Each of the four playable classes in People Can Fly’s Outriders supports a different play style. Some offer more offensive skills and some can help with defense, which is key to survival as the difficulty ramps up.

For the Trickster class, Outriders asks players to get up close and personal. The class’ healing mechanic is based on getting kills within close proximity of enemies. But with that comes a lot of risks, since higher World Tier enemies and Challenge Tier Expeditions can pack a punch.

In order to balance the need to kill up close and to kill fast, Trickster players in Outriders typically will want to use a shotgun. Yes, there are Trickster builds that can support other types of weapons, but the majority of popular builds focus on dealing damage quickly. Shotguns are great for that.

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Arguably, the best type of shotgun in Outriders for the Trickster class is an automatic shotgun. Everyone has a different preference when it comes to variants, but the Narrow Automatic Shotgun is a popular choice. It balances fast-firing with precision, ensuring that players get the most out of each shot.

Unless players get extremely lucky, they will need to visit the Crafting vendor in Outriders and further customize their weapon to meet their playstyle. So even if an Automatic Shotgun isn’t the rarity players want or it doesn’t have the mods they want, players can still modify the weapon to meet those needs.

There are a couple of different ways to approach getting a “god roll” Trickster shotgun, it depends on how much grinding the player wants to do. The simplest way that we have found is to first collect Blue rarity Automatic Shotguns. These are easy to farm if players spec into the Assassin Class Tree for the Trickster and select the node called Shotgun Master. In addition to increasing shotgun damage, this perk will also increase shotgun drop chance by 12%.

Once players have a Blue rarity Automatic Shotgun, they can visit the crafting station and upgrade its rarity to purple/epic. Doing this keep the existing mod on the weapon as is and add a choice of three for the second slot. Now, is when mod selection becomes important.

When bumping up the blue rarity Automatic Shotgun to epic, players will need to hope for the mod called Perpetuum Mobile to appear as one of the three choices. This is a tier 2 mod, so players can find it on any weapon, and they can add it to their mod crafting “inventory” by dismantling any weapon with the mod attached. Basically, dismantling a new mod takes it off the weapon and allows the player to put it on any other weapon through crafting. It’s useful to do this because then Outriders players can swap the other mod on the Automatic Shotgun with a different perk.

Perpetuum Mobile is the most essential perk for the automatic shotgun and Trickster builds because it will replenish the weapon’s ammo if the player gets a kill with the last 35% of their ammo. In the case of automatic shotguns, this is usually 3-5 shots, depending on if Trickster players have the perk that adds 50% more ammo. It’s on the Assassin Class tree so they should have it for this type of build anyway.

Perpetuum Mobile is the first piece because it ensures that the Trickster player rarely has to reload. As long as they get a kill with those last 5 bullets, the magazine will go back up to 15 shots. Now the second mod has to ensure that players do enough damage that they can get that kill on harder and harder enemies.

The second slot is a little bit of dealer’s choice, but two popular choices lead the pack. The first popular Trickster weapon mod choice is called Embalmer’s Rage, which turns every shot into a Critical Hit for 5 seconds after a kill. Trickster players will do a ton of damage as long as Embalmer’s Rage is active and they should have it active almost the entire time they are in combat. With abilities like Twisted Rounds and Venator’s Knife boosting damage even further, Embalmer’s Rage can chew through mobs.

But don’t be seduced by the big yellow numbers; there is another mod that is also very good for Trickster shotgun builds. Dubbed Killing Spree, this mod increases weapon damage by 25% for 20 seconds and can stack up to 3 times. The bonus does deteriorate over time, but as mentioned, Tricksters are in the thick of combat so it should rarely run out.

The trade-off between Killing Spree and Embalmer’s Rage comes down to a couple of factors. How accurate the player is and what their critical damage percent is? If the critical damage isn’t that high, then Killing Spree is the way to go. That being said, Embalmer’s Rage allows players to hit crits without aiming. Hitting weak spots is still preferable, but shotguns can make that difficult.

If Outriders players do choose Embalmer’s Rage, they can also seek out a tier 2 mod called Brain Eater that will stop the weapon from consuming ammo on critical shots. The two pair very well and keep reloading to a minimum. Even so, reloading is inevitable and the only way to avoid it is to mix between taking out weaker targets and then focus on Elites and Bosses.

Trickster Class Abilities that pair well with this shotgun build are the most popular with players. Twisted Rounds boosts the damage of every shot and is essential for a weapon build. Venator’s Knife gives the first shot an extra damage boost and slows down enemies hit by the knife. Those are the two abilities to use, and then the third depends on the player. Some prefer Borrowed Time for the bonus shield and armor that the ability can offer with armor mods. While others like Hunt the Prey because it supports the class perk called Unforeseen End. There are two of these nods on the Trickster Assassin Class tree.

When the abilities and mods are active, Trickster players should deal a ton of damage. Of course, damage is only one part of the equation – armor mods can buff armor and abilities – but it is key to survival in the Outriders Endgame.

Outriders is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series.

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