Getting Started
I’m sure I’m not the only player who’s had nightmares about Digistruct Peak. Slag skags, centurions, the assassins, Dukino’s Mom… These enemies just refuse to die. Even worse, tactics that work in the main game don’t always work in Digistruct Peak.
Let’s use Dukino’s Mom for our example, as she illustrates my point (and the fundamental problem) perfectly. Using Axton, an expert Grenadier com, a 39% corrosive bone, and a corrosive Fastball I am able to 100-0 Lynchwood’s Dukino with 20 grenades. Digistruct Peak’s version of Dukino? Not even close. So what’s happening? Why does my tactic work in Lynchwood but not Digistruct Peak? Let’s look at some screenshots.
The same spec was used throughout all tests. BAR was disabled. Kill Skills and Battlefront were inactive in all tests unless stated otherwise. All Baby Makers, Topneaas, and Fastballs are identical to one another except for their element. Fastball tests were done with a grenadier COM, the rest of them with an L. Soldier COM.
Lynchwood Fastball
Our Lynchwood Fastball is hitting a lot harder than our Digistruct Fastball. How much harder, exactly?
48879 / 27930 = 1.75x
Immediately recognizable as the multiplier corrosive damage receives when used on armored targets. Dukino’s Mom in the Peak is taking normal (1.00x) damage from our corrosive Fastball. So then, what if we used a shock fastball? Explosive?
11172 / 27930 = 0.4.
Lynchwood Dukino takes the appropriate amount of damage when hit with the incendiary Fastball. The Digistruct Dukino has taken neutral damage from all Fastballs. She has no typing – she is simply “normal” and is neither vulnerable nor resistant to any of the above damage types.
Further tests with guns
This problem is not limited to Dukino’s Mom. In fact, it applies to every single flesh enemy in Digistruct Peak. All skags and bandits are like Digistruct Dukino: pure “normal” with no typing. They take equal damage from all elements unless they have an explicit resistance (Oney and explosive, Wot and shock). They also take equal damage from pure splash weapons.
Spiderants are a bit tricky in that they take neutral damage from all elements when shot in their crit spots (unless they explicitly resist like Scorch vs. fire), but have some multiplier when shot with a pure splash weapon. I don’t know why this is but if I had to guess I’d think that since they are a collection of different damage modifiers, one of them probably still reads elemental modifiers but it only makes up a fraction of the spiderant’s total health pool. But that’s a guess.
Loaders are largely unchanged from their regular game counterparts. Their damage formula works as it should, body and dismember-able limb shots receive the appropriate bonuses, while the eye is a neutral crit. However, the eye being neutral and receiving equal damage from fire, shock, and corrosive isn’t unique to Digistruct Peak.
Body shot + joint crit:
Constructors’ eyes are also neutral both in and out of Digistruct Peak.
Overall, this has a pretty massive impact on Digistruct Peak runs. All incendiary weapons operate at only 57% of their efficiency because flesh enemies aren’t actually coded as flesh there. I haven’t found any Loader-type enemies with neutral typing or crits that aren’t also neutral in normal play.
