EDIT: This was originally an advanced guide but after much consideration and feedback I changed it to be a class building guide. In the near future I plan to do an *actual* advanced series. But for the rest of THIS series, we will focus on covering build setups. Thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated. ROCK AND STONE!

The important thing to know about the platform gun repellant additive is that it basically informs the bugs that crossing over the platform takes more steps than it actually does. The goal of the bugs is to get to you as quickly as possible. Keep this in mind when placing them *and* yourself and teammates positioning as this will make the difference as to whether or not the bugs go around or over the platforms. Like if you make a long line of platforms you may actually make the bugs just walk over them straight to you, rather than go around them with a short line of platforms. Probably want to keep a line no longer than 3 maybe 4 platforms long most of the time. Also if you or your teammates stand on or too near the platforms then they will just be ignored as the bugs will calculate that it's still quicker to go over them and not around, despite the platforms adding additional 'steps' to their pathing.

Few extra weapon related tips - You can reload cancel pretty much any weapon by either tapping M2 or swapping weapons - so you can ignore overclocks with "-reload speed" on them - the tier 3 Incendiary compound of the Grenade launcher is currently bugged (?) and the incendiary damage apparently only applies to enemies but isn't enough to set YOU on fire so you can combo with RJ250 Compound OC for some rocket jumps - just remember to either use Hover Boots to stop your momentum or put a platform underneath you if you're a quick swapper. - LUREs are great use LUREs specially good to group them up for easy multi aoe kills - but remember that some enemies completly ignore them (Dreadnoughts) or prioritize other objectives like Doreta and pipes (on site refinery). - Consider using armor breaking skills if you're having trouble on killing guards this will help you break their shells/carapace it also breaks Praetorian's shells which helps expose their weak spot - yes you can just shot the weak spot but here's a alternative. Meme tip - If you're a Engi player who doesn't use the 3tier of the platform gun (WHY?!) i suggest you use the "The Salvador" or the "Insidious Twirl" moustache's for eh.. "fashion purposes"

I'm from Brazil dude and my english skills are not yet fully honed, but the way you explain everything you have to do in DRG is just so cool and fun. I hope your channel gets a lot of subscribers!

Thank you for the guide! Promoted my engie twice, but still had no real grasp on him while playing haz 4 and higher. You've been a huge help!

The single most inportant tip i can give to new enineers: ALWAYS have your turrets ready during swarms. As soon as mission contol announces a swarm you build your turrets

Your guides are so great. Even as a greybeard myself, I love watching these videos! Keep it up!

Some general musings: You can reload cancel the Warthog by tapping right click the moment you see your ammo counter update. While you can do this on a lot of weapons, it’s arguably the most important for the warthog since the gun is “reloaded” far before the lengthy animation finishes. Explosive Chemical Rounds for the LOK-1 is arguably the best overclock considering it now takes 3 rounds to one-shot grunts on any difficulty, provided you also have the upgrade to electrocute targets and have bonus damage to electrocuted targets. Plus, it can delete an entire swarmer group with one round of you place your salvo correctly.

One thing that is important about extra total rounds. The resupply ammo box gives 50% of total rounds for each item so increasing total ammo also increases how much you pull in. Increasing total ammo by 2 not only gives you 2 extra bullets but you gain 1 more than you would have when you restock, this can go a long way in keeping you topped up on guns that burn ammo.

Important note about Turret Arc and EMP Discharge OCs for the Stubby: your shot has to proc the electrocution chance to activate them, and EMP Discharge has a cooldown between activations (I think 3 seconds?). I highly recommend taking the Increased Electrocution mod in Tier 1 if you're running these OCs. Also, Turret Arc scales off environmental damage, making it scale better as you move up in Hazard levels. Engineer is a class that is as simple or complicated as you make it and is an endless amount of fun.

