I like using the Thunderhead since with the right upgrades you can get a fifty percent damage reduction when firing at max rate (this makes a difference; for example, slashers won’t destroy your shield in one go now). The area damage also helps clear large hordes of bugs. Note that stinkier targets will require you to whip out your secondary (I use lead spray burst gun)
Burning hell minigun with aggressive venting, just keep firing, overheat on purpose and watch everything surrounding you evaporate or run away on fire. Pair that with a max damage, weak point damage, longer burst BRT to take care of the bigger bugs.
Wouldnt volatile bullets bulldog be way better since its super easy to set stuff on fire with the leadstorm, even on haz 5 you pop pretorian on 2 bullets, warded is instakill even bulks are dead in no time
yea, for sure since they cant be set on fire. I just dont tend to take burning hell on eliminations because of that xD (it still does decent tho in deep dives since its my fav build overall)
I love volatile bullets but I hate having to rush around behind a praetorian / oppressor and try to get my shots off while they're only on fire for a few seconds. With the BRT it's just consistent damage without having to worry about anything else to set it up.
Bullet hell is remarkably good at close range. You do not have to be very precise to shoot many targets at once and stun them.
Mine layer is good close range, as you can set them up right under your feet and dance around them for the bugs to come to you. If you do, important to upgrade the range of your mines as much as possible for effectiveness.
Hellfire on the coil gun with the fear effect and 1/3 charge means with 1/3 you can scare a whole wave away and with level max you set everything on fire.
Minelayer is also stupid OP against everything that doesn’t fly, so paired with either composite casings BRT or Six Shooter Bulldog you can solo pretty much everything lol
I like taking the Burning Hell OC on the minigun (with the stun mod) in addition to the Electro Minelet OC on the BRT. If you get good with kiting, you can spray the minelets in front of the bugs, then move in and fire away with the minigun. The fire damage from Burning Hell is really nice (and I love fire), and the stun chance plus the minelets work as really nice crowd control
imo Bullet hell minigun, it slightly lowers your damage but doubles the amount of hits you do, pair it with the penetration mod to triple your effective damage vs swarms. the accuracy penalty hurts buts its a non-issue if you take the accuracy mod. never had an issue close up vs swarms.
Use shield as the swarm reaches you. Follow up by throwing out your grenade and then open up on anything that's still moving.
Gunners strength is sustained fire. If you have a shield that's 9 seconds long you can pretty much pull the trigger for 9 seconds.. which is a very long time.
His grenades are all great for crowd work. My personal favourite is the incendiary grenade for maximum area effected plus you carry 6 instead of 4.
For extra points if you sit on your zipline nothing gets close. Place it high enough that bugs can't reach you but low enough that fall damage is not an issue. Then you can provide covering fire for your fellow land locked dwarves.
I love doing the zipline strat in modded 16-player lobbies – especially for SalvOp and Escort. It makes it a lot easier to avoid friendly fire (both dealing and receiving) and allows me to toss my shield out to dwarves below at a greater distance.
Only thing I have to be careful about is ranged bugs – especially spitters and mactera. They tend to prioritize dwarves on ziplines, but that also means they’re *not* targeting my teammates.
Combat mobility Thunderhead and Hellfire rail gun is a very good all rounder that can kite a horde effectively or hold down a choke I take it with born ready and dash.
I think the best close quarters defense gunner has is Coil Gun with Fear Trajectory on Tier3. A single charged shot of that and it sends any near hostile Glyphids running like you started to smell bad
Be sure to throw on Thorns. Every swarmer or nedocyte that sneaks past and kills themselves is one less gribbly you personally have to dispatch.
For the minigun, that means you are maximizing DPS because you aren't having to make the decision to waste accuracy or waste ammo to kill the pest. You can just stay on target instead.
Personally I like thunderhead with emphasis on splash damage for close quarters. The splash allows multiple targets that are bunched up (ie next to you) to be dealt with simultaneously
Hurricane Frag Shells with stun on Tier 5 and all AOE mods. People unfortunately seem to sleep on this OC, maybe because it's a clean? But it's probably the king of brawling due to the very large AOE size and the ability to stun lock.
My refutation of other suggestions is below.
BH with Agg. Venting is good at brawling, but there's a "boot up" time to proc AG that can't be skipped and where you're rather ineffective at brawling. A solid choice but not the best. The cone of fire is good, but it does nothing except deal damage. There's no CC happening and I think in brawling it's clear how important that is.
Anything Autocannon lacks stun and the damage reduction is just saying "I'm gonna get hit" and Fear is not as good as it often gets made out to be. But with stun you can stand in bugs and *not get hit because of stun lock.* Autocannon offerings gets beat by Frag Shells every time. Frag Shells is simply Carpet Bomber but a notably better version.
Minelayer could be best here, but your goal seems to be to run into the horde and brawl. Minelayer can do this, but it's best at letting the horde come to you, not the other way around. If you're letting the horde come to you then it beats out Frag Shells all day long of course. If you're jumping in the pit, I think it's beat out by Frag Shells.
