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Star Renegades - Darkest Dungeon in Space! Sort of!

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I resent Paragon, because unlocking him meant locking away Valkyrie, who was my mainstay.

I do appreciate that a lot of his passive skills draw attention to the fact that he's completely middle of the road
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
I don't have good character images for the two remaining characters that have writeups, so here, have what I stole off of TV Tropes.

MEET THE DRAGOON
KASCHE JCHOR


dragoon.png


Shields: 65
Armor: 3
Health: 130
Gear Slots: Rifle, Implant, Device
Relationship Bonus: -3/-5 Fury costs
DNA Required for Levels: Very High

Damage: B
Armor Damage: C
Speed: C
Stagger: B
Regen: D
Support: A

The Dragoon is a versatile character with a primary focus on dealing damage, particularly through extra ways to use your Fury meter. Properly used, you've got someone who can outpace the hardier damage dealers, like Valkyrie or Enforcer, while still providing extra fun toys for your team to capitalize on. Improperly used, they're just a weaker version of the above classes, or worse yet, an active drain on your Fury meter to no benefit. As such, you need a good head for managing your resources when playing with a Dragoon.

Movelist:

Level 1:

Dispatch
Normal
Speed:
35s
Damage: 25
Crit Bonus: +9 damage, +3 armor damage, +20s stagger

A good, solid Normal attack, as reliable as any other. A little on the slow side, but not so much so that it's impossible to work with. Not a lot else to say about it, really, it works as well as any other normal attack do in a vacuum. Still, internalize those stats now, because we're going to see how they can be messed with later on.

Enfeeble
Light
Speed:
0s
Damage: 10
Crit Bonus: +4 damage, applies -15% damage for 1 turn

Uhhh are you sure about this one, bud? This is not a good move! This is in fact a bad move! Sure, it's great as a fast option that doesn't stagger if you're up against a foe that can't be launched down the timeline, and it doesn't burn a valuable stun doing it, but is that really a situation you're going to encounter often enough to devote this move to it? Answer: the debuff effect gets stronger under... certain conditions. You'll see what I mean soon.

Defend
Speed:
0s
Cannot be delayed
+40% defense, cannot be debuffed

There's certainly some instances where you might just want a Dragoon to defend, sure. They're kind of like Commando, where they don't have GREAT stats for frontline fighting, but can definitely make it work if built properly for it. I like that in a class.

Cancel Supercharge
Speed:
0s
Cancels all effects of Supercharge, free action

That's right, buddy, we've got ourselves another Sniper Mode situation. But instead of slowing the user down to increase their power...

Supercharge
Speed:
0s
All attacks cost extra Fury, but are 20s faster, gain Reach, +25% damage, and +50% stagger, free action

They instead spend Fury to sauce up all of their attacks! And that is some serious sauce, too. Supercharge lets you effortlessly take down a problem target from virtually anywhere, before they get anywhere close to react. It's a very attractive package for sure, especially if your other teammates' Fury moves are more situational, but be careful not to overspend and deny yourself the resources needed to bail yourself out of a sticky situation. Do note that Fury cost scales to the potency of the move, and that Supercharge does not apply to Combo moves.

Level 2:

Osmosis
Speed:
0s
Once per fight
Enemies give you 3 Fury whenever they hit any team members for 1 turn

So naturally, instead of getting a way to spend Fury at level 2, they instead get a way to earn it! It goes without saying that this is REALLY REALLY GOOD, especially if you're about to get a Random Targets spam move you can't easily weather normally. Osmosis is all about timing: used too late and you've probably spent your Combo moves already, but used too early and you'll barely get the chance to spend at all!

Level 4:

Fireball
AOE
Speed:
50s
Damage: 25
Crit Bonus: +9 damage, +10s stagger

Remember how I said to take Dispatch's values and internalize them for later, and then showed you the Supercharge move? Yeah, same principle here. On its own, Fireball is an okay-but-not-great AOE. Give it a Supercharge though, and you're looking at some excellent damage, stagger, and speed on an AOE move. Experiment with it based on what the rest of your team will do, and how much Fury you feel comfortable spending.

Level 6:

Aura (Vulnerable)
Speed:
0s
-25% defense for all enemies, free action, only one Aura available at a time

Yeah the Dragoon just ends up biting the Empath's style after a while too. The Vulnerable aura is, not to put too fine a point on it, amazing. Obviously, it's best on a team where everyone can contribute reasonably to damage, but it's also perfectly fine to help the numbers on a team that's flagging a bit in that respect. It's also a little bugged: you need to re-enable an aura after the Vulnerable aura's done a turn.

Aura (Stagger)
Speed:
0s
+5s stagger for all allies, free action, only one Aura available at a time

The Stagger aura is a little more situational. Assuming you've got a full team each armed with their own stagger effect, that looks like a free 25s of stagger on your turn, which is great! Except the problem is that that means five separate instances of stagger, which the enemies will absolutely be able to withstand before you actually use them all. Still good, but it's not a fire-and-forget way to win fights.

