Overview
Here is a guide for those who wish to run the Stoker merc in Dirty Bomb, but don’t know where to start! Stats pulled from the Dirty Bomb and DBWiki sites. Opinion and preferences suggested.
Stoker Basics
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Class: Fire Support
Cost : 
Stats
Special Abilities
Overview of Cards
There are several different loadout cards you can get. A lot of them are good, and a lot of them are mediocre. Truthfully, just find which primary and secondary you like best, and trade up accordingly. With all of the card types available, you’ll have a bunch of options when it comes to augments as well. There are some that I really prefer and now can’t live without. Here are all of the variations
These are in to particular order, but I have them labeled by the order in the picture, so you can find a generaly idea of what variation you’re looking for.
Card 1
M92 Modern Rifleman
Primary: M4A1
Secondary: Smjuth & Whestman .40
Melee: Stilnotto Stiletto
Augment 1: Chopper (15% increase to melee damage)
Augment 2: Quick Eye (35% faster movement speed and raise/lower times when Iron Sighting.)
Augment 3: Extra Supplies (20% cooldown reduction to support abilities.)
Card 2
M55 Modern Rifleman
Primary: M4A1
Secondary: DE .50
Melee: Kukri
Augment 1: Enigma (Reduced duration of being spotted by 60%.)
Augment 2: Quick Draw (30% faster weapon switching.)
Augment 3: Extra Supplies (20% cooldown reduction to support abilities.)
Card 3
T52 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Timik-47
Secondary: DE .50
Melee: Stilnotto Stiletto
Augment 1: Double Time (Allows you to reload whilst sprinting.)
Augment 2: Mechanic (Improves any repair tools and disarm rates by 20%)
Augment 3: Chopper (15% increase to melee damage)
Card 4 (My absolute favorite)
M61 Modern Rifleman
Primary: M4A1
Secondary: Simeon .357
Melee: Beckhill Combat Knife
Augment 1: Flying Pig (Increases Long Jump distance by 10% and removes falling damage.)
Augment 2: Mechanic (Improves any repair tools and disarm rates by 20%)
Augment 3: Drilled (20% reduction to reload time.)
Card 5
T91 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Timik-47
Secondary: DE .50
Melee: Beckhill Combat Knife
Augment 1: Mechanic (Improves any repair tools and disarm rates by 20%)
Augment 2: Cool (Doubles the time it takes Mounted MGs to overheat.)
Augment 3: Quick Eye (35% faster movement speed and raise/lower times when Iron Sighting.)
Card 6
S62 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Stark AR
Secondary: Simeon .357
Melee: Stilnotto Stiletto
Augment 1: Extra Supplies (20% cooldown reduction to support abilities.)
Augment 2: Chopper (15% increase to melee damage)
Augment 3: Double Time (Allows you to reload whilst sprinting.)
Card 7
S51 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Stark AR
Secondary: DE .50
Melee: Beckhill Combat Knife
Augment 1: Quick Draw (30% faster weapon switching.)
Augment 2: Extra Supplies (20% cooldown reduction to support abilities.)
Augment 3: Sneaky (Reduces the amount of sound you generate when running by 50%.)
Card 8
S95 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Stark AR
Secondary: Smjuth & Whestman .40
Melee: Kukri
Augment 1: Quick Eye (35% faster movement speed and raise/lower times when Iron Sighting.)
Augment 2: Drilled (20% reduction to reload time.)
Augment 3: Mechanic (Improves any repair tools and disarm rates by 20%)
Card 9
T65 Modern Rifleman
Primary: Timik-47
Secondary: Simeon .357
Melee: Kukri
Augment 1: Drilled (20% reduction to reload time.)
Augment 2: Extra Supplies (20% cooldown reduction to support abilities.)
Augment 3: Springy (Reduces jumping and Long Jump penalties by 35%.)
Primaries
Here is an overview and my judgement of each rifle. Each rifle is good at something. Play around with all of em and figure out with one you gel with best.
