Hyper Light Breaker: Best Vermillion Build (SyCom, Holobytes, Weapons)

All of Hyper Light Breaker‘s three currently playable characters have some pretty excellent Rail build potential, but none is quite as satisfying as Vermillion’s capacity for critical damage. One of his two SyComs, Gunslinger, guarantees that any hit following a critical hit will also be critical, allowing him to do massive burst damage with the right loadout. Not only is Gunslinger’s ability pretty excellent, the base stats it gives are nothing to sneeze at, giving this SyCom high potential in most runs.

When it comes to your Breaker’s loadout, there are a lot of things to consider. For one, there are tons of Rail, Blade, AMP, and Holobyte options to pick from, so how are you to choose? Additionally, you have to be aware of how much durability your weapon has, and if you’re not going to make it out of your current run alive, how will your build change when your Holobytes depreciate? Despite both of these questions, there is one build type for Vermillion that should lead you on a path to success.

Best Loadout For Vermillion

Focus On Rail Uptime And Scaling Off Critical Hits

Thanks to Gunslinger, Vermillion is guaranteed to hit twice as many criticals as other characters. To properly take advantage of this fact, it’s essential that you pick up Holobytes that center around either increasing survivability or damage based off of crits. Note that, because there is no way to guarantee what Holobytes and gear you pick up, there is no singular build that can best be equipped consistently; rather, there are types of Holobytes you should aim to pick up, should you find them. There are a few ways to do this, but here is what type of upgrade you should look for in each slot of your loadout:

Like with most roguelikes, your variable modifiers – in this case, Holobytes – are your primary source of buildcrafting. The Critical Ring is essential because it heals you whenever you land a critical hit, and with Vermillion’s Gunslinger SyCom, that means you’ll be healed twice. This allows for truly excellent survivability, even in situations where you find yourself low. As long as there are enemies to hit and a battery in your Rail, you have a way to heal.

SyCom Upgrades To Prioritize

There’s some confusion regarding whether the stat upgrades in your SyCom are permanent or not, but either way, if you’ve got Cores to spare, you should spend them. For the Gunslinger build with Vermillion, critical hits are the most essential piece of making the build work, so go for a crit rate upgrade if you can. This will allow your healing Holobyte to proc more often, keeping you alive.

Additionally, you should look at upgrading your Blast and Battery stats, which determine the base damage of all Rail weapons and their battery capacity respectively. Improving both of these stats will increase your Rail’s uptime, again increasing your odds of a critical hit, then another, to chunk enemies’ health down. While the faster-firing Rails have a lower base damage, increasing your Blast stat will help compensate.

While you can look at upgrading some of Vermillion’s lower stats to make him more of an all-arounder, this defeats the purpose of buildcrafting. Roguelikes are all about finding the right niche to exploit in order to succeed in a run, and upgrading things like HP on a character who will ideally be healing every other shot is a bit redundant. Instead, focus on the stats that you’re taking advantage of in your run, whether it’s this critical hit build or something else.

How To Play Vermillion’s Crit Build

Burst With Your Blade, Heal With Your Rail

As long as you have one of the few Holobytes that heals you, any combination of Holobytes that scale off critical hits and ones that better your Rail will be helpful. Then, all you need to do is maintain Rail battery by defeating enemies with your Blade, allowing you to proc the Critical Ring off of Rail hits. You can deal critical hits with your Blade as well, but crits in Hyper Light Breaker are a percent chance, meaning that the more times you hit, the higher your crit rate will be.

With this in mind, having a high-fire-rate Rail is in your best interest. Pick up Holobytes that increase Rail fire rate, reload speed, and Battery size if possible to increase your Rail uptime as much as you can. When you run out of Battery, head into combat with your Blade and try to finish staggered enemies (by pressing F on PC). Finishers seem to increase the drop chances of items like Holobyte upgrades and Battery packs.

As long as you can maintain Rail uptime and stay alive, this build will allow you to deal respectable damage with both your Rail and Blade. As mentioned above, the starting Blade for Vermillion is excellent for getting used to the game, as it offers a powerful Blade Ability and relatively agile combat. There are plenty of other Blades, Holobytes, and Rails to discover in Hyper Light Breaker, so if you find something that suits your style better, give it a shot, and maybe you’ll find something even better for Vermillion.