Above: Krieg in a shellnut.

Blitzkrieg is a German term that can be translated as “Lightning Strike.” In warfare, it is defined as “A sudden, swift, large-scale offensive, done with the intention of securing a quick victory.” It was first used back in the early days of World War II by the Germans, and the tactic’s application by its army goes a long way towards explaining the subsequent falls of Poland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and some other countries within the next year after WWII began. Compare with the Shock and Awe tactic seen nowadays; contrast with Sieges and Chivalry.

Now then… what did any of that have to do with Borderlands 2?

…Firstly, if you haven’t noticed yet, Krieg takes his name from half that word. Secondly, Blitzkrieg is a good way to really describe his playstyle (After High Risk/High Reward, anyways). I’ve been able to wipe out quite a few enemies in under a few seconds thanks to this build, taking ridiculous amounts of damage all the while. It's good fun, honestly.

This was made with Level 61 in mind, as one of the various reasons this build is so powerful is how it uses two particular capstones. Other than that, lets move on...

As a rule of thumb, if it causes an explosion (Or at least gets grenade bonuses), Krieg can put it to use. Some, like the below stuff, is just better at it.

SLOT ONE: Ogre

Drops from the King of Orc in Murderlin's Temple
Preferred Prefixes: Slippery (+Bullet Speed), Wild (+Damage, +Fire Rate, -Accuracy)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip, Dahl stock.
“Ogres chew their food.” - +100% splash damage bonus. Can fire two shots in rapid succession (An effect also seen on others of its model, the Spitter). There is a chance that fire rate and reload speed will increase for a short time.
The Ogre is to Krieg what the Hail is to Gaige – arguably one of the best weapons they can use. I mean, aside from that fact that it’s a minigun that shoots explosions, it's just a great all-around gun to use. Good damage, good fire rate, good reload - could one ask for more?

...Actually, yes - namely, that this gun was a lot easier to farm. The King of Orc doesn't appear until the last round of Magic Slaughter, which is the cheating bast*rd of the four Circles. Be prepared to have a LOT of cheap deaths before getting this one.


SLOT TWO: SWORDSPLOSION!!!

Mission Reward for “The Sword in the Stoner”
Preferred Prefix: Casual (+Projectile Count)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip and stock.
"Because Mr. Torgue said so." – Fires a sword-shaped projectile in an arc. On impact, it splits into three smaller swords that also explode. Uses two ammo per shot.
It’s basically a grenade launcher. A grenade launcher where the grenades look like swords, but a grenade launcher nonetheless. Note that it’s possible to get the child swords to explode instantly if you hit an enemy right, possibly killing some of the strongest enemies in the game with one hit.

That’s just with one sword – the Casual prefix adds two more into the mix, resulting in a shotgun that beats even the Ravager to the title of “Best Explosive Shotgun.”


SLOT THREE: Slag Plasma Caster

Preferred Prefixes: Consummate/Right-Sizing/Hefty (+Damage), Apt/Social/Refill (+Reload), Impetuous/Proactive/Brisk (+Fire Rate)
Ideal Parts: Matching Grips, Dahl stock.
Here's a neat little fact for those of you at home - any weapon that deals splash damage will also benefit from grenade bonuses. PCs are no exception to this. But as with other E-Techs, each manufacturer has some features/behaviors that tends to either make or break them for use.

What follows are my own notes from using each manufacturer's PC variant:

• Maliwan - PCs have the overall highest elemental chance. It’s a simple effect, but when you only have access to one bullet per shot, that's rather valuble.
  
• Dahl - These just feel... bland. Also, the burst-fire thing seems to keep causing me problems. Try and see for yourself.
  
• Hyperion - PCs here are the most accurate of the bunch, and also have a higher fire rate than usual. Good for those times when you don’t have the time to enter ironsides.
  
