Introduction

 
This build is centered around an aggressive playstyle that will offer a great DPS and enough flexibility to manage most situations. The M1000 will be used for damage while the Boomstick will be used for utility (mobility, stun and fire). 
 
If you want to get precise regarding damage, DPS and stats in general, you can use this build planner: https://karl.gg/build 
 

Requirements

• Have all the weapon modifications recommended unlocked. 
• Have a promoted Scout to unlock the 2nd active perk 
• Have enough progress in the perk tree to unlock the recommended perks and the 3rd pa*sive perk slot 
• The Hipster Overclock for the M1000 is mandatory 
• The Special Powder Overclock for the Boomstick is not mandatory (regardless, it adds a lot to the Scout gameplay)

Pros and Cons

 
Pros: 

• Good single target DPS with Hipster bursts, good one-shot capacities with accurate shots . 
• Nervous playstyle 
• Stun is good offensively and defensively 
• Decent against hordes once mastered 
• Works well with a Cryo Driller

Cons: 

• Requires decent aiming skills 
• Forces a more aggressive playstyle which is less safe than a focus oriented playstyle 
• Tricky to play on Solo Escort Duty or Solo Salvage Operation. Switch the IFG for the Cryo grenade which is more useful for those missions

Overview

Generalities

Hipster doesn’t prevent you from using focus shots

 
The reason we take Hipster on the M1000 is that it will allow us to maintain some interesting breakpoints (most notably kill Grunt with one hipshot to the head and Spitters with one shot in the body) while providing almost twice the ammo count. This makes hipster the most forgiving build when missing shots but the high fire rates also allows it to reach the highest DPS for the gun. 
 
As you will see in the “Breakpoints & Combat Strategies” section, focus shots provide a lot of utility when coupled with the stun perk. Immobile enemies are easier to hit which results in better DPS and ammo management. 
 

You don’t have to kill everything you see

 
Leave horde enemies to your teammates, they are better than you at dealing with them. Focus on High Value Targets (HVT) like Spitters, Wardens, Macteras and Oppressors. Spamming shots will empty your ammo reserves in the blink of an eye so choose your targets and always try to aim for weakspots. 
 

Support your teammates

 
Make sure the areas where your teammates fight are always lit. Once the light is on try to a*sist your teammates by killing Spitters, Macteras and by helping them kill bigger targets. Be ready to use an IFG grenade if a teammate is in trouble. Killing an enemy accross the map is cool but killing an enemy threatening a teammate first is always better. 
 
 
 
As Scout you have the best survivability in the game. Don’t hesitate to back up from a fight when necessary, lure the enemies away and come back for a revive when there are less bugs around. You high mobility makes you really efficient for reviving fallen teammate so the perk Field Medic (+30% revive speed and fear to nearby enemies on revive) is a solid choice to support your team. Born Ready (automatic reload of a weapon after being unequipped for 5 seconds) will allow you to reload your weapons (and Flare-Gun) when you use your grappling hook which is very good for staying in movement when things go bad. 
 

Minerals first

 
 
More nitra means less trouble. Less time spent collecting minerals and secondary objectives means less trouble. Having Deep Pockets (can carry 15 extra minerals of each sort) helps you in that regard, allowing you to perform less travels between minerals veins and the deposit point. 
 
 

M1000

 
 
Our M1000 is built for damage and will reward accurate shots rather than spamming. Hipster bursts will be reserved for big targets or targets stunned by your secondary. 
 
T1: we take damage to reach some breakpoints, ammo is not too much of an issue with Hipster. 
 
T2: we take armor damage to be versatile against more enemies. Focus speed is not needed and the recoil on Hipster is perfectly manageable after a bit of training. 
 
T3: we take +75% clip size which is a ma*sive boost compared to +25% focus damage. A bigger clip means less reloads and longer bursts of damage when needed. 
 
T4: we take extra weakpoint damage to reach some breakpoints and increase our DPS against big targets. Blowthrough is praised by many players but it mostly deals trash damage (rarely hitting weakspots) and is harder to exploit. 
 
T5: we take stun to secure our kills on many targets. Fear is unwanted as we want enemies to face us to be able to hit their weakspots and we don’t need the extra reload speed with our increased clip size and the Born Ready perk. 
 
Overclock: we take Hipster (more ammo, higher fire rate, less spread and recoil but less direct damage) because it allows us to keep some interesting breakpoints (most notably kill Grunt with one hipshot to the head and Spitters with one shot in the body) while providing almost twice the ammo count, making it more forgiving to miss shots. It also increases our DPS against big targets. 
 
