Brotato + DLC? - Danger 5 Runs and Tips (All Characters) +UPDATES

Steam Community guide by B the No-Self.

General Tips if youre stuck

Dont ignore Luck and Harvesting
The earlier you get a bit of luck and harvesting the more they will pay off later on
here is an example

I am not saying that you have to go full harvesting every time but the earlier you get it the more value it has . It is the same with luck , the earlier you get a bit of luck the better items and better levels you are going to have.
So if you're struggling with a character at Danger 5 try to level up a bit of Harvesting + Luck earlier in the run and the run will go much much smoother .
This is how lucks affects the game.

And this is how luck affects the shop items as an example but don't forget the level ups and the alien material drops.

In general you don't need much to beat D5 just understand the characters and synergies with the items.

Consumables , Healing and Loot crates (IMPORTANT)

DO NOT PICK HEALTH PICK UPS , LOOT CRATES UNLESS YOU NEED THEM
IF YOU PICK THEM THEY GO TO WASTE BECAUSE YOU GET NOTHING FROM THEM IF YOU'RE FULL HP (you will get them at the end of wave anyway even if not picked up, yes loot crates too , even Legendary loot crates)

YOU'LL GET LOOT CRATES EVEN IF YOU DONT PICK THEM UP
ONLY PICK THEM UP WHEN YOU WANT TO HEAL

This is used for when you want to ''one-shot'' (focus) an Elite he will drop a Legendary Loot crate which will heal you for 100 HP , if you're already full hp or almost full , leave it there until you need it.
This is an amazing strat that most players overlook but it can SAVE your runs , do not pick healing fruits / chests when full HP.
Unless you're having a Godlike run always pick up these items , they will SAVE your life!

Help I need better items for Danger 5!!! (I got you)

Yes , some items will make your Danger 5 journey much easier
Top list item is Fairy which is an incredible item for example a must pick pretty much always
But there are more , see the picture below!
Unlock these items as soon as possible at low Danger level so then you can use them in your Danger 5 runs.

S-Tier items

In this tier list most of the time , MOST of the times you'll be trying to get these items in general as soon as possible , these items will carry your run forward since most of the time you're getting VALUE from them and most of the time they pay themselves .
For example the more damage you have the faster you kill and the more you kill so the more materials you have
Another example the earlier you get good harvesting items like in the pic below from the tier S the sooner they will pay themselves
To note : Items that give you more +% number of enemies are GOOD! why? because the more enemies that spawn each round = a lot more materials for the whole run in general try to keep an eye for these items.
Some items are not worth taking past wave 15 or so , it depends how soon they show. These items shown below are takable by pretty much every single character in the game that's why they belong to S

Honorable mention to Ugly Tooth, why?
If you ever see yourself getting run over by some Elites or at the boss stage you feel like you don't have enough speed to keep up , then in general get this item , do it , it is one of the most impactful items in the game when the runs are going so so
If everything is dying you don't need it but in general it is a very good item to keep and eye on

F-tier items (most of the times AVOID)

In the counter part here are some items which we want to AVOID why?
they will cost you a lot and will cost you more as the run goes.
For example an item that gives you -% number of enemies , this equals to

the price of the item 2) the less enemies that will spawn from now on = less materials .
Another example you want your enemies to have less SPEED than you do so items like Alien baby that gives ALIENS a lot of speed are not usually recommended unless you have a lot of speed yourself. So in general try to avoid these items.

EDIT : Paddin (the item with a red X cross) has been updated an no longer is F tier, it is mid tier at least it can be good for runs where you are getting a lot of materials in the wave
This tier list was made by Cephalopocalypse and hes pretty much on point with everything he said

Engineering (What is it & what does it do?)

What does it do?
Engineering increases the Damage and healing of your Structures but it also increases the attack damage of the Weapons Plank and Screwdriver.
Is Engineering broken?
I would kind of say that for characters in general that have negative % damage bonuses in general Engineering can be extremely broken for them , why?
Because Engineering is a stat that scales on it's own , it doesn't need any % Damage , Ranged Damage or Melee Damage , as long as you get more Engineering your Structures will do more damage. So instead you can focus on your Dodge , HP , HP Regen , Armor and forget about damage and only get Engineering
What does affect engineering? Secondary stats, let see it better in a picture.

