SYNTHETIK – Rogue Class Guide (Modules, Items, Weapons and Tactics)

More SYNTHETIK Guides:

• Guardian Class Guide (Modules, Items, Weapons and Tactics).
• Commando Class Guide (Modules, Items, Weapons and Tactics).
• Specialist Class Guide (Modules, Items, Weapons and Tactics).

This guide will show all info about Rogue class and subclasses in details.

Rogue Class Overview

Introduction

The class for precision marksmanship: Rogues are fragile but are compensated with strong firepower and increased currency gain. Sniper finds refuge in distance and can handle all weapons with ease, with strong affinity with marksman weapons; Assassin favours knife range encounters and dances around his enemies with his cloak and dagger.

Sniper

• Core: Spotter

Supported by the Striker drone which will spot and mark specific targets for 10 seconds while outfight, making it vulnerable for one shot. Eliminating the target in time grants [30] credits and a [20%] damage buff for all allies.

• Core Item: Targeting Laser

Lights bullet direction with a laser trail and drastically decreases weapon recoil and deviation when used. Additionally, when not on cooldown, the next shot is a guaranteed critical strike.

• Starter Weapon: K98 Classic (at level 15)

Immensely powerful marksman rifle with limited ammo. Gains an additional bullet to reserves for every shot that hit multiple enemies. Low firerate, high heat generation.

Overview

Fragile and with few means to heal, the Sniper finds safety in distance: far away from hostiles. As compensation, his Core confers strong credit bonuses; Targeting Laser strongly increases accuracy of held weapon, allowing for incredible versatility. Otherwise talents give bonuses to marksman weapons – see Marksman Rifles section and the AN94 Deathstalker.

Base Stats (All measured at 220% difficulty)

• Health: 900
• Shield Max: 275
• Shield Regen: 120
• Movespeed: 381 (229 with Targeting Laser active)
• Dodge: 7 (+15 when standing still or with Targeting Laser active*)
• Damage Absorb: 100 (+25 when standing still or with Targeting Laser active*)

Sniper has standard shield regen but weaker vitals than standard, but has a good dodge bonus from standing still and Targeting Laser.

* – With Sniper level 15.

Talents

• Baseline: Headshots deal 50% more damage and always penetrate targets; Starts with a weak shield but each headshots refreshes 20% of the shield and headshot kills permanently increases maximum shield capacity by 3.
• Level 5: Deals 25% increased penetration damage and all weapons have 200 more range; Striker drone gains 200 range; Dropping below 25% health grants full shield and 2s invulnerability, 150s cooldown.
• Level 10: Headshot kills drop a laser mine at the enemy location; each Spotter takedown heals for 20% missing health.
• Level 15: Using the Targeting Laser or standing still grants 15% dodge chance and take 25% reduced damage; Starts with a classic K98 rifle.
• Level 20: Marksman weapons fire 50% faster, eject and reload faster; Strike drone fires twice as often. 

Unlocks overdrive slot.

• Level 25: Hitting 2 targets with one shot instantly reloads the Striker drone and grants it 2% increased damage. Hitting 3 targets with one shot grants full Spotter talent.
• Prestige: Pistols gain 40% increased fire rate.
• Class Challenge: All classes gain 3% critical chance. Doubled effect for party members in co-op.
• Insanity Challenge: Striker drone shots now fully penetrate, increasing in damage for each target.

Recommended Weapons

Sniper only receives bonuses to marksman rifles and sniper rifles at level 20, but his Targeting Laser allows him to take pretty much whatever. Remember: it’s okay to pick weapons and items that go against your class specialisation. A few notable weapons are as follows:

