Newest Run (38s)
This beats @khimerakiller’s WR by 0.5 seconds. Considering the history of this run, this is significant!
What is more significant, however, is that I can get this down to as low as 37 seconds!! The “potential” run is included at the end of the video but it’s ruined by the fact that I went down about 0.2 seconds too late.
I’ve been trying to achieve 37s again, but that mongol spam at the end is ridiculously difficult as you have to be frame perfect AND somehow manage your stacks. Ideally you want 500+ by the time you start re-stacking again but I don’t know why stacks sometimes decay faster than others. My guess is that it’s tied to the frame rate.
I will completely revamp this post with the entire history of this run and cleaner look once I get the 37 second run!
well, as it turns out, this time is actually faster than any other kill with any character, assuming no cheating and no pre-stacking (looking at you, Aurelia). It’s even faster than Nisha’s mongol+hail spam!! So unless a video proof is given, this is THE fastest time you can kill Eclipse & EOS, across ALL characters!
We got a couple of challengers here! I hope others challenge this run and get a good time!
Flakker Clappy in 3:02 by reddit user /u/edotm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRLREgFfM0k
Laser + Jakobs Nisha in 3:03 by @onlyin_kansas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1fwFFwa8g8
Newest Run (2:51)
No rockets (because someone was butthurt that I was using badaboom), no flakker-nukem, no double shot glitch, no using items that aren’t available in the game at the moment.
First off, MASSIVE shoutouts to @BookEmDano and @onlyin_kansas for their help in formulating THE most optimal strategy!
Even though I didn’t think I could save much time, I was able to cut down MASSIVE time by following Dano’s suggestion of starting with the shotgun and skipping the SMG for stacking altogether. This is made possible by the yellow glitch and, kansas’s suggestion of throwing storm fronts at the boss to stack incredibly fast at the beginning.
So the strategy changed like this:
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throw ~5 storm fronts at the boss. He will move, but it will still stack Maelstrom and, quite possibly, get a kill, which allows me to fire MASSIVELY fast.
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stack to ~500 stacks not with my SMG, but with my glitched shotgun with yellow glitch active.
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then, switch to the Closer (for exact terminology, please check out the stacking thread) for main DPS and insane stacking (it stacks to 999 within 1~2 seconds)
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THEN, switch to the ultra-closer mega-DPS weapon of our choice, the Flakker, to do CRAZY DPS while our Maelstrom stacks are still above 700.
The EOS fight is standard.
Since my last edit, I’ve tested a whole lotta different gear: hail (it wasn’t good enough), badaboom with various elements and parts, mongol (which was insanely good but someone was butthurt about me using a rocket launcher AND it turned out that Flakker actually did more DPS), and pitchforks of various elements.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please let me know!
Outdated Run (3:01)
Holy crap, a new world record… I cannot believe the time.
I was able to reach 3:01 with several improvements:
First (and most importantly), I switched out to a Clear Skies Oz Kit. This does two things: it MASSIVELY increases fire rate after killing an airborne target (the only kill skills I get are off swarmers anyways, so the airborne condition doesn’t really matter), and it increases damage against airborne targets (which allows me to kill EOS as fast as I could with an Ack Ack). In practice, this keeps the EOS time pretty much the same (slightly shorter) due to +50% airborne damage but drastically decreases the Eclipse time since the +55% fire rate bonus after killing airborne target is significant not only in DPS, but also in stacking Maelstrom.
Second, the swarmer spawns were pretty much perfect during Eclipse kill. They kept spawning between me and Eclipse so I didn’t even have to turn away and I was able to keep the and +55% fire rate for the entire duration of the Eclipse kill.
Third, I improved stack management between EOS’s phases using a couple of strategies. Superconductor has a hidden effect where reflected bullets from yourself also counts as being struck. This allows me to bounce shotgun pellets off Ultimate Badass glitches and stack Maelstrom exponentially fast. Second, I (tried) to freeze some enemies to proc Flash Freeze and pause the decay in stacks for a moment. This allowed me to start each of EOS’s phases with 100~200 more stacks of Maelstrom than I did in the previous kill.
Fourth, in order to improve survivability, I switched to Shield of Ages, and oh my god that shield is SO amazing - reduced health makes for easier healthgating (with my grenades) and the increased shield capacity means incredibly fast shield regeneration with Conduit.
And lastly, I improved the performance by lowering the screen resolution and using a laptop cooler to remove thermal throttling - the improve of performance means less lag and more RoF, which both save time.
