Updates for Title Update 4 are in progress.

These a collection of short guides to help you get started on how to play each Exosuit.

The first, most important tip here is that F1 by default shows you details about what your suit's abilities do (late edit: finally noticed there's a Skills button on the Exosuit Status and Rigs & Modules tabs for every suit that shows this info as well). There are a lot of important key points about how some abilities and weapons work that aren't obvious otherwise. For example: Zephyr α's primary weapon does the most damage from a specific non-melee range, the button for Krieger's missiles can be held down to lock onto (up to 3) targets and will fire many more missiles this way, and Vigilant's scoped shots should be charged for significant damage before firing.

Rig choices are important and will get their own section but keep in mind that you can switch rigs at any time at only the cost of the cooldown so don't be in the mindset that there's One Best Rig for every situation. Technically, this is also true of your Exosuit but most players (myself included) definitely seem to prefer to stick to one or a few per match.

I am going to offer rig and module recommendations but these aren't be-all-end-all or thoroughly tested for minmaxing or anything, merely gleaned from a decent amount of time spent with each suit. There are important modules for general performance so I can't say they're not important either, but solid play is also important. When you're just starting out your module and rig options will be limited so if these recommendations aren't enough to fill the gaps just grab what looks like it fits and don't sweat it too much. Certain modules tend to favor PvP vs PvE but I'm going to try to stick to general recommendations unless it's the kind of thing where you have to make a choice that fits your playstyle.

Grey modules can be used in any slot and are cheap enough to upgrade that I'd recommend maxing out any you use right away. The slot 2/3 blue/yellow modules are suit-specific (they generally modify the skills shared across variants), the slot 1 red modules are suit and variant specific (they typically apply effects to the primary weapon). The colored modules are a little pricier to upgrade and can generally be left at level 4 if you want to be stingy.

Recommended grey modules are going to be fairly similar across most Exosuits. I think that Durability Module is probably the most useful all-purpose grey module except for suits that already have a lot of HP in which case Impact Reduction Module might be better value (for PvE). Hi-Xol Compression Module is good for every suit with a powerful ult; think less in terms of how many you can use per game versus having it available more often being probably more important. Reload Efficiency Module is good for some suits, Regeneration Module is situationally good for supports, Anti-Swarm Module is sort of good for suits that are vulnerable to getting stuck in raptor swarms without a good clear option. System Repair Module and Magnum Module lean more towards PvP. Everything else is pretty situational and often times the colored modules dwarf them in power so you're using 2-3 of those anyways.

Try not to worry too much about score but do treat it as an indicator/goal/comparison for improvement. The things that maximize score tend to be what you want to be doing, though this is more or less true for different suits.

For α and β variants assume the same general tips apply unless otherwise noted.

Cannon: A long range, linear, piercing, medium power laser. Generally your best option for most situations when starting out and versatile and useful for pretty much every Exosuit. Best used for clearing chunky waves of smaller dinos.

Aid: High utility though not as useful as you might expect. The area is pretty tiny. Best used with support Exosuits that can't heal themselves or tanks that want to mix in some healing. If you expect you're going to need the damage mitigation you're generally better served by Shield in most situations.

Catapult: Useful if you need a little extra mobility for positioning but I honestly haven't found a use for it outside of Roadblock (who has poor mobility options otherwise) where smart positioning in advance isn't the better option, especially when you sacrifice all the other rig options.

Shield: Extremely useful in basically all situations except low-density, low-threat dino waves. Very useful for Exosuits that prefer to stay in close range, allows you to take risks you probably shouldn't, also useful for survivability in PvP.

Blade: Throws a slow moving projectile that stuns dinos and enemy players in its path. Requires several uses for larger dinos, which makes it kind of not very useful. Most potent as a tool for PvP.

Drill Fist: A chargable melee rig, high risk high reward close range damage tool. Requires some level of assistance from your teammates to set up safe situations to use it to its fullest.

Drone: Shoots a slow projectile that creates a short persistent AOE that does a small amount of damage and blinds. The blind doesn't seem to be very useful on dinos, I'm not sure I'd have a clear recommendation for using this one at all.

Edge Strike: Think Cannon but for melee. Teleports you to where you aim it and then does a big AOE slash.

Stealth: "Briefly makes you more difficult to see." I only gave it one go and then played around with it a bit on the firing range and found it underwhelming but your mileage may vary. The invisibility lasts a decent amount of time and does let you drop aggro on dinos but breaks if you use any action. IMO its use is niche enough that I wouldn't recommend starting games with it as your selected rig.

Mortar: Mortar is a low damage, medium area, indirect fire weapon, but it has a low cooldown. Potentially a good swarm management tool but seems to lack a wide utility use case compared to other options in my opinion.

General

• To get the most out of Deadeye you want to always be shooting and using his abilities on cooldown as much as possible. Deadeye can play well at range but to get the most out of Thrust Attack you'll want to be closer.
  
