Count Your Bullets
This week’s Challenge of Elders is an exercise in ammo management and careful shooting. Fresh Troops adds more enemies (meaning more points, too!), and Juggler means you need to be swapping back and forth between your Primary and Special Weapons frequently, scoring Precision Kills at every opportunity.
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Gear Recommendations
The following suggestions are equally valid for all Guardians, no matter what subclass you’re going to use.
First off, Armor: Helmet-wise, look for perks that charge your super and/or provide healing on Orb pickup. All your arms can really do for you this week is speed up your reload, so look for that as well. Chest and legs both provide reserve ammo boosts, especially important with Juggler in play, so make sure you’re matching those perks and your weapon choices up if possible.
Finally, artifacts are always helpful if there’s an Orb generation perk that supports your strategy, although having 3 different enemy types this week doesn’t help us out. Precision Kills perks will be very helpful, but will also require using your Special a lot.
Weapon recommendations this week will have to start with No Time To Explain from the Primary Exotics – there’s nothing quite like getting ammo back on every Precision Kill. And then there’s Bad Juju for free ammo, plus extra super recharge. Can’t argue with that, unless you’re an idiot and forget how it works. Don’t know who would forget that, though… (awkward cough)
The First Curse also shines, with massive Precision Damage, its signature perk granting free ammo on the first precision kill of each magazine, and Triple Tap granting a few extra rounds as well. If you’re going Legendary, look for perks like Rescue Mag (decent) or Replenish (better) in addition to the classic Triple Tap. High ammo capacity Scout Rifles will be ideal here, but Hand Cannons also work well for this kind of thing.
For Special Weapons, Sidearms are the clear winner – lots of ammo, free ammo on respawn, easy precision shooting in the chaotic confines of the Prison. Shotguns and Fusions are obviously out, and Snipers are going to be hard to use in the cramped quarters of the arenas – plus the recent ammo nerf means Juggler will really hurt.
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Scoring Chart
| Kill Type | Score |
| Non-Melee / Non-Grenade / Non-Precision / Non-Super Kill | +25 |
| Melee Kill | +35 |
| Grenade Kill | +40 |
| Precision Kill | +45 |
| Super Kill | +50 |
| Assist | +25 |
| Orb(s) Created | +20 |
| Boss Kill | +500 |
| Variks grows impatient… (who cares) | -50 / 45 seconds |
Remember to double the points for each Kill / Modifier in the second round, and triple them in the third round.
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How to Dominate with Any Subclass
Titans
| #1 – Defender | |||
| Perks | Suppressor Grenade, Blessing of Light, Gift of Light, Gift of the Void | ||
| Exotics | The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison, Helm of Saint-14 | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
Suppress enemies, make lots of Orbs by punching things, shoot everything for massive points. Go either way on the Exotic Body armor – the main point is just to guarantee you have a Special Ammo perk here. Even run the Helm if you have a Sidearm ammo boost elsewhere, and then your bubble is even better.
| #2 – Sunbreaker | |||
| Perks | Suncharge, Fleetfire, Cauterize | ||
| Exotics | Crest of Alpha Lupi, The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis ? | Str ? |
The Suncharge super is potent here because the Melee+Super+Orb bonuses make it essentially equivalent to getting Precision Kills. Beyond that, make sure you have a Special Ammo booster and kill everything. Simple.
| #3 – Striker | |||
| Perks | Flashbang | ||
| Exotics | The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 5 | Str 1 |
Striker has nothing special going for it this week, although Flashbang is nice for pulling in assists and blinding groups of enemies. The Armamentarium is probably your best Exotic for that plus the Special Ammo, but honestly I’d pick a different subclass.
Warlock
| #1 – Sunsinger | |||
| Perks | Song of Flame, Brimstone, Sunburst | ||
| Exotics | Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
Sunsingers take the first place among Warlocks primarily for having less useless subclass abilities in this challenge. Song of Flame can be useful for supporting Defenders and Gunslingers, whose melee’s are useful (plus other Sunsingers) and the Brimstone / Sunburst combo is solid among melee options. Exotic-wise, decide if you’d rather have a extra Orb per Super use or guaranteed Special ammo; so assess your options.
| #2 – Voidwalker | |||
| Perks | Surge / Life Steal | ||
| Exotics | Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
The Exotic discussion is basically the same here as for Sunsingers. Surge and Life Steal both have a place, although I think Surge is slightly better, and enough to make this class the tiniest bit better than Stormcaller.
| #3 – Stormcaller | |||
| Perks | Pulsewave | ||
| Exotics | Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
Just copy and paste the exotic advice from above here – there’s nothing particularly to say about a subclass that has literally no meaningful abilities for this challenge.
Hunter
| #1 – Gunslinger | |||
| Perks | Knife Juggler, Gambler’s Dagger, Scavenger
(Gunslinger’s Trance), (Chain of Woe) |
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| Exotics | Skyburner’s Annex, Crest of Alpha Lupi | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
Yet another challenge that plays to the Gunslinger’s strengths, you’ve got multiple solid build options here. Throwing Knife continues an epic run as one of the best subclass abilities in CoE, continuing to stack up Melee + Precision kills for mad bonus points. If you prefer to turn your weapons onto easy mode, use Gunslinger’s Trance and Chain of Woe to boost Stability and Reload Speed – but I’d stick with those incredible Throwing Knives.
Skyburner’s Annex shines against Juggler, gobbling up Orbs for Special Ammo and making it the easy choice this week. All-in-all, not hard to call this the best subclass for the challenge.
| #2 – Nightstalker | |||
| Perks | Black Hole, Light of the Pack | ||
| Exotics | Skyburner’s Annex, Crest of Alpha Lupi | ||
| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
The perfect support class, Nightstalker makes a great choice for keeping the Orb Train rolling. Black Hole + Light of the Pack generates a ton of orbs and makes other supers or Precision Kills that much more valuable – just make sure to coordinate its use for maximum effect. Smoke is also very useful for gathering assists and slowing enemies, whether you go with invis or Envenomed. Skyburner’s Annex makes Juggler much more bearable, but CoAL is a classic choice for a reason.
| #2 – Bladedancer | |||
| Perks | Fast Twitch, Quick Draw, Encore | ||
| Exotics | Skyburner’s Annex,
ATS/8 Tarantella + Mask of the Third Man |
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| Stat Ranks | Int 5 | Dis 1 | Str 5 |
A strong individual contributor, especially in a world with limiting ammo and lots of targets. You’ll want to maximize the effectiveness of your Arc Blade, as it combines the Melee and Super Kills bonuses for strong scoring and add-clearing (plus a few Orb drops). However, you do contribute less to a team than the Nightstalker does, so YMMV on this one.