Dont ignore Luck and Harvesting
The earlier you get a bit of luck and harvesting the more they will pay off later on
here is an example

I am not saying that you have to go full harvesting every time but the earlier you get it the more value it has . It is the same with luck , the earlier you get a bit of luck the better items and better levels you are going to have.
So if you're struggling with a character at Danger 5 try to level up a bit of Harvesting + Luck earlier in the run and the run will go much much smoother .
This is how lucks affects the game.

And this is how luck affects the shop items as an example but don't forget the level ups and the alien material drops.

In general you don't need much to beat D5 just understand the characters and synergies with the items.

DO NOT PICK HEALTH PICK UPS , LOOT CRATES UNLESS YOU NEED THEM
IF YOU PICK THEM THEY GO TO WASTE BECAUSE YOU GET NOTHING FROM THEM IF YOU'RE FULL HP (you will get them at the end of wave anyway even if not picked up, yes loot crates too , even Legendary loot crates)

YOU'LL GET LOOT CRATES EVEN IF YOU DONT PICK THEM UP
ONLY PICK THEM UP WHEN YOU WANT TO HEAL

This is used for when you want to ''one-shot'' (focus) an Elite he will drop a Legendary Loot crate which will heal you for 100 HP , if you're already full hp or almost full , leave it there until you need it.
This is an amazing strat that most players overlook but it can SAVE your runs , do not pick healing fruits / chests when full HP.

Unless you're having a Godlike run always pick up these items , they will SAVE your life!

Yes , some items will make your Danger 5 journey much easier
Top list item is Fairy which is an incredible item for example a must pick pretty much always
But there are more , see the picture below!
Unlock these items as soon as possible at low Danger level so then you can use them in your Danger 5 runs.

In this tier list most of the time , MOST of the times you'll be trying to get these items in general as soon as possible , these items will carry your run forward since most of the time you're getting VALUE from them and most of the time they pay themselves .
For example the more damage you have the faster you kill and the more you kill so the more materials you have
Another example the earlier you get good harvesting items like in the pic below from the tier S the sooner they will pay themselves
To note : Items that give you more +% number of enemies are GOOD! why? because the more enemies that spawn each round = a lot more materials for the whole run in general try to keep an eye for these items.
Some items are not worth taking past wave 15 or so , it depends how soon they show. These items shown below are takable by pretty much every single character in the game that's why they belong to S



Honorable mention to Ugly Tooth, why?
If you ever see yourself getting run over by some Elites or at the boss stage you feel like you don't have enough speed to keep up , then in general get this item , do it , it is one of the most impactful items in the game when the runs are going so so
If everything is dying you don't need it but in general it is a very good item to keep and eye on

In the counter part here are some items which we want to AVOID why?
they will cost you a lot and will cost you more as the run goes.
For example an item that gives you -% number of enemies , this equals to
1) the price of the item 2) the less enemies that will spawn from now on = less materials .
Another example you want your enemies to have less SPEED than you do so items like Alien baby that gives ALIENS a lot of speed are not usually recommended unless you have a lot of speed yourself. So in general try to avoid these items

This tier list was made by Cephalopocalypse and hes pretty much on point with everything he said

What does it do?
Engineering increases the Damage and healing of your Structures but it also increases the attack damage of the Weapons Plank and Screwdriver.
Is Engineering broken?
I would kind of say that for characters in general that have negative % damage bonuses in general Engineering can be extremely broken for them , why?
Because Engineering is a stat that scales on it's own , it doesn't need any % Damage , Ranged Damage or Melee Damage , as long as you get more Engineering your Structures will do more damage. So instead you can focus on your Dodge , HP , HP Regen , Armor and forget about damage and only get Engineering
What does affect engineering? Secondary stats, let see it better in a picture.

So for example , let's say your turrets have 0 Bullet penetration and then you get this item :

Your structures will ignore the -% Damage because they are not affected by it , making this item extremely good for your structures .
So if you're struggling with a character try Engineering , some builds I show you later on use it.

What is this phenomena we call cost of opportunity?
Let's say you're going GUNS and you're going full REVOLVERS and most of your revolvers are level 2 or and some are level 3 but then a level 4 RED SMG shows up in the shop , if you don't take the SMG you have lost this chance to get a tier 4 GUN .
In general terms you should get high level guns / weapons UNLESS you're going for a specific build for example (full shield GOLEM) then dont get anything but the shield because you're building around it but in general you're losing a lot of DPS if you don't take the higher tier offered in the shop .

I'll post an example so we can understand in simpler terms

Okay now that you understand this but let's go a bit further
WHEN DO YOU MIX your weapons?
Let's say you're going full MELEE with SPEARS , spears in-game have a lot of base range
so lets say you get offered a high level AXE in the mix , here you SHOULD NOT pick the AXE why?
because SPEARS are going to kill everything before the AXE has any chance to hit because of the low range.
So what items do we pick with a SPEAR build? We pick melee weapons that have a HIGH range to accompany our build.


Now let's do an example with GUNS , have you ever done a super fast GUNS build? SMG , Revolvers and so on? then you picked up a Pistol or a Laser gun and the Laser /Pistol did almost no damage that wave?
why? Because SMG and Revolver will kill everything before Pistol or Laser gun even reload themselves.


So this is why try to always mix together fast weapons with fast weapons
Guns that have no penetration with more non penetrating guns and so on.

End of the line , if you're going GUNS and you get a godlike GUN offered in the shop and it goes well with your current build EVEN if it is not the same gun , you take it!

These item can change your run from scrapping by to godlike , so keep an Eye our for them if youre Ranged
Note : if your weapon has no problem killing the aliens you dont need more piercing but it might give you a lot of more Damage in general

These items seem like they don't do much but if you build around them or get them when you have the required stats for them to shine they can carry your runs way more than it looks on the surface , try them!

Now with this out of the way , lets proceed to the builds and characters!

This in a "hidden" option that mostly when you FAIL a Wave you will re-start from that wave as if nothing happened BUT!!! at the end of the game it will be notified for example
Danger 5 - R7 (Difficulty 5 and Retries 7) meaning you have failed a total of 7 waves (died 7 times)
If you care about doing it flawlessly (base game was like this) then DO NOT use it .
IF YOU ONLY CARE about achievements or just want a much easier D5 then toggle this on.
In general even if you retry waves is not guaranteed that the build will work, but it can helpful for sure, I personally already beat all characters before this was added PLUS I want to give all of you the best possible or fun builds!!

Options > gameplay > retry waves (remember if you want to keep the true D5 feeling don't use this, this something to help you in case you just want to get this over with (achievements or so).
The end sceen will let you know how many retries have you done in this case 1 (R1)

In general build it with pretty much anything you want he starts pretty strong with Harvesting off the start, always remember the Luck + Harvest I mentioned earlier

However if you're somehow stuck with this characters (it happens don't worry) just go Spears primitive build, get a bit of Luck, Harvesting at the start off the game and start building your Dmg and survivability off that

You dont usually get to mix Elemental with Melee, so now is a good chance to try! It is much stronger than it looks, remember as always some luck/harvest early game.

Start with Ghost flint and forget about Ghost staff and just go ham with damage and attack speed it was pretty fun!

This one is tricky since if you want a high DPS build youll get oneshot most of the time because you are too close to the aliens
So try to keep some form of survival , I recommend Dodge + HP

You don't get the chance to use these weapons pretty much at all, so this is a good chance to try them, do some economy early as always, build is strong but be careful with the low range (so get bonus range items here and there) so you don't have to be extremely close to the aliens.
I do recommend that you cap your dodge fast and get some HP , lack of range will make you take a lot of hits so dodge will help a lot , attack speed , melee damage and CRIT are top priority damage choices.

Some Life-steal and high MELEE DMG + Crit are your friends
Becomes much stronger the more crit you get him, so get weapons that scale with crit like in pic below

I got the sniper to test its damage but couldnt test it much because it was boss wave, still get around 60% crit chance so that all your Knifes have 100% crit chance, ramp up melee DMG or else you will tickle them and get some survavility HP + Armor forget about dodge

The more I play with these daggers the more broken I find them. Level up your your crit and Melee damage early and let the daggers scale , meanwhile build some economy early and some defense stat here and there (you will be drowning in materials because of the daggers)!