• R2000 ‘Sour’ DMR: Extra credits is handy. Targeting Laser eliminates deviation issues this gun has.
• Tactical Observer: No-nonsense burst rifle. Already accurate and hard-hitting and improves over time.
• Medic FMG-9: Good source of health regen and handy for dispatching weaker robots. Again, Targeting Laser can make this normally inaccurate bullet hoser into a unusually accurate bullet hoser.
• Ballistic CRX-Bow: High damage, no heat generation, no ejection phase, gains permanent bonuses the more heads you score. A solid choice.
• AMD-65: Innate lifesteal is handy for sustain, and Targeting Laser helps with the immense recoil.
• Bren Anti-Air: Incredibly effective machine gun with bonus damage against bosses. One of the few weapons that would guarantee you a win.
• Human Model 9800K: Remarkably similar to the K98 Classic but fires Inverse Fusion ammo instead, which slows on impact. 
• UMP-10 Tornado: Excellent burst fire fusion SMG, can increase your maximum shields as long as you keep it in your inventory and restores shielding on hit, which increases survivability greatly.
• T 8-00-Gauge: Shotguns on Sniper is absolutely no joke, and with the T-800’s immense power and already rather low deviation for a shotgun, it’s even better.
• R5000 ‘Sudden’ DMR: One of the best weapons for Sniper. All around performance with AP ammo.
• GM6 Lynx Evo: Has increased damage based on distance. 
• Kaida Medic ACR-X: Increases health regen when in inventory.
• Yoko-Lagann: Fires explosive rounds that strips armor incredibly effectively. Requires you to stand still to fire which takes some practice to get used to, and thankfully confers outrageous firepower to compensate. One of the best rifles for Sniper.
• AN-94 Deathstalker: 2-round burst rifle with interesting perks. Requires a lot of precision to make good use of it, which is perfect for Sniper and his Targeting Laser.
• Nemesis Prototype: Very rare, can be found in shops for a high price. Unique in that it requires you to eject and reload after every shot, and each shot has increasing damage for every enemy pierced. Can ricochet by default. Just as liable to kill you as the enemy, but it is most of the time a one shot – one kill weapon.
• Liandry Railgun: Penetrates absolutely everything in 5-round bursts, including walls and other obstacles. Low ammo capacity and will consume all shielding upon ejection.

General Tips

• This can’t be stressed enough: keep your distance! If you are feeling the heat, drop a Decoy (if you brought it with you) or throw a TP Grenade Flash in their faces and get out of dodge.
• Perfection is mandatory if you want to survive as it heals every few headshots. You could feasibly not take Perfection and take Cell Replacer instead, but that also means you have no reliable means of sustain in between teleports.
• Prioritise marked targets to make as much money as possible. Remember, take them down in one shot or you won’t get the money.
• Spotter is rather inconsistent, sometimes you’d still get the money even after 5 shots or so. So just try to take your target down in as few shots as possible.
• As mentioned in ‘Recommended Weapons’ above, you won’t always get to take sniper rifles. Targeting Laser will work with automatics just fine, even make them better than on other classes.
• Most sniper rifles deal extra damage against bosses to compensate for their low DPS, but it’s better if you also bring an automatic for the job as most of them also generate a lot of heat.
• Sniper class is incredibly useful in Insanity Challenge Tactical and Hyper Adrenaline because of the Cell Replacer, which heals on the next level start.
• In Insanity Challenge watch out for your partner and your drone – unfortunately sometimes your drone will kill the partner if your partner blocks the drone’s line of sight when attacking some enemies (especially static decoys on Kaida Training Floor).
• I would say sniper gets too much money in Tactical mode, it’s just too easy.

Assassin

• Core: Professional

Every third projectile deals 150 extra damage and heals for 10 health, bonuses stack with each third hit. Taking damage or missing 5 shots resets stacks.

• Core Item: Scoundrel’s Dagger

A swift dagger attack, dealing damage and stealing life based on missing health. Stabs from behind deal double damage and healing while reducing the cooldown by half.

• Core Item 2: Umbra Adaptive Cloak

Grants stealth for a duration, making the user instantaneously invisible to most enemy forces, attacking or using items breaks the stealth effect. 

