Not quite up to date with Anniversary update! Also, no Void DLC content! When I have time... Maybe this helps playing Acrid, idk. How to play, what items to take, what equipment you might use. My opinions only, maybe you have better ways... Basics With Acrid, he is heavily guerrilla warfare styled. Probably best to not spam in the middle of the enemy the whole time. Move through their ranks dealing damage, pull out and recover for the next assault. And any time you can deal DoT (damage over time), it's a good thing, sprinkle liberally on roasts and crowds. Fire especially. Acrid's basic attack isn't his main weapon (unless you go for a pure brawling build, but you have to hog a ton of syringes, glasses etc. to do this well). Hold the attack down for a bit and get a few attacks off if you are in the enemy's face and don't have your abilities charged. There's a little more reach to it than you might expect, and remember the third strike is strongest. Also, there's another guide to make Acrid broken out there, it's probably getting fixed at some point so I don't want to rely on it. Acrid can also spit a projectile with his 2nd ability, this is your wisp killer. Relatively short cooldown but it could use some work. It's also one of the few ways to fight tanky air units... Useful to shoot ground enemies from a distance too. It has a small splash damage radius to it. Keep in mind the range of this projectile is not too great, even though it's pretty accurate. Acrid's 3rd ability is a leap that deals splash damage and leaves behind acid pools. Too bad the acid doesn't speed you up like in the first game... At least the leap makes for a decent mobility boost. This attack is for leaping right into a pile of enemies, or into a larger foe like a golem or beetle guard. The attack will stun the golem and reset his little laser. Also, the acid is great against slow enemies that can't move to escape it very quickly. Very useful against ground foes. Tanky air units are Acrid's biggest weakness because he just can't hit them very hard... But wait, there's a way of sorts! The leap will trigger the impact if you hit the enemy, even if it isn't the floor! So, you can leap into that brass contraption or greater wisp, and blast it with some gunk to trigger the poison and deal some splash damage. The acid pool will drop below. Acrid's 4th ability is his disease-ridden spit. This attack will fly forward and on impact create a small arc to the nearest enemy within a small radius. You don't have to hit the enemy dead-on if you can hit the ground right by them. The disease will quickly jump to every enemy it can reach from that enemy and keep making jumps until there are no new enemies to infect. Get a bunch of enemies grouped up, and this weapon will soften them up good- or kill the horde outright if you're playing with Artifact of Glass. If there's a terrifying horde of wisps filling the sky it might just save you. There's also another ability of sorts that Acrid has, his poison. Acrid's spit attack and his disease will continuously inflict poison damage based on a percentage of the enemy's health. This equals a bit of built-in difficulty scaling! The farther you get in difficulty the more health enemies have, but the poison will always deal a certain percent of their health in damage per tick. So, if you lag a bit and get outscaled, your poison effect will help you from drowning in the enemies' massive health pools. The poison can't kill enemies, but it can leave them at 1hp. Combine this DoT with lethal DoT (especially fire) and your foes will topple! My strategy is to beat down weak enemies with the basic attacks, snipe wisps with the spitball, and leap into tanky units to punish them. When a big crowd builds up, I like to pull back and lure them into a group, put the disease into them and let it work its way around, then leap into their midst for the splash damage. It's tempting to leap again right away, but if those enemies are too tough, it's better to use the second leap to get some distance between you again. Remember hit and run. For a boss fight, if the boss(es) are stuck on the ground, take them on one by one, use the leap to get some poison in and then disease them, then pull back and work on the little guys a bit, rinse and repeat. Air bosses are a lot trickier for Acrid. Leap into them for some damage, spit at them whenever possible. You can disease them too if they aren't still poisoned, but that's better saved for the small enemies. If you can get on top of the air boss's head, then you can take some swings with the basic melee for a bit. It will be a pain to fight the air bosses though. Items As usual, some items are just too important for certain characters, or too weak on others. Acrid is no exception. There are of course items good on everyone, so I'll include just the more significant ones. When playing multiplayer, some items you really should give to others. This creates a real conflict of interest when playing alongside characters that crave certain items that Acrid also craves. Try not to play alongside those characters, especially Mercenary. Mercenary is a really cool guy and all, but Acrid and Mercenary fight over items like nobody's business. Play alongside characters that have decent ranged attacks instead, like Sniper who isn't actually in the game. Must-Haves You gotta have these if you play Acrid, it's worth taking them from other players. You