Steroids – To Butt or not to Butt?

Overview

Get Strong with this Experimental guide.

Introduction

This guide is for players who want to use Steroids with an idea of what to build as you play. Some Weapons and Mutations have higher priority than others, and choosing the right two weapons is the difference between efficient, and dangerous ammo usage.

Running out of ammo is as good as being dead, and Steroids should know that more than anyone, as his throne butt forces you to use both your weapons ammo at the same time. Theres some minor spoilers about Steroids, but odds are you should just find out anyway to avoid a lot of frustration that Steroids can bring, if you think “Throne butt and dual weapon” is all he can do.

When it comes down to it, he should be played as a Self Defense/Berserker mixup, using everything he can to provide safe distance, and lots of cover to break into open areas without getting shot to death. Once you have the distance, thats when you can move forward to offend the crap out of the room. If enemies try anything funny though, defend yourself fast because thats when Steroids falls fast.

If you ask me why I made this guide i’m just gonna say I think Steroids is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything.

Mutations

DISCLAIMER: all the facts for Steroids should be on the wiki, I don’t know the exact specific numbers for certain things in the game at all times so this shouldn’t be taken as a fact, but I’ve played Steroids for over 50+ hours with a lot of messing around, so you should at least take that into account.

Recommended Mutations:

• Hammerhead – This Mutation is a must. With this alone you can beat impossible odds by simply hiding around a corner. Works great for any character but it stops a lot of potential unfairness that happens in the first 5 seconds of each level.
• Eagle Eyes – The wiki says that it “nullifies” his inaccuracy, but it does a little bit more than that. Try it for yourself and see! This leads to insanely high DPS shots with weapons that would normally spread like crazy for Steroids. The Shovel is an exception, without this mutation, Steroids throws a shovel in a “Y” shape, covering Steroids quite well. But with Eagle Eyes, it is a slightly tighter “cone” shaped attack.
• Plutonium Hunger + Back Muscle – Going double gun? You will need ammo like it’s the air you breathe.
• Open Mind – It works with your Ultra Mutation by giving you 1 extra ultra chest!
• Boiling Veins + Strong Spirit – No more death by explosions or fire, Steroids is an up close and personal kind of character, so get this if you don’t want to die eventually. It’s not needed right away but essential to looping.
• Long Arms + Extra feet – Only if you are using double Melee.
• Trigger Fingers + Stress – Affects both weapon cooldowns, making these Mutations special for Steroids.

  Remember: It’s ok to retry early on if you are dealt a list of Mutations like “Recycle Gland, Energy Brain, Sharp Teeth, and Last Wish”.

  Ultra Mutations:

  Ambidextrous: Double weapons dropping from chests? Better than you think. You get the amount of ammo from weapons twice, allowing you to simply pick up and use just one of them. This Ultra can allow you to swap weapons while holding 1 non-ammo melee weapon to fight through weaker enemies without using ammo. Once you hit that red crate, what do you do? Swap weapon! Fire!

  If you forget a chest, don’t forget to look for the Large Weapon Chest which drops 4 weapons instead of three.

  Get Loaded: Ammo Crates now drop 10 Mini Ammo Crates, two for each ammo type. This Ultra simply allows you to stick to the two weapons you are currently holding, as long as you have the right Mutations, and the Crown of Love (Ammo crates only).

  Don’t EVER forget these chests per level, it’s your Ultra, you chose it. Remember to use Hammerhead or Extra Feet, and a cool head, to find this chest every level no matter what.

  I’ll work on more mutation tips later when I feel like it, but for now this should be enough information to give someone an idea of how to not die as Steroids.

All the noise, noise, noise!

One small topic I’d like to touch up on is the audio aspect of the game. If you’re like me and wear headphones to determine where enemies are, then good on you ol’ chap. This character however is often found to be the loudest next to Melting and Rebel.. which may put you at a disadvantage, even visually. For how many bullets and things can be on the screen all at once can be overwhelming to your senses, especially if you are concentrating on one particular sound (sniper charge up noise for example), you might not hear it and get SHOT. Random fact: You can’t listen to two conversations at once. Or look at two things at once.

This is a mind game that you have to overcome, and sometimes you have to just fire a crap ton of bullets just to get used to the idea of doing it again, to not be overwhelmed by it at all should help you not die in the midst of chaotic bullet storms which tend to happen eventually.. those bloody IDPD vans.

So trading off creating silence with taking cover VS sound and fury gunfire, might even be an issue for steroids if your volume is up loud, or you are not wearing headphones all you will hear is gunshots roaring from your speakers. If you have a good surround sound setup then that’s good too I guess but headphones is best.

A cup of coffee also helps with the whole attention paying thing.

To Butt? or not to Butt?

Throne Butt needs it’s own section, because choosing this Mutation means you have chosen to completely ditch non-ammo Melee weapons (unless they are conveniently on the ground).

With Throne Butt:
PROS:

• DPS DPS DPS!!! Bring the pain, remember Steroids can do pushups forever. (fire the gun like you are doing pushups)
• Any Melee weapon that uses ammo is amazing. Jackhammer is the best defensive weapon for Steroids with it’s 12 slightly inaccurate screwdriver jabs; and it’s fairly ammo efficient.
• Many ways to manipulate ammo drop chance such as Crown of love, Ammo related Mutations, and equipping a low tier (eg: Shotgun) with a high tier (eg: Super Bazooka).