Always wanted to do a full Shuriken build and here it is!
Start havesting/luck AND keep your starting knife (and even level it up a bit or add extra one) for the first 5-7 waves as shurikens are extremely bad clearing AoE waves , BUY the bullet penetration as you will hit way more targets (encircled on the picture bellow) as defensive the best one is Life-steal with a good amount of HP pool and speed to not get hit but everything should be dying, the first elite i couldn't kill but I hope you do!

Self Explanatory , go for DPS (range damage , attack speed and crit ) try to get dodge up and luck up.
This item will do wonders with him , in general the idea is to obliterate everything in your path and never get hit since everything is gonna die anyway , so prioritize damage options , Ranged Damage , %Damage , Crit and so on

You can also do a Crossbow build with crossbow as you see in the pic the Red ones had 100% crit chance even with my crit that low
So crossbows are an option for Ranged damage and range build since you start with bonus range too

This one took me a while , I feel like , Elemental builds need a lot of items like ''Snake or Scared Sausage'' to get strong
So get these items

If you're having trouble with this character start with Torches because of the Primitive tag to get early tankiness then you can switch to what whatever you prefer later on, on waves 8-9, I recommend Taser because of Range and Economy tag

Having couple of melee items will help you clear the bigger waves
In this run I got Lightning Shiv as my starter this run (harder start)

Now here I started run with x4 Torches then slowly buying more and more Tasers for late game

Always wanted to do a Wands build and this was my chance with the DLC the amount of burning on the map was insane, the map was burning and dying really fast. If you want to know more read the previous builds , BUt I highlighted the most key items to look for (remember bullet penetration IS really good!) Started with Harvesting + Luck as always.

This guy builds HP so what weapon scale well with HP? Multitasker Win unlock
So go to Danger 0-1 and Do a multitasker Run to unlock Chopper weapon


I did the previous Chopper build but died at the Abyss bosses but well the Rock one, how do they work? You get BOTH tags : Primitive and Blunt So you get HP (needed) armor plus you negate ALL -negative speed so you are safe to get ROCKS as many as you want (Rocks also give you armor). Remember you CAN'T life steal at all only Regen + Baby Monkey + Fruits and not much more.
Even if tempted to do so, we have to forget about +speed bonuses since we get 0 from all speed bonuses. Prioritize HP + armor on the defensive stats then get some Melee + % damage too , crit was fun but the build should be melting , since the more HP you have the more HP you do.
This item i'll posting here is somewhat of a trap, you get 1% damage by 3 HP you have but this items removes -1% damage negating the bonus itself , so you ONLY get the 3HP , early waves might be worth it since you don't have good items but once it starts to cost more in later waves you only get 3 HP and that's it, so keep in mind if you want to spend coins in a simple +3 HP later on.

I think Engineering is easier for Danger 5 but you can work with anything , Mines work amazing with Old since map is small, get some economy early game and then build engineering forget about damage at all!

Here is an example with Guns but I think it is easier with Engineering but guns are fun! Remember to remove that negative move speed and get economy early on, the focus on Ranged damage and attack speed!

Are Old people allowed to use Tasers??!!
Remember this build works for Crash map too!
This build is funnier than it looks, Start with Taser get a plank or something to do some AoE if possible too, get your economy early on too. Then start getting more tasers and couple of wands and A LOT of attack speed, we will play him like a SMG character but with tasers build CRIT too and tasers + wands should melt the screen! Get bullet penetration as these work too with Taser/wand projectiles!

Try to get your luck up but this character needs items to work with luck so if the luck build is not taking off , go with melee damage and with Spears until you get these items .

So with the new update and DLC we have a lot more Luck items to play with and that means that characters that Scale with Luck like Druid or Lucky will do amazingly well if you get some good Luck items.
Recipe : Baby Elephant, Cyberball, Crocodile, Pearls (as many as possible), Sifd Relic (if possible but Crocodiles will do).
So I picked Cursed Flute at wave 18 but it wasnt needed at all, when you kill a SINGLE (1) Alien with this build the screen forms a chain reaction (when you pick materials) that the whole screen explodes in seconds, it's crazy and incredibly unique! Try it! (harvesting early is recommended).
Highlighted items are extremely recommended!

This character wont have many items because all items for Mutant are 50% more expensive.
Luck up to get better levels , youll level a lot

Ranged mutant is also amazing to get the run going , remember to prioritize the best items you're getting offered because you won't have a lot of money to buy so only buy the best ones , luck up also gives you a lot of better items and better level ups , so keep that in mind

One of the hardest to play around , Jack of all trades master of none
Get Primitive weapons or get 3 primitive Spears + Primitive ranged weapons if you have the chance.
TIP : DO NOT GET THIS ITEM BELOW , IT'S A TRAP!

This first pic was more survival oriented, more on the tankiness side

This second pic was more damage oriented , spears are like guns

My idea was to get Cacti Clubs for the Melee/Ranged scaling and then get 3 Rocket Launchers but I got the Grenade Launchers instead (went better than expected :^).
I was using the Cacti Clubs alone until wave 9-10 (yes only 3 of them) heavy tag gives you a lot of % Damage and plus Cacti Clubs also scale with Ranged damage and are godly for Life-stealing.
Get some luck and harvesting early game not like me that wen't into negative harvesting but I really wasn't getting much harvesting drops :(! Dodge helps a lot!

The idea is that you will be doing so much damage +so many % of number of enemies that you will be drowning in Materials, so forget about harvesting
Remember to always pick up +% number of enemies with him

This is a more Survival oriented build with Primitive weapons kind of like Fisherman

Here is full shotguns build , which is also pretty fun to do!
Remember what we said about getting weapon with high base damage?
well , shotguns are not one of those , so to make this work get a lot of Ranged Damage from the start of the game

Loud as we all know is one of the most fun characters to experience the mayhem that the game can offer, so you're free to also try the previous builds and this one is just pure MAYHEM on the Abyss map, how does it work? Loud has way way more alien spawn rate than any other character, right? THEN the cursed enemy (the one that give you +1 curse will spawn in copious amounts of numbers same for Blobfish so you can stack curse get LUCK early game and then start rolling Ranged damage and everything should be MELTING , crit chance is amazing here , go wild!

STICKS STICKS STICKS STICKS
if you don't get sticks then get primitive weapons

Multitasker can work with Guns too (extremely fun to play with Guns) but it is a bit harder to pull off because lack of HP and Melee weapons hit more enemies when they strike
So how does this works? Get the guns you want as soon as they appear in the shop, why?
Lets say you have 30% attack speed as soon as you buy a new gun that gun is gonna have 30% attack speed too , stats get applied to every single gun , so imagine having 30% crit with 12 weapons
that almost as having ''60%'' crit because a normal character has only half the guns.
See where we are getting to? Every single stat you pick Crit , attack speed , Ranged , life steal , damage and so on all of those stats ARE getting APPLIED to every single gun you have , it will pay off at the end , you just have to struggle for a bit but it is extremely fun tho , try it!

With Elemental it can work amazingly well too , remember to keep and eye for Snake and Scared Sausage!

As mentioned 12 turrets plus the ones you can buy is fun, apart from this there is not much to this build, forget completely about damage stats and get a lot of engineering, remember to build some harvesting and luck early game as always.
Also remember that your turrets will adopt the unique traits (secondary stats) of items but not the negative damage ones, because they are not affected by this.


This was pretty fun! BUT I noticed that once you have all your weapons there are some weapons that can't reach the Elite/Boss because I didn't have enough range so keep that in mind.
Harvesting + Luck at the start then Melee Damage and getting Elemental + Crit too.

STICKS STICKS STICKS

If you don't like STICKS , you can stick with some other weapon, spears are fun because they are pretty much gun tier with their range

The Practice sticks weapon is one of the weirdest ones in the game and there aren't many chances to take them honestly, because they scale with your LEVEL, the more level you are the more damage they do, if you want to experience them Wilding is a great chance to do so.