Level 8:

Mop Up
AOE
Speed:
45s
Reach, random targets
Damage: 52 (13x4)
Crit Bonus: +18 (5x4) damage, +4 (1x4) armor damage

Again: this move is good but underwhelming until you apply Supercharge, at which point it becomes a terrifying way of splatting even the biggest targets, or just clearing out the chaff at the tail end of a messy fight. As the name indicates, I wouldn't really rely on this as an opener, especially not when Fireball is right there... but Fireball IS a little slower. And against single targets, of course, you use Mop-Up when speed isn't an issue, that goes without saying.

Level 10:

Supercharge II
Speed:
0s
All attacks cost extra Fury, but are 30s faster, gain Reach, +40% damage, and +100% stagger, free action

This is the best capstone ability I have ever seen, and I've used Blitz II and Bonds of Faith.

Progeny Exclusive:

Osmosis II
Speed:
0s
Once per fight
Enemies give you 3 Fury whenever they hit any team members for 1 turn

Osmosis, but better. What do you even want from me.

Disrupt
Light
Fury:
15
Speed: 0s
Once per fight
Damage: 10
Crit Bonus: +4 damage, stun

A stun move on Dragoon, huh? Kind of weird, but hey, stun moves are good, I won't knock it. Not sure what, exactly, the situation would be where you'd want to Supercharge it. I'd say if you just needed some guaranteed instant super damage, but uh, my dog, Enfeeble is right there.

Aura (Health Drain)
Speed:
0s
+2 health drain for all allies, free action, only one Aura available at a time

Ordinarily, you need to rely on either gear or camping cards to get your actual raw health total up. The Health Drain aura is, outside of the Guardian, the only method by which you can recover your characters' health midfight regardless of your gear, and is useful on that account if nothing else. Course, it's VERY small amounts of health drain, so don't expect this to actually replace your camping cards or gear.

Progeny:

EVIR JCHOR
Shields:
75
Armor: 7
Health: 155
Damage: +20%
Crit Damage: +20%
Parent: Wynn Syphex (Valkyrie)
Learns Mop Up at level 4, learns Fireball at level 6, learns Aura (Health Drain) and Aura (Vulnerable) at level 8

An exceptionally hardy Dragoon with big damage boosts and earlier access to offense moves in exchange for Auras being pushed down later, and the Stagger aura being replaced with a Health Drain aura. Early Mop Up, in particular, is a fun toy to work with, since it's nearly as potent as the Enforcer's Burst Shot for single difficult foes like Behemoths. Just mind the delayed auras, and don't be afraid to bring a support character.

ZEVEN JCHOR
Shields:
80
Health: 95
Damage: -10%
Crit Damage: -10%
Parent: Xurx Nrza (Archon)
Learns Osmosis II at level 2, learns Aura (Vulnerable) and Aura (Stagger) at level 4, learns Mop Up at level 6, learns Fireball at level 8

Zeven is a more support-oriented Dragoon, with extremely quick access to Auras and Osmosis II to improve Fury generation even further. Also has some high shields for a Dragoon, which is nice if you have a way to regen that and bad if you don't since you give up armor and health in the process. And let's not ignore that you've got a damage penalty and delayed offense moves to contend with, most notably Fireball being shunted all the way to level 8!

KADER JCHOR
Shields:
65
Health: 110
Damage: -20%
Crit Damage: -20%
Parent: Senya Lanodora (Empath)
Learns Osmosis II at level 2, learns Aura (Health Drain) and Aura (Stagger) at level 4, learns Disrupt at level 6, learns Aura (Vulnerable) at level 8

The most support-oriented Dragoon on the market, and the only one capable of accessing all three Aura types. The costs are incredibly harsh, though: not only do you lose some health, armor, and a lot of damage, you lose almost your entire moveset for dealing damage at all! Your two techniques for the bulk of the fight are Enfeeble and Defend, and I seriously wish I was joking on that one. Use Kader on your team if you want to stack auras with the Empath for your three (at most) actually-fighting characters.

AEON JCHOR
Shields:
65
Armor: 3
Health: 110
Damage: +20%
Crit Damage: +20%
Parent: Tark Chanlo (Marksman)
Learns Disrupt at level 4, learns Mop Up at level 6, learns Fireball at level 8

If you don't care about the Aura support from the Dragoon at all, just go with Aeon. In exchange, you get Yet Another Instant Stun in the form of Disrupt, not to mention a beefy damage boost. This is ideal if you have a team ill-suited to capitalizing on the Auras in the first place, possibly because many of them simply aren't going to be doing attacks often enough to get those damage/stagger bonuses.
 
That said, that stagger claim is a bald-faced lie: his stagger game is weak as HELL.
The stagger claim is a lie, but it's actually because he's even better than advertised.

Siphon Stab is one of the best staggers in the game, you just need a bit of gear to support it. Just start with a 5s stagger sword or whatever, and star some other stagger gear. It's pretty easy to get it up to 30 seconds by the second planet, and that's really good for a pretty fast AoE. The shield drain also gives you a buffer for that turn even if you use it at full shields, and it's also extremely valuable on higher Entropy levels because you stop restoring all your shields after every fight. He's one of my go-to characters for Entropy V, and Siphon Stab is a large part of that.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Also Siphon Stab does some *crazy* Shield Damage, even if you discount it’s ability to restore them. Anything weaker than a commander is going to have their shields popped after a single turn on lower difficulties.

