Free MMORPG Forums

SuperKenshin

Armor Guide
By Creedo.
Yay!
================================================== ==============================

Armor might still be the best bot in the game. It's the choice of megapros.
It's cbchui's main mobile (cbchui has been white dragon/#1 rank in gunbound on
many occasions). It's what I pick when I absolutely have to win, and don't want
anyone to be able to exploit a weakness on me or force me into a situation where
I've got no shot. It's powerful, flexible, and has great defense (it can
survive two boomer thor duals). It has some minor weaknesses (delay mostly)
but aside from that, there's no reason NOT to pick armor.
So if you want to learn it, here we go:

----------------------
Armor's weapons:

Shot 1: Weak, but low delay compared to his other shots. Use it when you can
steal an extra turn vs an opponent who has about +800 or more delay relative to
you. You should also be aware of situations where using shot 2 might give the
enemy 2 turns in a row, and use shot 1 instead... for example let's say the
turn list looks like this:

You: 760 (your turn) next enemy: +40 (they're next)

If you use shot 2 here, and the enemy counterattacks with shot 1, they will
probably get 2 turns in a row on you. Therefore you must use shot 1 to ensure
that doesn't happen. When the delay number I see by my target is lower than
100 (either +100 or -100) then I will often choose shot 1 to either try to
get two turns in a row on them or prevent them from doing it to me.

Shot 1 is also great for bunging, it makes a big hole (like ice/nak/cake/others)
but more importantly it can damage the land under an enemy if it hits them
directly. Many shots in the game cannot do that. So use shot 1 if the enemy is
on a sliver of land and you want to bunge them, or intentionally miss it very
close to the enemy to drop them down a large distance and dig them closer to the
bottom of the land. From certain positions, a shot 1 placed right at the foot
of your enemy will cause them to be stuck with no shot because they've been
holed: http://media.virtuafighter.com/media/gb/Armor_angle.jpg

Shot 1 delay: 770
Typical damage: 150

Shot 2: This is your main weapon. It's strong, but has very high delay.
Since a recent update, it's slower than almost any other shot 2. Your main
idea with armor is to pound away with shot 2 until the enemy has less than half
their life left, then dual shot 2 to finish them off. The damage is typically
about 240 for a nice hit, so 2 duals almost kills them. If you have an enemy
with low HP/defense and you hit just right with your duals, you can kill them
in two turns. Otherwise you should assume you can't do that and you'll end up
doing something like: shot 1, shot 2, shot 2, dual shot 2 (kill). Depending on
how carefully you play delay and which items are available, you may only need 3
turns to kill, but be careful tossing out dual shot 2's. Armor's item delay
increased by 40, so when you use a dual combined with your very slow shot 2,
this leaves you helpless for several turns. It used to be that your dual delay
was low enough that if the enemy attacked first, you could shoot back with a
dual and not give up 2 turns in a row to the enemy. That is no longer true.
Every dual+shot 2 that you do will give the enemy at least 2 turns, and often
3 turns in a row against you, so duals should be saved to make a sure kill.
It's more important than ever not to show off with duals when you're not sure
it's a guaranteed hit.

Shot 2 delay: 990
Typical damage: 240

SS: This is a good SS, fairly high damage (not quite as high as boomer/sate but
higher than almost everyone else's). Use it when you want to do good damage
without committing to a high delay dual, or when items are locked out and you
can't use a dual. It's nice because the delay is a bit less than any dual, so if
an enemy opens up the game with a dual you can respond with the SS and beat their
delay. The only catch to the shot is that it requires about 1.8 seconds of airtime
before it 'opens up'... if you just shotgun it or don't keep it in the air long
enough, it does crappy damage (around 200). Once it opens the missile will
transform and cause a huge explosion when it lands. The large explosion means you
can miss a little and still get a bit of damage from it.

SS delay: 1320
Typical damage: 400

A quick note on damage, delay, etc:
Damage is based on how clean your hit is, and whether or not your shot was
partially blocked by dirt. The damages I give are based on a solid center hit
using true angle vs a mobile with average defense. In some conditions your shot
will do more or less. I'd say your best shot 1 will be 180 dmg and a miracle
shot 2 will do 300ish. One other important note on damage: your aiming slice
has a solid, bright green part and a faded, washed out pale green part. The
solid green in the middle of your aim slice is called 'true' angle, any shots
where your pointer is in this solid green part will do full, normal damage.
The washed out green at the edges of your aim slice is called weak angle.
This does about 20% less damage. You therefore should always try to use true
angle, which may require moving armor to get your pointer high or low enough.
Note that the SS is all solid green/true angle, but also has less angle range
than the other shots.

