Like any loot-shooter, Outriders is based on chance. But you can sidestep luck by leaning on the game’s intricate network of gear mods, many of which can significantly change the way your guns and armour behave. Most are good, but none compare to Death Chains, a tier-two weapon mod that — and this is putting it lightly — fucks everything the fuck up.
Basically, Death Chains amplifies your bullets to deal extra damage over the course of three seconds. (On a level-24 weapon, it deals 1,564 damage. At level 28, that number jumps to 3,751.) The mod has a two-second cooldown, meaning you can dish out extra damage before the previous three seconds of bonus damage wraps up.
If you’re lucky enough to find a weapon with Death Chains, do not slot another mod over it. Instead, dismantle that gun immediately — which will add Death Chains to your compendium of usable mods — so you can use it for the rest of forever. Trust me: You’re lucky if you find Death Chains just once. It’s too powerful and versatile to pass up the opportunity to add it to your library of mods.
Death Chains works well for sniper rifles and other long-range guns; even if you miss a headshot, you’ll still end up dealing significant damage. If your shotgun doesn’t kill an enemy in one blast, Death Chains will likely take it the rest of the way. You can probably imagine how effective it is with SMGs, LMGs, assault rifles, and other automatic weapons. Personally, I’ve found it terrifically efficient with burst-fire weapons, since each shot lines up with the mod’s cooldown.
Death Chains works in pretty much any situation. When you’re managing a large crowd, you can shoot everyone once, duck behind cover, and wait a few seconds for everyone to die. During boss fights, it dishes out exponential damage. Were there a player-vs.-player mode in Outriders, you’d better bet Death Chains would get banned (or, given the game’s track record of updates, more likely nerfed).
Unfortunately, Death Chains isn’t exactly a common mod: I’ve only found it with one of my three characters. And even with that character, Death Chains has only turned up once as an organic result of Outriders’ random number generation. To get it on the rest of my weapons — and make no mistake, it’s on all of the rest of my weapons — I’ve had to mod them each time. I’ll regularly find guns with, say, freezing bullets or that Essence Thief mod. (Side note: Why does every gun come with Essence Thief? Enough already!) Death Chains, meanwhile, continues to elude.
You’d think this means only one of my three characters has Death Chains, but there’s an easy workaround. Once you find a gun equipped with Death Chains while playing as one character, dismantle it, then apply it to a bunch of lower-level weapons, and drop those weapons into your stash. From there, you can visit your stash with any other character, take out one of those weapons, and dismantle it. The mod will then be in that character’s library for good, too.
This workaround works for any mod you may find. Contrary to what the game’s ceaseless loot grind will have you believe, you really only ever have to find a mod with one of your characters, so long as you’re willing to put in those extra steps.
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