Axton's Digistruct Peak, area specific strategies

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

This thread is intended to serve as a place to advance the entire community through the use of something we seem to apply to guns and specs, but never strategy: specifics.

My hope is that people will participate by providing as much clarity as possible, and ideally by providing room/area specific video. We don’t just want, “oh, Scorches? BeeHawk” or “oh, Boneheads? I Fastball them.” Instead, I’d love to see and hear about where you go to start the fight, where you place your turret, specific targets or types that you key in on, etc.

To be clear, this is not a thread where I or anyone else need to be The Man. It’s a thread to share what we’ve been doing, so that each of us may pick up something that helps us be better.

I’d also like to shout out Man of Low Moral Fiber, because his Peak videos are the first I personally saw which narrated specific plans or thoughts in particular areas. That memory sparked this idea.

Thank you in advance for positive contributions.

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Digistruct Peak by level walkthrough thread
OP Levels and Farming
So I'm getting my Axton to OP8 then
Lee's Digi Peak help thread 72 - OP8
Krieg and Digistruct Peak
#2

I’ll go ahead and start this off.

Dukino’s Mom with Double Up + Gemini:
There are obviously two things you’ll usually see here. It’ll be skags, then Dukino’s Mom, or Mom with midgets.

This fight is very easy with two turrets, as long as you space out the turrets so that Mom can’t down both of them in one beam sweep, stomp, or shock ball. When she spawns, I like to throw them out so that one is in front of her, and one is to her far left. The far left one points her head (crit spot, I know) into the corner when she goes that way, but it also gives me time to back away as I’m raining hate so that I have a head start getting into position to kite her around the rock.

I always drop straight down in front of her spawn to check which comes up.

When she comes up immediately, I toss out the turrets and start dumping on her with corrosive BeeHawk. Other stuff works alright. I’ve used a Pimpernel, Harold, Hornet, and Legendary Engineer w/Pandemic or Fastball spam before. Pandemics actually work surprisingly well getting a nice head start on her before gun play, but BeeHawking is the fast way. Midgets are easy but annoying.

When skags come up first, I prefer to hold off the turret and have a little matador fun jumping around and BeeHawking them. Partly because it’s just fun, but also because it keeps my turrets ready to go as soon as the last one goes down. I want to be in position to place turrets as soon as the last one goes down.

When it’s just me and her, I can get huge chunks of her health bar down during turret cycles, but I am guaranteed to have to kite without turrets at some point while they cool. No shame. Grog + Chain Lightning to stay up if she shock balls. I’ve done it without, just to do it, but I prefer to just go with the goods on that one.

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#3

This entry includes both BeeHawk and no Bee/no Hawk takes on 4x Assassins spawn, with Double Up + Gemini.

To open, I always drop in and move to the far right to check the spawn. When I see the 4x pattern on the mini, I immediately drop a turret by Reeth, and one at the end near Rouf. Those two are the killers, so you need to control them quickly.

Key point: let the turret hit Reeth before you do.

Second key tip: shortly in, throw a singularity between Reeth and Oney, so that they are almost stacked.

Third key tip: if you have to crawfish, throw a singularity at the wall between the wall pipe and Reeth’s spawn point, and go out on the side where Rouf spawns. If you’ve been staying on the outside of the right hand pipe, the singularity should yank Reeth (if alive), Oney, and Rouf to the outside of that pipe, while Wott is likely still toward where he spawned or in the middle. This sets you up to singularity reverse-kite 3-4 of them at a time while your turrets cool.

Once Reeth dies, Rouf is your priority. Use singularities to control the group while you wear them out.

BeeHawk clip:

No Bee/no Hawk clip:

A couple of specific mistakes made:

In the first clip, I dropped the turret by Reeth a bit to close to the Oney side, and engaged Reeth a hair too quickly. That cost me time killing him, and against this spawn, time is pressure. I also put myself too close to Oney, which resulted in getting smacked and losing shield amp briefly. This is part of why L Siren > L Cat in this room. Ward is helpful.

The second take was the next time I saw this spawn. I corrected the turret drops, and engaged Reeth from a better starting spot. Mistake here was disrespecting Rouf. I ignored him a little too long and had to Quasar/Grog twice as a result. Still, it shows very clearly why Reeth is the priority. Simply put, you can screw up against the others and survive. Reeth will ruin your day.