• Tediore - Stats tend to be middling outside reload speed. However, they gain a second grenade bonus in the form of their reloads. Reload damage also goes up depending on how much ammo was in the mag beforehand. Given how Blood-Filled Guns can increase mag size to over 150+ shots... (Preferred, Pictured)
  
• Bandit - The PCs here are just weird compared to the others – their shots go all over the place and explode after a set distance. This basically means you’ll have to use them like a shotgun. Sadly, even like that, they aren’t very good (Even more so when comparing them to the other Psuedo-Shotgun weapons like that; like the Kitten, DP Harold, actual shotguns, etc.). Best avoided for anything other than money.

SLOT FOUR: Badaboom

Drops from King Mong in the Eridium Blight
Preferred Prefixes: Big (+Damage), fast actons (+reload), speedee (+Rocket Speed)
Ideal Parts: Bandit grip and exhaust, Tediore scope.
“Multi-kill.” – Fires 6 mini-rockets instead of the usual three. Noticeably reduced accuracy.
Pretty much the single-handed most powerful rocket launcher you can get without having to go on raids. It’s also the most ammo-efficient, dealing more damage with one rocket than its closest competitor (The Nukem) does with two. Mainly used a source of quick Bloodsplosions, but speedee variants can be used for dropping Buzzards and the like quickly.

Of course, I've found that Krieg does just fine with just the previous three weapons, so having this weapon equipped is mostly optional.


SHIELD: Rough Rider

Drops from The Bulwark in Hunter's Grove
“It's takes more than that to kill a bull moose.” – Has no capacity whatsoever. Increases maximum health and adds damage resistance.
The way we'll be playing this build means we can't expect our shield to have much time to rechare mid-combat, but it won't really matter when you don't have a shield that's ever really up in the first place. Since it's always down, this means we can build stacks of Salt the Wound and have Embrace the Pain active at all times.

The health and damage resistance helps too.


GRENADE: Slag Crossfire

Bought from Torgue Seraph Vendor for 120 Crystals
Preferred Deliveries: Longbow, Homing
“Find, fix, flank, finish!” – Drops child grenades with every bounce. Increased blast radius and damage.
While noted previously as a great raid tool, it’s still a good grenade for mass slagging. Chuck these at will/whenever there's more than one target on front of you.


CLASS MOD: Flesh Crunch

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Boosts: +6 Strip the Flesh, +5 Taste of Blood
The best COM I know of for getting good explosive damage without having to rely on kill skills to get there (The “Invest-and-Forget” way to explosive DPS, basically).


RELIC: Elemental Relic (Explosive)

Drops from Anywhere
Naturally.

This is pretty much all the other explosives I happen to have on hand… which is to say, most of the notable explosives in the game. These can be used as main gear if you want, but try and use all of them and see what works for you.


Unkempt Harold

Drops from Savage Lee, Three Horns Divide/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Double Penetrating (2x Projectiles)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip.
“Did I fire six shots, or only five? Three? Seven. Whatever.” – Shots split into seven over a horizontal spread. Consumes three ammo per shot.
A beast of a hand-cannon that may just be the best gun in the game (In terms of sheer versatility, at least). No further introduction is needed.


Flakker

Drops from The Warrior in Vault of the Warrior/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Casual (+Pellet Count)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip, Torgue Stock
“Flak the World.” – Increased damage. Consumes 4 ammo per shot. Has an extremely large spread, with rounds detonating after reaching a certain distance.
This may just be one of the most underrated weapons in the game.

…No, I’m serious. It turns out that, if you manage to hit your enemies within the Flakker’s range, you can deal serious damage with it (Also, this.) The only catch with this all is that it has a VERY steep learning curve. As in, absurdly steep (Even steeper than the Interfacer, if you can believe it). But if you stick with it, it’ll be a beast.

That, or you could just Flakkerhab with the Badaboom. But where's the fun in that?


