Overview
Listen up soldier! If you want to know how to be effective out there in the field as Raelynn, you gotta know what she can do and how to put those abilities to good use. You can learn more about Raelynn’s stats, skills, builds and more right here in this guide. So what are you waiting for? Move, move, move!
Introduction
“What do I feel when I shoot an enemy? Recoil…”
- Raelynn is unlocked at level 14. By now you should have some experience in the battlefield and know how other characters perform. Still, as with all new characters, if you decide you want to try out Raelynn, go into the training mode first.
- Raelynn is pretty straightforward, but you can learn a lot by experimenting with different builds. After trying out the builds in this guide, don’t be afraid to change things around. If you find a new build that seems to be working, post it here and I might add it in (with full credit to you, of course!)
- As always, some things are learned through gameplay experience. Don’t expect this guide to turn you into an MLG superstar after a quick read. Play, experience, learn and improve – that’s the way to do it. This guide will be updated in the future should I learn new things about Raelynn.
Ready to learn more? Let’s not waste any time and dive right into the guide!
(You can read the change-log here)[dl.dropbox.com]
Raelynn
“Shot through the heart, I’m to blame.”
Raelynn is a relatively new character, released on Nov. 1st, 2012. She has some great offensive and defensive abilities, as well as a great CC ability. She can also earn solar very quickly if in the hands of a skillful player with the right items . Let’s learn a little more, shall we?
- Health: 135 (Up to 165 without health items)
Sharing the same amount of hit-points as Voltar and Lonestar, Raelynn is relatively squishy and can be taken down with pretty easily with a few powerful strikes. However, her skills and damage output can often take out enemies or make them retreat before they can get her. - Movement Speed: 7
Since update 1.18, Raelynn’s base speed has increased from 6.6 to 7, making her as fast as Ayla and Skolldir. However, her boots now have a reduced speed bonus to compensate. - Attack Range: Long
Raelynn’s default attack has an incredibly long range for a rifle, and her “Snipe” ability does just what it says from a great distance (which can be further increased!) - Role: Sniper
Long range attacks. Long range attacks everywhere. - Type: Roamer, Laner, Pusher
Raelynn’s range and DPS make her an excellent laner. Her Snipe ability can pierce through targets, and so can her protoblaster (default attack, with an item). Her high DPS can bring down turrets and droids in a jiffy.
Knowing this is great, but here are some other points you should know:
- Pretty good DPS. While definitely not the highest of all characters, a properly upgraded Protoblaster and Timerift can bring most ‘nauts down on their knees faster than they can ask for a supply drop.
- If for some absurd reason your target tries to escape, no worries: a quick snipe and the solar is yours.
- Raelynn can be great defensively too – her Timerift ability can slow down enemies (including their attacks and projectiles) to a crawl, giving you (and your allies) time to pick a fight or catch a flight.
- During midgame and lategame, Raelynn can handle herself pretty well, taking down enemy ‘nauts by herself with relative ease.
- If built properly, Raelynn can gather massive amounts of solar thanks to certain solar gaining items.
- Oh. And[goo.gl] your[goo.gl] K/D[goo.gl] can[goo.gl] be[goo.gl]
[i.imgur.com]
- Nukers can be quite troublesome even in the late game. Characters like Coco and Clunk can be very dangerous if they’re in the hands of pros.
- It’s fairly easy to miss with both of Raelynn’s abilities. Lag is not your friend.
- Tanks can absorb a lot of damage and still hit you pretty hard. You should avoid them unless you can guarantee a kill.
So now we know some general information about Raelynn. It’s time to explore her abilities.
Abilities – Part 1 (Timerift)
“Thanks for standing still, idiot.”
Raelynn has 4 abilities: 2 unique skills, 1 main attack and 1 jumping ability. Let’s go over them one by one, shall we? The first skill under Raelynn’s belt is Timerift.
