by CatstructorPenny

Hey mates, big changes at all levels of how Constructors work / play means big changes in how to build them now. Overall- I would say our options have been normalized – and if you’re not familiar with that term, it basically means everything has been brought closer to one average operational level. There was a few really powerful standout abilities / classes that have disappeared, (namely kinetic overdrive for one) but in turn, the weaker offerings of Constructors overall have received MASSIVE buffs.

And do not lament heroes like Syd or Catstructor who received the most heavy handed changes – I assure you, pretty much everyone has a niche and a role now. The new system offers so much customization and potential, literally any hero can be improved to viability or changed entirely with the new system.

That being said, in this guide I’ll be covering how to build a few choice Constructors, the ones I’ve selected are based on popularity, viability, and overall fun. The format of this guide is obviously different since my old guides on building constructors loadouts were suited for the old system. Each section will be for a specific hero, with a team bonus or two to build around, 1-3 primary / crucial support slot picks, and a number of secondary less pivotal support slot options, as well as proposing gadgets – although they’re usually preference or one of a few options. I’ll be trying to provide more than enough suggested options for each Constructor’s support slots, to account for players who don’t have all the heroes I’m suggesting. I know we’ve all got recruitment tickets – but it would be unfair to assume everyone wants to spend those vouchers just for early constructor builds into the new system.

So let’s get to it then.

MEGABASE Kyle

David Dean™ / Handsome Smile

Commander Bonus: MegaBASE – Increases BASE range by 3 tiles. (Totals 7)

Team Bonus: Supercharged Traps – Increases trap damage within BASE range by 8.5% per constructor in support slots

Gadgets: Slow Field, Banner

Primary Support Bonuses:

1. BASE Kyle – Lofty Architecture – Increase building health of structures attached to BASE by 28%
2. Electro-Pulse Penny – Fully Contained – Enemies that attack BASE affected structures take a base 15 damage.
3. PowerBASE Penny / Kyle / Knox – Power Modulation – Structures attached to BASE heal 4% max health every 10 seconds.

Secondary Support Bonuses: (Choose 2)

1. Thunder Thora – Electric Floors – Enemies standing on BASE affected structures take base 12.7 damage every 5 seconds.
2. Machinist Harper – Tough Traps – Increase Trap Durability by 17.5%
3. The Ice King – Frozen Castle – Enemies on BASE affected structures are snared by 15%
4. Warden Kyle – BaseMD – allies on BASE affected structures heal 3.75 base health every 1 second.

Notes: So this is going to be a bit more comfortable (or even nostalgic) for players who were really accustomed to playing the old BASE role constructors, (MBK, HBK, PBK) with most of their legacy pre-made kits focused on the BASE ability. MEGABASE has his old BASE range of 7 tiles when you play as him, which is really only very useful for SSD’s and Cat 4 missions, but still feels bloody cool, and plays well with support perks that affect buildings anywhere in BASE range. Supercharged Traps should always be providing the maximum 42.5% increased trap damage (holy cow) given Megabase really appreciates constructor perks in his support slots, and if you’re playing Megabase – you darn well better be building for traps.

Lofty Architecture gives his walls the increased health he’s known for, which actually means a bit more now with the increased armor BASE provides. Husks attacking those walls will not have a good time, as Fully Contained has been tweaked a bit to now deal 15 base damage (for comparison Kinetic Overload is 25 base, shockwave is 102) per hit to anything attacking your base. Power Modulation of course, provides small but steady healing consistently to all structures affected by BASE- a big deal for things like poisoners, which now deal minor structure damage with their poison cloud skulls – or husklings, which can deal minor damage to odd spots of your BASE but die quickly thanks to fully contained.

The last two slots are best filled in depending on what type of mission / playstyle you’re using MBK for. In SSD’s and Cat 4’s, where you’ve built out a floor 7 tiles in every direction for husks to walk over – Thunder Thora’s electric floors are a welcome return from MBK’s old kit, to add chip damage on top of fully contained before husks even reach a wall to attack. For SSD’s specifically, adding Machinist Harper’s Trap Durability can make a big difference – keeping you out of your trap tunnels to replace traps for an extra wave or so. The Ice King and Warden Kyle’s abilities have pretty situational application – The Ice King’s snare can provide a boost to DPS if you’re using damage to snared weapons – but the 15% snare is a minimal effect compared to the floor spikes you should be using. The two on top of each other though, could be notable. The BASE MD healing though – can be a huuuuge help in keeping teammates and yourself topped off in scrappier public missions, when bees, poison clouds, and acid pools etc are a hazard. I didn’t put her up there, but Demo Penny is also worth running in support IF you’re using a launcher, but are aware of the danger presented to your trap tunnels by doing so. Use at your own caution.

