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the-cohabitants
the-empty-nester×
ethereal-cloak
gemspring
wings-of-the-anointed
Hemorrhage (boss killer)
Composition
Balls
flickerEvolved
hemorrhageEvolved
maggotEvolved
shotgunEvolved
spider-queenEvolved
Passive Items
How to Play
The Hemorrhage Bleed Stack Build
This guide focuses on exploiting the Hemorrhage synergy for high damage over time (DoT), especially against bosses.
Ball Combinations:
Hemorrhage x Maggot, Hemorrhage x Spider Queen or Hemorrhage x Shotgun (Fast bleed stacks), or Hemorrhage x Flicker (Whole map bleed application)
The Final Ball:
Since you cannot remove the Ghost ball from The Empty Nester, I highly suggest Hemorrhage x Curse.
Why This Strategy Works
I choose The Empty Nester because he throws two Special Balls, immediately creating more Bleed stacks. Adding The Cohabitants doubles this number, resulting in a total of four special balls. The Cohabitants' ability is that your balls deal less damage, but this drawback is irrelevant since our main damage comes from Hemorrhage, which deals 20% of the enemy's current health as damage. Because you're stacking so much Bleed, Hemorrhage's effect ticks constantly.
Performance
This build may not be as good as Nuclear Bomb x Maggot for instantly clearing a whole horde, but it deals continuous damage through Hemorrhage ticks. You can kill trash mobs quickly, though not as fast as dedicated Area of Effect (AOE) builds. The build truly shines against bosses. Bosses often die almost instantly after they appear.
Essential Tip:
For the Boneyard stage, I suggest getting the Ethereal Cloak passive for the before the final boss fight, as you can only damage it via its crown. While passives aren't strictly required for this build, I highly recommend using Ethereal Cloak so that your Hemorrhage balls can go through enemies which provides Bleed stack around the map. I also included the Gemspring so that you can exploit the EXP gem and gain levels to easily max the balls needed for this build.
This guide focuses on exploiting the Hemorrhage synergy for high damage over time (DoT), especially against bosses.
Ball Combinations:
Hemorrhage x Maggot, Hemorrhage x Spider Queen or Hemorrhage x Shotgun (Fast bleed stacks), or Hemorrhage x Flicker (Whole map bleed application)
The Final Ball:
Since you cannot remove the Ghost ball from The Empty Nester, I highly suggest Hemorrhage x Curse.
Why This Strategy Works
I choose The Empty Nester because he throws two Special Balls, immediately creating more Bleed stacks. Adding The Cohabitants doubles this number, resulting in a total of four special balls. The Cohabitants' ability is that your balls deal less damage, but this drawback is irrelevant since our main damage comes from Hemorrhage, which deals 20% of the enemy's current health as damage. Because you're stacking so much Bleed, Hemorrhage's effect ticks constantly.
Performance
This build may not be as good as Nuclear Bomb x Maggot for instantly clearing a whole horde, but it deals continuous damage through Hemorrhage ticks. You can kill trash mobs quickly, though not as fast as dedicated Area of Effect (AOE) builds. The build truly shines against bosses. Bosses often die almost instantly after they appear.
Essential Tip:
For the Boneyard stage, I suggest getting the Ethereal Cloak passive for the before the final boss fight, as you can only damage it via its crown. While passives aren't strictly required for this build, I highly recommend using Ethereal Cloak so that your Hemorrhage balls can go through enemies which provides Bleed stack around the map. I also included the Gemspring so that you can exploit the EXP gem and gain levels to easily max the balls needed for this build.