• Fire Rifle Grenade and then jump to gain some verticality to make the most of its explosion during the activation delay.
  
• Thrust Attack can be charged and should never be fired off raw, even a small amount of charge is an improvement over no charge.

Rig

• Cannon/Edge Strike for extra damage or Shield for playing closer and riskier to squeeze out some extra damage from Thrust Attack.

Modules

• Slot 1: Either red is fine but Damage Chain synergizes more with the fast reload playstyle enabled by the Slot 3 option.
  
• Slot 2: Either blue is fine here also but I prefer Shot Grenade.
  
• Slot 3: Reload Dodge allows you to be a minmaxing fiend by never reloading, but you can perform fine without it. This is only decreasing the reload from 1.5 seconds to 1 second. Personally, I like to just run Reload Efficiency Module here as a happy medium (drops reloads to 1.2 seconds) and keep the utility of Dive Dodge on tap.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Reload Efficiency Module, Hi-Xol Compression Module, Durability Module, and/or Rig Loading Module in roughly that order.

General

• Trades the full auto assault rifle for combination shotgun/burst fire rifle--shotgun when unscoped, burst fire when scoped. Burst fire uses 5 rounds, shotgun shots use 10 rounds.

Rig

• Same as base Deadeye.

Modules

• Slot 1: Force Multiplier expands Deadeye α's versatility by making the shotgun actually worth using. At max level the shotgun drops to 1 round per shot which flips the efficiency on it, and refreshing the buff just requires a single burst fire round.
  
• Everything else is same as base Deadeye.

General

• Trades the full auto assault rifle for variable fire mode laser rifle, fires full-auto when not scoped, fires single powerful charged shots when scoped. Red modules modify this functionality a bit favoring either fire mode.
  
• The scoped shot is hitscan but only hits a single target, best used when you're relatively sure you can land it on medium-plus-sized dinos. I haven't spent time figuring out what's optimized in terms of DPS but generally I've been holding down left click and then pressing right click as needed for the bigger damage when I have a clear target.
  
• The heat gauge doesn't seem to decrease slower or have a longer delay if you hit the overheat, however the character has a reaction animation that prevents him from using other abilities for a short moment.

Rig

• Same as base Deadeye.

Modules

• Slot 1: The choice here is which fire mode you want to favor. Damage Chain gives a damage boost to full auto at past half heat buildup, Heat Charge gives a temporary boost to the charge shot damage after ramping from the full auto. I think Heat Charge is the better pick here because the heat micromanagement is less obnoxious to maintain the power boost and I suspect it's superior damage against large dinos. They're both kind of micromanagement-intensive in different ways, so this might be the kind of thing where you have to decide for yourself which style fits better.
  
• Slot 3: Because there's no other way to actively speed up the heat gauge recharging, Reload Dodge is a little more mandatory here since it will knock off a chunk on pretty short cooldown (it only removes about half the gauge, which also helps it synergize with Damage Chain).
  
• Everything else is same as base Deadeye.

General

• High risk/medium reward melee suit. Zephyr is very fragile so be very aware of your level of danger at all times, else you want to be in close and spamming your big damage abilities as much as possible.
  
• Linear Strike instantly and safely kills Gas Neosaurs.
  
• Limiter Override increases attack speed, drastically improves the cooldowns on Zephyr's abilities, and also full heals on activation.

Rig

• Very much recommend Shield at all times excepting that Blade is very useful for PvP. Drill Fist and Edge Strike are the only other things you might consider.

Modules

• Slot 1: Melee Enhancer is the better red option here. The cooldown reductions from Assailer are reportedly not very good.
  
• Slot 2: Rebound Strike is viable and powerful in the right situations but of the two base blues I very much prefer Skyfall because it drives me nuts that Sky High leaves you in the air without a good follow-up option by default. My new favorite is Impact Strike, which removes the knockback from Linear Strike and turns it into a potent nuke.
  
• Slot 3: All the yellow options are somewhat underwhelming, I prefer to slot Durability Module here. Step Up appears to be bugged and doesn't seem to actually give a damage buff on Turbine Step use.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Durability Module, Hi-Xol Compression Module, and/or Magnum Module. 50 extra HP may not sound like much but it's most useful for a fragile, low-HP suit like Zephyr and will definitely save you on occasion.

General

• Zephyr α trades base Zephyr's tonfa for a quasi-ranged energy chakram. It's important to keep in mind that the regular attacks have damage that scales within a particular range. It performs the worst at melee and best at a little ways inside of the maximum range. This is tricky and doesn't synergize well with his abilities at all, but here's how I recommend dealing with it: Linear Strike will move you forward enough to be used from range, close enough to follow up with Sky High, and then you can Turbine Step backwards and it should put you pretty close to the optimal range.

Rig

• Cannon is an extra recommendation in addition to everything recommended for base Zephyr since you're going to be playing a bit more at range.