• Starter Weapon: none

Overview

The only stealth based class, the Assassin is fragile but can regain tremendous amounts of health in a very short time: such power requires utmost care and precision. Comes with the powerful Umbra cloak: a true get-out-of-jail-free card, as it can elude everything save for bosses. Alternatively, one can recycle the cloak and rely entirely on your Dodge stats (and Smoke Grenade) to stay out of harm’s way. (more below and in Part II).

Base Stats (All measured at 220% difficulty)

• Health: 900
• Shield Max: 250
• Shield Regen: 120
• Armor: 0 (+100 with Umbra Adaptive Cloak active)
• Movespeed: 381
• Dodge: 17 (+15 with Umbra Adaptive Cloak recycled)
• Luck: 100 (+40 with level 15 talent)

Assassin has weaker vitals than standard, but incredible base dodge to compensate, and eventually higher luck.

Talents

• Baseline: Gain 20% dodge chance and cannot take more than 350 damage at once but has a weak shield; Dropping below 25% health releases a smoke cloud, 60 sec cooldown.
• Level 5: Pistols, SMGs, headshots and criticals all deal 20% more damage; All weapons have 5O reduced deviation.
• Level 10: Dagger applies 10 acid damage per second over 6 seconds for each Core:Professional stack and adds 3 stacks; Deal 20% more damage to Elites and Elite kills grant one plating, while the first Rank 2 Elite kill drops a random common weapon.
• Level 15: Luck increased by 40%; Opening a chest when stealthed and enemies are around grants a damage boost and 1 – 500 credits (chests opened in co-op also count).
• Level 20: Dodging refunds one bullet and going stealth reloads half of the current magazine; The smoke cloud also triggers at 50% health on a separate cooldown.

Unlocks overdrive slot.    

• Level 25: All Acid, Bleeding and Stun ammo types trigger 40% more often, deal more damage and last longer; The Core:Professional damage bonus can critically strike with normal chance and damage.
• Prestige: Frontal dagger hits while in smokescreen don’t put the knife in cooldown.
• Class Challenge: All classes gain 3% dodge chance. Doubled effect for party members in co-op.
• Insanity Challenge: Umbra Adaptive Cloak also spawns an exploding decoy when used.

Recommended Weapons

The Assassin gains rather minor bonuses to pistols and SMGs at level 5, but to make the most use out of his Core, accurate semi-auto weapons are most suitable. Remember: it’s okay to pick weapons and items that go against your class specialisation. A few notable weapons are as follows:

• Spectre: Not very accurate but very controllable.
• Medic FMG-9: Inaccurate but health regen is always a must.
• Ballistic CRX-Bow: High damage, no heat generation, no ejection phase, gains permanent bonuses the more heads you score. A solid choice.
• ‘Eraser’ DMR: Comes with Lithium Cell by default (laser variant of Burn ammo). Regains two shots for every enemy killed, more for Elites.
• KI Vector: Very accurate and easy to handle, but high firerate means your Core stack can be reset much faster.
• Heavy Flak Cannon: Devastating launcher with accurate initial projectile.
• K3 Boltcaster SMG: Hard hitting and easy to control, slow fire rate.
• R5000 ‘Sudden’ DMR: All around performance with powerful AP ammo.
• AN-94 Deathstalker: Accurate 2-round burst rifle with good bonuses for scoring double headshots.
• P9000 Supernova: Incredibly rapid firing laser SMG that upgrades itself after every floor. Fire rate slows down on prolonged firing and not particularly accurate, and weak damage may struggle against armored enemies.

