IDNTG - Melting

Melting


	Melting
	Unlock	Die.
	B-Skin	Defeat the Nuclear Throne without Rhino Skin or Strong Spirit
	Weapon	Revolver
	Active	Explode Corpses
	Passive	More Rads Less Max HP

Abilities

Active: - Melting can blow up corpses.; - The rule is that if it can be killed or destroyed, it can blow up afterward.; - The exceptions to the rule are cars and Big Dog's missiles.; - The default explosion size is 1 blood explosion per tile that the corpse sprite fills.; - The blood explosions “try” to space themselves such that there is only one blood explosion per tile.; - Blood explosions do 4 damage per hit for 15 frames and obey iframes (dealing up to 12 damage to most enemies and 60 damage to charging big bandits and leaping palace dogs).; - Blood explosions block all hostile projectiles, clear toxic gas, fire, and detonate hostile grenades.; - After killing the last enemy in the level, you cannot explode corpses until the portal opens.; - Blood explosions produce light in dark levels, making Melting's ability to see in the dark almost as good Eyes' if there are plenty of enemies strewn about the level.
Passive: - All enemies drop 1 more rad than usual, including enemies that normally don't drop rads at all.; - This gives Melting a slight advantage over most other characters when collecting rads in pre-loop (often reaching level ultra much sooner and entering crown vaults at higher levels during dailies than other characters), using ultra weapons, and effectively negating the negative effect of crown of blood.; - Melting's negative passive is only having 2 max hp by default, making them die in one hit from most damage sources.; - The exceptions are maggots, fire, salamanders (fire and contact damage), shotgun pellets, and laser crystal lasers although it is very rare to take only 1 point of damage from some of these sources.; - Having so little max hp is the most debilitating negative passive among the 5 characters with negative passives.
Thronebutt:: - When exploding corpses, there are more blood explosions per corpse and Melting vocalizes maniacal screams in trash talk upon every instance of using the active.; - The larger area coverage of blood explosions vastly increases the utility of Melting's active in many circumstances.; - It also makes exploding corpses a much more viable source of damage against enemies in lower enemy density conditions.; - It's utility bonus, however, becomes largely unnecessary in later stages of the game where enemy density is such that the extra area coverage makes little difference and enemy HP is much higher thus inhibiting “chain explosions” where enemies are killed purely by corpse explosions and their corpses are used to kill more enemies until running out of corpses. Using melee weapons to block projectiles also makes thronebutt less necessary.
Ultra A: Brain Capacity: - Melting's active ability now explodes not only corpses, but all alive enemies under 5 HP.; - This effect extends chain explosions by reducing the damage needed to be done by blood explosions to kill enemies.; - Exploded enemies will not leave corpses.; - The ability becomes weaker as enemies gain more HP each loop due to the cutoff value being locked at 5 hp instead of scaling like Plant's thronebutt or scarier face.; - Upon taking the redemption ultra mutation as skeleton while crown of death is equipped, Melting's max hp will be unaffected by crown of death so it is possible to have 7 max hp as Melting by taking rhino skin after redemption, taking brain capacity, then unequipping crown of death.
Ultra B:: - Melting's HP is halved in exchange for 3 extra mutations.; - This allows Melting to have up to 12 mutations including the extra mutation from crown of destiny.; - The hp calculation is only applied once upon choosing the ultra mutation.; - If detachment is taken when at 1 hp with crown of death equipped, no hp will be lost.; - It is possible to have any max hp value between 0 and 6 (inclusive) after taking detachment due to crown of death unconditionally subtracting 1 hp upon being equipped and adding 1 hp upon being unequipped to the max hp value with no further calculations being applied after equipping or unequipping it.; - The methods for achieving every max HP value are: 0 = detachment > no rhino skin > equip death, 1 = detachment > no rhino skin (do not equip/unequip death), 2 = detachment > no rhino skin > unequip death, 3 = rhino skin > detachment (do not equip/unequip death), 4 = detachment > rhino skin > equip death or rhino skin > detachment > unequip death, 5 = detachment > rhino skin (do not equip/unequip death), 6 = detachment > rhino skin > unequip death.; - Upon entering the next level after equipping crown of death for 0 max hp, Melting will die instantly unless strong spirit is active. If strong spirit is active, it will be broken upon spawning into the level and will keep Melting alive but will not return. In this state, the HP bar will read “1/0” (because strong spirit heals the player to 1 HP every frame while in the process of “breaking” which lasts 4 frames at 30fps, scaling accordingly to higher framerates) and Melting will die instantly upon interacting with hp in any way (this includes healing from health pickups or blood lust and taking explosion/fire damage even with boiling veins active). This state also grants Melting a +100% fire rate bonus if stress is active. Chicken is the only other character who can receive a +100% bonus from stress.; - If strong spirit is active when at 1 max HP, it cannot regenerate upon breaking until max HP is higher than 1. This applies without detachment as well.; - The extra max HP acquired from unequipping crown of death is not healed automatically and will be missing. If strong spirit is broken upon unequipping crown of death, it will not regenerate until the missing HP is healed.
Other Perks: - If Melting dies while within a Necromancer's circle, he will be revived as Skeleton. (link later); - Move extra HP here once better organized

