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The Bazaar Guide

The Bazaar Meta Builds (Season 16)

Patch Impressions

Season 16 is a fairly light patch overall, but it does come with some notable gameplay changes that will shake things up moving forward. Right now, it's more about system reworks rather than meta balance.

Here's some of our initial impressions about the patch!

General Notes:

The starting Income change is definitely the most impactful one, forcing us to adapt to having less gold during the earlier days. While certain nodes have received gold increases, this forces us away from clicking Merchants if we want to sustain a reasonable economy.
- Depending on the Hero you're playing, it's possible you'll need to reroll less often early on.
- Funny enough, Vanessa can manage just fine thanks to the level-up reward that grants gold based on Weapon quantity. All the more incentive to force the strongest archetype.
Curio receives a massive nerf with the removal of Icicle, Lag-bolt, and Spark Plug (now they are Silver-tier). At least Junkyard Club and Junkyard Repairbot have more use.
- On-start items will now be significantly less common than before, which is probably for the best.
Jules having the option to start with a Cooler opens up some new lines during the early game. While it's hard to say how this affects balance, it may provide more variety than the usual Burn opener.
[Hotfixed RIP] The cheat-death "upgrade all to Gold" has been reworked to now upgrade everything +1 tier. This is likely stronger overall as it can now create Diamond-tier items, but isn't great for Bronze items.
- In many cases this will probably feel the same, since the common use case was bringing Silver items up to a stronger Gold-tier baseline.

Notable Buffs

Dooley's Cores as a whole receive some higher base values that scale on upgrade. No Cooldown or in-combat scaling adjustments, but a nice little boost for the early game.
Beta Ray receiving -1 CD is very relevant, and should make it a much more generic slot-in to any Core-based builds.
Crude Tools is now much easier to use, no longer requiring just one Tech item on board.
Race Carl hits much harder at Gold/Diamond, and could be worth testing out.
Wallace going to a 3s CD makes it one of the best Friends now. It also gives Armored Core another scaling target that can be placed on the other side of Duct Tape.
YLW-M4NT1S now has a 5s CD at all tiers. It was pretty bad at Silver and mediocre at Gold, so this is a very nice change.
Durian to Bronze makes it far more accessible, and with the Jules socket changes, you can even set up the Chilled slot from the get-go.
Dragon Steak has much higher Burn potential from the start, and could become particularly strong with the Spice Rack support package.
Meat Grinder downshift to Bronze could create some different opening lines, though you'll still need to find ways to scale its Damage (not always the easiest option for Jules).
Salt now Burns on Crit and has a flat 3s CD. This item is nuts for Spice Rack builds.
Quill and Ink can now be utilized in Weapon builds as long as you manage its positioning.
Jabalian Drum returns to Silver-tier after several months. Oh boy, this may be a dangerous one.
Molten Ball Blaster gets a Burn buff. Perhaps this will make it an early contender once again.
Catfish scaling has been improved, making it much more threatening early on.

Notable Nerfs

3D Printer upshifted to Diamond, possibly to account for Beta Ray and Crude Tools buffs.
Farmer's Market can no longer be used to scale Max Health. While still a strong item itself, this does remove some power from one of Jules' staple archetypes.
Messenger Sparrow is now slower after receiving +1s to its CD at all tiers. One of Karnok's Charge staples has been notably hit.
Calcinator may look like it's been buffed, but having a lower CD actually makes the timing awkward with Strength Potion, which is essential for the build.
- Additionally, even though it spawns free Chunks, the Chunk of Gold value has been lowered.
Hang Glider loses some of its Damage, which alongside the Ornithopter nerf does add up.
Flagship receives another small Damage nerf, but is ultimately minor.
Ramrod goes to a 4s CD, which definitely slows down its potential with hyper fast Ammo builds.

Scimitar of the Deep (Vanessa)

Scimitar of the Deep is a unique Weapon that converts Crits into large amounts of Poison. With enough Damage scaling, you don't even need to worry about the Haste half of the item. Ammo setups are a great choice, allowing you to take advantage of skills like Loaded Fury and Parting Shot.

Blunderbuss (Vanessa)

Blunderbuss has emerged as a powerful Ammo setup after the introduction of Burnacuda. While it does heavily rely on having additional Ammo, it's ceiling is absurdly fast and explosive, making it a fierce contender in the meta. Plus, it shares many components with Scimitar of the Deep, making it more accessible.

Tortuga (Vanessa)

Tortuga is and powerful and consistent threat that can easily pivot from both Aquatic and Weapon lines. Ever since Vanessa gained access to the Friend vendor, it's become extremely reliable to assemble. It's fast, flexible, and hits hard enough to get the job done.

Build Guide:

Tortuga Vanessa

Private Hot Springs (Pygmalien)

Private Hot Springs is a spammy Burn item that can completely lockdown the board. Its four second Freeze effect punishes any build that can't one-shot it, especially since the passive Regen can counteract opposing damage over time (while the enemy still Burns!).