I have to begrudgingly accept that Paragon is a very good unit, but I still hate him.
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
While that's definitely true, lots of moves are good with the right gear. I'm doing my best to evaluate the moves assuming you get absolutely no gear or bonuses to support them, and Siphon Stab, while not a terrible move, is definitely not a good move. Marksman's moves are really strong with some action speed boosts on them, but they're perfectly viable even at default speeds.

MEET THE GUARDIAN
RAV'N TYSANNO


guardian.png


Shields: N/A
Armor: 2
Health: 180
Gear Slots: Implant, Device, Device
Relationship Bonus: +30/60 health restored after fights
DNA Required for Levels: High

Damage: B
Armor Damage: C
Speed: D
Stagger: D
Regen: A
Support: A

And now for something completely different. The Guardian doesn't play by nearly any of the rules of the game you've seen so far: they cannot EVER gain shields, they restore all of their health after every fight, they have NO weapon slot, and they can passively apply elemental abilities to their attacks (normally only available as a property of weapons). They also have a unique resource, Spirit, that charges up to a max of 5 both when they're hit and after each round, which they can spend on different attacks, and they get a damage boost on enemies that have attacked them the last round. All of this adds up to the most unconventional tank class in the game.

Movelist:

Level 1:

Vorpal Storm
Flurry
Speed:
0s
Spirit: All
Damage: Variable (8xSpirit)
Crit Bonus: +Variable (3xSpirit) damage
Free action, spends all Spirit

Early on, this will be your big cashout option. Build up a nice healthy stockpile of Spirit, then unleash it on someone who attacked you last round. Lategame it'll pivot more to quick chip damage on an enemy that's thiiiiis close to being defeated. It's also ridiculously good for stacking damage over time or stealing health, once you have proper access to that from gear.

Defend
Speed:
0s
+40% defense, cannot be delayed, cannot be debuffed

For a tanking character, the Guardian, surprisingly, has pretty much no in-fight sustain capability, especially early on. You're at the mercy of your health pool and how much of a beating it can take. Furthermore, your active attacks are universally on the slow side. As such, your Defend action is your best friend for a large portion of the game.

Vorpal Strike
Normal
Speed:
35s
Damage: 25
Crit Bonus: +9 damage, +3 armor damage, +15s stagger

Notably low stagger and speed for a Normal attack, but that aside it's still pretty much a Normal attack. You won't often have the freedom to swing this around if you're tanking, but it's great for some extra damage if your team has everything staggered real good. Do note that enemies that attacked you last round become Cursed, which gives you bonus damage against them!

Level 2:

Stronghold
Fury:
20
Speed: 0s
Allies take no damage this round, +40% defense, cannot be debuffed, cannot be guarded

Now THIS is a cool move. Expensive Fury-wise, yeah, but being able to no-sell all of the damage your entire team takes is really, REALLY good, and I shouldn't have to explain why. Of course, this does nothing outside of a standard Defend action for your Guardian, so it's not foolproof, and it can't block status effects or the like from landing. Still super amazing, though!

Level 3:

Gain 3 Elements
Speed:
0s
Free action, applies pyro, nitro, or pulse damage and status effect to your attacks

That's right. Guardian gets stuff even on odd levels for combat! On the surface, this might feel like a consolation prize for not having weapons with these elements in the first place. Once you realize the versatility of being able to sling these status effects around midfight, as well as the damage types' properties against health/armor/shields, you'll start to really see what possibilities you can do. Pulse damage is a fun opener to quickly get shields down, and both pyro and nitro damage are powerful options for when the opponents' shields ARE down and you need to either slow them down or deal extra damage (and yes, you can get FIVE stacks of burning off of a single Vorpal Swarm).

Level 4:

Entity
Spirit:
5
Free action, +50% damage, all allies gain current element and +25% damage against Cursed enemies for 1 turn, once per fight

Once you have your opening, this is what you do with it. The raw damage output that the Guardian can dish out, not to mention everyone borrowing your meanest damage type on top of whatever other garbage they can pull, can end fights faster than you expect. Also, like with the Empath and Dragoon's Auras, you can switch your personal element after using this, so you could, say, give your team Pyro damage for loads of Burning stacks, then follow up with Concussion damage to soften them up for future turns.

Level 5:

Gain 1 Element
Speed:
0s
Free action, applies concussion damage and status effect to your attacks

The next damage type from the basic three is concussive, which is your way to do stagger fun. This is easier said than done for a Guardian, though: Concussion damage doesn't actually apply rattled unless the attack itself has stagger, which Vorpal Swarm does not. You'll need to A: wear down their shields first, and B: finish the job with an actual staggering move.

Level 6:

Vorpal Storm
AOE
Speed:
45s
Damage: 20
Crit Damage: +7 damage, +10s stagger

Ew. This is not a good move. This is in fact a bad move. Slow as hell with only okay damage and low stagger to show for it. That said, this DOES get to benefit off of Cursed enemies the entire field over, at which point the damage becomes decent, but it's still not great. It's still an AOE move with stagger, but lots of classes can do that at speeds higher than this. The most I can say about it is "well, at least it's there if you need it".

Level 7:

Gain 1 Element
Speed:
0s
Free action, applies antimatter damage and status effect to your attacks

Antimatter is the armor-wrecking damage type, with the matching Disintegrate status effect being the only damage-over-time in the game that applies to armor. Takes a while to get to, but if you're lacking teammates more capable of doing armor damage and are sorely in need of it, you could do far worse than having your Guardian chip it down.