In conclusion, MBK should primarily only be used as your primary hero when in an SSD or Cat 4, where his BASE size is actually necessary. But his massive base does synergize, as before – with several perks that interact with all BASE affected structures.

Tank Penny

She protecc, she attacc, she give husk the whack

Commander Bonus: Actuated Attacks – Increases Hardware Damage by 50%

Team Bonus: Bio-Energy Source – For each hero with 3 or more stars, recover shield equal to .25% of energy lost.

Gadgets: Adrenaline Rush, Hover Turret

Primary Support Bonuses:

1. Guardian Bull / Knoxx / Penny – Hardware Critical Chance – Increases Hardware Critical Rating by 17.
2. Dark Vanguard Airheeart – Software – Increase hardware heavy attack efficiency by 65%.
3. Steel Wool Syd – Maximum Overload – Increase Kinetic Overload damage by 50%.

Secondary Support Bonuses: (Choose 2)

1. Assassin Sarah / Etc – Assassination – Dealing melee damage grants a stack of assassination, which increased melee damage by 4.5%. Stacks up to 5 times, lasts 5 seconds.
2. Deadly Blade Crash – Corrossive Strikes – Melee critical hits snare 30% and apply affliction for 37.5% of damage dealt per second for 3 seconds.
3. Survivalist Jonesy – Survivalist – Eliminations heal for 39 base health over 3 seconds. Kills refresh duration.
4. Thunderstrike Mari – Dragon Daze – When your shield breaks, knockback and stun nearby enemies for 1 second
5. Jolly Headhunter – Present… Arms! – Eliminating an enemy has a 15% chance to drop a present that grants 8.5% movement speed or 6.5% damage for 8 seconds – or 21.6 energy over time.
6. Catstructor Penny – Rushed Rush – Decreases Bull Rush cooldown by 27%.
7. . Anti-Cuddle Sarah – Rapid Charge – Melee kills grant 7.5 energy.
8. Fleetfoot Ken – Fleet – increases movement speed 12.5%

Notes: Definitely not one of the classes gimped by the rework, Tank IS as strong as ever – if not moreso. The massive 50% damage increase to hardware granted exclusively by playing Tank Penny is no joke, and I daresay makes up for the removal of some of the crit-related perks. The increased crit rate provided by guardian is still valuable for weapon base damaage, as well or minorly contributing to making more Kinetic Overloads happen through crit impact. Syd provides a 50% increase to the damage of Kinetic overload, which is a huuuuge deal, formerly the ability damage or energized support bonus was only boosting it around 20%. The newcomer here is Dark Vanguard Airheart, who grants the Software perk – which was previously exclusive to Syd. Lowering the energy cost of heavy hardware attacks is surprisingly crucial – as Penny makes great use of it with how KO works now; especially synergizing it with Bio-Energy source for shields when you need them.

The reason I’ve listed so many secondary support perks, is because a lot of what else you’ll want for Tank Penny is based on how your hammers are built. Players without armor or life leech on their hammers (totally understandable) will want more survival based perks in the last two slots. If you don’t find yourself going down much, you can increase the damage output of Tank Penny with some non-constructor slots actually. Any assassin will provide stackable assassination bonuses to melee damage, deadly blade crash continues to provide her lovely snaring and affliction on crit, and fleetfoot ken will help you close the gap between targets with some bonus move speed (although it is fairly minor). If you need more sustain / survivability in your Tank Build, Survivalist is the go-to choice, giving you health regen on kill. Thunderstrike Mari gives Tank something similar to her old Firewall skill, and synergizes BEAUTIFULLY with Bio-Energy Source. Each shield break will stun enemies immediately around you and give a bit of space. Catstructor gives you a shorter Bull Rush at the full cost, which helps you use it more often for closing gaps to Blasters, and a bit of shield regen from the cost (love Bio-Energy Source). Jolly Headhunter is an interesting option, as all 3 of the buffs the presents can provide are a help to this build. The damage obviously, the move speed obviously, and the energy is again – fuel for heavy attacks or abilities that will earn you more shields immediately.

You won’t necessarily want an older CR/CD hammer anymore, as anything that can roll impact will help stagger enemies and proc KO. See – the smasher basher. Attack speed is still important, as is crit damage just for increasing DPS. I’ll do another writeup later for how to perk hammers for constructors with the new system. For now though, keep in mind for this build, USE YOUR HARDWARE HEAVY ATTACKS. They deal increased impact, which will almost always stun / knockback husks, in other words – always trigger kinetic overload. And as per the point of this build, you’ll have decreased Heavy Attack energy cost from Software – meaning you’ll be able to do it more often. And thanks to Bio-Energy source, whenever you heavy attack, you’ll get shields instantly. This is a very sustainable build with a good mix of survivability and high melee damage output.

