Build:Elemental Mercenary

Playstyle
The main combo utilized in this build is to open with the Chimera Pistol to inflict Elemental Vulnerability, then the Obsidian Pistol to inflict Burning, and finally the Meteoric Pistol to inflict Holy Blaze, while taking advantage of the impact from your pistol shots to get some hits in with your Radiant Wolf Sword. It should be noted that the obsidian pistol will inflict burning with one shot (100% buildup), while the meteoric pistol requires two shots (66% buildup) to inflict holy blaze. When your pistols are empty, you can find an opening to quickly load a Shatter Bullet, or you can use Blood Bullet. Blood bullet is especially useful for inflicting holy blaze, because both the lifesteal and the bullet add buildup to status effects.

Before a fight, you can load your guns with whichever kind of bullet you want. Shatter bullet is good for the extra impact, and Frost Bullet is good for stronger enemies, groups of enemies, or frost-vulnerable enemies. Loading multiple frost bullets just requires some prep with cool potions.

For very strong enemies/bosses (or if you feel like it), you can load your guns with normal bullets, put down a Sigil of Wind, and shoot them with lightning bullets. Lightning Bullet will still inflict status effects like burning and holy blaze. However, you will not usually have time to reload your guns for more lightning bullets without retreating, but you can still use your sigil of wind with Spark or Conjure to deal additional lightning damage, while transitioning to your other pistol skills.

Note: Later in the game, I chose to carry around two Astral Pistols in my pocket, which inflict Scorched and Chill with a 66% buildup, increasing the fire/frost damage you deal with your other pistols. They also give a 7% damage bonus to your lightning damage. Plus they look pretty cool with the radiant wolf sword.

Equipment
Ash Armor: Enchanted with Spirit of Monsoon (+25% lightning damage)

Pathfinder Boots: Enchanted with Flux (+5% lightning damage, +3% movement speed)

Pathfinder Mask: Enchanted with Cocoon (+2 protection, weather defense stats)


 * I honestly chose this mask because it looks cool. It's actually not great with the build stats-wise, because it increases mana cost, and doesn't have any damage bonuses. If you really wanted to min-max, other options could be the White Wide Hat or Jade-Lich Mask

Radiant Wolf Sword: Enchanted with Fulmination (+5 flat lightning damage)


 * I got this from a legacy chest since I went with the Heroic Kingdom of Levant

Brigand’s Backpack: Unimpeded dodge roll, +15% physical damage


 * Until I got to Caldera, I used the Boozu Hide Backpack instead. Being able to fight with your backpack on makes inventory management with guns/bullets/iron scraps much easier.

Offhand: All ya guns. Enchanted with Levantine Secret (+5% frost damage bonus, -5% mana cost)

Faction and Breakthroughs
I went with the Heroic Kingdom, because Alchemical Experiment boosts all damage, and this build deals both elemental and physical damage frequently. Kirouac's Breakthrough is another nice damage/health boost once you get it.

The Mercenary and Cabal Hermit breakthroughs are fairly obvious, for Blood Bullet and Sigil of Wind.

The Hex Mage breakthrough is a great QoL breakthrough, and extra elemental damage from Lockwell's Revelation is also really nice. Even though you need to be tired, I don't tend to have issues with stamina. The tired status effect also helps with mana regen. An alternative to this breakthrough is Feather Dodge, if you want to dodge unimpeded while wearing other backpacks, such as the Light Mender's Backpack.

For mana, I invested 2 points of mana to get a total of 60 max mana (after Peacemaker Elixir), which is enough for your boons, sigil of wind, and blood bullet.

For TTB Specialist skills, two options I have considered are Cruelty and Acrobatics. I haven't tried them out very much, but it's pretty much just what you prefer.

Final Thoughts
I had a lot of fun with this build. When I made this character, I just wanted to use guns and look swag at the same time, but I was surprised it turned out to be pretty powerful. I'm sure there are other ways to use guns more "optimally" but this is what I came up with and I wanted to share. Thanks for checking out my build!