Preloop Guide

Melting is designed to be the most challenging character (ignoring skeleton for now). In pre-loop, Melting's active and ultra mutations do not yet have a chance to mitigate the massive disadvantage of having low hp. The usefulness of the exploding corpses, however, should not be understated even in pre-loop. There are plenty of opportunities to make use of exploding corpses if you know how to look for them, reducing reliance on melee weapons and improving ease of movement throughout the level. The most notable examples are doing “multi-hit” damage to Big Bandit while he is charging (dealing up to 60 damage), punching holes in the waves of bullets from Big Dog's spin attack, and easily clearing large hoards of freaks in labs.

Labs is often the easiest area for Melting to clear in pre-loop and Melting is even arguably the easiest character to clear labs with, especially with thronebutt. Just be extra cautious about the turrets and kill them on site as quickly as possible. As for clearing every previous area as well as palace and ultimately defeating the throne, the name of the game is maximizing survivability. This means taking mutations and weapons that you normally may never consider. Firstly, there are the obvious choices for staying alive longer of rhino skin and strong spirit (unless, of course, you are trying to get Melting's B skin. See the B skin guide for more technical tips and tricks for not getting hit [link]). With these 2 mutations you allowed up to 3 mistakes on average per level before dying on your not-so-hitless run. Long arms is an obvious pick if you plan on using melee to defend yourself and when combined with laser brain makes the energy sword (the best defensive weapon that can be found in pre-loop) a very strong and useful weapon. Scarier face is also a must have if none of the previously mentioned mutations appear in a set since the faster you can kill enemies, the less opportunities they have to kill you. Laser brain also helps kill enemies faster if you happen to find strong energy weapons. Plutonium hunger is very helpful for making vital ammo and hp pickups much easier to reach and picking up rads that may otherwise decay so that you get mutations faster, but it is relatively less important compared to many other mutations. Blood lust can be a safe way to heal and recover strong spirit but is mostly useless without rhino skin. Extra feet can help with dodging with some practice but being unfamiliar with the higher movement speed can make it more of a hinderance. The next mutations to look for are euphoria, hammer head, boiling veins, and gamma guts. Euphoria makes almost every enemy with ranged attacks much easier to deal with, hammer head can be used to avoid every any kind of damage and can act as a substitute for melee blocking, boiling veins makes Melting take no damage from fire and explosions if rhino skin has not yet been taken (this becomes up to 2 damage with rhino skin), and gamma guts (which can kill snow bots in frozen city with scarier face) acts as training wheels for players not yet very competent at dealing with rush enemies that deal contact damage. Having boiling veins and gamma guts make melting immune to most threats in labs and allows for killing snow tanks with gamma guts virtually risk free. Taking thronebutt can also aid in many situations if sets contain nothing else of use. Taking boiling veins also lets Melting take advantage of the high damage output of explosive weapons with impunity as well as more safely use the jackhammer or any of the screwdrivers around the IDPD (these weapons detonate their grenades).