Kerblaster

Drops from Midgemong in the Southern Shelf Bay/Bought from Torgue Vendors
Preferred Prefixes: Plump (+Mag Size), Slippery (+Bullet Speed)
Ideal Parts: Torgue grip, Dahl stock.
“Torgue got mo’ BOOM!” – Consumes 4 ammo per shot. Shots are fired in a straight trajectory, and drop a grenade on impact (Which explodes after 3 seconds). Incapable of crits.
Before the Ogre came along, there was the Kerblaster. While Ogre tends to be the better option nowadays, the Kerblaster is still a great weapon in its own right; excelling at crowd control and hitting those behind cover (Thanks to the child grenade). Ammo consumption is rather high, however, keep this mind.


Ravagers/Hulks

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Prefixes: Casual (+Pellet Count), Sinewy (General Boost)
Ideal Parts: Hyperion grip, Torgue stock.
These two are both great options if SWORDSPLOSION!!! isn’t an option for you; and if it IS an option, are great weapons to use while you wait for one. For reference, Ravagers use four ammo per shot, while Hulks use three (Also, Ravagers use the Torgue barrel, Hulks use the Bandit barrel).


Love Thumper

Mission Reward for “Best Mother’s Day Ever”
“If thumpin’ you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.” – Ridiculously long recharge delay. Successfully connecting a melee attack under the Roid effect causes an explosive nova.
I’ve managed to get some amazing damage between Release the Beast, Silence the Voices, and Salt the Wound; so it’s not really necessary to go any further. If you wish to go that way, though, think about getting this at some point.


Slagga

Drops from Jimbo and Tector Hodunk
Preferred Prefixes: Murderers (+Damage), Agresive (+Reload Speed)
Ideal Parts: Bandit/Maliwan grip, Dahl stock.
“blagga” - Always spawns in Slag. Fires three bullets at once with no extra cost, though with reduced damage per projectile. Increased chance to slag.
It doesn’t gain any grenade bonuses, but it’s just a really reliable slagging device – assuming all three bullets hit, you have a roughly 72-80% of slagging your enemy. That alone should put it on this list.


Blister COMs

Drops from Anywhere
Preferred Boosts: +5 Fuel the Blood, +4 Blood Overdrive, +4 Bloodbath
This is the main alternative to the Flesh Crunch COM, focusing on boosting explosive power through Fuel the Blood over Strip the Flesh. Notably, this means you could possibly have up to a 450% bonus to any weapon with splash damage (In other words, all of them).


Any High-Quality Torgue and Tediore Weapons
I don’t think I can stress enough how good these two companies are for Krieg (Torgue for obvious reasons, Tediore for reload damage stacking with Blood-Filled Guns and the various grenade bonuses). If you happen upon a good piece of gear from either of these companies, then by all means take it! To name a few:

• Manly Man Shield[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• Meteor Shower[borderlands.wikia.com]/Bonus Package[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• Fastball[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• Baby Maker[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• Deliverance[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• Avenger[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• And many, many more!

The stuff to help us cause explosions. Skills in bold are considered to be cornerstones.

Level 61 (Basic Frame)


BLOODLUST

• Blood-Filled Guns – You know how the damage dealt by Tediore reloads depends on how many bullets were in the mag when you reloaded? Well, try that with a mag with 150 bullets packed inside.
  
• Taste of Blood – Speeds up stack accumulation greatly. When combined with Release the Beast, you could potentially stand next to an exploding Suicide Psycho and not be Health-gated.
  
• Blood Overdrive, Fuel the Blood, Bloodbath – While I could give these all their own description, their interactions with each other need to be brought up. Each skill, on activation, boosts a way to activate another one of them. Blood Overdrive feeds into Fuel the Blood, which in turn feeds into Bloodbath, which in turn feeds into Overdrive; and so on. It’s a three-ring circus of death and destruction, and you are the ringmaster.
  
• Buzz Axe Bombardier - YES.
  
• Boiling Blood - Keeps your stacks from spoiling for a little while longer.
  
• Bloodsplosion - Up to five times the overkill damage you applied to an enemy is used to fuel an explosion on their death. If someone else gets killed by that explosion, the amount of overkill applied to them gets multiplied by five AGAIN. And so on and so forth. It's entirely possible that, if enough are chained together, this skill can kill certain raid bosses.
  
