U34 M1000 (M1K) Builds

Overview

Updated M1K builds with buffs and changes.

Intro

Hey there. You may know me as “M1K Builder” ZnC on the DRG Discord.[discord.com] I’ve spent quite a bit of time studying and testing M1K builds, trying to perfect each one. One thing to keep in mind when using this guide: I have a bias toward certain playstyles and encourage readers to build for their own. I won’t be covering basic stuff like what individual mods do, you can find that info in many places (i.e. in-game, other guides, wikia).

tl;dr – If you wish to check out new builds specific to U34, I highly recommend taking a look at “Armor Break Blowthru (ABBT)” and “AB Hipster“. They use Armor Break (which was moved to T2) to hit breakpoints, in combination with T4 Blowthrough to clear waves.

The way the guide’s written, I present a list of my preferred builds and suggestions on how to tweak them. They are based on Haz 4/5 enemy health, since M1K breakpoints are designed around them. “Classic / base builds” all work without OCs, but can also work with many OCs and be as effective. Builds tagged as [Sub] are sub-builds – notable variants of base builds. I won’t go into detail for every OC as it would be needlessly long. As always my advice is try them yourself and tweak them.

With every build I will give brief explanations / analysis, common variants, and my rating based on the following:

• Versatility
  Effectiveness against different enemies. Breakpoints. Accuracy. Range. Blowthru. AB.
• Speed
  Efficiency at taking out enemies. Overall / Burst DPS. Clip size. Reload speed. Focus speed.
• Ammo Efficiency
  Ammo consumption & reserve. Accuracy. Breakpoints. Raw / Bonus Damage. Armor Break.
• (Utility)
  Not rated, but significant to note. QoL. Synergy.
• Rating
  Final grading based on my overall (subjective) assessment of the build. Base builds are rated without OCs.

Remember – builds can be very subjective. To enjoy the game best, I recommend building to optimize for your playstyle, which is likely different from mine and can even change over time. Builds that are not in my list or I don’t rate highly can be just as effective in the right hands. Feel free to use these builds as a starting point and tweak them to your liking.

Terminology

Breakpoint: Specific number of shots to kill an enemy
DPS: Damage Per Second (or general damage output)
Hip-fire: Shooting without focusing
Spitter: Web / Acid Spitter (not Spitballer)
Waveclear: Effectiveness against enemy waves (typically groups of grunts)
1-focus: Single focus shot to kill

AB: Armor Break
BT: Blowthrough / Penetration
HVTs: High Value Targets, often including tanks (i.e. Praetorian, Oppressor)
M1K: M1000 Classic
T1-5: Tier 1-5 Mod Upgrade (e.g. T4 WP = Tier 4 Hollow-Point Bullets)
WP: Weakpoint

MinClips: Minimal Clips
ASS (AS): Active Stability System
EFS: Electrocuting Focus Shots
SCC: Supercooling Chamber
Hover: Hoverclock
Hipster: Hipster

== Hip-fire ==

Base 222X1 – “Classic Hip-fire”

• Classic hip-fire build that takes T1 Damage for breakpoints and T2 Recoil for accuracy.
• High damage output, accurate and easy to handle, but very limited in ammo.
• Both T4 options are equally viable, depending on whether you want waveclear (Blowthrough) or anti-HVT (Hollow-Point).

• MinClips
• Hipster
• ASS
• EFS
• Hoverclock

• T1 Ammo helps with low ammo reserve, but increases breakpoints for many enemies.
• T5 Killing Machine generally not as useful as Stun, but is a good option for Hipster.

Versatility: 5 / 5
Speed: 5 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 1 / 5
RATING: A

Hipster 23213 – “AB Hipster”

• T1 Damage + T2 Armor Break lets you hit 48 damage effectively, giving it similar breakpoints as pre-U34 Minimal Clip builds.
• Inconsistent accuracy / bullet spread at range which Hipster helps mitigate slightly.
• Hipster also cuts Recoil by 50% making handling better than base but still worse without T2 Recoil.
• Armor Break is great against Guards / Brundles / Shellbacks which Scout struggles against.