need them. Focus Crystal: Acrid's bread-and-butter. Makes the disease better, the poison better, the leaps better, etc etc. When Acrid's disease starts demolishing that fat stack of enemies you'll be glad you had all of these. Of course, you have to stay close to the enemy for it to work, so if you flee it won't help. Mercenary will probably want these even more, so just don't play with Mercenary. Tri-tip Dagger: DoT is really nice with Acrid. Get 7 of them and then let everyone else have the rest. The bleed damage can tip the scales on those poisoned foes at 1hp, and get them there sooner. Gasoline: Acrid likes gasoline for the DoT. If you get an enemy killed in your little crowd before the rest, the others will fall like dominoes. More fire! Will-o'-the-Wisp: You want this the same way you want gasoline. Plenty of it. Old War Stealthkit: The savior of your days, it will let you get out of a bad spot if you messed up. Remember hit-and-run? Not always a good idea but you can use this as an indicator when to do the running part if you feel cocky. Mark of Death: With your built-in debuffs and your debuff applying items, this thingy makes your foes look like they really are suffering from disease. Oh yeah, they'll also take a lot more damage, it's like super focus crystals! H3AD-5T v2: Your leaps become super leaps. A must-have, although Artificer could use one too. Frost Relic: You're in the fray swinging and jumping a lot. This guy helps make the most of your attack time. You. want. this. relic. Well, I guess Mercenary could use it too, but why are you playing with Mercenary on your team? Hardlight Afterburner: This item helps you become a leaping maniac, and is valuable for getting you out of trouble OR making a lot of splash damage. Pretty good on you. Unless there's a Mercenary playing with you. Seriously, why is there a Mercenary with you? Brainstalks: Not always useful for most of your skills, but if you take this you can do a whole bunch of jumps in quick secession, to slam your foes with damage or flee far. When you kill an elite, of course. Happens a lot late game. Transcendence: IF (and that's a big if) you haven't collected many healing items, pick this bad boy and then be the most generous person with healing items that you find. Stack topaz brooches and personal shield generators instead. You are basically immune to fire, and you'll be in the fire more than most characters. Hit, run away and get shield back, hit again. Unless there's a Mercenary present, they need it even more. Stop playing Acrid and Mercenary together, it's a constant battle for everyone's souls the items! Visions of Heresy: Actually pretty decent on Acrid. His claws just aren't very impressive long-term. Most characters don't want these, but you can use them to more effectively fight aerial foes, and get some more range out of the basic melee. Think of them like little, non-poisonous spitballs. Important but Be Fair You must get these like the above category, but so do others. Make sure to play nice. Cautious Slug: I know everyone wants these, but seriously folks, Acrid needs these guys or he'll not be able to recover. It's better for Acrid than any Harvester's Scythe or Medkit, trade them if you need to. Let everyone get some, but remind people these are important for you. UNLESS: you went and got Transcendence. Like a true hero. Take shield generators instead. Backup Magazine: Some characters eat these up like no tomorrow (looking at you, Mercenary) so don't take them all, it's nice to have a few to knock out flying foes but in multiplayer get your buddies to help and let the backup mag users have most of them. In single player, however, get lots. Lots and lots and lots. Fire your spit a lot, especially at bosses and flying foes. Unless you chose the alt bite, then don't worry about them so much. Armor Piercing Rounds: hot tip from the comments, these affect the poison and blight effects. I gave it a try, it does help with the portal-locking enemies (healthbar top of screen). Pretty good to get some of these. Everyone could use a few, but this is another item that can help Acrid with bosses, especially those giant jellyfish he can't reach very well. Energy Drink: It's nice to have a few to get away after a skirmish, so of course you want as many as you can, but you already have a nice leap and everyone needs them. Be fair with them. Ukulele: Your damage to groups is king, capitalize on it. Normally not super useful to pick up more of them, but if there's not a better green in a trio dispenser it's still worth it for Acrid to take more. Leeching Seed: Another health item that's nice to have, especially since you deal a lot of non-lethal damage. Most characters like these so again, be fair. Chronobauble: This thing is normally not too great, but with the addition of a certain new item, it becomes great for helping you get 4 different debuffs on your foes. Get one of these, more is fine but not why you have it. Nice Leftovers Take these because they are good with Acrid, but honestly there are other characters who could use them way more than you. Soldier's Syringe: Having a few of these is nice but not too important, since Acrid's basic attack isn't super strong. Since you can use the basic quite effectively with the melee heavy playstyle you might want some. Lens-maker's Glasses: Having 10 of these is what everyone wants eventually, but since a lot of Acrid's