Foreword

This was my first ever build tempered by some of my friends. One thing I like about the build is that it doesn't overcommit to Iron Skin. While VERY good, I don't want to give up any duration or efficiency for Roar. This build should still give a really great value of Iron Skin but technically won't be the highest possible.

Core Mods and Arcanes

[Growing Power] is a useful aura that helps boost the potency of [Rhino]'s Roar and Iron Skin abilities; the trigger condition isn't very demanding and the payoff is quite nice. [Ironclad Charge] is insanely powerful and a must have, in my opinion, on any [Rhino] build. Hitting just 3 enemies with [Rhino] Charge is enough to give you a substantial boost to Iron Skin on your next cast. [Streamline] is somewhat unnecessary but I really like the ability efficiency; it helps you spam Roar and lessens the punishment of reapplying Iron Skin when it breaks or after stumbling into a nullifier. The main purpose of [Primed Continuity] in this build is to [Extend] the duration or Roar and [Negate] the drawback of [Transient Fortitude]. The rest of my mods either increase ability strength or armor to maximize the value of Iron Skin and Roar. I played around with [Amar's Hatred] but I don't feel as though it offers enough value even compared to [Augur Secrets].

Arcane [Guardian] is sometimes difficult to utilize on [Rhino]. It won't activate unless [Rhino] takes damage to his shields or health; taking damage while protected by Iron Skin doesn't count. However, Arcane [Guardian] allows for a massive boost to armor which could lead to a significant boost for your potential Iron Skin total. Molt Augmented is a great arcane that only gets better over time. At max, you gain a 60% boost to ability strength which will benefit both your Iron Skin and your Roar. Lastly, I'd like to acknowledge Arcane Tanker as a potential alternative to Arcane [Guardian]. You can get a massive boost to armor for a considerable period of time by using Arcane Tanker but I'm simply not a fan of having to pull out my Archgun every time I want cast Iron Skin; if this doesn't bother you, it's a valid alternative.

Focus School

This build does not rely on the usage of any particular focus school. Use whatever focus school best suits your play style. If you're just looking to maximize the effectiveness of this build, the passive armor increase from the Unairu focus school would technically be the most impactful.

Helminth

1. Ability Replacement

• Rhino Stomp ---> Empower

I recommend replacing [Rhino] Stomp with Empower. Although I'm actually a big fan of [Rhino] Stomp, it's expensive and you won't get to use it much. With this build's efficiency, Empower is very cheap and can substantially increase the power of Iron Skin and Roar at a +50% ability strength boost to your next ability cast. [Xata]'s Whisper and Eclipse, while normally incredible and very popular abilities, can only replace Roar on Rhino and are not recommended.

2. Archon Shards

• 1 Crimson (+10%/+15% Ability Strength)
• 4 Azure (+150/+225 Armor)

If you're struggling with [Rhino]'s low max energy, you may want to swap a +armor shard for a +max energy shard.

Gameplay

When playing with this build, you'll want to find a small group of enemies where you can hit at least 3 enemies with [Rhino] Charge to activate [Ironclad Charge]. If you can't find any enemies grouped up, don't be picky and settle on hitting at least one; [Rhino] is squishy without Iron skin active. Then cast Empower and quickly inflict a status effect on any enemy to trigger [Growing Power]. While [Growing Power] is active cast Iron Skin for massive reserve of damage absorption. Preferably while doing this, you are being shot at and Arcane [Guardian] will activate. Unless you're in a long mission, run into a nullifier, or playing Steel Path, this one cast of Iron Skin could last until the end of the mission. If you do end up needing to cast Iron Skin again, repeat the steps above with the added bonus of a charged up Molt Augmented for even more potential Iron Skin.

Closing Remarks

I'm sure there are more meta/min-maxed builds than this one but this one is balanced and battle tested with over 900 hours of gameplay usage up to the most difficult missions available. I promise that this build will serve you well.
​
​
​
VEILBREAKER: UPDATE 32 | Archon Shard Value Calculations
With the addition of archon shards, I wanted to know what archon shard effect would be better on [Rhino]: +225 armor or +15% ability strength (assuming we're only using Tauforged). I enlisted the help of a friend and, using my build as a base, we worked together to determine which shard is better for [Rhino]. Because [Ironclad Charge] is a wild variable, I went with a conservative estimate of 3 enemies hit on average with an [Ironclad Charge] for our calculations. We also accounted for my conditional arcanes: Arcane [Guardian] and Molt Augmented. For the most part, we found that +armor was far more valuable than +ability strength. The following calculations will be done using the build found above assuming all conditionals are triggered and 3 enemies hit with ironclad charge:

No Archon Shards: 90,223.253
5 Tauforged Azure Archon Shards (+1125 armor): 146,679
5 Tauforged Crimson Archon Shards (+75% ability strength): 130,245

Interestingly, mixing 1 Crimson in with 4 Azures produced a VERY similar result to the set of 5 Azures. This may be preferred to slightly increase the potency of Roar. In further testing, I also discovered that when at least 4 enemies were hit with [Ironclad Charge], a 4|1 combination was slightly stronger than a 5|0; but when 3 or fewer enemies were hit with [Ironclad Charge], a 4|1 combination was SLIGHTLY weaker than a 5|0. Here's the total for a 4|1 combination (again, 3 enemies hit for fair comparison to the numbers above):

4 Tauforged Azure Archon Shards, 1 Tauforged Crimson Archon Shards (+900 armor, +15% ability strength): 146,608

At just 71 Iron Skin weaker, there's nothing wrong with running a 4|1 combination. Even with no enemies hit or 12 enemies hit, the difference either way is not very significant. Please note that these calculations were done prior to the inclusion of the Empower helminth ability within my build; with Empower, 5 azure archon shards to increase armor would be preferable if maximizing Iron Skin is all you're concerned with.

TLDR; we determined that a boost to armor is far better than a boost to ability strength. 5 azure is good but 4 azures and 1 crimson is better overall. You can play with the variables yourself here: https://www.online-python.com/cvRbLzQ3PV. Big shoutout to my friend KingOfBritains for helping me on this one.