Delay is fixed, and for every second you take to shoot, the delay for your shot
will have 10 points added. Certain items also add to your delay. For example a
normal SS fired with no delay is 1320 'time units'. If you used 3 seconds to
fire the shot, you are now using 1320+30 time units, so that's 1350 time units.
If you use a dual+ item with armor's shot 1, you are adding 250 delay to your
natural delay of 780. Dual+ is therefore 1,030 delay as long as you use shot 1
first. That means dual+ delay is only 100 more than using a normal shot 2.
There's a myth some players spread that doing shot 2 first gives better damage.
This is a lie. Use 1 first, but be aware that sometimes the large bunge effect
from shot 1 can cause the enemy to drop, which may make the shot 2 miss.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other strengths and weaknesses:

PROS:
-Decent movement (climb and move distance).
-Decent aiming slice; combined with your movement, getting angle is easy.
-Massive defense - you can survive two duals, and even 2 duals with thor.
-Decent bunging, it's there for situations that call for it.
-Shot 2 is very user friendly, it can miss a bit and still cause damage. Shot
1 also can miss a bit and nick a nearly dead enemy for the kill. Neither shot
has special requirements or unusual aiming techniques, they just hit directly.

CONS:
-Big shot 2 delay means you'll probably give the enemy 2 turns in a row on you
at some point. Dual shot 2's are now very risky and you may die if you use a
dual and fail to kill the enemy.

-Shot 2 is still your best weapon, but the angle range on it was decreased. The
true angle for shot 2 is now small and that makes it hard to rely on high angle
formula shots (since getting a high angle with shot 2 usually means resorting
to your weak angle)
---------------------------------------------

HOW TO ACTUALLY USE ARMOR
-------------------------

Armor can be used several ways:
1. Use cbchui-type fixed power formulas to aim all your shots.
2. Use lemontears-type fixed angle formulas to aim all your shots.
3. For some wind conditions or shooting over 1 screen, use 3 and 4 bar formulas.
4. Just use feel to aim.

I prefer method 1, with a little bit of 2, 3, and 4 thrown in for specific
situations where using 2.4 fixed power makes no sense.

My shooting plan:
-If I am very close to an enemy and can just shoot using feel to make guaranteed
hits on them, I'll do that.
-If I'm far away from my targets and can get a decent angle, I use that angle to
start aiming using the 2.4 bar fixed power method. I will usually fire an SS on
my first turn to hit the best logical target (or the easiest one).
-If I'm far away from my targets and cannot get a good angle, I position myself
on level ground to use angle 35 and try to calculate the power needed to hit
whichever target I think is best. This is a mix of using certain power
'landmarks' (like Lemontears and PhantomD's) and using plain old feel.
-If I'm very far away, or if the wind is too strong to allow a 2.4 bar shot to
reach my target, I will use a 3 bar shooting formula.
-I try to always use true angle, so if I can't use fixed power formulas without
resorting to using my weak angle, I either switch to angle 35 or 60 and take
a guess at the power needed to make my shot.

HOW TO AIM
----------

Fixed power formula:
Using this means simply shooting with the same amount of power every time: 2.4
bars. To aim your shot, you simply choose different angles to hit different
locations on the screen. You do not use just 1 angle over and over again, you're
usually going to be changing the angle every single shot. You need to change
the angle to compensate for different winds, and of course you need to know how
to aim your shot in 0 wind. Once you master the formula, you can glance at
the enemy and be able to pick the correct angle needed to hit them in 0 wind.
Then you can glance at the wind and raise or lower your angle to adjust for
wind. All you need to do once you have the correct angle picked out is shoot.

The three basic rules you can memorize to get you started:
1. Power is ALWAYS 2.4 bars.
2. Angle 60 hits 1 screen away.
3. Angle 75 hits half a screen away.

Measuring with the screen: hold right click and drag the screen so that you're
at the edge. Then judge what angle you want to use (it's easiest to use angle 75
as a landmark, then judge how far away the enemy is from 75. If the enemy is
nearly 1 screen away, use 1 screen = angle 60 as a landmark).