Level 8:

Meld
Speed:
0s
Spirit: 1
Restores 25 health to user, free action

Ah, yes, our tank character finally gets their self-sustain option at uhhhhhh level 8 out of 10. Ehhh it's fine. Anyway Meld is still solid, especially during longer fights where your shield regen supports wouldn't be able to do anything for you. You can repeat this move as needed if you need greater healing, as long as your Spirit holds out. Just remember that it cuts into your ability to reliably wield Vorpal Swarm, to say nothing of Entity!

Level 9:

Gain 2 Elements
Speed:
0s
Free action, applies corruption or phasma damage and status effect to your attacks

Corruption damage is your new pyro damage, and phasma damage is your new pulse damage. They're extremely awkward to cycle through at this stage, but these are probably the two best damage types in the game. Use them well and enjoy the hax.

Level 10:

Vorpal Strike II
Normal
Speed:
30s
Damage: 35
Crit Bonus: +12 damage, +10 armor damage, +15s stagger

Hell yeah, better damage on the one attacking move you're most likely to use. I'm especially impressed by the massive spike in armor damage, that's considerably hilarious once you remember you can just get Antimatter damage on demand.

Progeny Exclusive:

Gift
Speed:
55s
+100 health restored to all allies, once per fight

Haha what? Just flat out "have a health kit" as a once per fight option? That's goofy as hell! I guess this makes any Guardian who has this the best friend of a low-shields team. Be extremely wary of the low speed of this move, because chances are if you need it, you're gonna need it a lot faster than "right as the enemies line up fatal blows".

Progeny:

BAV'N TYSANNO
Armor:
2
Health: 160
Damage: +10%
Crit Damage: +10%
Parent: Jens Malric (Enforcer)
Learns Meld at level 6, learns Vorpal Storm at level 8

On the surface, Bav'n looks like your straightforward +damage/-survivability progeny option, and that's basically true, yeah. EXCEPT that all the progeny versions of Guardian get an extra thing on their innate ability! In Bav'n's case, you get a free Mark effect any time you hit a Cursed enemy, which is to say, someone that hit you last turn. Only other change is the bump of Meld to earlier in the moveset, which means you can't leverage having a real AOE option early on. Ah well.

MARV'N TYSANNO
Armor:
4
Health: 180
Damage: -15%
Crit Damage: -15%
Parent: Aia Kur (Juggernaut)
Learns Meld at level 4, learns Entity at level 8

Marv'n looks even MORE straightforward: they are the even hardier tanking choice with much earlier access to Meld and significantly poorer damage output, not that Guardian's damage was great to begin with. They also get slightly more armor than usual, which goes a long way when you realize that your armor is what's going to do a lot of work keeping your health in play. Also, any time they get hit, bonus shields for your teammates! Not MUCH, but it's effectively a free Conduit effect that's just always active.

GAV'N TYSANNO
Armor:
2
Health: 150
Damage: +15%
Crit Damage: +15%
Parent: Sidara Kymon (Gunslinger)
Learns Vorpal Storm at level 4, learns Gift at level 6, learns Entity at level 8

And then there's the extreme option of Gav'n. At first glance, they appear to be Bav'n, but more so, especially with early Vorpal Storm and the same Mark effect on their innate. Don't overlook that Gav'n is the only one to have access to Gift! This might lend them towards being a backline support character for a low-shields team, letting them heal up with much more regularity than whenever you happen to find a health station.
 
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YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Hey this game is pretty damn fun. I bought it today and stopped playing for tonight right before the end of the 2nd planet. I think I know what I'm doing well enough now that I wish I could swap my shield generator guy for someone else who's maybe more DPS or debuff focused. Oh well, he's still fine.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Man, I could not disagree more. The shield guy (Archon) is my favourite class. He pretty much carried me to win my first run; I took basically no health damage for almost the entire game. Now that I'm on my second run and don't have him, I'm finding it to be much more difficult and miss him dearly. (Although I bumped up the difficulty and think that I may have elected to take a harder route for the second planet on this run, so that might be exacerbating the problem.)
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
There's just been plenty of instances in my run lately where I wish I had someone that could do more damage or cause some better disruption/debuffs, and I have no need for his shields a lot of the time anymore. I relied on his shields some early on, but once I figured out the day/night loop and camping, I stopped caring so much about letting some health damage get in, and now I just wanna alpha strike everything as much as possible, haha.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
And I finished my first run last night! This battle system is extremely aces and now I can't wait to start exploring all the new and different characters! I never really felt too much in danger, even for the final boss, but I could easily see how just tweaking the numbers to make it a bit less nice towards the player could really throw a wrench in how comfortable I would feel in future runs. I do want to call out the final boss specifically as being super cool -- it actually reminded me of a Dragon Quest final boss because there were more "phases" to it than I initially expected. First, there's the 4th Behemoth you beat, but he's then revealed as not the TRUE final boss. So then you fight the Overseer by himself, during the course of this fight, he recharges a bunch of Health and Armor and summons a couple adds. After beating THAT phase, he dies and then a Pod comes out that takes a turn trying to regenerate him, and it wasn't possible even with my DPS heavy party to destroy the Pod in 1 turn (though if I had left a Stun action on deck for that, I probably could've), so it managed to revive him. So that's the final stretch as long as you can manage to kill the Pod.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Second run is also in the bag, on Harsh difficulty. Started with Commando/Enforcer/Paragon and then my 2 choices later were: Marksman/Saboteur, then Marksman/Empath -- went with Saboteur and Empath. Saboteur wasn't really that needed for the most part and I only got him to level 6 by the end. Double Stun with him and Enforcer though was extremely useful, but with this party I definitely learned how important it is to be able to hit the back row because it had a lot of trouble with that. But anything single target just didn't even have a chance against me (except for the 2nd Behemoth who is immune to stuns, but he also wasn't as bad as I expected). Empath was pretty cool and I'm wondering how it would work out to start with her since her auras wouldn't be nearly as useful without a full party, but dang is her Fury action really cool! Enforcer was a little awkward because for most of the run he was my best damage dealer, but that meant it wasn't really worth it to Mark things for my other allies to get bonus CRIT. It wasn't until I got a piece of gear for my Empath that gave her Mark on Mind Knife when I was able to take advantage of it.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Picking Marksman at either point would have fixed your back row problems. I'm near the end of my 3rd run (on Extreme now) and he might have unseated Archon as my favourite class.