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#4

Still hoping to learn some things. Where the experts at?!

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#5

4x Assassins again. No Moxxi, no BeeHawk, no singularity, no Shamfleet, no FFYL.

Switched up the strategy. Turret still went by Reeth, then one by Oney to try to stop his grenade toss. Hugged the pipe to stay out of LoS of Rouf until he went after the turret by Reeth. Hammered Reeth, spammed Storm Fronts. Worked very, very well. Wott was annoying, like a cockroach.

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#6

Just want to say I like what you’re doing with this. I tapped out with Axton around OP5 because of leveled gear requirements but have been thinking about getting back in, though I still have some prelim work to do. I’ll contribute if/when I can but in the meantime keep it up!

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#7

Thank you. I really appreciate the support and the offer of future contributions. Both are welcome!

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#8

Double Up + Gemini with the Bee is not the Axton you see in every Peak run. This set up favors control, leveraging bottlenecks [Black Queens in the door to Mom’s room, controlling the garden side in Boneheads area, using the door in Cannibal Canyon, etc], and turret placement and time management.

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Except for Zero Bore (and this also looks tricky) there's no quick gimmick to take down Digipeak Saturn is there
#9

Was doing a Peak run with Axton, reached Bone Heads, and chucked a turret onto the pillar behind them. After I cleared the rest of the room I see one red dot but no enemy in the room. Turns out one of them leapt over the wall into the next room in what I assume was an attempt to attack it. Fortunately, I managed to coerce him back in with some magic missiles and throwing the turrets onto a cliff face opposite his position.

So yeah, don’t throw your turret behind Bone Head.

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#10

Agreed. I use my turrets to control the space on the garden side. Not sure how or if that would change if I ran explosive builds.

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#11

Finally got around to recording more Axton runs, specifically without BeeHawking most areas (still did against D’s Mom, Saturns, and against OMG in one run). I was pretty rusty with Axton in the first run, and caught many of the worst spawns in both runs. Had one FFYL in run 1, but was clean in the second.

I’ll post area notes with corresponding video. Most clips are 2 rooms at a time. This uses the same Double Up + Gemini build that I use all of the time, with the Bee, or with defensive shields.

Entry area: Surveyor spawn.

I like to get both turrets down on high ground, but not on walls for this spawn. I want the turrets to be able to track the flyers at all times. I also position myself so that ground enemies have the turrets between me and them.

Another general tip: always try to keep enemies coming from one direction. If you’re in an L, clear one side. This enables easier use of cover. It also gives you an exit.

Scorches: constructor spawn.

This one will get away from you if you let the constructor stay up for too long. I should have thrown one forward turret, then dropped the other behind me and out of LoS from the constructor. That would preserve Battlefront and give me a rear guard.

Edited to add second run, same sections.

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#12

Next segment: Dukino’s Mom to Black Queens.

D’s Mom: I’ve covered this one previously. BeeHawk. Turrets take aggro, so space them such that she can’t kill them both at once. Very easy with Double Up + Gemini Axton. Grog + Chain Lightning/Pandemic/Storm Front for heals.

Black Queens: pretty easy. When I get the busy spawn, I usually pull back into the previous area to isolate surveyors and kill them. Most of the spawns are far enough away that it takes the walkers awhile to join the fight. Once the flyers are down, clean the trash mobs, then pull the Queens into the door area at some point to put them in a small space. I usually use Storm Fronts to help melt them in that small space. A Harold or Swordsplosion works fine for area damage, as well.

In the first recording, I got the busy spawn, but pushed forward at the start. This worked out OK, but it often gets rough if you get bad RNG and catch rabid skags or some other dangers. Having those and surveyors up at the same time can be dangerous. Pulling back is the better move. The second recording shows how easy it gets with a more patient approach.

Second run:

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#13

Boneheads: control the garden side. Depending on the spawn, I either throw turrets right up on the dividing wall (as I tried here-- my second turret placement was a result of lapse in focus), or drop them on the garden side to guard the doors. The courtyard turret spawn doesn’t get walkers spawning in the garden side, so you can put turrets up by the Boneheads and be OK.