14:01 The Dazzler Module for the Shard Diffractor (aka, the slowdown effect), is absolutely amazing for single target deletion and team support. I tend to use the Shard Diffractor as a "second primary" to complement the shotgun (due to range limitations), and the Smart Rifle (due to its small ammo reserve), and the Shard Diffractor with the expanded magazine size AND the slowdown effect can NOT ONLY effectively solo some of the most annoying enemies in the game, it also acts as a beacon that signals your team on which enemy they can focus on to help you. Add to that an incredible range, and you can delete enemies from a mile away. The Slowdown effect in particular is so powerful that Praetorians, Oppressors, Bulk Detonators, and any other Elimination Boss will never get to a teammate that is aware of its presence.

Realized I had watched 3 of your videos in a row so I subscribed and made sure to go back and like each of them. Great videos!

EM Refire Booster is the best OC for using Stubby as an SMG. The only downside is larger spread, but that can be played around. Turret EM Discharge has incredibly powerful swarm clear, but is a very specific playstyle with a high skill ceiling, and is not for everyone. Turret Arc is frankly just kinda bad. It's clunky, requires lots of setup, and is hazardous to your team. There's an argument to be made for it on certain positional defense missions but...eh. Make sure to NEVER take SMRT Targeting on the Lok-1. It's a terrible choice on almost all builds. The gun already doesn't overkill, the mod just prevents overlocks. This is actually a big problem most of the time because many mods/OCs on the gun rely on manipulating the amount of locks, for example getting max locks, or a specific number of locks (e.g. 3+ locks on Explosive Chemical Rounds). On the PGL, unless you're using the Fat Boy meme OC, there is only one choice on tier 3: Incendiary Compound. Armor breaking is bugged/broken on radial area damage weapons, and that includes the PGL, so it should never be taken under any circumstances. High Velocity Grenades is only useful for making Fat Boy less likely to kill you and your teammates, and if you take it with Hyperpropellant it can actually make your shots go too fast and clip through your target. Incendiary Compound simply makes the PGL better at doing what it's best at: mass-killing grunts. There are so many advantages. It makes the damage reduction on RJ250 a non-issue, and trivializes the friendly damage you take from rocket jumping, making it the best OC for a "bread and butter" PGL build; it's bugged in a good way on Hyperpropellant and doesn't reduce its direct damage; heat damage doesn't have any falloff, so you get the full amount in the entire radius, etc. View LazyMaybe's excellent PGL breakdown video for more in-depth analysis. I was amused that you didn't mention Light-Weight Cases when talking about the Breach Cutter, despite actually having it. It's one of the best OCs for it simply because the BC is such a powerful weapon, just having more shots is amazing. Personally, I'm not a fan of Return to Sender. It basically forces you into using the weapon on high HP targets at close range. The BC is such a versatile weapon, I don't like pigeonholing it. A note on bug repellant on the platforms. The way it works is that it changes the pathing calculation the bugs make when finding the fastest route to their target, tripling the distance the bug thinks it will take to cross the platform. This is why if you make a "wall" wider than 3-4 platform widths, some bugs will start just crossing the middle, because even with the "longer" platform pathing, it's still "shorter" than going all the way around.

As an engi main, stubby’s bullet hose ocs are very underrated, you can pump out hundreds of bullets in a minute with the right upgrades and you have a ton of ammo so no need to take ammo in t3

Great video! As someone that’s new to DRG it gave me lots of ideas on future builds when I have the weapons unlocked

Love the videos! happy I get my main first :3 such a good channel, I'm here for it

I think you're video editing and casual tone are phenomenal. I think you make DRG much more approachable seeming than some of the older KZfaqrs. Not to say anyone gatekeeps, but many players on KZfaq are very into the numbers and meta side of the game. It's cool to see. Your builds aren't meta defining, but they're viable and fun, which is the core of DRG, so it's cool to see someone posting build content from a more casual/fun perspective.