Modules

• Slot 1: This one's kind of a tough call, Dragon Breath is extremely good for clearing small dinos which is something Zephyr α sort of struggles with but requires some tight focus to get the timing on the fifth attack. Chakram Lure is also very useful for the stun, adding some extra utility for large dinos and doesn't need to be timed to maximize. I prefer Chakram Lure entirely because I tend to get so caught up in trying to hit the timing on the fifth attack that I forget to use the rest of my abilities.
  
• Slot 3: Even though Turbine Step can be used to reliably put you in the sweet spot and would make the extra charge from Flash Step valuable, Flash Step cuts the Turbine Step distance enough to invalidate this tactic, so I'm still using a grey module in slot 3.
  
• Everything else is same as base Zephyr.

General

• Identical attack combo to alpha (but short range only). Underperforms during ramp up but Cyclone Mode seems very powerful. Cyclone Rush is insane AOE damage but also depletes a chunk of the Cyclone Meter (ideally you squeeze one last one in before Cyclone Mode ends). Cyclone Mode attack speed stacks with ult.

Rig

• Same as base Zephyr.

Modules

• Slot 1: Cyclone Dance is really potent and is surprisingly safe to use, you're not fully invulnerable while it's going off but you're hard enough to hit that it's pretty close. I don't think it crits or it's hard enough to aim that you're better off left click attacking if you get an easy opening during a hard CC on large dinos but it's my preferred choice here. Asura Stance eats 100 HP for a boost to Cyclone Gauge gain but the boost doesn't seem substantial enough to justify the risk plus giving up Cyclone Dance.
  
• Everything else is same as base Zephyr.

General

• Barrage is pretty straightforward, and benefits the most from playing at range and from higher elevation.
  
• Triple Threat can be used to grenade jump, which can help set up Burning Heart.
  
• Keep in mind that Burning Heart drops you off where you detonate it and also drops you down to 200 HP if you're anything higher, so if you're using it in PvP (where it's especially powerful) anyone you don't catch in the blast is going to immediately be gunning for you.
  
• Take this with a grain of salt but I'm increasingly convinced Triple Threat isn't worth using at all, it takes so long to use and has so little damage and utility that it feels like a straight DPS loss; have MVP'd games no sweat without firing it off once.

Rig

• Cannon supplements Barrage's damage nicely and gives you a long range direct fire option. You don't strictly need to play close range so Shield and other close range options are less powerful.

Modules

• Slot 1: The blast radius enhancement from Blast Enhancer feels weak but the increased ammo is great. Impact Grenade is a good choice also and diminishes Barrage's weakness vs larger dinos.
  
• Slot 2: Any base blue options for Barrage are kind of weak. Lingering Threat has good utility and lets you get a little bit more out of Triple Threat and Boost Grenade is kinda nice but the buff lasts barely enough for one shot. The actually superior options are either Bombard Grenade unlocked from Barrage α or Instant Threat from Barrage β. Bombard Grenade does more damage if every tick hits plus squeezes out some extra stun utility, Instant Threat makes Triple Threat worth using at all, both are basically pure crowd control options.
  
• Slot 3: I would recommend Reload Dodge, it works especially well with Blast Enhancer; the timing to keep yourself constantly reloaded is a lot less tight than the similar setup for Deadeye.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Hi-Xol Compression Module, Reload Efficiency Module (if not Reload Dodge), Durability Module, and/or Rig Loading Module.

General

• Trades indirect fire igniting grenades for direct fire and longer range and charge shots. Not necessarily an upgrade.

Rig

• Same as base Barrage.

Modules

• Slot 1: Rapid Blaster is technically better DPS than Rapid Charge and the extra ammo is nice but it's close enough that you could take whatever you prefer. The tooltip for Rapid Blaster is somewhat misleading; your fire rate is increased after a charged shot but it doesn't automatically fire off your remaining rounds.
  
• Everything else is same as base Barrage.

General

• Trades indirect fire igniting grenades for a short range flamethrower.
  
• There's a sound cue when your ammo is about to run out which makes it very Reload Dodge friendly.
  
• Barrage β is in a weird spot, he's a swarm killing monster but suffers badly against medium and larger dinos and is miserable against bosses; his primary weapon doesn't crit and he has to play very high risk to compete on single target damage.

Rig

• Since you're going to want to be playing very close range, Shield makes the most sense to me here.

Modules

• Slot 1: Choice between ammo capacity with Hi-Volume Tank and a high-risk-high-reward buff to flamethrower range and damage with Infernal Soul. This is kind of a tough choice because Infernal Soul is the clearly superior option but playing with Hi-Volume Tank is much more forgiving and less stressful. Part of what makes Inferno Soul insanely powerful is that the base damage increase applies regardless of whether you activate the buff. Activating the buff does a substantial amount of damage to you over time as well, so your healer needs to be on the ball and may justify using Aid.
  
• Everything else is same as base Barrage.

General

• Don't be fooled, Vigilant isn't a sniper, she's an AOE damage lockdown monster. You should basically never be not using her charged zoom shot (except to pop off Stinger Shots). You should be trying to position to catch lots of enemies in the same shot versus trying to perch or stay at extreme range.
  
