spend 1 ammo and trigger the explosion, wiping every Swarmer in a 4m radius. Grunts are vulnerable to the same trick: lock 3 times on one target on the outskirts of the group, let loose. This will electrocute the target with the 1st shot and proc the bomb, usually killing the Grunt and damaging others nearby; rinse and repeat to get rid of a swarm.

LOK-1 Build
T1: ECR already has enough damage, so Expanded Ammo Bags is used to shore up our ammo sustain weaknesses.
T2: Macro Lens massively increases your range to scan for those sneaky Acid Spitters/Leeches and that's why I prefer it. Also enables singling out a specific enemy to put locks on, which is what ECR playstyle is built around. CCD Array Add-On isn't terrible either. Zoom Lens is pretty much useless as it just doesn't give any tangible benefit.
T3: Electro-Chemical Rounds is picked primarily due to our T5 selection. Also it allows us to clear Naedocytes/Swarmers/Exploders with ECR, unlike Super Blowthrough. Speaking of which... Super Blowthrough has a very interesting (insanely broken but rarely effective) interaction with this build: it disables proccing the bomb on killshots. For example, you have a Swarmer under 3 locks. With Super Blowthrough selected, the explosion will not activate because the enemy you locked on died before all 3 shots fired. But if the enemy you locked on doesn't die before all 3 shots fire, the bomb is procced and the last shot in a burst will cause subsequent explosions if the bullet penetrates and hits other enemies, up to 4 times (1 base + 3 Blowthroughs). Think of this as a PGL on steroids when it works.
SMRT Targeting Software is a noob trap. LOK-1 doesn't waste ammo by default, and SMRT denies you from placing more locks on a target that will die to 1-2 shots, meaning the explosion will not proc, and we want it to proc against Swarmers/Exploders which usually attack in groups.
T4: Shutter Speed Sensor is always used on all builds, Aperture Extension is a trap mod.
T5: Electric Generator Mod allows us to cleanly kill a Grunt with 3 locks and proc the T3 mod bonus at the same time. While it requires 3 locks on a target to proc the electrocution, the effect itself is activated on the first shot that hits an enemy, meaning all further shots will have the 20% damage increase (but not the explosion as it has separate damage stats).

OC: Explosive Chemical Rounds. I've explained the playstyle above, but remember this sequence: 3 locks on one target - shoot - 3 locks again. This will maximize the amount of explosions from ECR. Shooting with 4 or 5 locks is also acceptable as long as it kills the target, you can't perfectly control the amount of locks placed on a single enemy all the time.

Breach Cutter Build
Without RtS the majority (about 60%, I spoke to LoneXG about this and compared that to my experience) of the line goes to waste because you can't redirect it. This is, however, the RtS build to rule them all, and the Return function (which you are incentivized to use to get that sweet x2 damage) definitely benefits from the additional lifetime.

T1: Either Prolonged Power Generation for longer ranges or High Capacity Magazine for +3 ammo; both are usable but I prefer lifetime generally.
T2: Expanded Ammo Bags offsets Return to Sender's penalty nicely.
T3: As I've said before, Quick Deploy provides a marginal benefit if your enemies are up close; faster reload can be achieved by reload-cancelling or using Born Ready anyway.
T4: Disruptive Frequency Tuning, for obvious reasons. It's guaranteed hard CC put versus Armor Breaking. BC lines ignore Armor by default due to certain weapon mechanics.
T5: Plasma Trail adds a decent amount of bonus overtime damage, and electrocuted/stunned targets can't run away anyway so they eat it all.

OC: Return to Sender. What's better than damage? Even more damage. Considering the role this occupies in the loadout (your very own anti-High Value Target weapon, basically big bug hunter), there's no better option as the Return function can easily double the damage output per shot by having the return line hit the target for as long as possible. This OC also has the benefit of slowing the target down again because BC has an in-built 70% slow as long as the line touches an enemy.