The Bazaar Meta Builds (Patch 0.1.4)

Charge Items Are Everywhere

Patch 0.1.4 has fundamentally changed many mechanics of the game. Most notably the new consistent structure of level-up rewards redefines how we can plan and adapt during our runs.

There was a lot less emphasis on upgrades during the last patch, as most item power came from scaling. Either you earned enough loot items to stack them well beyond their base Diamond forms, or your other items/skills did all the work for you.

Continuing from the previous patch, we've seen even more items given Charge mechanics. Many of them have even been adjusted so that the amount of seconds they Charge improves at higher tiers.

Now with these changes, a lot of the power has been put back into upgrades. And with the new predetermined upgrades via level-up, we'll have to be mindful about which items to prioritize.

Overall this has resulted in a massive buff to Charge items, which have now become the foundation of most builds this patch. Their speed and consistency is hard to match, and are certain to be the forefront of the meta until big changes occur.

Skills and Enchants

The majority of skill vendors have been stripped from events and are now restricted as level-up rewards. Aside from the regular skill vendor and Grandmaster (which now only offers skill upgrades), every other specialized skill vendor can't be outside of level-ups.

Those that do exist are much more expensive, as skills costs have been increased to 5/10/20/40 gold depending on their rarity tier. However, those acquired via level-up are free.

Additionally, we now have the option to re-roll (at a bit higher cost) every one of these specialty skill vendors. This means it's much easier to find the specific skills you're after.

Instead of desperately scouring the late game in hopes of getting needed skills, we now have a pretty reliable baseline to at least get a handful of the ones we want.

As for enchants, now that they are readily accessible at level 10, builds can more consistently reach their power spike. The Shielded and Restorative enchants are so much stronger now that they can match the Damage/Shield/Heal properties of the item. So the odds of getting a relevant enchantment for your build is significantly higher.

Thankfully alongside more accessible enchants we've been given more counter-play to the most dangerous of them all; Freeze. Rapid Thaw is now a generic skill available as early as Silver tier, and even that reduces Freezes by two seconds. Considering how many Charge items exist in this patch, this is a necessary and welcome addition.

Meta Shifts

Augmented Weaponry, while not directly nerfed, is going to be far less impactful than last patch. The PvE Encounter has been shifted days later, so players can no longer high roll and fully invest into the skill from Day 2.

Burn/Poison builds have taken a huge step down from their previously meta-defining position. Loot items are nowhere near as prevalent as before and are offered at much lower scaling values. Perhaps even more importantly, the nerfs to Gamma Ray and Omega Ray greatly reduce how quickly they can scale.

Monitor Lizard has finally been gutted compared to its previously broken iteration. Although that's not to say it's unplayable, in fact, far from it. If you're a fan of scaling Poison to ridiculous levels, then you'll be happy to know Monitor Lizard can still do that. The difference is it takes more than three seconds now, but that's perfectly reasonable.

As for what's actually doing well in the new patch, again to no surprise, it's all of the Charge builds.

Fort is likely at the top as it inherently counters all of the other Charge builds. Plus, all of its key components are very easy to come by compared to other builds that may struggle to acquire some of their items.

Other Charge builds such as Turtle Shell are powerful as well, but don't have the innate Cooldown disruption that Fort offers. Though you really can't go wrong with Charge stacking, as enchants and skills can take them to crazy power levels.

Keep an eye out for Proboscis. As a relatively common neutral item available through Curio or PvE Encounters, it's also been buffed with the new Charge mechanics. Upgrade it to Diamond tier and give it the Heavy enchant to create an infinite looping menace.

Outside of Charge spam, the best contenders are the ever-popular single-Weapon Silencer builds. These builds received a massive buff with the game's most powerful reworked skill, Shield Bash. This allows even the slower Weapons to act almost immediately, especially when the meta is repeatedly spamming infinite loops.

These builds are heavy hitters and can often burst down their enemy in seconds, well before the infinite Shield scaling gets out of hand. And since enchants are available sooner, that Weapon is often made Radiant, meaning there's not a lot you can do to stop it.

All of that said, we're still early into the patch, so it's possible we'll see new developments in time. There's a lot of busted shenanigans you can pull off, so be sure to experiment and see where The Bazaar takes you!

Vanessa is back, and now with more variety from just the Trebuchet and single-Weapon builds of last patch (though they are still just as strong, if not stronger).

A ton of her items have been updated with scaling Charge effects, some of which have shifted from passive to active items. Aquatic items have seen the most improvements, opening up a lot of potential with items like Pearl and Turtle Shell.

Pufferfish is now renabled as well, albeit takes a bit of work to make useful. We can no longer rely on endless Extracts to scale a Bronze Pufferfish to broken levels, and instead have to prioritize upgrades in order to maximize its Charging rate.

One archetype that took a big hit was Vanessa's multi-Weapon builds that utilized Augmented Weaponry. The new level-up changes no longer give Vanessa the option to scale Damage to all her Weapons at the cost of Max Health. Combined with the fact that Augmented Weaponry comes much later gives few incentives to invest in multiple Weapons (outside of Trebuchet).

Pygmalien is in a much better place this patch. Poison/Burn builds are no longer running rampant and have been greatly tuned down from last patch (Pufferfish, Monitor Lizard, Gamma Ray, and Omega Ray). The nerfs combined with the changes to Heal/Shield enchants have revived defensive builds, creating more viable options.

Additionally, like Vanessa, Pygmalien also received a number of scaling Charge effects. This has turned many decent items into phenomenal items, and it's likely this will influence a lot of builds going forward.

If you remember the days of pre-nerf Uwashiwali Bird + Yo-Yo, I expect we'll see similar results with all these new Charge items, if not to an even more polarizing extent. Matchbox is now a ridiculous item that will likely find its way into most builds.

While Monitor Lizard and the Rays (Beta Ray, Gamma Ray, Omega Ray) dominated the previous meta, Patch 0.1.4's changes are a massive nerf to Dooley. Overall this is good for the health of the game, as the Rays were ubiquitous among all builds. But on the flip side, while Dooley lost a lot of spammy scaling items, both Vanessa and Pygmalien gained a ton of their own.

This has left Dooley in an awkward place, because the speed of these Charge-heavy builds are outshining the Cores, and that's what Dooley typically does best. They've also added some items (Arc Blaster, Blast Doors, Fuel Rod, Railgun) back in that further dilute the pool, making it a lot harder to assemble a cohesive build. Unfortunately Fiber Optics isn't one of them. :(

The one savior that Dooley has right now is Bellelista. The patch was incredibly kind to this previously underwhelming item, making it the key threat that's actually worth investing it.

There isn't much else to be excited about, as many other archetypes are struggling to find consistent footing. Item destruction builds involving Momma-Saur do have good potential if you can find the right support, but aren't exactly the easiest to put together.