• Try to launch Frost Lock from the air for packs of small dinos.
  
• Barrel Breaker has a generous use time and can crit so don't be afraid to be a little more careful with your shots once you activate it.

Rig

• Don't use Cannon, it's roughly the same as her charged railgun shots anyways. She's a good use case for Blade since you can use it to set up a group of small dinos for a beefy railgun or Stinger Shot. Shield is great for PvP here.

Modules

• Slot 1: I haven't tried Charge Enhancer because Charge Linker is extremely powerful, though it requires a bit of focus. Look for the yellow numbers and your next shot is fully charged instantly (note this can only happen once consecutively though).
  
• Slot 2: Prefer Frostbite. Two hits of Frost Lock will instantly freeze most large dinos (and a third one will catch the rest).
  
• Slot 3: I think both the yellow options are underwhelming compared to a choice of one of the greys.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Durability Module, Hi-Xol Compression Module, and/or Reload Efficiency Module.

General

• Trades the charged railgun for a more conventional rifle. Every fifth shot in the magazine does bonus damage.
  
• Vigilant α feels kind of weak in general gameplay against swarms but she's a large dino and boss killing beast if you can consistently hit weak spots.

Rig

• In addition to base Vigilant's recommendations, I think Cannon really helps cover for the linear AOE you lose from the charged railgun shots here and suggest starting with that for most games.

Modules

• Slot 1: I'm using Timed Shots, which requires a little attention but isn't too bad--you don't necessarily need to watch the meter you can just delay the bonus shot by maybe around a half second.
  
• Everything else is same as base Vigilant.

General

• Trades the charged railgun for a crossbow. Hold to charge, uncharge shots have harsh falloff. Normal charge shots have some limited piercing. There doesn't seem to be bonus for timing release of charged shots to the flash on full charge. Right click on charge with full meter for an explosive shot.
  
• In theory, Vigilant β seems to be the middle ground between base Vigilant's charge shot playstyle and α's more rapid single shot gameplay, in practice she's mostly the same as α but with extra steps. She still struggles against swarms, though admittedly a bit less than α, but also struggles with sustained damage against single targets. The best scenario is mixed swarms with larger dinos (which α would struggle with since targets can get in the way of your shots) where you can use the former to build charge and dump the large nukes into the larger beasts.

Rig

• Same as Vigilant α; Cannon or Mortar help cover up Vigilant β's rough ability to handle swarms.

Modules

• Slot 1: Overcharge seems to be a straight upgrade, a little more than double the charge bar for a shot that's ~3x the normal charged shot damage with better area. Bolt Volley is hot garbo.
  
• Everything else is same as base Vigilant.

General

• Roadblock is the most proper tank of the three tanks. Lots of crowd control utility, a big taunt, and a beefy shield.
  
• Enemy dinos can't pass through the shield so it can be used to bunch them up for your allies or for a juicy Shield Blast.
  
• You can tell a dino has been tauned because a blue line will arc from the dino to you.
  
• Bullying large dinos up close with your shield is a very underrated way of shutting them down.
  
• Taunting large dinos away from defense objectives can make a huge difference, the objective not getting destroyed just once can win you games.
  
• Storm Drive is outstanding for yeeting the entire enemy teams off a cliff.

Rig

• Catapult and Edge Strike complement his poor mobility quite well.

Modules

• Slot 1: I prefer Tower Shield here, you'll still break shields often enough that it's worth all the mileage you get.
  
• Slot 2: Stun Blast is amazing and always useful versus the other options.
  
• Slot 3: Skid Step makes Skid Dodge not useless. I use it and still run a mobility rig but you could probably get away with using a different rig as long as you have Skid Step.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Impact Reduction Module, Hi-Xol Compression Module, and/or Conservation Module. I'm not sure if Reload Efficiency Module's "recharge time" reduction affects shield recovery rate, but if so that makes it a high recommend as well.

General

• Roadblock α trades the punchy fist and attached shield for a weak shotgun and deployable shield. Default Roadblock α requires some situational setplay to make work and feels somewhat weaker than base Roadblock to me but both his red modules enable some different playstyles that can be kind of fun, as described below.
  
• You can (and very much should) still use Shield Blast without accidentally deploying or destroying your shield by pressing both buttons for it simultaneously.

Rig

• Because you're not carrying Ballistic Wall with you, Roadblock α can get a lot of mileage out of Shield.

Modules

• Slot 1: I'd strongly recommend either red module, else I think you're probably better off playing base Roadblock.
  
  • Explosive Wall turns his wall into a quasi-spammable bomb, but I'm not entirely sure the damage is worth it to give up a lot of the shield's utility. It does up to 200 damage at max level versus 80 damage that the shield does without the module, and can be chained 3 times before needing to recharge.
    