Hands + Harvest stack , try to get Crown

This was much much harder to pull off than I thought it would be, wave 8 was a complete disaster. I had to even turn ON the revive option and practice wave 8 but it was tough, then I re-started with a more defensive approach , but this might have took me a total of around 10 tries to pull off AND the game was lagging extremely hard because of the amount of burned enemies ticking off.
Solution : Do this in Crash map and do Hands on this map
When game wasn't lagging I could life steal from 10 HP to Full in 1 second because of the amount of burned enemies + penetrating bullets. I tried damage at first but it was miserable what worked was Life-steal , Dodge and a lot of armor , safe to say I couldn't kill any Elites and whatnot. I highlighted the items that made my build very powerful (life stealing wise)

One of the most fun characters
Go crazy build anything , primitive weapons are recommended
HOWEVER if you're having trouble with him remember to NOt neglect Harvest and Luck there are many many luck items that are worth price in gold , so even if you start with -30 luck you can ramp it up quickly with a couple of Tier one items like these which wont affect your build and are cheap
Also get your dodge up and a bit hp and defense

Here is mixed bag with Blades, Primitive and Medieval weapons , went extremely well too

Read the main Gladiator (up there ^^^) build for tips but to resume it for you, get harvesting early game and forget about Luck (nooooo) and then Start getting 6 different weapons as fast as possible, it doesn't matter which ones we will fix this in the middle of the run, For me Spears are godly, Lances are amazing (+speed) , Sword is fun and Thunder Sword is god-tier.
Last wave Thunder Sword was doing triple the damage of the rest of the weapons!
(in general terms try to not have the same weapons unless it is a god tier legendary weapon)!

The idea is that you get your baseline up with some weapons and some items early on then you stop buying stuff and farm with the Piggy bank. If you're not killing them fast enough then this means you lack damage / level ups so keep buying until You're comfortably killing the items with some good basic items. If you don't make it with this build go for the Saver build down below.

I saw a lot of comments on the forums that Saver is a troublesome character, so here is a broken build with him. 7000 Materials wave 20, So build like you always do in the first waves. I recommend that when you level up early game you focus on some luck 10-20 , and Melee Damage because thief daggers are pretty weak damage wise, get crit chance too to farm more materials, When wave 8 ends pretty much you start saving up this means (stop buying items unless it's a really really good item (Like Gentle Alien or Mouse for example) stop rerolling and pretty much get your stats from your level ups, if you're lacking in dodge for example before an Elite fight just spend all your coins and the next waves just farm like always, buy stuff here and there but it is really not needed because the more you save the more damage you do!

Fast penetrating weapons is what you need to life-steal
DO NOT GET WEIRD GHOST or YOUR RUN WILL BE OVER

These items are recommended a lot too , the more enemies you are able to hit , the more you will life steal from them

Remember this will work on the base game too, as always some Luck + Harvesting early game and then start building your Clubs and getting Melee damage and some Ranged damage here and there since the Cacti clubs have a ranged attack that you will life steal off, couldn't kill the lasts bosses for some reason but it's not hard to just life steal around , Speed is key for Elites too!

Start with pruners and GET CROWN , add harvest , you dont have to kill that much
just farm harvest with food drops then switch build to whatever weapons you want

Ghost weapons I recommend Ghost wand + Axe
forget about armor

Get lances because they scale with speed and you want SPEED

Start with Hiking poles which will give you a really good harvesting base and just keep on leveling up speed early to stack more of the hiking pole passives and getting speed items, once that is settles just level your fair share of damage. (red encircled items are really good and yellow not bad ones)
ALERT : YOU WILL GET HIT, so DODGE UP

Explorer 2.0
Engineering is the easiest method since he has DMG penalty (feels bad man)

So much economy option early game and with tasers you can stack so much Harvesting to ramp up, I didnt get much damage options here so a lot of Area of Effect damage but zero single target damage , not a single elite or boss was killed this run bit managed to kill normal mobs relatively easy , it was fun, try it!

It wasn't enough being the richest potato ever you also had to steal from the aliens!
This build also works in the base game of course, start with some harvesting/luck early game and really try to get the 6th daggers as fast as possible since some aliens have a bit of armor.
Ignore the -% damage bonus, we need to build damage and ramp up those daggers so we can kill and farm the dagger passive.
It was a wild ride and if you try this it would not be much different for you, trust me!

ENGINEERING ENGINEERING ENGINEERING ENGINEERING ENGINEERING

another negative damage character so go with ENGINEERING

Let's say you don't want to go full Engineering and want to spice things up?
Go for Elemental Weapons , get a bit of HP at the start + luck + harvest and SLOWLY build your % Damage up + Elemental (REMEMBER THIS IS IF YOU WANT A FUN BUILD)
Get the item from the pic down bellow most important one is Pocket Factory


Now mix your weapons because you wont get a lot of them , here is the end build and managed to kill both of the last bosses, it was fun (First time I could use Strange Book)

Imo full melee scissors can be better but if you get bullet penetration then ranged will do too, only go for medic weapons

CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT
CROSSBOW CROSSBOW CROSSBOW CROSSBOW
Forget about Harvesting at all and get some luck early on!

Get Daggers early and ramp up your crit too (when you kill with dagger you have 50% chance to get material). Also remember that thief dagger tickle the enemies so get a lot of melee damage
Remember ZERO Harvesting, so get items that lower your harvesting. As always get some luck early game and get some HP here and there, you will be drowning in materials if get your damage up so dagger can crit them to death

So now Hunter can start with the very first Elemental weapon! Icicle!
Remember to get some early Luck and don't touch harvesting items EVER!
Pump some HP here and there to not get one shot but rely more on Life steal and Dodge , in general terms try to just kill everything on sight, with the crit bonus, having the Shiv helps a lot if you can't clean the room, not the strongest build from Hunter bit it is fun and unique!

This is one of the most unique builds in the game, I mean it, how does this works? With walking sticks the more you walk the more range the walking stick gives you the more range you have the more damage you do!
Even if these weapon are support you will be sniping elites in seconds, trust me.
Get speed early levels to stack the sticks, get some armor, Regen and HP too..
Then start getting by wave 3-4 Melee damage and speed on the side.
NEVER STOP MOVING the more you move the more range you accumulate which equals more damage! CRIT chance is amazing here! Screen should melt!

This one is hard to pull off , get explosion size and explosion dmg , pic related

Shredder weapons are best starter in general

Another hard to pull off
Try to get a combination of weapons (for example Primitive) and then re-roll the shop and LOCK a weapon from the same family (for example Primitive) and dont buy it so next shop you have it , so next rerolls you have more chances of finding that same weapon family
If you don't lock the item you'll get random items next shop.
Try to go for % DMg and weapons with High base damage because youll be getting in general ranged / melee weapons

Most IMPORTANT THING : the first shops just get your weapon and nothing else , reroll for your weapon and if you can't buy just lock it , either SMG or SLINGSHOT , once you are sitting comfortably killing them standing standing still you start building some items here and there, move if necessary (relocate yourself and keep on farming)
The idea with SMG is to focus on Ranged damage when leveling up +forget about speed the first waves , DO NOT BUY EVERYTHING just your guns and KEY items
Don't stack a lot of materials at once for example +700 before going to the next wave or you're going to pretty much die , you can sit with 250 materials at the start of wave more or less and go from there.
IMPORTANT : ONLY MOVE WHEN DANGER IS APPROACHING (ENEMY CHARGERS OR BULLETS . MOVE OUT OF THE WAY AND KILL THEM, THEN KEEP ON STANDING STILL.
Also even if we go Ranged with him you build SOME engineering structures on the side , see pic related.

