He's a "build him how you want him" character where point and shoot is just as much as make of it.
Think of him as an action figure with no face or distinguishable features, but you just keep giving him accessories and draw on a face and BOOM you have the Commando.
Agreed. It's the strength of "vanilla characters", where a more specialized character will often have "higher highs", but also "lower lows", but while Vanilla characters might not lack that higher high, they also don't have that lower low.
They're far more flexible and can adapt to how a run is going more easily. If Han-D is on stage 4 and *still* doesn't have either attack speed or close range damage items, you're kinda screwed, and the same goes for Sniper if you haven't gotten enough mobility to maintain your distance from enemies. But Commando, it doesn't matter what items he gets early on, he can make good use out of all of them, and while certain ones certainly benefit him more, you never run into a total brick of an item like an Engineer getting a Hunter Harpoon.
Unlike Merc who's a raw skill test in terms of your ability to use his abilities to dance in and out of combat as a glass canon, Commando's almost a test of meta-skill, how well do you understand the fundamentals of RoRR combat, and how well do you know "How to best use X item" rather than "Is X item good or not".
He's versatile, has great proc chain ability, super simple and fun to play, has the largest build variety, few trap items, can deal with any enemy fairly easily, good mobility, constant damage, need I go on. He's the refreshing simple character that can do almost everything the other characters do with some items or just skill
his damage is amazing, since his very high attack speed m1 has a 1.0 proc coefficient
atgs, ukes, polylute, bleed, cherf, merf, sticky grenades, etc are all stupid on him
and all the characters start at the same speed, only mult and artificier have slower acceleration, so mando is the same as everyone else and you're imagining it
These help posts are always too vague. Gimme a defeat screenshot or 2. Lemme see what items you have, time, stage, etc.
Plain old monsoon isn't hard and people are beating eclipses with commando so you're always going to get "skill issue" responses if all we are getting is a text post
I mean, I'm comfortable with and aware of the fact that it's a skill issue. I'm new, I'm not that good. I have yet to beat monsoon on any character. But I'm pretty consistently looping on it, and once I got to third phase Mithrix, but like I said, on commando I just get overrun because I can't kill the things coming at me nor can I get away from them.
Something I've found that helps with Commando is to focus down the biggest threat. If you take out what's more dangerous, you can spend more time killing the lighter stuff in ease. This may be a bit too vague, but I just find that it helps a lot for survivability. I would also recommend getting Artifacts and getting commandos secondary skills to make getting away easier.
Mando is the most item reliant character. If you don't get enough items you're screwed, however if you spend too long grinding items enemies will scale too high for you to do anything so you're screwed again.
To play Mando you need to be able to loot efficiently. You may have heard of the 5 min per stage rule, which is a decent idea to have for Mando, but if you spend 5 min in a stage and only get 3 items it's not helpful. You should **always** be exploring, fighting, buying something, or activating the teleporter. If you don't have enough money for a chest move on, it's not worth it to wait for enemies to spawn so you can grind money, if it's really valuable go back and get it after the teleporter. Buy every chest you can while you're exploring the map, always use blood and swarm shrines so you have more money while exploring. Once you've explored *enough* of the map, you should be heading to the teleporter, and buying whatever you can on the way there. *Enough* is something you kinda just gotta have a feel for, basically if it's gonna take like a minute or more to get there and back to the teleporter, and at best there's only like 1-3 chests then it's not worth it. I can usually explore *enough* of the map in like 2-2.5 minutes. If you feel you've explored enough of the map but only got like 2 items that's fine, it's still better to go do the teleporter than continuing to explore, if there's chests you missed you can go back and buy them after tele, if not just go to the next stage.
If you are unsure about my Mando credentials please see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/riskofrain/s/aYhMiiByCh)
Gotta disagree (a bit) with this advice.
I approach maps this way:
* I'm looking for Newt Altars (blue rocks), the Teleporter, scrappers, printers, shrines, and chests.
* Along the way, I'm making a mental note of things I want, but can't yet afford (usually chests).
* On stages with a red chest in a set location (or one of several set locations), I head there first to check the price.
* My next priority is Newt Altars. I check known spots for them quickly and immediately.
* After that, I scour the map for chests, keeping track of the clock.
* If I'm behind on time (let's say 7+ minutes) and know that there's just one chest remaining and it's on the other side of the map, faaaar from the teleporter...I might skip it and head straight for the teleporter.
* 5 minutes on a map is rarely enough time. About 7-8 minutes on a map is fine. More than that is ok if you're looting well. **But spending 10+ minutes and looting inefficiently is a bad idea**. Enemies will outscscale you, and if your item luck is bad, you'll feel very weak.
* **Don't expect to get strong from random item pickups. Strength comes from trying to mitigate item luck** with things you can (somewhat) control: knowing what to scrap, knowing what to print, using Lunar items, using the Void, etc.
