Fearless leveling build for Phlogistoneer

Phlogistoneer is among the easiest classes to level on fearless difficulty. This is largely thanks to the Minefield branch of his skill tree as mines are low cooldown, fire and forget, multi-hit, high damage, AOE skills which allows Phlogistoneer to just run around enemies and deploy mines until all the enemies are dead.

Later in the game Phlogistoneer gets access to really powerful (broken) skill combination Exocore boost, Chrono-lock and Scatter bombs which allows the class to spam one of the damaging AOE skills in the game with 1 second cooldown. This will make short work of groups of enemies, bosses, elite and special monsters.

## Level 1-20

You should unlock all listed skills first, then focus on leveling Minefield and Grenade lob both to level 5 to get the first masteries. Then you should invest enough to Upgrade forcefield to get Auxiliary battery mastery that can help with survival. Afterwards you can level up Minefield and Grenade lob to level 10. Resistance is nice 3 point wonder that can provide some healing when potion is on cooldown.

For gear you can look for equipment like rings etc that provide flat damage bonuses for poison or any element. The damage from these will be fully added to both grenade lob and mines. Percentage based modifiers are generally pretty bad early on for damage. Every time you're in town or Croak wood check the merchant(s) for essences and be on the lookout for items with good enchants and essence capacity. Don't forget to enchant your gear at Safis with random enchants as every little thing helps.

For combat your strategy is to circle around enemies placing mines and using grenade lob when given the chance. Use Katarina as tank and distraction putting her ability points to Corpus and picking passive skills that increase her health, defense and resistances and attacks that can paralyze and slow enemies down.

For perks you should go for Berserker perks that provide bonuses while max rage and perks like Veteran hunter that provide more ability and skill points.

## Levels 20-50

During levels 20-39 you have access to two mines skills with separate cooldown. You can use this for your advantage and spam even more mines while circling around enemies. Best places for leveling are places that have tons of smaller enemies with low HP like Croackwood, Orichalcum mines and Rookery but you can progress normally in the story if you wish.

For gear you should try to use weapons that have some essence capacity so that you can put some Quintessence in it. This will help you with any possible mana problems you might have. Other than that you can just put essences to your gear that increase exoskeletal core stat for more damage.

After level 40 you'll have 3 types of mines to spam around as well as access to rocket barrage. Feel free to respec points from grenade lob and one of the mine skills for Rocket swarm and Rocket barrage if you wish. Liquid fire is another good alternative for grenade lob but doesn't benefit from exoskeletal core.

For perks Alchemist, Defence matrix specialist and Focused are good. You can also pick up Minefield specialist as it'll be useful while still using mines as main form of offence.

## Levels 50-100

Unless you're rushing through the campaign you should reach this point well before facing the final boss of VH1 campaign at the end of chapter 3. You could start following this at level 45 but the Mana regeneration from Chrono-lock masteries, Mana cost reduction masteries for Scatter bombs really help to deal with the mana requirements of Exocore boost.

Strategy here is simple, you run around luring large group of monsters and activate Exocore\_boost and fire Scatter bombs. This should deal enough damage to fully replenish your mana with Quintessence on your weapon. Then you can activate Chrono-lock for more damage, mana regeneration and slowdown for enemies. Keep firing Scatter bombs until Exocore boost runs out but be careful as all the explosions can cause quite a performance hit. At higher levels you can add in Telekinetic shield emitters to become nearly immortal. You can also use mana potion if you're struggling to keep with the mana costs early on.

While Exocore boost is on cooldown you can run around firing Rocket swarm and Rocket barrage at enemies. Pseudo barrier is nice blocking and reflecting damage from many projectiles in the game as well as blocking enemy movement.

Perks like Anger mage, Focused, focused II, and Enchanted blood II can help if you're having trouble keeping up with mana regeneration early on.

For gear you may add in some mana regeneration items early on if you're struggling to refill mana.