Step 1: Drop Grid Trap



Step 2: Let someone walk on it



Step 3: Shoot them



No, really, that's about it.

(For the basic part, anyway.)

What is that not enough? Alright, haha.

(By the way I used a stylus to draw this. :) Be angry, fellow artists.)

Alright, jokes aside...
__

This guide is part of the June 2017 guide contest honourable mentions

I'm glad this guide is part of the honourable mention winners. I truly did not expect that.
I'm delighted to have been able to offer something nice to the community.
__

Heya, I'm glad you decided to visit this guide. I am Jellyfish Slums, or Light Storm, which is my main name. I thoroughly enjoyed Derpl Zork gameplay since his release, so I thought I could share the joy by sharing how I play Derpl Zork.

The contents of this guide accommodates both beginners and more experienced players, with sections for a rundown of Derpl Zork's abilities, my recommended upgrades and most importantly STRATEGIES for a snare focused regenerating tank, a powerful way to play this naut.

Gifs, (most of which are from online games versus players in the later sections) are included to give a better understanding of what I have wrote.

This guide is updated for version 4.0 (and 4.0.x updates) of the game.

This guide will include my thoughts and personal tips in italic, accompanied by a mugshot of Derpl Zork.


If you are viewing this guide on a small window or mobile device, the formatting may become ruined, the gifs and images in particular. Keep that in mind.

Derpl Zork and his combat walker with the Specialized Universal Secretary Interface (SUSI for short) (and from here on referred to as just "Derpl") is a tank. He has 1800 health at level 1, and 3168 by level 20, making him the naut with second most health, with Clunk at a little higher.

Derpl is an interesting character, having two modes for normal fire and his skill. He can be very strong at zoning areas, turning the tides of fights and luring enemies into traps for counter-attack, like an assassin-class naut. This requires you look at the mini-map often to find opportunities to prey on enemies, which you should be doing regardless of playing Derpl or not.

Siege Mode
This transforms you from a mobile light attacker to a stationary heavy attacker, siege mode, and switches your normal attack and other skill between two modes. In siege mode you are immune to debuffs. The cool down for this is 4.5 seconds for entering, and 1 second for exiting, with a 0.5 second transformation duration.



(Transformation into siege mode and immediately transforming back out to display the cool downs and transition time)

In siege mode you can fall through glass platforms but cannot use jump pads.

Using this carelessly can leave you in very vulnerable positions, so don't enter siege mode unless you're in a good position.

While you can't move horizontally or jump while in siege mode, you can fall through glass platforms and quickly get out of siege mode in order to use jump pads. This gives you mobility on the vertical axis, to dodge damage and put yourself in more favourable positions. More on positioning and mobility in later sections.


Cat Shot/Gatling
Cat Shot is Derpl's normal attack out of siege mode, where he can "mew enemies into oblivion" with large, bouncy projectiles (explosive holocats) affected by gravity. When upgraded and used in conjunction with other abilities and upgrades complementing Cat-oriented Derpl, this is very strong as well, but that setup and play style is not the focus of this guide. Cats can be fired through the glass platform you are standing on if you aim low enough.





In siege mode, Derpl will shoot small, fast projectiles rapidly. These do less damage each than the cats, but damage per second around 2.5 times higher, and has longer range.




Grid Trap/Nuke
Out of siege mode Derpl will place a Grid Trap from the centre of his combat walker, which will ensnare an enemy naut that touches it for 1.6 seconds, 2.4 seconds with both stages of Empowered Grid (+0.8s ensnare duration). Note that it is visible to the enemy team, not affected by gravity, makes a small beeping noise and will not be triggered by droids or your teammates/yourself. 6 second cool down.



In siege mode, Derpl will take 1 second to charge up and launch a (fairly) slow-moving nuke in the direction you aim it at.

The nuke is a circle which can be detonated early on a second press of the ability. You cannot detonate the nuke early if you exit siege mode.

It deals a large amount of damage, with 500 damage at level 1 and 785 by level 20, prior upgrades. With both stages of Hydrocollision Lava Lamp (50% increase to damage of nuke against enemy nauts) it will do 750 - 1178 damage. It has a very long cool down, at 14 seconds.



The cool down on both of these are separate and will always be counting down, regardless of which mode you're in.

