Early Game Gorm Builds (Patreon)

I have a little bit of spare time so I'm going to share a few Core Game + Gorm expansion builds that I have used in the early game.  This includes one build that uses an armor set that I normally avoid at all costs, so it's a bit more unusual than normal.

While you can use these four builds together, I'd recommend considering mixing them with the usual White Lion builds.  This is because Gorm Builds are a little more resource intensive than White Lion ones, so you might find it easier to mix and match.  In addition the Gorm doesn't provide a Spear or Katar and those two weapon types are VERY powerful.

The Rib Tickler - Grand Weapon DPS

Cost:  6 Hide, 2 Organs, 1 Meaty Rib (Gorm)

 This is the Gorm Equivalent of the Lion Beast Katar DPS build and it's honestly a bit better. It only requires one monster specific item to build and it features the earliest possible Grand Weapon we can currently get in game.  

The Rib Blades power level is way above normal for a weapon you can potentially get in Lantern Year 1 and having this build online for your primary tank is a huge benefit, especially because it is so cheap.  

You might even want two of these builds in your hunt party.  The second one could wield a shield in the spare slot and tank/shield train.

The Riot Act - A Club Based DPS

Cost: 5 Hide, 2 Organs, 1 Pure Bulb, 1 Stout Kidney, 1 Dense Bone, 1 Jiggling Lard

Flex Item: Pulse Lantern - 1 Milky Eye, 1 Active Thyroid

The Riot Mace is one of the best clubs in the entire game, but it is really difficult and costly to make.  In order to get this build with any regularity you really do need the Cat's Eye Circlet from the White Lion because that is one of the few ways to effectively trigger the Death Blow on a monster with any regularity - and that is the only way to get the Pure Bulb.

Once you do have it, the rest of this build is relatively cheap - the Pulse Lantern is an optional extra that is always worth building if you manage to draw the Milky Eye from the resource deck and score the Active Thyroid Strange Resource via the critical hit location, but it is not essential. 

This build works in a similar fashion to most crit builds, get Surge, hit hard using hit location control and aim to farm resources.

Captain Knuckle - Shield Tank

Cost: 5 Hide, 5+ Organs, 1 Mammoth Hand, 2 Bone

Training Shield Mastery is one of those things that people say is essential for a settlement, I'm in agreement with them.  But how do you go about doing it?  Well this is one route, using the Knuckle Shield.  

There are issues and limitations involved with the Knuckle Shield.  It has an awful offensive statline, but in truth there is not much choice for early game shields.  It's either the Knuckle Shield, the Leather Shield (1/8+/1) which has even worse stats or you go through the advanced strategy of rushing the Blacksmith Location to get a Beacon Shield to bash with (1/6+/5).

Now, the Knuckle Shield is unfortunately just an improved Bone Dagger, it it's statline is garbage (3/7+/1), but it's triggered ability is really good.  So you want to be scoring wounds with it, to get the Block 1 and then go from there.  There are two routes towards scoring wounds, the first is high strength, the second is luck.  

This build splits the middle, it uses the Luck Charm to double the chances of a critical hit and then uses the Steadfast Potion from the Gormchemist to build up strength tokens in order to get enough bonuses to make the Knuckle Shield reliable at wounding.

This build also provides passive support with the Wisdom Potion which you are likely to make while you are trying to get a Steadfast Potion.  The Steadfast Potion requires a 19 to 24 on the Gorm Chemist Table, so usually you need at least 2 Gorm Innovations done before you get it

An alternative to this is to replace the Luck Charm with the Monster tooth Necklace for +2 Strength and the Wisdom Potion is replaced with Monster Grease for extra tanking evasion.  It depends on how you want to approach the situation and what resources you have to hand,

Acid Cat - A Working White Lion Build!

Cost: 2 Acid Gland, 5 Bone, 5 White Fur, 3 Hide, 1 Great Cat Bone, 1 Scrap

Cost of Gorn: 1 Stout Heart, 3 Bone

Cost of Armor Spikes: 1 Stout Vertebrae, 1 Scrap

Finally we have this little thing.  This is a very expensive build (because White Lion Armor is overcosted) that actually results in a viable dagger/White Lion build for the Early and mid game. 

The issue with the White Lion set (and Paired) is it piles on Speed with little protection against the various monster reactions that speed will trigger.  In addition, Daggers tend to be inaccurate and low strength.  

What we have here is a build that tries to address this, first of all by using the Triggered ability of the Acid Tooth Daggers to score automatic wounds against hit locations via perfect hits (amazing if you get Timeless Eye) and also seeking to stack up strength a little more than usual by adding the Monster Tooth Necklace into the mix.

The Gorn is a utility item that provides a bit of armor regeneration for all survivors, but it can also be the Armor Spikes from the Gormery. They are not anywhere near as potent, but they cost half as much and still provide that rare downward facing blue affinity.

When attacking at full strength via a pounce, without the White Lion Helm Roar ability, the statline on the Acid-Tooth Daggers is as follows:

(5/6+/7/Automatically wound on perfect hits) 

That's actually a respectable pair of daggers that I wouldn't mind attacking with and the build provides a bit of utility via the Gorn and the White Lion's Roar.

So if you have a someone in your group who likes rolling a lot of dice to attack with, I'd recommend adapting something like this, it's safer than most other speed builds.