Also, my second run started with Empath, and she was fine. Mind Knife is useful right out of the gate, as is her speed aura, and her Fury power is great, as you noted. You definitely need a high damage class in your starting trio to help prop her up, though, since she deals very little.

I find Enforcer kind of meh. He can deal a lot of damage, but doesn't have much else to recommend him, and personally I just find him a bit boring.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Ah see, I had already used Marksman on my 1st run, so I didn't want to pick him again :p

I had a harrowing experience with my 3rd run yesterday (playing on Extreme) when I decided to try the ice planet. The roaming Behemoth ended up being a brutal slog that took 25 turns and I didn't even think I was going to pull out a victory at all. So then I was left with an Aegis at considerably low health and I still had a couple rooms to clear before camping, so even those fights felt like a knife's edge, and once I got to camp I had to have the Aegis use a health restore food card on herself since the ice planet didn't have a health station. And then, the actual Behemoth on the planet was not very nice for my party as well. I've got Enforcer/Aegis/Varangian/Gunslinger, and based on how much trouble I had with that planet, I'd say my weakness is when something summons adds. For my second ally I picked up a Paragon, but I'm not sure how well that's gonna fit in with everyone else.

I find Enforcer kind of meh. He can deal a lot of damage, but doesn't have much else to recommend him, and personally I just find him a bit boring.
Kind of same. I only have him this run to unlock a progeny character with the Aegis, but I've used him twice now and he's been fairly underwhelming. Like I'd rather have a Marksman in most cases I think. The only strong thing he brings is a Stun on his Fury action, but unlike Saboteur, that attack only hits the front row. His Marking mechanic still doesn't seem very strong or worth using his own turn on.
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
Honestly, my biggest problem with Enforcer is that while he's got a strong and varied moveset, all of those options are frequently not as good as just going "lmao burst fire". The damage on that sucker is without compare.
 
Enforcer isn't really set up to be a team's primary damage dealer IMO. He can be, but he gives some of the largest damage bonuses in the game with his relationship bonus and +15% damage to marked card, so he's much better as support for Specter/Marksman. I hardly ever start a run with him, but he's one of the characters I'm happiest to pick up afterwards. His damage outside of support stuff is just a bonus, and it's pretty easy to get it to a decent level even if you focus most of his gear on utility. Just throw a life steal gun on him and he's good to go.

Stun is always useful to have, and it's extremely easy to make it ranged if you need it to be. The implant that makes all light attacks ranged is one of the most widely useful pieces of equipment in the game, so just start a run with one of those unless your group really needs something else to function. Even a level 1 version of that is still useful at the end of a run.

Cover Fire is more useful for the 15% defense than anything else, because stacking defense gets absurd when you have a few sources. You can get the shield recovery to a respectable amount with gear if needed too.

Unload is pretty situational, but it's really good when it comes up. Canceling overwatch/covering fire/riposte is much more important against certain Overseers for obvious reasons, and it's a fairly rare effect. Plus it's an instant AoE attack, which will always have some use even if the damage is low.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I recently finished this on Max difficulty and I think I've wrung all of the enjoyment out of it that I'm going to until they add more toys. I put in over 100 hours, though, and really enjoyed my time with it!

Kalir asked me to make a tier list on Discord, and I spent way too long thinking about it, so I thought I may as well share it here:

S-tier
--
Marksman
Juggernaut
Archon

A-tier
--
Spectre
Aegis
Saboteur

B-tier
--
Commando
Paragon
Dragoon

C-tier
--
Guardian
Valkyrie

D-tier
--
Empath
Gunslinger
Varangian

F-tier
--
Enforcer

Rationale:

It's close between Marksman and Spectre, and they fill very similar roles in a party. Spectre's Fury ability is way more useful, and I like that she can just pop out of sight if there's a lot heat coming her way, but the flexibility of the Marksman can't be beat. He can juke around on the turn order to just where you need him, burn through armour, reach the back row, and just bring boatloads of damage.