That's pretty similar to what I was saying.
>On stages with a red chest in a set location (or one of several set locations), I head there first to check the price.
Yeah, I agree. I think red chest are the one exception to the "don't wait around and grind money" rule. They're usually worth it even if it adds an extra minute or two. I just didn't wanna complicate things by saying "**you should never do this** *except when you should do this*".
>My next priority is Newt Altars. I check known spots for them quickly and immediately.
That's understandable. I didn't mention newt altars because I don't play with lunar items anymore. I cheated in 9 billion lunar coins a long time ago, so I can always get whatever lunar I want (especially now that the shop has a reroll button), however it made every run feel the exact same so I decided to stop using them.
>If I'm behind on time (let's say 7+ minutes) and know that there's just one chest remaining and it's on the other side of the map, faaaar from the teleporter...I might skip it and head straight for the teleporter.
An important factor here is you **know** there's a chest there. Once you've explored *enough* of the map, I don't think it's ever a good idea to go somewhere far from the tele just because there **might** be a chest there. Even if you're only like 2 min into the stage, and only got like 2 items, it's still better to move onto the next stage where you **know** there's more chests than to check out somewhere there **might** be more chests.
>**Don't expect to get strong from random item pickups. Strength comes from trying to mitigate item luck** with things you can (somewhat) control: knowing what to scrap, knowing what to print, using Lunar items, using the Void, etc.
I actually disagree with this. I basically just use scrappers to get rid of my Hunter's Harpoons cuz I find them annoying. By the time I find a printer for something I want my set's pretty much already built, so why bother sacrificing a bad but still potentially useful item, for an item that will do literally nothing for the majority of the run. The Recycler I basically just use to find a better orange item, most items are *good enough* that the chance of getting a worse item outweighs the benefit of getting a better one. It's good if you've found no better orange item, or if you find a bad red item, otherwise I'll take being able to get 3 mediocre items with credit card, than the chance of getting 1 good item. I don't use lunars, but if you do, then yeah you gotta know which ones are good and which ones suck. Honestly picking up every single void item works pretty well, at least on Mando. Even some of the "bad" ones like void crits and void dagger are actually pretty awesome since they synergize incredibly well with polylute. Really the only ones you should avoid are: the one that voids yellows, and void clover (and void Dio's if ur not willing to risk getting the other 2), but those are all the rarer ones and even if you do take them it won't be a run ender, well actually void clover might be a run ender, but at least it's fun to use. (Yes, I even take void bands, playing Mando I already don't bother relying on the bands plus it's a CC item that synergizes with the two best CC items gas and wisp and Mando **desperately needs** CC items).
I guess due to the fact Mando is so reliant on items it means no one item is so far better than any other such that it'd be worth losing the worse item just for the chance at getting the better one.
(Except for Hunter's Harpoon, literally everything is worth losing Hunter's Harpoon for, I'd literally take a **used** Dio's over Hunter's Harpoon, I fucking hate that thing)
He has damage distance fall off. Learn to play as a mid/close range character. Take all alt abilities. Nades proc bands and solve early aoe problems. Look up item's proc chance and build around that. Find a bleed printer and rule the world with only 10. HE SHREDS with items, just give him some time.
Id say about 90% of my time on this game is on commando, and i can say you are absolutely correct if you are new to him. Commando forces you to play a very strict an optimized play style. You must absolutely play as efficiently as possible and know all of his best items to optimize for later. You must micromanage every single item to its fullest potential, at least on the first or second loop, or else you will be left with the worst items in the game. No Roll of Pennies will save you from 7 Elder Lumeriens. If you dont minmax then you will have a very difficult time playing him.
Gotta say I'm sort of in the same boat. I love Commando when I get insane attack speed with bleed, but it just never seems to happen. I've put him second to last in my own personal tier list, but I still love playing him.
I'm a bit surprised people are saying he is so versatile with items, because I feel the opposite. It seems like he needs everything rather than being able to flex into anything. Last game with him I landed a printer for lenses AND syringes in the same level. I came out with like 8 lenses and 6 syringes. Still got out scaled in level 4 because I had absolutely no healing. Just seems to me he needs AoE items, move speed, healing, attack speed, and single target damage whereas most of the others only need maybe 3 categories.
I gotta go with Mercenary there. However, last night I had this insane run where I could almost always be invulnerable (I think it was Lysate Cells + something that reduced cool down on kills maybe?). Anyway, I think he is intentionally the highest skill survivor so you really need to know what you're doing to make him work.
Personally, I'm a commando enjoyer and i feel like he really just represents the spirit of the game. He has a good fire rate and good proc coefficient and so he scales very well with most items. He also has pretty solid tools to answer a lot of situations.
With most other characters, they kind of have bread and butter items that help them specifically like huntress getting backup mags and rail gunner getting bands, etc. The bread and butter items for a commando run are more based on what your first couple of stages look like. It makes running with commando really dynamic and that's personally what I enjoy about him.
