As an experienced gamer who has extensively played Steelrising since launch, I‘ve experimented with all character builds and weapon configurations imaginable. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll leverage my expertise to help you construct optimized steelrising characters capable of dominating the game‘s toughest battles.
Understanding Steelrising‘s Core Systems
Before planning your build, it‘s essential to grasp how Steelrising‘s intricate underlying systems function synergistically. As creative director Jehanne Rousseau explains:
"We designed interconnecting progression systems so players can combine weapons, stats, and modules to become overpowered death machines if they understand the synergies."
There are three core elements defining your playstyle and combat effectiveness:
Weapons
Steelrising features a diverse arsenal with over 60 unique weapons ranging across all combat styles. Each weapon has distinct properties like speed, range, impact, and special abilities. Choose weapons complementing your stat investments and modules to maximize efficiency.
For instance, heavy strength-scaling weapons like warhammers fully capitalize on Power stat investments. Similarly, dexterity weapons pair well with Agility for added damage bonuses.
Stats
You earn stat points through levelling up, which can be invested to improve attributes like Health, Stamina, Power etc. Carefully allocate points in stats boosting your weapons‘ damage and critical synergies.
The three main offensive stats are:
- Power: Increases physical damage and impact, enabling you to stagger enemies more easily
- Agility: Boosts critical hit damage, movement speed and mobility
- Engineering: Enhances all elemental damage alongside weapon buff effectiveness
Defensive stats like Vigor and Durability also play key roles in rounding out builds.
Modules
Equippable modules provide targeted bonuses amplifying particular combat aspects. For example, the Critical Banker module increases critical hit damage by a percentage. Modules also help shore up weaknesses for squishier builds.
Investing in modules synergizing with your gear and stats squeezes out maximum efficiency. The Charging Module boosts fully charged heavy attacks, combining well with slow hard-hitting weapons and Power stat. Similarly, stacking Critical Banker, Swiftness and Agility enables even faster crit builds.
Understanding these core mechanics is key to planning optimized Steelrising character builds. Next, we analyze four top-tier builds highlighting these synergies.
4 Overpowered Steelrising Builds
Through extensive testing and experimentation across various playstyles, I‘ve curated four powerful "meta" builds offering targeted bonuses.
Juggernaut: The Unkillable Tank
The Juggernaut leverages the Bodyguard‘s durability and engineering to become an impenetrable moving fortress. Its sheer physical toughness enables you to make gutsy aggressive plays and wade through enemies without fretting about damage or interruptions.
It‘s the perfect "Hulk Smash!" build for players craving heavy-hitting visceral melee combat.
Gear Synergies
Weapons:
- Wheel of Vengeance (Warhammer)
- Charleville Frost Musket
The Wheel is arguably the hardest hitting weapon in Steelrising with monstrous base damage and outrageous strength scaling. It generates tremendous impact, easily interrupting enemy attacks with its heavy blows. Its only downside is the reduced mobility from its weight, which we mitigate via modules.
The Charleville Frost Musket works excellently as a secondary weapon to pick off ranged enemies and create openings with its immobilizing shot.
Stats:
- Power: Maximized (S Tier Scaling with Wheel)
- Durability: Maximized
- Engineering: Very High
We lean hard into Power here for maximizing the Wheel‘s insane damage. Every point invested reaps tremendous dividends that let you smash foes into oblivion faster.
Durability increases health and enhances the Juggernaut‘s unkillable status. Engineering improves elemental damage and physical resistances.
Modules:
- Destruction (Physical Damage)
- Resistance (Elemental Resist)
- Shield Wall (75% Damage Reduction when Guarding)
- Antioxidant (Reduced Frost Damage)
These defensive modules shore up the Juggernaut‘s frost and elemental weaknesses prevalent in late-game areas while boosting physical damage. Shield Wall combined with the Bodyguard‘s innate defensive capabilities makes you an impregnable moving stronghold!
By synergizing stats, gear, and modules thusly, we‘ve created a nigh-unkillable heavy damage dealer able to conquer all challenges through sheer resilience and overwhelming force.
Death Dancer: Dodgy Crit Machine
If you prefer evasive gameplay capitalizing on quick critical hits, the Death Dancer build is ideal. It nets colossal damage multipliers by chaining together boosted backstabs, immobilizations and last second dodges. Enemies will struggle laying a finger on you, much less surviving your lethal flurries!
Gear Synergies
Weapons:
- Nemesis Claws
- Falchion and Saber
The Nemesis Claws gain damage stacks per hit which culminates in a spectacularly powerful 4-hit combo. It‘s especially effective against isolated tough enemies like Royal Guards. Meanwhile, the Falchion/Saber provides terrific AOE crowd control.
