Overview
Hi! I’m a Caldarius main currently at Character Rank 8 and I’ll be sharing a guide on his builds, gear setup & playstyle.This is also my first guide, so do give some feedback on it. If you liked the guide, comment the next Battleborn I should make a guide on.EDIT 5/5/2016 : Added Helix Tree rundown, Advanced Helix Unlocks & PvP Melee BuildEDIT 8/5/2016 : Updated Melee Build, Starting on Basic Caldarius Strategies section & PvE builds.
Introduction to Caldarius
Caldarius is a Jennerit Attacker that is extremely mobile, has good crowd control and high burst damage. This allows Caldarius to chase down fleeing enemies efficiently and also help in teamfights greatly. However, Caldarius is very squishy and can die easily when his abilities are on cooldown.
Rank Unlock : Command Rank 28
OR
Challenge Unlock : Complete Episode 3 : The Renegade
Soaring Reputation – Double Jump 1,600 times. [ EASY ]
The Armor Costs More Than You – Deal 40,000 damage with Aerial Assault. [ EASY ]
A Vision Of Solitude – Kill 200 Blinded enemies. [ EASY ]
The Arena and You: Partners in Freedom – Kill 750 Jennerit troops. [ MEH ]
Three-To-One Contact – Kill 150 enemies with Energy Blade while on a team with Rath. [ HARD ]
Reward : Blade of Transfusion
Caldarius’ Abilities
Weapon
TMP and Energy Blade (TMP dmg 23 – 33) (Energy Blade dmg 71 – 95)
Caldarius’ rapid-fire TMP and wrist-mounted energy blade are devastating weapons in medium to close ranges.
Caldarius’ TMP is his main source of damage as it has high fire rate and reload speed, allowing Caldarius to burst down his enemies quickly. The TMP does 50% lesser damage in long range but does full damage in close to medium ranges.
Caldarius’ Energy Blade has high damage but it is quite slow. His TMP is still much more reliable as you can still deal high burst damage in medium range and it also keeps Caldarius safe from melee enemies.
Talent
J-HTX Assault Frame
Caldarius’ formidable battle armor can be augmented for high mobility or maximized damage output.
Abilities
Gravitic Burst (134 – 214 dmg)
Q -Launches Caldarius forward, dealing x damage on impact and pushing enemies back.
Gravitic Burst can be used to chase down enemies or to escape when you are low on health. You can also drift while in Gravitic Burst by moving your mouse.
Flashbang (134 – 214 dmg)
E – Fires a grenade that deals x damage and blinds enemies for 1s.
Flashbang is an extremely strong ability as it has moderate damage, big radius and also blinds enemies. Do note that your allies can block the flashbang and it also has a maximum range.
In PvE, blinding enemies also stuns them too. This makes flashbang such a powerful ability as you can go for easy critical shots while the enemies are blinded.
In PvP, enemy players will be blinded and this can be used to save you or your teammates’ life.
Aerial Assault (334 – 584 dmg)
Ultimate – Launches Caldarius into the air after 1s. Activating the skill again will land Caldarius at the targeted location, dealing x damage.
Aerial Assault does high damage and can be used to dive into a fight or to escape tight situations. Note that you are not invulnerable and you can still die while in Aerial Assault. You can also still move while in Aerial Assault. You will also instantly dive to where your cursor is pointing at if you stay in Aerial Assault for too long.
Gravitic Manipulators
Passive – Caldarius can activate his thrusters to jump a second time mid-air, in any direction.
If you are moving, jumping in midair will thrust you in the direction you are moving. This ability allows Caldarius to kite melee enemies and also dodge incoming projectiles.
If you are not moving, jumping in midair will allow Caldarius to perform a double jump. This ability allows Caldarius to jump up area where most characters cannot reach. This helps Caldarius escape easily as most characters would not be able to catch him if he jumps up a high area.
Caldarius’ Helix Tree
LEVEL 1
ENERGY CASCADE ✓✓✓
Activating Gravitic Burst instantly reloads Caldarius’ TMP.
