The Thanatos was, before the last major Update, the only weapon that could manage to kill anything on a Crime Spree higher than 4k. Before that, you could switch between other goodies like the Crossbow and certain Shotgun and Pistol Builds. (That would be part of another story.)

Update 149 changed that. "Why?", you might ask. That will require me to tell two stories. For one they changed how concealment modifiers work, the other part is the new Modifier that changes every Shield into a Winter's Shield. Before Update 149 you could skip on two Modifiers that you did not want. Now, at a certain Level, that is not possible anymore.

So where is the problem now? Winter's Shields do not have a massive Headshot multiplier like other specials do, they tend to not move much after they start shooting at you and they have about a quarter of a million HP on 20k+. Your Thanatos will not deal more than 15k on a Headshot to those guys and that is if you got every damage perk on you that is available. So you would need around about 15 Headshots to get it down.
That's way over a minute of shooting for one enemy that gets healed right before you can end him from the medic behind, above, or beneath him.

That might not be a Problem on some maps, but on most, that can get very stressful. Heat Street, for example, will make you go insane if one of Winter's Spartan Warriors will stand on the route you want to move Matt. You will not be able to kill him before another Shield is joining the party or a wild medic appears (or two).

Pistol Crit Builds are the answer to this Problem. And the best part is, that you do not even need a DLC for this, just the Standart stuff, and the Community Items.

The version that makes you the Ammo Mule of your Team. Pick up Ammo for your primary Deployable if no other one want to bring it.
This Build has the same killing power as the Stockholm one without the failsafe.

The save Bet. You will get trapped, you will go down like nobodies business. This gives you although the ability to play like a foul until your Stockholm charge is gone. Since the Push phases will last basically the whole heist, Stockholm is the only reliable way to get out of jail.

The only Part of the Loadout which should be changed is the secondary and primary Weapon. Remember to stay below 26 concealment. This can require some testing since the concealment Modifiers count on top of your standard concealment.

Throwable:
There is only one choice

Concussion Grenade

6 Second Stun for all cops but Winter's Shield. The single best Grenade since the Stun duration will not get worse with the rising Crime Spree. Damage Grenades just do not cut it with 100k Health Points on a standard Cop, Use it to grab Meds, run to objectives, or just drop one when you hear a Taser charging or see a mate getting tased. Useful for stuning Medics while killing them or Shields aswell.

Meele:

Buzzer, Electrical Brass Nuckles

Both are the Same, they stun the enemy so you can safely shoot them. Works best on Medics that are about to heal and Tasers that are charging up and are about to stun you. Also an option to make a cop wait for your reload before giving him what he came for.

Kunai

Kunai works fine as well. I just do not like to getting vomit at.

Secondary:

Any Pistol will work. Pick up a Silencer if you picked up Silent Killer. I run the 5/7 AP Pistol since it can shoot through the Shield's face protection.



Primary:

More choices. A lot of Assault Rifles will work here.
Carion, Car, or Queen's Wrath come to mind. They have a much better ammo pickup rate and, if you pick one with a speed pull magazine, like no reload time.
I prefer Akimbos, because low concealment Assault Rifles tend to be fairly inaccurate.
You can pick any Akimbo as long as you keep the concealment cap in mind.

Rouge or Anarchist, both are okay.

Rouge gives you the Quick Weapon Swap and a good amount of dodge, which will let you feel like you are playing in the Matrix from time to time while running from one place to the next.

Anarchist gives you a more "tactical" approach. That's because how armor works. It will not matter how big the hit was, it will always only take whatever your armor was at when you took the hit. Since Anarchist gives you a bit of armor every 2 seconds, and 10 on hit every 1.5 you can have some time running around without going down. On Top of that, you gain 2 Sec immunity to damage every 15 seconds if your armor gets fully depleted.

I prefer Rouge for this Build, since I could not manage to fit in "Lock N'Load" Basic, nor "Bullseye" Basic.

