Gunfire Reborn Ao Bai Guide: Ascension Tier List and General Tips (Updated)

Why to Play Ao Bai (or why not to play)

+Powerful Dual-Wielding skill that massively improves his damage
+Easy access to fusion effects by Dual-Wielding elemental weapons
+Wide weapon variety. Can effectively use launchers and most automatic or semi-automatic weapons
+Secondary Grenades are fast and can stagger enemies

=Gets to use a couple of HP based occult scrolls no one else wants

-Overly reliant on Dual-Wielding for his damage
-Poor shield/hp distribution. High HP is normally worse than high Shield/Armour
-Can’t effectively use 2-handed weapons (they prevent dual wielding)
-Almost all level 2 ascensions have mediocre improvements compared to level 1 and 3
-Dual wielding elemental weapons can make it impossible to see through all the particle effects (this can legitimately get you killed)

Quick note about Launchers

Launchers are fun to use. Many people will probably pick Ao Bai just because they want to blow everything up. While Launchers can end up being very powerful, they are a inherently restrictive weapon type that needs a little more support to do well by the lategame. Most explosive weapons have an inability to crit and have relatively low damage output against a single target. It’s usually harder to scale their damage up compared to other weapons. Additionally, some enemies (and anything with the ‘defensive’ prefix) are very annoying to deal with if you can’t land criticals or fusion effects (and launchers often aren’t capable of either).

Unless your build is very powerful, I recommend only taking a launcher in your second weapon slot even if your build is heavily focused on explosive damage. Reserve the first weapon slot for a stable automatic or semi-automatic weapon that can cover cover for its weaknesses. This is typically much more reliable than having launchers in both weapon slots.

Ascension Tier List

This list covers Ascensions in a vacuum. Specific ratings will shift as your build progresses in a run. Use your own judgement. (ex. defensive Ascensions may have more value if you have only found offensive occult scrolls)

Some Ascensions are also rated differently depending on how many points you have in them already.
(ex. lv3 rating assumes you already have 2 points invested).

The Tiers are divided as follows:
S: Excellent Ascension. Almost always pick if it doesn’t conflict with your build,
A: Great Ascension. Can’t usually go wrong with these.
B: Good Ascension. Good to have, just not as high priority.
C: Mediocre Ascension. Not necessarily ‘bad’ but you probably shouldn’t pick these over other ones.

Gunfire

Twin Gunner “While dual-wielding, weapon DMG +100% .. +125% .. +125% and ammo consumption is doubled. At lv3 ammo consumption is not doubled”
The damage bonus for this skill is quite high even at only 1 point, but doubling ammo consumption is a significant penalty for most weapons. Even if you can manage your ammo reserves, the increased amount of reloading you’ll have to do makes the overall damage gain from this skill smaller than it appears. This ascension gets better with Weapons that don’t mind the penalty too much, or if you’ve already taken other ascensions that can help mitigate it (ex. Sharpshooter and Ammo Expert). Dual-wielding already has a natural damage bonus (on top of being able to fire two weapons at once) so it doesn’t really need additional damage support from ascensions that don’t help when it’s on cooldown. There is also an interaction with the ascension ‘Battle-Tested’ where sometimes you may want to spend more ammo.

Sustained Fire “After killing an enemy or destroying an item, Weapon DMG and Explosion DMG +50% .. +75% .. +100% for 6s .. 6s .. 20s.”
One of only two generic weapon DMG boosts Ao Bai has that apply outside of Dual-Wielding, and by far the better of the two. Provides a stable damage increase with a relatively easy condition (especially at level 3), 6s is plenty of time to get another kill and refresh the duration. You can also trigger this by breaking any destructible object, so most boss fights will have ways to enable this.

Ammo Expert “While dual-wielding, recover 5 .. 10 .. 15 reserve ammo per second. At lv3 there is a 20% chance to not consume ammo when shooting.”
Even at level 1, this will probably solve all your ammo problems for the rest of the run. It enables you to have two large(blue) ammo or special (orange) ammo type weapons at once without concern of running out. The ammo recovery applies once for each unique ammo type on your weapons, having 2 normal ammo weapons will give you 5 normal ammo per second but having 1 normal and 1 large ammo weapon will give you 5 of both types per second. Going past level 1 on this skill is up to your discretion, but you won’t need to unless you’re using the faster firing automatics (or Dual-Wielding 2 automatics) or using other ascensions that increase ammo consumption.