Don't worry, you cannot blow yourself or your teammates up. Immediately detonating it when it appears is very powerful when used correctly. Extremely hard to dodge, given only 1 second (and latency).

These two abilities are very strong on their own, but become even stronger when used in tandem. The short moment it takes to charge up the nuke (around a second) I feel is a blessing when used correctly; more on this in the advanced sections.

The nuke moves at a slow speed, so generally don't expect it to catch up to enemies who have their screens on. With the very long cool down, don't spam it unnecessarily, of course.

At one point, Derpl's nuke was homing. But it locks onto droids and creeps as well, not only enemy nauts. Was removed not particularly due to being OP but rather just having unpredictable results for ranged usage.


Booster Rocket
Derpl's unique jump pushes him up at a set speed when holding the jump button.

Nice tip here: instead of holding the jump button, rapidly tap it instead. You can apply this to any character with a booster jet of some sort. This will send you much higher than you would have gotten by holding down jump, allowing you to get to platforms where you would normally have to jump twice. Derpl can hover for some duration as well, by tapping jump to stay at the same height.


























Left: Holding jump | Right: Tapping jump rapidly

For more numbers and stats on all of these, you can refer to the official wiki[awesomenauts.gamepedia.com]. (Link to Derpl Zork's skills) Excellent resource for stats for nauts and other elements.

Every Awesomenaut including Derpl has 6 upgrades they can buy, per row on the shop (there are 4).

Unlike many other nauts, I think every single upgrade Derpl has in his shop is useful. Solar can be spent on any of them (as long as they complement each other), and it will not be a waste of solar.

However below is my personal setup and what I recommend for the strategies and play style given in this guide.

If you want to know the exact numbers or what the rest of the upgrades do, check in-game or on the official wiki[awesomenauts.gamepedia.com]. (Link to his upgrades; click on the images of the upgrade there for a description, effect and solar cost.)





The upgrades are split into three stages:

1st stage
Right off the bat, get upgrades to the Grid Trap, Nuke damage against enemy nauts, and damage of your main attack in siege mode.

These alone makes you mostly ready for strategies specifically targeting against enemy nauts, but early on you should play more defensively and farm solar until you become more experienced and can judge when to engage or not.

2nd stage
Regeneration and shielding for yourself, along with more maximum health.

These upgrades makes you much less reliant on health packs and health critters or base for healing, and makes you much tankier, with a shield reducing 31% of damage taken when in siege mode. You could replace maximum health for increased movement speed if you wish, but I find it generally unnecessary for this setup. At this point you can become pretty aggressive. But remember, aggressive doesn't mean reckless!

3rd stage
Upgrades to normal attack out of siege mode.

Often, the game will end by the time you're nearly complete with the second part. If you're enjoying a long game then you'll be able to get these. The cats aren't essential to the main strategy; they're extra, with the exception of Fat Cat and Bat Catsuit. Those are quite good for the main strategy. You can choose whatever for the cats, but I recommend the above.

The order in which you get the upgrades in stages 1 and 2 are interchangeable, and so are 2 and 3.

There are times where the selections of upgrades should change to adapt to enemies (rare for Derpl though).

Do so if the situation calls for it.

Something I may substitute

cat Album (cannot take damage above 20% of your max health) with is Solid Fist Missiles (adds 4 missiles to your siege mode main attack, which increases your burst damage at close range) or Sweet Syrup Bullets (20% slow for 0.5 seconds).

(

cat Album: I cannot say the full name, apparently. It's automatically censored. It's the scrapbook on the siege mode row.)[/i]

This is very important when playing Derpl with this setup. Bad positions can leave you very vulnerable and a sitting duck in disadvantages positions, as it takes 1 second for you to be able to move out of siege mode and 0.5 second to fully transition out of siege mode. 1.5 seconds might not seem like a lot. But in combat, it is a lot of time.

This is difficult to convey just through describing, but here are some general guidelines. Keep in mind they can be broken if it is beneficial.

Basic/general
- Destroy droids in siege mode, if you are safe. Consider tanking for your team's droids if you have full health.

- Don't set up in front of a turret unless either: you have teammates nearby who can protect you, the turret is low health and you want to finish it, or you have droids shielding you.

