Most players pick the hammer as their secondary weapon. They see big damage numbers and easy stagger. The drill sits in the background, misunderstood. That’s a mistake.
The drill deals sharp damage, builds the weaken status, and can pin enemies in place for extended combos. It’s not the flashiest option. It’s the most tactical one. These ten tips will show you why the drill deserves a permanent slot in your loadout.
Quick Taps vs. Long Presses: A 0.5-Second Difference
The drill has two attack speeds. Light taps of the button produce a rapid three-hit combo with almost no pause between swings. Holding the button longer on each press inserts a pullback animation that delays the next strike by roughly half a second.
Use quick taps when you need to reach the third hit’s spin as fast as possible. Use long presses only when you want the extra damage per swing on the first two hits—the pullback adds roughly 15% more damage per hit according to frame testing. In practice, quick taps are almost always better for building status effects and combos.
Pin Lifted Enemies With the Held Attack
The drill’s held attack doesn’t just do damage—it locks enemies in place. After you launch an enemy into the air with a combo finisher like Uppercut Surge, switch to the drill and hold the secondary attack button. The drill’s spin keeps the enemy suspended, preventing them from attacking or dodging.
This works especially well with the Strike primary weapon. Its fast combo reaches the punch ender quickly, and the drill extends the helpless window for a full 2-3 seconds. Pair it with the Skilled Backstab talent to deal 50% more damage from behind while the enemy hangs in the air.
The Third Hit Spins Three Times Longer
The first two hits of the drill combo each last about 0.5 seconds. The third hit’s spin lasts roughly 1.5 seconds—three times longer. This is where the drill earns its keep.
That extended spin applies the weaken status effect on every tick. Weaken causes enemies to take significantly more damage and falter buildup from combat abilities. Against a single tough enemy, the third hit alone can fill the weaken bar before the spin ends, letting you follow up with an Inferno or Volatile Anomaly for massive burst damage.
Weaken Makes Your Abilities Hit Harder
The drill’s weaken status is not a minor bonus. It amplifies damage from all combat abilities by a noticeable margin. One charged drill swing applies weaken instantly on most non-boss enemies.
Example: Fight a Hiss Heavy with a shield. Hit it with one held drill spin to apply weaken, then immediately follow with the Inferno fire ability. The combined fire damage and increased vulnerability shreds the shield and half its health bar in under three seconds. Without the drill’s weaken, the same combo takes twice as long.
Shielded Enemies Melt Faster
Shields appear as a white overlay on the health bar. The drill’s sharp damage type has a hidden multiplier against shields. One charged drill attack can break a Hiss Guard’s shield completely, where a hammer would need two hits.
The best target is the Hiss Elevated—the flying enemies that hover above combat. A single held drill spin strips their shield and applies weaken in one move. From there, one more quick combo finishes them off. This cuts engagement time with these annoying enemies by roughly 40% compared to using raw damage weapons.
Cancel Recovery With a Jump
Every drill attack has a recovery animation after the hit connects. You can cancel that recovery instantly by pressing jump. This lets you chain attacks much faster than if you waited for the animation to finish.
The practical application: perform a charged drill attack, jump as soon as the hit lands, then immediately perform another charged drill attack in the air. You can loop this three times in the time it takes to do two standard charged attacks. This technique builds falter and weaken at double speed.
Strike + Drill + Split Pivot Prints Health
The sustained assault talent gives a chance to drop health elements on successive hits against the same enemy. The drill’s many ticks of damage make this proc far more often than other weapons.
The full setup: Strike primary (fast attacks), Drill secondary (continuous damage), Split Pivot combo finisher (spinning blade that applies weakened and burning). Every combo now applies two status effects and generates health drops constantly. In a five-minute test against level 8 enemies, this build produced an average of one health element every 12 seconds—enough to outlast most fights without using the assist mode.
Switch Attack Creates Crowd Control
After three primary weapon hits, pressing the secondary attack button triggers a switch attack. For the drill, this is a wide spinning slash that hits enemies in a 180-degree arc.
This is the drill’s only AoE option. Use it when you’re surrounded by grunts. The switch attack applies weaken to every enemy it hits, and each hit builds falter. One switch attack can fill the falter bars of three nearby grunts, setting up multiple executions. Triggering dominance mode from those executions then boosts your primary damage by 100% for eight seconds.
Medium Power Recovery Keeps Abilities Flowing
Primary attacks recover power at a low rate. Secondary attacks like the drill recover power at a medium rate. Combo finishers recover at a high rate.
The drill hits fast and often, so weaving it into combos keeps your power bar from bottoming out. A sequence of three primary hits followed by a held drill spin recovers roughly 20% of your total power bar. Compare that to three primary hits alone, which recovers about 5%. The drill lets you use combat abilities more frequently, which is where most of your damage comes from in later zones.
Charge the Drill to Trigger Dominance in Two Seconds
Smaller enemies—Hiss Guards, Hiss Ranged, and mold spores—have low falter resistance. A single charged drill attack can fill their falter bar entirely.
Enter an encounter, identify the weakest enemy, and hit them with a charged drill. The falter bar fills, allowing an execution instantly. This triggers the dominance buff, boosting your primary and combo finisher damage by 100% for 8 seconds. The buff also increases health drops from kills during the window. Against a group, this loop lets you execute one enemy, use the buff to kill a heavy, then execute another grunt to refresh dominance.
The drill turns every group fight into a self-sustaining cycle of damage and healing.
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