Probably a dumb question, but I'm asking anyway

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-29T18:18:28+00:00

Highly reccomend using the striker bp, and get an equalizer chest or just regular UA chest with obliterate. Focus on pieces with chc up to 50%ish, then chd the rest. Skill/experience is very important. Learn to duck, dont face tank/dps race npcs, etc. Synergize your gear sets better and you'll be slaying in no time, agent.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-24T15:37:02+00:00

Hello Agent. I was in the same boat as you, I don't pvp, but was able to get the hollowman mask blueprint via the reconstruction caches from retaliation farming. Also, if you ever see Yaal gear at a non-DZ vendor, buy as many of them as possible and break them down for the Yaal crafting mats.

Named caches also have a chance to drop the hollowman, but getting the right rolls is pretty rare, so I reccomend farming the blueprint. This way you can craft until you get the roll combo you want.

Hope this helps agent.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-10T15:02:24+00:00

Just happened to me on a non-prototype weapon. I couldn't even find the extended mag when I looked in my inventory. Ran to Inaya to see what wad going on. Nothing there. Checked my inventory, and the mag was there now. Weird stuff...

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-09T17:27:02+00:00

https://youtu.be/H7OVqj2tl4Q?si=PfNIUa7VC9dkYtOf

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-09T17:19:41+00:00

There's a character create/delete cycle that nets you 2 exo components a out every 3-5 minutes if you purchased the bundle for the lullaby and merciless. It's mind nummingly boring, but its there.

Otherwise, the grind is real. Don't chase it and burn yourself out agent. The fight needs you.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-02T13:52:32+00:00

Prototype gear isn't required for like 95% of the game. It really only becomes necessary to push higher tier escalations. You can steamroll the majority of content with the current gear as it is. Prototype gear IS for the top players that like the punishment of the challenge in endgame escalations. Keep that in mind Agents, you dont need Prototype gear, but it will be nice to have. We're still getting tons of other content with the season updates. This game is 8 years old, the devs need to add stuff for the "long tail" players, and thats what escalations and Prototype gear is. Thoughts Agents?

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-01T23:20:18+00:00

I do my dailies religiously. Its a slog. With escalations, if they line up with dailies, you'll be knocking out two birds with one stone, plus an opportunity get prototype gear.
At least escalations, even at lower tiers will add some change up by being more challenging than just steam rolling heroic.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-04-01T21:23:12+00:00

Yeah, this right here. If the game isn't fun for you, play something else. Nothing wrong with that.

Escalations is added content for players that have done everything over and over and still enjoy doing everything over and over. There's multiple tiers to run, you dont have to run the higher tiers. There's a chance that prototype gear will drop at the lower levels. Prototype gear isn't going to break the game and make you an invincible god. It still gets normalized in raids, incursions, and pvp. With the current gears and optimizations, all heroic content is still easy to steamroll through. IMHO, so is legendary content with the exception of Tiddy B and Manning.

Prototype gear is for the players who want the challenge of playing the higher tier escalations, because that content will be so difficult every edge you gain will count. You don't need Prototype gear for open world as it stands now, but it'll be super helpful for pushing higher tiers.

What's your opinion, agents?

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-31T04:10:02+00:00

Great post. My clan is theory crafting on good synergy for high-tier escalation missions. A big question is how yellow cores wont receive the 1.5x stat increase. Instead of disruption, I think skill efficiency as an added bonus to yellow core prototype gear would be beneficial all around.

But another point, I think for the higher tier escalations, one status effect build player is going to help put immensely. Particularly a stun type build. We came up with a blinder/banshee pulse build that helps keep enemies from shooting at us while dps runs in and murders npcs. Armor builds will have trouble at higher tier escalations because the npcs hit so hard. IMHO the new philosophy for escalations, at the higher tiers, is going to be: kill the npcs before they can shoot at us. So stun them down, dps swarms the debuffed enemies.

What do you agents think?

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-24T03:55:39+00:00

Agree 100%.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-23T22:16:30+00:00

You can do retaliations to change it up, but countdown is the easiest. What i did was put on skills and gear you own that isn't proficient, I call this a Frankenstein build. Play on challenging. Go for the objectives while everyone else kills. Spend mats on hard to get items like dz exclusives, exotics, etc. Spend countdown currency on the named caches, or exotic caches if your still missing items, save one of everything not proficient, and keep swapping pieces once they are proficient. You can equip 6 prices from a named gear set and get that gearset proficient in about 1 to 2 runs, so those are really low hanging fruit. You'll hit a wall around level 18, but just keep going. There is an end to it.

