The best Trickster build in Outriders

Looking for the best Outriders Trickster build? The Trickster specialises in close quarters combat, and can use their talents to slow down and paralyse enemies. They can even teleport behind foes and infuse their ammo by harnessing the powers of the Anomaly. 

It's fun to dance around enemies with ease, and use your slippery talents to defeat them. Just like the other Outriders classes, you'll eventually unlock eight skills for the Trickster. But you can only equip three at a time, so I'm here to help you find the best combinations of these formidable powers. Here are the best Outriders Trickster builds, and how to make the most of them.

The best Outriders Trickster build

Since Outriders' release, the Trickster has remained one of the most popular classes in the game, and it’s not hard to see why: The class is extremely flashy and has some of the most stylish abilities in the game. Its mobility and time-splitting abilities are slick, but that’s not what ultimately gives the class its punch. 

It became so dominant that the class got a significant nerf post-release. While that certainly hurt, that patch targeted how easy it was to create a powerful build. Now, if you're creative enough, the results can be even more impressive.

When played with the right build, Trickster can still output an enormous amount of weapon damage. Managing your cooldowns and selecting the right tree will see your weapon damage soar. Here’s what you need to put together one of the best builds in the game.

Skills

Two of the skills needed for this build will come relatively quickly, but Venator’s Knife will take until level 17 to unlock:

• Twisted Rounds (Level 6)
• Venator’s Knife (Level 17)
• Hunt the Prey (Level 4)

Class tree

Choosing the Trickster subclass is tough: Some with great ability focus and other that'll help you stay alive. However, for this build, focus on the Assassin path. This is the path that is most focused on your weapon output. Your abilities remain important, but the star of the show in this build is the arsenal in your hands—despite this being targeted hardest by nerfs

Important class abilities

• Arms Trick: Increases your close range weapon damage by 15 percent.
• Bulletstorm: Decrease reload time by 20 percent.
• Death Probability: Increases your weapon damage by 8 percent.
• Shotgun Master: Increases shotgun weapon damage by 15 percent, increases shotgun weapon drop chance by 20 percent.
• Disruptive Firepower: Activation of Deception skills increases your weapon damage by 35 percent for eight seconds. 
• Outrider Executioner: Activating movement skills increases your weapon damage by 35 percent for eight seconds. 
• Unforeseen End: When attacking enemies from behind, all your weapon damage is increased by 20 percent.
• Bounty Hunter: Increase your weapon damage against elites by 15 percent.
• Oddity Summation: Increases your magazine size by 50 percent.
• Cold Calculation: For each enemy in close range, your weapon damage is increased by 8 percent.

Mods

Focus on mods that boost weapon damage. For this build, there's no such thing as too many options that superpower your weapons. Another important aspect of these mods is their ability to refill your magazine on kills, which in turn allows you to keep Twisted Rounds up for as long as possible. 

Essential

• Bleeding Bullets (Tier 1/2/3): Shots inflict Bleed on enemies. 
• Vampiric Mag (Tier 2): Killing shots on enemies afflicted with Bleed replenishes 50 percent of ammo in your magazine.
• Additional Mag (Tier 1): Twisted Rounds: The skill is effective for two magazines before triggering the cooldown.
• Bloodlust (Tier 2): Killing shots increase your firepower. Stacks up to three times and deteriorates every ten seconds.   
• Sharp Eye (Tier 3): Killing enemies while aiming down sights grants you firepower for 20 seconds. Stacks up to three times.   
• Personal Space (Tier 2): Grants you a 15 percent bonus to close range weapon damage.

Beneficial

• Mitigation from Death (Tier 2): Killing enemies while aiming down sights grants you points of armor for ten seconds. Stacks up to three times. 
• Instant Reload (Tier 3): Hunt the Prey: Teleporting instantly replenishes magazine in your current weapon.
• Ammo Bargain (Tier 3): Twisted Rounds: While the skill is active, killing shots replenish 20 percent of ammo in your magazine.
• Perpetuum Mobile (Tier 2): You instantly replenish your magazine if you kill an enemy with 35 percent or less ammo remaining in your magazine.      
• Radiation Jump (Tier 1): Hunt the Prey: Inflict vulnerable to the enemy you teleport behind. 

As for the legendary set you want, the Ugake Otarah is the way to go. This will synergise beautifully with your skills and when you have three pieces, when you use Hunt the Prey on enemies marked by Venator’s Knife, it won’t consume a cooldown. Your movement speed will be exceptional. 

Weapons

Unlike classes like the Devastator that are built around heavy ability usage, the Trickster is all about the firearm in their hands. This build will put you in the thick of things, and thus, close-range weapons are going to be your friends. Automatic shotguns in particular are a priority. Making use of the Shotgun Master perk on your skill tree will amplify your damage massively. A good complement to this is a great submachine gun or assault rifle of your choosing. This will let you take on a little more distance and sustained damage if the need ever arises. 

The real trick with this build is to use your Twisted Rounds and go for as long as possible without reloading. This build does that by applying Bleeding Bullets onto enemies and then finishing them to take advantage of the Vampiric Mag mod. This should keep your gun fairly well topped up and allow you to enjoy extended periods of Twisted Rounds. 

The alternative mod to achieve this is Perpetuum Mobile, but this is slightly trickier to activate. You can only kill enemies in the last third of your magazine which can be awkward. But the upside is it doesn’t require you to have a way to place Bleed on enemies. 

Tips

This build is all about getting up close with the enemies and trying to keep your Twisted Rounds up for as long as possible. It'll give you some of the best single-target damage in the game. 

When engaging a group of enemies, single out any elites first. These enemies have disruptive cooldowns and ruin your stylish flow, so pump all your cooldowns into them. Don’t be afraid to drop all three of your skills into taking down a particularly difficult enemy. 

But you also need to balance your magazine. Especially when Twisted Rounds is activated, try and keep your gun juiced up and avoid reloading. To do this, pump some bullets into a target and then turn your attention to a smaller enemy or two, Kill them to top up your magazine. If you can get behind an Elite enemy to take advantage of the Unforeseen End perk, all the better.

When not dealing with bigger enemies, your build will be a little less impressive, but still perfectly survivable. Use Venator’s Knife to slow enemies and give yourself time. Hunt the Prey is a great way to engage or even disengage if things get too hot. Try to keep one or the other off cooldown in case of an emergency. As for Twisted Rounds, use it if you are confident there are no elites around the corner or you can keep it up indefinitely by continually killing smaller enemies. 

If you’re in a squad, have them focus on smaller enemies and mobs, and try to buy as much time for you to burst down elites. Technomancer, Pyromancer and especially the Devastator will have a much easier and quicker time dealing with mobs. If you can synergise you build and your team, you will make mincemeat of powerful enemies in the game that other classes will struggle to burn down. You’ll bring bosses to their knees in no time at all. And best of all, you’ll look great doing it.