General Tips

• You have two main ways to play Assassin: a stealthy knifey rogue, or a dodge rogue. The latter suggests you to recycle your Umbra cloak to gain +15 dodge chance. To further increase your dodge, take Evasive Maneuvers and Shadow Dance and Smoke Grenades, and during your run take as many dodge body upgrades as you can. If done right, you would be almost invincible, but you’d rely more on your weapon and your aim to regain health, as there would be very little chance to use your dagger.
• As you might have expected, your cloak doesn’t work against bosses. A little silly for a stealth based class but that’s why you deal extra damage and heal for every third shot on target, and all bosses are very, very big targets. Umbra cloak also doesn’t work against some turret types like Radar Turrets and Mortar Turrets.
• Core: Professional stacks are very difficult to keep, expect to lose them all very easily as you only have 5 misses to reset the stack. Don’t let that discourage you, it’s completely normal to lose all stacks after 3 or 5 stacks, or even more! In other words, you aren’t meant to stack Core:Professional too high.
• At talent level 15, opening a chest while cloaked and with enemies nearby can grant you some additional credits (from 1 to 500, can reach above 500 with high luck and currency stats). A paltry sum but can make or break your next trip to the shop. Also a good reason to keep your Umbra.
• The level 20 stealth talent consumes half a magazine from spare ammo, even if it reloads less than that.
• Upon use, the dagger consumes about half the current shields. This does not cause the shield regeneration delay. It is unknown if this feature is intentional because it is not listed anywhere ingame.
• Decoys spawned by the insanity talent give credits when killed. It is possible to farm them for a very slow source of infinite money. Kills this way do not count for items such as the Heart Core.
• Umbra is increasingly useful when you need to deal with many enemies – you can lure them info one spot, place Neutrino Bomb and then sneak away, leaving decoy behind.
• Notice that certain items tend to deactivate Umbra on use (not to mention automatic use) – pay attention how they work.
• Some items work very well with Umbra – for example Heat Spreader – burn enemies while cloaked.
• Watch out for Umbra leaving decoy in Hyper Adrenaline – on explode it usually kills the players if they are too close.

Rogue Modules

Rogue modules are usually fairly situational, focused on evasion, protection or sustainability: some will work on one subclass and not another, and their niches are diverse enough that you can build for radically different playstyle for both subclasses, with items filling in for the rest. They have fairly strong synergy between each other: it can be difficult to pick singular modules with many of them working significantly better in pairs. 

Stats in square brackets are affected by daily bonus power and Overdrive slots.

Head Hunter

• Headshots have a [50%] chance of refunding 1 bullet to spare ammo and refresh [10%] of missing shields. Damage over 300 doubles the effect, shotguns excluded.
• Generally useful module, especially for Sniper with his specialisation in low ammo marksman weapons and headshot-dependent shield.

Switch Position

• Ejecting a weapon grants a [60%] damage reduction and movement speed for [2s] – 5 seconds cooldown.
• Powerful evasion module for both classes, allow you to quickly relocate when your magazine runs dry and comes with damage resistance as well. Also handy for reducing downtime between fights with its burst of movement speed.

Evasive Maneuvers

• Increases dodge chance by [10%]. Dodging triggers a minor dash and replenishes one bullet in the current magazine.
• Fairly situational but best combined with usage of Smoke Grenade: Sniper benefits from free ammo when he gets to dodge (only while standing still or using Targeting Laser), while Assassin gets a strong bonus to his already high base dodge.

Backstab

• Attacking out of combat deals additional [5%] damage for each second being out of combat. Exiting a teleporter or beginning a wave grants stealth for [7] seconds.
• Requires a slower pace of play for maximum effect; Backstab’ bonus damage accumulates over time up to a maximum of 100%, so this is best used with high damage per shot weapons and on priority targets.
• This addon is also very useful in Hyper Adrenaline when reaching VR or Military Base or Loops – allows to not be attacked on level start.

Shadow Dance

• Grants [4] dodge chance and [7%] increased healing for each 3 seconds of being infight, stacks 3 times – resets on taking damage.
• Much more useful on Assassin whose Core:Professional confers healing for accurate hits reliably – Sniper can only heal from Spotter takedowns (when required talent is unlocked). Promotes a hit and run playstyle: take shots at your enemies, hide in cover, and repeat.

Discipline        
                 

• Standing still quickly diminishes shield regeneration delay and heat. Increases maximum health by 100.
• Combine with Smoke Grenade for best effect; Sniper benefits more from standing still than Assassin, and the increased maximum health is more than welcome, bringing the Rogue to be on par with baseline (900 to 1000). Most sniper rifles have high heat generation, but don’t try to stand still in boss fights.
• This is less useful in coop, where number of enemies forces you to constantly move.

