Agreed! The sludge pump especially seems to have a pretty steep learning curve. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty fun though!

He has a large amount of crowd control and is the most diverse in weapons you can use. And it’s all about trying to figure out what the weapons strength is. The flamethrower is simple and when the Cryo cannon came out, it was hard to figure out since the overclocks made the weapon more weird with its options. But after figuring it out, it’s a really powerful weapon. So I think Sludge pump will need to take some time but wouldn’t doubt people would find out what the strength truly is.

yeah no everything is complicated wen you overthink it

@@thefrenchbastard1646 I'm sorry I have to spell it out for you but I guess some people's reading comprehension skills leave a bit to be desired. Compared to the other classes, driller combat is objectively more complicated. If you ever try something other than hazard one you'll understand.

i really want to disagree since i never had any real problem with juggling all the mechanics on driller, but yeah, on deeper thought, i guess it is. even the most complex builds on other classes don't tend to be all that hard, or are more mechanically difficult to pull off rather than hard to understand (ie; reload cancelling on embedded OCs, weak point aiming, becoming a god at never letting a plasma burster missile crash into a wall on hurricane). though id still argue its really not all that complex when using cryo cannon/flame thrower to warrant really mentioning it. those tend to be uNgA bUnGa me hold clicky on bug haha, use nades as needed, satchel if you're in a tight spot. what im getting at, is, i think the sludge pump is just more fun and involved than driller is hard lol.

Rock & Stone, brother!

yeah sorry can't hear you. The glyphit screams from the facemelting with my flamethrower are too loud.

Facemelter, EPC Mining, 4 Satchel charge having chaos build is best build

The Flamethrower is meant to be the Driller's pure damage answer, capable of dealing large amounts of instant damage to hordes of bugs. 🔥 No, the Driller's weaknesses in combat is limited range and little to no capability at hitting weakpoints. Pure damage, however, checks out with the Flamethrower. 🔥

Except the driller is literally the highest kill potential build in the game.

That's great to know, thanks!

Good eye 😉

This is my technick too but i use cryo gun but i chabge it and try sludge

Thank you!!

Haha that's definitely an interesting benefit.

Well actually the temp shock can be really good if they take advantage

I love when that happens because I actively sit back and wait for the thing to freeze, wait a few seconds to see if an ally can finish it off, then temp shock it right near the end of the freeze duration

Temp shock is the reason I will do this with my other driller tho

I'll take that! Thank you my friend!

Thank you!! Rock & Stone!

I could definitely see that being effective for escort duty.

Yeah that's what plasma/AI Stability scout is for

Doesnt effect dot of puddles

@@frontrider3240 always find it hard to catch as many swarms as possible the the firing line is a,, well line

Couldn't agree more!

I absolutely do hate the Subata, but explosive reload checks out. It's the only way I'll use the thing lol. That said, OC really does combo nice with the slowed poisoned enemies.

I've tried explosive reload but it was a while ago. I'll have to give it another shot! However, Mactera Spawn, Tri-jaw and Brundle all have 100% fire vulnerability, so plasma burn works as well!

Oh hell yea I'll still take heavy hitter plasma burn and forego charged shots entirely any day over using the sub; it's a perfect side piece for the Driller imo, and I run several Driller builds. It's too fun to two/three shot most bugs, set Menace on fire from across a cave, temp shock prets to refreeze then vampire to save time & ammo. I've even saved myself from a Leech that nabbed me by having set it ablaze just as it struck. Couldn't ask for more from a pistol (well maybe mining 🥲)

All builds I run use Subata as it is the perfect sidearm for me: - I enjoy manual mining, occasional exploding is ok - subata is THE choice for long range combat. Sniping bugs is great - single target is lacking in driller if not axes I've tried EPC but never really dig that. Might give up my worldview for burning goo however.

@@ebergar9859 I love when people slaughter bugs with weapon combos that feel terrible trying to use myself. It's always impressive. And I know the Subata is real popular for many, but i never could get the feel for it and its extremely low damage (explosive aside) turned me away. Doesn't fit my needs. Ultimately I guess I built my EPC to be what I wanted from the Subata; the shots might be a little slower (with mod obv) but it does massive damage and heat up with the same range, and I'm pretty accurate with it so that's how I snipe bugs. Sniping bugs is definitely great. Rock & Stone brother

XD thank you! Send my apologies to your cat!

Thank you so much! Rock & Stone!

Thank you brother!

Thank you 😊

Definitely! You unlock it yet?

