TL;DR: Balance damage and critical damage more effectively. Don't just spam base damage because you'll lose.

Okay so damage obviously is the most important stat in the game. I don't need to tell you twice that the bosses have an unfair amount of HP and that simply won't do for exploiting the game!

But wait! Before you click away from this guide, I'm going to show you how to do a lot more damage.

What you probably don't realize is that critical damage is more important then base damage. Here me out, do the basic elementary school math. Each upgrade gives you between 75-100 percent more critical damage for your buck. Each common base damage upgrade gives you between 5-20 damage at high infamy levels you might be struggling at. This is because the game nerfs your "base" damage but not your "critical" damage. With this knowledge we can simply break infamy level 20 and do upwards of 1000 or more damage come the end of the game.

Now I'm not telling you to "skip base damage entirely." Remember basic math! Critical damage is a multiplayer. You need base damage to do more critical damage. And you need more critical damage to do base damage. So balance between these upgrades, when life gives you lemony goodness of legendary critical damage upgrades, don't pass em up.

"But wait how do I know when to pick one over the other?" For starters, never pick a "common" damage upgrade. That's for scrublords. If you have the level-up choice between a fat "uncommon" critical damage upgrade for 75 percent and a weak ass "common" damage upgrade, then it's time to make some priorities.

So critical chance is single-handedly the most important upgrade next to damage. All of you guys on the forums know that. So I guess job done with this part of the guide right?

Wrong. You all seem to love the "maxing out your critical chance to 60 and waiting for the legendary hawk eye upgrade to spawn from the avengers training camp and give you the extra 40 you need for the meme 100 percent." I'm going to tell you all a hot take. You're all a bunch of noobs

Okay now that you've angrily downvoted this guide and sent me a hateful comment. Let's talk business. If you're literally prioritizing critical chance so much that you forget about "dashes" or "movement speed" or "any sort of survival" in your build. Well obviously that won't work past infamy level 10. Sure the game rewards you for doing this on basic diffcultities. But I'm going to help you get the demi-god achievement.

Let's be honest, a 50 to 70 percent crit chance sounds weak. But with 600 percent critical damage, 120 base damage, do you really need that fat 100 percent chance meme? And keep in mind with high attack speed builds like Natoko, you simply don't need 100 percent chance. Why? Because if you shoot a million bullets, then at least half of those are criting no matter what. Did any of you study basic mathematics in school? Seriously, ask your elementary school teacher to help you play this game before you get upset and demand a refund. Or whoever your "coolest" teacher is, there's always a gamer someone in high school, middle school or elementary who can teach ya after class.

Now I know what a lot of you might be thinking. "I'm a good player and I don't need no stinking health!" I'm here to prove you wrong. Later on in higher infamy levels, you will take double damage and then triple damage. So unless you're an actual honest to goodness gaming god among men and are on the top twenty of the leaderboard, then you need an HP top up now and again. Think of it more like fuel in your car and less like a crutch. If you were speedracer going down the highway at 200MPH, could you still make those sick moves if you forgot to stop at the gas station once in a while?

I personally recommend that you skip blue health upgrades and go for purple health upgrades. If however you're desperate, RNGesus has not blessed you, then it's fine to go for some blue upgrades out of sheer desperation. It's better to lose your pride at a game then it is to lose your cool and break a controller. I recommend 4-8 HP during the early game. But if your really good, then 4-6 is just fine. Late game, you want 6-12 HP. But if you really suck at this game, there's no shame going for more then 12HP, especially on higher levels of infamy where you again take double or even triple damage. We're trying to simply get you to infamy level 20, you can worry about gitting gud as you play the game and get better.

Survival upgrades. NEVER SKIP PLOT ARMOR OR EMERGENCY KIT. These items are in the game for a reason. This game can be cheap sometimes and you will take crappy hits since this game is in early access. Think of medkit and plot armor less as a "cheap cheesy tactic." And more as a "cheap shot condom." Didn't they teach you to practice safe sex? Well it's time to learn to strap on two condoms and not get absoutely violated by infamy level 20.

So basically if you want the demi-god achievement, then I recommend you swallow that pill and accept that your pride might be hurt playing this game. That's okay, not everyone is a god at gaming and that's why I created this guide after all.

A lot of you noobs think that if you simply "stack more damage and crit rate." You'll automatically win. Attack speed isn't important who needs that right?

I'm here to tell you that attack speed is the key to success with certain builds. While it can be situational, Natoko and Serra stack off of attack speed. Now don't rush out and stack attack speed either as that's a bad idea. But you need to balance it more agressively and pick lots of attack speed buffs when you have dark revenge or the bowgun. Other builds may benefit from attack speed as well.

If you want to say "play a tank." And sit around all day while everything dies, then you have the need for speed my friend. As attack speed is only really useful while your not dodging and running away for your life. Since you can not shoot while moving, tank builds benefit the most from a minigun. For example, the heavy from TF2.

However, even if you dodge and get to cover a lot. You still need some attack speed, just maybe not a whole heaping load of it like you would with a fat tank.

A lot of players seem to think that if they "simply kill everything on screen." That they magically become bullet-proof and don't take damage.

