Alright, Mozes, we’ve been wandering this desert for 40 years and it’s about time we…wait. Sorry. Wrong Moses.
But similarly, we’re here now to part the Red Sea. If by Red Sea we mean bandit blood and loader oil, and part we mean…make…more?
I’m gonna make this work.
Moving on. Today, I bring a tray of wonky interactions that manage to take Iron Bear from “pretty good” to “yeah, what, no, that shouldn’t work”.
First note: this will be a class in borderline to full on exploits. I’m calling it Bust-A-Bear for a reason. This also requires a lot of things to perfect.
I stumbled across a 5RPMs Green Monster com during the first or second weekend of the new DLC. I wasn’t interested in it at the time, but knowing Plus 5s are so rare, I locked it away.
When @Spacerobots and I decided to start attempting an All Bear Takedown, we ran Mindsweepers. We did okay. But something was missing. Enter, The Monster.
Now, there’s a lot of ways you can take this and re-apply it to your own ways of playing. I hope you do. But my main pieces of equipment you need are:
Unforgiven with as high a crit as you can find.
Lucky7 Pistol.
Ember’s Blaze or Red Suit, but be warned Red Suit gets dicey. Radiation damage to all nearby enemies can create a chain reaction of exploding enemies that will kill everything…including Bear. My Ember’s has a Kills buff Cooldown anointment.
Bear Throws Anointed Red Queen Grenade.
Normally, I should go into skills here. But I think we should take a moment to point out that this is a bit of an exploit. We’re gonna be abusing a few interactions. My own use abuses the interactions between; Unforgiven and Red Queen, Unforgiven and Dakka Bear, Ember’s And Green Monster and Everything, Lucky 7 Shock and Everything. I am aware that what I’m doing here is at best a side effect of wonky gear, and at worst a complete disregard for sanity.
But, Gaige believed in breaking the game, and here we are!
So. You can do this build skill wise a couple of ways. I personally have 4 landmarks: 5 points in Scorching RPMs, Specialist Bear, enough points to get Sabot Rounds, and 2 Points in Vampyr. I get Pull The Holy Pin and Deadlines and Skag Den. Here’s the highlights:
THE SKILLS
Dakka Bear: Ha. Yeah, if this thing crits, it’s wild. If this thing crits while you’re holding an Unforgiven, it kills a LOT. This is the backbone of BearBear Takedown, and is essential to MOST of my boss battles.
Cloud Of Lead: Every fourth Bear shot does bonus fire damage. Does it use less fuel? Idk. I don’t focus on that. I’m hear for the burn, bb.
Stoke the Ember’s: boost fire. BURN.BB.BURN
Redistribution: more ammo? Sometimes I’m firing guns waiting for Bear to come back.
Scorching RPMs: hahahahahahahaahahaha. Necessary skill. This boosts Crit Damage and Bear Damage. Fire Rate…meh. My Green Monster has an additional plus five in this. I am taking a video just because you need to see what this does at 10 points. Scorching.
Specialist Bear: MOAR BEAR DAMAGE. YES PLZ. This is good whether you decide to go double miniguns or double Sabot (after lots of testing, I’ve determined that the Fuel Consumption of Capacitive Armature doesn’t hold up in a majority of scenarios. BUT IT IS FUN. Keep it in mind for times like…idk. Fighting Freddie?)
Fire in the Skag Den: splash damage now creates bonus fire damage! BURN.BB.BURN.
Deadlines: less fuel drain and returned fuel means more Bear Time. That’s the plan here.
Means Of Destruction: It seems wonky, but the goal of my points here is that every Bear trip, when done successfully, gives me a good return on grenades. If you don’t feel that desire, feel free to shuffle these points into Grizzled for faster Bear return, or Stainless Steel Bear for moar damage and more armor.
Pull The Holy Pin: This is my Main Moze and I like a little versatility in any build I consider Main. So, on the chance that I want to switch to Mindsweeper (also perfectly viable, just different) with this setup, I have this. Also, sometimes Bear messes up the Red Queen throws and it’s nice to have the chance for crit on the grenade parts.
Vampyr: I only have two points to spare now, and they come here. Splash Damage Caused By Bear will restore Armor. We wanna last as long as possible. We want the option to get in Dakka Bear. So. Healing is essential.
Security Bear: the name says it all.
Armored Infantry: Damage reduction and gun damage. Simple enough.
Drowning in Brass: more damage. Also, can counteract the massive fire rate buff handed down by RPMs to help some guns not outpace regen as fast.
Experimental Munitions: crits do more fire damage. Remember, we wanna crit.
Vladof Ingenuity? Look. Take whatever you need in here to get to Sabot Rounds. I am here for the Corrosive Railgun Augment. Lol.
Gear!
Unforgiven: With the Highest Crit Bonus in the game, no crit exploit is complete without this monstrosity.
Red Queen with Throw Anointment: This grenade throws two grenades that form a laser between them. The trick? That beam takes on gun damage rules? The consequence? They’re Cash Cash now. Wait. The actual consequence? That beam can Crit with all the strength of a raging river and all the force of a great typhoon.
-but it is mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
Ember’s Blaze shield with Kills Buff Cooldown Anointment: Ember’s Blaze does Fire Damage and also seems to be what makes Green Monster add up without firing. The damage it does ramps up with Green Monster due to how Skag Den seems to be calculated post GM damage. The aura persists in Bear, making you a walking Acid Burn Cloud.
Lucky 7: When you get the shock damage slot roll on this, all base damage is converted to shock. Grenade? Shock. Gun? Shock. Dakka? Shock. DoTs? Shock. This does not apply to Bear weapons. BUT. It will add Shock DoTs to the end of your shots instead of Corrosive and Fire, and converts your Ember’s Blaze to shock (making it Ember’s EMP) and Thrown Grenades to shock. This is great for Shield Heavy Bosses. SpaceRobots and I used this for beginning phases of Valkyries and Wotan in BearBear Takedown shenanigans. Really nice to get a little boost against our only real weakness here.
Mendels Multivitamin: go get one. It’s a reward for a very basic quest on Athenas, and it’s great for times when you would rather survive longer than have the Ember’s damage. It’s worth keeping, because the heath boost boosts Bear’s armor.
Green Monster: with the ability to get bonus points in Scorching RPMs and add Corrosive damage to so many things, this can turn Dakka Bear into a monster force of armor Melting chaos. Also, it adds damage to Sabot Rounds for some reason. Video for demonstration.
And now, on with the show.
I failed to mention previously I’m also running a Flesh Melter artifact with bonus AoE damage. That’s also boosting me here. SYNERGY!
Super big thanks to @Spacerobots for being there for a lot of tests, @Prismatic for bouncing ideas off of, @twoPIZZA for bringing some of this to my attention, @kabflash and @studdugie for being good friends.
@Felixthecoach and @Mahtyo, @cailte, @ckx00000 this is that weird stuff I promised.
If anyone else finds some weird stuff, feel free to share!