- Cost: 135
- Slowing Power: 65%
- Cooldown: 8s
- Height: 3.5
- Width: 2
- Duration: 4s
Timerift is Raelynn’s first skill. Pressing your right mouse button will make Raelynn drop a ball on that will open up a small timerift on the ground. Any enemy that is going through this timerift will have all their actions slowed down considerably (this includes movement, attack speed, projectile speed, skill deployment, etc).
- Tip! Try to deploy your timerift in a small, dense area to maximize efficiency (for example on destroyed turrets).
- Tip! You can also deploy timerift in front of fleeing enemies to slow them down.
Items:
Lvl 1: 4 Height. Lvl 2: 5 Height.
2. Nuclear Warhead (175 Solar): Makes Timerift do damage. (+1 Per level)
Lvl 1: 1hp/tick. Lvl 2: 2hp/tick. Lvl 3: 3hp/tick. (Tick = ~0.1 seconds)
3. Retro Spaceship (160 Solar): Increases slow of Timerift. (+10% Per level)
Lvl 1: 70% slow. Lvl 2: 75% slow.
4. T-800 Dome (130 Solar): Makes Timerift spawn a droid.
Lvl 1: Droid has 50% HP. Lvl 2: Droid has 100% HP.
5. HC-Bomb (130 Solar): The next protoblaster shot after using Timerift will do more damage. (Doubles next protoblaster shot damage).
Lvl 1: x2 damage for 1 shot. Lvl 2: x3 damage for 1 shot.
6. 1.21 Gigawatt Battery (190 Solar): Increases duration of Timerift. (+2s timerift duration)
Timerift might not be so useful right off the bat, but after investing in a few upgrades it can be a great ability with diverse functions. The timerift’s height and damage items affect it much more than you might think (The image to the left is a max height timerift), and in general all of the items for this skill are very useful in most cases. We’ll learn more about some of the items later on, in the build chapters. For now, let’s continue to the 2nd skill.
Abilities – Part 2 (Snipe)
“It’s set to stun! Honest!”
Raelynn’s second unique skill is more offensive and allows you to hit targets far away.
- Cost: 135
- Damage: 45
- Cooldown: 10s
- Range: 17
- Charge Time: 0.5s
Snipe is your second skill. Pressing the middle mouse button will stop you in your tracks and make Raelynn load her rifle. After 0.8 seconds, you can press the left or middle mouse button again to shoot a long range, piercing hit-scan shot (any enemy inside the line, marked with a crosshair above them, will be hit immediately), or wait up to 2 seconds to fire automatically.
- Tip! You can use snipe and wave it around to find any invisible enemies. Crosshairs won’t appear unless someone is underneath them. Useful against fleeing Leons! (Thanks dragontamer5788!)
- Warning! Enemies with stun abilities can cancel your snipe and make you wait until the cooldown ends to fire again.
- Note: Remember that you can’t move while sniping, so be careful where you perform your attack.
Items:
Lvl 1: +10 Damage. Lvl 2: +20 Damage. Lvl 3: +30 Damage.
2. Casettedeck Magazine (145 Solar): Reduces cooldown of Snipe. (-1.5 second per level)
Lvl 1: 8 second cooldown. Lvl 2: 7 second cooldown.
3. Laserpointer (160 Solar): Adds a blinding effect to Snipe. (Snipe now blinds enemies)
4. Flashy Glasses (60 Solar): Receive Solar per effective Snipe. (+3 Solar/target)
5. Iron Rifle (260 Solar): Gives CC Immunity during charege-up and protects you from 30 damage.
6. Gryc Lubricator: Increases the range of Snipe. (+6 range per level)
Lvl 1: 24 Range. Lvl 2: 30 Range.
Much like Timerift, Snipe might not be all that useful early game, as most enemies will run away with more than 45 hp. If properly upgraded, however, Snipe can provide excellent damage and can even net you some nice cash (For those who are wondering, at 45 damage you will get ~3 Solar per hit). You can also use Snipe to push enemies and droids back a bit as the skill has a knockback effect. In mid and late-game, this skill can pretty much secure a kill against anyone who tries to run away (hence the name of the guide).
