Builds that I’ve come up with during my time using the Drak-25 so far, that in my experience, absolutely rip. Even when pitted against the last stage of the EDD.
 
 
This guide contains both stock and overclocked builds, both of which will be expanded on as I unlock more overclocks and experiment more with the gun, as well as tips and strategies for using it.
 
 
This is my first steam guide, and my first build guide ever, so I hope anyone reading this finds it useful, and maybe gives this really fun gun a try.
 
 

「the basic idea」

 
 
The concept behind this build is pretty simple; High fire rates rip through frozen sh*t, and this gun rips through warm sh*t like butter when you can headshot consistently. And that’s running stock. With overclocks however, this gun just rips period. And I’ve only tested one overclock so far.
 
 
The build features not only the Drak itself, but makes heavy use of its secondary, the Zuhkovs with the cryo minelets overclock. For those of you who’ve used bullets of mercy on the GK2, its a similar type of build. Making heavy use of elemental effects and our secondary weapons to great effect.
 
 
Without overclocks, the Drak is excellent at taking out small and medium sized enemies, and enemies with large weak spots, but is less effective versus large enemies. That’s where the cryo minelets come in. Freeze your target and turn it into green snow with the Drak.
 
 
With overclocks, the overtuned particle accelerator overclock to be specific, this thing just rips straight up. However it’s firmly a short-mid range weapon with the overclock, so you’ll be leaning more heavily on your secondary for more distant targets. It also sucks more ammo in this configuration, and while that’s not too much of an issue on this gun and is easily offset by efficient mining skills, it’s still a consideration for many. Its the only overclock I currently have for this gun, and I’ll be adding more builds as I get more overclocks.
 
 
This is by no means a complete guide, and I’m still actively experimenting with the gun, and I will be updating this guide as I find new information. But, as it stands, these setups are more than sufficient to handle most situations, provided you have the aim to fully make use of the stock version, or are comfortable sticking to the ranges the overtuned particle accelerator version excels in. And provided that you make full use of the synergy with your secondary weapons.
 
 
Both versions are easily capable of haz 4/5, and the stock build has served me just as well on the EDD. If you’d like to see the entirety of that deep dive, complete with our teammate pulling like four eggs all at once on the last objective of the dive, which obviously doesn’t end well, click the link in the next paragraph.
 
 
I’ll be including some example footage in the form of clips from my stream, and a few additional clips to help illustrate the combos and mechanics that make this build so effective. So if you see a link like this one for the elite deep dive I did with this build – [twitch.tv] , click on it for a Twitch clip. Starting out there probably will only be a couple of links in this guide, but I’ll add more as I go.
 
 
If you’d like to see more of this build, or just my stream in general, this is my Twitch – [twitch.tv] .
 
 
This is my first steam guide ever, and my first build guide ever in general, so hopefully its sufficient in information and at least readable. This weapon in general is just so much fun to use, so I couldn’t help but share it since I saw it getting trashed on a bit before release for its on paper stats, and I’d hate to see people avoid it because of that.
 
 
If you’ve got any suggestions on things to try to make this build better, let me know.
 
 
 

「the zhuks」

Since they’re so integral to this builds playstyle, no matter which version of the Draks setup you chose, we’re starting out with something that isn’t the Drak. It’s the Zuhks!
 
 
You’ll be using these in conjunction with the cyro minelets overclock primarily to freeze larger enemies, and also deal extra damage to enemies you shock with your primary weapon.
 
 
The best way to use these is to first shoot the target with your Drak to proc your electric damage, and then once you proc that mod, switch to the Zhuk’s. Fire at a downwards angle through your target, preferably leading them a little bit and shooting directly through their bodies at the ground if you can. If you do this correctly you’ll not only benefit from the extra damage provided by conductive bullets, but your minelets will go off hopefully underneath them as they walk forwards, freezing the enemy and allowing you to swap to your Drak to deal the real damage.
 
 
In our overclocked build however, we’ll be leaning on these a lot more for taking out targets at range as with the overtuned particle accelerator, our primary firmly becomes a mid to short range weapon.
 
 

The build we’re using for the Zuhks is pretty simple, here it is:

 
 

 
 
For those of you that don’t care about the explanation for my picks and want something easy to remember, the build is 1-2-2-1-1.
 