- Trust your Nuke and Gatling. You can 1v1 most enemies and be fine, provided your Nuke is off cool down.

- Excellent places to set up are on glass platforms where you have options for vertical movement even during siege mode. This allows you to escape situations and dodge damage if needed.
(At one point siege mode Derpl could drop through glass platforms and use jump pads, which gave him control of multiple lanes in an instant. Was changed, obviously. Derpl will just fall through jump pads now. (Shown in gif below)

If you were to learn only two things from this guide, it should be this and and the kill tactics/snare usage.




- If you are going for an enemy kill (particularly if ensnared), do set up next to them, if you are confident you can win it and get out alive.

This distance makes the Nuke essentially unavoidable, and a nice burst of damage for either finishing someone or at least making them have little health where you can finish with Gatling.

However with this BE CAREFUL. If they get backup at the end of a fight, you should immediately retreat, unless a teammate backs you up as well. Throw a Grid Trap down so they can't chase you effectively.

As you become more confident with Derpl's mobility and develop a good sense for when to enter siege mode, you can overcome the 0.5 second transition time by having a small jump before entering siege mode. Momentum will carry you to the position you need, and you'll be in siege mode faster than if you were to walk up to position before entering siege mode.

The "face nuke" is the standard strategy. (Or at least I like to call it that.)
When an enemy touches a Grid Trap, move close to them, enter siege mode, nuke (and immediately detonate), and gatling the whole time you're in siege mode.

They won't be able to dodge in this time, and nuke will be within range the moment it appears so it can be detonated immediately.



I'm so sorry, it looks horrible, but each uploaded image/gif needs to be under 2 mb >_<

Note how I shot my Fat Cat (section on this below) off prior setting up in siege mode for that instant 211 damage and entered siege mode while in the air, so I can start firing sooner after I land.

Against low max health nauts (squishies)
The face nuke will kill squishy nauts without problem.

Very often squishies will try to dive you. Take advantage of that situation and mould it into the above situation. Use the strategies in the Grid Trap usage section to ensnare them.

If you've set up Grid Traps behind where a fight will likely occur, what you can do is gatling and instantly detonate a nuke to bring an enemy to very low health. They'll likely walk into Grid Traps by accident. Finish them with cats or if siege is off cool down, with Gatling.

Against high max health nauts (tanks)
Against tank nauts, hold off on your nuke. Having a high health pool it won't make too much of a difference right at the start. They'll likely engage you head on just like squishies, but only use the nuke and detonate it the moment they're within radius when they are relatively close to you, and are fairly low on health. This jump in health lost will likely make them retreat, where you can finish with Gatling.

In team fights
It's viable to enter siege mode close (but not touching close) to enemy nauts, with your high health pool. This allows a nuke to be detonated immediately, and is likely to kill a squishy, if your team is around you and dishing out damage.

For all of these situations, if they exit your Gatling range (which is pretty generous), they'll very likely get away, unless you have Grid Traps set up in their direction in advance. If so don't chase unnecessarily, just focus on pushing.

Fat Cat
This adds an extra cat, the Fat Cat, independent of the other ones to your normal attack. It'll fire once every 4 seconds (even if your barrel already has a normal cat in; it'll just fire both), has more range and does more damage in an area compared to the normal cats.



(Comparison of normal cat and Fat Cat; you can tell both the normal cat and the Fat Cat is fired at the same time. They normally fully overlap each other, only at specific locations and firing angles like this was I able to split them apart.)

If you can, fire off Fat Cat before you enter siege mode! It's a nice bit of free damage, (175-300 generally).

A more advanced usage is to fire it at a wall, so it'll bounce into an enemy behind you while they're ensnared, while you're face nuking them. It's even more burst damage for the face nuke process.



Body blocking
This is a major part of Awesomenauts. Being a 2-D environment and fairly strong mobility for ALL characters, you can use yourself to body block enemies to stop them from escaping, simply by making small jumps along with them, particularly in small paths. Derpl is a very heavy character in terms of weight- you can push enemies around and it's difficult for enemies to push you around.

Positioning
When you are not pushing a lane, Derpl is effective at dropping into parties with a nuke or cutting off escape with Grid Traps. As a result, you should pay attention to the mini-map often. You may find yourself hanging around in the middle lanes, ready to prey on such targets. More on this in later sections.