  This skill is why I beleive Krieg rivals Zer0 at chain-killing.

MANIA

• Feed the Meat - Give you more health overall. More health = More hits. Pretty much your best bet for getting by early on.
  
• Embrace the Pain - Rough Rider's like having a shield that's never up, meaning the fire rate bonus is active at all times.
  
• Light the Fuse - If someone knocks you down, then get back up with some serious payback! Really, the damage of the final explosion is serious Bloodsplosion fodder, dealing about 4.6 Million damage before adding slag. If nothing else, it's good fun, so try it out!
  
• Strip the Flesh - In a build built around explosives, this is a no-brainer.
  
• Redeem the Soul - Because you only have so much time to toss dynamite around. Also good in co-op, since you can run at normal speeds in Light the Fuse to somewhere safe with for revival.
  
• Salt the Wound - For boosting that Swordspolsion's already high damage to the point of near-stupidity.
  
• Silence the Voices - A controversial skill, thanks to the whole “Seems-like-WAY-more-than-12%” thing. Given how our action skill is mostly limited to melee, some melee investment is needed in the end (The fact that, at 5/5, you can still kill enemies in 2-3 hits without slag makes it worth the trouble, to me at least).
  
• Release the Beast - Likely one of the single-handed most powerful skills in the whole game, and I say that as a guy who’s used Money Shot and Anarchy. By going into a Rampage with less than a third of your health, you become invincible for a few seconds, gain a complete health refill, followed by increased damage and protection for the ensuing rampage.
  
  Think about that for a second. You become invincible for a few seconds, then near-so for the ensuing rampage with extra damage. And when it’s over, the cooldown is INSTANTLY reset, meaning if you’re below the threshold on leaving the Rampage, you can do it again and again. The only catch is you have to time it right (Even then, that doesn’t take long).
  
  Mania is all about risking your hide for massive buffs. If this isn’t the pinnacle of that idea, I don’t know what is.

So lets take a quick look at how our skills and gear line up for a second, shall we?

Strip the Flesh affects:

• Explosive guns (Unsuprisingly)
  
• Deadly Bloom/Love Thumper Novas
  
• Buzz Axe Bombardier
  
• Bloodsplosions
  
• Light the Fuse

Fuel the Blood, when active, affects:

• Any gun that lists "Deals bonus elemental/explosive damage" on it's item card.
  
• Buzz Axe Bombardier
  
• Grenades
  
• Bloodsplosions
  
• DB/LT Novas

Bloodbath can be activated by kills with:

• A Grenade
  
• Explosive guns
  
• Buzz Axe Bombardier
  
• Bloodsplosions
  
• DB/LT Novas

So yeah... lot's of synergy around here, from the looks of it. This may explain a few things...

Krieg is a bit easier to level than the other classes, from my experience. Note that this is still a guideline, but it’s done me good while leveling.

Normal Mode
Let’s be upfront about something here. Krieg will have a good amount of trouble early on, thanks to long cooldowns and a lack of health regen. Contrary to what you’d expect from a psycho, try to distract your enemies before you rampage; and think about not rampaging under certain circumstances (Like when your enemy is near full health and you have low shields/health). Basically, Rampage with care (Release the Beast will come eventually).

• Level 5 – Buzz Axe Rampage. Obvious.
  
• Levels 6-10 – 5 points in Feed the Meat
  
• Levels 11-15 – 5 points in Fuel the Rampage
  
• Levels 16-20 – 5 points in Strip the Flesh
  
• Levels 21-26 – Redeem the Soul, 5 points in Salt the Wound
  
• Levels 27-31 – 4 points in Silence the Voices, Release the Beast. After getting RtB, drop FtR and put its points into Embrace the Pain.

True Vault Hunter Mode
By the time you reach TVHM, you should have Release the Beast. This skill, with proper timing, means you can rampage constantly and safely. This effectively makes this playthrough rather easy compared to Normal.

