Tri-Elemental Problem-Solver (H5+ 2220)

by Skull_Mush on 18/06/2024

Salutes 2

M1000 Classic

M1000 Classic icon
+40 Max Ammo
+10 Direct Damage
+25% Focus Speed
-30% Spread per Shot, x0.8 Max Bloom, x0.5 Recoil
+220% Armor Breaking
+25% Focused Shot Modifier
+6 Clip Size
+3 Penetrations
+20% Weakpoint Bonus
Focused shots Stun enemies for 3 seconds
Killing an enemy with a Focused Shot to a Weakpoint will inflict 2.5 Fear on enemies within 4m of the kill
Manually reloading within 1 second after a kill reduces reload time by 0.75 seconds
Hipster

Nishanka Boltshark X-80

Nishanka Boltshark X-80 icon
Special Bolt: 15 Direct Damage, 10 Area Damage, 9 bolts, 10 sec effect duration. If you hit an enemy, it will have its movespeed slowed by 30% and be hostile to other enemies for the duration of the effect.
Special Bolt: 15 Direct Damage, 12 Area Damage, 9 bolts, 14 sec effect duration. If you hit an enemy, it will take 10 Poison Damage per Second for the duration of the effect. If it dies while it still has that status effect active (or is killed by the status effect), then after a 1 sec delay it will explode for 165 Explosive Area Damage in a 4m radius. The explosion also Stuns for 1 second and inflicts 100% Base Fear Chance.
Special Bolt: 15 Direct Damage, 10 Area Damage, 12 bolts, 12 sec effect duration. If you hit an enemy, it will have its movespeed slowed by 50% and take an average of 16 Electric Damage per Second. If you shoot a second Taser bolt within 6m of the first one, an electric beam will arc between the two bolts that slows enemies by 80% and does 30 Electric DPS. Taser Bolts are not retrievable.
+25 Direct Damage, +15 Area Damage
+7 Max Ammo
x1.4 Special Ammo
-0.4 Reload Time, -0.4 Ammo Swap Time
x1.5 Projectile Velocity
After killing an enemy, gain +50% Movement Speed for 2.5 seconds
Hovering your crosshair over a retrievable arrow will pull it back into your inventory.
x1.25 Special Effect Duration
Bolts are magnetically pulled towards enemies that are affected by IFG or Electrocuted. Additionally, they do a bonus 25% Direct and Area Damage to those enemies.
When normal arrows impact terrain, they apply 50% Base Fear Chance to enemies within a 3m radius, pulsing once per second for 5 seconds.
Fire Bolt

Grappling Hook

Grappling Hook icon

Flare Gun

Flare Gun icon

Light Scouting Suit

Light Scouting Suit icon

Pickaxe

Pickaxe icon
Cryo Grenade
Cryo Grenade icon

Loadout Guide

Why no tougher enemies?

I play with randoms, and randoms seldom bring in optimal builds for modded difficulties, or know that the breakpoints changed at all. Also, bullet sponge makes me sad.

Primary

This is where you have a lot of flex, just take a "special killer" setup to balance out crossbow. Fast GK2 (11222, 12212), Bouncy Drak (both electric and splash), and Min clips hipfire (X32X3) all performed well and have trade-offs with each other. Recoil Hipster is the best generalist setup for run-n-gun precision and aerial shooting (IMO).

Secondary: Fire Bolts Crossbow, with Taser Bolts

The more enemies modifier takes fire bolts to the next level. Previously, on normal Hazard 5, the enemy spawn cap was too low for the heat radious to have much effect: you'd ignite 3-5 grunt-sized enemies with a few bolts, but the hordes weren't dense enough to chain ignite.

Chain ignite mechanics:

Enemies stuck with the bolts continue to radiate heat, as do normally ignited enemies. Thus, ignited enemies in a group will radiate their heat to new, unignited enemies in the group and set them on fire.

Bread n Butter Fire Crossbow Combos:
  • 2 bolts in terrain in front of the horde, let em walk over and die.
  • 1 bolt in front of crowd, wait for them to cross it, face-shot a grunt so it ragdolls into the crowd (ragdolled corpses continue to radiate heat like a flaming projectile)
  • Shoot down 2 bolts into a crowd, hit with cryo. Short Grapple (straight up, release early), and air-strafe out of the radius while shooting downward. The order of operations doesn't matter much here, since fire bolts tick so slowly that it doesn't interrupt the burst freeze.
  • Throw bolts down in front of a cryo driller. You won't interrupt their freeze much at all, but will cause a lot of auto-temp shock.
  • Ignite Gas clouds from Praetorians/Oppressors/Bungus Fogs.
  • Faceshotting a grunt gives movespeed on kill. This can give you almost 100% uptime on the movespeed bonus, which can save your bacon.
  • DO NOT DIRECT HIT SWARMERS. These are the only bodies that will cancel out your heat radius (not sure if intentional or bug)
  • 2 taser bolts + 1 fire bolt will kill a spitballer. Surprisingly useful when playing cover-shooter and/or want to conserve primary. Similarly, fire bolt + hipster to the weakpoint can one-clip a spitballer before it can shoot, which can save you a cryo.

Taser Bolts

-immobilize bulks, Praets, oppressors and whittle them down. The fragility modifier makes praetorian barf obscenely deadly, so it's important to be proactive with them. Don't forget that taser bolts have a weakpoint stun.

Cryo Grenades

Mactera, Jellies, Spitballers, Praets, etc. all got way deadlier. In addition, timer hordes of bugs run much, much faster with 2 aggression and can roll up on you shockingly fast. Cryo is both a panic button and a proactive tool, and it performs better on denser hordes.

Closing Remarks

Lots of combos, lots of fun. Don't get nibbled on your buns too much