  • I prefer Decoy Wall here, you can do some kinda cheeky things with it. First off, the tooltip is again misleading, Decoy Wall modifies Taunt by a) causing Taunt to emanate from the shield and b) causes enemies to be taunted to the shield. It's got pretty good range too, so you can drop it somewhere away from your team, sit there rolling Taunt, and let your team mop up pretty safely.
• Everything else is same as base Roadblock.

General

• Roadblock β trades the big attached shield for a modified, smaller counter shield. Plays like a mini-Murasame.
  
• The counter blast does the same amount of damage regardless of charge level and you lose it if the shield's block capacity hits its limit, so there's no reason not to fire it off as soon as you need to--but do hang on to it until you've had a moment to position for maximum damage.
  
• You can't block while your shield is recharging but you can still Shield Blast by pressing both the buttons simultaneously.

Rig

• Like α, since your shield is being used for more focused utility it can help your survivability to bring the Shield rig.

Modules

• Slot 1: It's a choice between enhanced shield utility with Reactive Repair and extra counter-offensive power from Road Forger. I like Reactive Repair (because it both gives the shield a lot more breathing room and lets it be used more often) and so haven't really used Road Forger (the increased heat dissipation delay decreases with module level down to no delay at level 5 and so becomes a pure buff).
  
• Everything else is same as base Roadblock.

General

• Krieger and Murasame are more damage-oriented tanks. Krieger is the ranged option, who is notably lacking any taunt.
  
• Don't spend Stunlock Missiles on small dinos, only ever use it with lock-on on medium or larger dinos.
  
• Dome Shield breaks instantly if a large dino is already inside of it when deployed, this is supposed to stun them but it doesn't seem to do so reliably (you get credit for damage shielded at least). It may be more useful to drop it where they have to run into it but the positioning for this is kind of delicate and inconvenient. It will push out most smaller dinos, but be careful because this can spread them out in a way that's counterproductive.

Rig

• I'd suggest Cannon, Blade, or Shield.

Modules

• Slot 1: Rapid Shot seems like the obvious best choice here.
  
• Slot 2: Electro Missile is too universally good to pass up.
  
• Slot 3: Reload Dash or Reload Effiency Module seem like the best options here. Thruster Dash can be canceled early to get the effects of Reload Dash without going too far, but the minigun's gauge decreases only during the active dash so be careful about canceling it too early.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Reload Effiency Module, Hi-Xol Compression Module, and/or Impact Reduction Module. Reload Effiency Module increases the minigun cooling speed.

General

• Need to rant here for a sec, I dunno what the deal is with Krieger, both his variants are objectively awful compared to the entire rest of the cast. Both primary weapons are mediocre, his crowd control options are unreliable, he has no taunt and his shield is borderline worthless and doesn't last long enough making him the worst tank by far, and to top it off his base jump height is arbitrarily pitiful in order to justify his ♥♥♥♥♥♥ jump boost rockets. Okay in fairness his shield has a few very powerful specific use cases (eg Vortexer Sabotage) but he kind of needs some help.
  
• Trades the minigun for a chargeable shotgun.

Rig

• Same as base Krieger.

Modules

• Slot 1: Both reds are pretty useful here, it's basically a choice between extra effective range with Overcharge or some stun utility for larger dinos with Stun Blast.
  
• Everything else is same as base Krieger.

General

• Trades the minigun for a mortar cannon/heavy laser combo.

Rig

• In addition to the usual recommendations from base Krieger I've been playing around with mobility utility like Catapult and Edge Strike instead since Cannon kind of doesn't fit the rhythm with Cannonade.

Modules

• Slot 1: Both reds feel quite powerful and either are good choices. I prefer Cannonade because it makes everything about Krieger β feel better; firing the laser for any length of time gives increased rate of fire for the cannon. You can build meter faster by popping it, you can reload, pop a little laser, and then go to town with the cannon, it adds some tactical depth that rewards playing smart with it. Buster Laser is also really powerful, it's not a one shot hit-or-miss but rather it fires like the normal laser, it just can't be stopped once it's started. The extended meter feels like it takes too long to fill to me, but is probably perfect if you'd prefer to not have to micromanage the laser meter and just save it for big shots.
  
• Everything else is same as base Krieger.

General

• Krieger and Murasame are more damage-oriented tanks. Murasame is the melee flavor.
  
• You want to be in Rasetsu Stance (triggered by shielding enough damage with Vajra Counter) as much as possible, but getting there can be tricky.
  
• Crescent Moon taunts everything it hits, so use that to help set up Vajra Counters.
  
• Always try to use Falling Attack from Strafe Hook, it's really good damage.
  
• Meikyo Shisui (Murasame's ult) gains range the longer it's held, so don't wait to let 'er rip if you've already got a good lineup.

Rig

• Very much recommend Shield here, or Blade/Edge Strike.

Modules

• Slot 1: Rasetsu Step is extremely powerful provided you can reliably get into Rasetsu Stance. Radiance is a good holdover until you get it.
  