        
Keeping Distance

• When no enemy is within 600 range, gain [20%] increased firerate and [50] increased armor damage absorption.
• Obviously a module for Sniper, but it can be difficult to keep bonuses from this module especially at higher difficulty/Terror level: denser and higher number of enemy spawns, and with an abundance of high mobility enemy types mean the distance will be closed far too quickly. Don’t take this unless you are very confident in your ability to kite.  
• Ensure to have HE grenade (or grenade launcher) to lure unalerted enemies away from you towards explosion source. Usually useful in coop when sniper is away from enemies.

Perfection

• Every 5 inflicted Headshots passively increase critical strike chance and critical damage by 1% and heals for [20%] missing health. Crit bonuses stacks up to [10] times.
• Practically mandatory for Sniper whose self-sustain is nil, while also rewarding the player with higher crit chance. On Assassin, the healing bonus is somewhat redundant.
• Very useful in any mode except Hyper Adrenaline, where enemies die mostly from one shot anyway, and you just do everything to avoid damage.

DMR Conversion

• Found weapons with magazine sizes from [10] – [20] are modified to semi-automatic, with increased damage and reduced fire rate.
• Fairly situational but useful for both classes: while Sniper has his Targeting Laser, DMR Conversion can make his weapons deadlier against regular enemies because of the increased damage; Assassin whose Core values precision would benefit from a more controllable weapon. 
• Beware that lowering fire rate would lead to lower DPS, reducing the effectiveness of converted weapons against bosses: use Hair Trigger to convert them back into automatic, so you would benefit from hugely increased damage and fully automatic fire.  Semi-auto weapons can also be converted, yielding the same bonuses.

Power Tuning

• Increase Headshot damage and running ammo regeneration by [30%] if weapon heat is below 30. Passively increases weapon heat generation by [20%].
• Best paired with heat reducing modules but increased heat gen can make sniper rifles (Sniper) less effective, SMGs (Assassin) would probably get better mileage off this module. Still too situational in most cases, don’t take this for a starting module.

Freeze!

• Standing still while in combat grants [2] seconds of [50%] total damage absorption, 10 seconds cooldown.
• Best paired with Smoke Grenade and used on Sniper who has protective bonuses for standing still, but keep in mind of the moderately lengthy cooldown. Can be triggered simply by standing still for a split second: the protective effect will kick in regardless of any action afterwards, so you can potentially exploit this by stutter-stepping to activate the module when cooldown is over.
• This is good for snipers that take some time to lower their recoil – usually they take up to 2s to stabilize.

Keeping Cool

• Hitting active reload refreshes [75%] of shields, grants a [100] shield buff that lasts 3 seconds and reduces current weapon heat by 10.
• A good defensive module for both classes and even slightly reduces heat while at it. Decent alternative to Switch Position but, of course, requires you to hit your active reloads: if you had turned on Haste and Hardcore I modifiers, it can be more difficult than it seems.
• Pretty useless in Tactical Mode, where you usually run without shield.

Blood Borne

• Grants a [1] second time window after taking damage over 300 to gain the lost health back or even more with weapon lifesteal. 15 seconds cooldown.
• Because of the short time window, take this only if you can guarantee to pick up an automatic weapon: as weapon lifesteal is based on damage per shot, high damage but slow firing weapons like sniper rifles won’t benefit as much as automatics. Converted weapon can also work more or less fine. Overdrive for longer duration. 
• Try with shotguns with normal ammo or with any AOE/multi-target weapons.

Die Hard

• While at full health, never take more than 75 health damage – damage dealt to rank 1 or 2 Elite enemies is increased by [25%]
• Better on Assassin who can reliably regain lost health compared to Sniper to take advantage of reduced health damage, though increased damage to Elites is always good to have.
• This is extremely useful in Hyper Adrenaline and/or Berserker item.