OR
BLIND AND BLOODIED ✓
Enemies affected by Flashbang suffer bleed damage. +60 Damage over 2 seconds
You would want to go for ENERGY CASCADE almost every single time. Even though the TMP already has high reload speed, being able to instantly reload is still very useful. Being able to instantly reload the TMP also increases his overall burst damage as you can TMP > Gravitic Burst > TMP again instantly. The bleed damage from BLIND AND BLOODIED is too little and it won’t do much at all. The only time you would want take BLIND BLOODIED is if you are going for a melee build.
LEVEL 2
EXIT STRATEGY ✓✓
Caldarius launches into the air after striking an enemy with Gravitic Burst.
OR
ZEALOUS FRENZY ✓✓
Activating Gravitic Burst increases energy blade attack speed for a short time. +20% Attack Speed for 5 seconds
Both augments are fine to go with. EXIT STRATEGY can help you kite against sticky melee enemies like Rath and Phoebe. ZEALOUS FRENZY is a must to take if you are going with a melee build. If you don’t like how you launch into the air with EXIT STRATEGY, just go for ZEALOUS FRENZY instead.
LEVEL 3
AFTERBURNER ✓✓
Increases maximum sprint speed. +9% Sprint Speed
OR
OVERDRIVE ✓
Activating any skill increases movement speed for a short time. +30% Movement Speed over 2 seconds
You would want to go for AFTERBURNER almost every single time too. +9% Sprint Speed is a lot as most +Sprint Speed gear also give about +9% too. Stacking these two together, you would get ~ +18% Sprint Speed which is a hell lot. OVERDRIVE sounds good on paper as it gives you +30% Movement Speed. But having the bonus movement speed for only 2 seconds makes this augment useless. Your Gravitic Burst has a 18s cooldown while your Flashbang has a 24s cooldown. With only 2 seconds of additional movement speed about every 20s is just not worth it. Just go for AFTERBURNER instead.
LEVEL 4
FLASH BARRAGE ✓✓✓
Flashbang now fires three grenades that each deal 67 – 112 damage in rapid succession.
OR
FLASHMIRV ✗
Flashbang spawns 3 child grenades on impact.
FLASHMIRV is a horrible augment. The 3 child grenades has a very small blast radius and most enemy players would just run away if they get blinded. The grenades does very minimal damage to enemies too. FLASH BARRAGE however is an amazing augment. Activating Flashbang will allow you to shoot 3 flashbangs in rapid succession and each of the flashbangs deal 50% of the total Flashbang damage. So, if all 3 flashbangs hit (which is very easy), you would be doing 150% damage to an area.
LEVEL 5
GRAVITIC ASCENT ✓✓✓
Increase the height of Gravitic Manipulators’ second jump.
OR
IMPROVED THRUSTERS ✓✓✓
Increases the lateral thrust of Gravitic Manipulators’ second jump.
Both augments are incredibly good. GRAVITIC ASCENT increases your double jump height by 3 to 4 times and can allow you to reach very high areas. This can also be combo-ed with Aerial Assault and you would be able to ascend high up the map. IMPROVED THRUSTERS increases your thrusts length by 1.5 to 2 times and this can help you kite really well against melee enemies. You can also dodge enemy projectiles in PvE much easily and also go back to the battlefield much faster after you respawn. Overall, this just comes to personal choice on which augment you should pick.
LEVEL 6
KINETIC BURST ?
Increases Gravitic Burst’s push back effect.
OR
RAPID DOMINANCE ✓✓✓
Reduces Flashbang’s cooldown. -20% Cooldown Reduction
RAPID DOMINANCE reduces Flashbang’s cooldown by 20%, bringing it from 24s down to 19s. More Flashbangs so why the hell not. I don’t really notice any push back effect when using KINETIC BURST, I might need to test somemore before I update this part again.
