My basic philosophy for builds in this game tends to be abut getting as much AoE as possible. You have so many enemies thrown at you at once, that they are usually bunched up, and being able to hit the 'big one in the middle' and have that do splash damage to everything nearby is absolutely golden.

I'm pretty much a Min-Max player - in every game that I play. In most games you sacrifice something to gain something - More Armour for less Running Speed. More Damage for longer Reload, or More Recoil (less accuracy). This one is similar but with one important difference; you can Max things in this game, without negative tradeoffs - the more you build into a weapon type the more damage it does, sure - but unlike a lot of games there is no penalty for it other than you have to use that weapon type for that run.
My builds will almost certainly reflect this.


Yep those things; they are what you recharge your abilities with; you might notice that once you use your ability it has a Counter on it, like a timer that doesn't tick down? it ticks down alright... as you pick up those Orbs. They fade pretty quickly too, which encourages you to run in and grab em. Feel free if you're going for extra Spanners (used for upgrading your base, and unlocked by completing levels - with bonuses for doing it quickly and with more Orbs) but I wouldn't worry about that, getting thru alive is more important, because the Base Upgrades can be completed so quickly. I completed my base in 9 runs.(not bragging just giving you an idea of how there isn't really that much to upgrade)


Absolutely Positively remove Turrets First. The first ones are fine, it's the ones in the second and Third areas that you need to delete; Especially if you get the "Stun Turret" in Oasis. That thing puts a Stun Field wherever you've going to be, so changing direction is paramount until that thing is down.

They do the most damage, by far. They are also usually at the back, so you have to crossmap for them. Unless you have a ranged weapon on your side.

Don't be afraid to run in, burst it down, then run back to the entry area of that room.

The other turrets you want to deal with ASAP are the ones that hide underground; if they pop up on you wheile you are running around, they are going to HURT.

After that, probably Red Flying, then the Bipedals (The ones in the second area 'Fields' have a Taser Melee attack that will Stun you). If you're grabbing AoE then most of the little guys should be done by this stage.

Sorry, I'm not sure how I unlocked them, I believe it was just map progression.

Comes with an explosive Rockets mod; and a Melee Punch.
It's not bad, but feeds better into explosive builds. Personally I find that it's pretty lacklustre UNLESS you build into explosive, then it benefits from all of those perks.It also takes a long time to recharge it. He's fine and perfectly servicable, however I will say that unless you're building explosive (and buying explosive damage upgrades or ability apgrades) the rocket is under powered. Use it as often as you have it, but use it for turrets and other high proirity targets.

Comes with a Drone (you can have 2 active at a time if you keep the first one alive) and a Taser Melee.
Definitely a direct upgrade on the Guardian, possibly the best class overall. Why? Those Drones give the enemies something else to shoot at; so you only have to deal with 1/2 or 1/3 of the enemies' fire.
This guy as another advantage; his drones fire shotguns that benefit from Chain Lightning, and can be upgraded to fire rockets taht can be upgraded to benefit from Explosive Perks.

If you get this guy focus on Ability Points (the Pink ones) Upgrading those drones is your whole goal in life.

Comes with a Guaranteed' Crit and a Knife;
The knife is nice, BTW - I feel like it does more damage than the Guardians' punch/hammer. But that Crit is awesome. If you get the Recon there is a Mandatory Perk on him
Spread Crit On Kill
It is like chain lighting, except gives Guaranteed Critical Damage on any body part. Pretty awesome too, as Chain Lightning does damage based on the damage done, so Precision builds work really well with him.

Builds on this guy should focus on that Crit damage; assault builds are great because of the 'chain lighting on Crit' perk. Precision builds could potentially coincide well with it.

This was my first successful run, and the build revolved around triggering the Chain Lighting AoE

• Dual SMG's / Shotgun (Dual Sawnoff/ grandma's shotty is fine too. it fires half as often but has 2x the bullets per shot)
  
• Dual SMG / Assault Rifle

Chain lightning is good, because if it triggers, you can Stun any bot it triggers on. Additionally, it will 'chain' to 3 other enemies, damaging and stunning them, as well.

