The Bazaar – Dooley: Armored Core Force Field Guide

Armored Core Force Field Guide

By Magmaburn.

General Build Tips

• Matchups: You are primarily a burst build in this meta, especially against Dooley. Your main problems to solve are haste, crowd control, and fast shielding. Items will switch out depending on matchup.
  • More CC against Vanessa and Pyg since they tend to be weapon based and it becomes a slugfest of trying to outscale their damage.
  • Ur worst matchup by far is burn Dooley because of how quickly they build up burn meaning your shield gets taken off faster than you can build it up. It’s a fairly 1-sided matchup but it can be improved with more aggression or certain skills
  • Poison Dooley is typically somewhat favored due to them not taking off your shield, so it becomes a race to see who can burst who first. More aggro.
• Relax (Temp shield at the start of the next combat) is a free win button.
• Important Math: You generally want Core to go off once before the 1st FF hit and ideally 3 times total before the 2nd hit assuming no battery. Make sure to account for internal CD in your math.
  • Ex. Uzi, aiden, 2s GPU, Core, tape, FF w/ 1 unknown slot left
    • Before 1st FF hit (sub 4s):  x1 uzi, x1 aiden, ~4s nat charge for Core = 6s of charging
    • Before 2nd FF hit (sub 8s): x3 uzi, x2 aiden, x1 GPU + 2s Core haste, ~8s nat charge for Core = 16s of charging
    • This setup works for the 1st hit but we can do better on the 2nd hit. We can either add in lightbulb as our last slot to get 2 more procs or we can reduce Core CD enough such that it only needs 17s of charge to proc 3 times before FF. Assuming a 4s FF CD, this comes out to about 5.66 Core CD needed. 17s of charge lets us run another utility in our last slot such as LEDs or Beta Ray since they will proc once before the 2nd hit.
• Rightside of Core is tape and FF, conditionally Battery, maybe high haste Cog
• Leftside of Core is fast chargers, typically at least 2 triggers before 3s to have Core trigger before FF goes off. The most common items include: Uzi, Aiden, Lightbulb, Miss Isles.
  • This also requires that the difference between your core CD and your FF cd is less than 2s. So make sure your not overdoing CDR on FF vs Core
• Fill the rest of the slots with your CC or utility of choice such as LEDS, Beta Ray, Chronobarrier, GPU, Metronome, Atomic Clock, Icicle (w/ Invigorating Cold), Nitro (w/ freeze on burn skill)
  • Early game fill these slots with extra damage such as Pulse Rifle and/or Alpha Ray. This lets you finish off the opponents as typically what happens in matchups such as burn dooley is that you get them low with your 1st couple shots but struggle to maintain enough shield to finish them off
• Generic / Dooley skill vendors can have upgrade core skill starting at silver+. Only times I wouldn’t take it is if one of the “Always take” haste skills, Defense Grid, or Crescendo shows up.
• Loot Scrap: I use all scrap I get before PvP, usually on tape if I have it since it is the most efficient for gaining shield. If I have high crit chance or if it looks like I might ditch tape later, I will put it on FF.
  • Note: Duct tape procs after FF does its damage, but is still useful since it benefits from both Core and FF going off.
  • There is the fringe case of getting Emergency Shield where you would want your FF to be a higher shield value than tape
• Level Up Priority in Approx Order:
  • Prioritize Core upgrades over all else, doubles in scaling each time
  • Generic Upgrade: If there is a specific important item such as Likit’s syrup, 1s metronome, alpha ray for tempo, or potentially aiden, take that
  • Generic Loot after level 3(Silver): Crit chance, CDR x2, scrap, XP, ammo, are great hits. Dmg on uzi/FF is decent.
  • Core CDR: Placement varies, can be higher priority than Loot if FF and Core CDs are too far apart or if CDR would mean another core usage before 2nd FF hit. Also lower priority than Scrap early days due to scrap being more immediate power and gold
  • Scrap: More shield, more dmg. Good roll, but ones above are more impactful. See Core CDR note
  • HP: Interchangeable with XP. Just generally good but slightly less value compared to other builds bc you have lots of shield and are a burst build
  • XP: Priority changes the most on this. Main use is closer to another potential core upgrade. Becomes significantly higher the lower level your core is relative to the day or if it will hit another good breakpoint
  • Bonus Core Shield: Doesn’t give econ compared to scrap, so lower than that. Can be higher than XP in the early game depending on how many nonweapons you have. Also would take Friend CDR over it in late game
  • Friend CDR: Faster aiden good. Usually only a later pickup
  • Sharpening Stones: Mostly take early or if nothing better is offered. Put on uzi since it’s most likely to stay or pulse for more tempo.
  • Income: 1st income generally decent if you get it early because this is a money heavy build. Will place above friend CDR early days. Below “get an item” if board isn’t full.
  • Shield/Tool/Friend Item: Only take Days 1-2 to fill out board since it’s likely to give something that can shield or benefits from shield
• Likit and Crit: I go back and forth on whether or not Likit is worth the investment, so this opinion may change. Crit on FF = Beast of Burden, sometimes you just get lucky and win especially with % HP shield. It’s also doubly value since both the shield and damage have independent rolls, meaning either of them can crit to give you more dmg.
  • I tend to take early crit skills for a little extra crit chance and I highly value skills like Cresendo and Big Numbers
  • Likit gives 10% crit to your core and FF, the most important to crit on, and you can upgrade Likit’s Syrup with level up to refill ammo and give an additional 20% crit. This is generally the 2nd highest priority upgrade after core upgrade if you have it

