Conflicting Memories: Best New Shrapnel Build for Once Human

Shrapnel builds continue to provide promising damage with the release of The Way of Winter. Most of us know about the effectiveness of the SOCR Last Valor during the Manibus Scenario for Once Human, but we wanted to highlight one of our new favourite combinations using the new MG4 Conflicting Memories.

Continue reading to understand the purpose of the Mods, Armor, Calibrations, Mod Attributes, and Cradle Overrides for the best Conflicting Memories Shrapnel Build.

View the Conflicting Memories build here.

Primary and Secondary Weapons

Primary Weapon - MG4 Conflicting Memories

This gun packs an absolute punch. While using Conflicting Memories, you can trigger a multitude of different effects.

Firstly, for every 12 shots on target using Conflicting Memories, you will trigger your Keyword Shrapnel Effect. If you're uncertain what Shrapnel does, the in-game Keyword List provides that upon hitting an enemy with a bullet, deal 50% attack as Weapon Damage to a different random part of the enemy. This additional damage has the opportunity to Crit, do Weakspot Damage, and will decay upon furthering your distance from the target. This means you are multiplying your bullet damage with additional 'hits', denoted as the Keyword Shrapnel Effect.

The second primary feature of Conflicting Memories stacks your damage and provides an additional 8% Shrapnel DMG for every 15 magazine capacity over 100. Alongside this, you will also receive an additional +40 magazine capacity while using Conflicting Memories. Basically, the larger your magazine capacity, the more damage you can do with this weapon.

Calibration: Use Rapid Machine Gun Calibration, which provides a fire rate buff of 10%, accuracy -50, and an additional fire rate buff of 10% after continuously firing for 2 seconds. The secondary attributes for this Calibration should be Crit Rate + Crit Rate.

Secondary Weapon - DE.50 Wildfire

The DE.50 Wildfire is a fan-favourite for many builds due to its ability to trigger The Bull's Eye alongside spreading this effect to an additional nearby enemy. The Bull's Eye Keyword Effect triggers something called Vulnerability, which essentially makes an enemy take additional damage (being in a Vulnerable state).

Vulnerability, in combination with Shrapnel, allows you to stack additional damage to an enemy as it applies for both your actual bullet hits alongside any Shrapnel hits - boosting overall damage.

Alternatives to the DE.50 Wildfire include the AWS.338 Bullseye, the Recurve Crossbow, and the DBSG Doombringer, which can also trigger The Bull's Eye. However, our personal preference is the Wildfire due to its speed, portability, and percentage trigger chance being 60% (alongside spreadability).

Calibration: Portable Pistol Calibration, which provides a mobility boost of +50, a movement speed boost of +12.5% while holding your secondary weapon, and a weapon switching bump of 50%.

Melee Weapon

Melee Weapon - Long Axe

Although this requires a bit of strategy, the Long Axe can activate Fortress Warfare up to once every 10 seconds when performing a Heavy Attack. For every target that has been hit, Heavy Attacks grant all weapons an additional 8% Crit Rate and Melee Swing Speed of 5% for 10 seconds - stacking up to three times. Fortress Warfare creates an area of effect within a 2-metre radius that provides allies with heavy armor, and 'Super Armor', which boosts weapon damage by 20%.

Calibration: Speed Melee (Light-Striker Style), which boosts movement speed by 12.5%, with double Crit Rate.

Shrapnel Build Armor

Helmet - Cage Helmet (Key Armor)

For our Key Armor, we're going to be using the Cage Helmet, which provides a Shrapnel Trigger Count of +1. Again, the focus of this build is stacking Shrapnel Trigger Counts, Crit Damage, and Crit Rate, so that we can optimize our overall damage through the Keyword Shrapnel Effect.

Set - Lonewolf (4-Piece) Set

The Lonewolf Set is a necessity for any build that is focusing on Crit Rate, Crit Damage, and Violent Attributes. Using four pieces of the Lonewolf Set, we are receiving the following bonuses:

• Magazine Capacity +10% - this is important due to Conflicting Memories' bonus shrapnel damage for magazine capacity over 100.
• Crit Rate +5%.
• Get 1 stack of Lone Shadow with every 2 Critical Hits. Lone Shadow provides a Crit Damage bonus of 6% for 30 seconds and can stack up to 8 times.
• Increase max Lone Shadow stacks to 10 with an additional Crit Rate of 8.0% for 2 seconds after reloading.

Again, the Lonewolf Set focuses on Crit Rate and Crit Damage, which can be stacked with Shrapnel Hits. With this set, we're optimizing our overall damage, rather than focusing on survivability.

