Scrapper: the pole everyone else can use

Scrapper builds in 1.0

Three directions, and they are not variants of each other — pick one and commit, because the pole is doing different work in each.

The health dispenser

Vending Machine makes the pole drop healing chunks while players are attached. Explosive Personality is the reason that matters: it grants a stacking damage buff based on how many small health chunks you have recently consumed, and it makes grunts guaranteed to drop at least one chunk. Vending Machine covers the downtime when nothing is dying, Explosive Personality turns the pickups into damage. Stolen Nanites closes the loop by healing anyone attached to the pole.

There is a cost the community wiki points out: the chunks you want usually drop from enemies, so the build pulls you towards danger to keep the buff up — which is the opposite of what a mobility employee is for. The mitigating habit is to swing by rather than stand in.

The infinite flight build

Eye in the Sky turns the pole into a hovering eyeball you can redirect anywhere — the wiki calls it the only strong, straightforward vertical option on any base kit. Hang on to it and you can fly, but only when the pole's duration outlasts its cooldown. The wiki gets there two ways at once: elemental upgrades that add duration when an element is inflicted, plus flat duration increases from Parallel Wiring, Spare Cable and Ideal Conditions.

In this build Focus Prism is the damage pick, because it pays a bonus for the element you are inflicted with, and Elemental Cocktail lets you hold two elements at once, even on yourself.

That second element is a self-debuff, and the same write-up flags the fix: Stolen Nanites heals anyone attached to the pole, including you. If you run the flight build without it, you are paying health for altitude.

The honest caveat

The wiki's own verdict on the rest of the tree is that most Scrapper upgrades beyond these are weak or joke picks, with Jungle Jim good early and Stream Jets serviceable. It also warns against pairing Frantic Mechanism with other Scrap upgrades, because it makes Scrap decay faster. Treat that as one experienced player's read of a page last edited 22 October 2026, not as a measurement.

The kit: a pole your team can use

The Grapple Pole is the only ability in the game described as usable by allies. You plant it, anyone on the squad can grapple to it, and it has a limited charge — which means it is a resource the team spends, not a personal cooldown.

The Jetpack is the second half. Game Rant's ranking rates it as one of the better mobility options for height and distance, while pointing out that it is not the best option for actual flying. That is a fair split: the jetpack goes up and across, the Glider's wingsuit goes wherever it wants and turns while doing it.

Two rankings, one split

The Scrapper is the cleanest example on this site of a tier list measuring the wrong thing.

Game Rant's launch ranking put him in the low tier, and the reasoning is specific: the pole is only good for a bit of mobility if you get good at swinging. Judged as a personal movement tool, that is correct — it is a pole with a charge, competing against flight.

How To Video Game's build page, updated after 1.0, reports the opposite framing: the most versatile employee once built, and the only build in its list that buffs teammates by existing. Judged as a squad tool, that is also correct.

Both statements are about the same ability. One counts what the Scrapper can do alone; the other counts what the squad can do because he is there.

What 1.0 changed for the Scrapper

The 1.0 notes do carry a Scrapper section — five entries, and two of them touch the mobility half of the kit:

• Burst Release used to raise only the initial jetpack force. It now also raises sustained jetpack force by about 100%, which is the biggest change on this page: the jetpack stops being a hop and becomes a way to stay off the floor.
• On The Go — the upgrade that turns another player into a grapple node — costs less energy to use: 60-70% of the cost removed became 75-84%.
• Dynamite Deployment changed pattern, and its explosion grew: 4.5 to 7 minimum, 8.54 to 9 maximum. A different shape means re-fitting the grid before the upgrade behaves the way it did.
• Pressure Increase moved from Standard to Rare, with its minimum force raised from +13% to +19%.
• Multithread had a bug fixed: stacking multiple copies in Ouroboros used to increase energy consumption instead of reducing it.

Two of those five are movement upgrades, which is worth noticing — the patch reinforced the half of the kit that the launch ranking was least impressed by.

The Swinger achievement

The achievement text is the clearest description of how the pole is actually meant to be used: jump and start grappling without touching the floor, then swing around until you deplete the entire charge.

Read it as a tutorial. The pole's charge is limited, so the achievement is not asking for distance — it is asking for one uninterrupted swing. If you can do that, you can use the pole under pressure, which is the skill the low-tier ranking says you need before the ability is worth anything.

When the Scrapper is the wrong pick

• You are solo. No allies means no one uses the pole, and the dispensary half of the build has nobody to dispense to.
• You need the squad to survive incoming fire. The pole gets people out; the Bruiser's projector is what stops the fire in the first place.
• You want the highest personal damage. That is Wrangler once upgraded, and it is not close before then.

Next in the roster

Glider for flight and support, Wrangler for late-game damage, Bruiser for the doorway, the Mycologist for the 1.0 unlock. The employee index compares all five on one page, and the build guide covers the grids.