And also in general unless your run is going extremely well , DO NOT get these items or you will get RUN OVER


A bit of a update , After testing for a while , I've seen that SMG are better to stay still early game but revolvers are DMG MONSTERS LATE GAME .
Also these items are needed if you go non-piercing weapons (SMG /Revolvers)

This run I was able to stand still much earlier (smg starters + ranged damage focus early game)

This is the build that would make the more sense with him and the way (I think) the devs wanted you to play Streamer , "gaming" while making money and turrets doing all the job... sounds easy but it is not that easy when we actually get to try it, as the previous builds with Streamer , he is weird and possibly the most weird Brotato in the group , so let's start!
Start Wrench , first waves try to stay still but only spend money only in wrenches pretty much , first 2-3 level ups try to balance a bit of Harvesting with Engineering and 5-10 luck. Every turret you see in the shop try to lock or buy .
DO NOT LEVEL UP ANY DAMAGE SOURCE, EVER. FORGET ABOUT RANGED , MELEE , % DAMAGE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY
If everything is going good so far your turrets will be killing most of the aliens so you can farm, by wave 8-10 you're supposed to be able to stay still completely (Remember every turret you see in the shop you buy or lock it see the pictures down below) + Remember as the chart below says turrets can penetrate multiple aliens if you have the items and they ignore the negative % damage , they also work with Snake, Scared Sausage, Bouncy Bullets and so on, explosion radius too but get this one later on.
The pictures down below explain how the turrets work , get armor , get turrets , get regeneration and more , if you need to move , move. By wave 12 or so you should be able to stand still most of the time pretty much whole round , so then you can buy a lot .
IMPORTANT: DO NOT SPEND ALL YOUR COINS EVERY WAVE , START EACH WAVE WITH 600-800 MATERIALS , ELITE WAVES BUY A BIT MORE AND LAST WAVE SPEND ALL .
IMPORTANT PART 2 : TRY TO CAMP NEAR YOUR STRONGEST TURRETS OR HEALING TURRETS (BOTH BETTER) SO YOU CAN SAFELY CAMP MORE.
Don't feel discouraged, it is a bit bad in the first waves then you can AFK pretty much (you can still die if you're not farming enough) , just try it to get the feeling , but anyway I recommend you try the DPS build up there , but this is also possible and seems like the intended way.

Flutes lowered my dps but they were kind of funky for the late game.
Streamer is the weirdest potato of the bunch so I would suggest you to read the previous builds (specially the ranged ones) so you can get an idea, because it is pretty much the same.
To sum up a bit if it were possible : Stay still whenever you can, don't get negative knockback since this will keep them at bay, early shops try to lock for the slingshots and only slingshots then start building normally, try to stay still whenever possible, move if necessary and stay still again, all structures that you buy give you extra armor , keep an eye on your speed stat and don't start waves with way tooooo much resources or you will just die (for example around 300-600) depending on how strong you are , by wave 8-9 you should be able to stay still most of the time.

Actual fun character just go 3 Ranged weapons 3 Engineering weapons and NO % DMG AT ALL
DO NOT LEVEL UP engineering just go for Ranged DMG

I tried to do a starting run with Smg but I was only getting guns on the shop so half of the wave I was stuck with 0 damage on my guns , I really think this character is amazing and fun played with Wrenches and getting some guns here are there , REMEMBER do not level Engineering , Just get items that synergize with your structures and so on

Get pruners and Garden some dmg but focus on tankiness

One of the most fun characters in the game once you understand it
The idea is that there are ALMOST no aliens in the map so the ones that spawn you have to one-shot
Also get these items always, they are always good but even better with JACK because he gets more materials from Aliens (more Aliens = more materials)

go for HIGH BASE DMG weapons (REVOLVER/ LASER GUN) then get a LOT of RANGED DAMAGE THEN A LOT OF % DAMAGE. Later Get your crit up to melt everything. Get a bit of luck harvesting early on (5-10 of each) then back to damage you really want to one shot everything as soon as they spawn. Laser > Revolvers, Revolvers are better when you have all your damage set up but until then lasers are better. REMEMBER WITH THIS CHARACTER PRIORITIZE RANGED DAMAGE AND %DAMAGE.
Defensive stat? Yes, remember to prioritize your damage, but if you can get any defensive stat on the side GO for DODGE, Jack is kind of like Ghost a couple of hits and You're dead so you better dodge those , but they idea is to kill everything so fast that will tank a couple of hits here and there.

SPEED IS KEY If you have been following my guide you must have noticed dear reader that I don't pay a lot of attention to speed, because if you kill the aliens you don't need to run away from them in general terms BUT, with JACK WE NEED SPEED, we don't really want to get HIT so we need high speed in general to run away from Elites and specially dodge last bosses attack patterns, so keep in mind your speed too!

This is normal D5 run with Revolvers, If you get Revolvers try to get this item

This is D5 run with Laser Guns (got sniper rifle later on) Revolvers are better late game from wave 15 onwards but I think Lasers will carry your run more consistently, try them!

Sticks do low damage early and while you have more tankiness early game because of Primitive tag you can get a bit of Economy/Luck but remember Melee damage early game then at mid game try to also ramp up your crit and some dodge

After playing for a while an forcing a real build with different starter weapons , I think I conclude that Spears might be the WINNER here. Why? because they pierce endlessly and their range is as much as a gun, so you don't have to worry about piercing and just get your Melee damage up.
I started Spears and then got a Thunder Sword and tested its damage, Thunder Swords do more damage in Elite/Boss waves but spears do more on normal waves. I think thunder swords are fun but all Spears should be pretty much the same. Remember a bit of Dodge here and there to get some form of survival, but prioritize DAMAGE + CRIT. So imo just try with lasers and if it doesn't work give it a chance with Spears.

At this point I'm really used to how Jack plays, so I might be a bit biased but with this build I won first try with him (Lances have extremely high base damage), going like the other builds, Melee Damage, % Damage a bit of luck/harvest here and there and for defensive stat mainly dodge. Remember you have to focus on damage to get more materials.

This one took me around 10 hours Im not kidding
The main idea here is that you want to get HIT , because when you heal with Regeneration or Life Steal you will do same damage as your total HP , so you need a lot of HP
So forget about damage in general and just get a bit of it then a lot of HP and Life steal
So try to go for Elemental build
Why elemental stuff? because if you burn an enemy you have a chance to heal for every DOT of fire
Cool , right? now imagine if you had SNAKE which spreads the fire dot to other aliens
Fast weapons are also pretty good like Minigun or SMG + Lich works pretty well with Penetrating bullets like pic related , and Elemental spread too


The picture above ↑ was a mix of everything so in this picture bellow ↓ I went full Elemental damage with tons of HP and won first try with it , if you get a lot of Damage over Time items with Snake and Scared Sausage you will just heal to full in a second

This is one is pretty good too to clear D5 with Lich, how does it work?
Since Slingshots bounce 2 times with a 100% chance of doing so you'll life-steal a lot and if you get Mage items like Scared Sausage and Snake you'll regenerate even more.
In my build I tried to go ''Damage'' to kill bosses and Elites but barely killed them and almost got killed a couple of times so I would say ditch the ''damage'' I tried to pull off and just go tanky as always forget about Glass Cannon for example

This is supposed to be the main weapon of LICH, because weapon damage scales with HP. Main stats : HP, attack speed, crit (remember some luck and harvesting early levels. Build can kill elites and bosses but I think slingshot or elemental build are better. REMEMBER to get hit so you can regenerate and kill more.

Go for ghost staff early since youll level up a lot and then go for Ghost Axe
then once you have a good baseline stats build whatever you prefer

I believe this character can work with any build you want, get LUCK up because you'll get a lot of +EXP% related items so you will level up a lot and you need luck to get those +9 HP per level
Rest of the stats you can go full damage

Stronger than expected it to be, remember to level up LUCK to get better level ups, you need those +9 HP when leveling up (or good HP items), also keep an eye open for Scared Sausage and Snake. I tried with Torches but it wasn't as fun and Shivs did way more damage, the wand was to just kill things off screen so I didn't have to go melee!