In the second run, I got the busy spawn. For that, turrets are used to quickly get control of the garden side. I also made it a point to recall them quickly once I was out of danger so that I could be ready for the next waves.

Doc Mercy constructor spawn (both runs):

This spawn is a pain with Axton, and I played it pretty poorly in run one. The challenge is controlling the fight between turret cycles. The smart way to do this is to carefully choose the order in which you kill bad guys during the 3 ‘waves’, so that you can recall the turrets early and have them cooled for the start of each subsequent wave. Docs should go down first, then recall and wear down the trash. If you play this poorly, they will put you on your heels, and overrun you. I went into FFYL here in run one, which irritated me. Again, lack of focus makes it easy to get challenged. In the second run, I was more focused, but still not perfect.

For the final stage, the trick is taking out the Constructor ASAP while controlling Doc Mercy, or trying to burn down Doc fast so that the constructor doesn’t make a million babies. I usually take the constructor out first. This whole room was a train wreck in the first run, and could have been better in the second.

Second run:

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#14

Assassins turret spawn, both runs:

This spawn sucks. At this point, I’ve got the rest of the spawns in here figured out to the point where the area is generally drama free. The turret spawn is a different beast, because you can’t kite or use singularities to avoid the second wave of turrets. Simply put, you are going to get hit.

Some tips:

One the first wave of turrets, kill 3, then recall your action skill. Rouf and Oney spawn when the 4th turret goes down, so hold out until your AS is cooled, kill the last turret, then throw your AS turret at Rouf’s spawn to let it grab aggro. Kill Rouf first. If it’s taking too long, recall when he’s near death and kite Rouf and Oney while your AS cools.

The second wave of turrets pops when either Rouf or Oney dies. Ideally, you want to drop Rouf, then get your turrets positioned so that 1 occupies Oney, while the other draws fire from the second wave of bad guy turrets. That allows you to clear a safe side.

It doesn’t always go according to plan. This is the hardest spawn to control, because the enemy turrets spawn in random places, and the Assassins behave like grasshoppers on meth.

I played it better and got better enemy turret locations for wave 2 in the second run. Much cleaner.

Second run:

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#15

Saturns:

Easy. Make sure you kill the last of the trash in a place that lets you get to the hut/ammo box quickly. Throw out turrets to get Saturns’ attention. BeeHawk for glory.

Cannibal Canyon, twin slag skags (run 1) and spider tank spawn (run 2):

Use turrets to hold enemies at bay. Surveyors, slag centurions, slag slags, rabid slags… this area can throw it all at you. Hold them back, be patient. I like to use the narrow entry area for cover. This can get ugly if you catch rabid skags or SBA surveyors, so kill those first.

Second run:

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Except for Zero Bore (and this also looks tricky) there's no quick gimmick to take down Digipeak Saturn is there
#16

Last area, worst spawn, both runs:

The one you don’t want is the spider tank + SBA surveyor start. Naturally, that’s what I got on this brutal run. The plan here is to quickly dispatch the surveyor and recall the turret so it’s ready for wave 2. If you can hold off on dropping the spider tank so your AS cools, that is perfect. When you kill the tank, more trash will pop, AND you’ll get two more SBA surveyors. Get your turrets down and prioritize those two. After that, you may have to use singularities to control the ground mobs.

In the second run, the double SBA surveyors were obnoxious, and I had to move around a lot to buy time. Patience pays.

OMG is easy. I BeeHawked him in run one to save time. Second run, I didn’t BeeHawk.

Second run:

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#17

At this point, I’ve gotten multiple recordings against the worst spawns in the Peak, and have BeeHawk and no BeeHawk clips. I don’t think there is anything left to show with Double Up + Gemini, so I will probably be done with my updates here.

I still hope to see others contributing. Tips with other builds would be especially welcome.

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#18

I hope it’s ok to post here, I notice it’s been a very long time since the last post. I’m just starting to run Axton through the peak myself, I just did OP0 so I was looking for something to guide me. This looks very helpful, I will make use of this for sure. I just wanted to thank @Handsome_Dad for the effort that clearly went into all this. It’s a great thing to help out people like myself who are running Axton through for the first time.

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