Rarran's Junkyard Lance Pygmalien Build (Rare Pivot)

Turning Trash Into Treasure

Junkyard Lance is a very unique Weapon. It’s a Large Weapon with a long Cooldown, but its Damage scaling is based on the amount of Small items you have. Interestingly, this actually includes the items in your Stash, which shifts the dynamic of inventory management throughout your run.

When playing this build, you’ll need to be mindful of how you buy and sell items. Whenever you defeat a PvE Encounter, you may be forced to sell some Small items in exchange for their Medium or Large item drop. Doing this will temporarily lower your Damage, meaning you will have to find 2-3 more Small items to replace the ones you sold off.

At Bronze, the Junkyard Lance begins with 15 Damage per Small item, but eventually scales to 100 Damage at Diamond tier. Between your Stash and board you can have a maximum of 17 Small items, capping the Junkyard Lance at 1700 base Damage.

While it’s nothing crazy, it’s still a respectable amount of power for a rather simple investment. After all, the actual items in your Stash can be anything so long as they are Small.

Rarran was able to get a Radiant enchant (Cannot be Frozen, Slowed, or Destroyed) for his Junkyard Lance. This is always a priority enchant for any one-Weapon build, so be sure to grab it if you get the chance.

Junkyard Lance

All of that said, in order to play a Junkyard Lance build, you’ll have to find one first. This item isn’t part of Pygmalien’s item pool, nor any hero’s pool for that matter. It’s a Monster item.

The easiest and earliest way to acquire one is by visiting The Curio. The assortment of junk items you can find is pretty wide, but since Curio stocks a full board, it’s worth the reroll if you’re set on playing the build.

Alternatively if you’re lucky, you can pick up a Diamond Junkyard Lance from the Trash Titan PvE Encounter.

The Curio

Since Junkyard Lance’s Damage scaling has a hard cap due to space, you’re going to want another way to boost its power. While 1700 Damage is nothing to scoff at, you’ll often need to hit much higher thresholds during the later days.

Spices allows the build to double its Damage after a single use, making it much stronger. But if you happen to load it with more Ammo via Gunpowder, the Junkyard Lance will be hitting ridiculous numbers. 

Spices

Gunpowder

Due to the unique scaling properties of Junkyard Lance, the remainder of the build is actually pretty flexible. So long as you’re maxing out on Small items, the actual specific items aren’t super important.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want low Cooldown utility items, ideally ones that accelerate you or hinder the enemy. Don’t forget, Junkyard Lance does have a long Cooldown. So look for ways to mitigate this the best you can.

The Speed Control Package

Of these items, Marbles is the only one you will reliably find. It’s a great source of Slow when positioned between low Cooldown items.

Rarran happened to find both Heavy Bandages and a Turbo Matchbox. This added even more Slow, also with a short Cooldown, plus gave the build some much needed Haste.

While your mileage will certainly vary, be on the lookout for the Diamond tier Haste and Slow vendors. You may just find some hidden gems!

Marbles

Heavy Bandages

Turbo Matchbox

Freeze Package and The Bird

These last few items are all pretty replaceable. Icicle offers a nice on-start interaction but nothing further. Coolant can Freeze but is quite slow without reliable Haste support. As for everyone’s favorite Uwashiwali Bird? It’s honestly just low Cooldown filler, because it’s not getting Multicast from anything in this build.

It’s really all about hitting with the Junkyard Lance, so just make the most of whatever you find. It IS a trash build after all!

Icicle

Coolant

Uwashiwali Bird

For skills, Lifting fits the junk game plan pretty well. Since you will be continuously looking for Small items, it’s pretty easy to buy and sell cheap Weapons in the meantime.

It’s not a ton of Damage in the late game, but it can give a nice boost in the early game if you decide to run other Weapons.

Lifting

Aside from Spices, Quality over Quantity is the other big reason why this build ends up with just one Weapon. The Lifesteal adds some much needed healing to a build that takes a while to get up and running.

Quality over Quantity

If you’re lucky enough to have it drop from the Trash Titan PvE Encounter, Juggle is a phenomenal skill for this build. It’s certainly no surprise, because the Trash Titan wields the Junkyard Lance itself.

This is a huge power spike to the build if you can get it, allowing you to accelerate way faster than the support your Small items can normally provide.

Juggler