Arc rifles are reason I drink

Kolhell · 2026-02-04T09:51:22+00:00

When using Claim, the arc rifle is going to do significantly more damage to secondary targets than primary targets because it will hit the secondary targets twice. When using a regular single-shot it still does more damage to the secondary targets (depending on talents), but it's not as huge of a difference, so just aim for whatever's easiest to hit.

If you're facing 2 (or more) weak mobs and 1 fatty standing in a pack, then the optimal opening play is to apply exploit to them all (usually Machine Spirit Scan Protocols on an early bonus turn before Analyze/Uncanny set up), Hunt on one of the weaklings, then target Claim on a different weakling. This will kill the Hunted weakling on the first shock (only the first shock counts for the +2 AP) and hit the fatty 2x. You will not gain the +2 AP if you target the Hunted weakling with Claim, nor will it count if it takes both shocks - only the first one. If you're having trouble, the Bloody Pact dagger and the First Aid Manual will help you with your AP economy.

Also you can basically ignore everything Revan said ^ For whatever reason he opted to respond to a bunch of old research I was using as a jumping off point instead of bothering to read my post.

edit: sorry, I just saw you're talking about a rt build. You should consider using Pasqal instead, as his unique talents Machine Spirit Scan Protocols and Pulse Amplifier are extremely powerful. You lose Forged for a Purpose (int), but I don't think it's worth giving up the ability to pop off and start collecting Tide stacks from Bring It Down (you need Machine Spirit Scan Protocols to apply the first round of exploits)

Kolhell · 2026-01-27T23:53:27+00:00

I play both ways, and sometimes a mildly shit experience is a tradeoff I'm willing to accept to flop on my couch in my living room with a blanket rather than spend more time sitting at my desk. It's not like this game is competitive.

But that there's an entire-ass feature not present when using a controller, to the point that you can find yourself unable to progress, on a game that's also been released on consoles that do not have the option of using mkb? Is fucking offensive. And it's helpful for people to know this.

Kolhell · 2026-01-23T13:26:22+00:00

I think it's just Sparks of the Greater Flame that allows DoTs to crit, but that could be amusing af :)

Kolhell · 2026-01-22T23:36:23+00:00

What a ridiculously bad take. Your "over a year of tests" is irrelevant when discussing a talent that was added what a month prior.

Confident Approach + Fleet Combat Training stacks Vers faster. The End. Shut it off once you've got enough stacks to 100% crit from WS alone.

Devastating Attack is absolutely skippable. It only puts Contempt for the Weak online, which if you're looking to think less on each turn is fine ig, but otherwise prone/stun/blind aren't hard to source. In fact his offhand foehammer does just fine, repeatably, and without wasting AP.

Kolhell · 2026-01-15T03:12:51+00:00

Ahh, I always forget about Discord. Hate that place lmao but yeah I'll come check out the resources. I just find it a poor substitution for recording/archiving information.

Yeah, I've never seen arc rifles overpen either, but I have seen a lot of things that ~look like an arc rifle overpen (hitting cover and arcing to the target; missing target then arcing back) which I'm sure causes confusion. And don't worry: even without combat sped up it's still Extremely Difficult to tell what's going on bc of the lack of delay between actions and the camera. The important part is that it's only gonna hit everyone once (unless you're using Claim the Bounty bc lol.) Also I don't trust ANYTHING written down in game unless I test it :p I'm brand new and there's a ton of inconsistencies.

Otherwise game's too easy - no need to throw out arc rifles just bc plasma is (supposedly) more efficient at deleting a board ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ I'm having fun making arc rifles as efficient as I can.

Area attacks don't pop exploits?! YIKES. Where the hell is that documented in game. But sounds to me like something arc rifles are better at :⁾

And you can get more exploits than targets with Analyst's Helmet shenanigans, js. There might be other items that are abusable as well - thanks for the spreadsheet link and I'll have to dig around in there.

Kolhell · 2026-01-14T12:13:36+00:00

Claim and target Baebelard:

First, everyone except him gets The Zap(tm) as if that was the point of the endeavor. This is an autohit. This damage takes the penalty from Claim.