So for example , let's say your turrets have 0 Bullet penetration and then you get this item :

Your structures will ignore the -% Damage because they are not affected by it , making this item extremely good for your structures .
So if you're struggling with a character try Engineering , some builds I show you later on use it.

Cost of Opportunity

What is this phenomena we call cost of opportunity?
Let's say you're going GUNS and you're going full REVOLVERS and most of your revolvers are level 2 or and some are level 3 but then a level 4 RED SMG shows up in the shop , if you don't take the SMG you have lost this chance to get a tier 4 GUN .
In general terms you should get high level guns / weapons UNLESS you're going for a specific build for example (full shield GOLEM) then dont get anything but the shield because you're building around it but in general you're losing a lot of DPS if you don't take the higher tier offered in the shop .
I'll post an example so we can understand in simpler terms

Okay now that you understand this but let's go a bit further
WHEN DO YOU MIX your weapons?
Let's say you're going full MELEE with SPEARS , spears in-game have a lot of base range
so lets say you get offered a high level AXE in the mix , here you SHOULD NOT pick the AXE why?
because SPEARS are going to kill everything before the AXE has any chance to hit because of the low range.
So what items do we pick with a SPEAR build? We pick melee weapons that have a HIGH range to accompany our build.

Now let's do an example with GUNS , have you ever done a super fast GUNS build? SMG , Revolvers and so on? then you picked up a Pistol or a Laser gun and the Laser /Pistol did almost no damage that wave?
why? Because SMG and Revolver will kill everything before Pistol or Laser gun even reload themselves.

So this is why try to always mix together fast weapons with fast weapons
Guns that have no penetration with more non penetrating guns and so on.
End of the line , if you're going GUNS and you get a godlike GUN offered in the shop and it goes well with your current build EVEN if it is not the same gun , you take it!

Hidden-gem Ranged items

These item can change your run from scrapping by to godlike , so keep an Eye our for them if youre Ranged
Note : if your weapon has no problem killing the aliens you dont need more piercing but it might give you a lot of more Damage in general

Hidden-gems Melee items

These items seem like they don't do much but if you build around them or get them when you have the required stats for them to shine they can carry your runs way more than it looks on the surface , try them!

Now with this out of the way , lets proceed to the builds and characters!

Failed Waves RETRY option (optional) [NEW]

This in a "hidden" option that mostly when you FAIL a Wave you will re-start from that wave as if nothing happened BUT!!! at the end of the game it will be notified for example
Danger 5 - R7 (Difficulty 5 and Retries 7) meaning you have failed a total of 7 waves (died 7 times)
If you care about doing it flawlessly (base game was like this) then DO NOT use it .
IF YOU ONLY CARE about achievements or just want a much easier D5 then toggle this on.
In general even if you retry waves is not guaranteed that the build will work, but it can helpful for sure, I personally already beat all characters before this was added PLUS I want to give all of you the best possible or fun builds!!

Options > gameplay > retry waves (remember if you want to keep the true D5 feeling don't use this, this something to help you in case you just want to get this over with (achievements or so).
The end sceen will let you know how many retries have you done in this case 1 (R1)

Well-Rounded

In general build it with pretty much anything you want he starts pretty strong with Harvesting off the start, always remember the Luck + Harvest I mentioned earlier

Well-Rounded Spears (easier)

However if you're somehow stuck with this characters (it happens don't worry) just go Spears primitive build, get a bit of Luck, Harvesting at the start off the game and start building your Dmg and survivability off that

Well-Rounded Shivs (fun and easy)

You dont usually get to mix Elemental with Melee, so now is a good chance to try! It is much stronger than it looks, remember as always some luck/harvest early game.

Ghosty Well-Rounded (fun) - Abyss Map (DLC)

Start with Ghost flint and forget about Ghost staff and just go ham with damage and attack speed it was pretty fun!

Brawler

This one is tricky since if you want a high DPS build youll get oneshot most of the time because you are too close to the aliens
So try to keep some form of survival , I recommend Dodge + HP

Brawler + Claws (harder but UNIQUE)

You don't get the chance to use these weapons pretty much at all, so this is a good chance to try them, do some economy early as always, build is strong but be careful with the low range (so get bonus range items here and there) so you don't have to be extremely close to the aliens.
I do recommend that you cap your dodge fast and get some HP , lack of range will make you take a lot of hits so dodge will help a lot , attack speed , melee damage and CRIT are top priority damage choices.