Similarly, it's close between Juggernaut and Aegis, also fighting for the same role. They're both the backbone of any party they're in, offering great defense and the ability to stagger back row targets. Aegis' Fury ability is better, but she has to lower her defenses to cover your allies, while the Juggernaut gets to Taunt while also keeping full defense and restoring shields for the whole party.

Archon is just too useful to not bring once you get to the higher difficulties and shields stop being fully restored after every battle. Give him your best stagger gear and he can often open a fight be staggering the entire enemy team, and continue to do so every other turn. On most other turns, he's bailing water, but he's very good at that. And just as gravy, he can start chewing through the armor of some of the more annoying bosses before their shield come down.

Saboteur is very good at what he does, which is deciding which enemy you would least like to get to do something on any given turn and making sure that they don't. If he can't do that or no one needs to be stunned, then he can set up a bomb for later. He drops off a little in the higher difficulties because of diminishing returns on stagger, but he's still very good. You need the rest of the team to pick up his damage slack, though, and I don't like him in my starting trio.

Commando isn't as good at Saboteur at staggering, nor is he as fast, but largely makes up for it by being able to throw a punch and shred enemy armor, and is a great way to prop up parties that are bad at that. He can also be a fun front-line main tank if you're willing to give him every shield station you find.

Paragon rose dramatically in my estimation once I realized that he could Siphon Stab at the start of a big damage turn to bump his shields above max, and he can stagger entire enemy teams while he does so. He also does decent damage, and is decent at killing problems in the backline and shredding armour back there too.

Dragoon is fine, but honestly this is mostly a vote for Osmosis. That ability is almost worth the party slot alone. Being able to ~completely refill your Fury gauge once per battle is huge. Other than that, he also offers some turn timer flexibility, like the Marksman, and can reach problems in the back if need be, and his auras offer some nice support.

Honestly, I kind of hate Guardian. I think they're neat, but I would almost always much rather have an Aegis or a Juggernaut. They're frustratingly slow, their stagger is terrible, and you constantly need to babysit them if you want them to keep any armour. Also, switching elements is way too fiddly. All of that said, they'll do in a pinch, and Stronghold is amazing, and can win games all on its own, not to mention being very satisfying.

Valkyrie is... good. Kind of unexciting, but can slot into any party, and do a little bit of everything, from staggering and armor-breaking to damage and off-tanking, and she has a nice variety of move times that allows her a lot of flexibility on the turn chart.

I wanted to like Empath, but if I have one I mostly just spend my time wishing she were an Archon instead, even if I have some great +regen gear propping her up. Her auras are useful but fiddly, but honestly she just spends a lot of turns Mind Knifing, and if I'm going to do that I'd rather have a Saboteur.

I'm honestly not sure I used Gunslinger or Varangian enough to rank them with confidence. Gunslinger's speed is aces, but she mostly does Flurry, and Flurry is just... bad, especially as armour becomes more and more prevalent on higher difficulties. Varangian is great at shredding armor and does decent damage, but everything he can do can be done better by someone else.

I hate Enforcer. I tried to like him, but he's just bad. His main damage source is a Flurry move, and they're bad, and not much else he can do is all that useful, but he sure is good at doing nothing slowly.
 
That's pretty interesting. I wouldn't have put Archon or any of the full tanks in the upper half of the list, even for max difficulty. They all drop the party's offense pretty hard, and I feel like the amount of support they provide is only necessary if you drop the party's offense by bringing them. It felt like lower damage teams ended up having to let some elites go early on in Entropy V, which delayed a run snowballing a bit, but prioritizing damage lets me pretty consistently kill every elite and even a planet 1 moon if it shows up.

I haven't played recently enough to give my own tier list, but Paragon/Spectre/Empath was my preferred start. I used the Spectre progeny with the AoE at level 4, and the Empath progeny with the strength aura at level 1. Paragon provided more than enough tanking, especially with some shield defense stacking, without sacrificing much damage and also staggering extremely well with a little gear. Empath is good enough at restoring shields, has a top-tier bond bonus, great fury ability, and has an insane combo attack with Spectre that will instantly wipe out anything short of an elite (and also some elites). The AoE, stun, combo, and better shield defense card on Spectre are why I preferred her to Marksman.

AoE is something I prioritized heavily, since it's really easy to just nuke all the chaff before they can act with Siphon Stab + 2 AoEs. Stun is also incredible, since you can just stun bigger enemies once you can't stagger them anymore, then proceed to stagger them all over again the next turn. You can literally never have too much of it, and you're kind of crazy to put a character with a stun at the bottom of the list.

I never felt like Marksman being able to move around to a bunch of spots on the timeline was very valuable, so he was just pretty high ranged damage to me. Lower damage than Spectre, but can consistently hit at range. Which is good but not anything amazing IMO. Honestly he feels like one of the most narrow characters in the game to me. I'd put him above other single-target damage dealers like Valkyrie and Commando, but below anyone with a decent AoE or stun. I wouldn't be mad if he was the best pick after a boss, but I wouldn't be excited like if Saboteur or Enforcer show up.