Be creative and unpredictable
As you become more experienced, you can come up with more effective Grid Trap placements and usages that are less limited by the environment. Like I said earlier, Derpl is very good at cutting off escape and dropping into parties to turn the tides of battle. Pushing a lane is important, but if the opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it! (More on this in the Grid Trap usage and Advanced sections.)

The Grid Trap is very powerful. With upgrades to snare duration (2 stages of Empowered Grid), it's 2.4 seconds of an enemy being sitting duck, ready to be pelted by gatling and nuked when you enter siege mode next to them, or for your teammates to heavily damage them.

Generally, you want to put Grid Traps in common areas for enemies to walk or bounce into (particularly chokepoints), and in hidden areas where they enemies are unable to see it.

General uses for it (offensively) include:
- Preventing enemies from escaping if placed behind them prior to a fight



- Placing in hidden areas so you can kill them



- Placing in common areas to walk through so you can kill them



- Placing at the middle or end of jump pad flight paths, so they will be ensnared when they land



What I feel to be Derpl's biggest weakness is being unable to get kills on targets that move faster than him. Grid Trap usage and positioning greatly mitigates this weakness.

Something annoying (and effective) you can do to the enemy team is place a Grid Trap at the middle of where one of their turrets used be, to make it extremely hard to move through that area without becoming ensnared (like in the above gif with Ted Mcpain and and Professor Yoolip). They know if they walk into it, you'll eat them alive. This blocks escapes too, as if your teammates chases them into the Grid Trap, they're dead.

I also like to do a small jump before placing the Grid Trap, as this makes it occupy a larger area, as it will be triggered if any part of an enemy naut touches it.

In the past, the Grid Trap was also triggered by droids and creeps, making jumping before placing one almost necessary, to avoid it being wasted on droids.

Again. It's important to understand that it's slow. So don't expect it to hit enemies unless you are close where you can very quickly detonate it without giving them much time to react, or launching relatively close into multiple enemy nauts where some will likely jump into it by accident, or of course when they are ensnared.

You cannot detonate the Nuke early if you exit siege mode.

If you are winning a team fight and the enemies are trying to escape, you or your cats probably won't be able to catch up to them, but your bullets in siege mode can.

However if they become out of range, something you can do if you don't have Grid Traps set up where enemies are is to launch your nuke in the vague direction of the enemies and siege mode exiting immediately after, as this will kill any stragglers who unfortunately jumps into it in their attempt to escape, and allows you to start moving again to push as enemies are retreating.

Even if the Nuke does not hit anyone, you won't be immediately needing it as they are respawning/healing up. Remember that you cannot detonate the nuke while you are out of siege mode.

When you have completed the 1st and 2nd stage of upgrades, you will have a 10% damage shield at all times, and a 31% damage shield in siege mode along with immunity to debuffs. In addition, you have fairly generous health regeneration, and cannot take damage over 20% of your maximum health. It's very tough to take you down, without a team effort.

Derpl's movement speed is relatively low, as he is a tank. However his jump is very powerful and he has many options for escape if being pursued.

- Abuse glass platforms. While your horizontal movement speed isn't the best, that doesn't stop you from having fairly good vertical mobility.

- If you're in danger, drop through a glass platform! Always keep this in mind. Got a kill but have barely any health left? Drop! Running away from someone? Drop! (And Grid Trap, followed by face nuke...)

- Abuse jump pads and your jump method. As you have a jet rather than a single jump, you can cancel the momentum a jump pad gives you by tapping jump. This throws off nauts who only have a single jump, as they can't cancel the momentum given by a jump pad.

- You can hover after using a jump pad. This height acts as a method of protection against nauts who do not have high jumps or flight.

- You can jump very high by rapidly tapping jump. You can jump onto really high platforms to shake nauts who cannot jump that high or fly.



(You cannot make this jump if you hold jump; you have to rapidly tap jump.)

- Put Grid Traps out for pursuers to walk into them, even at random. They'll get ensnared more likely than you'd expect, while they're frantically chasing.

- Put Grid Traps at glass platforms and other small paths, including where destroyed turrets are, so they have to walk through it if they are to chase.

If they become ensnared, consider counter-attacking, especially if their abilities are on cool down.