Dual SMG's / Shotgun
More bullets means more Procc.
Every bullet from a shotgun has a chance to Proc - all 20 or so per trigger pull !
WARNING: both of these weapons have wicked damage drop off, and require an 'in your face' style of play.

Dual SMG's / Assault Rifle
The assault rifle is burst sfire, so more bullets per trigger pull (see above about procc) and super accurate - really nice if you prefer to keep your distance a little more.
SMG's just seem to have a higher DPS than the shotguns, so is a better pick if you're going to grab a ranged weapon and only have one or the other.

I'll have to update this with the perk names later, but basically anything that adds to lightning;

• Chain Lightning
  
• Lightning/electro on Critical Hit
  
• Explosive DMG on Lightnining
  
• Increased Elemental Effects
  
• Electric DoT

Special Note:
there is a perk that does this;
Explosive DMG on Lightnining
It's a good pick - if it pops up then grab it, but if you HAVE IT, then there are 2 others that you should also consider;
Explosive DMG on Crit (if nothing else is better)
But more importantly
Fire Damage On Explosion

This means that your lightning triggers explosives which triggers Fire Damage (which is an important DoT)

Rocket Launcher(RL)/Grenade Launcher(GL)
Spam the grenade Launcher. pull out the RL long enough for the GL to reload, and pick off distant targets. Repeat.

• Increased Explosive Damage
  
• Fire DoT on Explosion
  
• Electro DoT On Explosion.
  
• Increased Elemental Damage
  
• Class Specific Perks.

This Run was completed with the Engineer,

Weapon Choices were:

Lazer Blunderbuss (shotgun thing that shoots blue energy pellets)
Shock Sniper

Perk Choices were;

• Fire Damage on Laser
  
• Extra Elemental
  
• I can't remember the rest. bother. I'll have to do it again.
  

RL
Rocket Launcher

GL
Grenade Launcher

Procc
When a weapon hits it has a chance to cause elemental effects - fire, freeze, eletricity, etc. This iffect getting triggered is called 'procc'

DoT
Damage Over Time - like shooting a guy with a flaming bullet then he continues to take burning damage.

AoE
Area Of Effect - like a grenade or molotof - something that does damage over an area.

The key here understanding his patterns then countering them.

• Most of his attacks he pops grenades out; you can shoot these before he sticks his head otu to give yourself more room to move.
  
• If he's popping in the middle, he's going to do his AoE Wave Attack; prepare to Jump. jump the first one as late as possible so you land just behind it, then wait a bit and double jump to miss the next 2 if they come.
  
• If he pops to the side, check him; is he glowing? he's gong to charge at you. he's easy to doge/shoot at the same time and does little damage anyway.
  
• If he pops to the side and pulls guns out? He's going to shoot at you. pick a side, run across the map. wait for him to reload, and change direction in that moment to run back across the other way. Don't bother trying to shoot him at this time, this is where he will doe by FAR the most damage to you, just avoid his BS for a few seconds, there will be plenty of chances to wail on him soon enough.

The game wants you to play the worms' game, off the ground.

• The Floor Is Lava.
  
• The floored sections sink underfoot, so you can't stay there
  
• He lobs REALLY dangerous explosives if you stand lower than him
  
• He drops a Stun Grenade Pink thing on every floor tile.

So, basically you want to stay in the Air. How?

• Well, in case you haven't realised, you can ride the rails. hop on one, and you skate back and foward along it, just be aware that
  
• Sometimes they glow Orange (get off it's going to burn you) then red and damage you,
  
• Sometimes he lays mines on them (shoot them)
  
• Sometimes he's on your track. Get off it.

Extra Strategy;
A lot of the time, you will be hopping around trying to jostle for position. Killing this guy is made a LOT easier if you have

• Weapons that work at any range (ie shotguns are not a good choice for this fight) and I've found that
  
• DoT is a key to doing him over. Hit him a few times, let the DoT do it's job while you focus on avoiding damage/getting a position / rail hopping.

That's all I got for now. I might extrapolate this as I do more runs and understand them better.