Outriders will allow squads of up to three players playing together in co-op missions and activities
Outriders will allow squads of up to three players playing together in co-op missions and activities

The Devastator’s Boulderdash ability has been the butt of many jokes, but one of the recent additions from the “Outriders” expansion “Worldslayer” has turned this janky skill into a surprisingly strong damage tool against elites and bosses.

Here’s a flexible Anomaly Power build using the Deathless armor set and one skill node from the Tectonic Shifter Pax tree that makes Boulderdash hit like a train.

The Loadout

The three-piece Deathless reduces Boulderdash’s cooldown by 90% while also granting a Firepower bonus equal to 30% of the player’s armor. The latter will be largely negligible since abilities scale off of Anomaly Power.

Additionally, try to fit in two armor pieces that have Anomaly Power stats to maximize damage. Then, use the following mods to buff Boulderdash up to ridiculous degrees:

  • Primal Weakness
  • Primal Rage
  • Primal Knuckle Duster
  • Primal Armor
  • Power Assimilation
  • Tainted Blood
  • Death’s Door
  • Despair/Human Comet
  • Anomaly Echo
  • Phantom Dash

Use Gravity Leap for mobility and Despair’s damage buff, though this can be traded for more upfront damage via Human Comet.

For the third skill slot, use Reflect Bullets for full-frontal immunity against all attacks.

As for weapons, use Mythos or anything that can fit Fortress, Mage’s Rage or any Bleed-on-hit effect like Omen for the sake of Tainted Blood. Bring another gun with high single-target damage for flying enemies.

Class Tree and Playstyle

The hybrid Seismic Shifter and Warden skill tree setup allows for high damage and survivability. Take nodes that increase Anomaly Power, Resistance Piercing and major nodes that increase damage after skill use like Paladin.

A slightly modified Devastator skill tree that favors ability damage and survivability in Outriders

A slightly modified Devastator skill tree that favors ability damage and survivability in Outriders Photo: Outriders

For the Pax skills, take all of the bottom nodes in the Tectonic Shifter tree. Terms of Engagement allows Boulderdash to hit for anywhere between 60-1,200% more damage and possibly beyond depending on the number of times it hits enemies.

Since the skill can hit a single enemy up to four times, it takes 60% of Boulderdash’s per-hit damage and stores all of it for every hit of the next Boulderdash cast.

To put things into perspective, a normal 200,000 damage Boulderdash hit can reach 12 million with Terms of Engagement alone, which can total to 48 million if all hits connect. Realistically, players will see a 180-360% damage boost on average since most enemies tend to die in a single hit anyway.