The breech cutter is incredibly versatile and honestly most of its mods are worth running in some combination to fill some kind of hole in your build. With a Loki in your primary slot, for example, you've already got single target and ranged engagements covered, so a max ammo, quick deploy breech cutter can demolish waves and bail you out of bad situations. The inverse primary would be a cycle overload Warthog, which churns through bugs big and small at close range. A triple split, extended range Breech shores up your matchup into mactera (cycle overload warthog's accuracy penalty can make them hard to kill) and armor break can strip a praetorian on approach for the Warthog to eat. Edit: Spinning Death also has a lot of utility and can kind of transform the Breech on its own. If you take max duration, plasma trail, and stun, the Breech lazer becomes almost like a scuffed Gunner shield, constantly stunning or killing bugs which try to enter it. So you can use it to keep the swarm off of you when resupplying, reviving a teammate, or just trying to not die. That's a powerful tool in your pocket considering how little personal protection the engineer typically packs.

I actually got back into this game very recently. Am going thru engineer rn and now knowing about the wpn i wanted, i can definitely attest that engineer is fun

I'm not surprised the engineer is your most popular drg guide. It's much more technical than the others for how it can be used.

congtrats on getting into the algorithm! 👍

I just wanted to say that I've been enjoying your videos, and I hope you'll keep making them. But I wanted to mention something else too. I've been playing DRG for the last year or so, and have promoted each class multiple times. Anyone making good content for this game is a plus in my book. But calling this an "Advanced Guide" is not correct. This is a fairly basic build guide. And it's a well made one! Don't get me wrong. Your style and editing are very good and I want to see more. But an advanced guide should cover more than just the build. You should explain strategies. Setups. Synergies. Explain how hyper-propellant can be built to one-shot nearly anything. Explain how position sentries to best protect Doretta, or how to work together with a driller to build a secure position on salvage ops. Please see this as an encouragement. I think this channel has loads of potential. And if you called this "Engineer Build Guide" I wouldn't have said a word other than "Good stuff, make more!" But an advanced class guide needs more than this. Rock and Stone!

Great video would love to see driller next

I usually only play engineer on elimination missions. My go-to setup for that is executioner lok-1 and plastcrete catalyst shard diffractor with ssg in grenade slot. Don't really like using engineer's sentry too much so i have it on mk2 + quick build for minimum maintenance.

Gonna give a shout out to my favorite warthog build with the mini shells. It’s really ammo efficient even with the damage reduction. Also makes it much better for long range targets if you don’t take the shard defractor.

Bros engineer looks like Dr. Eggman and I absolutely love it

Note about the Warthog shotgun, the more pellets and increased ammo reserves sound great but doing the math they do the same total damage, granted if every pellet hits and deals full damage. Though I may be wrong

My favorite build I take on EDDs is: 1. Lok1 with Explosive Chemical Rounds: Build for crowd clearing. Damage upgrades don’t matter the explosions will do enough. 2. Shard Defractor with Overdrive booster: It’s your normal laser with the option to insta dump the mag into something you want immediately dead. Great in boss fights. Perks: Resupplier, Elemental Insulation, sweet tooth - All survivability perks. The laser reloads itself and Lok1 has a good reload animation to cancel so no born ready. No thorns because turrets and shredders are more than enough to deal with swarmers. Dash- Engy does the most parkour and Dash is great at keeping you alive in combat. I take it on every dwarf that is not blue. See you in hell- It gets better at higher haz levels. It keeps the melee bugs away from someone reviving you. The melee boost is good for the lone grunt (aim for the head)