• Levels 32-36 – 5 points in Blood-Filled Guns
  
• Levels 37-42 – 5 points in Taste of Blood, Buzz Axe Bombardier
  
• Levels 43-48 – Put 2 points into Bloodbath, Fuel the Blood, and Blood Overdrive. The order of how you put points isn’t important.
  
• Levels 49-50 – 2 points in Boiling Blood

Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
You'll want to have a slag weapon and/or grenade on you at all times, for fighting the big guys when they pop up (Badasses, Ironclad Maniacs, WAR Loaders, etc). Otherwise, it’s pretty much identical to TVHM.

• Levels 51-56 – Place 2 more points into Bloodbath, Fuel the Blood, and Blood Overdrive. Again, order doesn’t matter.
  
• Level 57 – Bloodsplosion
  
• Levels 58-61 – 2 more points into Boiling Blood, 1 more into Silence the Voices, Light the Fuse.

And as a bonus, here's some gear to look out for while you level:

• To save us some time, Torgue and Tediore weapons in general.
  
• RokSalt (“Splinter Group”)
  
• MIRVs
  
• Bouncing Betties
  
• Roaster (“Note for Self-Person”)
  
• Kiss of Death (“Hell Hath No Fury”)
  
• Jakobs/Hyperion Shotguns
  
• Fuster Cluck (“The Pretty Good Train Robbery”)
  
• Bandit Launchers/Shotguns
  
• Chulainn

Of course, with Release the Beast, it’s entirely possible to go through the game with little-to-no-gear (See Bahroo's Symphony of Pain series for proof).

Pretty self-explanitory, actually. I'll add as questions come in.

• Q: Will there be a Lvl. 72/OP8 version?
  A: Short Answer: NOPE.
  Long Answer: There will not, because the road from 50 to 61 was hellish enough on my other characters (Particularly my Gaiges). Also, I just can't think of how I'd get any better with more points on Krieg; Lvl 61 just seems to be where he shines the most.
  
  
• Q: Why did you invest in Light the Fuse later, instead of when you first had access to it?
  A: Light the Fuse's usefulness depends on playmode. It starts out as pretty decent in Normal, then takes a nosedive during TVHM, and becomes great again in UVHM (Apperently, Light the Fuse has a hidden x6 Multiplier in UVHM). So it's better overall to just wait until you're capped out before dropping a point into it.

This is where the guide ends, I guess. Thanks for reading, rate if you liked, blahblahblah... Anyways, here's some random crap:

Resources

• The GBX Forum's Master List of Psycho Builds, if this wasn't your thing.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]
  
• Lootology 101, for learning more about the gear you find.[forums.gearboxsoftware.com]
  
• The Borderlands Wiki, for general reference.[borderlands.wikia.com]
  
• A Sharable Skill Calculator, great for getting advice![www.bl2skills.com]

Credits

• All Screenshots taken by Edo the 309th
  
• Gear Info format belongs to CTDRim
  
• Guide Thumbnail Belongs to ProjectENDO of DA[projectendo.deviantart.com]
  
• Intro Picture belongs to Bended, also of DA[bended.deviantart.com]
  
• Skill Synergy Picture belongs to Zummeng, another denizen of DA[zummeng.deviantart.com]
  
• Krieg and Borderlands 2 belong to Gearbox Software
  
• Steam Guides belong to Valve

Other Guides I made
http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136317058#-1
The first guide I ever submitted here. I don't use it much nowadays, thanks to scaling issues, but maybe take a look?

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=200011418#-1
My main Mechro build nowadays, created over the course of 3 UVHM playthroughs (Twice on my first, once on my second). Mixes BFF and OC for powerful results.

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=261970629&tscn=1400675534
A build about Grog-Harold shouldn't have taken this long to pop up.

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289326572
Stealthy stuff. Or something. I dunno.

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=309364928
In which a Siren uses alien SMGs.

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=314985568
Axton can do explosives too, y'know...


---------------------------------


Is is me, or did this guide seem short compared to the last one?