• T4 Weakpoint lets you 1-shot Grunts in the face and gives more DPS against HVTs. However, on H4+ it’s very common to have a large amount of enemies / Grunts where Blowthrough can be invaluable.
• T2 Recoil is an option if you find recoil hard to handle, but you lose important breakpoints.
• T5 Stun is a solid option over Killing Machine, but is more situational as you shouldn’t be focusing as much.
• T1 Ammo is an option if you find yourself running dry often. Though it will take one more shot for many special enemies like Spitters and Macteras. Naturally, your DPS will also suffer against HVTs and tanks.
• T3 Focus Damage lets you 1-focus Grunts. However, simply hitting a breakpoint does not make it a good build. While it maximizes your ammo efficiency, this option has low damage, low clip size, low focus speed, and extremely low DPS.

Versatility: 4 / 5
Speed: 3 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 4 / 5
RATING: A

[Sub] MinClips 22211 – “MC Hip-fire”

• A variant of “Classic Hip-fire” that I’ve used for a long time.
• Similar to base build but taking MinClips for Clip Size.
• MinClips was changed from +16 Ammo to +4 Clip Size, a net loss of 12 ammo.
• Better DPS / waveclear potential with 4 extra shots.

== Focus ==

Base 21121 – “Classic HVT Sniper”

• This is the build if you want to focus solely on sniping HVTs.
• Maximizes Focus Shot speed and damage.
• T5 Stun is very useful against dodgy and threatening enemies such as Acid Spitters, Wardens, Macteras, and Menaces.
• Notably, MinClips is now an option for larger clip size.

• ASS
• MinClips
• SCC
• Hoverclock

• T3 Clip Size lets you fire more before reloading, increasing overall DPS but lowering burst.
• T4 Blowthrough gives you waveclear potential at the cost of HVT DPS.
• T5 Precision Terror gives AoE CC to relieve some pressure off yourself or your team.
• T1 Ammo loses a lot of breakpoints, but is useful for SCC builds.
• T2 Armor Break lets you 1-focus Acid Spitters, at the cost of focus speed.

Versatility: 2 / 5
Speed: 4 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 3 / 5
RATING: B

== Hybrid ==

Base 13211 – “Armor Break Blowthru (ABBT)”

• Very versatile – effective against every enemy in the game apart from Swarmers / Shockers.
• T2 Armor Break helps hit many breakpoints, letting you take T1 Ammo for ammo efficiency.
• Not having T2 Recoil makes hip-fire less accurate, emphasizing Focus Shot use.

• T1 Damage improves Hipster breakpoints.

• ASS
• MinClips
• Hipster
• SCC

Versatility: 4 / 5
Speed: 4 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 4 / 5
RATING: A

EFS 21211 – “Fast EFS”

• Classic Electrocuting Focus Shots build taking T2 Focus Speed to quickly land EFS, while also being able to hip-fire effectively.
• EFS helps with many breakpoints (most notably Grunts) which improves ammo efficiency.
• Now kills Grunts in 2-ticks (instead of 3) for T1 Ammo builds.
• Blowthrough lets you 1-focus clumps of Grunts.
• Synergy with Zhukov’s T5 Conductive Bullets.

• T1 Ammo is a solid option as it helps with limited ammo, although it loses some breakpoints and DPS.
• T2 Recoil makes the weapon a lot more accurate and easier to handle at the cost of slower EFS. This is slightly better in U34, since some of the focus speed from the T2 mod was moved to the base weapon.
• T5 Precision Terror is also an option for AoE CC.

Versatility: 3 / 5
Speed: 3 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 3 / 5
Utility: ++
RATING: B

[Sub] ASS 22211 – “ASS Hybrid”

• A variant of “Classic Hip-fire” that uses ASS for quicker focus shots.
• Lets you react faster to Acid Spitters, Menaces, and Macteras.
• Focus shots have less Recoil, no Bullet Spread and can Stun enemies.
• Although slower than hip-fire upfront, in some situations it is better to have one accurate, damaging shot (e.g. distant enemies, pin-point Weakpoints – Menace, Warden).

