Assessing Armor: Cycloid Scale Armor (Patreon)

We're into the big boy leagues now, these armor sets are the end game choices for all classes (except for Archers, you've got Rawhide or Dancer). And I'm just going to go and get this one out of the way, because honestly I'm sick of how dominant it is in the meta.

Lets look at the best damage dealing armor in the game, the utility beat stick that is Cycloid Scale Armor. An armor set so overpowered that Adam feels the need to boost it further in Campaigns of Death.

If I had more money I'd send one of these to his office with a print out of his tweet on the matter attached.

That gripe aside, it's time to look at what makes up the Cycloid Scale Armor and why it is so powerful that it pretty much makes every other armor set in the game less appetising.

This is my preferred default layout for the Cycloid Scale Set, but there are many configurations you can put this armor set in.

Cycloid Scale Hood

Resource Cost: 1x cycloid scales, 1x prismatic gills, 1x hide

Assessment

Efficiency: 3 resources, 2 of which are monster specific, is a very good price for this piece of gear. Evasion is a premium stat in this game and this hood gives you a lot of it.

S+

Defense: While the armor points are not that high at 2(3), the evasion gains from this piece of gear are large. It's always +1 evasion at a minium except when you're caught unable to move at all (i.e. when the Monster goes first), but you can increase that evasion by using more [Movement] before your next act - for example Dashing or even Double Dash (+3 Evasion is rather good). Also this triggers on the use of cumbersome items and it doesn't even care if you move 0, just as long as you use your [Movement].

S++

Abilities: I've pretty much covered everything in the defense section, this gear gives you between +1 and +2 evasion most of the time. That's very strong.

S++

Affinities: Down blue half affinity is very generic for a piece of head gear in this game, so I'm going to score it appropriately. It's better than average, but nothing to write home about.  It is important to note that being a down blue means that it's excellent for most mixed sets.

B-

Score: Sheer, unadulterated power. This gear in combination with Survival of the Fittest, Monster Grease, Drums and Paint can put you at a base +6/+7 evasion very easily. 

S+++

 Cycloid Scale Jacket

Resource Cost: 1x cycloid scales, 1x small sunteeth, 1x salt, 1x bone

Assessment

Efficiency: 

S+++

Defense: This isn't really a defensive piece of gear, it's abilities are offensive. So all you have going for you really is the armor points.

B

Abilities:  One of the two more expensive items in the set, the Jacket is the central element of the Cycloid Scale Armor's true power, it in combination with the sleeves allows for Sharp being activated on the blind spot attacks and it also gives you an easy +1 accuracy (which is effectively +2 because you shouldn't be using Cycloid Scale if you're not attacking from the blind spot). 

The ability to walk through survivors isn't really that powerful, but it is a solid edge case ability that can be useful at times. In particular when fighting large monsters being able to move through your co-hunters means that you 

Affinities: I think the affinities on this piece of gear are really solid, it is great to get them active (and you always will in a full set), but unlike the Phoenix Plackart the Jacket still does stuff when you haven't activated all the puzzle affinities. So it's useful, flexible but not 'must built around'.  I really appreciate the combination of up blue plus left and right red half affinities.

A

Score: Part of the offensive heart of this armor set, the Jacket brings the attacking strength while the rest of the pieces provide defense of various types.

S++

Cycloid Scale Sleeves

Resource Cost: 1x cycloid scales, 1x huge sunteeth, 1x salt, 1x scrap

Assessment

Efficiency: Really good, sure this is 4 resources, but you can always get salt from the sunstalker fight if you want to get it and outside of cooking there's no use for salt except in crafting Sunstalker stuff. Ultimately I think if you could get Sharp on any weapon you liked for 8 resources, you'd pay that price, I know I would.

S+++

Defense: 2(3) armor points, nothing more. It's not a great defensive piece of armor, but that's because it's the most offensive piece of armor in the game. I'm going to score it based on the current value, but if it goes up to a 2(4) as per Adam's proposed change (see below) then it's going to jump up to an A in the defense.

B

Abilities: Sharp is an amazing ability, you can take a whole host of relatively underpowered weapons with strong abilities and make them into late game stuff with a great deal of ease. One of my personal favourites is using Acid-Tooth Daggers with Cycloid Scale, but the same applies to the Nuclear Scythe/Knife (or any of the Dragon King weapons), the Greater Gaxe, Amber Poleaxe and so on. 

S+++

Affinities: Left blue and right blue half affinities is a rare combination, and even though the colours don't matter too much they work well with the jacket.

S

Score: One of the best items in the game period. The only downside to this is the requirement to have the body piece to be able to activate it. Seriously, that's the only downside, as per the mixed armor set body article I consider the Sleeves + Jacket to be one of the most powerful pairs for DPS characters because of their ability to make any weapon in the game into a late game powerhouse.

S+++  

Cycloid Scale Skirt 

Resource Cost: 1x cycloid scales, 1x hide, 1x huge sunteeth

Assessment

Efficiency: As the "weakest" part of the set, the price you pay here is proportionally unrewarding. But that is because you are comparing this piece of gear to a whole host of top level items. So it's the company that makes this one look weak in comparison, it's actually not bad overall, certainly reasonable for the price.