Controller Harper / Sentinel Hype

Crowd Control Chicks

Commander Bonus:

Sentinel Hype – Going and going – Increase Decoy duration by 4.5 seconds.

OR

Controller Harper – Grease the wheels – Reduce Decoy cooldown by 43%.

Team Bonus: Bio-Energy Source – For each hero with 3 or more stars, recover shield equal to .25% of energy lost.

Gadgets: Air Strike, Adrenaline Rush (Teleporter if you’re savvy on how to use it with launchers.)

Primary Support Bonuses:

1. Sentinel Hype Going and going – Increase Decoy duration by 1.5 seconds (If using Controller as Commander)

OR

1. Controller Harper – Grease the wheels – Reduce Decoy cooldown by 27% (If using Sentinel as Commander)
2. Saboteur Bull – Get Ready for a Surprise – When Decoy is destroyed or expires it explodes for 51 Base Damage.
3. Riot Response Hazard – One Hot Minute – Reduce Plasma Pulse Cooldown by 18%.

Secondary Support Bonuses: (Choose 2)

1. Conqueror Magnus – Your move, creep – Decoy does base 6 damage every 1 second to nearby enemies.
2. Demolitionist Penny – Faster Explosions – Increase explosives damage by 17%.
3. Plasma Specialist Izza – Power Pulse – Increase Plasma Pulse’s damage by 30%.
4. Riot Control Izza – Plasma Pulse Blast – When Plasma Pulse is placed, it deals 43 base damage to enemies in a 1 tile radius.

Notes: I’ve put these two together very deliberately, because they are now debatably much closer than any other two characters in the game in terms of performance, provided you slot the other in support when playing either. I’ll lay out in detail the DECOY performance for both here since that’s the main draw:

Sentinel (with Controller support)

• Duration: 10.5 seconds
• Cooldown: 24.9 seconds
• Downtime: 14.4 seconds
• Uptime: 42% uptime.

Controller (with Sentinel Support)

• Duration: 7.5 Seconds
• Cooldown: 17 seconds
• Downtime: 9.5 Seconds
• Uptime: 44% uptime.

So you see, they’re within 2% uptime of each other now, the major difference being Sentinel gets its uptime from how long its decoy lasts, Controller gets its uptime from how short its cooldown is. Controller is arguably better as a commander in most situations now because of that. Placing more decoys more often seems like the better option; but it may be more useful in endgame situations to have the Decoy holding them longer, and despite the 2% lower uptime – be able to cycle cooldowns more comfortably.

Now the big change here besides Decoy, is Plasma Pulse. Per the 8.0 patch notes;

Plasma Pulse

Increased base damage per hit from 18 to 46

Plasma Pulse has been underperforming for a long time. This boost to damage should make it a competitive option for Constructors

Plasma pulse is now doing more than 250% of the damage it used to. And with these heroes Decoy pulling husks in close, it absolutely destroys hordes, better than it ever did before. Now, there are going to be some people who still just on preference, don’t want to rely on plasma pulse for damage (even with the cooldown reduction it’s a little over 40 seconds cooldown, which puts it just longer than even Sentinel’s decoy) so slotting Demo Penny for the launcher damage to clear the hordes on your decoy (assuming you’re not in a trap tunnel obviously) adds a means of getting rid of everything you attract. Or, the bigger things – because Saboteur Bull’s Decoy Explosions should actually take care of all the small things you draw in. I’m leaving Your Move Creep as a secondary option because I haven’t tested how viable it is in the new patch, but it seems like it may be more substantive damage now. No word on if it’s still attracting non-objective mist monsters.

If you are part of the crowd that would like to give the new incredibly buffed Plasma Pulse a try, Power Pulse and Plasma Pulse blast WILL make that ability melt anything around your Decoy. You could also slot Vintage Tech Penny, although I didn’t mention her above- to increase the size of the Plasma Pulse explosions. Kyle the 13th is also a solid option for the Decoy damage reflection, but its damage output may pale a bit compared to the other listed options. In summary; Decoy is a bit less constant now, but that’s largely due to how many constructors can run Decoy builds – but Plasma Pulse is bringing the Decoy users that have access to it as well into the ability focused DPS hero category.

8-Bit Demo

Get out mom I’m playing Minecraft

Commander Bonus: Enduring Machine – After ability cast, weapons lose 40% less durability for the next 6 uses.

