Steel Hunters – Fenris: Hunter Guide (Tips & Strategy)

Starter Guide to Fenris

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• Real Name: Tove Helvig
• Inception age: 25
• Place of birth: Scrapper facility
• Gender: Male

System Overview

Rocket Mortar

Increases explosion radius, allowing for effective indirect fire. Upgrading it increases weapon damage when not aiming down the sights and deals more damage on every second shot.

Mods

• Claw
• Dread

Mainframe System

Core System that enhances stats and abilities.

Mods

• Canny
• Pounce

Blink

Teleports Fenris towards the direction of the cursor.

Mods

• Stalker
• Trickster

Plasma Arc

Shoots a ball of plasma that gains increased damage based on distance traveled.

Mods

• Thunderbolt
• Lightning

Gameplay

General Stats

With 7700 structure points and 2100 shields, Fenris places in the middle of the roaster regarding durability.

General Playstyle

Fenris is a unique highly mobile wolf-like Hunter that prefers the hit-and-run playstyle, poking enemies until they run out of resources, before going in to finish the hunt. Fenris is best suited for mid-range but isn’t shy of going in close to finish kills.

Fenris isn’t as heavily reliant on his abilities as some other Hunters, but his Blink is his main form of survival. His kit is very selfish, having abilities that only benefit him or deal damage to enemies, but don’t be fooled, Fenris has the highest mobility potential in the entire game and a really solid burst.

Systems

Weapon System

Fenris’ weapon of choice is a rocket mortar. The rockets, unlike most Hunters’ weapons, aren’t hit-scan and have a travel time and arc down as they fly and explode on impact, dealing damage in a small AoE (area of effect). The weapon also has reverse falloff, meaning the rockets do less damage the less time they have spent in the air. This is Fenris’ main source of damage.

Claw

Claw is a simple system on paper. As you level the system, your rockets will gain increased aoe range, more damage when hitting more than one enemy with a single rocket, and making every second shot in the clip have increased damage.

Claw promotes the mastery of Rocket Mortar and the usefulness increases as your knowledge and skill in the game increases. Knowing the limits of the aoe range really let this weapon shine and increase. While this is an aoe focused mod, don’t be afraid of going for direct and critical hits.

Dread

Dread is a high-risk, high-reward system. It rewards accuracy and precision, granting you stacking damage for every direct hit up to a max, or until you miss, which will reset all the stacks to 0. Dread also applies a fixed damage dot on every critical hit that also stacks.

At max level, Dread also gets a critical damage buff if successfully quick reloaded. Overall Dread is an amazing weapon for most beginners, and fixes Fenris’ major weakness, fighting close range.

Canny

This mod is designed for players who prioritize resilience and want to stay in the fight as long as possible. It shortens shield regeneration delay, improves healing capabilities with increased repair kit efficiency, and provides resistance to critical hits when the shield is active.

Pounce

Pounce is a mobility-based mod that requires Fenris to dance at the brink of life and death for maximum value. The lower Fenris’s health gets, the shorter his dash and jump cooldowns get. After dashing, Fenris’s next shot deal increased damage. Dealing damage with Plasma Arc explosion increases Fenris’s movespeed for a few seconds.

Abilities

Ability 1: Blink

Fenris’ level 1 ability. Blink is Fenris’ bread and butter. It is the ability that allows him to have incredible mobility while also being his main survival tool. When pressed, Fenris will enter a phase-like state and travel in a straight line. While in this phase-like state, Fenris is visible, but can’t be interacted with at all, by his enemies or by his allies.

Stalker

Stalker is a more spammable and aggressive version of Blink with a shorter range. When upgraded it provides damage at the end of the ability and grants some limited lifesteal to your next few shots Taking damage reduces the Blink cooldown when using this mod. This is the go-to system for extremely aggressive players that want to dance around the battleground and their enemies.

Trickster

Trickster is a more defensive version of Blink. Unlike its spammable brother, Trickster has a relatively long cooldown, so it should be used sparingly. To compensate, it has an incredibly long range, heals Fenris for a huge chunk of his structure points after Blink, then healing the rest over time unless Fenris takes damage.

This turns him briefly invisible at the end of the ability for a few seconds. Trickster is an amazing system for beginning players, it can be used for clean escapes when the battle gets too hectic, or even used in the middle of a fight for a quick heal and reposition that can catch your enemies off guard.

Ability 2: Plasma Arc

This is Fenris’s level 3 ability. When used, Fenris will start conjuring a ball of plasma on his back that he can fire in a straight line in front of him. Be warned, while charging up the ball, Fenris is defenseless and can’t fight back with his Rocket Mortar. As the plasma ball travels, it will fire rays in an aoe, dealing low damage per second until it ends its flight by either hitting max range, a solid surface or an enemy.

