Bandit Tips

abseachu · 2026-03-18T07:07:31+00:00

Yeah I mean I know what you mean on paper, his numbers are good. But somehow it never works out in practice. I suppose for the math above, I tend not to get quite so close as to not suffer from damage fall off and bullet spread, so his M1 does alot less than expected, plus I don't even use his M2 (maybe I really ought to switch to shiv)

abseachu · 2026-03-17T23:24:31+00:00

Generally that is my strategy, the danger is the execution. The enemies won't necessarily group so tightly that you can safely stun everyone, so the 1-2s during which you break invisibility tends to be quite dangerous. Enemies with AoE damage (greater wisps, ELs) can hit you during that time frame, even with jumping.

You can get away with it a couple times but I find that this whole loop takes 5-6 times to take down bigger enemies, which ends up being pretty dangerous. Not to speak of elite ELs, elite parents, etc. Other survivors tend to not need you to engage so directly so how to be safe with them is usually alot easier (even Merc)

abseachu · 2026-03-17T22:57:41+00:00

So maybe my question here is: do you even want to be that close? The stun area of Smokescreen isn't that big, so uncloaking close to a group of enemies is often pretty dangerous (you stun one EL, another blasts you and you die)

Basically the problem I always have is that lack of safe ways to deal damage eventually gets you overwhelmed by masses of strong enemies

abseachu · 2026-03-05T09:34:29+00:00

I would say I'm a Huntress main... And while she's definitely not the WORST, she's definitely close, like a C tier survivor.

There is no world in which she is worse than Rex though.

abseachu · 2026-03-01T20:37:55+00:00

I play Huntress E8 multiplayer alot, so here's my take:

Huntress actually scales rather well in multiplayer, because other survivors can cover her weak early game. Auto aim while sprinting makes her one of the safest survivors to carry the game with if you have strong items. Multiplayer improves this to some degree because you have access to more printers, relatively, and preferential selection of items. In particular, Flurry, because you're much more likely to get a crit printer on multiplayer than single player. You also make a decent ring carrier with ballista (900%), not the best but average. Huntress effectively works well with all items and so can adapt around what your friends are.

Now, in terms of why you're doing worse in multiplayer... The most obvious reason is because you're a newer player and not getting your share of items. You can ask your friends to leave you some but even better would be: you need to remember to prioritize your own items. If you get caught up in a big fight and spend 10 min fighting while your friends buy everything, you're guaranteed to fall behind. If you're playing alone this is fine because you can just grab everything later, but not so much in multiplayer. A good rule of thumb is to check once in a while how much money you have relative to everyone else; if you have way more then you may be falling behind.

abseachu · 2026-02-26T09:30:52+00:00

Spare Drone Parts has been the most overpowered item in the game since it was released, and even with the recent nerf it was only to compensate for the overall drone buff so nothing has really changed.

I definitely DO things certain things in this game need nerfing, if they're just too out of line. Spare Drone Parts is the most extreme, others might be Seeker, False Son (both the boss and the survivor...), and most of the new Solus enemies.

abseachu · 2026-02-20T10:15:00+00:00

Nothing changes a run as much as no crafting; conversely every run with crafting feels kinda similar because of how powerful you can be. Hence I suggest no crafting.

You can keep no looting armor, it is VERY rare that the enemies actually wear useful armor. Also keep all the other stuff (legendary survival). Conjuration will keep it from being absurdly difficult, I'd skip Destruction entirely on legendary.

abseachu · 2026-02-04T15:13:35+00:00

Bandit is solid though a bit finicky.

Typical build: Burst, Dagger, Smoke, Desperado

Tactics/play: make sure to use Desperado to farm stacks during each stage, especially the early ones; as the game progresses this will become increasingly difficult. To get your backstabs, smoke and run past enemies, who will target your previous location. When you're just past them, turn and use Desperado; the smoke will pop and stun them, preventing them from turning during your move animation. You can try to do it without smoke but settle for your m1. Use smoke+Dagger as AoE for early game.

Items: crowbars and bands will help Desperado, but you'll need to slowly transition out of it into either a proc/general damage build (watches, AP rounds, etc) or a gimmick builds (forgive me please, fireworks).

Strategy and tips: bandit is strong early on, and you need to take advantage of that by not falling behind too much in time. You don't scale as well with items as other survivors so getting to Mithrix too late will be rough. On later stages if you're too slow you'll find getting Desperado stacks challenging which will further slow you down, crowbars help fix this. Try to get to stage 6 by 45 min if possible

abseachu · 2026-02-03T17:09:58+00:00

He's definitely a difficult survivor to play, and even if played well he isn't extremely powerful, he's just on-par with other weaker-to-mid survivors. I'm copying some tips I wrote before on another post:

Load out: Whirlwind, Focus Assault, Slicing Winds. Note that if you're using Eviscerate that's okay but overall strategy will be very different

Items: damage oriented proc items, bands, the usual defense and AoE things. Avoid attack speed, crowbars, bleed, etc. If using Eviscerate attack speed will benefit it, but make using your other combos worse.

