Tychus Guide

## Tychus Overview

(Updated to v15.6)

Tychus is an excellent kiting hero that deals massive AoE damage with his Psionic Storm and Grenades. He also deals excellent damage from his auto-attacks, which also have splash damage. This means his total damage in the game is going to be extremely high.

Tychus has been buffed 4 consequetive times, in Version 14.17, in Version 15.0, in Version 15.2 and in Version 15.5.

The most recent buff in Version 15.5 saw a massive boost in the effectiveness of the mastery called Living on the Edge, which boosts Tychus' attack damage and HP regeneration to such an extent that healing by the Helldiver Medic is no longer needed. In fact, expert level Tychus players need to find ways to cause damage to Tychus to keep his HP under 60% to benefit from the buffs.

As such his point damage has improved significantly, and, by end-game, with the right combination of perks, he can deal the highest point damage of all heroes in the game.

## Tychus' Perks for OS

This is the optimal perk build for Tychus for non-speedrun multiplayer Oldschool games:

1. Onslaught
2. Bug Zapper
3. Compartmentalization
4. Helldivers or Mercenary (if nuking)

For quick entry of Perks at the beginning of the match, type (without quotes) "-perk obch".

Onslaught is Tychus's most valuable perk. His second most valuable perk, without any doubt, would now be Bug Zapper.

1. Version 14.17 improved Tychus' High Velocity Rounds Talent damage to +8 and can also be learned 6 times (old: +6×4).
2. Version 15.0 improved the base auto-attack damage of Tychus.
3. And since Version 15.2, with the buff of the new unique passive called "Terran Commando". Terran Commando increases auto-attack damage per level-up and grants an additional Talent point and a small bonus to all stats every 10 levels.
4. Version 15.5 heavily buffed the Livin on the Edge mastery, which, combined with Bug Zapper, allows Tychus to deal much higher auto-attack damage.

Bug Zapper is Tychus' second most important perk. Bug Zapper perk boosts his attack-speed by 10%. Combined with Stimpack and Berserk, his net boosted attack speed is greater than 15.1% when combined with both Stimpack and Berserk stacks. With Escalate, it becomes much greater than 15.1%

Without any doubt, Compartmentalization perk is now Tychus' third most important perk. Tychus needs lowered cooldown on his Flaming Moes and a completed Lightweight Equipment mastery increases the procreation frequency of psionic storms after Tychus picks his Ultimate Mastery.

For experts, Mercenary is taken because Tychus deals the highest nuke damage of all heroes and will have to nuke consistently to reach his 25,000 score.

For non-experts, Helldivers (instead of Mercenary) are still extremely important because:

1. They can tank hard hitting enemies
2. The Helldiver medic can continuously heal Tychus, especially once Tychus starts to spam his stimpack with reduced cooldown from Lightweight Equipment mastery + Living on the Edge mastery.
3. Flaming Betties combined with Flaming Moe mastery means that they cost life, instead of energy to activate, meaning healing is required.
4. Once Psionic Warrior mastery is picked, Battlerage talent no longer heals Tychus when he uses his grenade and psionic storm abilities, meaning healing is required.
5. Helldivers replenish once a power cube is picked, and therefore will be with Tychus for the majority of the game

Given that Oldschool games end early, there is no reason to pick Absorption perk to max out the Escalate ability for Tychus.

A skilled Tychus player does not need Tenacity. There is no combination of slowing effects that allows Toxic Brutalisks to catch up with him. With Onslaught, Stimpack, and Shadow Nimbus by late game, Tychus is unstoppable.

## Tychus' Perks for HW

This is the optimal perk build for Tychus for non-speedrun multiplayer Hellwalker games:

1. Onslaught
2. Bug Zapper
3. Compartmentalization
4. Absorption

For quick entry of Perks at the beginning of the match, type (without quotes) "-perk obce".

As of Version 15.0 the reason why Absorption is a good number 4 perk is that grenades now deal 150% their damage with the inclusion of an additional Devastator Cocktail talent point. The 25,000 ELITE status doubles the number of grenades when the Escalate ability is used. This means an increase of 300% damage (1.5\*2 = 3) whenever Escalate is used. As such, being able to constantly use Escalate is now a much better proposition compared to previous versions of the game. And to continuously use Escalate, Tychus needs energy.

After his 25,000 ELITE, any usage of Escalate grants a power cube

Most importantly, Hellwalker games usually last for more than 1H30mins, and by then escalate is usually 100% complete.

## Tychus' Mastery Order for OS and HW

This is the optimal mastery order for the non-speedrun and multiplayer games involving Tychus:

1. Level 0 = Flaming Moe + FREE Lightweight Equipment
2. Level 10 = Close Quarter Combat
3. Level 20 = Living on the Edge
4. Level 30 = Psionic Warrior ULTIMATE
5. Level 40 = Mindbender
6. 2K Killstreak = Ranger
7. Level 50 = Nuke/ Oldschool Scavenging
8. Level 60 = Oldschool Scavenging/ Nuke
9. Level 70/Hourly = Shadow Nimbus

Any efficient Tychus build for Hellwalker and Oldschool must consist of the masteries above. The only differences start to occur after level 40. If there is a need to slow down mobs, then Mindbender is picked.

### Flaming Moe

Flaming Moe is an essential mastery that boosts the survivability of Tychus, guaranteeing a skilled Tychus player maximum pushing power to reach an early 2500 score. Even after his ultimate, Flaming Moes take aggro priority from strong bosses, allowing Tychus to not flee, but rather stand his ground and keep dealing damage with his auto-attacks. With Flaming Moe, Tychus can skip Ranger mastery until mid-game since his minions will tank spine crawlers for him.

### Close Quarter Combat

Close Quarter Combat follows Flaming Moe, and it's importance is very obvious. More armor, more damage.

### Living on the Edge

An extremely important mastery that provides damage increase of 25% if under 60% HP, reduced stim pack cooldown and a massive boost to his HP regeneration.

### Ranger

Many beginner and intermediate level players tend to pick Ranger before level 40 for Oldschool and Hellwalker. A skilled Tychus player can make clever use of Flaming Moes to constantly remain close to enemies, maintaining his high DPS and reaching his 2500 score by level 30. Additionally, Tychus can easily deal with invisible ravagers of Hellwalker early game, therefore skipping the need for detection. When the team spawns nemesis and the need to push into more dangerous spine crawlers arises and the first toxic hive in the Omegalisk base are encountered, picking Ranger at level 40 or even later is appropriate only then.

## Comments on Tychus' other Masteries

### Weaponsmith

Weaponsmith adds:

1. +13 to Tychus' auto-attack damange
2. +0.5 range to Tychus' auto-attack range
3. +0.05 increased to Tychus' attack speed
4. And finally, adds +30 damage to Tychus' Frag Grenade damage

As such Weaponsmith is only interesting as a late game mastery for very long games of 1H30+.

### Haywire Missile

This is a common early game pick and mistake from beginners. Its main benefit would be early game to reach the 2500 slightly faster. However, its utility quickly dwindles as the game progresses.

### Shadow Nimbus

Good to pick as a late game mastery for movement speed and invisibility, especially on Hellwalker, to avoid getting lifted by Hybrids.