I hate to ace this. It really hurts every time I look at it. But sadly, we have to, since whatever you do, you will not be able to stay below 6 concealment. Some guys say you do not need to ace it, that the UI is just lying about your concealment, but certain mods, that show you your live dodge and crit while playing say otherwise.

Since we want to have the maximal crit rate, we ace it and just never ever think about it again.

That is what it is about on high Crime Spree. You die, and then you die more. We had Hoxout Day 2s with more than 120 downs counting on the group. It is no big deal to go down as long as you do not put anyone else in danger of going down or even getting cought in a stream of everhealing Shields.

Converts are just plain bad.

They block sight on Specials like Tasers and again, Medics and let you waste time and ammo when they run into your shooting path.
They do not deal any damage even if you would ace Joker.

And what about the biggest point on the Converts love club list? They "tank" damage.
Well, if you came to 20k without noticing that taking damage and going down on Crime Spree is what is it all about, than i do not know what to tell you. The best defensiv perks are the combination of Swan Song and Inspre. The more Heisters bring them the better.

Although, Converts require you to invest another 18 Skillpoints, which would be better invested in Stockholm, or extra deployables.

Duo:

https://youtu.be/OvfjqsyUlsI

https://youtu.be/tqSSaBFLgfU

https://youtu.be/zPaLNVSTYUI

https://youtu.be/yvZKN2GZ-s4

Trio:

https://youtu.be/uVNhlI-jLiI

Full Crew ones Coming Soon.

There are some that really make the high Crime Sprees more enjoyable and some just plainly help you out.

More to Deploy
Godtier. It is simply the best Boost available. It enables you to bring three meds and two ammo bags, or the other way around. Although you can bring up to nine Shape Charges per person, which is really handy on Transport heists and Hoxout Day2/Search.
Three ECMs per Heister makes it possible to rush pretty much every Stealth heist if that is your kind of thing.

One More Down
Not nearly as good as "More to Deploy" but worth it on longer heists, or if you could not manage to bring Stockholm. In that case, just eat a med when you have still one down left. As pointed out before, push phases can take forever and you might be lost forever if you get caught.

More Throwables
I love this one. It enables you to bring ten Concussion Grenades, which makes it ideal for athletically oriented maps like Heat Street, Hoxout Day1/Breakout, Green Bridge, and Transports.
By far my most favorite one, even if we do not always pick it.

Rapid Reload
Playing with a Thanatos makes you really want to pick this. We do not really need it, nor is it worth it. Even though, if you got a Thanatos buddy with you, paint a smile on his face by buying this.

Ammo Pilfer
Well, it sounds nice. The Problem with most weapons you bring for CS is, that you do have no capacity anyway. 15% plus will not help you much. It is still better than nothing. Take it like a Placebo, it will make you feel better about bringing Guns with not even two full clips of ammo.

More Stamina
Could be picked, but in general, you buy this on the athletically oriented maps I mentioned before. More Thorwables are a better pick for them.

The Rest of it
Most of them are about increasing Health, or Armor, or Damage Resistance. None of that matters. You dodge, tank it with you last pieces of ever regenerating Armor or go into Swan. No amount of Health or Damage Resistance will help you with getting smacked by a 2000 damage bullet.

I would not recommend running this on more than two players of the group. You can not bring a Saw, C4, or Drill Skills without totally butchering your Build, while a standard Thanatos Build will allow you to bring anything while retaining the fail safes and the damage you want for that kind of difficulty.

For a Standart Thanatos Guide simply take a look at Angels.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1105212103


Have fun popping Helmets!

18.08.2017

• Added a Video (Green Bridge)
  
• Added a Gage Boost Tab

19.08.2017

• Added a Video (Counterfeit)

20.08.2017

• Added a Video (Breakout)
  
• Put Perk Decks into their own tab

22.08.2017

• Added a Video (10-10)

31.08.2017

• Added a Video (CooK Off - the very reason this Build was brought to life)