Back 4 Blood No Hope Easy Solo Build & Tips (Act 1-6) (2024)

Deck Overview

No Hope Easy Solo Build & Tips (Act 1-6) (2024) image 1

The Cards

There are 3 parts to this build - DPS/Damage, Self-defense, Sustainability

First, the DPS/damage cards. Obviously you want the most bang for the slot for No Hope, since mutations health pools are ridiculous. The beauty part of this is that most of them are GENERAL DAMAGE cards, which applies to everything - guns, knives, fists, grenades, barb wires (if Tala)...etc.

Confident Killer

mutations spawn non-stop on NH. That +15% damage kicks in very quickly.

Glass Cannon

+25% damage on everything, you can buy Team Health upgrades later to compensate.

Patient Hunter

Normally you will not stand around ADSed for 3s, but even its first stack +10% is equivalent to a weapon type specific card, anything beyond is a bonus.

Large Caliber Rounds

Normally bullet does reduced damage after penetration, LCR lets it do full damage.

Belligerent

A worthless card in Quickplay since randoms get themselves incapped and lose the bonus.

Bots don't go down that easily thanks to their inheritly high damage resistance, and you cannot avoid timed hordes or from destroying nests.

Empowered Assault

It lets you stumble mutations on first hit, and gives you extra seconds to place more shots. It will also stop attack animations, which can save your life.

Cold Brew Coffee

Everything in this card is a nice QoL upgrade, the reload speed helps with RoF on snipers.

Now onto the self-defense sectionNote that this is NOT a full fledged melee build, you are NOT supposed to be tanking damage. This is for self defense, as in, you are being attacked while using your sniper, while bots are doing...bot things.

Slugger

Brazen

Punch faster with less stamina. Also applies to melee weapons.

Spiky Bits

The core of your punches, without it, your punches do almost no damage. It stacks with the above general damage cards and turn your fists into lethal weapons.

That's it?? Yes. Throw in a melee weapon heal-on-kill attachment and you are set.

SustainabilityObviously since we are punching things to death, lets take it a step further.

Battle Lust

Face Your Fears

Now your defense becomes offense, you recoup health and trauma from being attacked.

EMT Bag

Medical Professional

The healing efficiency applies to the 2 cards above, also stacks with medical professional to make med kits even stronger.

On NH extra lives do not recover in saferoom, no free heal at first aid cabinet, so Medical Professional is a must for trauma & regaining extra lives.

Run like Hell

Must have for higher difficulties. Mobility = Survivability.

Other Cards To Consider

I try not to be constrained by any specific type of weapon in this build, though I recommend a sniper/infinite-range AA12 for max DPS/burst damage.

Some people may suggest swapping for a Weakspot damage card, Shredder (for LMG/Shotgun), Silver Bullet, Marked for Death.

Personally I dislike Weakspot Damage cards' debuffs.

Hyper-focus' movement speed debuff is really annoying since it applies to bash/melee, you are a guarantee incap once caught out of position.

+30% Weakspot Damage ones give you either -5% damage resistance (not ideal, but still good if you can buy it), or Disabling ADS (conflict with Patient Killer).

On top of that there is no guarantee that one can consistently hit the weakspot, you may not be able to see it, or it may be armored.

Shredder is useless for snipers, LMG damage is too low for mutations on NH, and for shotguns it critically depends on getting the infinite-range attachment and your accuracy.

Silver Bullet is not as good as LCR.

Finally, bots already have Marked for Death, so you don't need a copy.

Copper Scavenger and Money Grubbers are both fantastic cards to boost your economy. The bots will rarely pick up copper, so it's all up to you in solo, so being able to see them better is a big help. Being able to buy the slots and upgrades really adds up.

However after playing for a while, you should know the usual copper spawn points (inside cars for example), combined with burn cards, these 2 become optional.

Cleaners

Jim is an obvious first choice, due to his damage buffs and +25% reload speed, they go well with snipers.

Walker is great from his +10% damage and +10 Health.

Tala's bleed is extremely strong when combined with shotguns & upgraded barb wires, and more warped chest = higher chance to get legendary attachments.