Final Piece of Armor - Bastille or Heavy Duty

This is where you can get a little bit creative with your build. However, we're focusing on damage output, so the Bastille Shoes providing an additional 10% weapon damage when our health is above 70% is ideal. If you want to increase your survivability, consider using a piece of Heavy Duty Armour to boost your health by 10%.

Shrapnel Build Deviation

Lonewolf's Whisper

Let's not forget about our trusty deviation for this build - the Lonewolf's Whisper! Honestly, it's probably our favourite for use in most Silos. Lonewolf's Whisper can work autonomously by aggro'ing nearby enemies and increases the damage received by an attacked target by up to 43.20% (Skill Rating 5). Keep in mind though, that Lonewolf's Whisper's effect can only trigger on enemies it can reach and attack, so if you're doing a Monolith like the Forsaken Giant where Lonewolf's Whisper can't reach the target, consider using Snapshot instead.

Shrapnel Build Mods

Primary Weapon - Shatter Them All

This mod provides that the more parts your Shrapnel Keyword Effect hits, the higher the Shrapnel Damage. Each part will receive a 15% damage boost, up to 45%.

Secondary Weapon - Vulnerability Amplifier

Since Wildfire can already spread its Vulnerability Keyword Effect, Vulnerability Amplifier is important for boosting the application of this Vulnerability. This Mod adds 8% of Vulnerability to enemies marked with The Bull's Eye.

Helmet - Fateful Strike

This mod provides an additional Crit Rate boost of 10% and a Crit Damage boost of 30%, however, it does remove our ability to deal Weakspot Damage (not a huge issue with the huge Crit Rate + Crit Damage increase).

Mask - Targeted Strike

When hitting marked enemies, your Crit Rate is increased by 10% and Crit Damage is increased by 25%. When trying to optimize damage for this build, you must ensure that you are applying The Bull's Eye to enemies using the Wildfire first (and then reapply as necessary).

Gloves - Crit Boost

This Mod provides a Crit Rate boost of 15%, which is important for continuously triggering our Crit Damage.

Top - Quick Comeback (alternatively, Munitions Amplifier)

This Mod is super useful for Monoliths and Silo Bosses where you need to be on the move to avoid targeted strikes. Quick Comeback provides a movement speed boost of 20% for 2 seconds and refills your magazine from your inventory up to 100% when using a healing shot. Alternatively, you can also use Munitions Amplifier to boost your overall Primary and Secondary Weapon damage.

Pants - Deadshot

This Mod is a game-changer when focusing on Crit Rate and Crit Damage, and is used in conjunction with Quick Comeback. Each Crit Hit by a non-melee weapon grants us an extra 5% Crit Damage, up to 45%. The effect is removed upon reload, which is where Quick Comeback can significantly assist as we're not reloading our weapons (they're simply being refilled upon using a healing shot).

Shoes - Covered Advance

While this Mod requires a little bit more of a tactical focus, it's useful when dealing with Monoliths and Silos where you can avoid taking damage for longer periods (like the Forsaken Giant). Covered Advance provides that when taking no damage within 4 seconds you receive a 20% boost to melee, weapon, and status damage for 30 seconds. The effect resets when the duration ends.

Cradle Overrides

Most people are playing The Way of Winter right now, so we're going to focus on the Cradle Overrides that are available in this scenario.

Anti-Regen

When using pistols, light machine guns, or melee weapons, you will receive a damage boost of 15% with an additional 100% damage boost against Super Anomaly - Regen enemies.

Deadly Combo

After triggering your Shrapnel Keyword Effect, your bullet damage receives a boost of 25% for 4 seconds.

Deviation Master

Honestly, we never take this Cradle Override off. While a Deviation is present, damage against the Great Ones and Elites is boosted by 25%.

Fortress Link

Fortress Warfare range is boosted by 50% with an additional damage boost of 5%. After activating Fortress Warfare for 5 seconds, Fortress Warfare will appear within 10 meters of a non-hostile target's location (or at your location if no such targets are nearby).

Steady Hand

While in Fortress Warfare status, Weakspot Damage is boosted by 40%, with an additional Weakspot Damage boost to The Bull's Eye target of 20%.

Tracking Bullet

Dealing Weakspot Damage grants an additional 2.5% Shrapnel Damage and 3.5% Shrapnel Crit Damage for 6 seconds, up to 10 stacks.

Tactical Combo

After switching your weapons, your Weapon Damage is increased by 25% for 4 seconds (again, important when marking enemies with The Bull's Eye and then switching to Conflicting Memories).

Bounty Hunter

Hitting a marked enemy grants an additional 5% Weapon Damage for 8 seconds, up to 6 stacks.