Gene

Gene’s play style should be more defensive, oriented towards helping his teammates rather than trying to get kills. He generally uses his attack to reveal enemies in bushes and prevent them from healing while charging his Super from far away.

His Super can be used to pull important enemies towards his team (low HP enemies or enemies with gems). Unless the enemy is on low HP, he should avoid pulling enemies with high burst damage by himself. Gene needs the rest of his team ready to help him defeat the enemy.

His Spirit Slap SP can make it easier to defeat the enemy pulled. His Magic Puffs SP should be used to heal teammates on low HP to get them back into the fight more quickly.

Due to his relatively slow projectile speed, it is recommended to aim Gene’s shots at mid-range, since the split projectiles can miss if the enemy dodges the main projectile and is too close to Gene.

Speed Gear (Situational/Effective): Gene can sometimes use the Speed Gear on bush-heavy maps to increase mobility, allowing him to keep the pressure on low-HP enemies and get close enough to enemies to pull them. But it has little use outside of that and is overshadowed by the other Gears.

Health Gear (Situational): In open Bounty/Knockout maps, Gene can use the Health Gear in combination with the Magic Puffs SP to heal his teammates quickly while healing quickly himself. This is useful against brawlers who damage multiple targets at once. Against brawlers who can only hit one target at a time, it is much less useful.

Damage Gear (Ineffective): Due to Gene’s low damage at high range, the Damage gear provides very little benefit, especially due to the fact that Gene’s attack is mainly used to prevent healing, not actually defeat enemies at high range.

Vision Gear (Situational/Effective): In bush-heavy maps, Gene can use his attack to reveal enemies in a wide area of bushes for an extended period of time, making it much easier for teammates to target them while also revealing enemies with gems or low HP. It has little use in maps with few bushes.

Shield Gear (Situational): Gene can use the Shield Gear in Knockout and Bounty maps to increase his survivability, especially in maps with few bushes. In bush-heavy maps, it is overshadowed by the Vision Gear.

Gadget Charge (Situational/Effective): In maps without many bushes, Gene can use the Gadget Charge gear to give himself some extra survivability against brawlers that can easily get close to him with Lamp Blowout or have greater long distance pressure with Vengeful Spirits. However, the Vision gear is much better in bush-heavy maps.

Talk to the Hand (Effective): Gene’s Mythic Gear increases the range of his Super, making it much easier to pull enemies from a longer distance. It also makes it safer for him to pull enemies since he doesn’t have to be as close to them and their teammates to do so.

Immediately after using his super, Gene should walk away from the enemy being pulled, preferably towards his teammates. This increases the distance the enemy is pulled, putting more distance between Gene and the enemy’s teammates, as well as making it easier for his teammates to attack the enemy. Using a teleporter or jump pad further increases this distance.

When pulling an enemy through a wall, Gene should avoid trying to hit them if there is a wall between the two. Attack the moment they cross the wall.

When using the Spirit Slap SP in Showdown, avoid using Gene’s Super on enemies below 1920 HP, as this will kill them instantly, leaving the powercubes where they died instead of giving them to Gene. Wait until the enemy heals above 1920 and drag them, unless it’s an emergency (Gene is about to get killed by the enemy or the enemy is the only other brawler left).

If using Spirit Slap in Gem Grab, avoid grabbing the gem carrier below 1920 HP, as this will make them drop their gems where they are instead of bringing them to Gene. This is the main reason Spirit Slap is especially worse in Gem Grab.

When grabbing the gem carrier, try to make sure they die close to you to make it easier to get the gems. Wait before attacking if necessary.

Since Gene’s super pulls enemies, it can interrupt attacks with a windup (Frank’s, Bibi’s, and Ash’s main attacks, Maisie’s, Mandy’s, and Meg’s supers, etc.) or attacks with a long execution time (Colt’s and Carl’s supers, etc.).

This is especially useful against Fang, whose potentially devastating Super can be interrupted by Gene’s Super.

Gene’s Lamp Blowout gadget can also knock spawnables back, buying him more time against enemies like Tick’s head and Eve’s babies. Gene won’t heal from the gadget use, though.

Gene’s Lamp Blowout gadget can be used during a pull, right before it ends. This is useful if Gene pulls an enemy without the ammo to deal with them. This is especially useful if he pulls a high DPS enemy without proper support.

Gene’s Hypercharge can be used to catch enemies off guard, since the pull is much faster and harder to react to. He can also pull enemies with more HP, since he gets a large damage boost from his Hypercharge, letting him deal 7500 damage with all 3 ammo (9500 with Spirit Slap).

Ways to Counter Gene:

When hiding behind walls, make sure that his split projectiles cannot hit you. Hiding on the corners of walls can help make it easier to dodge his split attack and let you heal.

When your teammate is the gem-carrier or has many bounty stars, try to stand in front of them as much as possible to block them from Gene’s Super.

Gene’s abilities are mainly for helping his teammates, so defeating his teammates makes him considerably less powerful.

When Gene uses his attack at mid-range, move to the side of his projectile rather than farther back. This minimizes the number of split projectiles that hit you.

Gene’s Super can pull spawnables, like Nita’s, Jessie’s and Lola’s, so they can use their Super to block Gene’s pull.

Gene’s Super can also pull spawnables from gadgets, like Bea’s Honey Molasses, Bo’s Super Totem, and Spike’s Life Plant gadgets. A well-timed gadget can block the pull.

If Gene uses his Super on a spawnable immediately after it appears, it will only get pulled for a second after it gets hit. The magic hand will still come back to him, breaking walls, as if it is holding an enemy, even though it isn’t.

With the Spirit Slap Star Power, at Power 11, Gene can 3-shot brawlers with 8000 HP or less.

Gene’s Lamp Blowout gadget can knock back Buzz during his Super to avoid the stun. The timing is very tricky, though.

When an enemy is being pulled by Gene, they cannot be knocked back or pulled by any other brawler.

If Gene’s Super hits an enemy that is being pulled by Gray’s Walking Cane gadget, both pulls will cancel.

Gene’s Super overrides Frank’s Noise Canceling Headphones and Poco’s Protective Tunes gadgets and can still interrupt attacks while they’re active.

Gene synergizes extremely well with brawlers with high burst close-range burst damage, like Shelly, Bull, Griff, Darryl, Jacky, R-T, and Leon, since they can defeat high-HP enemies very quickly after Gene pulls them in.

Gene and R-T make an amazing pair, as Gene can easily "pop" R-T's marks with his spread shot, and then R-T can super as soon as Gene lands a pull.

Gene synergizes well with Max due to her all around good stats and supporting ability. Max’s Super can also let Gene get much closer to enemies in order to pull them.

Gene works well with Sandy’s Super, as he can use the invisibility to get closer to enemies.

Gene can also work with Tick, who can use his main attack’s area control to help Gene keep enemies back.