Jupiter Hell – Quick Headshot and Sharpshooter Guide

Overview

Technicians in Jupiter Hell (JH) do not seem to have the mobility and survivability options that scout and marine have but by leveraging their offensive options, they can clear the game adequately. I have beaten standards games and several challenges with headshot and sharpshooter at the Nightmare (N!) difficulty and I will share how you can do so too. I will assume that you are at least familiar with gameplay basics. If not, please read sylph’s excellent guide and practice first. FYI I play mostly on the gog . com version.

Callisto

Your build for the first six levels will be.

2. Son of a Gun (SoG).

3. SoG.

4. Headshot.

5. Whizkid.

6. Sharpshooter.

Ideally, you want to head to the Callisto Ruins for the Jovisec (JS) manufacturer perks and this branch is much easier compared to Callisto Mines where the game pressures you to run to the summon points. In the Ruins or Mines, you are going to look for the JS .44 Revolver or Hunting Rifle, helmet, and armor. I beaten the game on N! with the basic JS .44 Revolver many times and this is a fine endgame weapon because you are going to mod this heavily (calibrate 1, auto-calibrate, extend mag, and two wild cards). If you want to stick with a semi, you probably want balanced 1, auto-calibrate, extend mag, hunter, and probably Critical 25 unless you raise SoG to level 3. The important point for the Ruins is that you don’t have to release the gas valves because the basic rewards are good enough. At the tech station, if you only have a JS. 44 revolver/hunting rifle at this point, auto-calibrate the weapon and add a Calibrate 1/Balanced 1. If you have extra multitools, try to get 2 power mods for the helmet to get Critical Damage 25.

If you don’t have a set of JS armors, make sure that you are leaving Callisto with a .44 revolver/deagle at minimum because for this build to work, you must have base 100% crit.

35% (SoG 2) + 20% (.44 revolver/deagle) + 25% (Crit 25 from accuracy mod pack on weapon) + 20% (Crit 10 from accuracy mod packs on helmet and armor) = 100%

If you find a 20% crit chance perk from the AMP, that can replace the 20% from the base weapon or armor mods.

Europa and Io

7. Whizkid.

8. Headshot.

9. Whizkid/Skilled/Son of a Gun.

10. Sharpshooter.

I would recommend taking Whizkid 2 first to make sure that you can mod auto-repairs at the guaranteed tech station at Europa 2 after adding fire-resist to your armor and bot scanner for the helmet. It is up to you if you want to add skilled at level 9, but I would prefer Whizkid here to make sure I can grab metabolic boost for the armor in case you can’t get to level 11 by the Io L1 tech terminal. If you have a exotic weapon, you definitely want Whizkid at level 9 for the additional mod slot. If for some reason your weapon does not have an innate crit bonus or if you decided to replace a JS helmet/armor, you probably want SoG 3.

For some reason if you do not have a JS weapon, you can go ahead and grab a 7.62 weapon ideally with CCB/CRT manufacturer perk. If not, try to get an AV weapon with ambush/rush/deadly/hunter perk.

If you need to conserve your .44 ammo, you can instead carry the sidearm or plasma pistol and one stack of their ammo to kill smaller enemies and shoot doors down, then switch to your .44 when you need to fight a larger enemy.

In Europa and Io, definitely take routes that haves AV3 AMP for the most used weapon group (Europa Ruins, Refueling Base/The Pit, Black Site, Shadow halls). You are looking for AMPs with damage up, maybe optimal range if running the JS flintlock, or crit chance 40% if you want to ditch the JS armors for some reason.

For the rest of the skill points after level 10, take what you want to fill your needs.

Pistols vs Semis

While headshot now works with semi-rifles, if you have a JS weapon, the pistol does equal damage compared to the rifle.

Let’s compare the damage of a JS pistol vs rifle with base damage 24 with Crit damage 25 from helmet with headshot 2

Pistol: 24 + 24(3) = 96

Rifle: 24 + 36(2) = 96

For non-JS weapons

Pistol: 24 + 18(3) = 78

Rifle: 24 + 30(2) = 84

Arguments for pistol:

No minimum range.

+25% critical damage is a basic perk from AMP.

.44 revolvers/deagle have base crit 20% already.

Arguments for semi:

Much better perks from power mods.

Bigger potential magazine size.

Loading-feed armor perk.

I would recommend sticking with the JS .44 revolver if you can find one.

Weapon Notes

You want a AOE damage weapon to supplement your build. For the 1st two moons, a 40mm grenade launcher is best, then a plasma shotgun at Io, then the BFT9K or BFT 10K if you can find them.

.44 deagle: Best weapon for the build. Auto-calibrate and add 1 extra mod as needed.

.44 HE: allows you to ditch the JS helm+armor with SoG 3. Make sure to add extended mag with Whizkid 1, then probably auto calibrate unless you can find a exotic mod. You could get 400% crit chance with JS helm+armor with a 40% crit chance perk from the AMP and crit 10 helmet/armor, but I have not tested to see if you can actually get crit damage four times.

.44 Flintlock: Only take it if you have a JS version because this weapon does not have base critical damage up. Make sure to add extended mag with Whizkid 1, then calibrate 1/auto-calibrate.

CRI Blaster: Probably extended mag and what else to fill out your build.

Love: High base damage and already has crit chance 25%.

Shadowhunter, Railgun, Death: Excellent endgame weapons as long as you have base 100% crit chance.

Tips for the Endgame

You don’t have to kill the Ancient. If you are low on resources, you can lure the ancient towards a corner, smoke then run away.

Try to find any piercing weapon for the guardians at Dante.

At Dante/Beyond, you can just rush the exit on harder difficulties.

Get some CRI kits for possible Dante hunts and Harbringer fight.

Video Run

Proof of concept video where I cleared a N! run using a base .44 revolver as the primary weapon.