LEVEL 7
ADAPTIVE HARMONICS ✓✓✓
Increases Caldarius’ Energy Blade attacks. +18% Damage
OR
MICROFUSION CELL ✓✓✓
Increases TMP’s magazine size. +8 Clip Size
Both augments are good too but it comes down to which build you are going for. If you are going for a melee build, go for ADAPTIVE HARMONICS. At level 10, your melee will deal 95 damage and this augment will bring it up to 113 damage. If you are going for a TMP build, go for MICROFUSION CELL. Having +8 Clip Size is really useful and can be paired with ENERGY CASCADE which instantly reloads your TMP. This means that you technically have 16 more bullets and can increase your overall burst damage even more.
LEVEL 8
GRAVITIC AMPLIFIERS ✓
Increases Gravitic Burst damage. +15% Damage
OR
GRAVITIC STABILIZERS ✓✓
Increases Gravitic Burst dash distance.
At level 10, your Gravitic Burst will deal 214 damage. So, with GRAVITIC AMPLIFIERS, you would deal 246 damage. I would pick this augment if it was given earlier. At level 8, a 30 damage increase for a skill isn’t much as 1 bullet of TMP at level 8 does 30 damage too. So, GRAVITIC STABILIZERS would be the better choice as the dash distance increase is also not that bad. The augment can help you escape from tight situations and also chase after low health enemy players much more easily.
LEVEL 9
PHASEBANG ✓
Flashbang grenades no longer collide with allies
OR
BRIGHTBLASTER ✓✓✓
Increases the radius of Flashbang‘s area of effect. +33% Area of Effect Radius
BRIGHTBLASTER increases your Flashbang’s area of effect by a significant amount. In PvP, you can clear minion waves much more efficiently in Incursion and Meltdown modes and you can also blind more enemy players in teamfights. In PvE, you can blind more enemies and this can help you defend better in horde mode maps. PHASEBANG is a mehhh. I never ran into any problems of my flashbang grenades being blocked by allies ever. If you have to blind an enemy that is chasing your teammate, the increased blast radius from BRIGHTBLASTER would still blind them and you won’t have to worry about not being able to save your ally because they blocked the flashbang grenade.
LEVEL 10
TUNED ACTUATION ✓✓
Aerial Assault now launches instantly. Reduces Aerial Assault cooldown. -20% Cooldown Reduction
OR
AERIAL BARRAGE ✓
Caldarius drops a fragmentation grenade that deals damage over time on Aerial Assault’s takeoff. 81 – 140 damage (scales to ~24% of Aerial Assault damage) over 2 seconds.
TUNED ACTUATION brings your Aerial Assault cooldown from 60s to 48s. More ultimate uses so why the hell not too. AERIAL BARRAGE is mehhh. Aerial Assault is used to dive into a teamfight so dropping grenades when you lift off isn’t really that useful. The damage it deals is not that much either so just go with TUNED ACTUATION instead.
Caldarius’ Advanced Helix
Advanced Helix are additonal helix that can be unlocked after reaching a respective character rank. These additional helix are a third option added to a pre-defined helix choice and there are 5 additional helix choices for every character.
Additional Helix unlock at character rank 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12.
Character Rank 3 (~105 XP), Level 9 Augment
RANGEFINDER ✗
Increases Flashbang’s maximum range. +60% Range
RANGEFINDER is useful for sniping down fleeing enemies but Caldarius already has so many ways to chase down low health enemies. Caldarius, being a close range character would not need increased range for the flashbang either. So this augment is not very useful compared to the other choices given in the Level 9 augments.
Character Rank 5 (~250 XP), Level 5 Augment
ENERGY TRANSFUSION ✓✓
A portion of damage dealt by Caldarius’ Energy Blade is returned as health. +15% Life Steal
At level 10, with ADAPTIVE HARMONICS (+18% melee damage), every melee hit will give you about 17 hp back. This is very useful in PvE if you are playing solo. But in PvP, 17hp for every melee hit isn’t a lot and enemy players can easily deal 17 damage to you. So, you would really only use this augment in PvE and it depends on whether you want more mobility or better sustain in the campaign missions.