Guardian is the worst character in the game IMO. Aside from the reasons you listed, he's actually just really bad at tanking because he doesn't have any free way to redirect/mitigate damage like every other tank. On top of that, his gear requirements don't overlap with any other character in the game, so you probably won't have any of it starred unless you're starting a run with him, which you won't want to do because he's worse than the other tanks.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
We clearly played this game very differently! Which speaks to it being well-designed, I guess.

That's pretty interesting. I wouldn't have put Archon or any of the full tanks in the upper half of the list, even for max difficulty. They all drop the party's offense pretty hard, and I feel like the amount of support they provide is only necessary if you drop the party's offense by bringing them. It felt like lower damage teams ended up having to let some elites go early on in Entropy V, which delayed a run snowballing a bit, but prioritizing damage lets me pretty consistently kill every elite and even a planet 1 moon if it shows up.
Early elites fleeing was definitely a problem on several of my runs, although I was usually able to stop it with careful planning/application of Stuns, but even when they still got away, losing out on 5 DNA or whatever isn't a big deal. That said, a planet 1 moon is trivial with a tank; they can just stand on the front row and soak all of the bomb bots. It's a long fight, but an easy one to end at full health and shields. As long as I started with a high damage unit like a Spectre or a Marksman, I never felt short on offense.

I haven't played recently enough to give my own tier list, but Paragon/Spectre/Empath was my preferred start. I used the Spectre progeny with the AoE at level 4, and the Empath progeny with the strength aura at level 1. Paragon provided more than enough tanking, especially with some shield defense stacking, without sacrificing much damage and also staggering extremely well with a little gear. Empath is good enough at restoring shields, has a top-tier bond bonus, great fury ability, and has an insane combo attack with Spectre that will instantly wipe out anything short of an elite (and also some elites). The AoE, stun, combo, and better shield defense card on Spectre are why I preferred her to Marksman.
I didn't play enough games to unlock most of the progeny (I think I only had two losses, both because I was trying to make Aegis and Enforcer have a baby on Entropy IV so I could unlock the last class before my final run, and they're a terrible starting duo), although I did forget to take into account the Empath's Fury ability, which probably bumps her up to a C for me.

And you make a good point about the Spectre's card-- it's very good. That said, the Marksman's card is pretty similar and almost as good. My favourite use case for both is using one of them before a Behemoth fight and then using it again on the ship so that you can do a single fight on the next planet with stacking bonuses-- very fun if you can immediately ram yourself into an elite. I didn't really take card selection into account when doing my rankings, mostly because I couldn't remember the cards. I feel like card selection should be a secondary concern, other than to note that the Guardian's are bad. I usually spent 2 points/campfire doing +5 permanent max shields to everyone and the final 3 trying to make hearts anyway, unless I knew I was going to start the next day by doing something difficult.

AoE is something I prioritized heavily, since it's really easy to just nuke all the chaff before they can act with Siphon Stab + 2 AoEs. Stun is also incredible, since you can just stun bigger enemies once you can't stagger them anymore, then proceed to stagger them all over again the next turn. You can literally never have too much of it, and you're kind of crazy to put a character with a stun at the bottom of the list.
Enh. I like have a single AoE staggerer, but tend not to like AoE moves otherwise. I'd much rather remove problems one at a time; I rarely used them.

And I like having a single stun in the party for emergencies, but I've had parties with 3 stuns and felt like it was too many. Not to mention how often stun immunity starts showing up on higher Entropy levels, or that one jerk Behemoth who actively punishes it. To me Stun feels like a crutch. I'd rather have sustain than be in a position where I'm trying to kill an enemy before it can kill me. I'm usually able to hang out in most fights indefinitely; I finished my final Entropy V run at max health and shields for everyone. I guess it's fun to use stuns to skip the last phase of the final battle to speed it up a bit.

I never felt like Marksman being able to move around to a bunch of spots on the timeline was very valuable, so he was just pretty high ranged damage to me. Honestly he feels like one of the most narrow characters in the game to me.
I couldn't disagree more. I feel like he's super flexible. He can hit anyone, go at any speed from instant to dead last, stagger, destroy armor, debuff enemy shields, turn off enemy crits, etc. Being able to hop all over the turn chart is huge, because you can mix him in just where you need to make something happen, usually in an effort to make the Archon's shield heal land at the best possible moment (sometimes assisted by shutting of an enemy crit so that Archon doesn't take extra damage while doing so).

Guardian is the worst character in the game IMO. Aside from the reasons you listed, he's actually just really bad at tanking because he doesn't have any free way to redirect/mitigate damage like every other tank. On top of that, his gear requirements don't overlap with any other character in the game, so you probably won't have any of it starred unless you're starting a run with him, which you won't want to do because he's worse than the other tanks.
No argument here, expect that I feel like every party needs a tank and Guardian is one of only 3 dedicated tanks, so being the worst tank still makes them middling at worst. And even if you have the bad shield item that grants health and health damage resistance demoted, chances are good you'll see one at some point that you can shove their way. Same with an implant that steals health on hit (once you can have your Guardian start every turn with a healing flurry they are essentially unkillable). Also, Stronghold is just stupidly good, and with good Fury income you can almost use it every other turn. I actually like picking up a late Guardian as an offtank to make a nigh unkillable party; your damage suffers for having two tanks, but splitting the damage between two tanks takes the pressure off both, and you can ~blank every high damage enemy turn.
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Guardian is the worst character in the game IMO
I agree with this. I'd probably take JBear's list and bump people up 1 or 2 tiers, except for Guardian which would be the sole class at the bottom.

the Empath progeny with the strength aura at level 1
Wait what the heck that's soooo good! I have a very hard time using Empath in my starting party, but that alone would justify her. I feel like you'd have to make a separate tier chart that takes progeny variants into account though, because they can be really different and completely change the focus of what the base class does (like that Archon variant that focuses on AOE damage and not shields).