Fun one
Do not kill the trees unless you're about to die
Build crit and go for fast weapons that scale well with crit , meanwhile go for a bit of HP +
IMPORTANT : This character can go up to 70% DODGE instead of the standard 60%

I got the hammer in the last wave, get CRIT with this build always start with some luck and harvesting as always then start getting melee damage or you will tickle them, do not kill the trees and get more tree related items.
ALSO DO NOT GET RIPOSTE LIKE I DID OR IT WILL STEAL KILLS FROM THE DAGGERS

Fisherman is one of the hardest one to pull off too
So basic tips would be get a bit of armor the earliest the better and don't forget at all about dodge
I will post some builds that work and you can choose what fits you more (I recommend you start with Spears just to get a bit of the feeling of how it works and then switch of you prefer so)
Wave tip : When wave stars wait until the aliens from the bait spawn and run to the top or top left of the map so you can ''align'' them in a straight line and melt them all together
What worked for me after I tried and tried?
Do not get that many baits early 1-2 and go LUCK and HARVEST then once you worked your early levels you take many many baits at the later levels 4 or 5 per wave
also care with Elite waves and baits

So previous build was pure DMG this one is more of a ''we can ignore Melee damage and focus a bit more of survivality'' so early game will be a bit easier than Spears build but since you lack the much of Range you WILL GET HIT , you need to approach this as a more defensive oriented run
so get 1-2 armor early waves if you can , dont care about run speed they will run you over anyway
then at WAVE 10 try to have 20-30% dodge chance and by wave 15-18 fully 60% dodge because you will get hit for sure. So manage 2-3 baits per wave and be careful with Elite waves and baits.
Having a bit of life steal + HP regen is recommended a lot

I think the most consistent to win with might be SHIELDS , why? You can forget completely about Melee Dmg and everything. Your damage scales with Armor , the more armor you have the more you'll tank hits and the more damage you will do.
You'll lack a lot of range in your weapons but you will be able to tank a lot of hits.
Be absolutely carful with your DODGE CHANCE since you lack range you WILL get hit.
at WAVE 10 try to have 20-30% dodge chance and by wave 15-18 fully 60% dodge

Starter Revolvers > Lasers , BUT we need couple of laser guns if we don't get penetrating bullets
so you can forget about Laser guns if you get any of these, YOU HAVE TO GET EITHER OF THESE

Without these items you'll get obliterated, because lasers are too slow and Revolvers do not pierce
So MIX Lasers + Revolvers but remember to not buy a lot.
What to prioritize 1 ONE bait per wave until wave 10-11 you can get more depending on how strong you feel
Get 1-2 armor early waves (1-3 Wave)
Get some luck 5-15 early waves (1-4)
Get Attack Speed 10-30% waves (2-6)
Some HP to tank couple of hits here and there (forget about dodge, later on you wont get hit)
Keep an EYE for some Life steal on later waves , you'll need some
Move a lot! and look at my items in general you wont have that much money.

Even if you don't have the DLC this build will work in the base game and it is a lot of fun!
Remember : all the previous builds will work this is just to expand your weapon pool or have a fun unique run! (where have you seen a fisherman carrying 6 SMGs??!??)
You only take 1 bait every wave and ONE bait only! UNTIL wave 9-10 which you should be strong enough to get more. The first level ups get 100% bonus armor for sure on the shop get the SMG as soon as possible so only bait and SMGs.
Wave 1-10 ONLY 1 BAIT.
Wave 10-13 get 2 Baits (yaaaaay)
Wave 14-16 get 3 Bait (woooah)
Wave 16 to 19 get 4 bait or more (!!!!!!!!)
Wave 20 get 1 or 2 (be safe)
So while you do all this , get bullet penetration as always and look up a lot of Range damage even if the downsides are bad get ranged damage SMGs are Ranged damage hungry a lot!

You need pretty much the shield ,how do you get the shield? do a Danger 0-1 with Masochist
Then start the golem with shield and stack armor , protip : in normal waves get your head to half HP to get attack speed buff, with this buff you can gather a lot more materials (kills)

You can also do it with STICK pretty consistently I made the mistake of purchasing a bit of healing items but remember : HE HAS NO WAY TO HEAL AT ALL, at later waves I started to get hit pretty hard , so started building up my dodge and went more DMG

Slinghtshots worked wonderfully , so many kills because you can go full economy and damage early game, plus with Slingshots you get so much total hp, and dont need much range, remember to lower hp to half to kill more and get more materials.
With Slingshot get % Damamage , Ranged damage, crit chance and some attack speed.

Extremely fun character
Try to not get level 1 weapons and build anything you want (to evade low level weapons you have to get more luck , so get good amount of luck
Ranged builds , Melee , Spectral , primitive , everything works



Everything works, taser was doing TOP damage, followed by knuckles until I got the Grenade launcher, which did top damage by a huge amount!

These items are amazing on him , and its safe to stay that you pick every single level 1 item , even if they give you melee damage or elemental damage , but early game priorize Ranged damage , bonus attack speed and economy items

He gets no negative damage penalty pretty much so you're free to pick anything with negative damage %

I went with explosive weapons since if he misses with one 1 shot the projectile will hit the next enemy in line and explode and kill both, it worked most of the time
In general I think explosive guns are much easier to win with him

You can also do a Ghost Scepter run , pretty weak early on but amazing late game

a Guns run can work too , which is stronger early game but needs good Ranged damage or good crit to clear later waves

SLINGSHOT SLINGSHOT SLINGSHOT SLINGSHOT SLINGSHOT SLINGSHOT

Honestly it worked on big AoE waves but not so great for single target, I could kill elites but not the last two bosses but it is an interesting build, try to get Nuclear Launcher instead!

it might not seem like it but get EXPLOSION DAMAGE and EXPLOSION SIZE
he explodes every time he gets hit, so get these items
Early mid game focus a lot of Armor, HP and Regen!

forget about ranged damage and elemental damage when you level up since you get less damage from them (pic related) but if game throws at you free damage take it

After the implementation of the new DLC items there are soooo much better options for Bull that I had no idea, Knot is extremely good and ball and chain too, items that give you self harm like bloodbag are also pretty good. Having some bit of Dodge will help your survivability by quite a bit.
Melee Damage >>>> Elemental Damage >>>>>>>>>> Ranged Damage. (refer to the previous build for a bit more info on the level up damage choices) also remember you also need exploding radius and explosion damage!

Fun one , just move a bit and stay , move and stay (KITTING)

I got the red SMG at the end but I pretty much never had to move at all only to pick up the materials
remember to always build a bit of Tankiness (a bit of HP or dodge or some life steal)

Harpoons hit like a truck and this is simple enough, like just stand still bit of harvesting/luck early game and then go full black Melee damage, %damage, attack speed and more only to move out of the way and get the materials at the end of round, everything was dying.
Remember NO RANGED damage, Harpoons scale with Melee.
Statue helps a lot but keep your speed in check just in case too.

This character needs his own weapon unlock so do a level 0 run with him and then the Danger 5 with his unlock
SHIELD + armor stack

Let's say you want a bit more of a offensive approach to this character, well you can..
you can do Ghost Axe build but i must say (IT'S HARDER to pull off)
How does this work? pretty much like the previous one with the shield you're looking to get hit and regenerate and get hit , so get a lot of Axes and slowly your damage will ramp up once you farm the Axe stat passive for a while, you can also get Ghost scepter to get a bit more HP
Ghost Flint is not bad but Axe will do more damage,the build is fun!

Fun one. Blades + Lances are amazing
3 Shields + 3 Melee can work too

Here is a thematic build wielding only Swords! I recommend you mix your weapons like previous pic because of cost of Opportunity but anyway it is viable and fun!

Last one is Demon one of the most crazy characters in the game where you trade HP for items
so what items give you HP? Ghost Scepter and go full damage and slowly a bit of tankiness
Youll end up with lots of HP
Sharp Bullet is really really good


If Ghost Scepter was op now this one is just full god mode auto-pilot, remember to not spend all your coins rerolling because they will give you tons of HP the next wave, build a lot of luck because you will level up a lot and get a lot of items, get high melee damage and Have fun!

This is an example that this character can pretty much work with anything.
But this works rather different from the Ghost Scepter build
In this build we want first to start Torch for the Primitive tag, that way we can reroll the shop for the slingshot
If you don't roll the slingshot then re-start run will do soon enough
Then start selling your couple of torches and just buy slingshots
Then build as always BUT your coins (the ones you use to reroll get converted into HP)
So in harder waves or around wave 7 stop rerolling so much and start just leaving money there (like the Saving piggy bank) and only buy stuff that you need and from time to time reroll.
Here is the example run

This could also work and with this we start with sooo much Harvesting that we get the ball rolling. The idea is that the first waves you can buy anything you want spend as much as you want (you will die in 1 hit) but you can just kill everything but around wave 6 stop buying so much start just leaving money there (like the Saving piggy bank) and only buy stuff that you need and from time to time reroll.
Your coins (the ones you use to reroll get converted into HP).
Remember bullet penetration is amazingly god since you're pretty much a Ranged character!