Team Bonus:

1. Pre-emptive Strike – For each epic or legendary hero at 4 or 5 stars, increase damage to full health enemies by 6.5%

OR

1. BOOM B.A.S.E. – BASE blasts Steel Wool Music, increasing Damage by 12% and Critical Rating by 15 for all allies within 5 tiles. Also makes you bloody cool but requires you waste 1-2 support slots.

Gadgets: Teleporter (if you’re savvy on how to use it with launchers) or Adrenaline Rush, and Slow Field

Primary Support Bonuses:

1. Demolitionist Penny – Faster Explosions – Increase explosives damage by 17%.
2. Controller Harper – Grease the Wheels – Reduce Decoy cooldown by 27%.
3. Skull Trooper Jonesy – Locked and Reloaded – After reloading increase Weapon Damage by 15% for 5 seconds. Switching weapons removes buff.

Secondary Support Bonuses: (Choose 2)

1. Riot Response Hazard – One Hot Minute – Reduce Plasma Pulse Cooldown by 18%.
2. Catstructor Penny – Rushed Rush – Reduce Bull Rush Cooldown by 27%
3. Steel Wool Syd AND Anthony / Carlos (ONLY if running BOOM B.A.S.E.) – Syd – Maximum Overdrive – Increase Kinetic Overload damage 50%. (Anthony / Carlos do nothing for constructors. They burn a slot but let you use BoomBASE.)

Notes: So this young faced man has most of what’s left of the legacy Demo class in Enduring Machine – and it mainly only works the same way if you really try and make it do so. But it can keep your launchers alive a fair bit longer still. The trick now, is to lower you ability cooldowns as much as possible (See Rushed Rush, One Hot Minute, and Grease the Wheels) so you can use an ability every 6 shots on a launcher, even if you don’t need to – just to keep the durability reduction active.

Demo Penny also provides a lump damage increase to explosives even the old demo didn’t have – but you do miss out on having a reload speed perk anywhere in the new system. Grease the Wheels is important not only for triggering Enduring machine, but also to just have a decoy to group enemies up as often as possible. Skull Trooper Jonesy actually lends his soldiering skill to Demo very well, given most launchers have you reloading after every shot, it’s a reliable constant 15% damage increase. Both team perks you’d want on Demo primarily also don’t require an all constructor squad, so he fits in. Who doesn’t fit in so much though, is the Steel Wool bassist and drummer. You can use them for BOOM BASE on demo to give yourself a fair damage boost providing you hang around your BASE while spamming rockets, but Syd only gives you Kinetic Overload damage, and Anthony / Carlos won’t do anything for a constructor. Ironic, since you need them to use the BOOM BASE team perk, which – can only be used… by, constructors.

Perhaps more sensibly, you can use Catstructor Penny and Riot Response Hazard to reduce your Plasma Pulse and Bull Rush cooldowns as well, which will let you gain the durability reduction effect of Enduring machine more often and reliably. In summary, this demo has more means to increase his damage than the old one – but the means by which he gets access to durability reduction is more precarious.

Conclusion

I do intend to do a loadout / guide for every constructor. However, whereas before there were just 18 classes with various reskins – there is now 35 unique heroes, and bound to be more soon. That’s a lot of loadouts. Also, as always – these are my subjective propositions on how to build each constructor, I’d love to hear how everyone else is playing them, as surely – we do it differently. There’s no shortage of opportunities to build a plethora of builds for every single hero. As whitesushii pointed out; the number of combinations factoring all commander slot options, team perks, and support slots, is in the multi millions or billions.

Regardless of building hero loadouts though; I should also mention most of our Hardware may need to be rebuilt.That is to say, our hammers / melee weapons – Lead Sleads and Smasher Bashers included. Impact is a big factor in triggering Kinetic Overload now, and I’m still testing how best to take advantage of that. Running Impact on Hammers is absolutely a benefit now – but the extent of which, and relative to Crit stats – I’m yet to be certain of. For now, if you do have the option to put at least 1 impact perk on a hammer, I would recommend it.

Also, I know there’s a few reallllly popular Constructors that didn’t make this workbench. I promise, I am doing more. This one took a lot longer (a day or two, I guess) due to my using new reddit and new formatting to try and make it pretty (with pictures and stuff). In the meantime, Syd can use a build pretty close to the Penny one I mention, Demp Penny can run one pretty close to the 8-Bit Demo one I mention, PowerBASE, BASE, HeavyBASE, Machinist, and Electro Pulse can run a build similar to the MEGABASE build I mention (whitesushii also posted a lovely Electro Pulse build), and Saboteur, Magnus, and Kyle the 13th can run builds similar to the Controller / Sentinel build I mention. Again I will get to everyone, but it’s not going to be right away.

If you made it this far thanks for the read, share your knowledge both with others and myself – and I hope this helps!