Ao Bai

> "*A master of explosions and firearms. Ao Bai's expertise with firearms allows him to control two weapons at the same time. Also, due to his passion for explosions, he has always been able to make powerful explosives.*"
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Ao Bai is the second playable Hero in the game, being unlocked upon reaching Talent level 25.

Ao Bai's playstyle mainly focuses on his currently held weapons,  Explosion? damage and taking lots of damage.

 Dual-Wield gives him the ability to fire both his weapons at once, allowing him to deal extremely high damage based on how powerful his weapons are and how well they work together.

His improvements to explosions make any weapon that causes explosions even more powerful, capable of extending their area of effect and damage massively on top of his general weapon bonuses.

Some Ascensions reduce the amount of damage he takes, allowing him to take more hits with less risk to himself.

High amounts of  Health? allows great use of any Occult Scrolls that provide healing, increase his maximum Health or grant bonuses based on his Health.

Ao Bai's biggest downside is his low amount of  Shields?, causing him to often take damage to Health which is harder to restore without the proper Occult Scrolls. Additionally due to  Dual-Wield he has a higher ammo consumption than other characters, making him run out of ammunition faster.

## Talents

List of Ao Bai Talents Edit
 Extra Reserves
 Destructive Blast
 Dual Battle Soul
 Advanced Dual-Wielding

## Unique Spiritual Blessings

Spiritual Blessings only appear in Reincarnation difficulty.

## Build Strategies

These are a list of general strategies that can be built towards as you progress through a run. Almost no build is mutually exclusive, and often results in partially building into others due to the randomness of the game. Most however do not synergize well when attempting 2 vastly different builds at once, especially on high difficulties.

### All Difficulties

* Your weapon choice will be the most important part, as you need 2 weapons that work well together and don't overly rely on their  Weapon Skill?, as they are disabled while Dual-Wield is active.
	+ For your main hand, most automatic weapons with high damage per second can work well, such as  Big Hippo,  Cavalry,  Angelic Aura and  Illusion.
	+ Your off-hand weapon has recoil negated such that some weapons become handy. One example includes  Wild Hunt (with ✦ *Magazine share*(full text) or infinite magazine).
	+ If using elemental weapons, it is a good idea to use 2 different elemental weapons, letting you trigger fusion effects. However, avoid  Combustion? if either weapon has high RoF or projectile, due to having the 0.12s cooldown. Alternatively, pick up fire weapons if you have  Fire Enthusiast, as the healing can greatly help your large health pool.
* You use two weapons which drain ammo much faster, making  Ammo Expert a high priority ( Ammo Recoverer also works). Even one level can support most weapons with  Large Ammo and  Special Ammo.
* Battle-Tested is also high priority, as the longer you can Dual-Wield, the better other ascensions become.  Sustained Fire,  Lucky Ammo,  Unleashed Potential,  Survival Instinct,  Golden Comeback,  Sharpshooter and  Overloading are all good options as well.
	+ Twin Gunner is powerful, but should only be taken if the weapons held are ammo efficient, or you have a variety of good means to store or recover ammo such as  Ammo Expert,  Elemental Bestowment,  Ammo Belt,  Magic Magazine,  Genesis,  Bullet Bank,  Against the Flow and  Deft Hands.
* Because you're firing 2 weapons at once, more ammo is being consumed and more hits are being made, improving the effects of certain scrolls such as  Arms Dealer and  Merciless Combo.
* On Reincarnation,  Life Power and  Weapon Genius can be chosen.

* This build requires 3 things to work.  Sharpshooter,  Golden Comeback and enough cooldown reduction to bring Dual-Wield's cooldown lower than its duration.
	+ Cooldown reduction includes  Efficient Casting,  Ancient Timer,  Weapon Genius,  Field Proficiency and  Overconsumption.  Battle-Tested will also work for increasing Dual-Wield's duration.
* The way the build works is how Sharpshooter can be used to fully reset Dual-Wield's cooldown when cancelling Dual-Wield. Every 1s remaining will recover 1s cooldown. If the remaining duration is higher than the cooldown, the cooldown is instantly over, letting Dual-Wield start again.
	+ Because Dual-Wield is constantly being started, Golden Comeback will have its stacks constantly refreshed. Since each stack protect against a lethal hit and can be constantly refreshed, as long as Dual-Wield is restarted properly, you will be protected from **all** lethal hits.
* Scrolls that trigger on swapping weapons will activate whenever Dual-Wield starts, including  Brief Respite,  Fast-Loader and  Elemental Weave.