• In T1 we take extra ammo since we’ll be intentionally missing with this a lot, aiming for the ground in front of our targets in order to freeze them as they walk over the mines.
• In T2, I find that in my experience having the faster fire rate really helps me get enough minelets down to freeze things much faster, which is good, since you need quite a few minelets to freeze something like a praetorian.
• In T3, we take accuracy. I’ve as you can see actually never used the other perk in this tier. Because 1 damage seems like a waste. I guess might help you meet a breakpoint here or there, but I’ve never cared about doing heavy damage with these things before.
• In T4 we’ll be taking one of our more important mods, blowthrough rounds. On their own its nice for crowd control, but paired with cryo minelets, this will allow you to spray directly through your targets, planting mines at their feet to hopefully quickly freeze them.
• And last but definitely not least, in T5 we take conductive bullets. The extra damage versus electrically affected enemies doesn’t just apply to your IFG grenades as the description might suggest, but also applies to other forms of electrical damage. Which is great for us, because we’ll be building our Drak to do electrical damage 20% of the time. On a gun that shoots at an incredibly high fire rate. What I’m saying is, we’re gonna be frying a lotta bugs.

 
 
 

「basic build」

Now comes the meat and potatoes of this build, the Drak. Oh the Drak, on paper you look like you’re a gun that does a whole lotta nothing really fast, and burns a lotta ammo while doing it, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
 
 
Despite its high fire rate, and low on paper damage, the Drak not only excels at ripping through small and medium targets, but at ripping through larger targets as well. It’s also quite ammo efficient, if you’re using it correctly.
 
 
The Drak excels at these things due to its high fire rate, and its relatively good accuracy. If you’re consistently hitting heads and weakspots, this build will absolutely rip through anything in front of you.
 
 
But, in the case that it doesn’t, that’s exactly why we bring cryo minelets and cryo grenades. Due to the Drak’s incredibly high fire rate, it practically blends frozen targets into a nice slushy puree of scorched bug guts. In fact, just take a look at what it does to this praetorian – [twitch.tv] !
 
 
If you focus on hitting headshots, leading your targets, and using it well with the weapons and abilities that it synergizes well with, this gun will reward you.
 
 

So, here’s the stock build:

 
 

 
 
For those of you that would like something easier to remember, and dont care about my reasoning, the build is 1-1-1-1-2
 

• Under T1, we take high-volume plasma feed to bring up our DPS even further, you can take improved thermals, but I personally find that this gun’s cooling speed and overheat times are more than manageable without. I do however recommend against taking faster projectile speed mods in general though. I find that in general with games that have projectile weapons, its always better to put the time and effort into learning how to use the weapon in its default state rather than use anything to increase the velocity of your projectiles. It just opens up far more build possibilities when you don’t have to rely on a projectile speed increase to make the gun feel normal to you.
• In T2 we take larger battery. I find that the damage increase that increased particle density provides isn’t really worth it, and its far more effective to simply take high-volume plasma feed in T1 instead. Larger battery bringing our max ammo up to 1050 energy is absolutely fantastic for sustainability, provided you’re landing your shots and not spraying and praying.
• In T3 we take custom coil alignment, hot feet can be fun, but after testing I’ve found that the increased accuracy of custom coil alignment makes the stock build feel a lot more consistent at hitting weak spots. Gen 2 cooling system on the other hand, I would highly recommend avoiding. It only shaves off a tenth of a second on your cooldown delay, which is already only 3/10ths of a second anyways. I literally didn’t notice the reduction was missing once I realised this and swapped my T3 mod out for something else. Its a placebo in my experience.
   
   
   
• In T4, we take overcharged PCF. After plenty of experimentation with all of the T4 mods, in my experience I’ve found overcharged PCF to simply be the best one for not only increasing the Drak’s DPS, but also because it synergizes amazingly well with the Zhuks and their conductive bullets. You could alternatively take destructive resonance amp, which absolutely shreds through armor like butter. But do know that you’ll be compromising one of this build’s main synergies to do that.
• And last but not least, in T5 we take thermal feedback loop. Manual heat dump is cool, but I find that it’s unnecessary when you’re not using something like aggressive venting which benefits highly from being able to trigger an overheat at any time. I also find that the increased rate of fire that you get from this mod can be very nice for DPS, but also very useful as an audio cue to stop firing and let your weapon cool.