@@DrillingInTheNameOf yes sir I have and I'm a fan, everything in your video held true. Fantastic research miner.

@@beanzo1675 awesome! Rock & Stone!

Let me know how it goes!

Thank you!!

Hahaha that's awesome. Thanks brother!

Happy to help!

Rock & Stone my friend!

Thank you!!

For sure! If I can get trouble, I just jump straight up and fire a charged shot downward. Super fun.

Right! It's so weird taking them. I've never used anything but Impact Axes for nearly two years. Nice change of pace though.

Thank you!! Rock & Stone!

Cheers!

Thank you!!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf Your very welcome my man! Wish you all the best, and I hope your channel grows even more while DRG does in the future!!

Ooh... Big-brain! I hadn't thought of that! That could be very useful.

Thank you!!

Thank you my friend!

Thank you very much!

Hell yeah! You ever make it to the Deep Woods releases?

Thank you!! Let me know how it goes!

Great minds think alike!

Thank you my friend! Rock & Stone!

Rock & Stone!

Ha yeah I think I'll always be a cryo driller, but a properly built sludge pump is really fun!

I often try to give the sludge pump another chance, but then a group of macteras shows up and I want the cryo cannon back :')

I will admit I didn't give it much of a chance and should try it in other situations, but like I say in the video, it just seems to go against the spirit of the weapon. There are already two shotguns in the game (neither of which I like either)! But to each their own, which is one of the great things about this game! Rock & Stone!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf It's best used to cover choke-points and swat larger groups, using the vanilla charged shot type. Goo bomber I feel is a bit of a tricky sidegrade that is... Something akin to a trap. Its puddles last far longer, but the straight line gimmick and lack of a 'pop' on impact ruins it. I find firing it at a nearby sloped ceiling or wall to make it burst towards the enemies there is ideal, as it seals off both the floor, wall and ground in that area if placed well. Excellent for softening and slaying huge masses of grunts with great ammo efficiency. The problem is that the vanilla charged pop isn't great for flat out damage-dealing to heavier units... But since it melts smaller ones and slows even the big boys, it allows the team to focus more on them and is thus a non-issue. But if you DO want to slap thicc bugs up, I highly suggest the shotgun overclock, 'Sludge Blast'. It ups the damage of the fragments and fires them *_ALL_* in the direction you're lookin', allowing you to deal a large amount of damage at once if all fragments strike the same target. Even if some miss, they slap the dirt and work to soften the enemy and slow them as they suffer the first strike of your plappening. And while less effective for hordes, it still maintains decent ability in smaller crowd deletion since the damage is fair per frag' and you can kinda leap to shoot from a higher angle and swat the cluster of grunts ded. Your main struggle with this overclock is gonna be *ammo.* You'll only get 120 in reserves at best... But you can take the magazine-size mod slot to up that total by +20. Doesn't sound like much, but if you're conservative it'll make a big difference. 4 ammo for a blam ain't too shabby if you pick your targets. My suggested mod selection for this build's goo-er is... 1-2-2-1-3. I suggest carrying an EPC with the 'Heat Pipe' overclock for its best ammo efficiency on charged shots... And a mod selection of 3-1-1-3-1. This gives the EPC Flying Nightmare shots which pierces foes as it flies and which deals 108 mid-flight damage. This value is enough to kill your average grunt in one pass, allowing it to mow through lines of clumped bugs and save you some precious swat-goo. Downsides here, of course, is you can't EPC mine with this setup... But these are the sacrifices you must make if you're looking to save some goo ammo that'd otherwise be wasted on grunts inefficiently.

it's fun, sure, but there's no enemy in the game that it's really worth using on except pill-bugs and loot hoarders and maybe vanilla/hive-guard dreadnaught. Every other beefy enemy has weak points to target with your secondary/axes. combine this with the how much worse the oc does against larger swarms and its practicality becomes crystal clear. only way it stops being bad is if it's changed to benefit from weakpoint bonuses, which I don't see happening.

@@KLIXORthe okay but, sludge shotgun

'Sludge Blast' is my personal favorite overclock, too. Great for ripping apart heavy bugs. My sludge pump build is 1-2-2-1-3. And ye, bunkers are gud for taking down the machine core. I like to build V-tunnels perpendicular to the core at the center, allowing us to run down one side of each bunker to the next... Rising above-ground to pass between and to fire at the core. The deepest section of each bunker is reached at a walk-able angle for drilling til 90-ish heat... And is below the reach of the machine's shield-wall pulse phases.

