Orbless refers to a host of different Devo strategies where you are doing farming runs without orbs, typically at minimum Tower Range (30m), and where the core essence lies in juggling enemies with bullets and primarily killing these in Spotlight for exponential gains.
It is a strategy that typically requires more active involvement than Orb Devo, but which becomes more and more viable the stronger you get and the lower you get your Ultimate Weapons cooldowns.
What is Orbless?
Orbless describes any approach focused on maximizing enemy kills within your Spotlight's range while minimizing kills outside of it. The core idea is to ensure the vast majority of enemies die under the influence of the Spotlight Coin Bonus, significantly boosting your coin income.
To achieve this, your specific source of damage must be carefully controlled: it needs to eliminate enemies rapidly when amplified by Spotlight, but dispatch them slowly when outside of its effect. This precision leads to a high concentration of kills inside Spotlight and few that are killed beyond its reach.
The "Orbless" name itself comes from the fact that you will not use orbs for killing. Orbless strategies rely on damage that directly benefits from the Spotlight Coin Bonus, which abilities like Orbs and Death Ray do not. Since Orbs will kill enemies indiscriminately at the same rate regardless of whether they're in Spotlight or not, they detract from the goal of concentrating kills where the bonus applies. Therefore, these non-discriminating damage sources are avoided (such as removing the Extra Orb Card and locking workshop Orbs) to maintain that most enemies get killed within Spotlight.
Crucially, Orbless strategies are flexible when it comes to survival. You can pair it with a robust effective Health (eHP) build, where you can withstand enemy hits, or integrate it into a Glass Cannon setup.
Different Orbless Strategies
Bullet Orbless
- Before you get ultimate weapons that synergize well with Orbless strategies, you may do Orbless farming with just Projectiles. The Orbless phase will be a bit shorter, and will probably need some more micro-management (e.g., having damage card off to start) to make the most of it.
- The goal of bullet Orbless is for Tank enemies to die to bullets in Spotlight (SL) after a few hits, so that you can juggle them when not in SL to guarantee the coin bonus. Assuming your crowd control is good enough you will want to stay Orbless even when they aren't quite dying while sitting through one SL sweep, because when Black Hole (BH) pulls them in you get a lot more concentrated fire on them.
SLm Orbless
- While Spotlight Missiles (SLm) possess an inherent explosion radius, the full potential of SLm Orbless is essentially only fully achieved by unlocking Smart Missiles. This is primarily due to the crucial Smart Missile lab “Missile Amplifier” and the ability to achieve a large Missile Radius.
- For optimal performance, you'll want to closely maximize both your SLm and Missile Amplifier labs. Regarding the SLm radius lab, it's essential to research it, though achieving its maximum level isn't strictly necessary. Instead, you'll need to assess what radius is sufficient for your specific setup.
- Overall, SLm Orbless is quite AFK-friendly among the Orbless strategies. A key advantage comes from the Missile Amplifier, because it provides a built-in damage scaling mechanism. If an initial SLm hit doesn't eliminate an enemy, the subsequent hit delivers a big damage boost, with a third hit further multiplying that damage, and so on. Moreover, SLm naturally reduces kills outside Spotlight because it exclusively targets enemies within Spotlight's area.
- With SLm, you can push Smart Missile damage to high levels. This capability significantly helps in preventing chip damage and it allows bullets to serve primarily as an enemy-juggling mechanism rather than a source of damage (and unintended kills).
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