So now that we know what makes Raelynn special, let’s see what makes her powerful – her protoblaster.
Abilities – Part 3 (Protoblaster)
“Cuddles is so cute. Awww…”
Raelynn’s main weapon is her protoblaster, Cuddles.
- Damage: 7
- Attack Speed: 150 shots/minute (2.5 shots/second)
- Range: 7
Left clicking will fire the weapon towards your crosshair. Holding the LMB will fire at maximum speed. Cuddles has a fairly long range, fast fire rate and adequate damage, all of which (other than range) can be increased even more using items. Its range is long enough to give you a lot of breathing room if you need to run away while attacking a turret. Do not underestimate it, as this weapon will be your main damage dealer throughout this guide’s builds.
Lvl 1: +1 Damage. Lvl 2: +2 Damage. Lvl 3: +3 Damage
2. Unknown Alien Hand (185 Solar): Your shots will pierce through enemies, hitting additional enemies in their path. (Shots now pierce through enemies)
3. Monkey Hand (50 Solar): Receive extra Solar for every Awesomenaut kill. (+50 Solar/kill)
4. Lucky Cat Air Freshener (195 Solar): Increases damage of shots against enemy Awesomenauts. (+2 Per level)
Lvl 1: +2 Damage. Lvl 2: +4 Damage.
5. Joe Doll (175 Solar): Increases attack speed of shots (+15% Per level)
Lvl 1: 172.5 shots/minute (2.8 shots/second). Lvl 2: 195 shots/minute (3.25 shots/second)
6. Receding Ponytail (280 Solar): Increases damage of shots. (+3 Damage)
As previously mentioned, I’ll be focusing on Cuddles in this guide. When it is fully upgraded, depending on your items, it can be a fantastic lane pushing and anti-‘naut weapon. In fact, a short calculation can reveal that you can do up to 45 points of damage every second with this weapon! Combine this with your snipe skill, and you can easily understand why people call me a cheater sometimes.
Lets move on to Raelynn’s final ability: the Six Million Solar Human Jump
Abilities – Part 4 (6M Solar Human Jump)
“I’ll scrape you off my boots!”
- Update! Nope. Apparently, it’s a reference to the 6 million dollar man, a 70s TV show. Nice bit of trivia there, brought to you by Requiemcliff.
Anyway, this ability is pretty straight forward. Press W to jump, hold the button to jump higher. Simple, right?
- Tip! If you walk onto a jumpad, you can press W mid-flight to double jump, giving you a bit of extra distance.
That’s it for Raelynn’s abilities, now it’s time to put all of these things to good use in some builds!
Build Tree
“Look at all these shiny toys!”
Before you stands the mighty build tree. This image will give you an overview of what builds I’m going to cover in this guide. If you’re in a game and you forget which items to buy or in which order, the build tree should help you get the information you need quickly and easily. Each box should be read from left to right, top to bottom. I recommend that you read about all three builds to get a better understanding of them and the ideas behind them.
Builds – Base Items
“Supply drop!”
So you’ve launched Awesomenauts, got in a new match and managed to pick Raelynn. Well done! Now make sure to collect as much solar as you can in the drop-pod drop, you’ll need it to buy some of the base items.
1. Power Pills: The power pills item should only be purchased when you feel like you need that extra bit of health. If you just barely escape fights, or worse, don’t, buy it once or twice to get your edge back.
2. Solar Tree: It will take awhile for the solar tree to repay itself, but it’s a wise long term investment.
3. Snipe: The extra firepower for snipe is always useful. In addition, you will need this skill for the next item on the list.
You should have a bit of solar left on you, but not enough to buy anything. Go out there and earn yourself some cash. Once you have enough solar on you, teleport back to base and buy:
4. Build Specific: This base item is build specific. Read about it in the corresponding build section.
Get back into the fray and earn yourself a living (by killing others!). Once you have 175 solar (or twice than that, preferably), get back to base and buy:
5. Joe Doll: This will increase your rate of fire by 15% for each upgrade (up to 30%). As I’ve mentioned earlier, your protoblaster is your main damage dealer, so it’s essential to upgrade it before moving on.