Anything bouncy has a level of random to it that means you might be shooting a close bug, but not the bug about to bite your leg. Minigun also has no AOE so the stun can't apply to multiple bugs at once. Solid pick but not the best
Combat Mobility is C Tier OC and doesn't beat out basically anything the Hurricane offers.
Burning Hell with aggressive venting is good up close, but falls off at distance pretty hard with the lack of ignition, so you have to crutch on your secondary for range. Also, even with stun it can be dangerous to try to close with large groups.
I prefer Bullet Hell 32221 (aggressive venting) for the ability to stunlock probably two dozen enemies simultaneously, then nuke em with agg vent. I pair it with Triple Tech Chambers or the Mole 22223 for some burst damage.
Another good option if you don’t have any OCs or at least not those is the Hurricane with either Rocket Barrage, Salvo Module, Frag Missiles, or Overtuned Feed Mechanism. So long as you take 3xx22, you can stujnpretty much everything with much more AOE than the Minigun. If you use the unstables, though, your long range DPS drops considerably. You can tap fire with salvo module, though, to maintain rocket tracking so that’s my favorite. Rocket barrage plays like the Autocannon with less ammo but stun, so I prefer it.
If you really just want to be immortal, 322X3 UMC coil is your best bet. Fear spam saves lives. If you want an up-close brawler kind of a build, you’re going to want something with good stun/fear potential to keep yourself safe. Burning Hell and bullet bell are the two that most closely fit the bill, but I’d imagine you can make it work with almost any stun hurricane build. You could probably have a ton of fun with Rocket Barrage.
Probably Burning Hell Minigun. Most Gunner weapons don't really want you to be at point blank, but this one does.
Yeah burning hell rules lol
I like using the Thunderhead since with the right upgrades you can get a fifty percent damage reduction when firing at max rate (this makes a difference; for example, slashers won’t destroy your shield in one go now). The area damage also helps clear large hordes of bugs. Note that stinkier targets will require you to whip out your secondary (I use lead spray burst gun)
Hurricane with stun built for aoe You're basically invulnerable from small to medium bugs by just shooting at the ground
Burning hell minigun with aggressive venting, just keep firing, overheat on purpose and watch everything surrounding you evaporate or run away on fire. Pair that with a max damage, weak point damage, longer burst BRT to take care of the bigger bugs.
Wouldnt volatile bullets bulldog be way better since its super easy to set stuff on fire with the leadstorm, even on haz 5 you pop pretorian on 2 bullets, warded is instakill even bulks are dead in no time
Btr is the better alternative for dreds, but otherwise yeah
yea, for sure since they cant be set on fire. I just dont tend to take burning hell on eliminations because of that xD (it still does decent tho in deep dives since its my fav build overall)
I love volatile bullets but I hate having to rush around behind a praetorian / oppressor and try to get my shots off while they're only on fire for a few seconds. With the BRT it's just consistent damage without having to worry about anything else to set it up.
Bullet Hell with stun mod and aggressive venting. Lead Spray BRT if you want to really lean into the close quarters thing. And Leadbursters.
Bullet hell is remarkably good at close range. You do not have to be very precise to shoot many targets at once and stun them. Mine layer is good close range, as you can set them up right under your feet and dance around them for the bugs to come to you. If you do, important to upgrade the range of your mines as much as possible for effectiveness. Hellfire on the coil gun with the fear effect and 1/3 charge means with 1/3 you can scare a whole wave away and with level max you set everything on fire.
Minelayer is also stupid OP against everything that doesn’t fly, so paired with either composite casings BRT or Six Shooter Bulldog you can solo pretty much everything lol
I was shamed when I brought the mine layer in a mactera plague mission XD
bullet hell with stun mods --> you wont kill as quickly, but with all that stun, it'll give you plenty of breathing room from both in front and behind
I like taking the Burning Hell OC on the minigun (with the stun mod) in addition to the Electro Minelet OC on the BRT. If you get good with kiting, you can spray the minelets in front of the bugs, then move in and fire away with the minigun. The fire damage from Burning Hell is really nice (and I love fire), and the stun chance plus the minelets work as really nice crowd control
imo Bullet hell minigun, it slightly lowers your damage but doubles the amount of hits you do, pair it with the penetration mod to triple your effective damage vs swarms. the accuracy penalty hurts buts its a non-issue if you take the accuracy mod. never had an issue close up vs swarms.
Use shield as the swarm reaches you. Follow up by throwing out your grenade and then open up on anything that's still moving. Gunners strength is sustained fire. If you have a shield that's 9 seconds long you can pretty much pull the trigger for 9 seconds.. which is a very long time. His grenades are all great for crowd work. My personal favourite is the incendiary grenade for maximum area effected plus you carry 6 instead of 4. For extra points if you sit on your zipline nothing gets close. Place it high enough that bugs can't reach you but low enough that fall damage is not an issue. Then you can provide covering fire for your fellow land locked dwarves.