The thing about incendiary on PGL is that, even half of your damage turns into heat, unlike damage falloff of explosive damage (and PGL has only 2 meters for max damage radius), heat you gain doesn't fall off, so it will ignite A LOT. in general the best mod for the PGL, especially with rocket jump because you reduce damage done to yourself and you will never heat yourself enough to catch fire. (for rocket jump you have to get 1 damage mod at least, to kill grunts consistenly) Platform repellant isnt perfect, if there is player on the platfroms bugs will come and bite them, also if the range bug has to take to you get like 3 extra platforms (which is quite a lot honestly) of pathing they will go through your bug repellant platforms instead also a bit more of mine, armor break on warthog is absolutely not worth losing on +1 damage, this weapon gets better the better your headshot aim is and extra ammo on laser is just much better. for example, if you hit a bug into a x3 weakpoint (maktera/warden) you will deal 36 damage per tick with weakpoint mod. with extra +2 damage you will deal 43 more damage which is like 20% boost to single target dps. but with extra 100 ammo you get from 350 (recharge mod is much better then ammo mag without clocks) to 450 which is not only 15% more total direct damage, but this doesnt even account for extra aoe damage you deal during those extra 100 ammo you get which is a lot! THE MATH IS A BIT OFF because mactera have -100% fire resist and 25% of shard damage is fire, so there is more of the damage done to mactera. Going for ammo + weakpoint bonus is just the best here, but aoe is at least compareable to other bonus, while ammo is so much better. Gun already kills really fast, if you really want faster dps there are 2 great clocks for it - overdrive booster and automated beam controller. In all seriousness, game has a lot of variety on how you can build your guns, it mostly depends on how you do with them. buuut i like to be a bit of math nerd on some of it. You should check LazyMaybe videos on deep mechanics of DRG weapons, they are really good, rock and stone, i think guide is decent, but you def need to play more with engi to cover him better :D

Just what I need

The stubby is kind of a "half primary weapon" in my opinion. I love it, especially with something like em discharge, but you need an ammo efficient secondary to make up that half of a primary you're missing lol

I like how your character looks like Dr. Robotnik lol

One of my favorite builds (also recommended by LazyMaybe) is pairing Cycle Overload Warthog with the Volatile Impact Reactor Shard Diffractor (magma oc). You use the Shard for crowd control and picking off faraway targets (spec for flame to destroy macteras), and use the warthog for wailing on Praetorians and Oppressors. Use shredders as defensive buffer when running away or reviving teammates that has no friendly fire, and spec turrets for duos and quick setup, stun for macteras or armor break for general use. This is a highly mobile engie playstyle that repositions constantly, perfect for players who wants to play objectives fast and efficiently. You're also really flexible, since you have basically 2 primaries, because the Shard can cover both single target and crowd control roles. It feels really great playing with this build, and I recommend you try it!

Engineer is by far my favorite class, but I think I'd struggle a bit if I didn't use the platform preview mod. It's just too good. I like running Friendly as a perk when using Breech Cutter (or Fat Boy), though I am no good at using Fat Boy. Sad you don't care for Stubby, it's my fav XD On the other hand I can't seem to manage to use the Loki. The swarmer grenade is also just too useful for me to not take, same for more ammo on the turrets - even with more ammo I always run out...

Nicely made guide! Just a little disappointed you didn't mention the grenade launcher's explosive jump overclock since it has such a huge impact on what you can do with the class.

Explosive chemical rounds is one of the best overclocks in the game. I realize you don't have it and so can't have any experience, but you can build the Lok-1 out to make it the most efficient way to play that gun. Your style switches to only acquiring 3 locks on a target at a time because that triggers your explosion and electrocution effect, plus it has fear. It makes the ammo far more efficient while also providing AoE. I would say that the secret to taking the next step as engineer is to learn how to effectively use turrets in ways other than just plopping on an objective. Things like turret whip and the two turret related overclocks for stubby mean that you really can just choose a spot and hold it. The key is learning how to stay mobile while doing this, and once you do the world really opens up as engineer because you realize that there's very little that you aren't equipped to handle.

Nice video! I’m level 400+ and still watching 😂

The engineer is my main class, I picked it for the grenade launcher, and stayed for the sentry gun. Also the shard defractor reminds me of the geonosian weapon from Star Wars republic commando, as weird as that is

thank you.