Last Shot “Weapon DMG +50% .. +75% .. +150% for the last shot in magazine.”
The second generic weapon DMG boost for Ao. Generic might be a misnomer because as of writing there are literally only 3 viable weapons (with 1 magazine size) for Ao that can properly benefit from this. For some reason the damage bonus is pretty average at levels 1 and 2 but spikes all the way to 150% at level 3. It’s usually not worth restricting your weapon selection this much on the off-chance you can get this to level 3. However, if you get the ‘Advanced Depot’ occult scroll you can manually lock any weapon’s magazine to 1, which obviously makes this ascension way better in that situation.

Lucky Ammo “While dual-wielding, +20% .. +30% .. +40% Lucky Shot Chance. At lv3 recover spent ammo whenever you hit an enemy.”
While on first glance this doesn’t seem very good, with the relatively low numbers and only applying during Dual-Wield. However being a lucky-shot modifier instead of a weapon damage modifier means that this will usually scale damage higher than it appears if you already have weapon DMG modifiers, and it doesn’t have any drawbacks unlike the other two Dual-Wield damage boost ascensions. If you get it to level 3 it also provides a massive benefit to automatic weapons where you can basically fire them as much is you want without concern for ammo. Keep in mind that since the ammo refund happens on hit, weapons with projectile travel time may trigger their reload animation before the hit registers, so they will get much less benefit from this.

Unleashed Potential “While dual-wielding, first 5 .. 7 .. 9 hits deal +100% .. +150% .. +200% weapon DMG.”
Completely useless for anything except the slowest firing weapons, the bonus damage will last no time at all. By default you get the benefit of this for a brief period every 40-50 seconds. You could cancel dual wielding early to try and get more uptime out of this but that’s not a tradeoff that’s remotely worthwhile. Even worse, this has anti-synergy with Ao’s best ascension ‘Battle-Tested’ which increases the duration of Dual-Wielding (resulting in less casts and less uptime for this).

Veteran

Adrenal Rush “After killing an enemy or destroying an item, -20% .. -30% .. -40% to DMG taken for 6s .. 6s .. 20s.”
It’s not a particularly thrilling ascension, but it is Ao’s most reliable source of damage reduction. It has the exact same conditions as the ‘Sustained Fire’ Ascension. By level 3 you take only 60% damage from everything and the uptime is basically permanent. Damage reduction is especially helpful on Ao since he has very poor sustainability without occult scrolls to support him.

Close Call “When max HP decreased by 25% .. 25% .. 10%, immune to normal damage for 2s .. 3s .. 4s.”
Will randomly save your life if you get caught in a crossfire, though this doesn’t give you any visual/auditory feedback for when it prevents damage so it’s hard to tell when this ascension is actually saving you. The damage immunity applies every time you’ve taken damage equal to 25% of your maximum hp; it doesn’t have to be from a single hit so this will activate quite consistently. At level 3 it will activate off of pretty much every hit, but at low levels it may just activate and expire before doing anything useful. This pairs well with sources of healing or shield recharge to get more uptime on the damage immunity. Don’t forget that this skill does NOT protect you from elemental damage like fireballs or octopus gatling guns, so don’t get careless around those.

Battle-Tested “+50% .. +75% .. +100% duration to dual-wielding. At lv3 while dual-wielding, every 20 ammo consumed adds +2s to the duration.”
If you see this ascension show up, it’s basically an auto-pick. Ao is mostly dependent on his Dual-Wield skill for damage, so improving the uptime on it is always useful. At level 3 with an automatic weapon and a way to manage ammo (ex. ‘Ammo Expert’ or ‘lv3 Lucky Ammo’ ascensions), you are now permanently in Dual-Wield mode for the rest of the run. It should be pretty apparent how useful that is. If your weapons aren’t firing quite fast enough to maintain your Dual-Wield timer, you can also take one or two levels of the ascension ‘Twin Gunner’ to increase your ammo consumption. This ascension is also another reason double launcher set ups aren’t as good, because it’s harder to spend ammo fast enough to maintain the Dual-Wielding timer.

Survival Instincts “While dual-wielding, Max HP +50 .. +100 .. +150. At lv3 get 50% chance of recovering HP equivalent to DMG taken while dual-wielding.”
Having a survivability skill being tied to Dual-Wield is not ideal, since Ao is at his weakest when Dual-Wield is not active. The gain from this is also mediocre, 50 hp a level (and by extension +0.5hp recovered per second) isn’t that helpful, and it keeps your current HP proportion you had before you activate Dual-Wield (if you were at half hp before, you will still be at half hp after you maximum HP increases). The bonus at level 3 increases your effective hp by 50% which isn’t bad but it isn’t really worth taking the first two levels for.