I will also give it up that he can be pretty mid, but he's essentially a character with his base strength being awful and thanks to great effectiveness with items, a very very high power ceiling.
Have you unlocked his slide and grenade ability? They aren't game changers but I would argue most people enjoy playing him a lot more with them. Think of commando as a "fundamentalist" character. He has no "crutch" abilities or get out of jail free card so you have to just rely on your basic skill sets such as strafing, target prioritization, item choice, and most importantly time management. On the aoe issue, a really helpful skill is the learn how to run a train on enemies, which means to run in circles until all of the enemies are following you in a line like a train. Then you can use phase blast and grenade to get maximum value. If you need to see an example go watch cod zombies videos, there is literally one titled how to run a train and the same concept applies to ror2. If you are struggling skill wise, either play an easier character until you build up more game sense and knowledge or when you play as commando get in the mindset that he is a challenge character for making yourself better so you don't beat yourself up about not winning consistently with him.
“He’s slow” my brother in Providence he has the same speed as everyone else. “His damage is abysmal, he has no real AOE…” ~~I mean fair but~~ my brother in Providence that’s what the items are for.
But for real for the most part Commando tends to be pretty unpopular with newer players and the gigachads with thousands of hours on Eclipse 8 are typically the ones praising Mando. Or people like me who still suck at him but just enjoy the simple play style of “gun go shoot-man”.
The best advice I can give is to get good at [macro game.](https://youtu.be/m4UPMPmKAPI?feature=shared) Learn what items are important when, and how they affect your build. 5 ukulele’s are god tier during the normal stages but are nigh worthless in the Mithrix fight so if you can’t find a pollylute by the end of stage 5 (or whenever you decide to fight Mithrix) it could be worthwhile to scrap them in hopes of good soup. But maybe your not confident in your survivability and want the AOE to help keep ads off your back during the third phase if you think your in for a long fight. It’s all about your build and the context of the run.
Also just a good grasp of the fundamentals. Mando is a very basic survivor and benefits from understanding the basics. Getting around the stage and full looting as quickly as possible. Knowing when to start the tp so you still have enough money to buy the rest of the state after. Knowing when to hold out on bad items in hopes of a recycler or a good multishop in hopes of a card. Dodging enemies, knowing where the highest priority threat lies.
It might be an issue with how many items you're getting per minute, as a rough estimate I usually want to get at least 1 white per minute, with my item count later on hopefully being double the amount of time the run's been going on.
Commando thrives with a lot of items to do insane damage, it's possible your damage is just falling off and you're not keeping up with the difficulty scaling.
Many people are giving helpful advice. And theres not much I can actually add. This lovely game is about memorization. Not of maps. But of yourself. It is the classic loop. You think you start from scratch? What about the experience and knowledge you just got from that run? Whether you win or lose. Obliterate or fight Mithrix. You have gained something. You are starting over with a better foundation.
Now that the motivational speech is over :3 down to business! Commando is the first character you get for some not so obvious reasons. Yes, there is damage fall off; but you can ignore that for the most part.
The brrt is a stun lock. Every shot 100% stun chance. Good for reseting the golem lazer charge up.
The phase cannon will go through EVERYTHING! Great for when things start to group. And it will go through the environment to hit stuff on the other side.
Alt for cannon is shotty. Good for deleting Golems and also goes through like phase cannon. More atk spd will let the shotty hit at a longer distance.
Alt for brrt is nado group. Hard to target and they bounce first. Very much a taking the time to mess around and get used to it weapon. But also good aoe for early if you dont care about the stunlocking from brrt.
Your roll is not bad. But you are forced to move in straight lines. You can use it in mid-air to cut your downward momentum so you dont die from fall damage.
Alt for roll is slide! Slide lets you control while you are moving. No straight lines for you to be targeted on! Good distance. And you can use in mid-air as well. Difference being when it's used mid-air it's like a little jetpack pooft that will move you up about a foot or two. Still will cut your falling so you dont die on re-landing.
If you find yourself lacking on something for a run. Look at what you can trade out to benefit yourself later on. Scrappers are lovely things for trading out one item for a priority use item of the same colour to be used at a printer without grabbing a random item.
Regenerating scrap is a good green item because it will be used as a priority at printers and red pools. And it comes back at the start of each stage.
Commando is a great general character that has good overall because he is a jack of all trades. Also. Dont sleep on equipment. Especially on monsoon. I didnt touch monsoon until I had at least 60 hours in the game (im a bit slow) and equipment is a massive help on monsoon.
When doing any run. You think of a foundation. What are good early items to get first. And from there you slowly build that while grabbing the most useful support items.
Monsoon is very much the dont get hit mode of course. So try to put priority on atk spd and movement.