Weapon choices are equally important to mutations when trying to take as little damage as possible. It is best to have a fast-firing weapon to deal with rush enemies and other difficult to hit enemies with relatively low hp and a weapon with high burst damage output to kill bosses and tough enemies more quickly. Early melee weapons like the wrench and screwdriver can act as both a fast-firing weapon and a defensive tool to deflect and clear hazards with but with the tradeoff that you must get much closer to the enemies to deal damage. The shovel and sledgehammer are not recommended without trigger fingers. The jackhammer is the best defensive melee weapon in pre-loop until the energy melee weapons can be found. The energy screwdriver and hammer take 2nd place to the energy sword in defensive ability. The energy screwdriver does the same damage as the energy sword and has a faster fire rate but lacks the larger melee arc and can detonate IDPD grenades. The energy hammer has the same large arc as the energy sword and does much more damage in addition to having digging capabilities which are very helpful for avoiding damage, but it functions more as a high burst damage weapon than a defensive tool as it has a much slower fire rate and consumes a lot of ammo very quickly. The energy sword is the pinnacle defensive weapon for any character in pre-loop so naturally it is a very good weapon choice for melting. Laser brain doubles the lifetime of the melee arc for the energy melee weapons making them defensively superior to their non-energy counterparts in addition to the immensely better damage they do even without laser brain. When melee weapons are unavailable, bullet and fast-firing shell weapons are the best way to defend yourself from rush enemies. When using a mouse to aim, bolt weapons allow you to see further away and let you better plan for how to clear the level. Any weapon that can dig is helpful for avoiding damage, so all explosive weapons are recommended (as soon as boiling veins is taken) for their high damage output and digging capabilities. The super bazooka, nuke launcher, and heavy grenade launcher some of the most powerful damage dealing weapons that can be found in pre-loop and the grenade rifle, grenade shotgun, auto grenade shotgun, and hyper launcher are the best pre-loop weapons for digging into walls. The hyper launcher can dig, has relatively high DPS, and is even relatively safe to use without boiling veins so it is a highly recommended weapon pick for pre-loop that won't lose its effectiveness when carrying it into loop.

Since Melting is rarely at low hp, far less of the pickups will be hp and thus will mostly be ammo. This allows Melting to take better advantage than most characters of more ammo-hungry weapons. Such weapons in pre-loop (in order of ascending area difficulty) include: minigun, auto shotgun, hyper rifle, super crossbow, seeker shotgun, laser minigun, super slugger, auto flame shotgun, nuke launcher, energy hammer, super bazooka, plasma cannon, super flak cannon, heavy assault rifle, double minigun, plasma minigun, incinerator, heavy auto crossbow, and super plasma cannon. This effect can be further improved by rabbit paw and synergizes well with back muscle. Crown of risk has virtually no negative effect on Melting without rhino skin, especially with blood lust. This allows Melting to maximize the ammo drop rate by stacking crown of risk's effect with rabbit paw as well as back muscle's effect of having the “low ammo” drop rate boost occur at half ammo instead of low ammo (which is approximately the max ammo value without back muscle) all for no perceivable tradeoff.

Having strong weapon loadouts is very important for clearing pre-loop as Melting so it is recommended to not use the oasis skip in order to both insure a higher possible difficulty for weapons after 3-3 and increase the total number of weapon drops to hopefully obtain the strongest possible weapons before taking on difficult areas like frozen city and palace. Crown of curses is also recommended for this reason since cursed weapons can be 2 difficulty tiers higher than what is normally possible and entering vaults also increases possible weapon tiers but be careful as to not enter cursed crystal caves if you are unprepared for the dangers the area poses. Also be prepared for IDPD spawning when opening vaults and entering the next level after equipping the crown (including 1-1 when starting with a crown after unlocking it). Entering pizza sewers can also yield higher tier weapons earlier on and can “skip” some of the dangers in sewers. If you are adept at surviving in sewers, Melting's bonus rad passive can be used to get extra rads by rat starving [link]. “More rads” yields an extra rad from every small green rat, IDPD unit, Big Dog missile, and duplicated cursed crystal spider as well as vans in loop which do not drop any rads for other characters. Big Dog can theoretically be farmed for infinite rads until level ultra but this is not a recommended pre-loop strategy.