Character Rank 7 (~470 XP), Level 6 Augment
GRAVITIC ANOMALY ✓✓
Gravitic Burst slows enemies on impact. +3 Seconds Slow Duration
GRAVITIC ANOMALY is not bad but RAPID DOMINANCE (-20% cd for Flashbang) dominates this augment.
Character Rank 9 (~775 XP), Level 4 Augment
CLUSTER BURST ✓
Flashbang fires three grenades simultaneously in a tight spiral pattern. +75% Damage, -66% Area of Effect Radius
CLUSTER BURST gives you so much more damage but reduces your utility by a great amount.
-66% blast radius causes you to blind lesser enemy players in teamfights and you would not be able to do much outside of 1v1 situations.
Character Rank 12 (~1455 XP), Level 10 Augment
GROUND ZEROED ✓
When Caldarius strikes the ground with Aerial Assault, nearby enemies are pushed back.
GROUND ZEROED can be used to de-initiate a teamfight. But if are breaking up a teamfight, you would want to be a tank which Caldarius is definitely not. So, I would not find this augment of any much use.
Caldarius Basics
– As Caldarius, you would want to be constantly moving. With your already high base movement speed, moving around will make it harder for enemies to hit you.
– Learn to utilise your passive to the max. Sidestep enemy projectiles with your thrusters by
A/D > Double Jump. Once their abilities are on cooldown, you will have an advantage if you try to fight them.
– Kiting melee enemies is important too. You can kite easily by S > Double Jump. By kiting melee enemies like Rath & Phoebe, you are avoiding as much damage as possible and also causing them to overextend. If they overextend too much, your team would be able to help you kill them. Remember that you can still shoot while kiting backwards so that the enemy might back off if your team doesn’t come in time.
– Caldarius’ double jump might be quite short but once you have the GRAVITIC ASCENT augment, you can jump 3 – 4 times the original height. This can help you chase enemies as you can take shortcuts with your jump or for you to jump back up cliffs in maps like Overgrowth. Double Jumping can also help you avoid damage from melee characters and you can also combo your GRAVITIC ASCENT double jump with Gravitic Burst to perform a quick escape.
– DO NOT use Flashbang to poke enemies. Flashbang does have decent damage but it is your most important ability. At 24s cooldown, you would be vulnerable without it avaible if an enemy catches you off (Ghalt & Shane hooks).
– You can clear Thrall Camps at Level 1 with your Flashbang solo. So, if your team is unable to push up your minion waves, you can use flashbang to kill the Thrall Camp quickly and this can help your team greatly as most characters are unable to kill the Bloodcrusher solo.
GB – Gravitic Burst
AA – Aerial Assault
FB – Flashbang
Max Burst – If Everything Hits
TMP COMBO : TMP > GB > FB > TMP (Max Burst : 2383)
MELEE COMBO : FB > GB > 10 Melee Hits (5s of Attack Speed Bonus) (Max Burst : 1665)
CHASE COMBO : AA > FB > TMP > GB (Max Burst : 2043)
Melee Build & Playstyle ( PvP & PvE )
In PvE, I recommend this build if you are playing with other players. In solo, you can die easily in boss fights as most of them have high damage in close ranges. Bosses can’t be affected by flashbang either so you are quite vulnerable in solo. In PvP, this build focuses on playing like an assassin (think zed from LoL but with a mech suit). You would be finding squishy enemies that are wandering around the map and killing them by doing your combo (you can see it above). For example, Marquis trying to backdoor your sentry, Orendi trying to fight thrall camps or supports breaking shards. Your burst damage is insanely high with this build but do note that you have ALOT of counters. Almost every single character has a crowd control ability or augment. If you are slowed, you are most likely going you die.
BLIND AND BLOODIED
I picked this augment as the build revolves around using his melee instead of his TMP. So ENERGY CASCADE won’t be needed at all and therefore I went with BLIND AND BLOODIED for that little bit of additional damage.