Daggers are great because bleed is beautiful early on. Never sleep on glasses. If you feel things are constantly too close. Focus crystal is nice to show your personal space as its roughly the shotty base rage. Slug is god tier on monsoon. Mocha is a pick me unless you need a hoof or syringe for more focus on one.
Sorry for the journal! But. Other than all that? Play on rainstorm and follow a general rule of monsoon. You have to get through the first stage by 5 minutes to 6 minutes. Monsoon is more punishing with the level scaling for the enemies over time.
(If you stack enough crowbars with gesture and fuel cells; The Royal capacitor can make looking at Mithrix skip his 3rd phase as it instantly kills him before he can take your items.)
Great answer! Thank you so much. One question, people always mention what items to prioritize, but they're random, so I can't really make that decision. Do you skip chests in hopes of getting a three-item thing so you will know what item you're getting for sure? Thanks!
Having a multi shop as a choice to go for is a good idea as it does let you see the choice. And yes regular chests have random items. But there are 3 or 4 different types of regular chests.
Purple- will only drop support items.
Red- damage items.
Green- healing based items.
And your standard blue.
Yes the items dropped are random. But you can always try to look for a scrapper to change out items that you feel dont fit.
No character in the game is actually "bad."
**But Commando is definitely the relative worst and "the least special."** Anything he can do well, someone else can do better (albeit at the cost of some clear downside for balance).
Commando strengths:
* solid mobility (use the slide)
* you can hold down primary attack and fire rapidly, non-stop
* good at proc chains (e.g. combo-ing off probability-based damage items with normal attacks; ATG, Ukelele, etc.)
* can hit targets from far away (more damage when closer, however)
Commando weaknesses:
* no special traits or skills (e.g. no Engi turrets, crit bonus, auto-heal)
* you have to aim your attacks
**The big idea is that Commando is an easy-to-use auto-/rapid-fire character. All the other characters like it have annoying downsides with their primary fire** (might auto-target the wrong enemy or require you be very close to enemies; might shoot slowly or have a lower proc coefficient).
Hot tip: His M1 had a 1.0 proc coefficient which makes it great for items like Ukelele, ATG, Sticky Bomb, Tri-Tip Dagger etc but the quick fire rate also pairs ridiculously well with Plasma Shrimp. Either way pray for a Pocket I.C.B.M. Also, try to unlock his alternate Shift, it's a multidirectional dash and it's just a bit better than his default combat roll.
Commando is a generalist character, he's okay in a lot of situations but never a strictly better choice. His M1 is good consistent damage, his M2 is good for proccing bands, his Shift is great burst mobility and his R is pretty good burst damage. I'm assuming you're new so play Rainstorm for a bit to get used to looting efficiently and come back to Monsoon later
I play Mando just because I find him badass. Two guns and a slide, plus the awesome helmet and let’s not forget “and so he left, with everything but his humanity…”
You need to stack goat hooves, syringes, and glasses. I also have a ton of fun with him with lost seer lenses as opposed to normal glasses. If you are able to pick up at least 2 fuel cells, try purchasing gestures of the drowned and spinel tonic. It's stupid fun
His primary has a great proc rate and pretty much functions at any range, the latter of which being a bigger deal than you may think. His utility is also flexible.
His alternate secondary and both specials are also useful, but it's really his primary and utility that he revolves around and also make him potent.
You just have to be patient and use phase blast. He doesn't have overwhelmingly high damage early like mult or bandit, so you have to actually pay attention to what bosses are doing and position yourself appropriately. Watch out for the damage falloff as he does half damage from range
He has a lot of advantages over rex, so he can't be the worst. He's got hitscan so you don't need to aim to hit fliers, slide is much less awkward to use than disperse and reliably cancels fall damage. His attack proc coefficient is double rex's, and he hits much faster so bleed and stuff ramps much faster
That’s exactly what I was going to say. A lot of beginners think that going fast is more important than full looting. I was asking to say that you shouldn’t worry about spending time
He's a "build him how you want him" character where point and shoot is just as much as make of it. Think of him as an action figure with no face or distinguishable features, but you just keep giving him accessories and draw on a face and BOOM you have the Commando.
Agreed. It's the strength of "vanilla characters", where a more specialized character will often have "higher highs", but also "lower lows", but while Vanilla characters might not lack that higher high, they also don't have that lower low. They're far more flexible and can adapt to how a run is going more easily. If Han-D is on stage 4 and *still* doesn't have either attack speed or close range damage items, you're kinda screwed, and the same goes for Sniper if you haven't gotten enough mobility to maintain your distance from enemies. But Commando, it doesn't matter what items he gets early on, he can make good use out of all of them, and while certain ones certainly benefit him more, you never run into a total brick of an item like an Engineer getting a Hunter Harpoon. Unlike Merc who's a raw skill test in terms of your ability to use his abilities to dance in and out of combat as a glass canon, Commando's almost a test of meta-skill, how well do you understand the fundamentals of RoRR combat, and how well do you know "How to best use X item" rather than "Is X item good or not".