See the “Breakpoints & Combat Strategies” for some details on the breakpoint offered by the weapon. 
 
 

Jury-Rigged Boomstick

 
 
Our Boomstick is built for utility, offering mobility, stunning power and fire element. We will mostly use it for one of those reasons and will leave the killing to the M1000. 
 
T1: we take more ammo as we don’t build for damage. This will allow for more stuns and to compensate for the ammo “wasted” by the Special Powder Overclock. 
 
T2: we take increased fire rate to be quicker when using the weapon. It also allows to propel yourself faster with Special Powder. 
 
T3: we take the Stun mod that got boosted in update 35 and now provides a total of 6 seconds of stun duration. This is very useful coupled with a Hipster M1000 as it will leave the stunned victim open to a lot of damage. 
 
T4: we take Blowthrough to get more fire power against hordes. It also allows to hit more enemies with one shot, potentially stunning more targets at a time. This is both an offensive and defensive choice. 
 
T5: we take White Phosphorous Shells to increase our damage a bit and to provide the benefits of fire damage. Some enemies are weak to fire but fire can also burn webs, detonate gaz clouds left by Praetorian and Oppressors, unfreeze enemies for a burst of damage. A good addition to make our Boomstick more versatile. 
 
Overclock: Special Powder (propel youself backward when shooting while in the air) will allow us to move around the map with ease. It is good for several reasons: 

• it can help us reach distant locations quickly 
• it can help us break a fall when needed which is great when you try to reach ressources on the ceilings of caves. 
• it can help us quickly escape dangerous situtations

Special Powder is very fun to use and vastly increases the mobility of the Scout, making him even better at what he aleady does well. 
 
 

Flare-Gun

 
 
We build our Flare-Gun for a mobile playstyle. We want to be on the move most of the time so we will favour ammo. Light is a very precious ressource which can be the difference between life and death during waves, don’t spam it too much but don’t forget it either. Learn to distinguish when your teammates need it and when you can tolerate to work in the dark. 
 
T1 and T3: we take ammo to be able to place more Flares. More ammo means more walls can be lighten up which means you’ll be more efficient. An extended duration would only be useful on static objectives: not taking it only means you have to use your Flare-Gun a bit more often, which is not a ha*sle. 
 
T2: we take the least useless one, a bit more fire rate to go back more quickly to what we were doing before needing to ligh up the area. 
 
 

Grappling Hook

 
 
Our Grappling Hook is built for speed and maximum reach, making the cave exploration easier and allowing us to get out of dangerous situations quicker. 
 
T1 and T2: we take more reach to access hard to reach locations more easily. More range means more places where you can grapple when in a hurry so it also makes it safer to use. 
 
T3: we take extension speed to start moving around faster. The safest option of the two. 
 
T4: we take cooldown in order to be more active with our grappling. 
 
Tip: a common strategy to reach minerals on vertical wall is to place yourself just under the wall, initiate a rather vertical movement with the grappling hook and perform a power attack with the pickaxe to instantly break the wall and create a hole where you can fit. If you miss you can switch to your Boomstick to break you fall with the Special Powder Overclock. 
 
 

Pickaxe & Grenade

 
We build our pickaxe to favour area damage in order to compensate for the single target oriented playstyle of the Scout cla*s. 
 
T1: unclocks Power Attack. 
 
T2: we take increased area of effect. 
 
The IFG grenade is a fantastic support tool, great for crowd control. Creatures inside the field will be slowed down by 75% and they will receive 30% more damage, which is both great for making hordes easier to kill (slower moving targets are easier to hit precisely) and for helping to kill bigger, more tanky targets quicker. 
 

IFG and Berserker combo

 
 
A well known combo among veteran players consist of using the Berserker active perk (provides reduced cooldown for the pickaxe power attack for 10 seconds) combined with an IFG grenade: throw the grenade on the ground, activate the Berserker skill and you can perform 6-7 power attack in 10 seconds to slowed down enemies that take extra damage. 
 
 
This is a fantastic combo to clear hordes of enemies every 4 minutes. Try to group them first for maximum efficiency. Using the Vampire perk (heal 5HP when killing a medium or large creature with your pickaxe) also allows to provide some health regen to make the process safer: you can easily get half your health back or more. 
 
 

“Fox” Armor Rig

 
 
Our armor is built to fit Scout’s playstyle. 
 