Now, I already have tested other COMs and Oz Kits: esp. bomber, tranquility, strafing run (it sucks. A lot), purple storm COM, etc.
I believe this Athena CAN achieve sub-3:00 (no flakker-nukem, no double shot glitch, etc) with better Swarmer spawn RNG, better optimization, and by making sure I keep an eye on my ammo count while I’m shooting to ensure that I don’t reload in the most important of times (this took away quite some time).
I don’t see any other way the time can go any lower.
Further testing list: corrosive Pitchfork (I suck with sniping to make sure I am critting…), explosive Berrigan/Mongol (I heard those are good for EOS. Can’t confirm right now since I don’t have them), and Flakker (I tried it for a bit but Flakker’s really not for me).
Also, I suppose with good luck, you could bypass the initial stacking phase with the SMG and start right off with a Hyperion Thinking with yellow glitch, but that doesn’t work as well in practice as in theory.
So those are the strategies, improvement possibilities, and list of further testing.
Again, HUGE shoutout to @BookEmDano (sorry for misspelling your name in the video) for support of this run and tips on forming a better strategy!
If you have any comments, tips, or suggestions, please let me know!
Previous kill (3:08)
I have improved a lot from this kill
1: Athena vs Eclipse & EOS, in 3 minutes 30 seconds with some of the community’s feedback.
The basic strategy is the same - pre-stack with a fast firing SMG, stack with a Hyperion Thinking, then do major DPS and serious stacking with Hyperion Development, using the kill skill & storm weaving to get massive fire rate boost and dramatically decreased ammo consumption for our weapons.
Now, this time I’ve done a couple of things differently:
first, I found that I was having some survivability issues, so I got a cryo transfusion grenade - the only way to regen health with Athena is with your Aspis and with melee, which we’re not using for obvious reasons.
second, for the 4th slot of weapons, I used a shock badaboom - and oh boy, it does some insane DPS, considerably higher than even the Hyperion Development. I use that to melt Eclipse. EOS dies too fast anyways so switching to badaboom for EOS might actually not save time - if it does, it’s miniscule. For the other insane DPS weapons, I tested a corrosive Hyperion Development, but that didn’t work out as well as I’d thought (stacks decaying and stuff, and I hate flash freeze); I also tested corrosive Pitchfork, which actually did insane DPS but required accuracy on my part, and obviously, I suck at being accurate so… yeah
third, I switched up my “stacking” weapon from a shock Fast Talker to fire Meat Grinder. This has a couple of benefits - as Eclipse & EOS are pretty huge, you can land all three pellets of Meat Grinder onto the bosses despite the horrible accuracy on that thing, so that allows you to stack a teeny tiny bit faster. Also, fire DoT lasts longer, and that’s beneficial for obvious reasons.
The strategy is now solid and I believe the time can go down all the way down to 3:03 with smoother execution (I give up at this point - I’m so sick of Eclipse & EOS being stupid and giving me bad RNG and I’m so very sick of some of their very BS moves), so if anyone wants to try, this video will be the guideline for you.
If you have any questions about the gear/strat/skills (which I show at the end), please do ask.
Oldest Run (3:30) - explains the mechanics of the kill!
1: The Perfect Storm- A Maelstrom Stacking Method opened my eyes to extreme stacking, and this kill borrows heavily from this. After seeing Jack and Nisha kill Eclipse and EOS literally effortlessly (especially Nisha… tombstone & the unforgiven are just ridiculously OP against EOS), I got really upset, so I wanted to get a fast kill as Athena.
The spec, gear (no Moxxi), and BAR (off) are at the end. The only skills that matter are Maelstrom, Storm Weaving, Unrelenting and Elemental Barrage.
Now, I have two requests for the community:
First, please try to beat my time (or the French guy’s, if that’s even possible) and perhaps come up with better strategies and/or positioning that I haven’t thought of.
Second, can anyone test out Badaboom and/or the Pitchfork? Badaboom does have considerably higher DPS than even the quad-barreled hyperion shotgun, but I just can’t squeeze it in, especially with the travel time. I just found myself switching between the shotguns for the DPS. As for the pitchfork, I know it’s not gonna be as good as the shottys for stacking maelstrom, but I’ve seen jack and nisha use it to absolutely destroy EOS and I’m thinking maybe it has higher DPS than even the shottys. I’m not sure.
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention: at 700 stacks, when storm weaving is active you have 100% chance to not consume ammo. If anyone’s going with a Badaboom kill, I recommend spamming the s*** out of it when you reach around 700 stacks.
