Hey mate[y]s, a bit ago I posted this nifty footage of running my namesake hero in a Twine SSD8 fairly effectively, shown here -

How this works against PL 116 Nature Husks

(Original post here)

And I mentioned in the comments for that, I’d share the build I was using for it later, with more detail and an explanation. So here that is!

Kyle back there looking like he's afraid of getting Cooties from Sarah.

Commander: Catstructor Penny
Commander Perk: Rushed Rush+ [Decreases Cooldown of Bull Rush by 67%]

Team Perk: Bio-Energy Source [For each Hero with 3 or more stars, recover shield equal to .25% of energy lost.]

Support Team:

Dark Vanguard Airheart: Software [Increases Hardware heavy attack efficiency by 65%]

Bombsquad Kyle: Bomb Suit [Increases Armor by 22]

Anti-Cuddle Sarah: Rapid Charge [Melee weapon eliminations grant 7.5 energy]

Tank Penny: Actuated Attacks [Increases Hardware Damage by 17%]

Guardian Bull: Hardware Crit Rating [Increases Hardware critical rating by 17%]

Gadgets: Adrenaline Rush, Hover Turret / Slow Field

Looks like Gallagher's watermelon crusher

Weapon: Sunbeam Walloper

Crit Damage

Crit Rating

Energy

Heavy Attack Energy Efficiency

Damage to slowed or snared targets

Damage Dealt with this weapon snares the target by 30% for 6 Secons

So it’s important that I note; that I’m aware this is NOT the ‘most meta’ or - ‘min-maxed’ way to run this strategy; by all means - I am fully aware Tank Penny could do this better, with just the hammer bit. The point of my making this was specifically to find a viable way to run Catstructor in high level content, often solo - once again after the Hero rework. I will copy paste this bit specifically, in reply to comments lol.

So, on to how it works!

Playstyle

The main goal with this build, is to hop around spamming the Walloper’s heavy attack as much as possible, gaining energy rather than losing it with each attack - to both keep shields and energy up, and compliment that with Catstructor’s 3 second cooldown for Bull Rush.

Now there’s a rhythm to this, which seems to be the most efficient use of all the various resources inherent to this build. To be specific - 2 Wallper Leaps, followed by a Bullrush. The 2 leaps take exactly 3 seconds most of the time, which is the entire cooldown for Bull Rush. Even with just a blue heavy efficiency perk on the walloper, it drives the cost down to just 16 energy per leap. Each enemy slain by the leap grants 7.5 energy, so even if you only muster 2 husks killed per leap, each leap only costs 1 energy. If you have an epic or legendary Heavy efficiency perk on the walloper, you’ll see no energy cost for your walloper’s heavy attack as long as you can knock out 2 husks per leap. And with appropriate offense / tech; the leap will one shot any non-husky or mist monster enemy.

The Bull Rush is not mandatory to work in, provided you’re not having trouble clearing everything out with heavy attacks. It is very helpful, for stopping smashers in their tracks (even if they’re just walking), carrying Riot Huskies or regular huskies into another group of husks for the next heavy attack, a burst of shields if you need it - since it will restore much more than a heavy attack, or repositioning / quick escapes if need be. It’s also got the mild utility of plowing through all environmental obstructions now; so buildings can be cleared VERY quickly with Catstructor, and rocks / trees should never block your line of sight for encampments and such.

The biggest thing to worry about is if multiple blasters spread out very far from one another. You can absolutely hop between them with the walloper, as a single hit will stun each one - and stop their attack, but if they get too far from the crowd - you won’t get energy back from rapid charge, unless you take the second to beat them down. Which, can be the second the other blasters need to begin attacking again. It’s also worth noting that the Walloper heavy leap can sometimes not travel to your intended target - leaving you literally hanging in front of a blaster if you’re not careful.

Typically this build exceeds when there’s exceptionally large crowds of enemies, such as in SSD’s. The more husks to abuse the AOE on the walloper heavy while reaping rapid charge on, the better. Every hit should be triggering Kinetic Overload too; since any Husky’s being present in the landing area of the Walloper leap WILL be staggered by the attack.

Weapon Loadout

So to address the elephant in the build; why the Walloper? Why not the lead sled? Well, that’s a really fair question. In almost all other instances the Lead Sled far exceeds the Walloper. But, in this build - you’re not going to be using the primary attack swing of your hammer allllmost ever. So right out of the gate, attack speed loses value. Instead, what you want - is the most damage possible per single hit - to maximize the one-hit-kill potential of the heavy attack. The Walloper has higher base damage than the Lead Sled by juuuust under 20%, and it has about 137% of its impact. The impact’s not as important, but it helps - explanation later. Additionally, the Walloper’s sixth perk is snare - which works better for how we’ll be using it - than the stacking attack speed the Lead Sled is locked into for its sixth perk. Bottom line: we want to try and kill small husks in one leap, and not have to break our rhythm for enemies we don’t kill in one leap, and the walloper does that better than the Lead Sled.

To back this up, something that can poke blasters fairly hastily, like Ol’ Betsy - is a great help. Bonus for anything being a fire element, in case you let your energy management slip for a moment against nature enemies. You should be able to bypass that with Rapid Charge and energy management though.

Support Team

Software seems critical to help with the abusing Walloper Leaps with Rapid Charge, even though it lowers the shields they provide. It allows the heavy attack to be spammed even when there’s fewer weak husks around, such as when battling smashers. Rapid Charge is also invaluable to this build, as it provides the constant stream of energy PER melee kill, which translates to more heavy attacks, and thus more sustainability through bio-energy source. Actuated attacks is necessary for ensuring the Walloper heavy attacks are deadly enough to make them a net positive in energy cost / reward, and the Hardware Crit Rating does the same, in just adding reliability to that heavy attack kill power.

Bomb Suit, may be the most replaceable. But, I’ve settled on it for now- due to the fact that 22 armor means roughly 16 % damage resistance I believe? (Pls correct if wrong) And the damage reduction, compared to say Survivalist which provides the constant healing, means your shield takes less damage, and requires less repair from energy expenditure. Essentially, with both Bio Energy source and heavy attack spam - a 16% incoming damage reduction means your shield should just never drop. However; there are times in solo play, when as I mentioned above - multiple blasters will spread very far out from one another, and it can be dangerous if adrenaline rush is on cooldown. I’ve considered survivalist, but right now still prefer the armor. Kinetic Overdrive from Syd is also an appealing option, since KO is triggered on every leap - but, it seems very minor compared to just the weapon damage and survivability bonuses.

I’ve tried this build with marathon Hype, for the extended Bull Rush distance - and I’d actually recommend against it. Bull Rush is already an awkward ability. You cant turn, can’t stop it early, and extending the window of when you can’t control your character is generally a bad idea. I ran off a few cliffs more than once while testing that perk lol. Also; sadly Patriot Penny, does not synergize with this, as you should never be seeing your shield go down - but even if you do, Bull Rush on a 3 second cooldown REEEEALLLY invalidates getting it off cooldown when your shield deplets. Especially when that can only happen every 12 seconds.

The gadgets are pretty self explanatory; Adrenaline Rush is for when your shield / energy management slips up - or when the aforementioned spread-out-circle-of-blasters comes out of an encampment spawn. Hover Turret is better for Storm Chests / Encampments, but you may be better off with Slow Field in SSD’s. Bunching enemies up as it tends to do, works VERY well for a pouncing Catstructor.

Thanks for reading, and I hope anyone who tries this has a blast!

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