Double Whammy (Pygmalien)

Double Whammy is the classic late game powerhouse that uses its massive Health pool to survive and one-shot the enemy. Its strength is unmatched by most contenders, making it a reliable choice when the opportunity presents itself.

Build Guide:

Double Whammy Pygmalien

Square (Pygmalien)

Square Pyg is the classic beatdown archetype that takes advantage of Crook's Damage buff during the early game. After snowballing a lead, it can work towards heavy-hitters like Lion Cane, Regal Blade, and Cash Cannon to close things out.

Build Guide:

Square Pygmalien

Welding Torch (Dooley)

Welding Torch capitalizes on the recent buffs to Wallace, converting mass amounts of Shielding into huge stacks of Burn. It's a well-rounded build with solid inevitability due to its percentage based scaling.

Power Drill (Dooley)

Power Drill returns as a powerful build-around thanks to the absurd Damage scaling from RAMPage Module. As with most Dooley builds you can play a wide range of setups, so long as fast triggers are the main priority.

Launcher Core (Dooley)

Launcher Core is a powerful enabler that can make just about anything loop incredibly fast. The most popular win conditions are usually Ice 9000, Nitrogen Hammer, and Terry-Dactyl, but you can make anything work if you're creative enough.

Build Guide:

Launcher Core Dooley

Eternal Torch (Mak)

Eternal Torch has one of the highest Burn outputs in the game and can be picked up and worked towards from Day 1. While it takes a bit of time to get going, it's become far easier with the recent buffs to Blank Slate (which can carry the early to mid game). An excellent payoff for a fairly minimal investment.

Staff of the Moose (Mak)

Staff of the Moose has a unique line of defense with its passive immunity effect, allowing Mak to hold his ground against all the aggression. When armed with Ritual Dagger it creates an exponential form of scaling due to their combined abilities.

Refractor (Mak)

$Refractor$ Card border

Refractor received a massive buff after it gained the ability to also scale from Haste triggers. This goes hand-in-hand with Smelling Salts, an item that's notoriously easy to spam due to the abundance of Slows. What was once a solid early tempo build is now a viable late game threat.

Buster (Stelle)

Buster is an explosively fast combo build that combines percentage-based offense with devastating Destruction. Despite being locked to Gold-tier like most of the Destroy archetypes, it shares many staple components, making it a much easier build to pivot into.

LavaRoller (Stelle)

LavaRoller converts self-destruction into unmatchable amounts of Burn. Drone Crusher, Hydrogen Tank, and Experimental Garage are all great supporting items, along with a ton of Small additions that make it very flexible to assemble.

Build Guide:

LavaRoller Stelle

Private Runabout (Stelle)

Private Runabout is a fast and reliable threat thanks to its Multicast, low Cooldown, and direct access to Haste. It plays a full Flying package that can quickly ascend with Launch Tower, meaning the CDR is enabled almost immediately. Plus best of all, you don't need to worry about any start-stop interactions.

Farmer's Market (Jules)

Note: Jules builds have extremely contextual positioning due to the RNG placement of the Stoves and Coolers. Your mileage may vary.

Farmer's Market builds spam fast Food items to gain massive amounts of Regen, allowing them to convert it into raw Damage with Bread Knife. With the recent rework to Refrigerator it's far more consistent to get online, plus the scaling is out of control.

Build Guide:

Regen Jules

Freezer (Jules)

Note: Jules builds have extremely contextual positioning due to the RNG placement of the Stoves and Coolers. Your mileage may vary.

Freezer combines a fast offense with continuous disruption, making it a strong and reliable archetype. The improvements to socket RNG are a huge help, as the build could previously be bricked if things didn't line up properly.

Build Guide:

Freeze Jules

Spice Rack (Jules)

Note: Jules builds have extremely contextual positioning due to the RNG placement of the Stoves and Coolers. Your mileage may vary.

Spice Rack is a powerful Burn scaling engine as long as you can solve Crit. Combine it with fast spammy Food and things get out of hand very quickly.

Runic Claymore (Karnok)

Runic Claymore received a big buff to its Damage, making it stand out even further as Karnok's ideal late game setup. As long as you have a reliable form of sustain (Lifesteal, Restorative, Shielded), it only takes a few Crits to become essentially unkillable. That is, if they're even still alive at that point.

Build Guide:

Max Health Karnok

Wild Bear (Karnok)

Wild Bear is another Max Health variant that puts a greater emphasis on Charge speed. This allows you to take advantage of Enrage effects from Wild Bear, in addition to Assault Sigil. It's quite flexible in its assembly as long as you can solve speed and Crit.

Dual Reaver (Karnok)

Dual Reaver has become a fast scaling threat after the recent buffs. With an impressive three second Cooldown at Diamond-tier, it can definitely contest opposing builds during the late game. It also slots nicely into the popular Self-Slow package, making it a relatively easy pivot when it's needed.

Self-Slow Karnok