-The distance from your 'all/team' button to your half power mark = angle 80
If you cannot put the all button under you because the enemy is far to the
right, put the 3rd power mark under you. From the third power mark to the right
edge of the screen is also about angle 80.

-From the all/team button to (in score) the area between the first 'team lives
remaining' button and the red number showing how many lives there are = angle 70
explanation: In score it has two buttons bottom right, "b life remaining" and
"a life remaining". To the right of these buttons are red numbers showing how
many lives you have left. Just between the button and number of lives is the
angle 70 mark. In solo or tag, it's from the all button to the left edge of
the yellow stripey area next to the "F7" button.

-left edge of screen to right edge of screen = angle 60

-left edge of screen to middle of screen = angle 75 ... to spot a perfect 75,
put yourself at the left edge of the screen so that u are halfway off the
screen. Look directly under the middle of the wind indicator at the top
of the screen... that is where an angle 75 shot will land in 0 wind.

-each 'bar' on your power meter is ~4 angles. So let's say you place yourself
above the "all" button. The enemy is 1 bar past your half power (2 bar) mark.
All to half power = angle 80
1 bar beyond = lower 4 angles
so enemy is at angle 76... almost half a screen away.

-You can't use angles lower than 60... the shot only has enough power to travel
1 screen. In fact, trying to fire angle 60 with 2.4 bars might land a little
bit short, and you may want to try 2.5 bars for angle 60 shots. If you ever do
a calculation that tells you to lose an angle lower than 60, your shot will
miss.

-Also, angle 32~35 will also go 1 screen at 2.4 power. So 2.4 power goes
about 1 screen for almost ANY angle lower than 60 I think.

ADJUSTING FOR WIND:

From my experience, adjusting for wind with any bot at any fixed power is nearly
the same. I use memorized wind adjustment formulas to figure out the angle I
need.

Wind adjustment works like this:
-Figure out the angle you need in 0 wind (i.e. for a half screen shot you'd
want to use angle 75).
-If wind is up or towards the opponent or both, raise angle to compensate. If
wind is against you or down, lower the angle to compensate. Remember that if you
are using a maximum power of 2.4 bars, you cannot reach certain distances when
wind is against you... for example if you try to hit someone at angle 70 with 20
wind against you, you will fall short always. So in moderate or strong wind
blowing against you, I recommend you abandon using the 2.4 bar formula. It's
still ok when wind is blowing towards the enemy.
-For calculating wind adjustments, look at the wind power, round down to the
nearest even number (i.e. 25 wind is really 24 wind)... then divide wind power
by a certain number. The number you use is based on wind direction.
Here's a chart showing what number to divide by for almost any given wind
direction:

http://media.virtuafighter.com/media/gb/WindChart.jpg

Other aiming methods:

At angle 35, you can use 2.4 bars for 1 screen and about 1.7 for half a screen.
One bar of power travels about 7 distance units (15 distance units is half a
a screen, so it's a bit less than 1/4th of a screen). That fact doens't seem
that useful at first, because the shot is so close it's easy to make just
using feel alone. However I use this bit of knowledge to aim my close range
shot 2's very precisely... so that the shot is diving into the ground just as
it hits the enemy's feet. This ensures that I get the fullest possible damage
from my shot 2.

3 bar formula/banpao:
This involves shooting with nearly 3 bars of power to aim your shots.
You actually use 3 different levels of power:

Inside half a screen (not recommended): 2.8 bars
From half screen to 1 screen: 2.95 bars
Past 1 screen (1.5 screen max: 3.05 bars

The advantage to using this is that with so much power, you can make
calculated shots up to 1.5 screens away. The disadvantage is
that 3 bar shots, like full power shots, have a lot of distance between
angles and you may need to adjust your power level to hit an enemy sitting
between 2 different angles. You will also need to watch wind carefully
because the shot is spending a lot of time in the air, and the wind effect
may be greater than it would for a 2.4 bar shot.

3 bar shots are suitable for:
*Enemies beyond 1 screen distance, but not as far as 2 screens away.
*Situations where the wind force holds your shot back and makes it impossible
to get the shot to travel 1 screen distance using just 2.4 bars power.
*Situations where you want to stay as close to the front of a slope as possible
(and therefore don't want to move backwards to get a lower true angle). If
you're in a situation where you're forced to use a very high angle and you
need a lower angle for the 2.4 method, you can use 3 bars instead and keep your
high angle.