I have the plastcrete catalyst overclock. You have to hold the shard defractor on it for too long to make the boom. Clumsy to use for this reason. Not saying it doesn't have its place, the end of an escort mission comes easily to mind. But most of the time I would take raw damage or additional ammo in a heartbeat.

Rock and Stone!!

Great guide!

My engineer is plat border but I still like watching these types of videos

Beyond what you mentioned about utilizing platforms in the video, one incredibly helpful strategy is something I personal call "jungle gyms". Find a decently open space and, if possible, a naturally narrow piece of terrain such as a pillar, crystal, or icicle- though walls will do too if needed. Extend a path of platforms from the terrain out into the open air of the cave, making sure its never too close to any other surface. When sufficiently long, the bugs will be forced to crawl over to where the path starts, bunch up, and walk towards you in a convient easy to kill bundle. The real juice of this strat is when you create multiple of these suspended paths all converging close enough to jump from one another but not close enough for bugs to crawl from one to the next. After only a single jump away from any advancing bugs, they'll now need to turn around, go back the way they came, down/up/around to the start of your new plat path, and funneled in again, at which point you jump back to the first. Extra paths don't even have to be particularly long, and the more the better to efficiently out maneuver bugs. This works particularly well against pratorians and oppressors as they'll be forced to turn their soft green butt towards you as they pathfind back to you. If you're particularly high, ask for a gunner zipline below where you'll be jumping, in case you mess up or a slasher slows you down too much. More plats on the floor below you can also work. Since this is a rather ammo hungry strat, I always run t3 ammo, even on missions where I dont build enormous jungle gyms. While repellant can be great, it can also be rather tricky to efficiently use, so I'd rather just have more ammo to traverse the cave, cut fall dmg, and build my creations without worrying about counting my shots. The best missions for this strat by far are refining and egg hunt, but quick jungle gyms can be whipped up to great effect during mining expd swarms, point extraction countdown, or any time you have a decent sized room and a lot of bugs. Hope this helps! Just remember, platforms save lives.

As an engineer main who has done a great deal of experimentation with all his weapons, the most ammo efficient build I've found for the Loki is going 2-1 for the rest, and using Explosive Chemical Rounds for the overclock, It makes the Loki do aoe damage when you shoot the same enemy with 3 bullets, allowing you to use 3 shots to hit multiple enemies. On the PGL, the RJ250 overclock is the most damage - ammo efficient overclock, with 1-1-1-3-2, RJ250 at first glance would make you unable to kill groups of grunts, but the heat damage in the 3rd mod slot will be enough to kill grunts, and the stun in the 4th slot means they wont reach you to deal damage while they burn to death, and the whole loadout has 18 grenades, with 4 radius. Also, sadly the Plastcrete beam is extremely underwhelming, I was super excited when I got it only to be extremely disappointed after trying it repeatedly on almost every mission type. Lastly, Bug Repellant is great, but a bit inconsistent, generally you can assume that about 3-4 platforms wide, depending on overlap, will cause bugs to go around the platforms but more than that will be too much and make them still go right over the platforms, as well as if any dwarf is standing on or too close to a platform, the bugs will walk on them again.

Engi main here Armour breaking on the Warthog isn't as good as it sounds simply because it's calculated per pellet and is highly inconsistent. I mainly use the Warthog with Magnetic Pellet Alignment (Overclock that makes the warthog feel like it fires slugs, it also gets more weakpoint damage and a super tight spread), Cycle overload is is really good for mowing down big enemies but it falls behind in terms of ammo efficiency and isn't that much higher DPS than the other 2 good ones which are Magnetic Pellet Alignment and Mini Shells, it also isn't that much better than the light weight mags overclock so the Cycle overload is really just a "Spend Ammo Quickly" overclock and isn't really the best. Also with the Lok-1 the Explosive Chemical Rounds overclock is absolutely bonkers and the Smrt Targeting Software isn't necessary simply because any locks beyond what would kill an enemy would be cancelled once the enemy is dead, so while it may make each max lock on more efficient it, it isn't more ammo efficient and doesn't outweigh the potential of Electro Chemical Rounds paired with Electric Generator. With the PGL or any weapon really, adding fire damage to your weapon is just really good, there's very few cases in which it's a bad thing except when it conflicts with your team trying to freeze things.