Early Game

• Tape is the most important item. Lets Core “self scale” shield. Usually Tape + 1 shield item right of core is enough.
  • Scrap generally goes on tape if available. A high base shield value tape can help mitigate a low tier Core.
  • Basically, don’t discount the impact of high base values
• Click most early skill vendors especially after Day 2 if you are in a decent position boardwise, lots of high impact skills such as freezes, crit chance, slow, etc. See skills section for more detail.
• Offense: FF early game is very versatile since shielding and shield scaling is usually very powerful during those days. This allows you to play any type of offense: poison, damage, or burn. Basically play whatever ray you find early. Gamma tends to be the best Days 1-2. Alpha becomes better after a critical mass of weapons. FF can be played if nothing better or if Core is silver+. Omega is another viable route with particular synergy with a couple burn items such as Aegis, Welding Torch, and Welding Helmet.
  • Alpha Ray Setup: Beta Ray or LEDs, Alpha Ray, Uzi, Pulse Rifle, Chris or Aiden, Core, Tape, Aegis / other nonfriend shield (drop Beta/LEDs if med)
    • Mostly played when core is bronze or before FF + tape. Main advantage is the main items can all be found in weapons shop when your looking for FF
    • Even at bronze, Core should be able to mitigate enough dmg to buy time for weapons to kill
    • Harmadillo variant can also be played, switching tape to the left side next to Core and Pulse Rifle
    • Can click +25 temp dmg for significant boost in power if offered
    • After putting FF in, generally prioritize improving own effectiveness as opposed to CC-ing the opponents. 2s GPU or Metronome is enough for this. The shield scaling will outdo many weapon boards outside of things like Augmented Weaponry.
• Econ: This build is generally more economically draining due to many items being switched in, looking for specific items, and out as well as early skill vendors being taken often. For this reason, I will often take free / income options up to a certain point (typically stopping at 7-8 income) if the other options are mediocre. This is also part of the reason why scrap and loot from level up is rated very highly.
  • This build plays very opportunistically given the nature of events such as skill vendors. Try to always have 6 gold or equivalent networth in stash past Day 3. Ideally 12g later on.
• Day 1: XP is highest priority for power (until 2 XP events) since there are many lvl 2 hits, particularly Core upgrade which will double in base shield and scaling which can single handedly win many Day 1 boards. If not, the extra rug slot for more shield items and chargers is generally more efficient than having fewer higher quality items.
  • The main competing considerations are weapons shop after PvE for securing FF and early game weapons and Finn’s but that rarely shows up alongside XP events. Hour 1 Monster Loot is also a consideration over XP due to item versatility and time to get items that synergize with the loot obtained.
  • This is also supported by the point on offense where you are not stuck with any particular type of offense, allowing for more item versatility.
• Shop / Free Item Odds
  • This assumes almost any (not Gearnola) shield item to the right of the Core will suffice Days 1-2 and is not including neutrals which can drop at a lower rate than Dooley items.
  • Bronze tools have 3/7 good drops, 4 if you count Welding Torch. Other 3 are unfortunately quite bad.
  • Bronze Shield items have 11-12/14 hits. Small shields is 6/7
  • Bronze Friends have 6/13 shield related or good items. Small friend is 4/6
  • Bronze Slow items have 3/7 hits, but are some of the best hits: Tape, Aegis, LEDs
  • Bronze Small Weapons are: Alpha Ray, Chris, Uzi, and Laser Pistol. 3 good hits.
  • Weapons shop has a very high chance to hit FF(10 bronze, 14 silver) and Large shop is effectively guaranteed (FF is the only bronze).