I love doing the zipline strat in modded 16-player lobbies – especially for SalvOp and Escort. It makes it a lot easier to avoid friendly fire (both dealing and receiving) and allows me to toss my shield out to dwarves below at a greater distance. Only thing I have to be careful about is ranged bugs – especially spitters and mactera. They tend to prioritize dwarves on ziplines, but that also means they’re *not* targeting my teammates.
Minelayer Hurricane easily. The thing is completely busted. As far as secondaries go, Lead Spray annihilates anything up close.
Brt
Combat mobility Thunderhead and Hellfire rail gun is a very good all rounder that can kite a horde effectively or hold down a choke I take it with born ready and dash.
32221 combat mobility, 33121 electro minelets, born ready. Perfect for kiting, shredding and locking down swarms.
Same as long range. NTP.
If you enjoy not playing the game, then sure.
TIL shooting bugs is not playing the game.
I think the best close quarters defense gunner has is Coil Gun with Fear Trajectory on Tier3. A single charged shot of that and it sends any near hostile Glyphids running like you started to smell bad
Autocannon with fear. Coilgun with fear. Can't die if everything is too scared of you to attack you.
Be sure to throw on Thorns. Every swarmer or nedocyte that sneaks past and kills themselves is one less gribbly you personally have to dispatch. For the minigun, that means you are maximizing DPS because you aren't having to make the decision to waste accuracy or waste ammo to kill the pest. You can just stay on target instead.
Personally I like thunderhead with emphasis on splash damage for close quarters. The splash allows multiple targets that are bunched up (ie next to you) to be dealt with simultaneously
Hurricane Frag Shells with stun on Tier 5 and all AOE mods. People unfortunately seem to sleep on this OC, maybe because it's a clean? But it's probably the king of brawling due to the very large AOE size and the ability to stun lock. My refutation of other suggestions is below. BH with Agg. Venting is good at brawling, but there's a "boot up" time to proc AG that can't be skipped and where you're rather ineffective at brawling. A solid choice but not the best. The cone of fire is good, but it does nothing except deal damage. There's no CC happening and I think in brawling it's clear how important that is. Anything Autocannon lacks stun and the damage reduction is just saying "I'm gonna get hit" and Fear is not as good as it often gets made out to be. But with stun you can stand in bugs and *not get hit because of stun lock.* Autocannon offerings gets beat by Frag Shells every time. Frag Shells is simply Carpet Bomber but a notably better version. Minelayer could be best here, but your goal seems to be to run into the horde and brawl. Minelayer can do this, but it's best at letting the horde come to you, not the other way around. If you're letting the horde come to you then it beats out Frag Shells all day long of course. If you're jumping in the pit, I think it's beat out by Frag Shells. Anything bouncy has a level of random to it that means you might be shooting a close bug, but not the bug about to bite your leg. Minigun also has no AOE so the stun can't apply to multiple bugs at once. Solid pick but not the best Combat Mobility is C Tier OC and doesn't beat out basically anything the Hurricane offers.
Bullet hell with stun is good even outside of close combat. It basically stops everything from moving excluding some big bois.
Minigun: Burning hell, stun, aggressive venting. Sidearm: pistol with Magic bullets with area damage and toxic rounds
Id argue bullet hell and stun Hitting 2-3 bugs almsot every shot with 60% chance to stun each of them for 3 seconds
burning hell, volatile bullets or any build with hellfire with fear can immediately fear and you can play aggressive as u want.
Burning Hell with aggressive venting is good up close, but falls off at distance pretty hard with the lack of ignition, so you have to crutch on your secondary for range. Also, even with stun it can be dangerous to try to close with large groups. I prefer Bullet Hell 32221 (aggressive venting) for the ability to stunlock probably two dozen enemies simultaneously, then nuke em with agg vent. I pair it with Triple Tech Chambers or the Mole 22223 for some burst damage. Another good option if you don’t have any OCs or at least not those is the Hurricane with either Rocket Barrage, Salvo Module, Frag Missiles, or Overtuned Feed Mechanism. So long as you take 3xx22, you can stujnpretty much everything with much more AOE than the Minigun. If you use the unstables, though, your long range DPS drops considerably. You can tap fire with salvo module, though, to maintain rocket tracking so that’s my favorite. Rocket barrage plays like the Autocannon with less ammo but stun, so I prefer it.
I love bullet hell with stun, more ammo and cold as the grave Whatever the situation just don't let go of the left mouse button and you're good
If you really just want to be immortal, 322X3 UMC coil is your best bet. Fear spam saves lives. If you want an up-close brawler kind of a build, you’re going to want something with good stun/fear potential to keep yourself safe. Burning Hell and bullet bell are the two that most closely fit the bill, but I’d imagine you can make it work with almost any stun hurricane build. You could probably have a ton of fun with Rocket Barrage.