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M4A1 (Personal favorite. Very solid, good at long range and high damage to the head)
Very accurate, especially at mid to long range. Fantastic damage/accuracy ratio. Tight bullet spead makes it reliable when spraying in tight spaces or trying to get headshots at medium range.
Class:
Assault rifle
Fully automatic
Damage:
Body – 14
Head – 28
Speed:
Rate of Fire – 535 RPM
Reload Time – 2.1sec
Ammo:
Default (At spawn) – 105
Full – 158
Magazine:
Mags – 3
Rounds per mag – 35
Range:
Minimum – 1400
Maximum – 2800
Other:
Rounds per shot – 1
Mobility – 87.5%
Time to aim – 0.3sec
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Timik-47 (Default)
Very high damage gun. Low accuracy with a large bullet spead, so don’t expect to be able to do a lot at medium-long range. Superb in small/medium rooms. The Wiki says that they do the same damage, but I believe this has been buffed.
Class:
Assault rifle
Fully automatic
Damage:
Body – 14
Head – 28
Speed:
Rate of Fire – 550 RPM
Reload Time – 2sec
Ammo:
Default (At spawn) – 105
Full – 158
Magazine:
Mags – 3
Rounds per mag – 35
Range:
Minimum – 1400
Maximum – 2800
Other:
Rounds per shot – 1
Mobility – 87.5%
Time to aim – 0.3sec
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Stark AR
Very deadly gun. I’m no good with burst fire weapons, so I haven’t spent much time with this. I’ve been on the business end of the Stark and it ain’t fun. Very precise gun at medium/long range, but suffers in close quarters unless you’re deadly accurate.
Class:
Assault rifle
3 Round Burst Fire
Damage:
Body – 18
Head – 36
Speed:
Rate of Fire – 220 RPM
Reload Time – 2.1sec
Ammo:
Default (At spawn) – 81
Full – 114
Magazine:
Mags – 3
Rounds per mag – 27
Range:
Minimum – 1500
Maximum – 3000
Other:
Rounds per shot – 3
Mobility – 87.5%
Time to aim – 0.3sec
Secondaries
There are three side-arms available to Stoker. None are particularly useful, but can get you out of a jam if needed. All three are biggest handguns in the game and have a particularly nasty recoil. Very difficult to rapid fire with, so don’t expect it to reliably save your life.
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Smjüth & Whetsman .40
The worst of them all. Terrible recoil to damage ratio. Doesn’t do quite enough damage for my taste.
Damage:
Body – 27
Head – 54
Speed:
Rate of fire – 300 RPM
Reload time – 1.9sec
Magazine:
Ammo per mag – 6
Range:
Minimum – 950
Maximum – 1900
Other:
Ammo per shot – 1
Mobility – 97.5%
Time to aim – 0.17sec
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Simeon .357
This one is the best of the three. Lower recoil and easier to manage. Decent damage, but not ideal.
Damage:
Body – 25
Head – 50
Speed:
Rate of fire – 301 RPM
Reload time – 1.9sec
Magazine:
Mags – 5
Ammo per mag – 6
Range:
Minimum – 950
Maximum – 1900
Other:
Ammo per shot – 1
Mobility – 97.5%
Time to aim – 0.17sec
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DE .50
50 caliber pistol, obviously a Desert Eagle. Not bad, but still not great. I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but it’s alright.
Damage:
Body – 20
Head – 40
Speed:
Rate of fire – 360
Reload time – 1.4sec
Ammo:
Default (at spawn) – 35
Full – 46
Magazine:
Mags – 5
Ammo per mag – 7
Range:
Minimum – 900
Maximum – 1800
Other:
Ammo per shot – 1
Mobility – 97.5%
Time to aim – 0.17sec
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As always, it’s preference, but none of these will effect how you play as Stoker.