Golden Comeback “While dual-wielding, -10% .. -20% .. -30% to DMG taken. At lv3 Dual-Wield’s remaining time -3s instead of dying when receiving lethal damage.”
The other survivability skill that’s tied to Dual-Wield. It’s mostly worse than adrenal rush, providing both less damage reduction and less uptime. The dream is getting this to level 3 along with lv3 ‘Battle-Tested’ which results in you basically becoming invincible. However it’s not realistic to expect being able to get a single ascension to level 3, let alone two specific ones along with an ammo supporting ascension. While the theoretical potential is high, most of the time it’s just a mediocre source of damage reduction.

Sharpshooter “When using Dual-wield, fill the magazine immediately for both weapons. -50% Reload Time during Dual-Wield.”
Excellent general use ascension. The reload time reduction greatly benefits almost every weapon and the magazine recharge makes it so you can always immediately activate Dual-Wield in an emergency and not have to wait on a reload first. It’s also a one point ascension so taking it narrows the pool of possible ascensions offered to you in the future.

Detonation

Explosion Enhancement “Explosions have +2m .. +4m .. +6m AoE and deal +30% .. +45% .. +100% DMG.”
The premier explosion damage ascension, this ascension is the primary reason to use a launcher. The damage bonus is just moderate until level 3, but the blast radius increase gets massive and really helps with clearing rooms. Keep in mind that the weapon affix that reduces blast radius will apply after this bonus, so you will want to avoid that affix if possible. If you don’t intend to take an explosive weapon this ascension won’t do anything of course, it’s just your best option if you do.

Mad Bomber “Explosions deal +30% .. +45% .. +60% DMG, gain immunity to barrel explosions. At lv3 gain a 30% chance to deal double DMG.”
A mediocre damage increase restricted to explosives, and a secondary effect that barely does anything. You’ll only ever get hit by exploding barrels if you were exceedingly careless, and they don’t even exist by the last stage. The only saving grace of this ascension is the level 3 bonus, a multiplicative damage bonus that applies to any weapon. It’s really not worth taking the first two levels just for the chance of that though.

Precise Explosion “Explosions deal +50% .. +75% .. +100% DMG if they hit only one enemy. At lv3 the bonus applies as long as you hit less than 4 enemies at once.”
A vanilla explosive damage bonus; it’s not even stronger than the other two explosion ascensions but for some reason this one has a ridiculous restriction on it. Being locked to one target just defeats the purpose of using a launcher for the most part. It’s designed to compensate for the launcher’s weakness against single targets but the damage bonus isn’t really enough for that. At level 3 the restriction becomes lighter but at that point it’s strictly worse than the other options at level 3.

Grenade Master “Grenades have +2 .. +4 .. +6 capacity. 30% .. 45% .. 60% chance of zero consumption when tossing a grenade. At lv3 gain one grenade every 10s.”
Grenades aren’t used nearly frequently enough to require taking extra capacity for them. You’ll use them to stagger enemies or to clear small rushdown groups (like exploding lanterns). You’ll get more benefit by spending your ascension points on literally anything else.

Overloading “After reloading, +30% .. +45% .. +60% RoF for 3s .. 3s .. 6s.”
Unlike the other ascensions in this category, this buff affects every weapon instead of just explosive weapons. RoF buffs are much less common than weapon DMG buffs and as a result stack well with them. The problem is that RoF buffs aren’t naturally very strong, because they also increase ammo consumption and overall time spent reloading, which reduces the damage benefits somewhat. You can still make good use of the ascension if you have ways to mitigate the drawbacks (ex. Sharpshooter and Ammo Expert ascensions) or if you’re using weapons that aren’t bothered by it as much. The increased ammo usage can also be useful if you already have the ascension ‘Battle-Tested’ at level 3.

Double Explosions “Toss 2 grenades instead of 1 with no additional consumption. ”
Every grenade throw now throws a second freebie grenade. If grenades did any significant damage this would probably be good, too bad they don’t. It does make clearing explosive enemy packs slightly easier with the second grenade, and it is only 1 point so it narrows future ascension options. It can be decent in the first stage but after that it’s basically pointless.

