SIBERIAN NUCLEAR WINTER
Nuclear winter is coming.
INTRODUCTION
This was my first build back when the game was released and Mayhem 3 at level 50 was the limit. A lot has changed since then and so too has this build. Although the nuclear winter theme has still been retained, its evolution from levels 50 to 65 and now at 72 has radically transformed over time into a shotgun build that is viable at Mayhem 11 and a lot of fun to play with! So what exactly does this look like?
Siberian Nuclear Winter always used to be invested in the Shield of Retribution skill tree ever since its earliest form until now. We’ve removed all the skill points that were previously in the red skill tree and balanced them almost completely evenly between the other three skill trees. Demolition Woman from tier 1 to the capstone is pretty much meta except that we’re using Vanquisher Rocket Pods + Hammerdown Protocol as a means for Auto Bear to inflict radiation splash damage as part of the nuclear winter theme. We now go further down Bottomless Mags, again in a meta layout until reaching Some for the Road.
In experimenting with this build at level 72, I actually found out that reinvesting the remaining skill points into the Bear Mother tree paid off better than I expected. Just a quick disclaimer: Auto Bear does not receive the damage bonuses from the Bear-focused skills in the purple tree, hence why they’re being ignored. I was able to clear all content with this build despite cryo-locking my choice of splash shotguns for the sake of Harmonious Havoc getting the max 60% gun damage bonus. The bonus cooldown rate from Nitrotrinadium Engines + Limit Break helps us immensely with the build’s playstyle and if that wasn’t enough, five stacks of Superior Firepower appears to double the amount of cryo damage we dish out. Now for the gear.
GEAR
Blast Master is honestly the best overall choice in terms of what we’re aiming for. Because we can have 2/1 Redistribution which is going to give us 10% ammo regen per second, we in theory should never have to reload unless we’re spamming shots like mad. The bonus points in both Vampyr and Pull the Holy Pin don’t matter a great deal; it’s more important to have +1 Redistribution and the right passives, such as shotgun damage being of primary concern. The next best ones to aim for are splash damage and weapon damage.
Victory Rush is the best artefact here, unless you’re content with using Company Man and restricting your weapons to just Maliwan or Torgue. The two prefixes to aim for are either Ice Breaker or Atom Balm, the former giving us more V2 damage on frozen targets while the latter will allow radiation to spread across the battlefield more easily. The best three passive bonuses are cryo damage, AOE damage and magazine size.
Frozen Snowshoe (or the Frozen Heart if you have it) is the shield of choice for this build, along with the anointment where novas are triggered each time Moze enters and exits Iron Bear. Even the anointed novas are the same powerful cryo ones from the shield itself which insta-freeze about 90-95% of all enemies in the game. Because we’re using this anointment instead of the extra cooldown rate per kill, that’s why we’ve acquired the bonus cooldown rate skills in the purple tree.
Hex is not exactly the strongest grenade in the game like it was back when level 50 was the cap but we want it in this build, specifically in cryo for extra gun damage and with either the 25% OGT anointment or the one that gives 50% bonus radiation damage for 10 seconds after ASE. In testing various cryo grenades which included the Lightspeed as well as the Mitosis Hunter-Seeker, I ended up sticking with the Atlas grenade because of its utility: in situations where critical hits with your shotguns are scarce/impossible, it frequently and reliably triggers Pull the Holy Pin and therefore also triggers Redistribution by extension.
Trevonator is the only gun on this list that was also part of the original level 50 build. Despite the base damage on the card suggesting that it’s noticeably weaker than other shotguns out there, its firing pattern actually has incredible synergy with Short Fuse and the higher the Mayhem level, the more damaging the capstone skill becomes. The shotgun named after Trevor Eastman rides that wave of Mayhem-scaling power and still has quite a kick to it. Because of its versatility and being a dual-element Maliwan weapon, this is the best shotgun on the list for mobbing and it shows in the most extreme mobbing scenarios such as the crystal phases of True Guardian Takedown.
Redline is the absolute strongest bossing shotgun in the game without question, at least in sticky mode when supported by this build. You can fully exploit this weapon with Some for the Road to lay down tons of stickies for ludicrous chain explosions. Just remember to switch modes when you want to detonate the stickies instead of reloading and losing the bonus splash damage.
Anarchy is a particular shotgun that I’ve been pondering whether or not to keep on the list because of it not being a synergistic fit with the Blast Master COM. Out of all the shotguns featured on this list, it has the lowest base damage. But if you can get the max stacks via only kills while maintaining the bonus splash damage by not reloading at all, then the stacks alone result in a damage bonus of just fractionally under +1,380%! The two major downsides to this Tediore shotgun are that an ill-timed automatic reload while Redistribution is active can result in you losing your stacks as well as the splash damage, and its shots do not proc Means of Destruction. But if you can get some momentum going with this thing, it most certainly has the power to handle all content.