• Slot 2: Steadfast is probably the best option here to both cover for Vajra Counter whiffs and keep Rasetsu Stance up as much as possible. Sanctuary might be a good alternative--trades the 6 second shorter cooldown for a 2 second longer duration and increased area--tough call but I personally prefer the cooldown reduction. The other blues are alright but add utility to Crescent Moon that it doesn't strictly need.
  
• Slot 3: Tiger Strafe is outstanding, having two counters of Strafe Hook to spam Falling Attack in Rasetsu Stance is great.
  
• Grey modules: Recommend Hi-Xol Compression Module, Durability Module, and/or Rig Loading Module in roughly that order.

General

• Unlike other α variants, the change isn't to his primary weapon but to what Vajra Counter does; Murasame gets a big AOE freeze effect to his counter. He's a bit more crowd control oriented vs base Murasame's damage focus. Murasame α has about a 25% lower base damage than base Murasame in Rasetsu stance--and that's before the attack speed bonus base Murasame gets from Rasetsu Step.

Rig

• Same as base Murasame.

Modules

• Slot 1: Not truly sure how the alternative compares but Frost Flower will let you chain freezes on T-Rexes which kind of settles this one for me.
  
• Everything else is same as base Murasame.

General

• Modifies Murasame's Vajra Counter to create a torando and gives your group a defense buff. The defense buff lasts just short of the duration of Rasetsu Stance (which seems quite shorter than base Murasame to me but I haven't actually tested this). The tornado is very effective at grouping up small dinos but doesn't effectively CC large ones, though it does try to pull them into the tornado.

Rig

• Same as base Murasame.

Modules

• Slot 1: Gale Cutter seems the better option, Vajra Storm seems to create more problems than it solves. You could maybe run a grey module here instead without losing much.
  
• Everything else is same as base Murasame.

General

• Witch Doctor is the most traditional-healer of the support options. Play very aggressive in close range to lock down as much as you can with Neuro Rod (stunned dinos aren't doing damage) and get used to the rhythm of when to drop Repair Field. Witch Doctor synergizes best with teams that want to stay grouped up and works especially well with melee suits.
  
• Feed is good for clutch spot healing but also fully recharges Neuro Rod if used on an enemy.
  
• Vital Aura buffs defense so don't be too afraid to use it early.

Rig

• Witch Doctor doesn't strictly benefit much from Aid (he's the only support that can directly heal himself without it), just about anything else will do. I usually roll with Edge Strike or Drone here since Blade is a redundant electric stun.

Modules

• Slot 1: Sprawling Shock is incredible. You'll still land stuns on large dinos by sticking on them long enough.
  
• Slot 2: Repair Boost seems like the obvious pick to me.
  
• Slot 3: Safety Leap is also incredible, both for maximizing your healing and for putting you in the mindset to be using it as a rescue tool to close the gap to teammates who need the Repair Field.
  
• Grey modules: General support recommendations; Crisis Module, Regeneration Module, Durability Module, and Hi-Xol Compression Module are all good pinch-hitters for all supports. Note that all supports regenerate after a delay, which means only supports benefit from Regeneration Module. Witch Doctor can also benefit from Reload Efficiency Module.

General

• Trades the AOE taser for a combined heal beam/taser. Has 3 levels of charge, but the stun effect is much weaker making this more of a defensive-oriented option.

Rig

• Same as base Witch Doctor, except now Blade makes more sense.

Modules

• Slot 1: Adrenaline Beam gives your beam a little extra utility, the buff doesn't last very long but helps incentivize aiming it towards your team. Energy Efficiency is sort of invalidated by Feed instantly refilling your charge whenever you need.
  
• Everything else is same as base Witch Doctor.

General

• Trades the AOE taser for a pulse gun. Normal fire is 3 shot bursts, charged it shoots a slow moving stun projectile very similar to Blade that uses 6 ammo. Like base Witch Doctor his primary weapon doesn't provide any healing.
  
• Unlike the other two variants, this one has a lot more offensive firepower bringing it a little more in line with other offensive-oriented supports.
  
• Feed on enemies still restores ammo to full, but since you can manually reload it's probably best used for spot healing on single targets.

Rig

• Same as base Witch Doctor, except now Cannon makes more sense since the charged shot is pretty Blade-like and good at setting up a line of stunned dinos to be knocked down.

Modules

• Slot 1: Either red module is good but not outstanding; a grey module such as Reload Efficiency can be a good fit for this slot also. I very slightly prefer Plasmarang but it sacrifices the long range of the base charge shots.
  
• Everything else is same as base Witch Doctor.

General

• Skywave is still a healer, with a bit more utility. Most of her kit heals and her primary weapon's damage output is so pathetic you're best off using it to focus on active healing.
  
• Optics Jammer also heals (very well) in additional to its nominal blinding effect, which makes at a very good emergency healing cooldown.
  
• Skywave is unique in that she has tools to help keep her up in the air which makes her pretty safe in PvE once you get the hang of the positioning and managing Slipstream.
  