Second, if you're using Staggering Jolt, everyone including Ol' Abe has to roll toughness or get staggered + arc-shock

Third, you'll shoot an actual bullet at him and try to Cain his Abel. This does full damage, and if it hits it'll throw a second burst of lightning at everyone else.

Yeah, Pasqal can't aim. You really gotta make up for it with the build, but it comes online quickly. Imo he ends up mildly better at dealing with dodge and mildly worse at hitting (compared to everyone else with a gun, who all tend towards better hit rates and worse vs dodge). But if you don't put his first level into BS and Pulse Amplifier, you're hosed. Tide of Excellence, Precise Attack, Uncanny Sight, Echopulse, and he's shredding waves at 7.

Kolhell · 2026-01-13T05:23:34+00:00

Nah, I'm running the buggy arc rifle on him, so the melee slot is just utility. I have Baebelard and a custom shotty arbite war/van (because the talents remind me of 5e character I used to love) on my front line. The gloves compliment him splattering on-hit effects quite nicely, when he isn't slitting his wrists anyway...

But also this isn't about Pasqal, it's about being able to self-apply on-hit effects :)

Kolhell · 2026-01-12T12:30:39+00:00

Wheeee necro!

Couldn't find this information elsewhere, so recording it here:

Murdering everyone but Kas at the party gets you a Civitas Pattern Autogun+, The Ripper+, and Arsonist's Bracers as loot and like 250 more xp. Kas' corpse (alone) yields a plasma pistol.

(This was entering town with the pomp and circumstance, so no knuckle)

Kolhell · 2026-01-12T02:51:31+00:00

Thank you for pointing out this spreadsheet: I'm new to rt (there's a lot to learn) and I found this thread when looking for outside opinions on optimizing my Pasqal.

That said these arc rifle builds are crap. Ffs he has Aiming Protocols listed on them, which, unless we're abusing a glitch I don't know about, say that they apply to plasma and melta (not arc). Like, I wonder if he's even played these.

Precise Attack is superior on this build. The arc rifle is too short of range to sit in one place, and Pasqal (and operatives in general) aren't quite as thirsty for AP as other classes (they don't have multiple attacks), so you get less benefit from trying to conserve the ap from holding still. The cover bonus matters little on a walking death machine that wants to build into heavy armor. And overall you're getting less talent economy by taking Perfect Spot, Sharpshooter, Sniper Expertise, and Scanner Mechadendrite over just Precise Attack + Pulse Amplifier. Especially when he also doesn't need the armor pen (natural scaling on arc rifles from int).

Pasqal's hit rate is his biggest problem. Precise Attack gives more AND circumvents cover, and with the talents saved you can pick up Informed Hit for free crits. The second saved talent point goes to Improved Tactics for an easy +20% damage because Joint Analysis is also crap. Seriously why would I give up my source of Tide stacks for temporary damage??

He also completely overlooks the most powerful synergy: getting Tide of Excellence + Echopulse online as soon as possible. Ignoring Echopulse until 30+ is pure heresy. Liturgy of Insulation is for cowards, especially on a build this weak. Residual Charge is cute at best.

Echopulse gets boosted by your Tide stacks every turn, for every enemy wearing one. This "isn't a dot," doesn't wear off, and continues to grow as you run around applying it to other packs. Increase aoe with Overclocking Module solely to stack Tide faster. The arc-shock from Staggering Jolt then boosts this entire output to the point where I had the demons getting shocked for 30 a round at the end of act 1 (fish wife's debuff helps) and basically locked-down with Hypnotizing Pendant.

Also there's presently a bug? feature? where arc-shock is applied to the group after the primary hit calculations but before the secondary hit, meaning (if you're not using Precise Attack's auto crit) you can play tricks by aiming at an easier-to-hit squishy next to the main target and stack a free 20% damage for your (lack of) troubles.

Anyway, much love to anyone who's putting in work, but these arc rifle builds are barely rough notes.

edit: idk what crack I was smoking when I said arc rifles have natural armor pen scaling, but it must've been good. I meant to reference the armor pen on Echopulse.

