This is how i play Lee. I cleared Alert 8 with ease. It’s not even close how easy it was compared to the other Mechas. By far the strongest and most complete build i discovered so far for both offence and defence. Hope you enjoy the ride!
Why is Lee the goat?
Lethal Knives, one of the unique passive of his mecha, makes him perform exceptionally well with the Execution evolution
If you start stacking Stronger early, you can easily get more than 50 stacks before the last boss. Depending on your luck obviously the sky is the limit:
This means more attackspeed => faster execution procs = loads of damage. Much more than you need to reasonably clear the game when you reach the later stages. You will also recover shield with each Execution proc. Your HP Bar will look something like this most of the time:
The Core
Stronger is the core talent of this build. You want to get it as soon as you see it, preferably before the first boss. You can scale your offence and defence with Execution procs. So your goal will be to proc it as often as possible and in this section I will show you how to achieve that.
You want to upgrade Stronger to have 18% proc chance. You also want some of Lee’s passives:
Swift Knives, available from the start of the run.
Lethal Knives, available as soon as you hit 2 Execution evolutions.
Hologram Knives, available as soon as you get 2 Hologram evolutions
This Integration evolution will also boost your chances of proccing Execution:
Crush, availabe after getting 2 Hologram and 2 Execution evos
You also want to lower the number of attacks required to proc Execution. The most efficient way is to get 4 evolutions and the weapon enchant.
With the weapon enchant you will only need 6 auto attacks to proc Execution. As far as i know this is the lowest it can get. It’s quite easy to get 50 stacks of Stronger. In a recent run i had more than 100 stacks which is borderline broken. The bosses just evaporated in mere seconds while i was constantly on full HP and Shield.
The Defence
With Execution we cover most of our offence, so lets talk about the defence. Besides getting Execution procs going, we also want Armor Reload evolutions.
The Integration evolution Death Loading is what will make you truly immortal.
The wording of the description is misleading. What it actually does: it is giving you a set amount of shield for each Execution proc. The amount scales with your Max Shield, which in turn scales with how many Armor Reload evolutions and how much max HP you have.
This is an example of a lategame run of mine. I got 1285 HP, so my Max Shield is 60% of that. This results in 772 max Shield, which in turn means you will generate 77 Shield when you proc Execution in case you are below your max Shield. This can even be enhanced with things that give +% Shield.
Prerequisites
To establish a smooth run and scaling of your build you will want to block some Specialties. This is how I do it:
You also want to choose your weapon wisely. You totally want a weapon skill that can break guard. Since Execution procs of auto attacks and weapon skills dont increase the count, the prefered weapon has fast attack speed and a weapon skill that is mostly used for utility rather than damage. You want to do the majority of your damage with auto attacks! There are a couple of good choices and 2 outstanding ones:
Violet Dagger: In my opinion the best weapon for Lee. The attack combo is fast and fluent. The weapon skill breaks guard. It’s a blink that “sometimes” teleports you behind enemies. It can be used for offence and defence at the same time (blinking over projectiles right into the enemies face to
break guard an stagger him, etc.) You can also scale your damage really good with the upgrade attributes.
Bayonets: The safest choice for early game. If you dont hit Execution and Armor Reload evolutions to get your shield generation going in the first biome, it’s easy to pivot into Spike Core. Spike Core will also Rupture your opponents. Since it procs of auto attacks and daggers have really fast attack speed, all the enemies on the screen will be bleeding by the time you kill them. You will regenerate a ton of HP in biomes and the green Spike Core talents will give you a lot of damage and some defence as well. The weapon skill has 2 stacks, decent aoe, applies rupture and breaks guard. Overall probably the second best option, great sustain and offence, while possibly also providing damage reduction.
There are other decent options like Prop Sword or Monoglaive. But those two are the prefered options, at least for me. Pick whatever you like best and try what floats your boat.
Early game
The priorites in the first biome:
If you unlocked advanced weapon upgrades: SAFE 400 SCRAP BEFORE LEAVING THE FIRST BIOME! I can’t stress this enough. By far the best upgrade is the Execution weapon enchant:
Even if you didnt get Strongerin the first biome, it lowers the attacks needed to proc Execution by 4. This is huge for offence and even defence once you get Death Loading
- Pick Stronger if you see it, highest priority.
- If you got your hands on Stronger get a 2nd Execution evolution ASAP.
- Pick Lethal Knives passive
- Upgrade Stronger for better stack generation.
- Pick Swift Knives passive
- Pick 2 Armor Reload evolutions. All of them are fine and almost equally valuable early. Those two lose value later, when you shield wont break anymore. They are really good early especially in combination with each other.
- Pick Death Loading if you managed to get 2 Execution and Armor Reload evos.
- If you got Death Loading, just try to get as many Armor Reload evos as you can get your hands on.
- It can also be worth to get 2 Advanced Tech evolutions early, if you dont hit your more desired evos. You will remove them later, but they will pay for themself over time and provide you with some additional Nanos.
- In case you went with the Bayonets and you struggle to get your core evolutions going, pick 2 Spike Core evos. The green evos are better than the rarer ones and provide you with sustainability, damage, damage redution and eventually some bonus scrap. The upgrades are great!
- If you didnt get your hands on Death Loading you can consider going for two SMD-115 evos. It can help you with sustain in the biome and for the first boss.
General Tips
For this section i assume you already got everything that’s mentioned in the Early Game section or are at least aware of what you still need. This section is here to show you how to further optimize and develop your build once you achieved your early goals. I will show you how one of my more optimized finished builds looks like.
- Some general and basic stuff first, you want to get as much max HP as you can get your hands on. Your shield generation scales off your max HP.
- Dont collect any scrap before you reach the shop in the first biome. If you decide to go for Advanced Tech, it can basically pay for itself before finishing the biome.
- Leave any excess healing items on the ground. In case you get a Sister’s Clinic with the one sucking you for HP you might want to gamble for a full heal in the shop. You can let her suck you dry, collect all healing items, let her suck some more and finally get the full heal at the shop. It is more than worth the scrap for the healing item.
This is how my build looked like before the final boss:
Here are all my talents:
It is not the only or best build you can go for. The important part is the core. You can finish it off however you like.