T1: we take Bigger Mineral Bag which, combined with the Deep Pockets perk, allows us to reach 60 minerals capacity. You spend a lot of time collecting minerals as Scout so this is not a luxury. 
 
 
T2: we take shield capacity. This is mostly up to personal preferences but we don’t really want to tank as Scout so a bit more armor can negate a bit more mistakes. 
 
T3: Fall damage reduction. 
 
T4: we take the Explosive Shockwave to help deal with Swarmers, creatures against which Scout struggles. 
 
 

Breakpoints & Combat Strategies

 
Note: “critical hits” mean shots hitting the weakspot of the target. 
 
This part is not an in-depth guide on how to fight each enemy but rather a list of interesting breakpoints and ways to engage each of them if you want to be efficient. Hitting weakspots with the M1000 will always be better than spamming shots in the body so work on your aim. 
 

Creature	Killing method
	Glyphid Swarmer: most of the time you will want to not waste ammo on them. Try to let a teammate (or Bosco) deal with them, or use your pickaxe for loners and your Boomstick for groups.
	Glyphid Grunt: 1 critical hipshot.
	Glyphid Slasher: one critical focus shot  or one focus shot to the body ➔ stunned ➔ one critical hipshot.
	Glyphid Guard: one critical focus shot ➔ stunned ➔ one critical hipshot  or one focus shot to the body ➔ stunned ➔ one critical focus shot.
	Glyphid Warden: either come close ➔ stun with shotgun ➔ critical hipshots until dead  or chain 4 critical focus shots from afar.
	Glyphid Praetorian: stun with shotgun ➔ critical hipshots until dead
	Glyphid Oppressor: bait a stomping attack ➔ grapple behind it ➔ critical hipshots until dead.  Use an IFG grenade for extra damage if you can spare one.
	Glyphid Exploder:If alone bait their detonation and move away. If threatening a dwarf or Doretta, kill with one hipshot to the body.
	Glyphid Bulk Detonator: always use an IFG grenade to maximise your damage against it. Use your mobility to bait it away from the team if needed.
	Glyphid Spitter: one hipshot to the body.
	Glyphid Acid Spitter: one critical focus shot  or one focus shot to the body ➔ stunned ➔ one critical hipshot  or 3 hipshots to the body.
	Glyphid Acid Spitter: can be easily stunned with the shotgun, even from afar ➔ critical hipshots until dead.
	Mactera Spawn: one critical focus shot.
	Mactera Tri-Jaw: one critical focus shot ➔ stunned ➔ one critical hipshot  or one focus shot to the body ➔ stunned ➔ one critical focus shot.
	Mactera Brundle: one focus shot to remove the armor ➔ one critical focus shot + 1 critical hipshot  or one focus shot to remove the armor ➔ 3 critical hipshots.
	Mactera Grabber: critical focus shots from afar  or double shotgun blasts when close (can’t be stunned but weak to fire).
	Mactera Goo Bomber: stun with shotgun ➔ critical hipshots until dead.
	Q’ronar Youngling: while rolling ➔ 2 focus shots to the body  while standing still ➔ one critical focus shot or 3 hipshots to the belly.
	Q’ronar Shellback:while rolling ➔ you will lack DPS against its armor, weaken with focus shots if necessary  while standing still ➔ hipshots to the belly until dead.  Hitting the eyes or the tail is worth but hard, don’t bother if low on ammo.
	Trawler: stun with shotgun ➔ hipshots to the belly.
	Spitterplant: patiently aim for the weakspot. Use your shotgun if close (weak to fire).
	Nexus: patiently aim for the weakspots. You can seek help from a teammate once destroyed to kill the spawns.
	Naedocyte Breeder: wait for the mouth to become bright pink to shoot it. Don’t spam shots otherwise aas it will take you more than two clips (30+ bullets) to kill without hitting a weakspot.

Bosses

 
 
 
If you are not afraid to get up close you will be able to perform a lot of damage on big targets like bosses. Don’t forget to optimize your damage for you and your team by using IFG grenade at critical moments where the creatures’ weakspots are exposed. 
You will burn rather quickly through your ammo but you will be the one doing the most damage so this is worth it. 
 
 

Conclusion

 
I made this build to emphasize every aspect of the Scout playstyle: being a mineral hoarder with as much mobility as possible and providing as much support to the team as possible. The Hipster rework of update 35 changed it for the better and I believe it is now where it should have always been. 
 
I hope you’ll find this build as fun as me. Feel free to share your opinions and to adapt this build to your needs. 
 
Rock and Stone ! 
 

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