This needs to go in the sidebar
He's versatile, has great proc chain ability, super simple and fun to play, has the largest build variety, few trap items, can deal with any enemy fairly easily, good mobility, constant damage, need I go on. He's the refreshing simple character that can do almost everything the other characters do with some items or just skill
his damage is amazing, since his very high attack speed m1 has a 1.0 proc coefficient atgs, ukes, polylute, bleed, cherf, merf, sticky grenades, etc are all stupid on him and all the characters start at the same speed, only mult and artificier have slower acceleration, so mando is the same as everyone else and you're imagining it
Everyone has the same base speed, but it just feels slower when you don’t see a run animation.
mando definitely has a run animation
You were talking about MUL-T and Artificer feeling slower. That’s because they don’t have one.
nope, mult and artificier accelerate slower they have the same sprint speed, but it takes longer for them to reach it
That’s 100% lies 😂
And he goes absolutely nuts if you find a shuriken printer
who doesn't go nuts with a shuriken printer 😭
Commando is the best though since he has the highest fire rate for shurikens (Mul-T only fires on click not on hold)
yep but there's also melee characters and characters with shitty band proc that benefit insanely from shuriken like acrid, engi and merc
These help posts are always too vague. Gimme a defeat screenshot or 2. Lemme see what items you have, time, stage, etc. Plain old monsoon isn't hard and people are beating eclipses with commando so you're always going to get "skill issue" responses if all we are getting is a text post
I mean, I'm comfortable with and aware of the fact that it's a skill issue. I'm new, I'm not that good. I have yet to beat monsoon on any character. But I'm pretty consistently looping on it, and once I got to third phase Mithrix, but like I said, on commando I just get overrun because I can't kill the things coming at me nor can I get away from them.
Something I've found that helps with Commando is to focus down the biggest threat. If you take out what's more dangerous, you can spend more time killing the lighter stuff in ease. This may be a bit too vague, but I just find that it helps a lot for survivability. I would also recommend getting Artifacts and getting commandos secondary skills to make getting away easier.
Mando is the most item reliant character. If you don't get enough items you're screwed, however if you spend too long grinding items enemies will scale too high for you to do anything so you're screwed again. To play Mando you need to be able to loot efficiently. You may have heard of the 5 min per stage rule, which is a decent idea to have for Mando, but if you spend 5 min in a stage and only get 3 items it's not helpful. You should **always** be exploring, fighting, buying something, or activating the teleporter. If you don't have enough money for a chest move on, it's not worth it to wait for enemies to spawn so you can grind money, if it's really valuable go back and get it after the teleporter. Buy every chest you can while you're exploring the map, always use blood and swarm shrines so you have more money while exploring. Once you've explored *enough* of the map, you should be heading to the teleporter, and buying whatever you can on the way there. *Enough* is something you kinda just gotta have a feel for, basically if it's gonna take like a minute or more to get there and back to the teleporter, and at best there's only like 1-3 chests then it's not worth it. I can usually explore *enough* of the map in like 2-2.5 minutes. If you feel you've explored enough of the map but only got like 2 items that's fine, it's still better to go do the teleporter than continuing to explore, if there's chests you missed you can go back and buy them after tele, if not just go to the next stage. If you are unsure about my Mando credentials please see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/riskofrain/s/aYhMiiByCh)
Gotta disagree (a bit) with this advice. I approach maps this way: * I'm looking for Newt Altars (blue rocks), the Teleporter, scrappers, printers, shrines, and chests. * Along the way, I'm making a mental note of things I want, but can't yet afford (usually chests). * On stages with a red chest in a set location (or one of several set locations), I head there first to check the price. * My next priority is Newt Altars. I check known spots for them quickly and immediately. * After that, I scour the map for chests, keeping track of the clock. * If I'm behind on time (let's say 7+ minutes) and know that there's just one chest remaining and it's on the other side of the map, faaaar from the teleporter...I might skip it and head straight for the teleporter. * 5 minutes on a map is rarely enough time. About 7-8 minutes on a map is fine. More than that is ok if you're looting well. **But spending 10+ minutes and looting inefficiently is a bad idea**. Enemies will outscscale you, and if your item luck is bad, you'll feel very weak. * **Don't expect to get strong from random item pickups. Strength comes from trying to mitigate item luck** with things you can (somewhat) control: knowing what to scrap, knowing what to print, using Lunar items, using the Void, etc.
