Overview
Guide to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rekking as Chicken
What Makes Chicken Chicken
This is just going to be an explanation of how Chicken differentiates from an 8/8 husk with a pistol.
Chicken is special for a few reasons. I’m going to start with one of the reasons she isn’t particularly special. Her active ability.
Chicken’s active ability slows down enemies and bullets in a small radius around her. This gives the player precision and timing with melee weapons, allowing super easy deflections and dodges. The downside to this ability is with physics based weapons, such as shotguns and grenade launchers, they don’t travel as far as they naturally do. Each gets about half range while using her active. This can be used against the aligators in the sewers, but generally it’s a downside.
The thing that instantly seperates Chicken from every other character in the game is she starts with a special weapon designed just for her, as opposed to the revolver. The Chicken Sword, or TCS, has a fast swing rate and a wide swing arc. This makes it especially effective at deflecting bullets, as you can catch whole waves. It does slightly less damage than the sledgehammer, but when swung it gives a little dash giving it much increased range. This dash can also dash you straight into enemies if you aren’t at a comfortable distance, so, be safe.
Finally, the most game breaking part about Chicken. She can infinitely revive herself from the grave every time she dies. When Chicken dies, you are given about 5 seconds to revive yourself with a health pack, health chest, or bloodlust. On later levels, when nearly every enemy drops health packs, you can revive several times per level.
Weapon Selection for Chicken
Generally, early game, every time you level you’ll be prompted to pick a gun specific passive. Because of this, I generally start altering my play to fit the type of weapon I intend to find late game. The types of weapons (Bullet, Explosive, Energy, Shell, Bolt) each have varying degrees of pros and cons that synergize with Chicken.
Bullet Weapons
Bullet weapons are generally a strong pick on Chicken because, due to her melee starting weapon, she lacks consistent ranged dps. However, early game, these tend to lack the burst damage to make things convienient. Late game, if you can find a hyper rifle, along with various assorted mutations, you’re golden.
Explosive Weapons
Explosives are a great option for chicken. Taking Boiling Veins is core on Chicken, and the natural synergy between the two is excellent, especially if you plan on taking the Larger Explosions crown. The standard grenade launcher has the Dps, range, and utility to be used through the Tundra. The downside being if you can’t get boiling veins, these weapons fail to compensate in tight packed areas such as the sewers, and it gives you fewer options to deal with rats that have wandered to close.
Energy Weapons
Energy weapons are generally seen as powerful, provided you can get the proper perks. On Chicken, I personally believe survivability perks are much more core than energy buffs, but occasionally energy weapons are the best choice for the situation.
Shell Weapons
Shell weapons aren’t a terrible pick. They give you great survivability in the sewers, due to everything being tightly packed, but they fail to cover for medium/long range fights, which are Chicken’s weak points. Unless you plan on trading out before the junkyard, shotguns are a weak option.
Bolt Weapons
Bolt weapons are a decent option for chicken. If you can properly use the disc launcher, it is more than viable for great long periods of time. The crossbows are good early game, through the Junkyard boss fight. The other exception being the Splinter Pistol. This god tier weapon covers everything Chicken doesn’t have. It’s good for medium/long range fights, is accurate, has a great Rate of Fire, excellent knockback, and good Dps. If you can find this prior to the last level, take it. The greatest downfall of bolt weapons is Chicken’s passive. Given that the screen doesn’t move after death, having a long range, single shot weapon isn’t very optimal. This is why the splinter gun excels. It trumps short range fights and has a RoF comparable to the pistol.
Melee Weapons
Until you start finding ammo based melee weapons, TCS is your best option. If you choose to take RoF perks, the shovel isn’t a bad option either, but without RoF it is a much weaker option in the Junkyard. The Jackhammer isn’t great, it has no swing arc, and doesn’t reflect bullets. If you can find it, you may prefer it for the Dps, I personally can’t use it. The energy weapons are both completely god-tier and core on Chicken. If you can find an energy sword and splinter pistol, then you are just living the dream.
Late Game Weapons
For dealing with the final boss, you need something with consistent Dps. You’re living the dream if you can get an energy sword and a Hyper Rifle to the throne.
Side-Note: I’m not a fan of Toxic weapons at all, I feel they lack Dps and slow down your game in a way completely non-beneficial to chicken, but if you’re feeling it, go for it.
Mutations for Chicken
Chicken should generally be built focused around pickups, and one general type of weapon, so, much of what is situational is completely necessary, but you have to make the decision as to which you need.
Core Mutations
Boiling Veins
Yes, yes, and more yes. Boiling Veins is 100% completely necessary on Chicken. Getting it by the junkyard level makes you invincible to half the enemies in the stage. Given that she relies on melee weapons, you have to be up close to kill most enemies, which is where the explosions are happening. Take over anything else.
Rabbit Paw’s
100% necessary, no doubt, synergizes well with Chicken’s passive, and gives ammo for cost heavy weapons, i.e. energy hammer.