I still think you are really undervaluing resupplier. There are so many times where you getting that resup is the deciding factor of if you get back to the space rig. Same feelings for Dash, but it takes a little more understanding to use.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Warthog on full-auto for a long time... Then I watched a similar video where the guy talked about the capabilities of the Loki rifle. First I was like "yea no". Then he showed how he constantly out-damages his teams using the chemical-compound overclock that makes bugs explode after 3 lock-ons. I only have the Warthog now on my Dreadnought hunter preset... All the others have that Loki build because it just kicks my kill count 3 times as high as anyone else on the team. Plus it's a lot of fun to use in Haz 4-5. Looking back at how I felt about Engi when I started playing DRG... It was the last class I played because the dps straight sucked compared to my gunner or driller, and scout was at least fun zipping around... Now look at how the turntables... have... turned...

What are your thoughts on vampire as a passive? With the power attack, I find it a decent way to gain a bit of HP over time and save ammo.

you can reload cancel too

Mini shells is my favorite because I like to spam fire

I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say second wind could be a good choice, interesting take

What would you prefer - ammo efficiency or higher dps? (I can’t really decide)

Always go heat for the nade launcher, unless you using the rail gun deepcore

What I like about the Warthog is it'll make a grunt explode with one shot to the mouth. I like running the choke on it so I don't get as many fangs and globs of green glyphid guts in my beard. (This why the Engineer starts with goggles I'm sure of it).

I hope the devs add SentryGun Overclocks.

I have stubby and deepcore with rj250compound... its so mute combo of weapons, and with experience I still keep beating my pals. I think of stubby as a weapon that has to kill If I need to move to such range where its useful, so I basically ditched the electric part of it and took dmg talents, with light-weight ammo. 1. ICR - (1) 2. IGS - (3) 3. EAB - (2) 4. HPB - (1) 5. MCT - (1) OC. LWR - the only oc I have for that. LOK just feels strange, and the shotgun is just boring. I feel like that I have to either pour all of my shells onto big guys, or stay behind all the time. Stubby lets me try to snipe a bit, and I don't feel like being frozen.

I thought this would talk about engie specific combat tactics and lesser known techniques for traversal and mining. Just going through your personal preferences on your small library of weapons and overclocks is not something that is useful to me. I want to be coached on how to properly use a weapon or overclock combo I may not have considered. ReapeeRon goes over how to make these builds and what they do, but glosses over what they are most useful for and what techniques are required to use them effectively.

3:10 who agrees Steve is best bug better than loot bug he is funny and nice

You didn’t mention it but the stubby smg is the best weapon in the game against the rivals as they are very weak to electric damage so it’s the best gun in the game for industrial savatage

sometimes i wish i could hear, this is not my personal opinion this is mathematically proven to be the best possible build, and if you pick anything else you are trolling, but i get it, some people still want to have fun and not be as efficient as possible.

A pinch setup: 1x platform (bug repelant) either grounded or on the wall. A single turret (placed on platform) and the "turret whip" on shotty In practice, if you had the gemini you would have to place->build->reload->shootx2 for turret whip. A singular turret will allow you to more likely to boost it at full turret ammo invested, and can be excuted faster mid chaos of haz 4

:D

I thought this was about building with platforms...

Not considering Resupplier a must have perk doesn't feel right tbh

hey jav. If u care for any Driller input from a random like myself i'll gladly help.

