Those who do not equip an Assault Rifle as one of their two primary weapons inOutridersdo so at their own risk. These guns, like in many other shooters, are a fantastic jack-of-all-trades weapon. Enemies have no safe zone against them and their moderate fire rate cuts down on the time they can stay in cover and expect to survive. Groups online will be shocked if teammates don’t have at least one of these weapons somewhere in their inventory.
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And why not? There are several different flavors of Assault Rifles and one is sure to fit into even the most niche of character builds. Then when the legendary guns start dropping, things get really spicy. While players will always debate if an SMG or Sniper Rifle is better considering the challenges that the late-game presents, nobody will debate the efficacy of a legendary Assault Rifle in the hands of a pro gamer.
Updated on August 2nd, 2021 by Hodey Johns:Outriders has undergone more changes in the first few months than many games go through during an entire lifetime. As a result, balancing has changed drastically. For those who have played the Devastator at launch, this is fantastic news. It’s also great for parties that need everybody at their strongest to take down high world tiers. This list has been rearranged to reflect the current state of the game and a section has been added for each weapon about which builds would want to consider using the gun after some analysis. No weapon is truly worthless as mods can always be ripped off and placed on something else.
Master Tool
The Master Tool is getting a lot of flak online for not being a great Assault Rifle. Those who havetested out the high World Tierendgame have been its biggest opponents. Their issue? It’s not an Assault Rifle at all.
Theclip size is a measly fifteen. The Dome of Protection modblocks bullets, which is great, except that it only works with killing shots. When the weapon is having trouble killing anything at all, that doesn’t inspire much goodwill for the weapon.
Which Builds Should Consider Using This Weapon
The Master Tool’s leading mod isn’t even a great sell. For tank-focused builds, it’s tempting to get a bullet-blocking dome, but, again, it requires a killing blow, and tanks won’t be getting those consistently. Scrap this “assault rifle” for parts.
Thunderbird
Some class builds feel overpowered while others need a boostto get to the late-game content. Classes that have invested heavily into Anomaly Power need guns too.
The Thunderbird is a decent choice for casters because itsupplements bullet damage with lightning damage. Thehealth returned on critical strikesis also popular with headshot masters.
The Thunderbird isn’t a bad weapon, but the Ultimate Storm Whip mod is incredibly underwhelming. There are much better options that trigger on each shot to deal more damage. This is another rifle best left in the scrap heap.
Time Ripper
There’s nothing thatmakes soloing easier (aside from changing a class)like a great Assault Rifle. The Time Ripper will make solo players incredibly happy because of how it has a great synergy all by itself.
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Themods will inflict Slowon enemies which makes them easier to hit in their weak points and do critical hits.Getting a critical hit will increase critical damage by 50% for five full seconds.
Great news for Pestilence Technomancers that are in charge of slowing all enemy units (that is theirbest build for the Pestilence, after all), this mod slows enemy units on each hit with no cooldown!
This kind of Technomancer chooses between assault rifles and sniper rifles, so there is a good chance that the Time Ripper is the perfect weapon and doesn’t need to be remodded for this build.
Absolute Zero
The Absolute Zero is another gun that doesn’t require player abilities to make a perfect storm for opponents. It begins with theincrease to status powerin the gun’s attributes.
Then the gun provides a whopping two status effects through mods. The firstinflicts Vulnerableand the nextinflicts Freeze. The freeze mod, incredibly, has no cooldown at all, which likely is why the gun has the name that it does.
Freezing every single enemy with just a single hit is overpowered for about everyone. The Pestilence Technomancer is already freezing everybody, but the Ash Breaker Pyromancer might get a kick out of this mod, stunning and freezing enemies can turn any boss into a statue.
The Juggler
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Doing damage and surviving are the two core metrics in most video games. Gamers have to “juggle” between these two critical aspects inOutridersand this is why the Juggler is here to save the day.
The two mods both do huge quantities of area damage. Mobs get unruly as the difficulty is increased, making this gun a solid go-to for almost every class during crunch time.
The real key here is that the Scrap Grenade mod on the Juggler is best for a gun that empties its clip fast. Rounds builds won’t be able to utilize this, but Fire Storm and Tempest Pyromancers can use these nicely.
A Seismic Shifter will love this mod as well on their 3-shell shotgun. They get a bonus to Anomaly damage already, so the integration into the Golem’s Limb is seamless for their damage rotation.
Heir To The Desert
Most Assault Rifles are packing about thirty to forty bullets per clip, but the Heir to the Desert hassixty shots per magazine, the most in its class. TheBleed damage stacks with the status power increaseagainst bosses nicely.
The unique Sandstorm mod is the shining star of the gun,dealing massive damage to nearby enemies. It’s a damage over time effect to go along with the strongcritical damage buff.
DPS that is responsible for group damage will love this gun. Demolishers in particular have to rotate in their launchers, so they won’t mind the five-second cooldown. The sixty bullet clip size is also a nifty perk.
Inferno Seed
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The Inferno Seed has become a favorite among the pro players who have no issue targeting weak points. Thearmor-piercing attributeon the gun makes this one of the highest-damage selections against bosses.
Both mods reward critical strikes. Brain-Eater allows players tokeep the ammunition they get when scoring a critical hit, meaning an accurate player will never run dry on bullets.Critical strikes also apply Burn in an areato help with single targets and groups alike.
Thebest build for the Ash Breakerwill want to remove the mod from the Wicker, but where should they place it? Inside of the Inferno seed is a smart choice, with its area of effect burn application.
The Brain Eater is the secondary mod on this weapon and it makes it so that critical strikes don’t consume ammo. Reaver Tricksters and other ammo builds should think about taking this mod and putting it on their weapon of choice.
Voodoo Matchmaker
World Tier difficulty acts in an exponential and not an incremental way. Enemies will do much more damage with each step. And this particular effect is why the Voodoo Matchmaker is matchless in high-tier environments.
Vulnerabilitywill expose tough targets every eight seconds. But the best part of this gun is the Ultimate Damage Link, which deals damage based on the enemy’s own firepower. Glass cannons turn into broken glass rapidly when struck by bullets from this Assault Rifle.
The primary mod on the Voodoo Matchmaker is helpful for any DPS in higher world tiers because it turns the enemy’s damage against themselves. Single target attackers, like sniping Pestilence Technomancers, might want to consider ripping this mod off of this gun.
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