Mixed Brawler - Abyss Map DLC

I went for a mix of everything and it worked extremely well too! Some luck/harvesting early game and then just start pumping your Melee damage a lot or you will tickle them! Dodge will help a lot! but in general try to have a bit of everything!

Crazy

Some Life-steal and high MELEE DMG + Crit are your friends
Becomes much stronger the more crit you get him, so get weapons that scale with crit like in pic below

Crazy full Daggers (easier)

I got the sniper to test its damage but couldnt test it much because it was boss wave, still get around 60% crit chance so that all your Knifes have 100% crit chance, ramp up melee DMG or else you will tickle them and get some survavility HP + Armor forget about dodge

Crazy full Thief Daggers (semi-god mode)

The more I play with these daggers the more broken I find them. Level up your your crit and Melee damage early and let the daggers scale , meanwhile build some economy early and some defense stat here and there (you will be drowning in materials because of the daggers)!

Ninja Mode Crazy (fun) - Abyss Map DLC

Always wanted to do a full Shuriken build and here it is!
Start havesting/luck ** AND ** keep your starting knife (and even level it up a bit or add extra one) for the first 5-7 waves as shurikens are extremely bad clearing AoE waves , BUY the bullet penetration as you will hit way more targets (encircled on the picture bellow) as defensive the best one is Life-steal with a good amount of HP pool and speed to not get hit but everything should be dying, the first elite i couldn't kill but I hope you do!

Ranger

Self Explanatory , go for DPS (range damage , attack speed and crit ) try to get dodge up and luck up.
This item will do wonders with him , in general the idea is to obliterate everything in your path and never get hit since everything is gonna die anyway , so prioritize damage options , Ranged Damage , %Damage , Crit and so on

Ranger Crossbow

You can also do a Crossbow build with crossbow as you see in the pic the Red ones had 100% crit chance even with my crit that low
So crossbows are an option for Ranged damage and range build since you start with bonus range too

Mage

This one took me a while , I feel like , Elemental builds need a lot of items like ''Snake or Scared Sausage'' to get strong
So get these items

If you're having trouble with this character start with Torches because of the Primitive tag to get early tankiness then you can switch to what whatever you prefer later on, on waves 8-9, I recommend Taser because of Range and Economy tag

Having couple of melee items will help you clear the bigger waves
In this run I got Lightning Shiv as my starter this run (harder start)

Mage Torch starting weapon

Now here I started run with x4 Torches then slowly buying more and more Tasers for late game

Harry Potter Mage cosplay - Abyss Map DLC

Always wanted to do a Wands build and this was my chance with the DLC the amount of burning on the map was insane, the map was burning and dying really fast. If you want to know more read the previous builds , BUt I highlighted the most key items to look for (remember bullet penetration IS really good!) Started with Harvesting + Luck as always.

Chunky

This guy builds HP so what weapon scale well with HP? Multitasker Win unlock
So go to Danger 0-1 and Do a multitasker Run to unlock Chopper weapon

Rocky Chunky (easier?) Abyss Map DLC

I did the previous Chopper build but died at the Abyss bosses but well the Rock one, how do they work? You get BOTH tags : **Primitive and Blunt ** So you get HP (needed) armor plus you negate ALL -negative speed so you are safe to get ROCKS as many as you want (Rocks also give you armor). Remember you CAN'T life steal at all only Regen + Baby Monkey + Fruits and not much more.
Even if tempted to do so, we have to forget about +speed bonuses since we get 0 from all speed bonuses. Prioritize HP + armor on the defensive stats then get some Melee + % damage too , crit was fun but the build should be melting , since the more HP you have the more HP you do.
This item i'll posting here is somewhat of a trap, you get 1% damage by 3 HP you have but this items removes -1% damage negating the bonus itself , so you ONLY get the 3HP , early waves might be worth it since you don't have good items but once it starts to cost more in later waves you only get 3 HP and that's it, so keep in mind if you want to spend coins in a simple +3 HP later on.

Old

I think Engineering is easier for Danger 5 but you can work with anything , Mines work amazing with Old since map is small, get some economy early game and then build engineering forget about damage at all!

Old with Guns

Here is an example with Guns but I think it is easier with Engineering but guns are fun! Remember to remove that negative move speed and get economy early on, the focus on Ranged damage and attack speed!

Electrified Old Abyss Map (DLC)

Are Old people allowed to use Tasers??!!