ZEALOUS FRENZY
+20% Attack Speed for melee for 5 sec after using Gravitic Burst. This is your steroid to shred down squishy enemies faster.
AFTERBURNER
+9% Sprint Speed to get close to enemies faster, self explanatory.
FLASH BARRAGE or CLUSTER BURST
I would recommend using FLASH BARRAGE but if the enemy team has characters that has low mobility (e.g Thorn, Whiskey Foxtrot), I would recommend using CLUSTER BURST as it is harder for them to dodge the flash bangs.
ENERGY TRANSFUSION or IMPROVED THRUSTERS
Take ENERGY TRANSFUSION in PvE for additional sustain.
Take IMPROVED THRUSTERS in PvP to get to enemies faster
RAPID DOMINANCE
Explained in Helix Tree section.
ADAPTIVE HARMONICS
At level 10, this brings your melee damage from 95 to 113 damage. Must take!
GRAVITIC STABILIZERS
Dash to melee range of enemies, self explanatory too.
BRIGHTBLASTER
Explained in Helix Tree section. You would be going solo all the time too so you won’t need to worry about having your flashbang be blocked by allies.
TUNED ACTUATION
Explained in Helix Tree section.
BLADE OF TRANSFUSION (Lore Reward)
Attack Speed which is important for your melee attack. Aerial Assault would also heal you and this increases your 1v1 potential as an assassin.
+ Attack Damage Gear
More damage for your melee attacks.
+ Movement Speed/Sprint Speed Gear
Rush to enemies faster.
+ Shield Capacity
As shields should be seen as your health bar instead, adding more shield capacity can increase your diving potential if you are trying to kill an enemy that is runnign away.
In PvE you would want to use your TMP until you reach Level 5 where you unlock your lifesteal augment. You can start taking down big enemies like Thrall Brutes on your own with your Flashbang > Gravitic Burst > Melee Attack combo once you hit Level 5. Try to avoid big groups of enemies at once as you can get cornered and die easily.
In PvP, this build can be countered by any forms of slows. Try to avoid any enemies with hard cc such as Kelvin or Cold Build Montana. Like in the PvE build, you would want to use your TMP to get some minions so you can get to Level 4 quickly where you unlock your Flashbang upgrade so you can start soloing squishy enemy players. Try to help in early teamfights with your Flashbang to get some free assist xp but remember to not dive in unless you can get a kill for sure as you can die easily early game. You can also deny enemy shards with no problem as you have high escape if you get caught. Most players from what I observed don’t pay attention to the minimap very well either so you should be able to steal enemy shards easily. Once you have your gear unlocked, you can start picking off enemy squishies so your team can push their sentry/minions or capture points easily. In teamfights, play as a clean up, dive in with your aerial assault when enemies are about 60 – 70% health or if their shields are down. Your Aerial Assault at Level 10 can deal 30 – 40% of enemies health with no problem if their shields are down. If your teammates are losing the teamfight, try to use your Flashbang to support your team. Remember! Do not idle in a teamfight and watch your teammates do all the work just because you have lesser than 50% hp. Flashbangs have good enough range and you can provide some CC from mid ranges.
PvE Build & Playstyle [WIP]
This is my go to build for story mode and I’ve ran this build for all story episodes on advanced with no problems at all.
ENERGY CASCADE
EXIT STRATEGY
AFTERBURNER
FLASH BARRAGE or CLUSTER BURST
IMPROVED THRUSTERS or GRAVITIC ASCENT
MICROFUSION CELL
GRAVITIC AMPLIFIERS
BRIGHTBLASTER
TUNED ACTUATION
Thank You!
Thank you for reading my guide on Caldarius! I’m planning on making a guide for Galilea, Reyna, Kelvin, Marquis and Deande. (all my favourite Battleborns) Also, I’m currently making a list of Legendary Gear in the game with help from this website[battlebornforum.com].
If you guys found this guide helpful, comment what other battleborn guides I should make.
If you disliked the guide, do give feedback for me to improve!