HIS Magnum // Cloning facility
Clone Planner
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Budget RAT Clone
TLDR: cheap class update, easy to get very early, great for mindful looting with pretty minimal resources and surviving while doing so - guerilla attack is the defense.
Shout-out to the legendary guitar (and sometimes bass) effect pedal, ProCo RAT Distortion, the Quasimorph way! Like its super cheap, usually Chinese-made clones, this budget-friendly Baby's First Class Customizing Project brings the literal bang for your buck without sacrificing the quality.
We are not here to maximise our loot like a mindless little pirate goblin and dying under the weight in the hail of bullets, our dodge tanked. We're here to stalk the corners, play dirty, scavenge the choice cuts and bring them back alive to the family. We ambush, we strike deadly, we take what we want, we scurry the hell away.
If you get Tunnel Rats early in the game, this frugal setup boosts your rat's survivability in conditions where resources are scarce and the threat of quasimorphosis still haunts you. (and if right kind of Baron still gets you, good guerilla tactics and a blast to its face may save the day.)
We'll do ambushes and hit-and-runs, skirmisher-style. Therefore it's even more important than usual to be aware of the environs and play cautiously. Melee can serve us in a pinch, but it's a last resort.
Biggest problems are lack of range and damage diversity. The first you mitigate by hugging walls and scurrying from cover to another whle NOT tanking your dodge by looting every junk you see before the mission is cleared. The last is a bit trickier in the very early stages of the game, when we're bound to survive by 12-gauge buckshots. One vest pocket of 90mm nails help with their pierce. I also habitually carry a CLAW for mutilation purposes, preferably with a Helper backpack, but we're not built for melee action. If you have at least 2 pocket vest of any kind, the other might be carrying molotov cocktail(s) or smoke grenade.
I chose Taiga M as an exemplary main weapon. It's available right from the beginning and does the job very economically, until you get your hands on Jeffhammer and loads of 12-gauge ammo. Secondary weapon is Crash 17, easily manufactured on many missions on-site, and it complements Jeffhammer especially well, either with one shot at time ammo-saving shots or oh-shit panic button mag-emptier. Note that both selected weapons utilize two of your class perks combined, so your close range accuracy and damage should be high from the get-go.
Helper Backpack is highly recommended, especially if sporting Jeffhammer. Faster reloads can be life-savers, and bringing a knife as a weapon in a pinch and resource chopper without sacrificing any valuable backpack space is a nice thing. Also, its limited space hinders loot-goblinism.
Rubberized head is not necessary from the get-go, and it might take awhile before you get one, but it's such a QoL improvement I rarely leave Magnum without it on any mission. Without it, be extra careful to switch to crouch when needed for the enemy detection and frequently look around, especially behind you.
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Mirza is tough and accurate enough for what we are doing here. Her clone perk helps us being economical with our food (and thus inventory space).
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Even if we don't want to run around with full Buffalo, Rats burn calories under weight. Mirza lets you pack less rations while hauling. Her addiction immunity lets you keep the quasimeter at bay with drugs of your choice, without addiction downsides and more inventory space freed from excessive sorbent or very rare anti-drug substances.
The basic concept works just fine on any other clones, either family favorites (Priya, Marika, Percy) or unconventional bench-holders. Just take it easy on drugs.
Perks · showing Basic rank
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Huge cooldown makes this a bit annoying, but it's fun and satisfying to ambush-blast something big to shreds with this.
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Our bread and butter. Since this concerns shotgun SHELLS, not shotguns per se, weäll get a bit creative with the weaponry.
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This is why Rats are awesome, especially in the early game where things are frugal.
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Can be a life-saver when doing the oopsie and walking into a clown-car situation with bad or no cover, especially after 1.04 patch prolonging the stuns.
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Vicious Symbiosis is rather iffy to my taste even to begin with, and with Marika it's a dead weight perk. If not starting on random classes, you're guaranteed to have Scouts of Hades unlocked, and yoinking this from the class is cheap and easy. CQC-Specialist gives you extra accuracy and lethality, whick lovingly stacks with the ammo of our choice, the 12-gauge.
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Extra cover is always nice, although it is kind of vague how exactly this is calculated - better cover percentage, more hot points to cover? Both? Let me know if you know.
Pact
Any Pact
No specific pact synergy for this build -- reforge or use whatever is available.
This is beyond the scope of this build. Overall, I'd prefer anything that either gives more APs or resistances.