What do babies plays with ?? sticks? STICKS!!
Forget about leveling up stats, so go with slingshot . Baby can NOW start with sticks!! (Baby was not able to start with sticks but he got patched to do so) So you know what to do!
All your stats and I mean all your stats will be coming from the shop and drops... so only buy the ones you need the most, with sticks you don't need to focus on damage but survivability, you need armor and you need some dodge + a big hp pool , so get some damage here and there.
If you get the gentle alien and scar (buy those) to get more exp and to make more aliens spawn, it's a bit hard to get used to have no level up stats but it's not the worst .
I had 18 weapons at the end of the run, 15 were sticks and 3 were saw blades to heal up


So Baby got buffed recently! And now you can build him pretty safely without Sticks!
If you played Vagabond, we'll build it towards more of a Vagabond build, let's say with baby you have 6 Primitive weapons and you get the +15 HP bonus from having 6 Primitive weapons, now it's time to get some other weapons like Medieval or Blades or Elemental and so on, pryety much mix anything you want and get those tier S items in the shop since you need to buy a lot of weapons too!
In my opinion don't try to upgrade weapons just focus on filling up the slots!
Lances , Spears , Saws , are recommend! I started Slingshot but you really need melees!

This was one of the most fun and unique builds I have ever done in the game. So we start with Spoon and spoon works like this : Your Spoons crit if your target is on fire so we start with Spoons and we as soon as we Wands or Fireballs (IMPORTANT) WE GET THOSE, also Sausage and Snakes are also pretty important, you can Skip wands if you get 3-4 Sausages for example but I only got two.
So you set them on fire and then just HIT them with the Spoon! Try to have your Speed on check as this is the most serious problem with Elites but they going down pretty fast!
Try it! I highlighted the key items!

Jack of All trades, Master of ALL.
This new character is pretty fun! You stack tags of the weapons as one, let me explain:
So if you have a weapon with Primitive tag you get the full bonus even if the other weapons ar not primitive they count for that tag, so if you have 3 random weapons and 1 is primitive you have 4 bonus primitive! amazing!
So the idea is to stack weapons that have different tags : the best so far for me where:
Blade!! (most important) Support, Precise , Medieval , Elemental , and rest comes and goes, really keep an eye for the blade tag!
Ranged weapons didn't work for me that well , I was missing a lot of wave clear.
First of all REMOVE that negative Harvesting as fast as you can This character no longer starts with negative Harvesting and just has negative Harvesting bonus.
Second, do not spend in items at first just get 4-6 weapon as fast as you can to stack the weapon tags. Do not recommend getting Ghost weapons as they will do poorly if you have many other weapons at the same time. (can't farm them and the -negative armor hurts with Ghost weapons.
Starter for me : Shivs, these worked for me the most so far (crit chance and elemental from the start and nice wave clear!).


Remember this works too for the base game but after playing him more, start with Shivs that way you get a lot of dps off the bat and two of the bests tags for him (Elemental and Precise) then in general ignore luck and harvesting UNLESS it is completely FREE like a red item drop for example.
Spear is godly, lances and sword are amazing too (Blade Medieval tag) Unarmed weapons (Claw, Fist) give you a lot of Dodge (we need) then upgrade damage and some defense stats on the side.

New character let's go! So what do we have here?
Techno mage is mix between Mage, Streamer (huh) and Cyborg.
What do I mean by this? he in general benefits from having turrets, he gets extra Elemental damage per structure you own and he is a mage that likes to build turrets.
Early game get some Luck and Harvesting like always!
The build I'm posting is more focused on the Elemental side, so start Taser and stack tasers for harvesting and remember to watch out for all the STRUCTURES you see in the shop (pic down below) with all the STRUCTURES.
I recommend you build around Elemental weapons like in the picture while also keeping an eye for Mage items (priority) and Engineering turrets.
Seek! and I mean SEEK [strange book] Strange book converts all your Elemental damage into Engineering, so what else can we ask for?!


As the title says , Technomage has been nerfed , so he has become more of a challenge.
So what do we need now? Start Plank (we need the AoE)
If you can get 3-4 planks and 2-3 tasers that would be perfect, to get some harvesting and slow enemies .
You won't level up as much so you will struggle a bit more, build some HP early game and up your dodge up too, it's gonna get extra hard to survive , go for Elemental or Engineering while also buying any structure on the shop and key items
If this doesn't work for you try the next build!
Switch your planks for better melee items like Explosion Hammer or Thunder Knife or Flamethrower for example !

So if you are getting whooped by the elemental Technomage, fear no more!
Start Wrench , pick some Elemental damage here and there but focus on Engineering and get as much turrets as you can , build some HP , HP restoration and Dodge , push them away while your turrets kill them for you, won first try !

Vampires??! on my potatoes?!
This character is pretty much unkillable (like a real vampire!)
I started building him with the Bloody finger new dagger but ... ended up switching everything up to our beloved ... Slingshot.. only left one red bloody finger as a memento.
Vampire plays a bit like Lich and Masochist, so you want to inflict damage to your self to get more damage and kill everything but is not that big of a difference.
Build life steal, Damage , CRIT , attack speed , and a tiny bit of Dodge so you don't get wiped off the earth.

So Vampire got a buff and a nerf , I believe slingshot build is totally doable too now, if you struggle after the buffnerf try shields , prioritize luck , armor and HP and life steal , Monkeys (item) is really good , keep an eye open!
Important to get some DODGE or you will get wiped off , try to remain at 2/4 HP in general to get kills!

Who doesn't want to have fun? Start Ghost Flint but ditch it as soon as you see the Ghost Axe on the shop , always some economy early on as always while you damage yourself to farm those materials and the axe stack + ghost staff stack .
Prioritize Luck + Harvesting the first 3-4 levels , Then start getting your armor up to positive values and build some HP , after you have the baseline ready, start building him like a normal character with % DMG , Melee , CRIT and keep an eye for Life steal (the only way we can heal , it's pretty fun going from -60% damage early on, to like 300% damage in the middle of a wave! Try it!

So you bought the Abyss Terrors DLC and want to get all characters D5 again? say no more!
BUT! before we start let me explain briefly a bit of the DLC!

This DLC is possibly in general HARDER than Crash Zone so when trying to beat characters in general try to do so in the normal map instead , we know the Elites the bosses and such.
I'm not saying to not play on the Abyss map but it would be easier to just jump onto what we know and play around with the new characters there.
Some old characters get wiped off in the new map because monster do too much (double dashes, they dodge, a lot more bullet helly in gneral)
So treat the Abyss map as more like DANGER 6.

Curse mechanic which in general I would recommend you to not use... unless the character scales with it (like Sailor or Creature) why? because it's VERY HIGH RISK and HIGH reward mechanic , is it fun? YES curse it incredibly fun but dying in two hits from cursed mummies at wave 11 is also not very.. recommended.

So I would suggest you leave curse for when you clear D5 with the new characters or if you want to experiment.
Curse makes the game easier but also way more random : if you get some cursed items early on then run is over you won, it's that simple BUT I can not guaranteed that will get those same items so I'm doing pretty much all of the characters withOUT curse.

In general curse runs turn two ways, either you become a MONSTER and snowball everything or you just get Two tapped by two random cursed enemies.
I also must say that CURSED CHARACTERS (Sailor, Creature, Romantic) they work a lot better on the Abyss map because there is a alien that wanders around that gives you +1 curse every time you kill so it's much easier to stack curse in the Abyss map!!!
Capping dodge is recommended when stacking curse or you will get blown out if you get hit!

Trident > Anchor
Remember to stack as much curse as you can and VS cursed enemies either you kill them or they run you over!
Also early game get some wave clear weapons like Spears until you can get your hands on the Naval weapons!
Get some luck early levels and then damage and defensive stats, remember dodge is capped at 20% but we need those 20%, if you're stacking curse everything should go as planned!

As I previously mentioned Trident >>>>>>>>>>>> Anchor... I wanted to do a full anchor build but they are soooo sooooo slow I got a blue Trident to test the damage and it already was dealing double the damage of the purple Anchor and Tridents are way funnier.
REMEMBER PRIORITIZE THE CURSED ENEMY SNAIL (+1 curse one) and always kill the Blobfish when they die the spawn the Bait fish and one cursed enemy so stack curse as much as you can.
Remember no Harvesting items at all , get Luck, also early game get some wave clear weapons like Spears until you can get your hands on the Naval weapons!

