DRG M: driller v. mackies (true solo driller)
Channel: ojb
Date: 2023-12-22

No bosco, one iron will revive. Featuring sticky fuel CRSPR + energy rerouting EPC + impact axes in Dense Biozone.

Hazard M is a challenging mactera themed spinoff of Lx2. It is stupid. It is unbalanced. It is fun. 

Mactera brood nexii are shenanigans incarnate.

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I've played a lot of Haz M off channel - it's fun, but my winrate is quite low and subject to cheese. I wanted a "real" victory so I placed a few restrictions on myself for this particular run:

* No snowball cryo cannon. It's too strong against mackies that my runs would devolve into just being a snowball run, which I mean, is fine, but I'd rather be incentivized to use TCF's since they require a fair bit more skill! So sticky fuel is basically a way to force myself to use my EPC more often, and I think it's a smart move. Flames are still quite good when the density reaches absurd levels of death (where you can't even get off a TCF shot because it would get popped in your face by a projectile or fizzle out on a thicc goober hitbox), but the OC is not as run defining as snowball so it's definitely a choice to optimize fun.

* Try to limit driller cope tunnels. Mackies are pretty easily trivialized by hanging out inside walls the whole time. Sticky fuel kinda slaps in the tight twisting passages you can drill out and that makes those encounters 100% safe. Stopping myself from that cheese is the real challenge of the run, and I *mostly* pull it off. I force myself to go out in the open when it is 100% incorrect to do so, just because it's the fun choice lol. It's not smart, it's not good for wins, but it leads to some pretty insane chaos that you'll hopefully see makes for some pretty silly "how the h*ck am I alive" moments. I do dip into cope tunnels at least twice in this video, but hopefully you'll forgive me as I have already forgiven myself (mostly).

* No protected resups. Resups have to be in stupid and dangerous places and not safe in a driller tunnel. This particular rule was repeatedly on the chopping block haha.

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That's it. That's the challenge. It's kinda goofy but hella fun. I'd say it's good training for TCF as my TCF was quite bad and rusty from a few months playing very little driller, and by the time I got a winning run through with these self imposed restrictions I think I got a fair bit de-rusted.

My TCF ain't perfect, and I'm finding I still struggle to understand the hitboxes as my charge shot fizzles out as it taps a goober or molly or something, but I'd say it's adequate. One day I hope to do a TCF only run like this (with cheaper resups, and maybe I let myself have c4 for nexii too) and ditch the primary entirely, if only for the focused practice because TCF'ing mackies is a lot of fun.

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Other things:

My death was probably caused by unlucky timings on the wave that spawned in seconds after I destroyed a brood nexus. I think had it just been the mackies from the nexus pop I would have lived using that slight L shape in the terrain, but I didn't notice the wave upon me until I was already committed to that strategy. Had I noticed the wave while playing (which in post processing, I could definitely see them spawn in on screen), I would have pushed through the dirt and forced them to funnel into the choke. But alas, I was caught out in the open with about 30 more mackies than I expected to see, and I paid the price.

You'll notice me using c4 not just in combat (though it is quite good at the density of waves here) but very often to clear sightlines too. It's a give and take of having enough space to actually pull off a decent TCF (if it's too tight you risk your EPC shot getting nuked by a projectile or hitting terrain, plus the angles are usually harder to hit), while also having enough funnel potential to group the mackies up enough to wipe large numbers per shot. Additionally, HazM has faster leeches than 6x2 (but not as fast as the original 1.5x version as copied from Lx2 - v3 tones them down to 1.1x speed), and being able to actually see the ceilings to prevent near horizontal grabs that come in fast is quite valuable.

The goo bomber / ice bomber / molly hitboxes are much bigger than they appear. I don't think I quite understood the implications of that detail until I started paying attention to why my charge shots failed so often.

Obligatory content warning: this video is filled with anti-molly sentiment. I'll admit to a wee bit of tilt as molly killed me about 6 times at least in the process of recording this video. Out of all the difficulties out there, HazM is perhaps the one that supercharges molly the most into the absolute menacing supervillain she really is :-)

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Loadout:
23232 Sticky fuel
21122 Energy Rerouting
Impact Axe

Perks: 
Dash / Iron Will
Resupplier / Deep Pockets / Vampire

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Highlights:

0:00 Build
0:48 Mission Start
9:37 Death
21:03 Final stats page