Overview
A guide for playing as Oscar Mike for new and experienced players alike.
Read this first!
I haven’t played Battleborn in ages and this guide is officially outdated. I have no intention to update it except if I, for some unfathomable reason, return to Battleborn.
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to Ivan’s Guide to Oscar Mike. In this guide I will cover the skills and abilities of Oscar Mike, show you how I set him up, and give some general tips and tricks for him.
Oscar Mike is one of the most versatile and easy to play characters in the game. He can push with the team, clear minion waves in Meltdown and Incursion and do considerable damage at range to enemy players with his assault rifle. Anyone who has played first person shooters will feel right at home at Oscar Mike.
Author’s note
This guide is for the classic Oscar Mike build rather than an in-depth analysis of every single skill and gear choice for him. It should also be noted that this guide is primarily for Incursion, although it works for both PvE and Meltdown as well.
Should you manage to get a Capture match I’d recommend another hero entirely as Oscar Mike is rubbish at 1v1 engagements.
Traits and skills
A discarded clone soldier from a long-forgotten war, Oscar Mike is a capable front-line fighter, engaging enemies at range with his assault rifle, cloaking for quick exits from tight spots, and inspiring his allies with his… unconventional personality.
Tags:
- Versatile
- Pusher
- Easy
Passive:
Tactical Rounds: The first 15 rounds of each Assault Rifle magazine deal 50% additional damage.
Basic information at level 1
Health: 1091
Shields: 300
Weapon:
UPR-AR7 Assault Rifle: The core of Oscar Mike’s combat effectiveness is his Assault Rifle and its many available upgrades.
Talent:
UPR-RDC Combat Armour: Oscar Mike’s standard issue Combat Armour can be enchanced to increase survivability.
Skill 1 (Q):
Stealth Generator: Activate a cloaking device obscuring Oscar Mike from view and radar detection for 9 seconds. Attacking or using a skill cancels the effect.
This skill is highly useful for getting out of dodge as the enemy will not only have a harder time hitting you, but with the relevant upgrades you either move faster or can have your shields back almost instantly.
Skill 2 (E):
Frag Grenade: Launch a grenade that explodes 3 seconds after launch or 1 second after impact, dealing up to 200 damage to each enemy within its blast radius.
This skill will be your bread and butter. With the level two napalm upgrade, it becomes one of the best minion wave clearers in the game and it is also excellent for finishing off fleeing enemy battleborn if the need arises.
Ultimate (F):
Airstrike: Target an area to strike with 13 laser-guided missiles, each of which explodes dealing 250 damage to nearby enemies.
Oscar Mike’s ultimate is a wide area-of-effect airstrike which can absolutely decimate a low-health cluster of enemies, a group of MX Elite Bots and thralls or an enemy sentry. With the relevant upgrade it becomes the ultimate sentry buster.
Helix choices and why
In this section I will go over which helixes you should pick and why, with highlighted helixes being my personal recommendations.
Opinion: The bread and butter of your PvP and PvE combat effectiveness, you want your frag grenades to be as devastating as possible. Making them explode on impact guarantees that as long as your aim is good, you will hit whatever you’re aiming at.
Opinion: Napalm; the smell of victory. This will make your minion-clearing career much easier and can also be devastating towards enemy players if they are on sufficiently low health. Nades on Nades is practically useless as hitting with all grenades does less damage than a single napalm grenade.
Opinion: This one is up to personal preference. I prefer the scope as it provides a clear and unobstructed view of the enemy at mid range, but others prefer the increased ADS movement speed of the red dot. If you are new to the game, pick the red dot sight for the lore challenge!
Opinion: Whilst instant shield regen sounds good on paper, it comes with two issues. Firstly, it can be interrupted by any damage inflicted by the enemy. Secondly, until level 6 your shield regen is abysmal. Pick Tactical Espionage Action as it allows you to outrun anything on the battlefield, even if they can see the shimmer of your cloak.
Opinion: Whilst extra critical damage and shield pen sound nice on paper, the increased consistent damage from Doubletap trumps them both. You will take shields down like no tomorrow and still have tactical rounds to spare, dealing tremendous health damage to the enemy.
Opinion: Since we are building our Mike for mid-range combat, the extra range you get from Far-Flung Frags is superflous. Go for the quick-regen shields as this allows you to re-enter combat much sooner.
Opinion: High-Velocity Ammo is the clear winner here as it is non-situation extra damage. However, in lieu of this mutation, pick Agility Training since combined with the speed boost from your stealth it will make you even faster.
Opinion: This is again up to personal preference. Some prefer the extra damage of Concentrated Frags; I, however, find the sacrifice in radius to be a handicap when dealing with minion waves. I recommend Embiggened Boom as the longer time your enemy stays in your napalm, the more damage it does to them.