RE: stuns; I love stuns. 2 stuns feels like the sweet spot for me. 3 stuns might be more required for Behemoths at higher difficulties, I dunno I'm only on Entropy III, but I also want to propose that Gunslinger's stun absolutely sucks and is a waste of a Fury action slot. If it didn't cost an entire Fury bar it would be more usable, like even if it was 40 instead of 50 mayyybe I'd use it, but as it is now I never ever use it.

I was down on Enforcer for a while until I had a pretty damage heavy run once, using Gunslinger and a weapon mod to get Mark on everything. I didn't even have an Enforcer in my party at the end, but the damage I was pumping out was very impressive, and it would only be even more with an Enforcer in the party for his relationship and card bonus. I also feel like it's a pick between him and Spectre for a starting slot with stun access (or why not both? my planned party for whenever I come back to this game is gonna be Paragon/Spectre/Enforcer), and not Saboteur, simply because both of them deal more damage than Saboteur and that's hugely important on the 1st planet.
 

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
Guardian has a move that prevents the entire rest of the team from taking any damage. That ability can be used multiple times per combat.

I agree that if you enjoy taking damage, Guardian is not the character for you. The status effects are pretty useful, though (especially Concussion, Antimatter, and Phasma).
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I also want to propose that Gunslinger's stun absolutely sucks and is a waste of a Fury action slot. If it didn't cost an entire Fury bar it would be more usable, like even if it was 40 instead of 50 mayyybe I'd use it, but as it is now I never ever use it.
Seconded. I used it once just to look at it, and then never again. If you have 50 Fury, then you can probably spend < 50 of it to get yourself out of whatever danger you're in more cheaply.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Archon is the backbone of most of my playthroughs; just need anything that boosts stagger.

And there’s plenty of things to like about Flurry moves; between the high damage output, their inability to deal any Stagger to make better use of it, or just give them weapons that Steal health or shields and just absolutely devastate anything stupid enough to be in their line of sight
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
Yeah I was surprised that you'd call flurry moves poor. In my experience, stacking multiple instances of steal, or any status effect that can stack (like burning) is a very nice tradeoff for the increased difficulty in handling armor (particularly with a good armor-wrecker on deck). Flurry moves also have very high base damage, handily beating a move at comparable speed.

Then again, that's the same kind of thing as using gear to shore up the weak stagger of fast AOEs like Siphon Stab or Discharge, which I've said doesn't excuse those moves having that. Different styles, I suppose.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I just spent way too many battles with my Enforcer plinking away for zero damage to mark every turn because the enemy had too much armor for him to do anything else. Elites on planet 1 on are especially awful, where he's just a wasted party slot. Health and Shield steal on Flurry is cute but I'd still rather have a single big hit the majority of the time. The only flurry moves I don't hate are Blade Throw (since it's only split between two fairly heavy hits and also helps take care of the armor problem) and Twinfire (same rationale).
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I started playing this! I'm definitely still trying to get a handle on the mechanics; party members, team makeup, etc. I'm on my third run, the first getting stopped by the second behemoth and the second getting run down partway into the third planet.

Any advice on good party makeup? Not just what characters are best, but solid combinations.

Likewise for gear, specific to characters or otherwise. I still feel like I'm picking somewhat randomly and only just beginning to connect dots on good gear/party combinations. (One of the first glimmers I've had was a +shield damage +Ionization weapon on my archon, who'd open a battle with a fast, lightly staggering AOE that ate pretty much all the shields and weakened whichever ones were left.) Also, did someone say flurry stacks multiples of DoTs??
 

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
I should have mentioned flurry stacking status effects somewhere in my writeups, but yeah, it does.

For team composition, I'd say you want at least one person capable of stretching shields out, one person with good stagger, and one person with just raw hit-the-guy potential. The fine details of this are up to personal taste, but that's the core of a solid team. Without shield sustain, you die off in boss fights, or worse, get whittled down by randoms. Without stagger, you take far too many hits to keep up. And it goes without saying that without damage potential, you can't shoot the cyberdemon until it dies.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Did anyone here actually try the DLC? I'd love to know if the additions were significant or just felt minor in the end. I don't know if I have it in me to go back to this game after spending so much time with it, especially since I'd have to learn it all over again, but I might make the time if folks say it's worth revisiting.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Is this just the free character pack DLC? I haven't played since about a year-ish ago but might be fun to try some new guys out.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
IIRC, it added a character and some nebulous combination of areas/endings sort of thing.
 

Dark Medusa

Diamond Crusader
(He/they)
I didn't play prior to DLC, but iirc it's two new characters, which is neat, but the endings really didn't add that much. I sort of wish they added more or had a paid DLC for more new characters/real content.
 
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