Overview
A relatively in depth guide at Augments, what they do, and the importance of perks when choosing a loadout!
What are Augments?
Well? What are they?
Augments are modifiers that all loadouts posess, originally, there were specific rarities that contained 0-2 augments, called Leads and Irons, but those were removed a while ago. Augments are important, as they edit the capabilities a loadout posseses, they can also drastically change the playstyle a player can use with a loadout! These can be seen on the left side of the card. As you can see, the Iron on the left, has only two augments, and the left on the right, has only one.
Now as you can clearly see, the Kira loadout has two augments, while the Bushwhacker loadout only has one, these augments being the following:
Extra Supplies:
This augment reduces the cooldown on support abilities by 20%!
Bombsquad:
This aigment allows you to see certain enemy deployables much easier, by adding a highlight to them!
Unshakeable:
Reduces damage taken from explosives by 15%!
And what does this mean?
This means that while the Bushwhacker is more resilient to explosive damage, the Kira can spot enemy deployables like mines, S.N.I.T.C.H devices, and more nearly instantly! It’s important to consider augments when choosing a loadout, as they can help cover some of your weaknesses, or further push your strong points!
Where can I find my augments?
Oh this is really easy! Whenever looking at a loadout card, the augments are ALWAYS on the right, underneath the weapons! I put a red box around the augments! But this won’t be present ingame.
Selecting a loadout based on Augments
Now that you know what aguments are, and where to find them, lets take a look at choosing which loadout is best for you, based on the augments.
Lets take a look at these Stoker Loadouts. And decide which of these would be best for him.
❌The S62 Stoker comes with the Stark AR, the Simeon, and the Stilleto. As far as weaponry goes, it’s a fairly viable loadout. The AR is a long range burst rifle, while the Simeon is great as a close range finisher. The Stilleto is fairly standard as melee weapons go, allowing for fast repositioning given that the player holds it while moving. The loadout is more suited to a backline Fire Support, as allies can resupply ammo from your station, and you can use Molotovs to either choke objectives, or stall enemy movement. But as far as augments go, it’s all over the place! And heres why:
Extra Supplies: A relatively good perk for Fire Supports such as Stoker. It allows the cooldown to be 20% shorter when moving the ammo station, or after its been destroyed.
Enigma: A very situational and mediocre perk. Enigma cuts the duration of being spotted by 60%, and while incredibly useful so you aren’t tracked by enemies, its also incredibly situational. As of right now, there are only 4 mercenaries that can spot enemies, these being Aimee, Vasilli, Redeye, and Hunter. With the exeption of hunter, you shouldnt be being spotted by Aimee and Vasilli as the gadgets they deploy to spot enemies can be found relatively easily, and be destroyed with the tap of a trigger. Hunter is a mixed bag as he needs to VISUALLY SEE YOU to spot you, and does so by hitting you with bolts. Redeye spots by using his IR goggles, which only requires LOS, and doesn’t go through walls or other obstructions save for his Smoke.
DoubleTime: This augment allows you to reload while sprinting, although you’ll still be slightly slowed during the reload. This is great for SMG’s or Assault Rifles, but not so much for burst weapons, as you’ll largely be stationary or only doing simple strafing during fights to minimize the spread. Plus, all the Burst weapons can take advantage of animation canceling to cut the reload cycle, while this is still possible with the augment, you cant sprint cancel, and instead you’ll need to reload cancel.
❌The M61 Stoker comes fully equiped with the M4A1, the Simeon, and the Beckhill. The M4 is an incredibly reliable close/midrange assault rifle, while the Simeon is a trustworthy close range finisher for wounded enemies. And the Beckhill is arguably the most common melee weapon, good for disbatching enemies without firing a shot. The augments are as follows:
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Flying Pig: An incredibly basic but fun perk, it makes it so that the mercenary takes 0 fall damage from any height. Very simple, situational, and fun. it has its use on maps such as Bridge and Trainyard. But there are very few places on other maps where the player may find use for such an augment.
Mechanic: This augment makes it so that the mercenary disarms or plants C4 20% faster. This is a reliable perk should the team not have a dedicated engineer, or if your engineer is down. It’s also incredibly useful for sneaking behind enemy lines and doing primary, or secondary objectives under they’re noses.
Drilled: Drilled is by far one of the most useful perks in the game. Drilled cuts the reload time of ALL WEAPONS by 20%.
✅The T91 Stoker comes with the Timik Assault Rifle, the S&W Revolver, and the Beckhill. The Timik is a fantastic primary, as it has moderate recoil and high damage. The S&W is a high damage, high recoil, and long range revolver. It packs a serious punch, landing a single shot on any wounded enemy is normally enough to down them, and a single shot to the head to finish said downed enemy. And finally, the Beckhill is the all around knife. Everybody likes it, the hitbox isn’t confusing and it still allows for quick repositioning.
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Unshakeable: This augment reduces the damage taken by explosives by 15%, this means that Fraggers, Naders, Artys, SkyHammers, Fletchers, Javelins, and Proxies abilities are all effectively cut by 15% of their damage. Giving you more survivability from spam.
QuickEye increases your scoped movement speed, and your scope in/out time by 35%. This means you can be more mobile while using the ironsights, and you can take more precision shots mid gunfight!
Bombsquad: gives Stoker an edge when it comes to taking out deployables. S.N.I.T.C.H. device deployed somewhere obscure, debuffing teamates/ Vasilli Spotter thrown into a dark corner? Proxy Mines? This augment gives a large visual highlight to the locations of such things, and allows Stoker to clear away any harmful items.
Specialty Augments
While choosing a loadout, its important to remember that some mercenaries are special, and get to have Unique Augments! Here’s a few examples.
Turtle has access to the Extender augment, which increases the size of his shield by 20%. This allows him to block most doorways entirely, or simply cover more openings for his team to nest in.
Rhino has the exclusive Nitros Augment that increases the acceleration of his Minigun by a whopping 40%!
Rhino also has the Ice Cold augment, which increases the time for his minigun to overheat by 40%.
There are also ability locked augments, such as:
Extra Ammo, which is currently locked to Skyhammer and Arty, the only two mercs that use ammo packs.
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Healing Reach which is locked to Pheonix and Aura, two support mercs whose healing abilities are dictated by range of effect, rather than by pickups.
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Explodydendron! Locked to mercs with explosive abilities, such as Skyhammer, Nader, Arty, Fragger, Javelin, and Thunder! On paper, Fletcher also uses explosives, but none of his current loadouts have the augment. Same goes for Proxy.