Tip: Range does not affect her bleed DoT, and it applies even if one shotgun pellet hits.

Heng with food Scavenger can be very strong. The bots don't eat and you'll get double effects as Heng. Lots of healing from green beans and peaches. More damage and reload speed is nice too. Don't bother with wasteland chef.

Hoffman is a good choice as well if you throw in some utility cards. Extra offensive items and slot is huge. His extra ammo doesn't matter though.

Tip: Having Tala bot on the team also gives you warped chests on normal levels.

Tip: Restart for a Bot with Tookit, they can open stashrooms/alarm doors for you FOR FREE

Weapons

YOUR FIST,

Primary: Bolt-action snipers, or infinite-range shotguns if you get the attachment from Warped Chests.

DO NOT trust the stats in-game, i.e. Firepower or range. They are arbitrary numbers that do not reflect the actual damage and other stats. Google will give you the real ones.

Therefore, Assault rifles are bad choices since they are just slightly better SMGs (or why not take a LMG?). Most mutations have almost 2x the health than they are on Nighmare difficulty (according to B4BStats), tallboy/bruisers can tank multiple AR magazines. M1A is also a bad choice, due to terrible RoF and mag size.

Reload Speed modifier affects rebolting speed, hence those attachments or being Jim increase your sniper's DPS. On top of that, snipers have very high base stumble stats.

Also worth noting that the damage cards in this build stack multiplicatively, a small increase in base damage goes a long way.

Needless to say, you should still adapt to whatever is available.For example, I found a blue Ranch Rifle with blue extended mag in 3-1's hive when I still had a white starting Phoenix, obviously it is a better weapon. The same goes for attachments - sometimes it may be worth holding onto a worse gun for a game-changing attachment until the next saferoom, unbolt and put it on a high tier gun obtained with Burn Card.

Remember, this build is optimized for general damage, so Sniper isn't the only way to go, even though it's the most straightforward choice.

Shotguns definitely benefit from extra range, but the infinite range isn't compulsory. A blue or purple long barrel will do just fine.

Tip: If you're Tala you just need one pellet to hit a common and it'll die, and the bleed DoT is not affected by range.

LMGs are excellent with Patient Hunter, Fill em Full of Lead and Suppressing Fire cards. Steady Aim is another excellent LMG card. Look for damage mag attachments instead of extended mags, 80 rounds is more than enough. Less is More is what you really want.

Secondary: Machete, BatSelf explanatory. Just Punch away, normal commons die in 2 hits on No Hope. It is fast, does not cancel reload, nor take time to swap.

For secondary, you want something that swings fast and wide, to hit/kill as many commons as possible for maximum heals. Slap a Resonant Metal attachment (Heal on melee kills) on it and you are set.

It is worth mentioning that the Grim Reaper attachment is OP vs Bosses.

Utilities

Flashbangs excel at stun-locking bosses, increase their damage taken and letting you mag-dump on weakspots. They can also get you out of an oh-♥♥♥♥ situation, such as having a tallboy horde in your face. They are cheap, so don't skimp on them.

Bait jar is a hybrid of flashbang and pipe bomb. It can stumble mutations/bosses on hit, attracted commons will also slow it down and give you some room to work with. Otherwise they are useful for getting through infinite horde to the saferoom.Both of them can kill birds reliably.

Medic kits are essential.

At the highest quality (purple) with these cards, it heals better & cheaper than a first aid cabinet, since FAC is not affected by cards. I got an extra +20% healing efficiency card during a run and each med kit healed 35 trauma. And you can carry a couple of them for emergencies.

However, upgraded toolkits are still more cost-effective for trauma healing at first aid cabinets. (See Tip below)

Barb Wires & Toolkits

Tala with upgraded barbs make certain finales extremely easy - like Diner (Act 1), Sound of Thunder (Act 1 artillery shell finale), T5 (Act 3 mansion finale)

Tip: You can "hack" a first aid cabinet for free heal using a toolkit. Higher quality toolkits have higher reuse chance, potentially giving you multiple heals for the price of one.