I threw a Grid Trap out behind that small bit of cover. Ayla was invisible, so I stopped firing for a moment thinking she didn't follow, until I saw the ensnared animation.

You can shake most enemies just by following these when appropriate. But of course, try to not throw yourself into these situations as it forces you to take a moment to heal. However as you become more experienced, you might go out of your way to get into these situations in order to secure kills...

I am dubious about discussing specific matchups and strategies against specific enemy nauts. I feel this limits what you can come up with when playing as Derpl- you should be unpredictable and creative with how you trap and prey on enemies, regardless of who enemies are, instead of being restricted to certain ways of fighting enemies or avoiding them entirely.

Instead, I will give what to look out for and what to not do when facing potentially troublesome nauts.

- Don't sit in Raelyn's Timerift or Skree's Sawblade unless you have enough health to take the damage AND kill them. Otherwise drop down the glass platform you're (hopefully) sitting on/move (the latter is less preferable). Both can be devastating, in combination with a heavy attack (like a Snipe from Raelynn).

- If Raelynn gets ready to Snipe, your best bet is to either: drop down a glass platform, or don't move if you're in siege mode and on solid ground. You won't dodge it in time if you go out of siege mode, and you'll have less shielding.

- Absolutely do not let Nibbs get a full Fire Breath on you from behind a wall. She is the naut who can do the most burst damage in the game, if she lands her entire Fire Breath. Just move if she starts to do so, unless you are able to kill her.



- Absolutely do not shoot into Sentry X-58's Black Hole Sun shield. Especially not with a nuke. It's a pink/purple shield that Sentry will bring up when seeing a source of burst damage. Damage taken during the shield's duration will increase the damage Black Hole Sun will deal afterwards.



This is the naut who can do the second most burst damage in the game if you/your team fully charge his Black Hole Sun and he lands it. Even if Sentry is ensnared, don't face nuke that telephone stand unless you are sure Black Hole Sun was already used and is on cool down. Otherwise your damage dealt will be turned against your team.



But I suppose you can't do anything about it if they do a... drop Black Hole Sun on you?

- Be careful near Skolldir. He can throw you into their turrets (if you're not in siege mode) and that can be very dangerous for you, particularly in early game.

- If Ted McPain places a Airstrike on you while you're in siege mode, it's checkmate. Dropping down a glass platform won't save you considering it can hit multiple lanes, and you can't get out of siege mode in time to dodge it. Stay in siege mode for the extra shielding.

This naut in particular gives me the most trouble, when the player behind him is skilful. I don't particularly have trouble with facing any other naut (except Raelynn or Leon who I find annoying to face). But now that I think about it, I feel this way consistently even when playing other nauts.

Try to lure him to use it before setting up in siege mode, or only engage him head-on if you have teammates to back you up. Ideally get him ensnared with a small amount of distance between you two, as he can do massive amounts of damage at close range.

Derpl is a tank, and you might not expect for him to be the stealthiest naut. But he can be very strong as a "ganker" (vaguely means someone who feeds on unexpecting heroes or jumps into engagements to turn the tides).

Obviously the tactic of placing Grid Traps in hidden compartments and waiting there is viable but not ideal, considering you are not contributing anything while doing so. It's generally better to reveal yourself but keep the Grid Trap hidden if that is what you are going for, so enemies are less suspecting of it.

The "drop nuke" is a strong strategy, combining siege mode and glass platforms, allowing you to drop onto enemies with a Nuke already charged up, for an instant explosion out of nowhere, turning the tides in a team fight.

Glance to the mini-map often to find good opportunities to do this. When your teammates are starting a fight with the enemy nauts, you can align yourself approximately above the enemies, over a glass platform, likely on the top lane, obviously not too close to any active enemy turrets.

Enter siege mode and drop down and oh look there's now a full health heavy tank with a Nuke ready to kill you. Start launching the Nuke when you're close to the floor, which reduces the time for the Nuke appear. You'll have a short window of time to aim it in the vague direction of squishies, and detonate it the moment an enemy naut is in range.

Enemies are likely expecting you to charge up a Nuke after you touch the floor, but in reality the Nuke should be milliseconds away from flying out when you hit the floor, making it a bigger surprise, which is why I think the 1 second charge up time for the Nuke is a blessing.