	+ As well as  Launchers, other weapons that can work are  Concealed Ammo ( Weapon Skill?),  Glimmering,  Scorching Rounds,  Thunder Storm ( Weapon Skill?) and  Sting (single shot). Since Dual-Wield isn't a priority, weapons with a  Weapon Skill? can be used freely, which besides those listed also includes  Justice and  Deafening Mortar.
* Explosion Enhancement should be high priority for the extra AoE.  Sustained Fire,  Mad Bomber,  Overloading and  Precise Explosion are always helpful.
	+ Ember Eruption can be taken if using weapons with a low magazine capacity, particularly those with a capacity of 1.  Ammo Expert can be taken if using ammo inefficient weapons.
	+ Grenade Master and  Double Explosions should be avoided. Though it may seem like a good idea to also use  Explosive Grenade, it ends up being less effective than explosive weapons, due to a lack of bonuses specific to it.
* Note: Scrolls that specifically increase skill damage such as  Enduring Caster and  Spirit Bible will also work on explosive weapons. However explosive weapons do not deal skill damage, preventing it from triggering effects that require skill damage such as  Surprise Bonus and  Rich's Privileges.

* Adrenal Rush should be high priority, as it gives both damage reduction and much-needed Health recovery in an accessible manner.  Survival Instinct,  Close Call and  Golden Comeback can also help.
* Scrolls to look out for include  Bluff,  Resolute,  Terminal Lucidity,  Persistent,  Gourmet,  Berserk Soul,  Resilient Life,  Flesh and Bones,  Flowing Wind,  Veteran,  Mystic Mirror and  Stone Skin.
	+ Fire Enthusiast and  Sanguine Relic are extremely powerful and should always be taken, since life-steal is based on damage dealt, which increases massively as you progress. With high enough damage, each hit can completely refill your Health.
	+ Spirit Feline can be taken with Close Call, as it will prevent taking damage in excess of 25% of your maximum Health, letting Close Call trigger more often.
	+ Devil's Covenant,  Paranormality,  Reinforced Eggshell and  Deadly Curse should be avoided, as they are harmful when using Health. Most scrolls that benefit  Shields? will be less effective as well.
* Battle Scarred will give a large amount of damage reduction and some much needed Health recovery early on, making it less of a priority to get Adrenal Rush.
* Life Power will increase weapon damage based on your Health, up to your maximum Health. This allows significantly more damage to be dealt alongside being harder to kill.

### Reincarnation Only

* As the build name suggests,  Atomic Bomb should always be taken.  Grenade Master,  Double Explosions,  Double Exhilaration and  Endless Assault are also high priority.  Combat Elite can also be chosen if above options do not appear.
* Sustained Fire,  Explosion Enhancement,  Mad Bomber,  Precise Explosion,  Extra Surprise,  Energy Sandals and  Untold Effort are always helpful.
* Grenades deal normal damage such that  Traditional Tactic and  Golden Grenade can help.
* Even though Atomic Bomb only has a 40% chance to activate each Explosive Grenade use, when it does the damage will stack incredibly fast with every hit, causing dozens or even hundreds times the usual damage to entire groups of enemies. Combined with the reduced chance of secondary consumption and any capacity increases and it becomes highly spammable as well.

* Since this is a weapon build, it can be attached to other builds with  Life Power and  Weapon Genius.
* Your main weapon is fixed to SMG. The other weapon can be anything handy including rifles and injectors. Choose weapons without magazine increase such that the effect activates faster.
	+ If played on mobile, even semi-auto weapons like Wild Hunt can be used as off-hand, due to special mechanism of Dual-Wield.
* You need at least 2 of the following scrolls:  Bluff,  Rock-Hard Determination,  Bloody Ammo and  Dormant Bullet. Since they have few uses in other builds, many teammates are willing to share them.
* Avoid most effects that refill your magazine, like  Genesis. However if you want to keep the stack of  Demonlore, having  Skateboarder can slightly help.
* Similar method can be used to make  Armor Breaker or  Lightweight Trigger, with corresponding weapons and scrolls.

## Trivia

* Ao Bai seems to share a few similarities to Salvador from the game Borderlands 2. Both of them have an ability to Dual Wield guns, and a few other skills such as Double Explosions, Lucky Shot, and Golden Comeback share the general improvements that Salvador is able to acquire.
* Battle Scarred used to be one of Ao Bai's Unique Spiritual Blessings. However, this was changed on June 1st 2023, making him have only 4 blessings like the other characters instead of 5.
* The first Chinese character on Ao Bai's hero profile is 獒 (pinyin: áo), which is generally used for large dogs, specifically, the mastiff species.
	+ 獒 contains the Chinese radical 犬, which alone means "dog."
* On his background art, Ao Bai is dual wielding the  Frenzied Shark and an older model of  Scorching Rounds, both of which are explosive weapons which synergize with him well.