post a video game character and i'll theme a Dead Cells build around them

[yui 573]

two weapons, two abilities, three mutations, let's go. i'll explain what each part of the build does and how it correlates to the character, too. for best results, you should briefly sum up what the character does.

[radio414 903]

i admit i don't have any better description than what the image already provides

[yui 573]

17 hours ago, radio414 said:

big pic is big
i admit i don't have any better description than what the image already provides

a monster that pops out in the dark to eat your ass? sounds like a melee tactics build to me.

Damage Stat: Tactics

Weapons/Skills:

Cursed Sword, Parry Shield, Smoke Bomb, Explosive Decoy

Mutations:

Scheme, Initiative, Predator

Summary: Our friend the grue plays a high-risk high-reward melee Tactics build, with the Cursed Sword providing the highest overall damage of any weapon in the game, which can be further amplified after using a skill (Scheme) or when he first smacks somebody (Initiative). Since the darkness mechanic in Dead Cells hurts you instead of helps you and only exists in one level, we'll go with the next-best thing and play around with invisibility instead. The Smoke Bomb and Explosive Decoy both turn our grue invisible for a duration, letting him slip out of the fray or get into a good position to start beating some asses. Once he's started his rampage, the Predator mutation will turn the grue invisible for a bit after each kill to ensure nobody can see this monster running around eating everyone.

However, the grue is known to fear light, and our Dead Cells equivalent is no exception. In exchange for its absurd DPS, the Cursed Sword has the significant drawback that taking even a single point of damage from any source will instantly kill you. While all the invisibility helps, not all is lost for our hungry friend if the light shines on him. As a bit of a safety net, the grue has picked up the Parry Shield, which - as its name implies - deals significant damage to enemies if it parries an attack. Another key flaw of this build is that it can't get much mileage out of Scheme in prolonged fights, with Smoke Bomb and Explosive Decoy having respective cooldowns of 16 and 20 seconds. But that's okay, because the plan is to eat our opponents, not maim them. While an incredibly effective build in biomes, the grue may struggle in boss fights unless his parry game is on point.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Yui

[(o ×) 228]

Sans Undertale

[Thar 502]

[MetalSonic 86]

Deathslinger from Dead By Daylight(Chains of Hate update)

Profession: Bounty Hunter

Affliation: Hellshire Gang

Power: The Redeemer - A speargun that on hit, allows Caleb to reel in his targets for a melee hit.

For addons, he has some that apply status effects that make it harder to heal after getting speared, as well as ultra rare addons that let him see the auras of the other survivors while he has one speared.

His perks include Gearhead(highlights gens being worked on after 2 hits), Hex: Retribution(reveals the auras of survivors trying to break totems) and Dead Man’s Switch(when he hooks his obsession, if a survivor stops working a a generator, that generator becomes blocked).

He’s also slower than most killers due to having a broken leg and a smashed jaw.

Edited September 27, 2020 by MetalSonic

[yui 573]

18 hours ago, (✧△✧) said:

Sans Undertale

another tactics build, though of a slightly different nature than the grue's.

Damage Stat: Tactics

Weapons/Skills:

Cursed Sword, Hokuto's Bow, Great Owl of War, Corrosive Cloud

Mutations:

Parting Gift, Tactical Retreat, Emergency Triage

Summary: A build that boasts even greater melee DPS than the grue's build just above, in exchange for even less defensive measures. Since an important part of the Sans fight is that he only has 1 HP, he also gets to pack a Cursed Sword for that sweet insta-death should anything touch him. However, he can further increase that damage by using Hokuto's Bow, which increases all damage enemies struck by it take, and also spreading that mark after the initial target dies. I chose Hokuto's for this build because it made me think of the way Sans's damage works; he technically only does 1 damage at a time, but does it in such huge chunks that it seems like you're taking far more. This "poison"-like mechanic is also why he gets to make use of Corrosive Cloud, which... well, creates a corrosive cloud around him, dealing poison and bleed damage to anything nearby. I also wanted something akin to the gaster blasters, and Great Owl of War was the best option. This feathery friend will follow Sans around, shooting arrows automatically at any enemy it spots, and can be activated again to make the owl mad and seriously ramp up its damage. The owl does go away if you take any damage, but if Sans takes any damage, he dies anyway, so don't worry about that.

Mutations are where things got a bit tricky. Tactical Retreat was a perfect Sans mutation since it's all about good dodging, which is how Sans manages to be a fairly challenging boss fight in the first place. Being able to slow down nearby enemies after a successful dodge is the icing on the cake. Parting Gift is a weird one, as it doesn't really have any correlation to Sans, but I felt like it suited this weird melee-ranged hybrid build, and it should help him deal with huge clusters of enemies. Lastly, Emergency Triage is a backup defensive measure for attacks that can't be rolled through (stupid Slammers). His health potions only healing 45% health doesn't matter since he's only got 1 HP anyway, but the quick use and 3-second invincibility makes this a great backup plan if you get caught like a deer in the headlights. Use it wisely though, because at higher difficulties, health pot refills get more and more scarce, culminating in your only refills being in food shops for 20,000 gold a pop, which is really expensive!

A build with a similar mindset to the grue's, but a slightly different approach and more boss-killing power.

16 hours ago, Thar said:

Fall Guy is a weird one, so I tried to base this build around the things you can do in-game, with a couple choices that can allude to the game itself.