Psst timestamps makes videos objectively better

HAHAHAH, YOU ARE TOO LATE SONIC IM ALREADY MADE AN ADVANCED ENGINEER GUIDE FOR DEEP ROCK GALACTIC GREYBEARDS

To be honest, I was paying attention until about 3:14 when I realized there was a lot of junk information that I just couldn't continue to trust this guide. Beast Master is worse than no perk on haz 4 and above, and it's just plain useless on whatever hazards you yourself find difficult, because it's already a useless perk but trying to use it consistently can get you killed. The bug does absolutely pitiful damage, and you have no control over who the bug targets, meaning it can choose 1 wrong fight with a particularly strong bug, or just get its HP obliterated by common enemies if you aren't playing on a super low hazard level. Once that happens you're out of a perk until the cooldown is over, not that it matters much because it hardly makes a difference. It's a funny gimmick but entirely useless, if not worse than nothing when playing on hazards that aren't already easy. Considering how weak this perk is, it's just a waste of a very precious perk slot, especially on the hazard levels you have trouble in, where perk choice actually *does* matter. After doing a bit of testing, even with what little benefits Beast Master MIGHT have, they're very ineffective. I spawned a horde and used a tamed Grunt, only about 2 glyphids would focus the Grunt at a time. On hazard 5, the Grunt couldn't even handle a swarm size of about 6 glyphids and a slasher, it died within about 20 seconds. Of course, with a 5 minute cooldown before I could tame another Glyphid to suffer the same fate. It does a terrible job of doing damage (If it even fights a bug it can have a chance against, instead of picking a fight with something like a Praetorian or an Oppressor) and it does a terrible job of distracting bugs. Thorns is also a useless passive perk, it may sound good for tiny fodder like swarmers, until you realize that the perk can only use its effect on one bug every second. (After testing and surrounding myself with swarmers, only 1 swarmer died every time the entire horde bit me.) Meaning that even if you DO get swarmed by tiny enemies like swarmers (which is the ONLY thing that thorns would be good for considering its very low damage), it's only going to kill about 1 swarmer every 1 second or so, which is utterly useless when you consider the fact that most swarmers come in huge groups and shred your hp in seconds if you're caught off guard by them. What little, microscopic use you can get out of Thorns like not being interrupted by a single spawn while you're mining, is not worth taking up a passive perk compared to the many other great passive perks you have available. If you are actually caught in a horde of swarmers (Which if you aren't playing on a beginner's hazard level, chances are that swarm will be HUGE and deal TONS of damage once they surround you) Having 1 swarmer die every time the entire horde takes a chunk of hp out of you is NOT going to help at all. Just testing with around 6 swarmers around me on Hazard 5, they already destroyed my shield and took away almost half of my hp before thorns got all of them. Mind you, this was only about 6 swarmers with full shield and HP. Second Wind is also another perk that is almost useless. The sprint speed change is only a pitiful 12%, not to mention the fact that it only applies after you've already been sprinting for 4 seconds UNINTERRUPTED. Very rarely, especially with most cave terrain, will you be able to sprint for 4 seconds without breaking your sprint. This means no shooting, no turning around, no bumping into anything and no mantling. While kiting through bugs is very important on higher hazards, you will RARELY be able to sprint for 4 seconds straight without ever having to shoot or mantle or turn around or accidentally bump into something. If you keep running and running, you're just gonna spend more time running than actually killing the bugs, which is an absolutely terrible idea on game modes like Point Extraction, where the spawns get worse the longer the mission goes on, so you absolutely cannot just run around in circles until the *entire* swarm is in 1 big group. What little use you can get out of Second Wind absolutely does not justify the fact that it takes up 1 of 3 passive perk slots, those same passive perk slots could have something much more useful like Resupplier, Vampire if you're running Iron Will or playing on Shield Disruption, Sweet Tooth and Born Ready. If you actually do want to get out of a horde or a sticky situation quickly, just use Dash. It's a godsend of a perk for every class except scout when you remember to use it often. As long as you don't throw yourself into bad situations multiple times every 25 seconds somehow, you can quickly get out of bad situations with dash, instead of frantically holding down sprint hoping to Karl that you won't have to mantle something or shoot