After the plasma ball ends its path by any means, it will explode, dealing moderate to high damage in an AoE. This abilities damage scales with distance traveled, both the plasma rays and the explosion at the end. It can be easily dodged by enemy Hunters by dashing once or twice, so sometimes it serves more as of a zoning tool. But don’t be fooled, a well-aimed plasma arc can decimate enemy shields and structure.

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is a high-skill high-reward mod that lets you control the flight trajectory of Plasma Arc by using your mouse after firing. Be warned, while controlling the plasma ball, Fenris is defenseless, but the controlling part can be canceled early, making the ball continue traveling in a straight line after canceling. When upgraded it increases ray damage, lowers the cooldown of Blink based on damage done, and increases the max range of the ray part of this ability.

Be thoughtful of your surroundings while using this mod, because you can easily be focused down while being defenseless. Use this mod to force enemies to leave their cover or take massive amounts of damage. Be careful to not hit enemies directly too soon, since this mod buffs up only the non-explosion part of the ability.

Lightning

Lightning is a simpler version of Plasma Arc that requires good timing to get maximum value. First off, the mod doesn’t allow Fenris to control the path of his plasma ball, which means once fired you have no way of changing the trajectory you sent in on.

Lightning goes all out for direct hits, increasing the flight speed of the plasma ball, the explosion damage based on flight time and increasing the explosion radius by a huge. Hitting this mod directly is almost a must, since it is all or nothing with explosion damage with this mod.

General Strategy

Right out of the gate, Fenris is powerful. While he does lack a damaging ability at level 1 like some Hunters, the mobility Blink brings to the table is incredible. The general game plan for Fenris is to poke down enemies from mid to long-range until they are low enough for you to blink near them and finish them off. Be warned, a Fenris caught without Blink in close range is very weak and will lose that battle to most Hunters.

Coordinate with your teammate and find those openings to finish the fight. Fenris adores damage and structure cores so coordinate a plan with your teammate about who gets what. At level 3, Fenris unlocks Plasma Arc, a great upgrade to his playstyle. The game plan stays the same, but using Plasma Arc you can deter enemies from rushing you down or pushing them out of cover.

If needed Fenris can function as a mini tank. Fenris’s damage is high enough that it can’t be ignored by enemies, but he is mobile enough to ensure he won’t be killed so easily. He can grab the attention of both enemy Hunters, while your ally enjoys the free time to just shoot down your enemies. This doesn’t mean Fenris can tank damage as well as Razorside or Ursus, but he can provide the necessary opening for his teammate.

Advanced Tips #1

• A reminder that Fenris’s rocket mortar is both a projectile with travel time and has an aoe explosion. Utilize covers such as walls or dunes as Fenris and weave in and out of them by firing a rocket, then moving back into cover while the projectile flies. Fenris keeps a very low profile, so he’s able to utilize cover most Hunters are just too tall to get maximum value from. Remember to shoot the ground behind enemies that just ran into cover for 1 or 2 more shots by utilizing the aoe.
• Blink is both your best engagement tool, but also your only source of survivability. Poke down your enemies from longer ranges before blinking into them for the final kill. Also, be mindful of your surroundings and know which walls and map geometry Fenris can blink over for maximum value and chasing or escaping potential.
• Small fun fact: Fenris Blink is barely long enough to blink right over extraction walls in Maryland when aimed right.

Advanced Tips #2

• Depending on which mod you are using for Plasma, the uses differ too. When using Thunderbolt, utilize its long range and increased arc damage by firing it next to the enemies sides instead of directly at them to maximize damage. It is a great zoning tool, forcing enemies to walk where you want them.
• Lightning is different. Lightning is best used by directly hitting enemies, so make sure enemies are in a bad position when you fire it at them, so they have to run or they risk taking huge amounts of damage. Try sneaking behind enemies undetected while your ally has their attention and then firing a huge plasma at them which will be hard to react to.
• Fenris is strongest when he has a good position against his enemy. A missed rocket shot up won’t do anything, a missed rocket aimed at the ground will still do aoe damage. When enemies get very low, consider switching your aim from their crit spots to their center of mass or even the ground below them to avoid missing rockets accidentally and guaranteeing the kill.

Highlighted Synergies

Fenris works with everyone. He is one of the most versatile Hunters in the game. But do be warned, Fenris won’t be there to hold your hand, he has no real supportive capabilities for his teammates other than the damage he brings.