6. Receding Ponytail: Upgrading your protoblaster’s damage by 3 is bigger and more meaningful than you might think. If this item is locked for you, you can go for Skull Bracelet instead.
7. Denny’s Boots: By now you should be one foot in the mid-game, which is the perfect time to get yourself a speed upgrade. Note that if you use any skill or fire your weapon you will lose your speed boost for a short period of time.
8. Lucky Cat Air Freshener: Let’s do a quick calculation here. (7 base damage + 3 Receding Ponytail damage + 4 LCAF damage) * 3.25 (Your shots/sec after the Joe Doll upgrade) = 45.5 damage PER SECOND. That means that you can bring down most characters in ~4 seconds, and that’s before using Snipe. I think this should give you a clear reason as to why I love Raelynn (and Cuddles) so much.
These are my base items. As for what comes next, it all depends on how I want to play. I have 3 suggested builds for you to try, have a go at them all and see what suits your play-style. If possible, try taking your team composition into consideration before picking your build.
Builds – Sniper Build
“Pew, pew, pew!”
What makes a real life sniper great in the real life battlefield? Powerful impact over long range? Deadly aim and accuracy? Neutralizing a threat before they even know you’re there? Well guess what, you can have all that and more by choosing this sniper build.
Base item: Casettedeck Magazine: In the early stages of the game you might want to get yourself this cooldown reducing item. Buy it at least once before moving on to harass and poke enemies more often. It’ll also be very useful later on.
So after finishing up with your base items, you should start putting some emphasis on your snipe skill.
10. Gryc Lubricator: By increasing the range of your snipe, you get a higher chance of scoring a kill before the enemy escapes. This item also gives you a little bit more room for error should you deploy the skill a bit too late.
11. Timerift: Well, it’s not like you have anything else to upgrade. While you won’t be relying on this skill very often, its items will come in handy as you acquire them.
12. HC-Bomb: You can double and even QUADRUPLE your damage (for one shot) with this item. Spam timerift freely if the enemy ‘naut is getting too close for comfort.
13. Higgs Grenade: You may remember the image of a fully upgraded Higgs Grenade timerift from earlier. I don’t think I need to elaborate.
14. Nuclear Warhead: This build, as you may have noticed, aims to allow you to dish as much damage as possible. While you can alternatively use the “Retro Spaceship” item to slow enemies to a crawl, the “Nuclear Warhead” can also increase your damage output and deny enemies from running away or jumping in.
- The sniper build almost has the best damage output you can get out or Raelynn. You can try replacing the Nuclear Warhead with the Retro Spaceship item and try to hold enemies in place longer as you shoot them. They both work really great, but since this build focuses more on the snipe ability, holding enemies in place is not of highest priority.
- You can use your snipe as both an initiator and as a finisher. Try getting all 3 enemy awesomenauts when initiating a team-fight to give your team the edge. When an enemy tries to make a run for it, or even when their health is low enough, you can snipe them and take them out.
- If you’re close to an enemy, try to throw the timerift into their path or right at them. Try to slow them AND take advantage of the double/quadruple damage bonus for maximum effect.
- You can launch a surprise attack from above my dropping down and sniping whoever’s down there. Keep an eye on your minimap and remember that you can either fire manually or wait up to 2 seconds before firing (Your cooldown will remain the same either way).
Builds – Avatar Build
“I see you!”
This is the Avatar build, hand-made to take advantage of the changes brought up in patch 1.15. You are the avatar: jack of all trades, immune to all elements. You control the battlefield, not vice versa. Take advantage of your crowd control abilities and items to become a force as wild and dangerous as a burning hurricane… with lightnings. OF DEATH!
Base item: Flashy Glasses: This item will grant you 7% solar/damage. Currently, you’ll earn 2 Solar per hit, but as your Snipe skill gets stronger, you’ll earn more Solar per hit (up to 5).