B-

Defense: Survival is one form of defense because of how it fuels survival actions that can be used to dash-cancel, dodge and activate items. So having a massive survival gain ontop of the 2(3) defense is still very strong, especially for settlements without much in the way of departing survival gains.

A-

Abilities: This is a really huge survival gain because the full set always has this ability active (yay Prismatic).   That's solid, but it's never going to win any contests.

B+

Affinities: Solid affinities that fit in a number of places, as always it's hard to truly assess the affinities on Cycloid Scale because they're simultaneously as printed and multi colour.  The pairing of green down, blue up is dependable and potentially has some use in mixed sets that are heavily designed around blue affinities (and want survival gains).

A-

Score: Despite being the weakest part of the Cycloid set, the only real complaint I have about this gear is that the survival gain isn't 'on arrival at the showdown board', so it doesn't help provide protection against hunt event survival losses.

A

Cycloid Scale Shoes

Resource Cost: 1x cycloid scales, 1x shadow tentacles, 1x bone

Assessment

Efficiency: Just like the hood, this is a well costed, but extremely powerful piece of gear that is made awkward to construct because of the difficulty of getting the required items - especially the tentacles. However the price is right for what you get, in fact it's a little on the low side.

S

Defense: Solid defense on this item because of the combination of okay armor and a very powerful activated ability means that there is a lot more defense in this item than you'd think at first glance.

S-

Abilities: That is a built in Fecal Salve, one of the best support items in the game and it's built into your shoes. Well, that's not entirely true, it's actually an improved Fecal Salve because it gives you +2 survival when you remove the priority token. That's not a massive buff because the priority token isn't something you get hit with a lot in the game, but it is still a bonus.

The main power in this piece is actually the 'you are not a threat until you attack' part of it, a lot of the most dangerous AI cards in the game use threat as their targeting, and you can avoid that by activating these Poop Boots while you position. There are also certain monsters who fall apart when there are no threats (Butcher for example) and this is a way of getting there.

S++

Affinities: Solid affinities with a left blue and green up half affinity, but like everything else in this set the colours do not matter unless you are using the gear in a mixed set (spoilers, the Poop Boots are good for mixed sets.

S

Score: Like every single other piece of gear in this armor set, this is really powerful and flexible with the only downside being the moderately expensive price and the lower armor level than most gear at this tier.

S+

Cycloid Scale Armor

Resource Cost: 5 x cycloid scales, 2x huge sunteeth, 2x hide, 2x bone, 2 x salt, 1x scrap, 1x small sunteeth, 1x prismatic gills, 1x shadow tentacles

Assessment

Efficiency: For what it is, the armor set is incredibly efficient. Now do not get me wrong, cycloid scales are one of the most expensive and difficult armor sets to put together because of the sheer amount of cycloid scales required (it's at a minimum 2 Sunstalkers and usually more) - I think that the pricing is almost reasonable for the power you get. But honestly I think this armor set could be more expensive, an increase in the amount of generic hide, bone and scrap requirements would be very reasonable. 

However, we're not here to discuss balancing an armor set like this. It's very cheap for what you get and therefore it hits the top tier.

S+

Set Bonus: Prismatic is a hell of an ability, it brings online a whole host of builds that otherwise require mixed sets or forgoing armor and it has so much synergy that it's impossible to ignore. This ability alone would make Cycloid Scale one of the most in demand armor sets in the game because of its interactions with things like the Spidicules Rings, God Mask, Phoenix/Antelope Mask and so on. Items that usually require you to jump through hoops to get activated become an easy breeze with Cycloid.

The armor bonus isn't great for late game armor, but that is one of the few balancing points in this set and don't worry. Daddy Poots is on the case.

I'm still very surprised to read 'happy to hear you feel its the best set!' (Link) It feels like Adam's inside a Sunstalker bubble when you read stuff like that.

S++

Defense: Absolutely incredible defenses, this has it's own fecal salve, can generate evasion and easily activates the monster grease. It shouldn't be a tanking set, but it totally can be - and that's just absurd.  There are better sets for tanks, but you can get away with using Cycloid with ease - it's just not that efficient.

S+

Abilities: Prismatic, Fecal Salve, +1 Accuracy, Sharp when backstabbing, +evasion, massive survival gains and the ability to walk through other survivors.  This entire package is really, really good.

S++

Affinities: They are THE BEST. I don't have to go into it any further. Prismatic is the bomb, outside of affinities counting as double, items with inbuilt full affinities and prismatic I can't see how it can get better than this without some new mechanic.

S+++

Score: In the past I have rated Rawhide higher than Cycloid and overall I do think that Rawhide is the best armor in the game because of how efficient, essential (Headband) and powerful it is. But Cycloid Scale Armor is a MUST HAVE for any settlement that can hunt the Sunstalker and you generally want a set for every single DPS survivor who doesn't use a bow. As a consquence I'm giving this one an SS rating.

SS++

Next time we're going to look at my personal favourite, Dragon Armor.