Stats:
- Agility: Maximized (S+ Scaling with Claws)
- Vigor: Very High
- Engineering: High
Agility boosts the Death Dancer‘s critical hit rate, mobility and dodge effectiveness culminating in unmatched damage potential. Vigor improves health and stamina management during intense evasive combat. Engineering enhances our elemental ranged attacks via the Charleville secondary.
Modules:
- Swiftness (Movement Speed)
- Evasion (Dodging Buffs)
- Critical Banker (Crit Damage)
- Charging (Charged Attack DMG)
These modules enhance the Death Dancer‘s mobility, crits and charged backstabs even further while rewarding well-timed dodges with damage buffs, playing perfectly into its hit-and-run playstyle.
Thus, the Death Dancer exemplifies how synergizing dexterity weapons, Agility investments and evasion modules can birth a dangerously agile build able to eviscerate all challengers through precise critical strikes!
Hexer: Affliction Dominatrix
Do you revel in the agony of enemies helplessly succumbing to deadly dark sorceries? If so, the Hexer build delivers sinister powers letting you debilitate foes with elemental chaos before obliterating them in charged attacks.
It has tremendous fun potential, especially in co-op!
Gear Synergies
Weapons:
- Hephaestus Batons (Fire)
- Charleville Ice Musket (Frost)
These perfectly complement each other; the Batons inflicting burning DOT (damage over time) debuffs while the Charleville immobilizes enemies with frost, creating openings for mighty smash attacks.
Stats:
- Engineering: Maximized
- Power: Very High
- Agility: High
Engineering empowers the core afflictions and weapon elemental damage. Power scales charged heavy attacks after landing debuffs for monumental damage. Agility improves mobility for evading attacks until debilitations kick in.
Modules:
- Affliction (Debuff Duration)
- Charging (Charged Attack DMG)
- Catalyst (Elemental Damage)
- Infusion (Enchantment Duration)
Affliction and Infusion extend debilitating effects while Charging and Catalyst enable inflicting burst damage through mighty smash attacks. These compound upon each other, solidifying the Hexer‘s domination.
Thus, by combining ranged afflictions, heavy charged attacks and damage multipliers, this wicked build revels in unholy machinations decaying the life force of hapless enemies in spectacularly twisted fashion!
Untouchable Blademaster: Peerless Duelist
If you fancy yourself an invincible dark souls-esque duelist relying on nimble evasion, parries and lethal precision counter-strikes, the Untouchable Blademaster will enable honing those very skills.
You‘ll be left untouched during enemy onslaughts, awaiting the perfect instant to unleash a deadly punishment upon their exposed weakness! It‘s Steelrising‘s version of a master fencer build for true combat connoisseurs.
Gear Synergies
Weapons:
- Fire Chain
- Wheellock Pistols
The Fire Chain‘s speed and range combined with the Wheellock‘s focused mid-range attacks check both melee and ranged boxes while scaling intensity with Power and Agility investments.
Stats:
- Agility: Maximized
- Power: Very High
- Vigor: High
Agility boosts mobility, evasion and backstab damage forming the crux of this build alongside Power empowering Weapon Skills and riposting strikes. Vigor improves durability which aids risky evasive maneuvers.
Modules:
- Swiftness (Movement Speed)
- Evasion (Dodging Buffs)
- Opportunity (Backstab Damage)
- Critical Banker (Crit Damage)
These directly improve dodging and capitalizing upon enemy vulnerabilities, playing perfectly into the Blademaster archetype fantasy of creating attack openings by anticipating opponent moves pre-emptively. Landing that perfect counter-strike after a slick dodge becomes immensely satisfying!
By unifying Agility, slick dexterous weapons and evasion modules thusly, the Untouchable Blademaster embodies unmatched elusive combat mastery befitting the most peerless duelists!
Conclusion
While these four builds can get you started, don‘t limit your imagination to just them. Steelrising offers tremendous potential for theorycrafting creative hybrid builds like a lightning fast wheel hammer warrior or perhaps a pyromaniac pistol sniper!
As you learn enemy attack patterns and stage strategies, tweak your build to address specific challenges. Crank Power against durable enemies. Max out Engineering against conjurers. There are always synergies worth exploring!
I hope these insights on optimized stats, weapons and modules help jumpstart your Steelrising domination journey. Now get out there, wreak havoc in 18th century Versailles and make Robespierre proud!
Let me know in comments if you have any other build questions!