• You can squeeze out a little extra from De-Synchronize by using it for certain extra-weak stun states, for instance it'll extend the Neo T-Rex's knockdown state where it's mouth weakpoint is exposed (but also works for stuff like Ankylosaurus being flipped).

Rig

• Aid can be useful both as an extra source of healing and because Skywave cannot normally heal herself directly. Shield can be useful for making yourself a little bit harder to pick off in PvP. Else Cannon can be helpful for speeding things along.

Modules

• Slot 1: Aether Enhancer is the superior option unless you have trouble consistently landing heals from range, in which case Aether Accelerator is perfectly fine.
  
• Slot 2: Graviton Echo from Skywave β is best suited for vanilla Skywave but it's not very powerful (it just synergizes with what you're already doing); the other blue options here are pretty underwhelming so this is a good spot to slot in a grey module if you'd like.
  
• Slot 3: Reload Stream is really nice since you'll be intermittently using Slipstream to stay in the air anyways.
  
• Grey modules: General support recommendations; Crisis Module, Regeneration Module, Durability Module, and Hi-Xol Compression Module are all good pinch-hitters for all supports. Note that all supports regenerate after a delay, which means only supports benefit from Regeneration Module.

General

• Skywave α loses base Skywave's healing projectile in exchange for being a much more powerful damage dealer. Her primary weapon can be charged to reduce the AOE but juice the damage.
  
• Optics Jammer still heals, but you'll have less room to save it for emergencies .

Rig

• Aid gets another bump in utility power without the primary weapon healing, especially if you're solo support.

Modules

• Slot 1: I really like Shock Squall here, Delayed Bolt only affects uncharged shots and doesn't really give you much in exchange for what you lose--your normal shots paralyze small dinos in one or two hits anyways and you should probably be dropping charged shots on anything larger.
  
• Slot 2: Graviton Echo is good for Skywave α as well, else a grey is fine here.
  
• Everything else is same as base Skywave.

General

• Skywave β has a modified version of base Skywave's projectiles and gains an extra bit of utility with Stellar Veil. Her normal fire shoots off several homing projectiles that only heal and her charged fire only does AOE damage. Both charge a gauge that lets her use Stellar Veil on a teammate, which provides a damage shield (plus buffs with the right red module).
  
• Skywave β's healing feels weak compared to base Skywave and other healers to me, something to keep in mind. Optics Jammer will still be doing a lot of work here.

Rig

• I've drifted towards preferring Cannon for Skywave but the other standard utility things like Aid and Shield are still very much valid here.

Modules

• Slot 1: Choice between modifying Stellar Veil for enhanced utility (Astra Veil for buffing damage and speed) or offense (Flare Star trades the shield for a bomb).
  
• Slot 2: Graviton Echo is explicitly not good for Skywave β since it's only activated by charged shots--you'll only get one or two shots off before it ends. Pick a grey module here.
  
• Slot 3: Reload Stream is worthless for Skywave β. I'm running a second grey module here.
  
• Everything else is same as base Skywave.

General

• Nimbus is...also a healer, but she has very discreet healing & damage modes facilitated by Mode Switch. Rend Mode = damage, Mend Mode = healing.
  
• Mode Switch fully reloads her ammo and enhances the next loaded magazine for enhanced damage or healing; you're strongly incentivized to Mode Switch instead of normally reloading. Enhanced magazines are indicated visually by glowing guns.
  
• Spreadshot does great AOE damage in Rend Mode, but heals somewhat unimpressively in Mend Mode.
  
• Holo Warp has two important support utilities that can be easy to miss: it AOE heals allies at the location you warp to and you can launch the hologram at downed allies to revive them autonomously.
  
• Antipode Burst is a big heal wave that also knocks back enemies.

Rig

• Nimbus synergizes well with most rigs, but as with Skywave she benefits most from defensive-oriented ones like Aid (since she also can't directly heal herself), Shield (since she's more likely to be closer to the action), and Blade.

Modules

• Slot 1: Speed Shot is essential for maximizing your healing, but requires good aim. If you can't do without the homing effect, Critical Shot or a grey module works here instead.
  
• Slot 2: Because Mode Switch is so integral to maximizing throughput, I'd suggest Rapid Switch is more or less mandatory. Even if you double tap it to stay in the same mode, you're only losing about a half second compared to regular reloading.
  
• Slot 3: The yellow options here are kind of underwhelming with the possible exception of Quick Holo, 7 seconds is over a third of Holo Warp's cooldown and while this is probably great in a clutch situation I don't find I need it often enough to where I prefer it over one of the grey options.
  
• Grey modules: General support recommendations; Crisis Module, Regeneration Module, Durability Module, and Hi-Xol Compression Module are all good pinch-hitters for all supports. Note that all supports regenerate after a delay, which means only supports benefit from Regeneration Module.

General

• Trades precision pistols for shotguns. The shotguns still have pretty good range (especially serviceable in Mend Mode) but have pretty sharp negative distance scaling.
  