Melee Weapons
There are three melee weapons available to Stoker. Like with any merc, pressing ‘3’ or whatever you have it mapped to, will pull out your melee weapon to run faster.
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Beckhill Combat Knife
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Stilnotto Stiletto
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Kukri
Ability 1 – Molotov
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On Impact – 35
Per second in fire – 40
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MLG Strats
Now the trick to using the Molotov is throwing it at enemy equipment or large clusters of enemies. I always try and save it for emergencies or when I happen upon an enemy health station surrounded by players. The grenade quickly destroys the healing station, as well as catching mercs off guard, (hopefully) killing them as finishing them off. You can even use Molotovs as an alternative escape route for you and your team, if you get cornered. Just throw one into a doorway, cutting off enemies. This can even prevent other opposing players from getting to or from an objective. I’ve even coordinated with friends. I throw a Molly, cutting them off from a route, and we rush in from behind, or he calls in a airstrike. This is a magnificent tool to use when defending on maps like Bridge, Chapel, and Dockyard (in development). Toss the molotov onto, or immediately in front of the EV and it’ll deal massive amounts of damage as it passes through. If you’re attacking an objective, however, you can use it to keep enemies from returning an EMP Charge/Drug Sample/Data Core. The Molotov only lasts 10sec and the cooldown time is 40 seconds, so plan accordingly.
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The Dangers of Self-Harm
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Be VERY careful when throwing Molotovs. Your own Molotovs hurt you, and they work fast. If you aren’t careful you will die, and will lose XP for “suicide”. So when tossing one in a hallway, be sure you don’t plan on going through there, and always have a backup exit in case you get cornered between enemies and your own fire.
If you have seen either of these, you should be generally farmiliar with Molotovs. The green is friendly fire, such as yours or a teammate’s, and the red is an enemy’s. Opposing players see your team’s fire as red and theirs as green. Red will always hurt you, regardless. The green is tricky. If you have another Stoker on your team, them you have to be careful not to have your fire mixed up with theirs. A teammate’s fire won’t hurt you (except in competative mode), but yours will. So just be aware of where you’ve thrown yours.
Ability 2 – Ammo Station
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MLG Strats
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I recommend dropping an ammo station either at spawn, in a high traffic area (for your team) or next to a health station. This will ensure that your teammates have the most ammo, so you all stay alive, and you get the most xp possible. A note though; enemies can collect ammo from your station, and you can only have one deployed at a time. So if you have one at spawn, and wait the 25sec cool down, then deploy another one, the first one will despawn, so use it wisely.
General Use
Just be careful. That’s best advice I can give to someone who wants to try Stoker. I don’t claim to be the best player ever, but I know more than my way around him. He costs 50,000 Credits or $9.99 USD. If you don’t want to front that much cash, then give him a shot during the free roation next time he comes around and see if you like him. He’s an excellent suppot/combat merc.
I usually run:
Medic – Sawbonez or Pheonix
Support/Combat – Stoker (<3), Skyhammer or Fragger.
Tactical or Objective: Vassili or Proxy
Stoker is very much a strong character and is hated by anyone who isn’t playing as him. He’s great. Just give ammo, play it safe and stick with a medic. If you have an Aura on your team, them you two will be almost invincible if played well.
Conclusion
If you’re here, and you read most of my lovely guide, then you (I assume) are new to Dirty Bomb, or want to get into Stoker. I have about 400 hours clocked in the game (as of 2/20/16, the date of this publishing). Roughly 175 of those hours are with my favorite merc ever, Stoker. I am a lvl 21, and I consider myself to be well versed with this merc. He’s very powerful if you know how to use him.
Thanks so much for reading my guide. This is my first ever Steam guide and I am very happy to make one for what is quite possibly my favorite FPS. If you like my guide (organized, right?) then comment and let me know if you want me to do another merc too. I’ve played around with almost all of them and have played on teams with “wise” players who are crazy good, so I’ve observed some killer MLG strats.
Thanks so much, until next time!
-Jordan