The simple truth is, at higher infamy modes, there are going to be more enemies with more magical projectiles. Crazy Denzel is your ENEMY. He will crush you come later infamy stages and kill your ass without attack speed and dashes. You need between 4-5 attack speed to win against this chad. He honestly becomes harder then the final boss during high infamy modes.

Dashes are also important too and you should grab them early. Now you might ask "how many dashes do I really need?" Sky's the limit, first of all use a freaking controller to play this game. I personally recommend between 4-6 dashes in the early game. And as many as ten dashes late game.

DO NOT PICK HEALING DASHES. This is a crutch and a noob trap. Sure turning your dashes into "estus flasks" from dark souls sounds like a cool idea. But until the developers reduce the awful 30 second dash cooldown debuff to a reasonable 15 second or even ten second cooldown, it's not worth.

Now starting off, I'm a dark evil wizard. I'm the type of the shady character that got slytherin on my hogwarts test on the offical website.

So I'm going to lead you down the dark arts of magic today. Cooldown reduction is an easily ignored stat. But it allows you to recharge your dashes faster. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! half of the abilities in the game can be thought of as spells. Anything that cooldowns is basically a magic ability and your cooldown reduction is the amount of power you have to cast it over and over again and again. Upgrading your DPS to exploitable levels.

Again, Crazy Denzel will kick your butt if you don't have rechargeable dashes. You need to be zipping around across the screen so he doesn't explode you.

Area of effect. Now I know what a lot of you might be thinking. "I don't need to study area of effect magic if I don't have any abilities duh!" And yes your kind of right, but remember bullet storm is one of the most powerful chest upgrades in the entire game. Taunt and Intimidating stare are super helpful as well. So once in a while, pick up some area of effect. And pray RNGesus smiles upon you and sends an owl your way with a spell or two. If you see a legendary area of effect upgrade but your still a mudblood, don't be afraid to pick it up.

So first of all you might be asking? What are hidden stats anyway? Hidden stats are simply stats that you can increase with chest upgrades but can't be upgrade through leveling up. Because of this rarity, they can be more powerful then those boring normal stats.

1. Projectile speed. Far sight is the most powerful common in the game and the devs could easily make it an uncommon and I wouldn't even be mad. I mean imagine your bullets flying across the map every two seconds. This scales of attack speed and damage. If you have a tank minigun build with fast attack speed and low damage, you need projectile speed. It's easy to overlook a mislabeled common upgrade as being "weak" because it's not "shiny and blue."
   
   
2. Slower projectile speed can be useful in certain builds. But nine times out of ten I just haven't found a good use case for dirty nigel. Maybe if instead of "30 percent slower projectile speed." It was "15 percent slower projectile speed." Then I'd argue it's worth it if your desperate for a little extra damage. But as it stands, the debuff is overpowered compared to the reward.
   
   
3. Poison is insanely good. There is one legendary upgrade in the game that gives you this stat and wow is it amazing. I just wish that the developers if they're reading this guide, could they please make poison a legendary stat you get on level-ups? It would add a ton of build variety. The thing is not only do you do damage over time, enemies explode and hand out the poison like it's the blood plague spreading.
   
   
4. Explosive fu**ing crits. Nitro crits is one of the best upgrades in the game. Just get it, it's good on almost every build. And while I normally wouldn't say to rush for crit chance. If RNGesus blesses you with nitro crit, it does stack with critical chance, critical damage and area of effect so focus on those stats more.
   
   
5. Warning shots. Bullets that slow down your enemies is one of the most comically busted upgrades in the game. It may be a common but it should be an uncommon upgrade it's so good. I take it with almost every build. But it's best with faster firing builds that suffer from lower damage.
   
   
6. RNG Upgrades. These are simply the best upgrades in the game. It should go without saying that if you get golden loaded die or godly die, you should take these. If you get an upgrade that says "you get one more choice." ALWAYS prioritize that. RNGesus is unfair and unbalanced in this game. And having one more chance at a good level up stat, or a good upgrade chest re-roll is the key to exploiting the game. One more chance legendaries are extremely rare compared to any other legendary so pick them up. You only get one in a good run, and two in an ungodly run. [/olist

So by now if you've gotten through this entire guide, you should have all the bare basics on how to exploit this game and upgrade your build to insane levels.

But if you didn't then I'll try my best to summarize. Base damage is an addictive substance and you need critical damage as well to maximize your damage. Don't forget to take dashes, as you want 4 to 6 dashes early game and 6-10 or more late game, it depends on your play style really. You need movement speed to dodge enemy attacks and to beat the second boss. You need 4-6 health early game. And 6-12 health late game, and perhaps more if your a noob and suck at the game.

You need magical powers like area of effect radius and cooldown reduction to keep yourself protected and safeguarded against enemies.

You need hidden stats, like projectile speed, poison, and so many more powers to really play your build however you like.

But most of all, you need patience to sit down and play this game properly. You will get frustrated and have some unlucky runs. But at the end of the day that's the whole fun of a video game is learning! So don't worry if you didn't take this guide all in, the game can seem a bit complicated but once you start playing, you'll eventually get the hang of it. So maybe instead of "giving up and refunding" out of frustration, keep playing the damn thing!