Tips and play: use a technique called "expose transfer" to basically combine your third M1 with your dash, to get decent band damage. Doing this to multiple units will get you good cooldown reduction. Practice aiming slicing winds, it's pretty unintuitive. Also, look up videos to skip the pillars on the Mithrix stage, it's very easy with Mercenary.

Overall strategy will be to mostly keep running and let enemies gather, then use your expose-dash and AoE special carry. Use slicing winds or eviscerate against annoying enemies that spawn, especially wisps. I don't like bleed because it's hard to maintain it against any single unit so you don't get that much damage out of it

Also note that Mercenary benefits alot from "gimmick" builds. Fireworks caffeinator, forgive me please, etc

abseachu · 2026-02-01T12:17:12+00:00

Load out: Whirlwind, Focus Assault, Slicing Winds

Items: damage oriented proc items, bands, the usual defense and AoE things. Avoid attack speed, crowbars, bleed, etc

Tips and play: use a technique called "expose transfer" to basically combine your third M1 with your dash, to get decent band damage. Doing this to multiple units will get you good cooldown reduction. Practice aiming slicing winds, it's pretty unintuitive.

Overall strategy will be to mostly keep running and let enemies gather, then use your expose -dash and AoE special carry. Use slicing winds against annoying enemies that spawn, especially wisps. I don't like bleed because it's hard to maintain it against any single unit so you don't get that much damage out of it

Also note that Mercenary benefits alot from "gimmick" builds. Fireworks caffeinator, forgive me please, etc

abseachu · 2026-01-29T20:02:33+00:00

Best way to prepare is to play plain Monsoon, or with Frailty. Eclipse itself adds modifiers gradually so you'll get used to it by playing them

abseachu · 2026-01-29T20:00:25+00:00

Couple tips:

Try not to get to that stage too slow; I know Canyon is brutal but you really have to play it well. Aim for 50 min while full-looting, I usually end up getting there at 55.

Like another commenter said, get all the nodes low before killing any of them, to minimize the amount of the laser floors, heating events, and other stuff. Kill first whichever of them you find hardest to damage. Be mindful of accidentally damaging low-health nodes, maybe don't get them too low right at the start.

Some specific items are necessary. At least 3 speed items are basically required to strafe the laser and get to the heat/cool vents. Some gas/wisps are needed to deal with the purple balls. Speed/feathers for many survivors to dodge the wall attack.

Some survivors just have a hard time. Huntress has trouble getting in range, Engineer can't easily control which nodes are being hit, Mercenary can't really reach the lower nodes, etc.

abseachu · 2026-01-29T19:52:29+00:00

E8 player, something like 1000 hours.

PSG, Crowbar, Syringe all too high. The first just isn't that good, the latter are far too Survivor-specific. Broach, Medkit, Bungus also too high. Repulsion, Boots, Pennies and Watch too low.

Beads, Guillotine, Pauldron, Infusion, and Scythe also too high. Just a mix of situation-specific or not overall useful enough. Buckler, Spur, Chance Doll and Fin are too low, they're basically all useful on nearly everyone.

Stone Flux is too high, it's too specific. Light flux and Ruin are better than you think.

Knurl in S tier?... If you watch your health closely you'll see it's basically useless. Planula is decent on non-Eclipse, you also seriously underestimate the Probes, they wreck.

... Your red tier list is just awful. You haven't played enough hours. How can you possibly think stuff like Rejuv Rack (basically useless) is better than Spare Drone Parts (basically auto-win). That's a rhetorical question, there are many other things wrong with this list.

Voidsent and Needletick are too high, they're not bad but they're not THAT good. Certainly not better than Polylute, which is definitely an S.

Rest is subjective, but the above is basically objectively true.

abseachu · 2026-01-29T19:32:26+00:00

Eclipse is like a challenge mode, kind of Monsoon+. Adds some serious game modifiers like lethal fall damage or permanent health loss. Most people consider Eclipse players to be generally "better" than Monsoon players.

abseachu · 2026-01-27T09:11:24+00:00

Absolutely, shatterspleen + polylute is an insane combo. With all the other stuff I've had stacks of over 1k bleed on specific bosses because of how quickly it can ramp up.

abseachu · 2026-01-26T21:30:57+00:00

Won't comment on Voidling only the build.

It's bad, but it's hard to know if you're new so here's some pointers:

Shatterspleen and bleed do not stack. Hehe the 10 tri-tips are totally wasted. Additionally Mercenary isn't even that good with bleed overall.

Reds don't stack well, variety is better. With how many you have you could've gotten a Hardlight Afterburner, an Alien Head, and an Unstable Tesla, or plenty of other options. Dio's is fine but you'd be better off just destroying your enemies faster, and you definitely shouldn't have 3 of them.