The final stats of the weapon are:
 
 

 
 
I find that this version of the build is an excellent all rounder, not compromising in any departments too hard and touting good ammo efficiency in the right hands. You can toss a green OC on this too if you feel like it, and it’ll only get better.
 
 
 

「overclocked builds」

This section is dedicated to the overclock builds I’ve tested on this thing. Currently, I only have one overclock. But this will get expanded with other overclocks once I acquire and test them.
 
 
The first overclock build I have here makes use of overtuned particle accelerator. This drastically reduces our accuracy, which we have to compensate for with mods, increases our heat per shot somewhat, and takes a significant chunk of ammo away, in exchange for a significant damage boost.
 
 

 
 
Using this overclock turns our Drak into a dedicated close to mid ranged melt machine. With or without cryo this thing simply tears through anything in its way. And with cryo, it can get even more insane. Just take a look at BET-C here – [twitch.tv] . Or, take a look at this hacking event here – [twitch.tv] .
 
 
While you certainly wont be disappointed with this thing’s raw killing potential at its designated ranges, you will have to rely more heavily on your Zhukovs to deal with enemies at longer ranges, and you will be less ammo efficient than your stock counterparts.
 
 
This build is great for when you want to just destroy everything in your way outright, cryo or not, even headshots or not in the case of small to mid sized bugs. But if you do chose to use this, do be more proactive in doing your job as a scout and collecting lots of nitra to compensate for the, albeit minor, reduction in ammo sustain that this OC brings about.
 
 

So here’s the build:

 
 

 
 
For those of you that want something easier to remember, the build is 2-1-1-1-2.
 

• In T1 we take improved thermals. Really, you need it to compensate for the additional heat per shot, otherwise you’ll find yourself overheating rather quickly.
• In T2, we again take larger battery. Patching up our ammo situation really takes priority over the 2+ damage increase that increased particle density provides.
• In T3, we take custom coil alignment. This is another required mod. Without it, this thing might as well be an automatic sawed off with how wide the spread is, it’s that bad. It’s usable, but it turns this thing into a very much so dedicated close range weapon. You could take either of the other mods I suppose, but I find this one to be absolutely essential to the versatility of this build.
• In T4, again we take overcharged PCF. Same thing as with the stock build, you could swap it out, but it would ruin the synergy with our secondary weapon somewhat.
• And last but not least, in T5 again we take thermal feedback loop. It’s simply not that useful on this. And, just as with the stock build, the extra DPS it provides is nice, but the increased fire rate serves as an excellent audio cue telling you to stop firing and let your weapon cool.

After all is said and done, here are the stats:
 
 

 
 
 

「perks」

Our perk choices remain static across all of these builds, and for the most part are pretty standard scout sh*t.
 
 

 

• Resupplier is a personal favorite of mine, but feel free to swap it out with something more to your liking if it isn’t your cup of tea. Think of it as a free slot. Veteran depositor could be a very solid choice here, just an idea.
• Obviously we take deeper pockets, its absolutely essential on scout if you want to do your job efficiently. This bits self explanatory.
• Now, I chose to take born ready mostly for the Zhuks. The Drak already cools itself when unequipped, so I take this perk to give that same ability to our secondary. If you’re skilled at keeping your Drak from overheating, you can very easily pump out constant DPS with little to no downtime on this build.
• I chose to take field medic as I feel it’s an indispensable perk for a scout to have, allowing you to swoop in and save your teammates in environments that others either cant reach or cant survive in. The instant revive has clutched many games for me, and I feel I’m at a disadvantage if I don’t have it on scout. Simple as that.
• Iron will is another personal pick, I think it synergizes really well with field medic and your high mobility as a scout allowing you to survive even more ridiculous ♥♥♥♥. And even use it as a last resort in a similar fashion to swan song in Payday, abusing the invulnerability to revive your gunner for a clutch shield revive. But, again, this is more of a personal pick, and you’re welcome to use whatever else you want if you find that iron simply isn’t worth it for you.