General Tips

About Dual-Wield
-Since his generic damage boosting ascensions are very limited, Ao Bai’s damage is often mediocre when Dual-Wield is on cooldown. It’s important to hold onto it for the start of waves or potential elite spawns if possible. Don’t use it as soon as its cooldown ends if you don’t need to.
-The 1%/s HP recovery while Dual-Wield is active is the only kind of sustain Ao has early on past his tiny shield. You can wait out the cooldown on it and keep casting Dual-Wield to fully restore your health, if you can endure how tedious this process is.
-When Dual-Wielding, the weapon in your offhand has perfect stability. Having a stable weapon in the mainhand can entirely negate the poor stability of a normally unstable weapon in the offhand.
-If you don’t need to make use of the HP regen (or ammo recovery from ‘Ammo Expert’) you have during Dual-Wield, you can cancel it by switching to your Foundry pistol when after you clear a room to start the cooldown earlier.

About your Weapons
-Ao’s weapon selection is extra important because he can use both of them at once, and he is less restricted than the other characters for his options. It’s good for both your weapons not to have drastically different aiming patterns, otherwise they can be hard to use at the same time.
-2-Handed weapons completely disable Dual-Wielding if they’re in your inventory, so there’s very little reason to consider picking them up.
-Deciding on your elemental combination is important. I’ll briefly explain the benefits of each setup here:
—Normal (no element): Most launchers don’t have a natural element, and even if they do their elemental chance is usually poor. If you’re using a normal launcher as one of your weapons, pairing it with another neutral weapon is perfectly fine. If you’re using a combination of automatic or semi auto weapons, then picking an elemental combo is more ideal, though a double normal setup can still work.
—Manipulation (fire+lightning): The most defensive combination, immediately renders enemies harmless as they completely ignore you and only attack other enemies for the duration of the effect. However, this may indirectly reduce your damage as the erratic enemy movement can make it harder to land critical hits on them (though if there’s no other enemies near, they’ll stand completely still and become free kills). Decent option if you already have strong damage output, and less reliant on having a high elemental chance than the other two fusions.
—Explosion (fire+corrosive): The middle ground combination that offers some offence and some defence, each trigger causes a small explosive aoe immediately around the target. This explosion effect can stagger, and the damage is based off of the shot that triggers it. This is probably the best combination if your damage output is already solid, and there are many good fire based automatics you can pair with a corrosive secondary weapon. However since the explosion damage is based on the damage of the shot, you can’t use this effect to compensate for a low damage output.
—Miasma (corrosive+lightning): The purely offensive option, causes a stackable damage over time effect that deals bonus damage to ‘red’ HP (not shield or armour). This damage is independent of the shot used to trigger it, so it is the best way to compensate for weak damage output. This is a very effective fusion to help Ao kill tough enemies while Dual-Wield is on cooldown.

About Enemies
-Ao Bai is one of the slower characters, especially when wielding heavier weapons. Because of this you can have difficulty sidestepping homing projectiles from bandit retainers and longbow-men, and may have to rely on cover more.
-Be careful about walking too far forward in rooms and triggering the second set of enemy spawns if your Dual-Wield cooldown is not ready. Having a big enemy pile (or an elite spawn) can quickly lead to getting overwhelmed.
-Make use of your grenades (or explosives) to stagger annoying enemies like arsonists and bandit retainers and interrupt their attacks. Just be aware that stagger doesn’t tend to work consecutively and some enemies (ex. octopus/white shark) are immune during their skills.

Finally got around to doing Ao Bai’s guide. Ao had a lot of conditional or middle-ground ascensions that were kinda hard to decide a specific tier for… We also have the first instance of an S+ rating, I think the ascension probably deserves it though. He’s definitely a bit more dependent on scrolls for survivability than the other characters so you’ll have to adjust to that if you decide to play him.

He was the character I originally played the most (when there were only Ao Bai and Crown Prince available) so it was kinda nice to come back and refresh myself for the guide. He’s probably a bit weaker than Crown Prince overall but he can still pull his weight.

I’m quite interested in what the 5th character will be now that we have characters that specialize in every weapon type. I’ll definitely work on a guide for them when they come out though.

Credits to the Wiki contributors for providing the skill icons and descriptions.

If you have a different perspective on something in this guide, feel free to leave a comment.

Here we come to an end for Gunfire Reborn Ao Bai Guide: Ascension Tier List and General Tips (Updated) hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!