• If you can aim well, base Nimbus with Speed Shot is probably the superior healer, but Nimbus α probably has better damage over time up close.
  
• Mode Switch doesn't directly increase damage or healing but slightly increases pellet count per shot.

Rig

• Same as base Nimbus.

Modules

• Slot 1: I recommend Shotgun Mastery; the healing you get from Kickback even when max level is pretty pitiful.
  
• Everything else is same as base Nimbus.

General

• Trades standard weapons for a mine launcher. Both Rend and Mend Mode mines can be used as direct fire or as trap setups.
  
• Mode Switch enables the sticky mine placement on surfaces and enhances the damage and healing all around.

Rig

• Same as base Nimbus.

Modules

• Slot 1: Both red modules are really good but encourage you to specialize. Eruption Bomb causes continual (but weaker) explosions, Regenerator is mildly potent but lasts a pretty long time. Both have similar mechanics; they require a short arming time after the mine is placed before the effect is active, else you're not actually losing the damage or healing (plus direct hits aren't losing anything either). I'm leaning towards Eruption Bomb because I feel like it's sacrificing less utility for what it gains but both are solid choices.
  
• Everything else is same as base Nimbus.

tl;dr: IMO an ideal team composition is something like no more than one of [Roadblock, Roadblock α, or Murasame α] and [Witch Doctor, Witch Doctor α, Skywave, Skywave β, or Nimbus] and then nearly any other combination of other suits to fill the team with at least one AOE and one single target specialist. Explanations below.

This is a bonus section with some thoughts on team composition for players who don't mind being flexible with their suit choice to match the rest of their team.

I'll explain the terminology I'm using here shortly, but basically you want 1 of each pure role, support-oriented tank and healer and then three offense-oriented suits. This does mean that you can have a successful team with 2+ tank and support suits as long as they're the right choices to still be putting out damage.

For tanks and healers (and I'm explicitly calling Supports healers here) there's a clear delineation (with a few exceptions I'll highlight) between suits and variants that are meant to be doing only their role and well and ones that have a viable offensive kick to them. For example, base Skywave has very pathetic damage, but incredible sustained healing ability. Here's how I think they stack up:

• Pure role: Roadblock, Roadblock α, Murasame α, Witch Doctor, Witch Doctor α, Skywave, Skywave β, Nimbus
  
• Offense-oriented: Roadblock β, Krieger, Krieger α, Krieger β, Murasame, Murasame β, Witch Doctor β, Skywave α, Nimbus α, Nimbus β

Roadblock α, Murasame α, and all Nimbus variations are edge cases where they are capable of functioning as both. Roadblock α is an AOE monster if you spam his shield as a bomb on small dinos (even without the red module that boosts doing this). Murasame α and β have most of base Murasame's damage output except for what's boosted by Rasetsu Stance; if you're on a team that already has a tank you should probably be switching to base Murasame but you could stay as either of the variants and not be losing a ton of offense. All Nimbus variations are incredible damage dealers and I only split them up for this section because base Nimbus is the obviously superior healer and Nimbus α is the slightly superior damage dealer before even setting them up to specialize. Nimbus β is respectable at both depending on which red module you use and how adept you are with the mines.

All Assault suits are straight offense-oriented picks. Keep in mind some variants are stronger for AOE & groups of smaller dinos and some are stronger for large dinos & bosses. Here's my quasi-arbitrary opinion on where each lands based on how I set mine up (as described in the rest of the guide and granting you can switch some modules to reverse these specialties) and relative cross-variant strengths & weaknesses for the same suit--and also including our offense-oriented non-Assault picks:

• AOE: Barrage, Barrage β, Vigilant, Roadblock β, Krieger, Murasame β, Nimbus β
  
• Single target: Zephyr α, Barrage α, Vigilant α, Vigilant β, Krieger α, Witch Doctor β, Skywave α
  
• Unambiguously both: Deadeye, Deadeye α, Deadeye β, Zephyr, Zephyr β, Roadblock α, Kriger β, Murasame, Nimbus, Nimbus α

Thus, to repeat the tl;dr at the top: IMO an ideal team composition is something like no more than one of [Roadblock, Roadblock α, or Murasame α] and [Witch Doctor, Witch Doctor α, Skywave, Skywave β, or Nimbus] and then nearly any other combination of other suits to fill the team, with at least one AOE and one single target specialist. These are hardly hard requirements for success (you can easily make do with single offense-oriented tank/support teams) but a team set up as such will already be on the right path.

• Most dinos have varying resistances to different damage types; observationally this something like projectile, explosive, melee, and fire, may be others. Blue numbers indicate resistance, yellow numbers indicate either weaknesses or critical hits (both count for anything triggered by crits).
  
• Triceratops have extreme damage resistance around their entire head crest, but the horns can be destroyed to nerf its charge. It has a crotch bulge that is a critical hit weakspot but only when it's stunned.
  
• Ankylosaurus are weaker to melee and fire and can be flipped over by lighting it on fire.