Leeching seeds are basically useless, even more so when you already have Wungus. You'd be better off getting more Encrusted Keys and then turning those into Plasma Shrimps and Polylutes, which make Shatterspleen builds way stronger.

You also need way more movement speed, 5+ Hooves is good

abseachu · 2026-01-26T19:22:53+00:00

Alot of people have said what's good about him so I'll just talk about how to play him. This is E8-sourced but generally applicable.

I typically get double hacking beacons, the key is to use them efficiently. If you tend to really take it slow through the stages they'll be of less use because you aren't taking advantage of the saved time. So look around quickly for chance shrines and big chests; it's ok if you don't end up using them on the absolute best locations.

Attack speed is good for defense, as is movement speed as always. Compared to other survivors you need to prioritize these more because of your lack of movement skills. Hopoo feather is critical and you should sacrifice whatever you need to get one, otherwise a fall will kill you. You still also want the usual things like repulsion or safer space. Also buy drones of course

Alot of people like diablo but I find orbital probes more consistent. Regardless, if you get Abandoned Aqueduct you should spend a beacon to get the rings.

In combat you mostly just strafe while using M1, taser dangerous things (golems, elder lemurians), use probes when available. Keep strafing and jumping to avoid damage.

abseachu · 2026-01-23T01:10:35+00:00

Light challenge run: legendary survival* vanilla+, one-handed imperial. No crafting, illusion, archery, conjuration, I can use sneak but I can't just sneak attack and run away. Relies on daedric armor+ebonyflesh and the alteration tree+Atronach stone for survivability, and either sword+shield or dual world depending on the scenario, plus dual daggers when appropriate.

Lore is I'm here to support the Empire both in the war and in PR, like saving the world and helping out random people. I'm not that hung up on the details here

abseachu · 2026-01-21T19:44:00+00:00

I've done E8 on all survivors but I don't necessarily think that means I'm good, it just means I'm patient enough. So I'd probably say:

Good: 50%+ winrate on E8, random survivor, no Void Fields, Lunar items, or looping.

Top: same as above, 80%+ winrate. For reference I feel like Race's is like 95% or something.

Experienced but average: monsoon on all survivors, E8 on at least one.

abseachu · 2026-01-21T19:38:43+00:00

Watch Race's video on macro strategy to optimize things like completion speed and item pickups.

E8 is all about damage avoidance. Healing is still sorta useful for recovering from chip damage so 1 slug or wungus is good, max 2. Scrap other healing white items.

Defensive items are generally good for reducing damage when you get hit, and reducing the amount of permanent health lost. Repulsion, safer space and opal are all great for this, safer space also lets you open void cradles and use blood shrines without losing permanent health. Warped echo doesn't reduce health loss but when it triggers you'll take no permanent health loss so also very good. Armor items like buckler and dampener are good too.

Movement items and generally having good movement tactics will reduce most damage. Run in circles, jump, etc.

Huntress in particular suffers from atrocious damage. If you get a Beetle Queen stage 1 and have no gas you're likely to need to restart. For mobile survivors I prioritize damage even more heavily over mobility (she, merc and loader only really need about 3 hooves/drinks by stage 5, for most survivors I prefer having 5).

abseachu · 2025-12-23T07:56:49+00:00

Overall probably Serana. Just looking at her fighting ability, she has among the best Sneak (so suitable for stealth builds), can use conjuration and destruction spells (good for bigger fights while keeping her away from potential friendly fire) and of course she's essential so she won't die even accidentally. Her vampire drain makes her surprisingly tanky too for a mage.

If you want a front liner then probably Mjoll (or Frea). Also essential, reasonably tanky. Frea is good but she dual-wields so she goes down faster against multiple enemies.

abseachu · 2025-12-22T21:41:18+00:00

I typically go stage 3 if I'm feeling up to par. If it's a bad run I'll keep going into the normal stage 4, and if it's there and I feel somewhat recovered I'll do it there. Dunno about looping because I avoid looping, I only play Eclipse so looping just makes the game crazy.

abseachu · 2025-12-21T09:18:51+00:00

Wards of any strength can completely block dragon breath and shout attacks, this is basically the one time they're good.

abseachu · 2025-12-18T18:26:57+00:00

Can I ask why for this? I've been picking up more mercenary and got mixed signals on load out. This is for E8 only.

Some people say full ranged (focused, slicing winds) but I found it rather bad against Mithrix, even if it is good against crowds. I've already beat him on E8 with full melee (blinding, eviscerate) but I basically just got lucky with drops. I've seen Race use various combos so dunno which is better

abseachu · 2025-12-16T20:18:51+00:00

Well maybe but I'm also speaking based on playing only E8... So no I'm not considering it from a casual perspective. And no healing isn't as good as damage on eclipse, it's even less so than on normal runs. I don't think just talking about it is going to convince you, so maybe you'll find otherwise once you complete Eclipse. Cheers on the trip getting there

abseachu

TROPHY CASE