something blocking your way, or just get beaten down and die before the measly 12% speed boost can kick in. You can use any perks and builds you want on hazards you find easy, you can use It's a Bug Thing on hazard 4 and be fine if hazard 4 is complete chump change to you. But if you're playing on difficulties that actually *do* challenge you, something that actually would warrant watching a guide in the first place, a lot of the perks listed here are worthless, with Beast Master being worse than having no perk at all because at least then you don't have the chance of getting yourself killed to tame a glyphid that's still going to be useless. Elemental Insulation isn't too great but it's nowhere near as egregious as the others though. It's just very situational. Of course, it's contending with perks that are always great like Resupplier and Sweet Tooth or, depending on your build, stuff like Vampire too. I would only reccomend it on specific biomes where elemental damage is common, like the Radioactive Exclusion Zone or Magma Core, it's practically useless on most biomes, such as Crystalline Caverns or Azure Weald, what little elemental damage you might take in all those other biomes simply wouldn't be worth a 30% reduction in exchange for an entire passive perk slot. Heightened Senses is once again not too great but nowhere near as egregious as previous choices. However I feel it would be a better choice for Scout, as other classes usually benefit to at least stay within eyesight of eachother, if you do get caught by a cave leech and nobody is there to help it's usually because you strayed WAY too far from the team which you shouldn't be doing as Engineer anyway. Of course you can get caught while everyone else is down, but at that point you'd be MUCH better off taking Iron Will. Wait a second- why isn't Iron Will mentioned? Even a beginner can clutch an entire game with Iron Will, it's a fantastic insurance policy in the event that everything fails spectacularly. Of course, Heightened Senses can be good for beginners, however it's only going to reinforce their behaviors of straying far off from the team as a class who really shouldn't be doing that in the first place. Even using it on Scout is debatable but certainly understandable considering he DOES benefit from straying away from the team, however i'm not sure why it would be recommended for any other class to use it other than to reinforce bad habits that should be broken ASAP. Of course, even with all that in mind on why Heightened Senses is a strange choice, there's also the cherry on top of "just look up lmao" which, while a bit ignorant, it's the least you can do if you ARE going to venture off by yourself as an Engineer for some strange reason. Of course there's also Mactera Grabbers but once again, you'd be better off just learning to recognize the cry they make and keep your eyes peeled for a big mosquito lookin' guy, new players shouldn't be able to remain ignorant on how to fight against Mactera Grabbers and how to play around the threat of Cave Leeches by staying within eyesight of teammates when wandering unexplored areas. If you DO use it, Heightened Senses just gets the most mileage out of Cave Leeches for Scout, Mactera Grabbers are a footnote, and it's a very strange choice to select it on any class other than Scout. The editing on this video is good. The microphone quality and clarity is also great. But it feels like hardly any testing was done before recommending these things to new players. The presentation overall is great however it feels like a good chunk of this information is junk information with little testing done to see just how effective the advice in this video was going to be, potentially hurting players in the long run if they really stick with this info. I am only at level 83 with 216 hours at the time of making this comment and when I considered making guides for newcomers, I decided against it because I figured I didn't know enough about the game, and I could spread misinformation to newcomers. At level 71 when you made this video, I wouldn't reccomend making a guide like this considering all of the junk information, some of it even reinforcing bad habits that should actually be taught out of new players ASAP, such as engineers wandering off by themselves away from the team because they don't yet have the developed game sense, and instead of developing it they just use Heightened Senses, reinforcing bad habits. I appreciate the time that went into this video and it was clearly made with good intentions, although I felt I had to give feedback because a lot of this info could actually work against newcomers and feels a bit false. TL:DR since my feedback ended up being an essay: A lot of information about perks in this guide was complete bunk. I went into testing, using select perks and spawning bugs just to make sure I knew the advice given was bunk. Video has great presentation but is unfortunately misleading to newcomers.