Loveless clears entire rooms by turning one infected enemy into many. Her Plague Star action skill throws a piercing Shuriken that inflicts Contagion, a Corrosive damage-over-time effect, and when an infected enemy dies the virus jumps to fresh targets. Built around that spread, she gains lifesteal from status damage and keeps firing without ever dropping to danger, even in the higher difficulty tiers.
Quick answer: Anchor the build on the Virology tree with the replicat.exe capstone, spread Contagion for kills, and take Blackhat so Status Effect damage steals health to keep you alive while mobbing.
How the Plague Star build sustains itself
The survival engine is simple. Applying any Status Effect or Contagion feeds several passives at once, and one of them, Blackhat, converts Status Effect damage into lifesteal. Because Contagion ticks constantly across a group, that healing rarely stops.
The clear speed comes from spreading. When an enemy suffering from Contagion dies, the infection seeks new hosts and passes along a portion of the stacks it carried. The Host Compromise augment widens that spread, so a single kill in a crowd chains the effect outward. Every stack also raises your gun damage through Memory Leak, so heavily infected packs melt faster the longer the fight runs.
Always shoot the enemy carrying the most Contagion stacks. Killing that target sends the largest share of the infection to everything nearby.
Virology skill tree (green) points
This is the core of the build and where most points go. It carries Contagion spread, status-driven crits, lifesteal, and the capstone that keeps damage flowing.
| Skill | Points | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Toxic Chat | 5/5 | More Corrosive damage; kill skill grants bonus Corrosive damage |
| Established Gameplay Loop | 5/5 | Elemental/Contagion applications boost Gun Damage and Reload Speed |
| Cat 5 | 5/5 | Increased Elemental Damage and Status Effect Chance |
| Conservation of Malice | 5/5 | Action skill hits spawn Contaminants; boosts Gun Damage and Fire Rate |
| Host Compromise (augment) | — | Contagion spreads to more enemies on an infected death |
| It’s Super Effective | 1/5 | Status Effects gain Critical Hit Chance |
| When it Rains | 3/3 | More Crit Damage; Crit Chance per status, doubled by Contagion |
| Blackhat | 3/3 | Lifesteal from Status Effect damage |
| It Pours | 1/1 | Crits on Contagion enemies can add a Contagion stack |
| Memory Leak | 1/1 | More Gun Damage per Contagion stack |
| Depletion Load | 5/5 | Action skill use grants bonus Radiation Damage on guns |
| Circular Logic | 3/3 | Status damage builds stacks that boost Action Skill Damage |
| Immunoppressant | 3/3 | Status applications grant Damage Reduction |
| Unsupported Peripheral | 1/1 | Action skill use throws a free grenade |
| replicat.exe (capstone) | — | Three orbiting Shurikens deal Corrosive damage, 33% Contagion chance |
The chain that makes this feel unstoppable runs through the crit passives. It’s Super Effective gives status effects a small crit chance, When it Rains scales that chance up for each status on the target and doubles it under Contagion, and It Pours refreshes stacks whenever those crits land. Because the shurikens and your guns are constantly applying effects, the crit chance procs over and over.
Hack / Slash skill tree (blue) points
The blue tree supports both gunfire and melee, feeding crit damage and RAM generation without pulling focus away from Plague Star.
| Skill | Points | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Disdain | 5/5 | +25% Critical Hit Damage |
| Odium | 3/3 | Melee crits gain more from Disdain (+500% damage) |
| Flurry | 5/5 | Melee hits grant +30% Fire Rate and +20% Reload Speed |
| Ratio Technique | 1/5 | Crit Chance with guns and melee |
| Neutral Special | 1/1 | Empowered Melee hits a larger area |
| The Sweet Science | 5/5 | Movement builds Footwork stacks for speed and melee damage |
| Siliconventional Warfare | 5/5 | Gun Damage scales with RAM; Empowered Melee adds Corrosive gun damage |
| End Process | 3/3 | Kill skill refunds 48% RAM per kill |
End Process and Siliconventional Warfare tie your RAM bar into gun damage, so kills keep the meter topped up and your damage high. Flurry rewards the occasional Empowered Melee with a burst of fire rate and reload speed, which pairs well with the constant reloading that comes from clearing mobs.
Gear loadout for the Plague Star build
Weapons come down to preference, but a fast weapon that spreads elements pairs best with the status-heavy design. The rest of the loadout is chosen to push gun damage, fire rate, and survivability while amplifying Contagion.
| Slot | Item | What to chase |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Flash Cyclone | Flash Freeze explodes and spawns extra projectiles for more status procs |
| Repkit | Triple Bypass | Amp roll for up to +200% Gun Damage; Heart Pump helps recover the action skill |
| Ordnance | Waterfall Grenade | Extra explosions on damaged targets, fed by free grenades |
| Class Mod | Virophile | Infected enemies explode on death for Corrosive Ordnance damage |
| Shield | Watts 4 Dinner | Amp for bonus Gun Damage at full shields |
| Firmware | High Caliber | More Gun Damage plus bullet piercing for multi-kills |
The Virophile class mod is the standout. It drops from Vault Guardian Inceptus, and it makes enemies affected by Contagion explode when killed for Corrosive Ordnance damage that scales with how many stacks they held. In a crowd, that splash is a large part of your clear speed.
Triple Bypass is the priority Repkit, and the Amp roll is what you want most, since it raises gun damage by up to +200% after use. Shiny War Paint works as an alternative when you need more survivability and fire rate. For the enhancement, take anything that adds gun damage and fire rate so you keep firing, popping elemental chances, and stacking Contagion and Radiation.
Specializations
- Groundbreaker
- Now With Caffeine
- I Am A Gun
- A Honed Mind
Running the build in a fight
You will know the loop is working when your health steadily refills from Blackhat’s lifesteal during sustained fire, and when infected enemies detonate on death and pass Contagion outward. As long as you keep applying status effects and popping the most-infected target, the spread and healing sustain themselves and rooms clear in seconds.