After getting all of your base items in your pocket, you’ll probably want to focus on your crowd control effects, both offensively and defensively.
10. Iron Rifle: What was once an offense item is now a fantastic defensive buff. Get yourself protected from CCs (negative buffs like snares and blinds) and 30 points of damage when attacking or retreating, allowing for great flexibility.
11. Timerift: Well, what else do you have to upgrade? This ability will be, much like your snipe, effective both offensively and defensively.
12. Higgs Grenade: As always, height is a pretty important thing for your timerift. Buy this item at least once before moving on, you don’t have to maximize it first.
13. T-800 Dome: After getting this item you will be able to reinforce your lane and keep the push going. Use it often to keep the pressure on.
14. 1.21 Gigawatt Battery: When you sense a team-fight brewing, throw your timerift in a strategic position to keep enemies in or out of the team fight.
This item can be replaced with Nuclear Warhead for damage or Retro Spaceship for extra slow.
- This is more of a defensive support build than anything else. Use it if you have other powerful ‘nauts in your team that can dish out damage quickly.
- Snipe often with your blind to confuse the enemy and harass them.
- During teamfights, time your snipe properly. Too early and the enemies will retreat and regroup. Too late and the effects will not be used to their maximum potential.
Builds – Manipulator Build
“Lets make this fun. Run as fast as you can!”
Want to give the timerift the spotlight it deserves? You’ve chosen well my friend. There aren’t a lot of people like you in this world, and you know what – it’s their loss (literally!) Any poor soul who steps into your timerift has sealed their fate.
Base item: Flashy Glasses: This item will grant you 7% solar/damage. Currently, you’ll earn 2 Solar per hit, but as your Snipe skill gets stronger, you’ll earn more Solar per hit (up to 5).
So you just got all your base items, what’s next? Well, I think it’s pretty obvious:
10. Higgs Grenade: The first thing you want to do is to make sure your timerift affects as many targets as possible and is hard to dodge. That’s why you should upgrade Higgs Grenade first, at least once, before moving on to the next item.
11. Nuclear Warhead: If you put your efforts into making the timerift hurt sooner, you’ll deal more damage faster. Besides, it’s always scary seeing so many numbers jump off of you as you misstep your way into oblivion.
12. Retro Spaceship: This item will increase the timerift’s slow effect from snail-paced 65% to snail-against-300-inch-mega-fan-paced 75% after two upgrades. No matter which unlucky soul runs into your timerift, it has no chance of escaping.
13. Pump Rifle: Now that your timerift is fully upgraded and rips apart enemies faster than it does space-time, you can put some spare cash into your snipe skill. You know, just in case one of those poor bastards manages to escape certain doom (temporarily, of course).
14. Casettedeck Magazine: Keep your cooldown low and have it a bit more synced with your timerift’s cooldown. Feel free to replace the last item with a different utility item, like Gryc Lubricator (increased range) or Laserpointer (blind effect).
- Feel free to replace the last item with a different utility item, like Gryc Lubricator (increased range) or Laserpointer (blind effect).
- In a team-fight, your timerift can mean life or death for your team. Throw one in in the midst of chaos and the enemy won’t know what hit them until it’s too late.
- Remember that timerift slows everything, which includes attacks and skills. That froggy tries to dash at you? Watch and laugh as your timerift slows him down to a humiliating crawl.
Final Words
Thanks for sticking with me this far into the guide! Your mission for knowing more about Raelynn is far from over, as you will learn a lot in the battlefield, but this guide should give you an idea for how to properly perform as Raelynn.
As always, your comments are very welcome. If you find the guide useful, be sure to rate it up so others will know as well. Don’t forget to share it with your friends if you think they might learn something too!
If you like this guide, you might be interested in my guide for Voltar the Omniscient! [link] Oh, and before I forget, there’s an easter-egg hidden somewhere in this guide! Can you find it?
Good luck!
-Creepy Pie (AKA Jono00)
(Also, special thanks to Sam!, dragontamer5788 and Knotsie for great criticism and tips which helped me improve the guide!)