Loop Guide

In loop is where Melting finally somewhat equalizes with other characters in survivability and power. The increased enemy density (especially with crown of blood) makes them a defensive and offensive powerhouse, clearing areas with large amounts of weak enemies with ease. The brain capacity ultra allows chain explosions to be started immediately upon loading into most levels for many loops and makes them last longer due to enemies requiring less damage be done for them to be exploded. Exploding corpses, especially with throne butt, can instantly clear the visible area of most enemy ranged attacks if enough corpses are on screen. Most other characters must rely heavily on melee weapons, blood weapons, or digging to navigate many levels in loop without dying or rely on healing mutations negate damage taken but Melting simply removes many hazards with the active button instead of waiting for projectiles to pass or block them with a weapon or a wall. The detachment ultra adds 3 more, potentially very strong, mutations to Melting's arsenal, minimizing compromises in the final mutation build. Melting's passive also finally can make a difference in gameplay when using ultra weapons.

Some loop crowns are also very good for Melting. Crown of blood increases the enemy density improving the active ability, crown of luck has no downside with 1 max hp, and crown of death has many different applications. When taking the detachment ultra after equipping crown of death, there is no penalty for having the 3 detachment mutations compared to equipping it with brain capacity or taking detachment without having it equipped. Death > detachment > rhino skin yields 5 max hp just like rhino skin > brain capacity > death and unequipping death in either case results in 6 max hp. Paired with boiling veins, doing this also allows Melting to enjoy crown of death's effect on powerful explosive weapons like the super bazooka or nuke launcher with no penalty while the crown in equipped. In most cases having 3 more mutations is stronger than brain capacity's effect so brain capacity is largely irrelevant in loop after surviving pre-loop without rhino skin assuming that one of the detachment sets has rhino skin. The crown of death trick also makes it possible to enter loop jungle with detachment without rhino skin (totaling to 5 potential sets including patience that could contain rhino skin after detachment) and allows strong spirit to regenerate once lost because you get 2 max hp again after unequipping death. Brain capacity becomes relevant again if you turn into Skeleton and have crown of death equipped when taking the redemption ultra since crown of death doesn't affect Melting's max hp upon taking redemption. Taking brain capacity after rhino skin in this situation nets 7 max hp after unequipping crown of death. Crown of risk from the pre-loop vaults is also still a strong crown for melting in loop especially now that blood lust has a near endless number of opportunities to heal you.

Meta Guide

High level Melting gameplay is shockingly similar to that of the heavy hitters in the Nuclear Throne meta. Having low max hp is still a massive disadvantage being that it makes it far easier to die suddenly from a rapid succession of attacks but Melting has some tricks that make them stronger, on average, than the characters with negative accuracy passives (skeleton and steroids) despite having lower max hp. Firstly, Melting's active and passive abilities work together to minimize rad consumption from the ultra shovel. You might think that Melting would need to use the ultra shovel more often than other characters in order to get hit as few times as possible, but exploding corpses clears most projectile hazards and low health contact damage enemies before it is necessary to use the ultra shovel to block the damage. Active and passive combined allow Melting to refill rads from enemies that normally drop very few or no rads without firing the super plasma cannon or wasting rads on self-defense. Exploding corpses also stops necromancers from spawning more and keeps IDPD freaks from respawning although it should be noted that IDPD freaks will continue to respawn from other corpses as long as there are some left in the level. Beware of the danger of using active too haphazardly during late loop big bandit fights where IDPD freaks reviving is a vital source of rads. The extra damage from active is also a major quality of life improvement for the run.

