The Washing Machine and Sub combo aka "How to defend with ice"

by lixl06 on 14/03/2025

Salutes 2

Cryo Cannon

Cryo Cannon icon
x0.33 Pressure Drop Rate
-0.4 sec Chargeup Time
+1 Cold per Particle
+75 Tank Size
+5m Cold Stream Reach
-1 sec Repressurization Delay
x1.75 Pressure Gain Rate
+1.6 Flow Rate
+3 Damage per Particle
+1 Cold per Particle
+150 Tank Size
When a particle from Cryo Cannon damages a Frozen enemy and brings its health below 100 "true" hp, it has a (1 - hp/100) probability to deal the remaining hp as Kinetic Damage.
Cool down enemies within 4m of you at a rate of 60 Cold/sec. This stacks with the direct stream and Ice Path's cold sources as well.
Crystal Nucleation

Subata 120

Subata 120 icon
x0 Base Spread
+4 Magazine Size
+48 Max Ammo
+3 Direct Damage
-33% Spread per Shot, x0.5 Recoil
Changes the Subata to fire in bursts of 2 bullets at 20 RoF during the burst. If both bullets hit an enemy, the second bullet gets +350% Armor Breaking. Additionally, -0.25 Mass and -4 Rate of Fire.
-0.6 Reload Time
+75% Weakpoint Bonus
+3 Direct Damage
+48 Max Ammo
+50% Direct Damage dealt to Burning enemies. Bonus damage is Fire element and adds the same amount of Heat, extending the Burn duration.
+1 Blowthrough
Shooting an enemy that is afflicted with Corrosion, Sludge Puddle, or Neurotoxin will apply 2 Status Effects. The first one lasts 5 seconds, and each bullet that hits will increase the DPS by +3.2, up to a maximum of 30 stacks (96 DPS). After its duration expires, you must apply a new instance and start stacking it again. The second Status Effect lasts 4.5 seconds, and its duration can be refreshed. If an enemy dies while the second one is active, then they will explode and damage nearby enemies proportional to the number of active stacks of the first effect. The explosion does (60 + 20*stacks) Typeless Damage, and the radius is (0.5 + SqRt[stacks]) meters.
Explosive Reload

Reinforced Power Drills

Reinforced Power Drills icon

Satchel Charge

Satchel Charge icon

Heavy Drill Suit

Heavy Drill Suit icon

Pickaxe

Pickaxe icon
Impact Axe
Impact Axe icon

Loadout Guide

Hello fellow dwarfs!

lixl here, yes it has been a while... I have been experimenting with the classes in the past few months and decided to go for Driller. Sticky Fuel and Scorching Tide is nice, very powerful, but I personally lack the hardware to stay alive. Before I dive into this build, I would like to ask you some questions:

  • Do you wish for more survivability on the higher hazards?
  • Do you want to just deactivate the bugs for a few seconds in sticky situations?
  • Do you want to have the ability to heal at any given time, but your scout snatched all the red sugar in the mission?

If yes, then this should be a great build for you, even in glacial strata.

The Washing Machine

In the latest season, we got some new primary overclocks. Crystal Nucleation is the one for the Cryo Cannon and works similar to Sticky Fuel, just with Ice. Those Ice crystals deal quite some damage and freeze a good bit PLUS the upgrades buff the crystals too :D

  • T1 Stronger cooling unit: Just freezes stuff quicker, thus you have more ammoefficieny
  • T2 Overclocked Ejection turbine: The Cryo Cannon behaves similar to the flamethrower, and I like more reach. All upgrades in this tier are viable options.
  • T3 Increased Flowrate: More dps, more freeze, more fun :D
  • T4 Larger Tank size: Ammo is always good to have
  • T5 Cold Radiance: Cool AoE (pun intended)

The Explosive Sub

The Subata does not get a lot of attention, it lacks "good" overclocks. The Explosive Reload OC however is the smaller cousin of Scouts Embedded Detonators OC for the Zhukovs. Works great against targets that are out of range of the Cryo Cannon or very quick. 2 shots to delete a grunt :D

  • T1 Improved Allignment: More Accuracy, thus lower chance of missing your target
  • T2 Improved Propellant: More Oompf, more fun
  • T3 2-Round Burst: As said before it takes 2 bullets to kill a grunt with this, so ye... *2 clicks of a button, ded bug'
  • T4 High Velovity Rounds: You can go for more ammo here, but I like more damage
  • T5 Blowthrough rounds: The only upgrade that works with the Cryo Cannon and the Axes, the HE-Grenades or the Ripper, you could however go with Neurotox-Grenades, then Neuro-Corrosive Toxic Catalyst is a good choice.

Your trusty tools

  • Drills: Built for removing frozen bugs with them and good ammo to damage balance
  • The rather larger brick of C4: You get 2 of those bricks per resupply charge Plus if you encounter a crassus and kill it, it does efficient work with all the gold.
  • Armor: Built for more survivability after you went down
  • Pickaxe: "WHACK EM ALL"
  • Grenade: Axe, because it triggers the Vampire perk when you remove something with it. It also can be reused if you miss.

This build has been tested in hazard 5+ more bugs 2 in a few biomes, even dealt well with some Nemesis-bots (What is the plural of that??)

Thats it, I hope you enjoyed this guide. If you got some better information or feedback, leave a comment.

Stone and Rock! Oh wait...

-lixl06