One of the funniest from the DLC , do not get weapon duplications unless you are really sure that it gonna be worth it , and item duplications are not worth it in general terms unless you're getting more from the item than the -10% penalty.
The idea is to build MELEE and ELEMENTAL weapons, why? because with elemental weapons in general we have the Damage over time of burning so even if the screen gets cluttered you can still harm the loot aliens over time!
Try to focus the lot aliens with high base damage weapons like spears , icicles , slow them burned them and more!!!
Get these items as soon as possible to get better drops and scale faster!!

You should be able to snowball if you kill the loot aliens in general terms , LUCK is also very recommended so you get better drops from loot aliens!
Curious got buffed recently (he is much stronger now) so don't be afraid to experience with him now he gets a lot more exp if you don't get item duplication (red - mark when buying)
In the Abyss map is hard to not get cursed but lucky for us cursed items don't count as dupes!! so try those (I only had one)
As mentioned earlier I did pretty much the same approach started with Elemental weapons (Shiv) and then got Wand , Taser, Spear, Elemental weapons are really good to keep damaging the loot aliens even if you have to run then I got the Bazookas and started mixing my damage, as you can see most of my items except on (coffee because of mirror) are not duped! is fun to not dupe them trust me!

I struggled a bit with this one not going to lie!
So what worked more consistently for me was, Slingshot, Slingshot and SLINGSHOT, do not pick any other weapon but Slingshot. As soon as you can combine them just do , the more level the slingshot the more damage your turret will do.
Early waves get a ton of harvesting and some luck .
From wave 1-12 Leave ALL the materials for your turrets while you upgrade your slingshots even if you only have a single Purple Slingshot, that will suffice.
Once your companion turret becomes RED by wave 12 or so, you can start picking up materials here and there!
Inside the shop buy all, BUY ALL engineering items, and forget about leveling damage!
Get some HP restoration items here and there but the important thing is to upgrade slingshot and get Engineering, if you have the chance to get bullet penetration get them!

Captain is weird character but think of him a bit like saver
Keep always in mind you will get one tapped on later waves to dodge up!
Wave 1 : 1 shredder the level up either harvesting or luck (harvesting better)
Shop : Look up for S tier items , Exp items and Luck items!
Extra tip : Even if economy is good early game never pass on high level up in the shop even it it means to leave economy for the side , for example don't pass onto level 2 ranged damage if you see it!
Wave 2 : 1 Shredder (aling the Monsters to one tap them) level up luck if possible
Wave 3 : 2 Shredder (ideal) or 1 Shreeder and one SMG or revolver.
I picked every single EXP item that appeared in the shop, always, I had varios Peacocks and Scars
Wave 4 : Now we should have if possible around 20-40 luck , with this high luck at this stage you should seeing good level ups , now focus in DMG specially RANGED DAMAGE, attack speed, % damage (not need tons yet)
Wave 5-6-7-8-9 : Check the level ups and try to get the red or purple level ups if not possible pump more ranged damage! (if in any wave you're lacking just add an extra gun, better to kill than not to kill at all!)
My weapon at this stage were 2 Shredders and 1 SMG
ATTENTION: TRY TO AT LEAST HAVE AROUND 15% MOVE SPEED FOR THE FIRST ELITE
Wave 10 : If you are lacking a bit try to add a 4th weapon (remember you should pick damage stats)
Wave 11 : is extremely dangerous because off mummies but you should be one shooting them pretty fast !
Waves 12-18 Try to not get hit so by wave 12 start prioritizing dodge and life steal!!
Dodge should be capped around wave 17!
Meanwhile pump % damage up, ranged damage, attack speed , CRIT chance, elites should be dropping dead fast or at least he able to get a lot of kills in elite waves.
Wave 16 : I still had 4 weapons on wave 16 I added my 5th weapon at wave 18 and my last weapon at wave 20!

Try some runs until you get used to him , Captain is a mix between JACK and Saver .
Here you can see how many weapons I had by these waves!

Creature can work with anything pretty much but the idea is to obliterate anything that spawns from very very far away, solution? RANGED WEAPONS . Start Shredders and slowly pivot yourself for Revolvers / Laser guns!!!
At every SHOP try to lock 2-3 items (sometimes 4) so they become cursed!! KEEP AN EYE For cursed hooks or normal hooks , pick any hooks the more hooks you have the more cursed items you will get on the shop!

Creature works better on this map compared to Crash map, why? because in the Abyss map there a lot of cursed creature spawn (the one that gives you +1 curse) keep and eye out for those!
So we start the game with Hook so with hook we try to at least leave if possible 2-3 items locked to get them cursed + get some economy early game , keep Melee Damage up and you should scale soon enough (elites should be melting) get pretty much any cursed item and when combining weapon try to combine curse weapon + non cursed = so the combination becomes cursed weapon , instead of combining cursed weapon + cursed weapon = cursed weapon , this way you could have extra cursed weapons! Screen should be melting by the amount of total curse!
DODGE UP OR YOU WILL GET BLOWN IN 1 HIT BY CURSED ENEMIES, BY WAVE 14-15 TRY TO HAVE CAPPED DODGE

How to cook aliens in Brotato!
First things first you have to put them in fire!! I started Planks for the AoE (first waves you don't really need to burn them) then as soon as I saw a Torch and Wand I grabbed those to burn them.
Then came the Spear (our beloved) and then I replaced Torch and Wand for Fireball and Flamethrower!
ATTENTION: DO NOT LEVEL UP ELEMENTAL DAMAGE You just need to burn them and that's it, a lot of life steal helps a lot too!!
Economy early as always!

After playing him for a bit I can say that this character is going to be one of the most diverse character ever created, you can either go Pruners and implode the screen or go Luck based builds and many possible more.
But here I bring you the *drum rolls* THE REAL PROPER WAY TO COOK ALIENS, USE A SPOON, does not elaborates further. (to unlock the Spoon you have to win a run with Chef : hint you can use the previous build).
So for this recipe we need to keep an eye open up for (OPEN THOSE EYES UP) SNAKES (what?!) and Sausages (as many as you can) you don't need more weapons but the spoons BUT if you don't roll that many Snakes / Sausages then get a Flamethrower like I did.

Harvesting early game and then get tanky since Spoons do crits to burning targets and also Spoons damage scale with total HP, so get tanky (dodge, regent, life steal, HP) and get the free damage stuff and the screen should be dying real fast, Elites should be dropping dead easily you always crit burning targets with the spoon and it's simple to run this consistently! Good lucks Chefs!

After the buffs he has become pretty fun honestly with a fun mechanic of picking up fruit to build up luck. Druid is a mix of farmer and lucky, with Druid you farm fruits to get luck +1, even red (bad fruits) can give you chance to get luck up! BTW forget about Regen and life steal!
Start pruners and slowly build around 4 , pruners and 2 Ukuleles
First levels you need HARVESTING to snowball as early as possible and start building some HP damage, melee damage and DODGE!!! As you climb up the waves keep an eye for dodge!!
Also keep en eye for these items since the only way to heal is either cute monkeys, good fruits and not much more since you have -100 regen and life steal.
And one if not the MOST important thing!!! : Green fruits will get sucked up automatically at the end of the wave (yaaaay!) BUT red fruits DONT! so pick those up too (remember they hurt you) but those will never be automatically picked up even if you're close to them , but you can still get +1 luck even with red fruits!


This time we start with Pruners so we can farm those fruits easier but it's not much different than going Lutes+Pruners , not a single Flute showed up BUT anyway didn't have to do much since Baby Elephant and Cyberball were doing tons of DAMAGE! Baby Elephant and Cyberball can also CRIT so keep that in mind. Once you have your baseline of Harvesting then go damage too and remember your HP.
For Regen apart from fruits get Goblet and Cute Monkeys they help a lot!
ALERT : Remember : Rotten fruits also can you give you extra LUCK but there will never be picked up automatically so pick them UP. If you want to know more read the previous Druid built up there ^.

Let me start by saying, this character doesn't really click for me as it is...you'll see why..
Start with Hammer and run away from the aliens until at least 6 of them are in a group then you get closer and hit them all, for example in the first wave doing this 2 times, gives you 2 engineering (you can do it 3 times) but 2 will be good enough (I did 2).
Update 1: try to Combine your Spears if you went for the Spears build we are trying to concentrate our damage in couple of hits.
Update 2: if you're not stacking much of the passive just run to a corner and MANUAL AIM to the corner of the map until the aliens get closer in a huge amount, turn around and blast them!!

