DPS 101: The Thinking Survivor's Stabby Stabby. (Patreon)

As mentioned previously, this time we're going to get into the meat of what makes for a good DPS survivor. We've walked through the various categories and essentially DPS boils down to a few binary choices. These are:

• Melee vs. Ranged
• One handed vs. two-handed
• Slow vs. 2-3 Speed
•  Strength vs. Luck 

Hopefully here I'm going to give you the tools you need to be able to assess every single weapon and understand what goes into a great weapon, what makes for a situational one and what weapons honestly should be avoided until you're experienced enough to be able to build for them.

But before we do that, it's absolutely worth looking at the armor sets in the game and working out what they are useful for. Because you want to be very smart with picking your armor sets, they are a huge investment in time and resources - you do not want to be wasting them, this is not the same as abandoning a weapon that cost 3 or 4 resources to make. Even the cheapest armor set in the game costs 5 resources (actually that's mind boggling when you think about how good it is for its price).  

Core Game

Rawhide - This is the best armor set in the game (still) and it's the first one all your DPS survivors should be wearing. The set gives decent armor for facing early monsters and it deepens your survival reserves by an average of 50%. That allows for more survival actions and survival actions are the kind of thing you'll be doing a lot (surge).  This armor set tends to be the number 1 choice for archers regardless of lantern year and that won't change until we get the Gambler's Chest.

White Lion Armor - As mentioned last time, this should be left for expert players to take advantage of. Outside of a few specific builds this armor set has little going for it, and even those specific builds are more silly memes or challenge builds than actually good.

Screaming Armor - Powerful, tanky, has multiple amazing abilities. People often think that this is a 'spear only' armor set, but it's really not. Screaming Armor is your baseline DPS armor set and once you have enough settlement survival to move away from rawhide, this will often be your first port of call.

Phoenix Armor - This armor set sits in an awkward spot, it has two really exceptional pieces (head and chest), but the rest of it is weak because of the lack of affinities. The armor set ability is worse than Dragon Armor and the affinity set up on it is restrictive as heck. Ultimately there are always better options for DPS survivors than this armor set. So you should be looking towards them instead (fortunately 2 of these options use Phoenix armor parts!). 

(It's worth noting that the Community Edition versions of the White Lion Armor and Phoenix Armor are very different beasts and much more powerful).

Leather Armor - You'll often have a spare set of this armor once your mid game tank build evolves to the late game (unless you're sitting around with the Silk Body Suit...) Leather is suited for certain types of DPS builds (like the Counter-weighted Axe), however most of the time it doesn't give you any serious advantages. You can consider leather to be sort of a 'generic, I don't have anything better, this will fit anything' armor set for DPS characters.

Lantern Armor - Good for a club style DPS, but this armor set is so expensive it should usually be on your Tank first. So you'd only consider it on a DPS with your second set, and even then it's more likely that your club user is your Tank - unless you are playing a meme campaign where everyone uses the same weapon type.

Expansion Armors:

Gorment Armor - I've written about Gorment Armor a few times in the past, to be honest it offers almost nothing for a DPS style character unless you're playing ranged or a bruiser. It's great if you need 5 slots for your offensive loadout (archers for example), but it doesn't really have anything specific for DPS. For the most part Gorment Armor sits in an awkward spot, it's hard to recommend it even though the head piece is amazing.

Silk Armor - Awkward to make, generally weak or hard to activate abilities, this could have been a DPS set if it had been better designed. But instead it sits a bit like a bad version of Leather Armor. You can do better than Silk Armor, but if you do decide you want to use it, it's best combined with Blind Spot style attacking. 

As an aside, I am boggled by the number of Silk Armor 'apologists' that exist who keep trying to justify it's existence and rank it as being 'good.' It's 'below average at best' even when you house rule the crafting costs, because it has only 3 solid armor set abilities and a huge pile of pointless puzzle affinities that make the armor so hard to utilise in an effective manner. Bad leather armor is what it is and what it always will be.