Damage Stat: Brutality

Weapons/Skills:

Spartan Sandals, Barrel Launcher, Emergency Door, Telluric Shock

Mutations:

Velocity, Disengagement, Masochist

Summary: In-game, there are only a few things the Fall Guy can do. Aside from running like everyone in every game ever, Fall Guy can also jump and grab, though the latter is mostly used to try and push people off ledges. Trying to work all this into a build resulted in a bizarre ranged Brutality build that pays very loose homage to a few of the game's rounds. Since Fall Guy specializes in falling, I wanted an item that lets you fall, and nothing fit the bill better than the Telluric Shock skill, causing our guy to jump up and crash into the ground with a damaging shockwave. There aren't really any "grab"-themed items that felt right, so instead I focused more on Fall Guy's tendency to push other guys off of cliffs, and gave him the Spartan Sandals to reward precisely that behavior. Shoving people off ledges or into walls is a-okay! But Telluric Shock and Spartan Sandals do not a build make, especially not a functional one. So I added the rest of the build accordingly.

A common first round in Fall Guys is Door Dash, which involves jumping through doors to find the real ones. Emergency Door suits that perfectly, and also allows for some interesting synergies with the Spartan Sandals as well as solid utility in the form of an on-demand stun. While this isn't actually a Brutality item, scaling purely with Tactics, that's okay, because Emergency Door doesn't do damage anyway, and this build already makes no sense as it is. Team games commonly involve large soccer balls, and while no such thing exists in Dead Cells, the Barrels of Fun Update did add the Barrel Launcher, which will probably serve as Fall Guy's main source of damage. For mutations, nothing in Brutality really worked with this build except maybe Combo, but that didn't feel very Fall Guys-y. So instead, I went for utility among the colorless mutations of the game. Traps don't actually hurt you in Fall Guys, so I decided to make them not hurt in Dead Cells either by picking up Masochist. Disengagement was a good defensive pick since I imagine this build will get bullied pretty hard, and finally, Velocity simply because it's an amazing mutation if you don't need anything in your third slot. I thought about giving him Ygdar Orus Li Ox, but there are no second chances in Fall Guys, so why should the Fall Guy get one in Dead Cells?

15 hours ago, MetalSonic said:

Deathslinger from Dead By Daylight(Chains of Hate update)

Profession: Bounty Hunter

Affliation: Hellshire Gang

Power: The Redeemer - A speargun that on hit, allows Caleb to reel in his targets for a melee hit.

For addons, he has some that apply status effects that make it harder to heal after getting speared, as well as ultra rare addons that let him see the auras of the other survivors while he has one speared.

His perks include Gearhead(highlights gens being worked on after 2 hits), Hex: Retribution(reveals the auras of survivors trying to break totems) and Dead Man’s Switch(when he hooks his obsession, if a survivor stops working a a generator, that generator becomes blocked).

He’s also slower than most killers due to having a broken leg and a smashed jaw.

Despite his signature weapon being a gun, Deathslinger here will find himself working with a melee build.

Damage Stat: Brutality

Weapons/Skills:

Sadist's Stiletto, Tentacle, Vampirism, Grappling Hook

Mutations:

Open Wounds, Combo, Recovery

Summary: When I think of cowboys and melee weapons, I think of whips first and foremost. Initially, this build had the Wrenching Whip instead of the Sadist's Stiletto, but I decided the latter is better for reasons I'm about to get into. Since there isn't any skill or mutation that lets you see invisible enemies, I decided to go all-in on the other things that stood out about Deathslinger: His speargun, and his anti-healing status effect. The former was a no-brainer; the Grappling Hook is perfect for builds like this, and it does precisely what this desperado's trusty speargun does with the added bonus that your next melee attack after hooking an enemy does bonus damage. Then I thought, "what if you want to pull yourself into them instead?" So I put the Tentacle in Deathslinger's second weapon slot to allow for that, since it's the only item in the game that functions as a reverse Grappling Hook.

An anti-healing status effect made me think of Dead Cells's bleed status, which damages an enemy every tick for each stack. If it hits five stacks, however, all the stacks explode and do the rest of their damage immediately. The most reliable means of stacking bleed is the Open Wounds mutation, which causes every melee attack to add a stack to whatever you hit. That's why I gave Deathslinger a knife instead of a whip, too; the Sadist's Stiletto crits on any bleeding (or poisoned) target, meaning that after that first hit, it's all aboard the pain train. Once he's chopped someone up, the Combo mutation will beef up his damage to let this crazed killer resume his killing spree. This all left me with a mutation and a skill still open. This is when I decided to take some creative liberties. Looking at him, Deathslinger looks like a guy that will get punched square in the dick and just walk it off as he resumes his chase without so much as flinching, like some wild west-style Friday the 13th bullshit. This is where Vampirism and Recovery come in, and for the sake of context, I need to take a short moment to explain a game mechanic in Dead Cells.

When you take damage in Dead Cells, that damage is converted into rally health, which is yellow on your health bar. Striking an enemy turns some of that rally health back into regular health, but it depletes pretty quickly, so usually, you won't get your full health back no matter what you're doing. Vampirism is a power that turns all of your health, plus a large chunk of your missing health (up to 100%) into rally health. If you make good use of it, you can walk into fights on the brink of death and then leave with half your health bar intact. The Recovery mutation doubles the amount of time you've got to restore rally health. Put these two together, and if Deathslinger finds himself low on health, he can find a cluster of enemies, pop Vampirism, then go apeshit on them to heal back up. Just be mindful that you don't get hit right after using Vampirism, or you will die. It also doesn't help with Malaise infection, but you don't have to worry about that until very late-game.

The end result of this build is a bleed-happy juggernaut who will grab & stab you, and if he's low, he'll pop Vampirism and heal back up off his bleed crits.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Yui