My clan broke up and I have seen a lot of players leave the game since the 2.0 update. Conversely, I have seen more new players than ever before. Here’s what I think is going on.
There are two types of Crossout player. The first likes to build and experiment with various builds. We can call these sorts the crafters. The second like the PVP aspects of the game the most. We can call them the riders or the destroyers.
When there are major changes, it hurts whoever has a change that doesn’t break in his favor. The crafters always stay even if they are upset because the game is unique. The ride and destroyers will leave the game if they don’t like the feel of it or they are losing too much.
The people I have seen leave are either inflexible in how they play, or they feel their entire inventory has been nerfed to irrelevancy.
The 2.0 update has fast hovers so heavily favored it narrows down what is useful in the game.
To have a fast hover, you need the following:
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power fused Beholder/Kami/Hadron/Griffon cab
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-Mass Apollo
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8 Icarus VII fused for hover efficiency or - power penalty
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Onamori
This is the meta build, and then only certain guns work on this build.
You must either have Punishers/Breakers/Arbiters/Aspects/Destructors/Waltz or Helios with Punishers being the clear best of the lot.
There isn’t much to counter this. Flash/Firebug builds certainly don’t. While firedogs can engage a hover 1 v. 1 as long as the Flash isn’t shot off and they drive well, the hovers look out for each other, and shoot the firedog in the rear while it is engaging others.
Reapers do well against this, as reapers can be bunkered into builds, and can push hovers with the extreme impulse. Finally, Mastodons on hovers do well, as they have a huge blast radius and can take multiple hovers in one shot.
Kaiju does well against this, as it can take multiple hovers in one shot and can out range Punisher and Arbiter builds
My best counter for hovers is a Nova Icarus IV triple fused Cylone build. This build has much more bulk, DPS, gun durability and range than Arbiter and Punisher builds. I find that when I play this, I control the lanes of fire and can work with Scorpions or Kaijus to break down a machine gun team.
My other counter is to join the fast hover hitscan game. I play triple Destructor with Onamori on Beholder cab. It is extremely effective.
The problem with the game right now, is it is like the Typhoon hover meta of 2019. All relics besides Punisher are mostly useless.
My relics: Porcupine, Firebug, Flash, all useless
Ripper: Useless and only good against ground builds that are also useless
Jormungandr: Useless
Typhoon, Breaker, Mastodon: Mediocre
Scorpion: Above average but not nearly as good as Punishers or Arbiters
Balance the relics and the players will come back.