Yeah the game really is entirely different playing solo, which I really only do to grab footage for these videos. In a full team, there's enough damage to go around between the gunner and engineer that the driller's support skills are more beneficial to the team in my opinion, but playing solo you obviously have to be able to do some damage!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf fair enough. love your content btw.

@@DrillingInTheNameOf I play Driller with the opposite approach. Max Range CRSPR, detonating round Subata. You can clear a *lot* of bugs super fast with some proactive conflagration. I'm of the opinion that there's room for both types of Driller. I definitely appreciate the utility of the Cryo builds, but nothing lays waste to a horde quite like the Flame Thrower. Playing as an offensive full-damage Driller feels a bit like playing a rolling catastrophe. Nothing can stop you, for the terrain is yours to mold. Nothing can escape you, for your wrath hits the ceiling. Nothing can survive you, not even yourself. *Beep, beep, beep* My perspective is - the more dead bugs there are, the less likely your mates will die, up until the Pit beckons you to commit their souls to its fathomless maw with the siren beeps of a C4 brick. Sidenote: What beer were you drinking?

Thank you!!

Thank you!! In my opinion, nothing tops the cryo cannon in terms of raw power. Frozen enemies take 3x damage, so you can deal massive damage even if the cryo doesn't do a ton of damage on its own. That being said, I've still been using the sludge pump since posting this video. It's far more challenging which makes it a lot of fun.

Rock & Stone!

Sadly no replys answered your question so now I'm hoping you learned it elsewhere and take the time to write it here for other randoms like myself don't have to get off KZfaq to check up on it :D

@@theruleroftheinternet8260 lol well: A) Still don't have that overclock so idk yet. My guess is no, but no idea. The tier 5 mod def works tho. B) Yes. Just wait for the enemy HP bar to receive the Neurotoxin rebuff, then blow it up if you want (for single targets, ie- Dreads). You can keep the cloud if it's a huge wave.

Sorry I missed this one! Persistent Plasma unfortunately does not ignite the goo. Still worth using, but if you want to ignite puddles yourself, you'll have to take Plasma Burn in tier 5. Didn't know about the 10 second debuff, but that's great if it works that way!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf Ah, no worries! Thanks for replying. 1) Unfortunate about the Persistent Plasma but oh well lol. At least there's Heavy Hitter! 2) Actually it's even better! The Neurotoxin debuff is typically 10 sec, like fire/shock/etc, but the grenade actually applies a 30 sec debuff duration. At 12ish dmg/sec and a decent slow, it's a solid choice against field bosses or Dreads! As soon as you see the toxin mark on their HP, the 30 sec duration will start (and persist outside the cloud), so you can just ignite the cloud for bonus dmg w/o losing dmg potential

Actually, if you're assuming min-maxing of the mod's utility - it's 7 shots, not 6. 6x4=24, leaving you with 1 ammo which allows additional charged shot. So, as long as you're not using regular shots or born ready perk, you can technically get 2 extra shots with every mag. Sure, it's not going to happen with every mag, not in a realistic scenario, but it's also not rare enough to completely disregard this, especially on missions like Point Extraction, with the constant mini swarms.

@@Verrskel can you do a charged shot with only 1 round in the magazine? I assumed you needed the full ammunition cost of a charged shot to get a charged shot? That kind of changes things

@@timothye.2902 Yes, you can! I'm not sure if it works the same way for other things, like the M1k focus shots, but I've personally double checked the Sludge Pump before replying, and it definitely works.

Same for the EPC, though I never actually noticed it until the sludge pump. Weird mechanic, but I'll pay a dollar for something that costs four any day!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf Absolutely! It's not really something I'd call "intuitive", but after 1300 hours I'm kinda used to DRG being weird and janky. Although recently it seems to be just mostly buggy instead, which is quite unfortunate. Still, this does make the goop gun a little more intricate than it initially seems, since there's something you can do to try and get some extra value out of the weapon, and not in a way that's just plain annoying like the reload cancels.

For Karl!

@@DrillingInTheNameOf Karl would appreciate this.

Haha yeah the cryo cannon is still the ultimate driller weapon, but the sludge pump is definitely fun!

Probably could do a lot of things with audio, honestly. Not my forte unfortunately. Got a new camera and a shotgun mic though, we'll see if that's any better!

Thank you!!

Haha thanks!

I'll give it a try!

I'll try it if I can find it!