General Tips For No Hope

Knowing the levels is essential, you need to plan ahead for objectives and know what cards is crucial - for example, as much USE SPEED as possible for Act 1 artillery finale. Play through the whole campaign at least twice so you have a rough idea.

Positioning is crucial, use common sense, don't stand in the open in the middle of a horde, no build will save you if you do stuff like that.

Copper/money is king. Don't skimp on the team upgrades, those snowball over the span of the entire Act. (Except Act 4 obviously)

USE BURN CARDS. They are basically extra money, extra supplies...for free.

Use hives to skip difficult portions - i.e. Act 1-3 Pain Train. There is usually a hive right before the train gravel.

Hives are also "extra" levels for you to use Burn Cards (for Utility Upgrades), get extra money and good attachments.

Do not be afraid to backtrack, if you need to, be it good loot, good card to buy (after you gathered enough money later), or better positions to take on a boss.

If you do not damage the Breaker, the yellow swarm damage circle will not trigger, it will still slowly come to you, but you can decide where and when to fight it.

Do the SECONDARY OBJECTIVE if you can. 2000 copper is a lot of money.

CHECK THE CARS, I don't know why people do not do that, most copper stacks spawn inside the cars...if you check them properly, you do not need copper cards to sustain your economy.

Don't restart just because you have had a bad event, you never know if there is some game-changing powerful cards waiting for you further down a map

Keep 500 copper in your pocket in case you see a card you really want.

Revenous & Break-Time corruption cards are not really bad, they pretty much reset your trauma for free.

Level/Map Specific Strategies

Certain levels that may be a pain in the ass to get through and the strategy to make them easier.

Remember, you can always "savescum" with "Leave Game" and restarting, it will also re-roll the hive spawn.

1-3: Train Gravel - Normally you want firecracker/bait jar here to push through to the safehouse, I did not have one when I did it, since I used the jar on the boss beforehand. The commons on 1-3 are not that tanky yet, so I simply "punched" through with A LOT of punching.

Otherwise, just re-roll for the hive - there is one spawn point right at the train depot on the opposite side of the gravel control room, nearly unmissable.

1-7 Bar Room Blitzkrieg - I don't think it is a hard level at all, just throw molotovs at the jukebox; whenever it breaks down, the spawn stops, so there is no reason to recklessly rush through it.

1-9 Diner - Totally impossible if you don't set up properly or camp in the wrong spot. Do NOT camp next to the propane tank on the left of the diner, an Ogre will spawn at the final minute of the holdout and it can spawn right below your feet, when that happens, you will die before you can even see it. (Learnt that the hard way)

The proper camp spot is on the pick-up truck in front of the garage you come out of, you need to wire off the garage for stuff crawling out of it (bots will also take care of it), spawn points are far away from you and you have a great sight line to snipe dead all the mutations before they reach you. (Credit to the vets on reddit)

See video for reference:

1-13 Artillery Finale - Wire all around the artillery, bring lots of flashbangs/bile jars/firecrackers, and you should have bought some USE SPEED cards by now. Just focus on loading and firing the artillery, the only thing to worry about is a mutation interrupting your action, but that is what those offensive utilities are for.

3-5 T5 Mansion - barb wires, purple ones. You can drop excess barbs down the ledge at the beginning. Focus on moving the boxes and kiting the commons, you don't really need to kill them.

3-9 Body Dump - T5 Grenades. You basically have unlimited supply of those, use them. Throw one at your feet when you are swarmed or reviving bots. Throw one at every mutation you see. They just work.

Act 4:

Swap out some cards for even more damage cards, namely weakspot damage. It's a short level with no progression, you do not need sustainability or trauma healing cards for a start.

Act 6-1:

Again, hives will let you skip the hardest, chaotic part at the very end (I get very bad performance/frame drops there too).

Otherwise, throw a one bile jar/flash/cracker at the Ogre as soon as it spawns, bile is the best since it also distracts the commons, rush plant the lighthouse first, then finish the other objective, and literally RUN LIKE HELL as soon as the gate opens.

Don't try to save the bots, just focus on reaching the boat.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3293098508

No Hope Easy Solo Build & Tips (Act 1-6) (2024)