Items

• Battery: Better the more initial shield you have, especially synergistic with Reserve Shield / Defense Grid / Relax / Heavy Shielding. Battery more freeze resistant since it will charge the FF while it is frozen, letting it immediately go off once the freeze ends. Tradeoff is 1 less charger for Core and 1 less crowd control slot. For this reason, I usually put it in later on, but is not a necessity if your FF is hasted and skills don’t line up.
  • Unplayable at bronze
  • Silver lets you swing at 4s, 6s, 8s, 10s and has nice sync
  • Gold similar to silver letting you swing at 4s, 5s, 8s, 9s.
    • Comparable to Diamond Battery when your FF cd is significantly lower than battery aka when: CD_Bat – CD_FF >  CD_FF – 3
  • Diamond full charges and resyncs each use, very insane
  • Decent target for ammo loot
• Uzi: Best charger, usually only dropped in specific circumstances like Temporal Strikes. Would still run with mixed msgs because having a charger constantly hasted is very valuable and should still result in FF being almost perma hasted.
• First Aiden: Great charger, can be combined with other haste sources to achieve boardwide haste. Usually the target for increasing haste duration if metronome not present
• Lightbulb: Slightly worse Aiden in most cases due to importance of any haste, but still fulfills role of 3s charger. Crit chance is a nice upside since you can give Core crit especially at gold+. Usual uzi substitute in case of single weapon requirements.
• Miss Isles: Generally worse than Uzi + Aiden/Lightbulb because it’s less freeze targets but can be value with skills such as Hypnotic Drain
• GPU: Great item at silver, especially before metronome. Hasting 2s = charging 2s on a delay at low haste. Syncs up very well with 2nd FF hit. Ditch later once haste problem starts getting solved
• Metronome: Most reliable haste source, typically between Aiden and Core, but can also be between Core and FF instead of tape if high % shield or initial shield and low on haste
• Energy Potion: Solves all your haste needs, but hard to get. Typical fights end around the time the duration expires. Upgrade and increase haste/ammo when you can.
• Multitool: Extra haste and little bit of CC. Basically a 2nd Aiden excluding the 3s charger part.
• Cog: For when you REALLY need haste on FF and can’t find anything better
• Captain’s Wheel: Sometimes played when you really need haste and it drops from monster encounters. Usually between aiden and Core or Core and FF if you can drop tape
• Catalyst: Strictly worse metronome. Sometimes you can’t find metronome so you play this cause it dropped from Trash Titan.
• Cool LEDs: Best Dooley slow item. Less powerful since Core doesn’t go off as often as other builds, but still good. Most common slot in for CC at 2s+ or for freeze on slow
• Beta Ray: Combination of fast charger and CC, although very specific. Usually a decent midgame slot in if some haste is solved such as with Metronome and at a high freeze duration. Can also be stashed in case of Invigorating Cold.
• Coolant: Generally not great for antiburn since you want to be bursting and if you play the long fight, you still get outscaled, would rather have a faster charger with utility if possible. Can be used against Pyg and Vanesssa lategame if lacking freezes.
• Nitro: Usually only played with freeze on burn or when diamond. Extra charging power can be very impactful especially with Battery since there’s 2 chances to effectively charge FF.
• Atomic Clock: Very good charger and CC but has limited ammo. Would really only play if 6+ ammo or with refill and at gold+. Especially good vs Vanessas lategame.
• Chronobarrier: One of the best items in the game. Usually pretty hard to slot in especially if haste is not solved, but worth at diamond.
• Combat Core: Sometimes a midgame option, especially if Core is low tier. Has a couple problems, mainly being also tied to Core upgrades to be effective (at least gold). Can be mitigated by Heavy Shielding Skill for higher base shield and benefits from large item skills. If equal or lower CD than FF and to its left, will proc Reserve Shield before FF hits. Has a glaring weakness of having to run 2 large items being vulnerable to Freeze/Slow. Can be ran with dual core with GPU or Core specific skills, but generally not advised.
• Barbed Wire: Powerful in non-Alpha Ray early-midgame setups as a way to help finish off opponents, especially burn opponents after FF has done its 1st couple shots.