  CONS:

• The demand to be accurate, and play as smart as you can with conserving ammo can be mentally straining.
• You are at the mercy of chance. You MIGHT get ammo, or no ammo at all.
• Limited bullet repelling potential with ammo melee weapons.
• Having no ammo in general is as good as dead if you can’t kill anything.
• You are relying on Weapon mutations to appear.

  Without Throne Butt:
  PROS:

• Greatly improved chance to survive with a non-ammo Melee Weapon.
• Paired with a high DPS high ammo usage weapon is A-OK for NO-BUTT Steroids (He never had one to begin with).
• You could choose any other mutation instead of the Throne Butt if and when it appears. Who knows, it could be Boiling Veins or Hammerhead.
• Golden Wrench excels in repels.

  CONS:

• Less DPS for obvious reasons, and less chances to get the ammo you want.
• Being overwhelmed by enemies that can tank your melee weapon is not good (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ flying yeti monsters)
• You are relying on Melee mutations to appear.

  Personally I think Steroids Throne Butt sucks. Using a Gun/non-ammo Melee combo has always brought me into the loop with no problem. It’s the most adaptable way to fight against randomness and unfairness, and you always have a chance to fight back until glorious death.

Double Melee!

Compared to using a weapon, this strategy will not produce as much DPS as guns, but your defensive power is potentially doubled. With the right Mutations, your swings can be timed to the point where you are untouchable under any threat.

Swinging Tips:

• Remember the little things about melee swinging, as it will prevent you from panicking under enemy fire.
• Stress will not prevent damage but often prevents death (such as life lol).
• IF you have to stop moving for whatever reason, stop swinging!.
• When in doubt, swing slightly early.
• Never swing both weapons at the same time. Melee swing damage does not stack. (See the Jackhammer description in the wiki for reference)
• Playing Nuclear Throne with a Gamepad Controller is great for melee.
  [link] as reference

  Melee combos:

• Wrench + Wrench = A great start if you haven’t obtained the Golden Wrench yet, you can start swinging with one and then the other to “double” your swinging speed. This combo can deflect fast moving bullets.
• Sledgehammer + Sledgehammer = Stop, it’s hammertime! This is a bad idea and it will get you killed eventually. Be honest in yourself and know that you might miss even once, and missing with a Sledgehammer can mean getting hit, like every time.
• Golden Wrench + Shovel/Hammer/Lightning Hammer/etc. = Two weapons with different cooldowns means if you held down both swings, they would eventually swing at the same time, which is not what you want. When engaging targets or deflecting bullets, you must back up on your third swing to avoid being exposed in-between the cooldown of both melee weapons. So Wrench, Shovel, Wrench for example. This will create a long lasting melee crescent swing infront of you, that lets you move into rooms and hit enemies safely. Don’t swing too fast because the melee attack stays out for a fair bit of frames, practice with it.

  Ammo based Melee combos:

• Any non-ammo Melee + Jackhammer = Jackhammer will be your bullet armor while you can run straight into any amount of enemies and bullets and tear right through it all to victory. If you don’t like Jackhammer, then time to make it your best friend.
• Golden Wrench or Lightning Hammer + Energy Melee = If you are really good at deflecting bullets, then then you earned something like this. Just be sure to support it properly with the right Mutations!
• Double Melee Butts?! *insert paddle joke here* = If you use two ammo based Melee weapons, you must get the Throne Butt Mutation, which would ruin the whole idea of double melee, you monster.

Conclusion about Steroids

He’s hard to use, and not as effective as other characters in the late game since his Ultra is just more ammo or more guns. What is Steroids exactly? Power, like Ganondorf triforce power. You can feel the power of firing two weapons at once, but lost like sand between your fingertips when you lose control. The only other character that comes close to that is Y.V. If you want to play a consistent Steroids run though, then I highly recommend the following:

• Start with Golden Wrench and never let it go until Lightning Hammer.
• Cycle between ammo types from weapons found on the floor, use them up and rely on your Wrench to get you through areas to find more weapons. Rinse and repeat per level.
• Take cover! or Hammerhead to hide at the first 3 seconds of each spawn in.
• Safely kill Lil’ Hunter at close range. When he shoots the bouncer shotgun shot, immediately melee the bullets back at him. Do not go into medium/long range or he will shoot very accurate bursts of bullets that usually kill.
• Before the Palace (Stages 4 to 6), make sure you have a decent DPS weapon (assault slugger for example) to take on the Dog Guardians or they will steam roll you.
• Get the highest DPS weapon you can find before the Throne room and attempt to loop with it (Super Bazooka screws the Throne and Throne II very fast).
• Once you loop and get an Ultra Mutation, good luck, scientist! It only gets harder from there on because you can’t just walk to ammo/weapon chests anymore without going through an onslaught of enemies that can potentially break your ammo bank every time. This is why the offhand Melee weapon is so damn important for Steroids.
• If you are smart, throw the Melee weapon on the ground at opportune times to use double weapons and kill it until ammo runs out, then grab the melee weapon before the portal opens.
• Have fun and experiment with different weapon combinations!