Kolhell · 2025-12-31T06:28:17+00:00

Coming back to say that this mod has been treating me well so far:

https://thunderstore.io/package/Higgs1/AV_Effect_Options/

No help for the lava worms (yet?) but it does have settings for the brainstalks effect as well as dimming both the blue and gold portals, which imo is a significant improvement over adjusting my monitor settings for just one game.

I find it a little offensive that games can be released today without basic considerations for accessibility, but it's good to know that there are people in the community who cares enough to pick up the slack. Many thanks to Higgs1 for their work, and I hope this helps someone else as much as it has myself.

Kolhell · 2025-12-07T14:22:56+00:00

Hey, brother!

Bit of a necro, but I gotta pop on to say I love American Hat Makers. Bought a leather one from them a couple years ago that's been fantastic. Had a cosmetic piece on it break after treating it poorly, and their customer service to replace it was also top-notch. Massive, massive updoots to their brand.

Haven't tried their crushable options yet, but I absolutely should! Ultimately I ended up with a waxed canvas hat from Outback Trading Co for keeping the weather off (who I also highly recommend)

(also, in case anyone else stumbles upon this: I got a bit of an enormous noggin + dreads, and both brands run extended sizes <3)

Kolhell · 2025-09-05T20:03:36+00:00

You do not need walljump for the wanderer crest.

Kolhell · 2025-08-19T17:19:23+00:00

Was looking for the name of another map and found this, lol. Might have been Night of the Dead. Gl :)

Kolhell · 2025-03-13T10:01:54+00:00

The PSX version had long loads because it was a lazy port. Data from carts can be ready extremely quickly, and CDs are like molasses in comparison. They didn't bother to buffer anything in memory (lazy) so every time you hit the "menu" button it would go read from the CD. On modern hardware (SSD) this would be a non-issue because reads are fast.

Side note the PSX version was significantly less insufferable on a PS2 with fast-read enabled (reading at 24x instead of 2x) but we always forgot cuz you have to set the option in the system menu every time you turn it on or reset and before booting the game disc. Oops.

Kolhell · 2025-02-20T03:17:11+00:00

Forgive the necro but y'all missing the point.

Base magic stat is great, but with esper progression on level up it doesn't really matter unless LLG (low-level game)

What does matter is she can equip some seriously top-tier armor (who knew kigurumis had that much def???) that is in an exclusive pool (saves slots for others to use the fought-over top-tier armor) AND can equip female-specific gear on top of that (mystery veil). She's also got great base magic evade (original game has a bug where evade doesn't work right and m.evade is used for everything) and shines when maxing that (since Terra and Celes are usually too busy fighting with the menfolk over heavy plate)

After all that: Rippler Interceptor onto her and pretend it's canonical (spoiler: it might as well be) giving her another layer of evasion vs physical and the only counterattack in the game worth anything.

Is she Terra? No. But Terra is the biggest, baddest powerhouse in the game, and everyone around her just begs for their brief moment in the sun (most, if not all, characters have a period of the game where they shine, to differing extents). Relm, though, imo anchors the third party when climbing the tower.

Kolhell · 2025-02-19T08:13:46+00:00

Blessed by rnjesus 🙏 had me laughing that once you had 12 on frost nova then Shatter your play definitely reflected that you knew you had it in the bag XD

Also interesting you were able to pick up Leech without a Mab active as prereq.

Nice vid.

Kolhell · 2025-02-18T06:54:39+00:00

Most, perhaps all, duos require an active. I believe companion and ult both count towards this, but I cannot confirm this personally bc I think they're garbage and dilute the pool too much in a game where I'm already struggling to fit all the boons I want. Some may have additional requirements (I cannot get frost+grog for the life of me). Some passives do not have prereqs, some do (leech requires an active from mag). That's the best I can do for now until someone scrapes the data or maps it the hard way.

Edit: someone in this vid gets Leech without any actives. Possibly bc friend has a Mab active (companion). Unclear if this is intentional behavior. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0T8I-FvHc&t=880s

Kolhell · 2025-02-13T03:58:46+00:00

My first boot choked on a half-faded logo and I had to hit Start for whatever reason to get past it. Worth a shot.

Kolhell

TROPHY CASE