You can often nab a kill just like that which turns the battle into a 3v2 in your favour.





This is one of my favourite things to do in Awesomenauts. It's terrifying to the enemy team and very effective. Just pay attention to the mini-map often, and you'll find plenty of chances to drop into parties. If I cannot drop directly onto enemies or it feels too risky, I will drop behind them and place snares down particularly where turrets used to be. They have to go through them to retreat, which can secure a kill.

The Grid Trap guidelines given above do work and are viable, however enemies will learn and more experienced players will be have a sense of where traps are, and try to avoid them.

So welcome to advanced Grid Trapping!
You'll be able to utilise these as you become more comfortable with Derpl and have gained enough experience to be able to sense how enemies react to what you're doing.

- Predict enemy movement (which will vaguely follow your own if they are the pursuer), and just drop a Grid Trap onto their face. They'll die.

- Use low health to lure enemies into traps. When enemies see you or your teammates with low health, they are very likely to try to chase and dive you. Drop a Grid Trap in their path and counterattack if you are confident you can stay alive afterwards.



- If you jump forwards and quickly turn, enemies will often go through the path of your jump. You can drop a Grid Trap during your jump, and they'll jump into it.



- In a fight against someone and there's a health pack nearby. First of all, try to nab it yourself before they can get to it. Secondly, drop a Grid Trap where the health pack was. Since they'll be trying to steal it first as well, they'll be jumping into the health pack. Or the Grid Trap if you took it first.

- Derpl is a heavy character. He can push enemies around. You can walk up to someone and give them a hug. Move the other direction, and they'll likely try to reclaim the ground they lost. Make a small jump and drop a Grid Trap on their face. This will make sure even if they jump, they will likely be caught and they'll die.

Of course these tactics are very dependent on how the enemies are playing, or how you manipulate them to move. You often want enemies to be overconfident. But you are Derpl. Master of "don't chase me or you'll die". ...Hopefully.

Adding this section on request; not part of guide, originally.

Generally, countering Derpl boils down to coordination and playing carefully. Here are some pointers.

- If you have abilities that allow you to do a great deal of damage through a wall or at long range where Derpl cannot hit you, that is very beneficial (and annoying for the Derpl to face)

- Do not chase Derpl unless you are absolutely certain you do not hear the beeping of the Grid Trap AND it is on cool down. If you are confident you can finish a Derpl AND get out alive, then go ahead.

- It's difficult for a Derpl in siege mode to avoid abilities if the Derpl is in siege mode and is not playing carefully and picking engagements correctly.

Take advantage of this by preferably coordinating with your team and dumping a high amount of burst damage on the Derpl. This is the best way to take a Derpl down, particularly when Derpl is in siege mode. Derpl is a large target, meaning you will very likely hit more abilities than on smaller targets.

- Derpl can quickly and literally nuke down a single target, but it is significantly less effective against multiple enemy nauts, unless Derpl's teammates are also in the engagement

- Don't try to inflict a status on Derpl when he is in siege mode; save it for when he goes out of siege mode, unless the status-inflicting ability is beneficial in another way (damage)

- Derpl cannot be pulled or pushed when in siege mode. Leon's tongue (and other abilities that can trap/pull Derpl will only be effective in inducing damage. Preferably, use this when Derpl is out of siege mode so he will be pulled towards you/trapped from escape.

- Expanding on team coordination, if you and your teammates can approach in multiple directions, that gives you a massive advantage on the Derpl, as that allows body blocking to prevent escape, makes his bullets harder to hit (he can't just spray in the vague direction), and harder to land nukes on multiple nauts.

- If you can catch Derpl while not in siege mode and you are a naut that can quickly burst down the Derpl's health, you will have an advantage at the start of the fight.

However, if you step on a Grid Trap that could very well be the end of you. Assess this before starting the engagement.

There is great emphasis on the effectiveness of the Grid Trap in this guide. But don't think Derpl is defenceless even without it. You'll (probably) be proven wrong. Again, he is very good at turning the tides of battle.

That must be why Derpl has the Arhpl pirate skin...
__

Alright that's it. I hope this was helpful you; best of luck to you and your team! :D

And if "one of your co-workers is underperforming," offer helpful advice! [Don't harass them, please.] Everyone begins somewhere!