Dancer Armor - This is a premium level DPS armor set, it combines a load of evasion (which isn't that useful, but it can help in unexpected situations, and most of the time it's those unexpected things that actually cause deaths) with mobility and utility. It's also very cheap to make.  

Brawler Armor - I used to really like and rate Brawler armor, however over time it's become clear that Cycloid Scale Armor is straight up better for F&T survivors because brawler armor has bad affinities and some parts of the armor set just do nothing at all (head, arms). So unfortunately this one is a bit of a 'pass'.  (This changes with the Community Edition version because I worked hard with the team to make the armor set more viable. Good job guys).

Warlord Armor - While Cycloid is still better for most axe users. Warlord Armor's combination of tankiness and increased luck for axes means that axe based crit builds are very possible. However you will want Deadly in order to 'stack' luck further and most axes do not have this ability. So the set can feel a little 'stranded' in the middle unless you have the right axe for it. 

Ultimately I consider Warlord Armor to be a bruiser class set, and it comes to life when wielded in that fashion.

Vagabond Armor  - As long as your principle isn't Barbaric (and barbaric sucks in comparison to romantic imo anyway), the Vagabond Armor promotional set gives you access to an instant sword master. This is fantastic for settlements that are struggling to get mastery, though it can get very broken if you combine it with the Black Sword. 

(I would recommend that you consider the Vagabond Armor set bonus to not count as the activating criteria for the Black Sword's super powered ability if you want this armor set to feel powerful without being overwhelming. Though Aya's model makes it clear that the design team decided that Vaga + Black Sword is a thing).

Cycloid Scale Armor - This is the premium armor set for any survivor using weapon types that do not have sharp. It can make even whips and daggers into serious powerhouse weapons that  can rock all campaign. It's the true 'assassin/rogue' armor set with a massive boost for attacking from the blind spot and it will make your favorite early game weapon into a solid late game one. 

I can't stress enough how powerful and incredible Cycloid Scale Armor is for DPS characters. It is the #1 choice for anyone who wants to play with a sub-optimal weapon (and every other DPS character).

Dragon Armor - I have written about this one in length and essentially this is the premium two-handed + reach DPS armor set. So, you will want to be using it with long axes, spears, scythes and halberds. Not much more to say here, the armor set is kinda weak when you're not making the most of its full set ability.

Rolling Armor - While this set is primarily a tanking set, it's also got a lot to offer for a DPS because of the rainbow wing belt. However the movement drop is not ideal for DPS survivors, who often want to move to better position, so you might only 'splash' the few armor pieces you want (belt, circlet, shoulders).  It is also a GREAT way to carry certain "op" pieces of armor from various sets. (It's also the only way you can officially meme with 2 armor sets. You can wear Gorment Armor + Rolling Armor and Fist & Tooth monsters to death if you want). This one is a bit like Lantern, in that it's so expensive that the first armor set should be on your tank, but if you get a second one...

OK, so now it's time to look at the various style choices and evaluate each one.

Melee vs. Ranged

At the moment this is simply the choice between bows vs. everything else, because thrown weapons are deliberately trash in KD:M. This is because Adam hates thrown weapons (I guess, maybe we'll get a thrown weapon mastery in the Gen II expansions).

If you go with a bow, you (normally) trade off mobility and accuracy in exchange for long range and relative safety. Plus you gain access to arrows, which allows you to hybridize into debuffing. 

The Sunshark Bow, which I write about a lot because it's one of the best craftable weapons in the game, lands in both categories, and has the strengths of both sides (and the rare weakness of being a melee weapon). I've written it elsewhere, but I consider the Sunshark Bow and the Riot Mace to be two of the overall best weapons in the game. If you have a problem with a range 1 bow, well you need to get over it, because Gun Lances rock.