Skills

• Particularly with shield skills I prioritize skills that give you the agency since you are a burst build with the main exception being the skills that swing the burn matchup.
• Early Shield Skills: I generally take the Shield Vendor, Fortis, when offered, especially Day 3+. Here’s the skills I prioritize in approximate order of importance, but keep in mind these are build dependent and are generally close. I put a reasonable emphasis on initial shield value because this is a burst build, so I tend to place number efficient skills like Heavy Shielding or Heavy Mettle higher than most other people when they show up early. For the bronze skills, I put the ones I would actually pick up simply for the immediate power, but the only one I would actively value highly is Heavy Shielding. Burn Containment significantly improves the burn matchup arguably even makes it favorable at diamond. I rate Electrified Hull very highly in the context of this being a burst build and being able to cheat out extra charges helps build up that initial shield and can let you hit in quick succession with FF if you get lucky.
  • Bronze: Heavy Shielding (Large Shield), Critical Protector (Shield Crits), Frontal Shielding/Rear Shielding (Left/Rightmost Shield)
  • Silver: Reserve Shield(%HP shield on Large use), Defensive Stance(Shield on weapon use), Hardened Shield (Shield on enemy weapon use), Sharp Corners(damage on shield), Heavy Mettle (Shield based on lvl)
  • Gold: Electrified Hull (Charge on shield), Burn Containment (Shield when burned), Titanium Casing (Shield on Core use), Backup Defenses (half hp shield)
  • Diamond: Emergency Shield (use highest shield at half hp)
• Haste Skills: Basically, Haste vendor is guaranteed to give you at least 2 gold skills because there’s only 2 skills that show up at a lower tier. You want haste on at minimum Core and FF and the “always get” enable that or make it very simple to achieve. Basically take the “always gets” over freeze on haste and take the other ones if you already have the haste on freeze.
  • Always get: Heavy Machinery, Invigorating Cold, Mixed Messages
  • Captain’s Charge: At first glance it seems underwhelming, but the main purpose is that it will take the items that it hits out of the possible haste pool for the duration since haste prioritizes nonhasted items. This means that you can use Captain’s Charge on tape and battery next to FF. Then metronome Aiden and Core to have Aiden haste either FF or your last small item. If Aiden is haste 3s, your board will be fully hasted for the duration of captain’s charge.
  • Lefty Loosey: Ok amount of haste, usually don’t play around but even just 1s of haste hitting FF can be game deciding. Antisynergy with battery since it has a high chance of desyncing it from FF.
  • Static Acceleration: Decent amount of crit chance, but would only take late or if you have spare gold / metronome since its expensive and you dont have that much haste early-midgame
• Other Skills:
  • Defense Grid (%HP shield at start): Yea this is the most OP, but doesn’t show up in Fortis so you have to natural roll it. Always take.
  • Literally any “On X, Freeze”: These are very powerful in general but even more so since you are a burst build and that initial freeze gives you more breathing room to build up shield uninterrupted. The only difficult one to use is the poison one, but there’s a couple reasonable ways to enable it and you don’t always have to focus on having it active
    • “When you use a large item, burn/poison/slow”: enables the said freeze skills above and the slow one is just good on its own since you don’t proc your LEDs as much as other Dooley builds and 5s a lot of slow
    • “When you do X, burn” enables burn freeze skill
  • Big Numbers(Large item crit), Building Crescendo (gain crit on item use), any skill that just gives crit to your FF: As stated in the crit section, crit = good. Crescendo is a must pick as it gives you 100% crit chance after a couple seconds and it applies all your items including your core. Big Numbers is almost a must pick since it gives a very high crit chance
  • Any Relevant CDR: CDR good.
  • Temporal Strikes: More CC good, drop uzi for lightbulb
  • Stout Fire (Regen/Dmg when burned): Helps skew the burn matchup in your favor, mostly useful early-midgame when your still running some weapons
  • Stop That (slow on half hp): Decent with half hp shield skills, giving time to hit with FF. Generally lower priority than others, but rises when you have said skills.

