Decided to stop after 100 million

Make sure to refer to the update section, as some of the information in this guide is outdated

- The following Perks are listed in order of priority, that being said it is not mandatory nor possible to exactly pick all the perks in the order listed.
- If you are aiming for a high score it is recommended to have at least 16GB of ram and a generally ok machine, it is not a heavy game just slightly unoptimized, past 2 hours of gameplay you are going to look at 1 FPS or lower even if you have a 4090.
- Mentioned in another spot in the guide, but important to highlight make sure you do not pick any perks that will add unnecessary effects on your screen, Burn effects Lightning Bolts, Missiles, Plasma Balls and Radiation, all of those can contribute to your game crashing and you losing your score.

In the early game we are going to prioritize early damage bonuses and xp collection perks.

Light Magnet:
Light magnet will pull any XP revealed by light, we will take a lot of revealing perks throughout our build, this perk is essential for easy XP collection and leveling.


Bulk Rounds Tree:
This tree will give us damage and range, "Stopping Power" the upper route of this tree will give us higher base damage, while "Full Metal Jacket" the lower route of this tree will give us scaling damage for hitting multiple enemies at once.


Quick Draw Tree Tree:
This tree will greatly help us with both offense and defense, the upper route "Spray and Pray" will give us loads of attacks speed, the lower route "Bullet Flower" will increase the number of slashes we make per attack which also increases the area we are hitting greatly.


Flashbang Star:
Another essential perk, will help us reveal the entire map while also giving us a damage bonus and furthermore helping us with freezing all enemies.


Level 10 Knife Perk:
Most useful out of the 3 options given and helps us in every aspect.

In the mid game you should make sure to finish picking up all of your "utility" perks, and of course all of the early game perks before you move into the late game.

Level 20 Knife Perk:
The bread and butter of the build, this perk will make sure no enemy will reach us.


Meet Your Maker:
Following level 20, we are going to start seeing a lot of projectiles on our screen, 3 points in this route will greatly slow these projectiles, and also delete them once we kill the enemy who shot them, making our gameplay much easier.
The last perk in this route is not very useful, could take it much later on if there are nothing else to take.


Akimbo:
Finishing the Akimbo route will allow you to also attack everything behind you, securing 360° protection.


Akimbo + Bullet Flower combo:
When you finish the "Akimbo" and "Bullet Flower" routes you will be hitting everything around you.
Using the "FROZEN BLADE" special knife perk, and loads of attack speed and range anything that will try to reach you is most likely gonna get permanently frozen.

After level 30 we are going to finalize our build with some heavy late game damage bonuses, make sure you already picked all of the early and mid game perks before you reach this point.

Level 30 Knife Perk:
Gives us slightly more range and an insane amount of attack speed.


Light In the Darkness:
This perk will increase our damage by 5% for each enemy revealed in vision, at this point we should be revealing pretty much all enemies on the map, which will allow this perk to infinitely increase our damage as the more we progress in the game the more enemies will spawn.


Tempest:
One of the biggest damage perks for end game, this route at first will buff our damage by a total of 20%, and then increase that damage infinitely for each enemy we hit, as we have said later on there are going to be loads of enemies, which will make this perk turbo charge our damage.
It is possible to take the first 2 levels of this route early on for a nice damage buff.


Supernova:
Supernova is essential, you shouldn't really lose your shield at this point, but if you do this will allow you to regain your shield and all shield bonuses faster.

If you already picked all the perks in the previous sections, you are pretty much good to go, that being said at this point it is not a matter of what to pick, but a matter of what not to pick.
Make sure you do not pick any perks that will add unnecessary effects on your screen, Burn effects Lightning Bolts, Missiles, Plasma Balls and Radiation, all of those can contribute to your game crashing and you losing your score.
The following perks have some interesting bonuses that will nicely compliment our build.

Spotlight Tree:
The upper route that ends with "Dual Spotlight" gives a small damage and attack speed bonus, while the lower route that ends with "Shine On You" gives us a small vision upgrade while also giving us a chance to randomly double our attack speed.


Shrapnel Tree:
The bottom route also gives us a chance to double our attack speed.
The upper route reduces our attack speed try to avoid taking it.


Bleed Tree:
If you find yourself unable to pick anything useful, you can pick something from the bleed tree, the perks are not amazing, but damage is damage I guess.
Outflow puddles are safe to use.

Notes:
Tested the build once more in the colossus part 1 update, this time stopping after 200 million.
The game seems to be stable and no longer lags or crashes at later stages.
The build still works although requires slight changes because of nerfs to some perks.
Will also add recommended mutations, that being said they are not really required for this build to work.
This build is not aimed at the new "Nightmare" difficulty, however it should allow you to survive for about 40 or so minutes.
I wont be updating any of the previous guide photos, as the perk icons seem to change every update.

Build changes:

Weapon perks:
I , VI , VIII
Perk 1 - "I":
We pick I for much needed range
Perk 2 - "VI":
Previously we have opted for the much more defensive frozen blade "IV" perk, however the extra defense is no longer needed and we can opt for something a little more offensive, both "V" and "VI" perks will work, although "VI" is more consistent.
Perk 3 - "VIII":
Previously we picked the "IX" perk, however because of some nerfs to our perks we can't afford to lose anymore movement speed, the "VIII" still offers us the range benefit, with a slight damage boost.

Swiftness / Lightmagnet tree:
In addition to the lower row that we take for xp collection, we will now also pick the first 2 perks in the upper row to gain some needed movement speed.


Flashbangs tree:
In addition to the upper row, we will now also pick the lower row, by doing so we will slow the enemies and in addition even more extend our light coverage.

Pick order:


Score run:
For our score run that is done on HARD difficulty we will play with these 3 mutations.
**
4. Robust
9. Refine
13. Sprout
**
"4. Robust" + "9. Refine" will give us scaling damage and firerate, as we are aiming at longer runs these mutations will give us a lot of value.
"13. Sprout" Will give us much needed movement speed and in addition will increase the enemy spawn rate which will help us gain points at a faster pace, this mutation also increases the movement speed of enemies by 20% which does not harm us in anyway.

Nightmare run:
For nightmare run we will have 2 additional choices
**
2. Loose Cannon
12. Vision Battery
**
Pretty straight forward, both "2. Loose Cannon" and "12. Vision Battery" give us extra damage, however they bestow upon us some heavy debuffs that need to be taken into consideration.
"2. Loose Cannon" will make us take double damage from enemies, for this reason, we will pick this mutation very late into our run, at which point we will be pretty safe, needless to say picking this mutation early could be a mistake if not playing carefully.
"12. Vision Battery" will essentially drain our base light source (unless you have the nerves to switch it on and off, to maintain the light), being picked 5th, very late into a our run, we will have plenty of other perks to light up our screen and the base light will no longer be needed.

- With all the range bonuses you hit the entire screen, using the "FROZEN BLADE" everything will also be permanently frozen.
- Except for bonus electrical damage, avoid taking any elemental stuff, the extra effects will probably crash your game.
- Once you gain most of the perks you are basically immortal, the only limitation is your time spent in game, took me around 4 hours to get 100 million.

Change Notes:
5/3/25 - Added a mutaions section and a update section for "colossus part 1" patch
14/8/23 - Added settings to summary
10/8/23 - Added in depth perk explanation and general information
8/8/23 - Guide Created