Bows are very well positioned to be a DPS class weapon because their specialization increases their accuracy and their mastery makes them extra Deadly while also negating their main drawback (cumbersome) and in truth if you run multiple bow DPS survivors, things like the Hollowpoint Arrow can get out of hand fast.

However, when you pick Melee, you gain access to a wealth of powerful DPS weapon options, many of which either have additional 'crowd control' abilities (like the knockdown on Grand Weapons), more damage or extra ways of building defense. 

Suitable melee DPS weapon classes are: Axe, Club, Dagger, Fist & Tooth, Grand, Katar, Spear, Sword, Whip, Katana and Twilight Sword. However, you're going to need to work hard to make Dagger and Whip users viable.

One handed vs. two-handed

This is really only a decision for the melee users, as all current bows are two-handed (and I can't see that changing for a long while). Now, one handed weapons are easier to use, have more synergies and combine with Blood Paint for true dual wielding, so on the whole the one handed weapons are the superior choice.  Still, I'll take a moment to mention that Paired is a terrible mechanic and you should not use the paired weapons in this game apart from ones with auto-wound mechanics like the Acid-Tooth Daggers. Use them in singles (This is why 1x Lion Beast Katar + Rawhide + Lucky charm is one of the most common early game DPS builds).

So, if you want to deal a lot of damage fast, Blood Paint and one handed is the route to go. However two-handed weapons have a lot of benefits. They can be used from behind the tank, and against monsters like the Gorm or Butcher who deal "damage" to adjacent survivors at times it's a great way of lowering the collateral damage you take.

However, two-handed weapon users have an issue when they get hit by the dismembered arm severe injury. Unless they can switch to a one handed version, which isn't always possible (Spears don't have one handed options, and Grand weapons only have one handed choices in the expansions i.e. Rib Blade, Calcified Juggernaut Blade, Replica Flower Sword). Be aware that a dismembered arm can end your survivor's run a lot faster than anyone else and consider appropriate protection (Dried Acanthus, Tough, Unbreakable, Heavy Leather Breastplate, Silk Surgery etc etc).

Slow vs. 2-3 Speed

This is again a matter of safety vs. speed. Generally anything from 1 to 3 speed on your weapon is a manageable level of risk for a DPS survivor. Beyond that and you need to be packing specialist stuff to make sure that you do not get too shredded by reactions (it's reactions that hurt the most and wear you down, the trap is just an obvious finisher). Yes, yes I know rolling buckets of dice is awesome, but you need to really have a powerful grounding and understanding of the game's mechanics before you can meme at that level. Be patient grasshopper.

However if you run with pure slow weapons, then you gain the benefit of the Gorm's Wisdom potion being better than the Cat's Eye Circlet. But you pay the cost of a longer, more drawn out fight. These slower fights are safer, but when things go wrong there is less ability to burst the monster out as an 'escape clause'

Slow/1 speed DPS survivors need less protection to stay alive, because they suffer a lot less HL Reactions (none in the case of the Digging Claw Katar Specialist). However they always take longer to kill the monster unless they also invest in devastating (see the previous article for some discussion on this). This means your tank needs to be more patient and durable. 

2-3 Speed survivors can rip into the monster a lot faster, so you can get away with a Bruiser instead of a tank and seek to burst the monster down. This is a higher risk of death made in exchange for a usually faster fight. So my preference for higher speed survivors is to build them with a little more resilience than the slower ones.

Often you'll find that you take 2 speed weapons anyway, cause most of the best non-Grand  DPS weapons are at 2 speed (Riot Mace, Lion Beast Katar, Denticle Axe, Greater Gaxe, CW-Axe etc etc) and that it's rare you get a good 1 speed (Digging Claws) or 3 speed (Black Sword) weapon.

Essentially, as long as you cap out at 3 speed max, and pick a weapon with good stats for wounding (strength, luck or both) then you're good to go.

Strength vs. Luck 

I've saved the best till last. That is because this lesson is the hardest one to get across.