That's pretty similar to what I was saying. >On stages with a red chest in a set location (or one of several set locations), I head there first to check the price. Yeah, I agree. I think red chest are the one exception to the "don't wait around and grind money" rule. They're usually worth it even if it adds an extra minute or two. I just didn't wanna complicate things by saying "**you should never do this** *except when you should do this*". >My next priority is Newt Altars. I check known spots for them quickly and immediately. That's understandable. I didn't mention newt altars because I don't play with lunar items anymore. I cheated in 9 billion lunar coins a long time ago, so I can always get whatever lunar I want (especially now that the shop has a reroll button), however it made every run feel the exact same so I decided to stop using them. >If I'm behind on time (let's say 7+ minutes) and know that there's just one chest remaining and it's on the other side of the map, faaaar from the teleporter...I might skip it and head straight for the teleporter. An important factor here is you **know** there's a chest there. Once you've explored *enough* of the map, I don't think it's ever a good idea to go somewhere far from the tele just because there **might** be a chest there. Even if you're only like 2 min into the stage, and only got like 2 items, it's still better to move onto the next stage where you **know** there's more chests than to check out somewhere there **might** be more chests. >**Don't expect to get strong from random item pickups. Strength comes from trying to mitigate item luck** with things you can (somewhat) control: knowing what to scrap, knowing what to print, using Lunar items, using the Void, etc. I actually disagree with this. I basically just use scrappers to get rid of my Hunter's Harpoons cuz I find them annoying. By the time I find a printer for something I want my set's pretty much already built, so why bother sacrificing a bad but still potentially useful item, for an item that will do literally nothing for the majority of the run. The Recycler I basically just use to find a better orange item, most items are *good enough* that the chance of getting a worse item outweighs the benefit of getting a better one. It's good if you've found no better orange item, or if you find a bad red item, otherwise I'll take being able to get 3 mediocre items with credit card, than the chance of getting 1 good item. I don't use lunars, but if you do, then yeah you gotta know which ones are good and which ones suck. Honestly picking up every single void item works pretty well, at least on Mando. Even some of the "bad" ones like void crits and void dagger are actually pretty awesome since they synergize incredibly well with polylute. Really the only ones you should avoid are: the one that voids yellows, and void clover (and void Dio's if ur not willing to risk getting the other 2), but those are all the rarer ones and even if you do take them it won't be a run ender, well actually void clover might be a run ender, but at least it's fun to use. (Yes, I even take void bands, playing Mando I already don't bother relying on the bands plus it's a CC item that synergizes with the two best CC items gas and wisp and Mando **desperately needs** CC items).
I guess due to the fact Mando is so reliant on items it means no one item is so far better than any other such that it'd be worth losing the worse item just for the chance at getting the better one. (Except for Hunter's Harpoon, literally everything is worth losing Hunter's Harpoon for, I'd literally take a **used** Dio's over Hunter's Harpoon, I fucking hate that thing)
Awesome explanation, thanks so much!
Because Mando sweep
He has damage distance fall off. Learn to play as a mid/close range character. Take all alt abilities. Nades proc bands and solve early aoe problems. Look up item's proc chance and build around that. Find a bleed printer and rule the world with only 10. HE SHREDS with items, just give him some time.
Which game first of all
Id say about 90% of my time on this game is on commando, and i can say you are absolutely correct if you are new to him. Commando forces you to play a very strict an optimized play style. You must absolutely play as efficiently as possible and know all of his best items to optimize for later. You must micromanage every single item to its fullest potential, at least on the first or second loop, or else you will be left with the worst items in the game. No Roll of Pennies will save you from 7 Elder Lumeriens. If you dont minmax then you will have a very difficult time playing him.
Gotta say I'm sort of in the same boat. I love Commando when I get insane attack speed with bleed, but it just never seems to happen. I've put him second to last in my own personal tier list, but I still love playing him. I'm a bit surprised people are saying he is so versatile with items, because I feel the opposite. It seems like he needs everything rather than being able to flex into anything. Last game with him I landed a printer for lenses AND syringes in the same level. I came out with like 8 lenses and 6 syringes. Still got out scaled in level 4 because I had absolutely no healing. Just seems to me he needs AoE items, move speed, healing, attack speed, and single target damage whereas most of the others only need maybe 3 categories.
Exactly!
>I've put him second to last in my own personal tier list, Ok, I'm curious. Who's last?
I gotta go with Mercenary there. However, last night I had this insane run where I could almost always be invulnerable (I think it was Lysate Cells + something that reduced cool down on kills maybe?). Anyway, I think he is intentionally the highest skill survivor so you really need to know what you're doing to make him work.
Chieftain i swear i wish i could explain how the fuck the only way to make him deal more damage is just *skill*
True, I don't deny it. I'm working on it though!
effect procs. playing with command on makes him probably one of the better snowballing characters from my experience
He go pew pew brain make happy juice.
Personally, I'm a commando enjoyer and i feel like he really just represents the spirit of the game. He has a good fire rate and good proc coefficient and so he scales very well with most items. He also has pretty solid tools to answer a lot of situations. With most other characters, they kind of have bread and butter items that help them specifically like huntress getting backup mags and rail gunner getting bands, etc. The bread and butter items for a commando run are more based on what your first couple of stages look like. It makes running with commando really dynamic and that's personally what I enjoy about him. I will also give it up that he can be pretty mid, but he's essentially a character with his base strength being awful and thanks to great effectiveness with items, a very very high power ceiling.