Second Stomach
Given that Chicken’s core mechanic is grabbing medkits, buffing medkits is an obvious choice. Takes any downward spiral and turns it right the ♥♥♥♥ around.
Lucky Shot
Provides the ammo regen necessary for ammo hungry weapons. Combined with Rabbit Paws, ammo problems are a thing of the past. Wouldn’t take it early though, this is only essential once you find ammo intensive weapons, such as energy sword and hyper rifle.
Not-so Core, but Nice
Impact Wrists
Turns every kill with your Sword into a shotgun blast. I’d take it if the other options are meh.
Scarier Face
Make’s the sewers much easier when relying on TCS. Beyond that, meh. Only choose of the other options are trash.
Rhino Skin
With Rhino Skin and Boiling veins your max immunity health become 7 instead of 4. I’d make it my top pick of Non-core Mutations.
Sharp Teeth
Especially good with boiling veins, as, on the junkyard level with 8 health, you can stand in some flames and execute everything on the screen. As a whole though, it doesn’t scale well enough into late game. I’d put it above scary face, but below everything else.
Long Arms
Not as good as you’d imagine. It doesn’t add anything to swing arc, but it does add some needed mid-range Dps. On the lower end of “not-so-core”
Weapon Type Specific Mutations
Homing bolts isn’t bad with the Disc gun, and laser brain is good with energy sword. As a whole though, I’d put these below Impact wrists.
Honorable Mentions
Plutonium Hunger
Not a good mutation as a whole, but on death, sometimes, you just can’t get to that health pack. This has got your back.
Racing Mind
Interesting choice on chicken, as She’s the only character to be able to take it’s full effect. As good as it looks, it’s only really a great pick if you’re also taking the shovel. With the shovel, it’s excellent, but the shovel only deals so much damage.
Throne Butt
In the same boat as Racing Mind, though I’d argue Throne Butt is a little better. On bullet hell levels, you can use it quite effectively with chicken’s sword to reflect everything. Far from core though.
Bloodlust
While it’s generally assumed to be good on Chicken, it really isn’t. It’s too rare an effect to greatly matter, and there are other abilities that do its job much better, like rabbit paws. Take it if your other options are like Euphoria, Third Leg, and Last Wish.
Any mutations not mentioned just aren’t worth getting. Euphoria for example is just a different version of her active ability.
Revisions
After writing my guide, I decided I wanted to test the boundaries a bit, try things I advised against. This is my collection of things that I deemed appropriate to include.
Weapons
The basic machine gun is ridiculously good with Chicken’s throne butt. Would absolutely recommend. It becomes a super accurate smg. Splinter pistol is still crazy good. Since my original guide, flame shotguns have been added. I’m not sure how different they are to regular shotguns, but they seem to have longer range. Would def recommend over regular shotguns, but still a little worse than I was hoping for. Still low-tier. The more I play with automatic weapons, the less I recommend single shot burst weapons. Chicken’s Throne Butt super benefits weapons that need a strong rate of fire to be good. Some would say it’s a buff to low RoF weapons, I disagree, I think it really shines on weapons that just need a little extra to be super good, such as the machine gun.
Mutations
This is where I completely challenge everything I wrote earlier. Boiling Veins is still ridiculously good. I would begin to seriously consider Gamma Guts, and Impact Wrists though. Gamma Guts is more situational, but I’ve had a great time with it. Chicken can easily dominate a screen after she’s dead using Gamma Guts, and it puts her in a great position to grab all of her health packs. Impact Wrists is much much better than I gave it credit for, and I think I talked it up pretty hard. Definitely would recommend. Throne Butt is insanely good, and I didn’t give it nearly enough credit. It’s a great RoF boost, and on bullet heavy levels, such as the junkyard and the tundra, it gives you everything you need to deflect every bullet on the map. Practically core for me now.
Thanks for reading, if I decide against anything I said, I’ll be sure to update.
Revisions part 2:
I revoke what I said about racing mind. It is so rididculously good with RoF based weapons. The machinegun with thronebutt and racing mind is practically the minigun with increased accuracy. I consider it to be a machine gun buff though. It’s unnecessary beyond that, as any high tier melee weapons don’t need RoF, and any late game bullet weapons have ridiculous base RoF. It’s fun at a minimum, but not core.
Revisions part 3:
The new update nerfed the ♥♥♥♥ out of Boiling Veins. While it’s still good, I wouldn’t say take it over anything. I’d put it below rabbit paws. Also, the synergy between it and Rhino Skin was ridiculously nerfed. Honestly, at this point, I’d suggest picking one or the other. Boiling Veins is really good on the Tundra and the Junkyard, but Rhino Skin is better on other level. Just your choice. Additionally, Party Gun, new meta. Super big fan. On level 1, if the only weapons are melee or bolt, I tend to just keep it. But, by the first boss fight, you need a real weapon.