Boom Sickle is the oddity of this list. Its item card denotes that it’s an assault rifle and it evidently fires AR bullets, so why is it on a designated list for shotguns? Well that’s because the game technically perceives it to be a shotgun: it benefits from shotgun damage that you find on COMs and artefacts. With this Vladof weapon as part of your arsenal, your entire AR ammo stockpile effectively provides you with 1600+ shotgun shells and assuming that all weapons have their parts for the most DPS, this AR/shotgun hybrid also has the largest magazine size of all on the list.
Fearmonger makes an entry on this list seeing as it’s now available all year-round and received a staggering +355% damage bonus when it was last buffed! Besides, it’s about time Hyperion produced a worthy, conventional splash shotgun. Even without Terror anointments and intentionally cryo-locking yourself , it can still do some serious work and is sufficient enough for True Maliwan Takedown within this build. But if you want to get the most out of this spooky shotgun, then I’d recommend getting your grenade anointed so that on ASE, you generate Terror every 3 seconds for 18 seconds.
Tiggs’ Boom unfortunately is the weakest weapon on this list, but is a really fun Torgue shotgun and can still dish out respectable DPS. One major weakness is that it has the smallest mag size of all the listed shotguns without the raw base damage to justify it, which is why it might be better for this build if you look for one with a mag size of 5 if you want one with the Double-Penetrating prefix. But I’ve experimented with one that lists x9 projectiles on its card despite a mag size of 3 and you can still get by without reloading. This shotgun can work if you’re really fond of it - I’ve beaten True Maliwan Takedown and slaughtered Hemovorous with it. The crystal phases on True Guardian Takedown is where this weapon can backfire on you however. To mitigate the risks should you endeavour to persist with this Torgue shotgun, I would recommend getting it anointed with 160% splash so that Bear’s nukes have a lot more potency and give Moze extra DPS support while you focus primarily on stripping the guardians’ armour.
FINAL NOTES
The list of featured weapons have to tick two boxes: inherently deal splash damage and be able to drop in cryo. The Insider is another good splash shotgun but it doesn’t really add anything that makes it both stand out and be worthwhile compared to the other shotguns. On top of that, depending on the parts it has, it can also be quite ammo-intensive. The Nothingness is too dangerous for Moze: the projectiles don’t travel that far in distance and can frequently blow up in your face. The Projectile Recursion still remains an empty shell of its former self. The Lob is certainly powerful enough with great base damage, has decent synergy with Short Fuse and can do some real work. However, it’s not a gun that’s inherently splash in full as the orb itself is just gun damage; it doesn’t deal splash unless the orb collides with an object or surface, thus Means of Destruction will hardly get used when this weapon is in action.
For those who might question it, I did in fact test this build with a Urad setup (before the anointment got nerfed) but it greatly decreased survivability and did not yield enough DPS to justify going down so much. The thing about Urad is that even though it is its own multiplier in the damage formula, it doesn’t actually account for bonus elements or splash damage, the latter being a big part of Moze’s meta and a huge part in this build. It made more sense for both DPS and survivability to regain health gate and switch to consecutive hits and/or splash anointments. Speaking of which, consecutive hits is a classic choice but has also been nerfed. Moze’s unique anointment where she gets 160% bonus splash damage for 18 seconds after ASE, also applies to the nukes that Bear’s AI will be launching.
Interesting fact about dual-element Maliwan weapons or in this build’s case, the Trevonator which I found out in testing: both elements on the Maliwan gun can enjoy bonus gun damage from Harmonious Havoc as long as the gun’s primary element matches with all other gear. Mine is cryo and radiation but because the former is the primary element, I can switch to radiation and the skill’s icon with x6 is still present and providing the bonus gun damage. This is especially useful in scenarios where enemies are resistant to cryo damage.
When it came to more challenging pieces of content during testing, I found that the Trevonator was excellent for mobbing but when you need to kill bosses fast, switch to the Redline and start planting as many stickies as you can before hitting the detonator and stopping Moze from reloading. So my recommendation is to prioritise these two weapons first and foremost if you want to keep things simple both in farming and general gameplay.
If you appreciate the nuclear winter aspect of the build but are not particularly fond of shotguns, then there are other suitable cryo splash guns from other weapon types that can get the job done. I’ve narrowed the list down to the four best options that are neither shotguns nor heavy weapons: if you want the option of either consecutive hits or 160% splash, there is the Unkempt Harold and also the Flipper with its Maliwan dual-element trait. Both the Sand Hawk and the Faisor (with its under-barrel shotgun being pure splash) can’t be anointed with 160% splash but can clear all content regardless. The 160% splash anointment is fantastic if you want to use heavy weapons - both the Kickcharger and the Plaguebearer can drop in cryo, if it pleases you.
