INTRO

this is a fast paced, aggressive build which still holds all the usual driller strengths such as powerful waveclear and area denial whilst granting potent direct damage output and a ton of utility

SLUDGE PUMP

BUILD

• tier 1: projectile speed gives you more range to space out enemies and makes landing direct hits easier, which is especially valuable against mactera. mag size is also useful, especially if youre starting out using this build
• tier 2: either dyse nozzle or potent goo mix depending on mission type and playstyle. the former makes the pump work like a grenade launcher. 144 damage on hit is enough to oneshot acidspitters and macspawn, as well as leaving slashers very close to death and easily killed by residual DoT. potent goo mix is better for wearing down HVTs and is the better pick for industrial sabotage, where it will make short work of patrol bots and turrets
• tier 3: more goo canisters is the only choice here. supersaturation is pointless because we aren't building around puddle coverage
• tier 4: either option works. i prefer charge speed as it makes the weapon snappier and more reactive, but ammo cost reduction is good if you struggle with managing ammo or are using this build for the first time
• tier 5: fluoroantimonic acid is best because it maximises the amount of corrosive DoT done to enemies with VIM's reduced STE duration penalty

STRATEGY

• direct hits from the sludge pump are considered radial damage, meaning they ignore enemy armour. this makes VIM pump a great pick against armoured enemies brundles, stingtails, praetorians and shellbacks as you don't need to worry about positioning
• corrosive DoT also damages armour over time, which makes this build great for rendering the above enemies vulnerable for your teammates to finish off.
• the radial damage also allows you to ignore unbreakable armour such as on oppressors or dreadnoughts, but remember these enemies are strongly resistant to corrosive damage, so they should not be a priority target for you under any circumstance
• for longer range (>10m) shots, always aim slightly higher than you think you need, to account for the natural arc of the pump's projectiles
• remember that this is not a coverage build and you shouldn't be trying to use it as such. your wave cooker exists to provide area denial against groups of soft targets. trying to spam puddles will waste ammo

WAVE COOKER

BUILD

• tier 1: magnetron tube gives us a %25 max ammo boost which works best for gamma comtamination. more ammo means more chances to proc the radiation. concave lens can also work as it enables you to hit multiple targets and potentially trigger the radiation multiple times at once.
• tier 2: larger power supply makes the gun fire faster, meaning you can potentially trigger the radiation effect sooner. thermoelectric cooler is also acceptable.
• tier 3: densification ray must be taken as we have no means of activating temperature amplifier's effects. whilst not a great mod, densification ray is useful for slowing down distant hordes of grunts which will give you stalling power until the radiation activates
• tier 4: either works here. wide angle lens is the better of the two since it can mitigate the radius loss incurred by the OC but if you passed on RoF in T2 you should take it here in T4 instead. either way, just pick what works best for you
• tier 5: contagion transmitter helps to mitigate the damage loss and has a chance to inflict neurotoxin on enemies, which is a nice bit of extra DoT and slowdown especially on larger enemies. boiler ray is unworkable since it doesn't trigger on enemies which die to the radiation. exothermic reactor is useless, both on this build and in general

STRATEGY

• like the pump, the wave cooker is also capable of ignoring armour and can proc radiation through it. don't try to kill anything with direct fire though, the cooker isn't strong enough for it
• always tap fire rather than holding down the trigger. this makes heat management easier, and you can check to see if the radiation has been activated between bursts, saving ammo
• try and attack enemies from as far away as possible with the cooker. this will buy you time to activate radiation before enemies catch up to you. slows from densification ray and contagion transmitter help here a lot.
• the cooker makes it very easy to stack tons of STEs onto one enemy. you could have corrosion direct, corrosion puddle, densification ray slowdown, neurotoxin and radiation all on a single enemy at once. all those STEs will shred through a target's health quickly, and will make the enemy very vulnerable to followups from teammates

THROWABLE CHOICE

• neurotoxin canisters provide a huge amount of area denial to make up for the loss of your priamry doing so. they can inflict a lot of enemies with neurotoxin and the cloud's long duration makes it good for shutting down chokepoints. the neurotoxin STE lasts for 30 seconds, an absurdly long time, guaranteeing death on anything below a grunt guard
• HE frags can also work as a more reactive option, or if your team is bringing a lot of fire-based equipment which will ignite and waste the neurotoxin cloud. frags are really good against mactera if you practice timing the fuse and getting the grenade to explode in the centre of a group of them. you also get more of them compared to neurotoxin canisters
• axes aren't really necessary for this build as we have no means to boost their damage and VIM sludge gives us a lot of good direct damage already
• ripper is a throw pick, never take it for any reason

MISSION PREFERENCES

GOOD:

• mining expedition
• refinery
• egg hunt
• deep scan
• point extraction
• industrial sabotage

this build is generally good on all mission types but it favors missions that are more active, such as mining, PE or egg hunt where you're constantly moving around. refinery and deep scan are good picks as traditional sludge builds don't work as well on these modes. rival tech enemies take double damage from sabotage, so this build is strongly effective on that mode, even moreso than most CRSPR builds

LESS GOOD:

• elimination
• salvage ops
• escort duty

slower paced defensive modes like salvage ops and escort duty prefer a lot of defensive waveclar since you're largely staying in one place at one time. whilst this build can work on those modes, there are better options for the pump, such as disperser compound elimination is unfavoured just because cryo is obviously superior for that mode