damage is done in a few moves or through the poison effect, it's low priority for Acrid. Crits won't have many chances to apply. Bustling Fungus: Please, oh please just give these to an Engineer if you have one present. If they can spare a few then it's okay to have a couple, your hit-and-run tactics want you to hide for a bit and this is a good way to recharge. Crowbar: Pretty low priority since your goal is mostly to do lots of splash damage and chip damage, but a few of them will help on occasion with the wisps and such. Stun Grenade: Pass them on if you can, Acrid has a built-in stun move, and his other attacks mostly won't be able to use this. Sticky Bomb: Another on-hit item, not super useful for Acrid. Stuff to Avoid You don't want these. Heck, most people don't want these. Brittle Crown: Acrid is one of the few characters I've seen this be useful on, since he lays down so much little damages all the time. Still not usually worth getting since it's such a poor item, you'll be poor as dirt late game. Avoid it even though early on it might work out great. Strides of Heresy: Give up your awesome leap? Why? WHY? Artifact of Command When I play with Artifact of Command, I use this priority list for deciding what to take. White: Take 10 Lens-maker's Glasses first, then get the listed amount of each stack in order, then stack any plus. Stop at ( ) value. Lens-maker's Glasses: 10 Backup Mag: 3+ Tough Times: 16 Gasoline: 2+ Tri-tip Dagger: 7+ (67) Topaz Brooch: 4+ Focus Crystal: 4+ Paul's Goat Hoof: 4+ Energy Drink: 3+ Soldier's Syringe: 4+ Rusted Key: 15 Sticky Bomb: 1+ (20) Green: Take 10 Infusion first, then get the listed amount of each stack in order, then stack any plus. Stop at ( ) value. Infusion: 10+ Will-o'-the-wisp: 2+ Ukulele: 1+ (22) Predatory Instincts: 1 Chrono Bauble: 3 Mark of Death: 1+ Old War Stealthkit: 1+ Fuel Cell: 6+ Bandolier: 10 Berzerker's Pauldron: 1+ Red: take one of each in listed order, than take one of any other until you have one of each, then stack Behemoth, Relic, and Dagger. Always take Dio's if yours has expired. Dio's Best Friend: 1+ Unstable Tesla Coil: 1+ (22) Frost Relic: 1+ Brilliant Behemoth: 1+ Ceremonial Dagger: 1+ Hardlight Afterburner: 1+ H3AD-5T: 1+ (8) Sentient Meat Hook: 1+ (8) Yellow: Always just stack Titanic Knurl. Titanic Knurl: 1+ Equipment Acrid needs equipment either to patch a weakness or capitalize on a strength. Here's some ideas for certain items, ranked by top 10. 1 is the best. 1) Ifrit's Distinction: An Elite-Status item that makes you set them on fire, super duper good. As you run about in their midst or slam them with leaps, they burn, and Acrid likes burning his foes. 2) Preon Accumulator: Acrid is terrible at fighting tanky air units, but with this you can knock those suckers outta the sky! Alternatively, another way to clear that wisp army. 3) Disposable Missile Launcher: Another way to hit those airborne antagonists. 4) Foreign Fruit: Recover after fleeing or midfight to extend the crowdslammin'. 5) Royal Capacitor: The stun is nice when you hit it in a crowd. 6) Primordial Cube: Grab those foes in this, disease them, and then jump into the middle of 'em. 7) Jade Elephant: Some real Stay in the Fray(tm) technology here. 8) Effigy of Grief: Leap into a crowd you built up, then drop this and leap away. 9) Draconic Fireball: Good for escape. 10) Milky Chrysalis: Also good for escape, but no damage and slow. Alternate Abilities Acrid can switch out his poison for blight. This does damage based on your base damage, instead of on the enemy health. It is also allowed to be lethal. If you're playing Artifact of Glass this is wonderful, everything will die so fast, although if you get Old Guillotine, the poison is just as good or better. I just like the poison all around more. Acrid can switch out his acid-pool leap for a non-acid leap. You can use it more often, and it recharges faster if it scores kills, plus it does way more damage on hit. But it doesn't do the acid burn effect. It helps if the aerial tank units are really pissing you off, because it hits hard and you can use it more. The lack of acid pools is kind of sad though, I don't usually pick it. Acrid can switch his spitballs for a vicious bite. This is pretty strong, and can be use effectively on pretty much anything... except air, and you gave up your main aerial attack! Ouch! Kind of hard to see it being good if you aren't doing multiplayer and your buddies keep the fliers of your back. If they are though, it really shines. The bite can give the poison or blight as well, nice. Conclusion The way I prefer to play is if I get a blue orb or a newt altar in the first level, avoid all healing items and try to get transcendence. If I can't, I start taking the healing items. If I can get transcendence, I continue to avoid healing items. OK, so you think you can play Acrid fine now. Great, but maybe you won't have so much luck. Acrid is super janky to play. You really gotta get a feel for how to move, how to jive, in a way I can't really explain. Go practice a bunch. Trust me, Acrid is a good character. I took a lot of jabs at Mercenary, but seriously, they're good too. In a perfect world, nobody would have to fight over items. If you got some suggestions, make 'em. I'm probably not the best Acrid player in the world, even if he is my favorite over all others, even the sniper from the first game. Good luck out there, leaping lizards!