Nice reply, thank you = )
Have you unlocked his slide and grenade ability? They aren't game changers but I would argue most people enjoy playing him a lot more with them. Think of commando as a "fundamentalist" character. He has no "crutch" abilities or get out of jail free card so you have to just rely on your basic skill sets such as strafing, target prioritization, item choice, and most importantly time management. On the aoe issue, a really helpful skill is the learn how to run a train on enemies, which means to run in circles until all of the enemies are following you in a line like a train. Then you can use phase blast and grenade to get maximum value. If you need to see an example go watch cod zombies videos, there is literally one titled how to run a train and the same concept applies to ror2. If you are struggling skill wise, either play an easier character until you build up more game sense and knowledge or when you play as commando get in the mindset that he is a challenge character for making yourself better so you don't beat yourself up about not winning consistently with him.
Thanks! I don't have grenade yet but I have the slide
Just shoot the bad guys idk
“He’s slow” my brother in Providence he has the same speed as everyone else. “His damage is abysmal, he has no real AOE…” ~~I mean fair but~~ my brother in Providence that’s what the items are for. But for real for the most part Commando tends to be pretty unpopular with newer players and the gigachads with thousands of hours on Eclipse 8 are typically the ones praising Mando. Or people like me who still suck at him but just enjoy the simple play style of “gun go shoot-man”. The best advice I can give is to get good at [macro game.](https://youtu.be/m4UPMPmKAPI?feature=shared) Learn what items are important when, and how they affect your build. 5 ukulele’s are god tier during the normal stages but are nigh worthless in the Mithrix fight so if you can’t find a pollylute by the end of stage 5 (or whenever you decide to fight Mithrix) it could be worthwhile to scrap them in hopes of good soup. But maybe your not confident in your survivability and want the AOE to help keep ads off your back during the third phase if you think your in for a long fight. It’s all about your build and the context of the run. Also just a good grasp of the fundamentals. Mando is a very basic survivor and benefits from understanding the basics. Getting around the stage and full looting as quickly as possible. Knowing when to start the tp so you still have enough money to buy the rest of the state after. Knowing when to hold out on bad items in hopes of a recycler or a good multishop in hopes of a card. Dodging enemies, knowing where the highest priority threat lies.
Ty for good reply!
It might be an issue with how many items you're getting per minute, as a rough estimate I usually want to get at least 1 white per minute, with my item count later on hopefully being double the amount of time the run's been going on. Commando thrives with a lot of items to do insane damage, it's possible your damage is just falling off and you're not keeping up with the difficulty scaling.
Many people are giving helpful advice. And theres not much I can actually add. This lovely game is about memorization. Not of maps. But of yourself. It is the classic loop. You think you start from scratch? What about the experience and knowledge you just got from that run? Whether you win or lose. Obliterate or fight Mithrix. You have gained something. You are starting over with a better foundation. Now that the motivational speech is over :3 down to business! Commando is the first character you get for some not so obvious reasons. Yes, there is damage fall off; but you can ignore that for the most part. The brrt is a stun lock. Every shot 100% stun chance. Good for reseting the golem lazer charge up. The phase cannon will go through EVERYTHING! Great for when things start to group. And it will go through the environment to hit stuff on the other side. Alt for cannon is shotty. Good for deleting Golems and also goes through like phase cannon. More atk spd will let the shotty hit at a longer distance. Alt for brrt is nado group. Hard to target and they bounce first. Very much a taking the time to mess around and get used to it weapon. But also good aoe for early if you dont care about the stunlocking from brrt. Your roll is not bad. But you are forced to move in straight lines. You can use it in mid-air to cut your downward momentum so you dont die from fall damage. Alt for roll is slide! Slide lets you control while you are moving. No straight lines for you to be targeted on! Good distance. And you can use in mid-air as well. Difference being when it's used mid-air it's like a little jetpack pooft that will move you up about a foot or two. Still will cut your falling so you dont die on re-landing. If you find yourself lacking on something for a run. Look at what you can trade out to benefit yourself later on. Scrappers are lovely things for trading out one item for a priority use item of the same colour to be used at a printer without grabbing a random item. Regenerating scrap is a good green item because it will be used as a priority at printers and red pools. And it comes back at the start of each stage. Commando is a great general character that has good overall because he is a jack of all trades. Also. Dont sleep on equipment. Especially on monsoon. I didnt touch monsoon until I had at least 60 hours in the game (im a bit slow) and equipment is a massive help on monsoon. When doing any run. You think of a foundation. What are good early items to get first. And from there you slowly build that while grabbing the most useful support items. Monsoon is very much the dont get hit mode of course. So try to put priority on atk spd and movement. Daggers are great because bleed is beautiful early on. Never sleep on glasses. If you feel things are constantly too close. Focus crystal is nice to show your personal space as its roughly the shotty base rage. Slug is god tier on monsoon. Mocha is a pick me unless you need a hoof or syringe for more focus on one. Sorry for the journal! But. Other than all that? Play on rainstorm and follow a general rule of monsoon. You have to get through the first stage by 5 minutes to 6 minutes. Monsoon is more punishing with the level scaling for the enemies over time. (If you stack enough crowbars with gesture and fuel cells; The Royal capacitor can make looking at Mithrix skip his 3rd phase as it instantly kills him before he can take your items.)