So there is a mantra/general rule, (which I am responsible for coining), which is 'take weapons that have enough strength to wound the monster at least 50% of the time'. I've seen this about a bit and I've had people repeat it back at me without seeming to realise that I'm the originator of that particular "rule". 

Well to clear things up, it is a soft rule, a very, very soft rule. Mostly designed to help new players avoid a wipe when they face a new monster or a new level of monster and you should absolutely disregard it once you're past the basics of the game. KD:M is about pushing your boundaries once you are experienced, for example I'm currently 16 LYs into a campaign where I have refused to innovate Dash or Surge and I'm doing fine.

So, the reason for this rule, is that there are three kinds of reactions, reflex, failure and wound. Now outside of critical wounds, there is nothing at all you can do about reflex reactions, so they don't figure into this decision at all. No matter your strength, reflex gonna getchya.  This means we're left with failure and wound. Obviously, as I have discussed before, it's preferable to have a wound reflex go off than a failure one. So you would rather score the wounds and get punished than fail to score the wounds, and get punished.  One of these at advances you towards your win condition at the cost of advancement towards failure and the other one advances solely you towards your failure condition. (I've written more about this in the Tank articles, but when you are tanking, you have a different perspective on the matter.)

However. Luck cancels all these reactions, so, if you have decent luck, you don't need that much strength. The most extreme version of this, is the Counter-weighted Axe Perfect Hit strategy - as it completely bypasses the HL mechanic and deals wounds direct to the monster. However, Luck works in a similar fashion, it's not as powerful because you still have to draw hit locations and you can hit the trap or fail to get a critical wound. So there is addition risk, but the rewards on critical wound reactions tends to be extremely high.

So, what Luck does to your survivor is it decreases the number of reactions that are going to hurt them across the board. All three reaction types do not work vs. a critical wound. That means you can easily go with less strength if you have more luck. The best example of a weapon that demonstrates this is the Vespertine Foil.

OK, so that upkeep ability (spend 1 Flower) is absolute garbage, and it's why you don't hear about people using this weapon - so we'll ignore it and be sad that it even exists. However, the stats on the weapon are actually on point for what this weapon does. I'll demonstrate with a quick build.

OK, so this weapon, on a survivor with 0 natural strength, wounds a toughness 8 monster on a 9 or 10 (20% of the time), that's way outside of the threshold most people would be comfortable with.

However, it's critically hitting on a 10, 9, 8 or 7 (10 normally, 9 + 8 from the Deadly 2 and 7 from the Lucky Charm).  That's a 40% chance of getting a critical wound and ignoring all the reactions - and it retains that 40$ chance of getting a critical wound regardless of the toughness the monster has!

This is one of the most extreme versions of this interaction, which I have used only for demonstration purposes. In more practical terms you're going to be looking at say strength 3 weapons in combination with Deadly + the Lucky Charm. Such as this classic early game powerhouse.

Against a toughness 12 monster, this build is actually still fine to use. You are wounding the monster on a 9 or 10 normally (20%). You are critically wounding on an 8, 9 or 10 (30%), so the 30% loss in normal wounding chances has become a +20% gain in critical wounds. That's an acceptable trade off and one that I have made quite often.

Now as per higher speed builds, you do need to be more cautious with using this kind of strategy. Certain monsters are very hard to crit (Butcher) or provide showdown pressures that mean you have a shorter clock than you would like (DK, DBK, Sunstalker, Phoenix) so the risk of using these strategies climbs. But when you are going in against L2+ versions of the low level quarries, with the right tank, you can get away with builds like this.

This is not to say that you won't be wounding on a decent number anyway, survivors gain strength more than any other stat in the game and most weapons offer at least 3 strength, and these two are usually ample for most monsters you'll encounter early on.

However, I wanted to provide the food for thought, it's OK to go in with a 30% chance of wounding the monster, if that always results in a critical wound.

Next time, some builds so you can see what works and adapt!