Welcome to Method's living 'best build' guide for Testing Station No. 195 (Poison). This guide was written by Talath, the current fastest Testing Station speedrunner, and will showcase what we believe to be the strongest current build for the Testing Station.
If you are looking for the difficulty scaling or loot tables, check out our Testing Station Info Page or if you need a walkthrough then we also have a guide available.
Note: we will update this guide whenever we find a better build or improvements to the current build, so we advise you check back often.
Quick Links:
Video Guide
Check back soon for the video guide!
Weapons & Augments
Ranged Weapon
The best build for the Electric Testing Station only requires a melee weapon and a shotgun for the fastest clear times. The Perforator or Shellburster shotguns (scatterguns) are the best weapons for this build and can be found in Testing Station No. 136 (Fire). Both shotguns have comparable sustained DPS, however the Perforator is the preferred shotgun for its burst damage. The Shellburster is especially useful for this Testing Station, because its fiery shots can clear poison clouds, similar to a Static Compactor.
For your shotgun, you will want the following Augments (in order of priority):
Melee Weapon
For the mobs and lock-in rooms, the highest grade melee weapon you have is usually the best, although when competing with weapons of the same grade the rapier Static Needle comes out on top. Rapiers have the longest reach during lunge attacks, allowing you to chain lunges without missing your target. Rapier slowblade attacks are 10% faster when penetrating shields compared to other top weapons like the Replica Pulse-sword or Pulse-knife. The Static Needle is chosen over Halleck's Pick, because damage over time effects (like the poison damage inflicted by the Pick) cancel crowd control effects like Compel.
Alternatively you could use a Replica Pulse-sword for its area effect parry or the Replica Pulse-knife to keep some reach.
For your melee weapon, you will want the following Augments (in order of priority):
Garments & Augments
The Forge Armor set has poison mitigation, which is far less helpful in this testing station when compared to the value fire mitigation has in Testing Station 136 (Fire). The Forge Armor set is useful here primarily for the Blade Mitigation it provides, allowing us to survive some boss attacks which would kill use otherwise. This setup uses Ix-Core Leggings for the bonus reduced dash cost, however you can substitute in The Forge Pants or other armors with Blade Mitigation.
- Head: The Forge Helmet
- Chest: The Forge Chestpiece
- Legs: Ix-Core Leggings
- Gloves: The Forge Gloves
- Boots: The Forge Boots
The Blade-warding Weave or Woven Reinforcement Augmentations will both give additional Blade Mitigation, although they are not necessary.
Tools
For this Testing Station you will want to run a pretty standard Tool loadout:
- Power Pack: Young Sparky Mk6 > Accelerator Power Pack
- Shield: Adaptive Holtzman Shield
- Suspensor Belt: Full Suspensor Belt
Abilities & Techniques
We will be running a different build for the pre-boss section of the Testing Station, then switching Skills and Techniques before entering the boss fight. Both builds are outlined below.
Abilities & Techniques - Pre-boss Fight
Here's our suggested Ability loadout below:
- Ability Slot 1: Knee Charge
- Ability Slot 2: Weirding Step
- Ability Slot 3: Compel
And your Techniques:
- Technique Slot 1: Disciplined Breathing or Suspensor Dash
- Technique Slot 2: Manipulate Instability
- Technique Slot 3: Center of Mass
This loadout maximises mobility, while providing as much damage as possible through Manipulate Instability and Center of Mass. Use Compel to peel one mob away when there are two together, or to set up a flurry of slow blade attacks on an enemy Heavy.
Abilities & Techniques - Boss Fight
Here's our suggested Ability loadout for the boss fight:
- Ability Slot 1: Attractor Field or Knee Charge
- Ability Slot 2: Energy Capsule
- Ability Slot 3: Compel
And your Techniques for the boss fight:
- Technique Slot 1: Battle Hardened or Exploit Weakness
- Technique Slot 2: Manipulate Instability
- Technique Slot 3: Center of Mass
The build for this boss fight uses Spice Prescience and Battle Hardened to maximise our uptime on Attractor Field and Energy Capsule. While Spice Prescience is active you can unload two full Perforator clips during one Attractor Field and then recast it again almost immediately. Compel can be used to give some breathing room to buff and apply Attractor Field to the boss, however it is primarily used to deal with the adds that spawn. If you move to the spawn door while the boss is in his phase transition, you can ready Compel and use it on the add as soon as the green target marker appears. If done correctly, you can double slowblade the add in a risk free environment, although in a pinch Compel can still be used to distract the boss while you deal with the add. Attractor Field can cling to the environmental objects everywhere, so it's best to play around the entrance, or the clearing at the other end. Remember to use your Shellburster to clear the poison clouds in the final phase if you brought one.
The alternative setup uses Knee Charge and Exploit Weaknesses, relying on shotgun stagger to interrupt the boss's patterns. Knee Charge is primarily used defensively to create distance and break line of sight, giving you an opportunity to heal. Manipulate Instability increases your ranged damage when you stagger the boss with shotgun blasts and Exploit Weakness while sometimes inconsistent, adds another damage boost. You have to be closer to the boss with this setup compared to when using Attractor Field, so there's still a learning curve when working out the best spacing to avoid his attacks.
Skill Trees
Check out the images below where you can view the full skill trees for every Skill, Passive, and Technique we use. Techniques and Active Skills used in this build should be max level, before prioritising the Key Skills below.
Key Skills
Below are the skills you really don't want to be without for this build.
- Trooper: Scattergun Damage (Level 3)
- Trooper: Ranged Damage (Level 3)
- Mentat: Ranged Damage (Level 3)
- Bene Gesserit: Blade Damage (Level 3)
- Bene Gesserit: Short Blade Damage (Level 3) (Only if running a Dagger or Dual Blades)
- Bene Gesserit: Vitality (Level 3)
- Swordmaster: Optimized Hydration (Level 3)
- Swordmaster: General Conditioning (Level 3)
- Swordmaster: Blade Damage (Level 3)
- Swordmaster: Long Blade Damage (Level 3) (Only if running a Sword or Rapier)
- Planetologist: Rerouting (Level 3)
If you have extra points after filling out your tree as shown in the images above, you can add points to Poison Tolerance.