Against the Odds

• Grants [20%] increased maximum health and heal an additional [7%] of maximum health each healing instance over 100 HP but take an additional 10% damage.
• Only good on Assassin whose dagger can heal for much more significant amounts, reliably going over 100 to trigger the increased healing gain (as it heals based on missing health, only when you are low enough), and decreased damage absorb can be reliably countered with Assassin’s strong self-sustain.
• Very good as additional perk on other class which already have a lot of health.
• Having low Damage Absorb is bad, and starting a run with reduced Damage Absorb is even worse. You are constantly losing Damage Absorb as you progress through a run; the only way to recover is to use Curse of the Ignorant, which comes at a significant price. Never use this module.

Rogue Items

Rogues have a variety of defensive options for items as well as one offensive option (Helsing).

Cell Replacer

• Using a teleporter heals for 75% of maximum health for all team members. Entering a Boss room or finding a vial pickup grants a strong health regeneration buff.
• Very strong healing item but only if you managed to not die before getting to the teleporter. Also confers a long lasting health regen buff in boss rooms. Useful if you have little experience playing Rogues: when played well they wouldn’t need this item; or when you need some sort of healing to fill in the niche for your build.
• Notice that this works perfectly in coop when doing Insanity Challenge Modes, especially Tactical.

TP Grenade Flash

• Disorienting and slowing enemies in a large area – do not stare into flash! Deals 20% maximum health damage to targets hit, max 1000 damage.
• Disorientation reduces accuracy of enemies, making this not only useful for initiating fights but also retreating from them: it’s particularly effective against certain late game enemies. As mentioned, do not face the flash: if you have to throw it while being away from cover, turn your back against its landing point as soon as you throw it. The damage is also respectable – Demo with his double grenade talent will benefit from keeping the Flash in Tactical Mode as he would be able to deal a free 40% max health damage (up to 1000 per instance, assumed) on very low cooldown.
• This is common item in Tactical mode, helps to decrease aim of enemies, remove plating and decrease their health. Blinding is major disadvantage, though.

‘Helsing’ Power Bolt

• Fires a custom heavy power bolt after a delay, dealing high damage and gaining damage on each pierced target. 
• Powerful but relatively little staying power even with upgrades. A decent damage dealer for early game (esp. for Rogues who usually start with their low power sidearms) but should be recycled as you go through the stages.
• Worth to upgrade if you have a powerful, slow shooting single projectile weapon – then the bolt actually doubles your damage. Works perfectly if many enemies are in single line of fire, especially in Military Base.

Flare Gun

• Fires a flare projectile lighting up the area and granting increased accuracy and damage if within range while revealing invisible units.
• Limited range and fairly long cooldown reduces efficacy, but it’s decent if you prefer playing passively and build around fighting at range with Sniper.

Laser Mine

• Lays out multiple mines with high direct damage which will stay on the ground until triggered by the enemies walking above.
• Unlike explosive mines, these have a very limited trigger range, requiring enemies to literally step on top of them to activate. To compensate, every activation throws out multiple of these mines instead of only one. Decent for area denial and crowd disposure.

Smoke Grenade

• Creates a smoke cloud granting dodge chance and improved shield and item recharge if standing within, while decreasing accuracy. Enemies standing within are disoriented.
• Rogues’ most effective defensive/utility item, can be combined with different modules and item combos to great effect. Beware that the increased dodge chance isn’t enough to prevent you from taking damage. Assassins can use smoke clouds to knife entire crowds with his Prestige perk.
• Plowing upgrades into this allows you to abuse it to recharge your items while standing in the smoke cloud really quickly. It also affects itself! Very useful if you have items with long cooldowns or if you intend on standing your ground during a fight.

Decoy

• Places a decoy hologram which will be seen as a threat by enemy forces.
• Simple but highly effective, places a durable decoy at your feet: enemies will prioritise it over you in most cases and will even ignore you to focus their attacks on it, making them sitting ducks. A safe pick for most builds.
• Watch out for that in Hyper Adrenaline – on explode it usually kills the owner.