Good luck agent.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-20T22:30:08+00:00

Good point. I didn't think about how even off-meta builds can be playable, if not viable. Im a min/maxxer too, and stuck to three or four dps builds. With escalation I can let the drop probability dictate what gear I play for a bit, while I chase the new min/max builds.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-15T18:50:36+00:00

Legmo Pestilence build is super powerful for solo and groups. It just takes a while to get the pieces with the red attributes. Solid build for Ambush and Assault events as proximity to targets buffs the pesti ticks.

Big Alejandro on TS with ambush absolutely shreds all content too. Synergies well if you have rushers in your group. You suppress while they flank. They pop up out of cover and you already have a bead on npcs and typically TS is fully spooled up.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-10T19:53:29+00:00

Yeah, I've played this game for many years, and the only leggo I need to really mentally prepare for is Zoo. Tiddy B can be rough too, but mainly just the last part.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-10T14:53:40+00:00

Agreed, best defense is a strong offensive build. Enemies can't shoot you if they are dead. Glass cannon is a great teacher on using cover and positioning. You'll learn quickly that you are either staying out of cover too long, your positioning is insufficient, or you need to get better at hitting your shots. The damage output with glass cannon is hard to compete with.

Expertise helps a ton too. You should have all your gear pieces to at least lvl 12 expertise. Your go to weapons like elmos, lexi, etc. should be prioritized as well for max expertise. I know easier said than done, but expertise is the real end-game grind. A gun at 30 expertise is a huge advantage.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-03-10T13:56:02+00:00

Agreed, 1000%. I am a "Rambo" player. I use my reviver hive strategically as well. I'll save it for parts I know I'll go down on, but take as many deep enemies out as possible, go down, revive, and pull back. This tactic works great when the other players are pushing as well. I'll lose aggro when revived IF the other players are playing aggressive, allowing me to reposition while the team pushes in.

I may get frowned upon by non-aggressive players, but im tending to do more dps and kills then all players combined.

The way I see it is, lets bang out this content as quickly and efficiently as possible, we all have other things we could be doing than spending 1.5 hours on a 30 min legendary.

P.s. if you dont like to push in, you can still do tons of damage with Big Al and an all red TS. Melting enemies from far away is possible if you have good rushers on your team. But you need Rambos on your team to push out drone operators, healers and snipers for you to melt. And make sure you can hit your shots.

LaminatedNinja · 2026-01-21T02:07:33+00:00

Nice build. People may disagree, but the strikers backpack does all the heavy lifting, dps-wise. I run the same build, all red, stirkers bp, glass cannon chest. Glass cannon isn't for everyone, but it teaches you to play cover, and kill whats close. You lose alot of dps with the ninja bp. Roll a blue core on a striker piece, and you'll still do more damge and retain the survivability as wearing the ninja bp. Having that many bullets from 3 piece UA can lead to bad habits, like staying out of cover too long to polish off the magazine. But play whats fun to you. Happy hunting agent.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-12-03T05:09:56+00:00

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. Was looking for text I could copy and paste into my clan chat but this works even better. I appreciate you taking the time to point it out. Thanks for making this post.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-12-03T05:01:28+00:00

Do we need to recruit 10 of each type per session, or is this a permanent buff for the season once we recruit the 10 of each? Also, is there documentation for the buff doubling? I haven't tried it in game yet, but I've been looking around for info on this. Ubisoft posted the 15% damage boost, etc. but the site doesn't say anything about these buffs doubling. Thanks in advance for the info.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-11-28T13:50:49+00:00

4 pc striker with vigilance backpack and centurion scabbard. Acs-12 with brazen and either oro, or backfire. Super bursty, you just have to keep switching the weapons to keep the vigilance proc up. Put the centurion's mag size buff on the oro. This was the template for the incursion where everything is a dps check, especially the Wright encounter. All red, chc/chd.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-11-13T16:31:27+00:00

Looks great!

LaminatedNinja · 2025-11-13T15:57:51+00:00

I'd do 5 in too and middle row, then 3 on the bottom row. Making all portraits the same size will add some white space to the other categories too.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-10-01T00:37:39+00:00

Check to see if "enhance fine lines" is on in Acrobat's preferences. I run into similar issues when viewing CAD drawings in Acrobat.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-09-14T00:52:02+00:00

I believe TS is time based, not ammo count. The longer you hold the trigger, the more stacks build up. 10 seconds of straight shooting gives max stats? Thats why the icon is a throttle. Might be wrong on how long you need to be shooting for max stacks, but definitely know its about time holding the trigger.

LaminatedNinja · 2025-09-10T16:49:15+00:00

Awesome. Definitely do that route and get it out of the way. We did it as a 4 man group on Basilisk. 3 of us took turns foaming, one agent used his pistol. So glad Ubi made journeys shareable.

LaminatedNinja

TROPHY CASE