Opinion: The ability to turn invisible for extended periods of time allows you to do three things. It allows you to run farther with your stealth speed boost, and it allows you to not only disengage from enemy but also teleport back to base whilst cloaked. Finally, it can be a game changer as you can sneak past the enemy in Incursion and backdoor their sentry, giving your team that slight points advantage. That being said, the ability to stay invisible whilst dropping an airstrike on the enemy sentry in Incursion can buy your team that slight points advantage and further keep its shields down.
Opinion: This is a situational ultimate upgrade. If your team has the enemy pushed back to the enemy sentry, go for the space laser as it is the ultimate sentry buster. I have taken the health of unshielded sentries down by 28 points with a single space laser.
However, if your team is not at the enemy sentry or you are playing Meltdown, go for the concussion strike as it stuns your enemy, allowing them to be hit by more bombs and your napalm. Just never go for Danger Close as it is completely useless.
Pros and cons
In this section I will cover the pros and cons of Oscar Mike.
Pros and cons
- Pros:
- Good ranged damage.
- Easy to play.
- Available from command rank 1.
- Minion, thrall and elite bot clearing.
- Sentry busting.
- Flanking
- Cons:
- No health regen.
- Terrible melee.
- Bad in 1v1 combat, especially against melee characters.
- Team-reliant.
Levelling
Levelling
Level 2: Congratulations, you got your napalm! Your job remains the same, for now, but your minion-clearing job just got a lot easier. You can also shoot napalm unto capture points to deny the enemy them until your team can get there.
Level 5: You just got yourself an airstrike; sweet! The airstrike is perfect if you manage to successfully backdoor an enemy sentry in Incursion, and can turn the tide in favour of your team.
Level 10: Congratulations, you made it to level 10! Your ultimate upgrade depends on how well your team is doing. If you are pushing at the sentry in Incursion, go for the space laser. If you are playing Meltdown or your team has stalemated against the enemy, go for the concussive strike.
Gameplay
Your job as Oscar Mike is to clear minion waves, destroy buildables and kill low-health players last. Play as a team support character! You cannot 1v1 enemy battleborn until your higher levels, but as long as you clear minions you should reach those high levels relatively quickly.
To summarise:
- Kill minions
- Destroy buildables
- (Incursion-only) Kill the sentries
- Kill enemy players
- Did I mention destroy minions?
- Destroy more minions. Never hurts.
Always stick with your team! I cannot stress the importance of teamwork enough; it gives the enemy something else to shoot at, and this is especially true for Oscar Mike. You can only deal consistent damage to the enemy if you are uninterrupted whilst doing so. Your terrible 1v1 potential also means that should you be caught alone by a Pendles or Rath, your only option is to cloak and run away.
Remember that Oscar Mike is an excellent flanker with his cloak. He can backdoor the sentry with his powerful ranged attack and airstrikes. Taking down buildables is another specialty of Oscar Mike. His assault rifle can burst them down or he can fire off a napalm grenade and burn that pesky turret down.
And remember, if you can’t win a fight, then there is no shame in cloaking and fleeing like a champion trackstar!
Gear recommendation
Gear 1:
Mini-Singularity Launcher: The Mini-Singularity Launcher’s legendary effect slows enemies whom Oscar Mike hits, something which the Assault Rifle is excellent at. You just need to hit them once and the target becomes an easy target for the rest of the team. The added health regeneration is just icing on the cake. Available from The Varelsi Maligner on Mission 7, The Saboteur.
Alternatives: Eldrid Stalker Rounds
“Alamo-7” Armour
Vyn’s Quiver.
Gear 2:
Tactical Accelerator: The Tactical Accelerator is another excellent choice as it not only reduces the cooldown on Oscar Mike’s bread-and-butter-ability, the Frag Grenade; it also further reduces the reload speed on his Assault Rifle, and to top it off, gives him a speed boost whilst Stealth Generator is on cooldown; useful for getting into the fight again after respawning. Available by completeting Oscar Mike’s lore challenges.
Alternatives: Anything that reduces cooldown time.
Veil-Breaker Rounds.
Gear 3:
“Easy Money”: Or any shard generator, really. As the other items are very expensive, you will need a lot of shards to activate them. Any shard generator will do, especially zero-cost shard generators.
Alternatives: Any shard generator.
Credits
A big thank you to everyone who has helped proof-read and encourage me to write what is my first guide on Steam.
My thanks go to TheScottishGuy, Näfty, High Lord Bunny, SadELight. ThatLastRock, llıllıプリニーıllıll (Dave/Prinny), Nobgul, -AG- psycopath13 and the Unofficial Reddit Battleborn Discord for proof-reading, encouraging me and generally being awesome people to play with.
Stay cheeki-breeki!