 
 
 

「grenade choices」

I primarily chose to run cryo grenades with this build, as cryo synergizes amazingly well with the Drak as the only factor I have found to matter when destroying frozen targets is rate of fire, which the Drak has in spades. I guarantee, if you freeze your target beforehand, the Drak will absolutely destroy whatever made the mistake of standing in your way.
 
 
I have however also experimented with IFG’s, which I’ve definitely also found some success with. Though, I still think they pale in comparison to the pure destructive potential of pitting the Drak against frozen enemies with cryo grenades. They can be useful to assist your more sustainable cryo minelets in doing their job, but your Drak already does that job just fine if you’re adhering to the shock, freeze, slaughter strategy.
 
 
 

「weaknesses」

After playing with both of these builds extensively since release, I’ve found that a common thread with this weapon is that its primary weaknesses lie with its DPS vs Oppressors, as well as landing shots on distant targets.
 
 

• With the Oppressors, it can certainly kill them absolutely fine, but don’t expect it to melt as much as other enemies do. In addition to simply being very tanky, they also have a resistance to cryo, which is our primary method of dealing with large targets. As far as taking these guys on with this build, I simply recommend swapping to the Zhukovs when the Drak overheats to take advantage of the extra damage vs electrocuted enemies, and then swapping back when the drak cools down. This is a pretty effective method for dealing with them.
• As far as landing shots on distant enemies goes, really it all comes down to practise and skill. I dont recommend taking the faster projectiles mods on the Drak, as personally with projectile weapons in games I find it far more versatile to just learn the default speed and stick with it. You absolutely can deal with distant targets, but do be prepared to learn to lead your targets and fire in short bursts.
• I do find that this can be a bit of a mixed bag with dreadnaughts though. I find that it absolutely rips through the hive guard when used properly, but it struggles with the twins a bit. Really, just pump rounds into weakspots, make use of your Zuhks, and keep moving and you should be fine.
• Although I haven’t fully determined the cause, connection issues can cause your projectiles to completely not register. My main theory is packet loss on the host’s end, but really thats just from a process of elimination knowing the issues that typically affect the friends who have been hosting while I’ve experienced this issue. It also affects other projectile weapons, so its not so much of a Drak thing as it is just something to watch out with projectile weapons. If this happens to you, you can still make the Drak work if the lag isn’t too bad, but you might end up having to rely on the Zhuk’s for your primary damage source. It’s not ideal, but as long as you can get enough Drak shots to register on your target to proc electrocution, its gonna be fine.

 
 
 

「tips」

This section will most certainly be a work in progress for a while, and I’ll be adding things to it as I think of them. But here’s some tips to get you going in no particular order.
 
 

1. Always aim for the head on medium to small sized enemies. It’s by far the fastest way to kill them, and if you get good at it your ammo efficiency and DPS will greatly improve.
2. With larger targets, remember the formula. Shock, freeze, slaughter. The shock from your Drak will make it far easier to freeze the enemy with your Zhuks, and allow them to do more damage directly to the target thanks to conductive bullets. Once the enemy is frozen, let it rip with the Drak and watch it turn into a pile of ice chips on the floor in no time.
3. Don’t worry too much about overheating. You can pretty easily edge this gun, especially with the stock build, and fire effectively indefinitely if you’re doing it right. But if you need to dump as many rounds downrange as possible in a pinch, don’t be afraid to. Swap to your Zhuks and get to work with those. By the time you’ve emptied a mag from those two, your Drak will be cooled or mostly cooled down.
4. You can cancel the overheat animation in its final stages. It might still look like it’s overheated, but if you start firing its good to go.
5. Your cooldown delay is very short on this weapon, only 0.3s by default, fire in bursts to maximise your cooling. But do avoid tap firing, its like the drillers drills, that just makes it worse.
6. I cant stress it enough, but take the time to learn the weapon with its default particle velocity. You’ll benefit far more from doing that, than ending up requiring a crutch mod or OC to make the weapon feel normal to you. It can be done, quite easily in fact, and before you know it you’ll be leading your shots with this thing like a master. The great thing about the Drak is that by default its quite accurate, and its shots all fly in a consistent way. Its very much learnable for the average gamer.

 
 

 
 
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