• T1 Ammo gives a lot of value as usual, but notably Web Spitters take 1 more bodyshot.
• T2 Armor Break is usually taken with T1 Ammo and changes the whole build so I won’t go into that.
• T4 Weakpoint for HVT focus instead of waveclear.
• T5 Precision Terror an option for AoE CC.

Versatility: 5 / 5
Speed: 5 / 5
Ammo Efficiency: 2 / 5
RATING: S

== Bonus: Build Your Own M1K ==

You can use [link] for this.

• Do you mainly hip-fire or focus?
• Do you want to specialize in taking out HVTs, or want waveclear potential?
• Do you mind using your secondary to help with ammo consumption?
• Do you want to take out Web Spitters in 1-bodyshot?
• Do you want QoL / utility?

Tier 3 – Playstyle: +8 Clip Size | +25% Focus Damage

• Clip Size is the choice for players that mainly hip-fire.
• Focus Damage is for focus builds. They can also go with clip size to reload less often, however will often want a breakpoint / DPS option (e.g. T1 Damage, T2 Armor Break).

Tier 4 – Specialization: +20% Weakpoint Damage | +3 Penetration

• Weakpoint if you intend on focusing HVTs and letting your team waveclear for you.
• Blowthrough (penetration) lets you fire at groups of enemies (i.e. grunts) efficiently. It also helps you hit your target when enemies (or your mates) gets in the way.

Tier 5 – Special: Stun | Precision Terror | Killing Machine

• Stun is invaluable for its ability to stop HVTs – Warden, Menace, Acid Spitter etc.
• Precision Terror gives some AoE CC for focus builds.
• Killing Machine is a nice QoL if you plan to never focus (e.g. Hipster).

Looking at the chart, we can see taking either T1 Damage or T2 AB helps with many enemies.

Tier 1 – Efficiency: +40 Ammo | +10 Damage

• Ammo is a solid option if you plan to fire a lot.
• Damage affects a lot of breakpoints, and is great for DPS-ing HVTs.
• Focus builds are naturally ammo efficient and tend to pick Damage.
• Hip-fire builds that take Damage often needs to manage ammo by using secondary weapons.

Tier 2 – Handling: Focus Speed | Recoil | Armor Break

• Focus Speed is only taken by focus / EFS builds.
• Recoil makes hip-fire a lot more accurate and controllable.
• Armor Break helps with breakpoints and makes you effective against armor. Consider taking this (regardless of hip-fire or focus) if you went with T1 Ammo.

== U34.5 Balance Suggestions ==

This will allow it to 2-bodyshot Grunts, while affecting few other breakpoints. A fair trade-off for not taking T1 Ammo (+36% Ammo is a lot). In comparison, T2 Armor Break by itself lets you 2-bodyshot Grunts and makes you very effective against armored enemies.

This mod struggles to compete in value with T2 Armor Break even on focus builds. ASS in comparison adds 20% Focus Speed with removed movement penalty. Focus is naturally slower than hip-fire, so this mod can benefit focus playstyles a lot.

Currently, this effectively adds 12.5% damage to focus shots, which pales in comparison to T3 Clip Size (75% increase). Although this hits a few breakpoints for some builds, it has had low value and is now power crept by U34 changes. Bringing it up to 50% will at least allow it to 1-bodyshot Grunts without T1 Damage or T2 Armor Break.

This will add two more shots for builds that take T3 Focus Speed, making it viable for focus builds. Currently it is mostly used for T3 Clip Size builds (that tends to hip-fire).

SCC forces you to focus shot, but punishes you heavily for it. Taking T2 Focus Speed partially negates this drawback, but since SCC’s penalty is multiplicative, it is much less effective.