The next trick is maximizing survivability with the extra detachment mutations. By loop starving with crown of destiny and then equipping crown of death for the first 2 of the 3 vaults accessible during a run, it is possible to have 12 mutations and 6 max hp with detachment. Having 12 total mutations lets Melting compromise far less in the mutation build than other characters with 9 mutations. The most successful perfect 12 (or P12) mutation build to date is the standard P9 [link] plus boiling veins to effectively shrug off explosions as if they never happened (this is especially important due to blood explosions detonating IDPD grenades which often spontaneously drop right next to the player when fighting IDPD freaks and can easily be accidentally detonated), euphoria to make it easier to avoid and block projectiles, and rabbit paw to increase DPS with the super plasma cannon and provide more consistent healing on top of blood lust. It is also common to replace rabbit paw with back muscle having throne 2 in mind. Having up to 4 quick attempts at full hitting throne 2 instead of only 2 makes this infamously dangerous boss far less threatening. Removing blood lust in order to have both rabbit paw and back muscle to maximize DPS is also a valid strategy being that stress is marginally less helpful on melting when paired with blood lust due to the not insignificant probability of being healed to full by blood lust in between slow, stressless swings thus leaving the player exposed to a quick succession of hits longer than if stress were able to better protect the player while out of pickup range of HP pickups. It is highly recommended, however, to have stress, euphoria, or both in the build to make avoiding damage easier and most players will prefer the safety of blood lust. Having throne butt on a meta run can be exhilarating but it's added benefit diminishes rapidly as enemy density increases and it can even cause the game to lag immensely if enough corpses are allowed to pile up, but it can somewhat substitute plutonium hunger if it is unavailable by allowing the player to push for drops more easily and is highly recommended for ranged meta.

Melting's relatively minimal reliance on melee to block projectiles makes them an excellent character for ranged meta. The extra mutation slots from detachment are very useful for boosting DPS and adding extra survival abilities. Exploding corpses also helps clear low hp rush enemies, conserving ammo and rads for the ultra crossbow for digging and killing tougher enemies. Clearing projectiles and rush enemies makes the normally problematic areas for ranged meta (desert, sewers, and frozen city) relatively stress free. Having low max hp, however, is still a major drawback in ranged meta (albeit less so than for normal meta) especially for certain boss fights. Melting has a tougher time fighting the bosses that shoot lots of bullets or other projectiles in situations where there are very few corpses with which to clear the projectiles. Such scenarios are rare for Big Dog and Little Hunter, but very common for the Big Bandits and Throne II. The Throne also has a high volume of fire and very few corpses in the level to counteract it, but its attack patterns are predictable enough that it shouldn't be a problematic fight for experienced players, especially with euphoria. One of the strategies for these bosses is to explode corpses very sparingly and saving them for when it is absolutely necessary to use them to block damage. IDPD freaks are the only source of rads during these fights, so it is advised in much later loops to conserve corpses so that they are allowed to respawn to have enough rads to keep fighting. Melting cannot survive the 10 contact damage from Mom without strong spirit so the safest Mom strategies are advised once she moves fast enough to be dangerous. The Hyper Crystal is a relatively harmless boss but the lasers from laser crystals are extra dangerous with low max hp so clear crystal caves with extreme caution and awareness.

Fighting Bandits
Bandits are either a nightmare or extremely easy as melting. The main strategy for bandits is to save your corpses until a few bandits and vans spawn, then spam your active and clear out any enemies left until it's only you, bandits, and popo freaks. Exploding every corpse can be dangerous and leave you with low rads with no way to get them back so it's much safer to save half or more to ensure you don't run out.

Fighting Mom
Mom, much like bandits, can be horrible or extremely easy. Depending on the layout Mom can be cleared before the rest of the level if you spam active and SPC while pushing forward, as long as you're keeping track of where she is. However as her speed increases this strategy becomes unreliable and isn't recommended. At L8+ clear the level normally while saving a tiny amount of corpses for popo freaks to respawn, while fighting mom you can explode corpses if necessary as her eggs will respawn popo freaks.

Clearing Palace
One of the biggest obstacles in L6+ melting runs is palace. Dogs may seem intimidating however the real enemy is snipers. To deal with dogs, rotate around them in a half circle while swinging your ultra shovel, this will prevent any dogs from actually hitting you and ones that do come close will likely die. In levels full of dogs just perform the same strategy but in a larger circle while occasionally shooting your SPC into the direction you want to move if your path gets blocked or if it seems risky. In levels full of dogs and snipers hiding behind them, it's best to do the same strategy as before while making sure not to open up sightlines for snipers and to play slow as rads will typically be lower with this type of generation.

Fighting Throne II
Throne II is the same as other characters. There is no major tech for melting other than exploding corpses as a desperation move. It's a last ditch effort but you can explode the leftover popo freak corpses to save yourself if you're about to die, but this will essentially put your fight on a time limit if you can't defeat the throne before you run out of rads.