Monster Encounters

Day 1

• Banannabal: Highest priority, tape is the most important item for Armored Core, allows it to effectively scale shield on itself.
• Haunted Kimono: Mostly looking for the scrap since it’s very powerful Day 1.
• Kyver Drone: Crit and CDR good. Hold crit for FF and use CDR on Core

Day 2

• Giant Mosquito: Rush is very powerful, especially with % shield and when FF is the only weapon. CDR good. 
• Coconut Crab: Skill is pretty good, allows you to get a 2nd wind at half hp, but does not give you agency, so slightly less good
• Tent City Mayor/Rogue Scrapper: Scrap.

Day 3

• Eccentric Etherwright: Rigged is an insane skill, pretty much no bad targets. Can get FF if you don’t already have it. Wire can be played midgame to help finish opponents. Scrap.
• Scout Trooper: Ammo and Crit.
• Rogue Scrapper: Scrap.

Day 4

• Boilerroom Brawler: Energy potion is insane an highroll. Multitool is a decent haste item. Time to tinker gives a lil extra shielding. Crit.
• Outlands Dervish: Reasonable CDR chance. Usually pick if still on integer CDR
• Bloodreef Raider: Revolver can be used as a charger. Powder Flask for reload on clock.

Day 5

• Gorgon Noble: Freeze skills. CDR. 3s CD charger. XP.
• Hakurvian Rocket Trooper: Crit. Extra haste. Ammo.
• Mod Squad: Aiden.
• Preening Duelist: Lots of ammo.

Day 6

• Mosquito: CDR.
• Foreman: Scrap.
• Lich: Skills are insane if you can beat him, but EXTREMELY unlikely.
• Dire Inglet: Crit, but other items suck, so rarely take. Usually will take hardest over this unless if unbeatable like Lich

Day 7

• Thug: Bonk OP. Bludgeon and Thieves guild are decent hits.
• Radiant Corsair: Fiery Rebirth OP
• Treasure Turtle: Strong half hp skill. Turtle shell can be very powerful solo right of Core when replacing all weapons except FF. Genie Lamp Good.
• Joyful Jack: Rapid Thaw OP. Equivalent Exchange can activate freeze on poison for Aiden.
• Cosmic Roc: Low chance for CDR. Skill can be a lil haste if you have some crit.

Day 8

• Dr. Vortex: Lightbulb or Cog if your desperate. Skill can’t drop.
• Car Conductor: Captain’s Wheel is ok if you need haste, but low chance.
• Joyful Jack/Cosmic Roc: Same as prev day.

Day 9

• Death Knight Reaper: Hypnotic Drain OP. Crit Good. Lots of XP.
• Weapon’s Platform: Surprisingly very good haste skill, especially with Battery. Also drops Battery, Aiden, Uzi if you don’t have those already.
• Ferros Khan: Silencer for FF CDR. Haste potion OP. One Shot, One Kill is insanely powerful on FF, effectively triple shield damage.
• Bloodreef Captain: CDR Skill. Captain’s Wheel once again for haste.
• Elite Duelist: Big Ego is powerful for lifesteal, but rare. Powder Flask is ok. Generally lower priority due to other hits being so powerful.

Day 10

• Awakened District: Both skills are very good, either haste or reasonably high base shielding depending on board. Good chances for skills.
• Lord Arken: Unwavering gives a lot of shielding. Diamond battery is a very good hit if you don’t have a battery. Heavy Weaponry is ok.
• Trash Titan: Juggler is the single best highroll skill for FF. Very unlikely but appears very often, so many chances to cancel out bad rolls.
• Veteran Octopus: CDR skill is insane and can be easily achieved with the standard setups. Unfortunately, it’s always Tiny Cutlass.
• Lord of the Wastes: Genie Lamp good. Crit skill is ok if your desperate at best, disastrous at worst.
• Master Alchemist: Reload Skill.
• Hulking Experiment: Low chance for Energy Potion.