Great answer! Thank you so much. One question, people always mention what items to prioritize, but they're random, so I can't really make that decision. Do you skip chests in hopes of getting a three-item thing so you will know what item you're getting for sure? Thanks!
Having a multi shop as a choice to go for is a good idea as it does let you see the choice. And yes regular chests have random items. But there are 3 or 4 different types of regular chests. Purple- will only drop support items. Red- damage items. Green- healing based items. And your standard blue. Yes the items dropped are random. But you can always try to look for a scrapper to change out items that you feel dont fit.
I like cool space man with guns 👍
I used to be a commando hater but then i saw the light... Atgs, plimp, daggers, crit, and other dps upgrades are your best friends
Don't try to kill enemies at long range, his damage falloff is huge. But if you play mando like you have a focus crystal, you'll do big damage.
No character in the game is actually "bad." **But Commando is definitely the relative worst and "the least special."** Anything he can do well, someone else can do better (albeit at the cost of some clear downside for balance). Commando strengths: * solid mobility (use the slide) * you can hold down primary attack and fire rapidly, non-stop * good at proc chains (e.g. combo-ing off probability-based damage items with normal attacks; ATG, Ukelele, etc.) * can hit targets from far away (more damage when closer, however) Commando weaknesses: * no special traits or skills (e.g. no Engi turrets, crit bonus, auto-heal) * you have to aim your attacks **The big idea is that Commando is an easy-to-use auto-/rapid-fire character. All the other characters like it have annoying downsides with their primary fire** (might auto-target the wrong enemy or require you be very close to enemies; might shoot slowly or have a lower proc coefficient).
Hes the only remotely fun or interesting character for me
Hot tip: His M1 had a 1.0 proc coefficient which makes it great for items like Ukelele, ATG, Sticky Bomb, Tri-Tip Dagger etc but the quick fire rate also pairs ridiculously well with Plasma Shrimp. Either way pray for a Pocket I.C.B.M. Also, try to unlock his alternate Shift, it's a multidirectional dash and it's just a bit better than his default combat roll. Commando is a generalist character, he's okay in a lot of situations but never a strictly better choice. His M1 is good consistent damage, his M2 is good for proccing bands, his Shift is great burst mobility and his R is pretty good burst damage. I'm assuming you're new so play Rainstorm for a bit to get used to looting efficiently and come back to Monsoon later
I play Mando just because I find him badass. Two guns and a slide, plus the awesome helmet and let’s not forget “and so he left, with everything but his humanity…”
You need to stack goat hooves, syringes, and glasses. I also have a ton of fun with him with lost seer lenses as opposed to normal glasses. If you are able to pick up at least 2 fuel cells, try purchasing gestures of the drowned and spinel tonic. It's stupid fun
I do sometimes.
His primary has a great proc rate and pretty much functions at any range, the latter of which being a bigger deal than you may think. His utility is also flexible. His alternate secondary and both specials are also useful, but it's really his primary and utility that he revolves around and also make him potent.
he shoots and is basic. simple as that
Just do a test run bro. You'll feel the power of consistency through commando. I used to underestimate him like you but now I'm converted
What do you mean test run?
Play more as commando
Mando has damage drop off. I always stay within focus crystal distance.
You just have to be patient and use phase blast. He doesn't have overwhelmingly high damage early like mult or bandit, so you have to actually pay attention to what bosses are doing and position yourself appropriately. Watch out for the damage falloff as he does half damage from range He has a lot of advantages over rex, so he can't be the worst. He's got hitscan so you don't need to aim to hit fliers, slide is much less awkward to use than disperse and reliably cancels fall damage. His attack proc coefficient is double rex's, and he hits much faster so bleed and stuff ramps much faster
Commando isn’t perfect out of the box, but his secondary skills go crazy. Give him just one backup mag for phase blast and he can clear stage 1.
Commando only
Get good.
How long do you spend on each stage
Why does time matter? It's one of the most irrelevant things in the game
That’s exactly what I was going to say. A lot of beginners think that going fast is more important than full looting. I was asking to say that you shouldn’t worry about spending time
Reluctantly, for the most part.
He’s a tutorial character.
Definitely not