Here comes the weird thing if you have noticed.. you have a -20% dodge and the starting weapons even very powerful lack a LOT of range, you will GET hit... a lot and sometimes get overwhelmed very fast. I tried and tried with Dwarfs and Hammer , Bricks and all but meh, didn't work at all.
I have reached high waves using the Hammer but ended up dying (but I'm sure if I was a bit more lucky I would won)
So my setup was to pivot to Spears (yes , this weapon is our beloved) get spears, ignore any weapon that show and get spears as many as you can, keep starting hammer for when they get close.
How does Spear work with the killing 6 aliens stacks? better than anything why? These thrust weapon have a mechanic that if you're moving and they hit even when they reach the furthest point they will KILL, so more around and they will stack, get all the +10% +5% enemies, always.

Early game build a lot of Regen and Armor (you can ignore Engineering and Melee damage pretty much) because you'll get those killing the Aliens.
Here also comes another thing, I always pick good luck items so I was getting some +15% attack speed , I picked those and helped tremendously later on, I was clearing waves left and right, life stealing and healing all damage they did to me.
Don't get normal turrets, they will just steal kills from you (my mistake)
So keep an eye for these items, they are really really good!

Btw I got cursed spear last wave so it didn't impact my game (no cursed items until later on(killed the cursed alien without seeing) avoid him if you don't like to get cursed

So this strat is a bit much of the earlier one BUT focus way way more in Armor and Regen since you will get hit a lot and have to get much much closer (this is harder than the spear strat) but if you want to try it anyway FOCUS on a more defensive approach since these weapons have way more base damage but as I mentioned earlier go into the corner (with MANUAL AIM away from the aliens) and just wait there and then turn around and blast them.
Here you can see my damage at the last wave and see how weapons that scale with Melee and Engineering are much better than weapons that only scale with Melee. Chainsaw turned out to be a killing machine and thank to healing turrets I was able to live BUT I was at the brink of death many many times.


Nothing much to add here, read the previous builds and this is just a test to confirm that Spears are way safer and (funnier?) remember to get armor and Regen early game or you will get wiped!

Brand new build!! *bell sounds* I placed Medium difficulty between brackets since it was not as easy for me as Spears BUT I might be biased since I do love the Spears a lot!
Start Wrench and the first 1 wave to the 9 wave try in general terms to more or less align them and hit them to stacks some Engineering but this should happen somewhat in general by just running into them, I didn't pay much attention like in the other builds BUT do get every single turret / mine / healing turret offered to you! and buy a lot of Engineering so we can stack more Melee damage.

''Gangster'' more like gambler... this character is pure gambling roleplay, the idea is that you steal items to make yourself stronger to spawn elites whenever you want to make yourself even stronger... but it usually goes that you end up spawning an elite on wave 4-6 that you cannot kill. Or you are strong enough to kill elites but they don't spawn (boooooh).
This character can work with anything as long as you're able to kill, I think Shivs are easier in general terms, but really try some couple of runs to get used to the steal mechanic.
Recipe : Luck, harvesting early levels, luck is important the more luck we have the better items we can steal in the shop! BUT WAIT, if you spawn elites left and right and you're not able to kill them, then you're going to be drenched in sweat irl, so build some good baseline , base items, and S tier items and when your screen is melting then start spawning elites, be very careful about spawning two elites at the elite waves, yes you could risk spawning two elites and die so be careful!

This build will work on the the base map, started revolvers and slowly builded towards explosive damage (so I could get grenade launcher) early levels some luck and harvesting as always, try to steal the most pricey items and around wave 7-8 if everything is according to plan we should be able to kill elites already, spawn them (thanks to luck and pricey items) and just keep on farming reds if posible, try to get bullet penetratiom as always , %Damage is really good here these weapons have really good base damage , dodge will help a lot but build around damage and screen should be melting!

Diver got changed recently he can no longer start the game with Primitive weapons and only precise ones and he has bonus crit damage on those weapons BUT, it works pretty bad so the idea in general is to either find Cacti Club (this is perfect) or then go Spears/SMG for example.
As always some luck and harvesting early on and then start getting a lot A LOT of Melee damage and Crit , I'll post a picture explaining the best build choices, keep on combining the Thiefs Daggers you found in the early game and transition slowly for Primitive weapons, this builds also works on the base map.

Godspeed!


So this is the damage centered build, playing with Hands and running around will just make you bored (same here).
So first things first, remove that negative speed bonus as fast as possible, in the shops lock speed items even the ones that remove luck, and build the Lances fast!!
Don't spend much materials on random items.
NEVER STOP MOVING, NEVER, EVEN IF YOU MOVE IN CIRCLES! (if you don't move you don't generate materials with Hiker and also Lances do -40% damage!)
Once you get some base speed, start doing some economy and some damage here and there.

IMPORTANT : YOU WILL GET HIT , A LOT, AND I MEAN A LOT, you will be running full speed around the map on later waves, so build dodge, luck up and get some good dodge upgrades!
Even fighting elites never stop moving , try to move in zig-zag so you keep the damage stacks up!
RUN!
Also, dont worry too much about % damage, because you will get this item somewhere in the run and it will give you tons of damage, keep an eye out for it.


Crash zone is so much better for this character , refer to previous build , didn't kill a single Elite and Power Generator dropped on wave 18...
This time managed to snowball a bit faster, so I could kill both two elite stages and claim the reds!
This run I could not get Power Generator but at least Glass Cannon showed! Killed elites but not the two bosses I was too fast and they spam too much!

WOAH! For me this was the best character from the DLC! Basically pick guns with VERY VERY HIGH BASE DAMAGE and HIGH COOLDOWN , because they will get their cooldown reset and be able to fire anyway (when you pick materials) so don't pick them all at once and wait until aliens are around you to pick materials and one shot them all, any weapon with high cooldown is extremely fun here, try it!
Sifd Relic (legendary red item that attracts all material when dropped) I would not recommend picking it up because they will run at you so fast but the aliens spawn slower , so it is better to just kill / leave materials on the floor / wait for aliens to get closer to you / then pick the materials.
Forget about attack speed and focus on some luck/harvesting first couple of waves + getting your laser / shotgun guns!

So basically you get the slowest weapons with the most base damage and the most scaling in the damage and convert them in death lasers, everything was melting in seconds.
Don't forget harvesting / luck early game!
pro tip: [/h1]do not pick all materials at once just camp near dropped mats until you shoot and pick them up again, having too much pick up radius can work against you, so be careful with autopicks like Sifd and Crocodile!

This character is insanely fun! I started with the brick weapon which hits extremely hard even at level one and watch the screen explode, try to position the aliens in a way that you form a chain reaction when you kill them, like a tons of them close together.
Bricks started to break way too frequently so I started to switch to Spears and it was working amazingly well.
Also important, when ever you get the chance try to leave you speed at a positive value because the -10% from the Ogre itself + -10% from Blunt weapons HURTS a lot , so get some luck here and there to get better level up and keep an eye for those speed up items on the shop!

So...i'ts a shame that Ogre can't start with his own weapon unlock (weeps) Mace would make a such incredible weapon for him, because you start the game with -50% attack speed and that helps mace a lot.
So I started with Cacti Club for the Heavy tag but didn't see the first mace until wave 18!
Dodge helps a lot too , starting with some harvesting and luck first waves because we one shot them anyway. GET MORE ENEMIES and remember try to focus in general to the weakest aliens and not focusing on the more tanky ones since they will not explode, curse doesn't help much here it makes them extra tanky!

Well... this character is a... character, I don't think it quite works as they intended it to be... because he scales way too slow
So this character is a late game character , scales with curse and the more HP you have the better...
So what worked best for me was SMG, start SMG , forget about luck / harvesting in the level ups if you see ranged damage take it!! why? SMG scale extremely poorly without ranged damage not like our Queen (Revolver), if you see a Revolver you take it too , so as I said be on the look out for Ranged damage early game, once you're in a comfortable position build economy here and there.
DO NOT get items that lower your Ranged damage or the SMG will end your career...
Priority stats : Ranged damage, HP (your passive scales with HP) attack speed , CRIT chance, life steal and luck and so on.
But what do I do?? Play normally like it's your normal Jack, Ranger, SMG Apprentice and so on, the passive (charming) will work on its own if you kill aliens bellow 25% health but the rest just build normally!