3 bar shots are NOT suitable for:
*Close range shots inside half a screen.
*Any situation where 2.4 bars could easily hit (because 3 bars has a greater
chance of missing slightly because the gap between 2 angles is larger).
*Shots beyond 1.5 screen (a flat angle or full power high angles are needed).

3 bar landmarks:

1/2 screen = angle 80
1 screen = angle 70
1.5 screens = angle 60

As with 2.4, you are dividing your target area into 30 parts... 10 parts per
half screen. That means 5 parts per 1/4 screen. If it helps, 3 angles
distance using the 2.4 method is about 2 angles using the 3.1 bar method.
If you are quick with math you can convert measurements easily, example:
I can see the enemy is 18 angles away from me (so if angle 90 hits myself,
angle 72 would hit them).
To find the angle for banpao, I can just divide the distance by 3, then
multiply the result by 2. So 18/3 = 6. Then 6 * 2 = 12. The enemy is 12
angles distance from me using banpao. (so angle 78 would hit them).

ARMOR STRATEGY -

Basic: Start off the game with a single shot 1, then pound away with shot 2
until the enemy has about 40% of their life left. Finish them off with a dual
shot 2. Always attack the closest, easiest enemy, and try to stick to the
easier to use low/flat angles (but remember, always use true angle... the middle
green portion of your aiming slice).

Advanced: Learn to use fixed power shooting so that you can hit anything on the
screen with confidence. When you can do that, you can choose targets based on
which enemy it would be best to kill, not on which enemy is easiest to hit.
Open the round with your SS, since your shot 1 delay is sort of poor and you're
probably going to give up two turns in a row at some point anyway. Later
finish the enemy with a dual+ followed by a dual.

Playing delay: If you treat your matchup with a certain enemy as a 1v1, then
you have to watch your delay carefully to beat a strong player who has an easy
shot on you. Most 1v1 matchups can end after 3 or 4 turns. Here's how you
should play most matchups:

You go first -
1. Open with SS or dual+, since even opening with shot 1 will probably cause
you to lose two turns vs someone else with a faster shot 1.
2. Next fire shot 2. If everything has hit so far, and hit solidly, the
enemy should have less than half their life. If you have enough delay advantage
(i.e. the enemy shows maybe +300 delay on the turn list) use a dual+.
3. If the enemy hasn't killed you yet, fire a dual for your last shot and they
should drop dead, unless you've been missing or half-hitting.

They go first -
1. If the enemy is armor and they opened up with a slow dual, you can dual back
quickly and beat their delay, barely. Vs someone with naturally low delay like
boomer, this is pretty much impossible
2. If they opened with a fast dual, respond with a dual+ (shot 1 first) and you
can beat their delay and get another turn. If dual+ isn't available, then use
your SS.
3. If they opened up with an SS or dual+, fire shot 2 first to beat their delay,
then use a dual+ if it's available as your next shot. You should be able to get
three hits on them without losing too much delay to them.
4. If they opened with a shot 2, respond with a shot 1 to beat their delay
followed by another shot 1. You can also safely respond with dual, dual+, or
your SS. You won't beat their delay, but your delay should be low enough that
they cannot get two turns in a row on you afterwards.
5. If they opened with a shot 1, respond with a dual+ or SS. You won't be able
to shot 1 back and beat their delay unless the enemy is someone with high delay
(or someone who takes a long time to aim). If you CAN fire a fast shot 1 to beat
their delay, then make sure your second shot is a shot 1 also... otherwise you
give up so much delay that they will get two turns in a row on you later on.

Different strategies for different modes:
SOLO MODE: Remember that once you die, that's it... no more shots for you. You
want to contribute as much useful damage as possible before you die. You also
have to be aware of the fact that pro solo players look for opportunities to
doubleteam/gangbang/rape someone. If that someone is probably going to be you,
you should dual on your first shot and don't worry about the huge delay (because
you're going to die anyway, and firing a dinky shot 1 before you die sucks).
Remember, this is only a solo strategy, generally firing a dual your first turn
is a bad idea. The delay from that is so high many players can dual you back
and beat your delay, or get three shots in a row.

SCORE: If you can see you're going to get gangbanged (as in solo mode) you
should consider dualling your first turn so you do something good before you
die. If you are pretty sure you will be left alone or only 1 enemy will try
to kill you, then play delay and treat the matchup as a 1v1 between you and
your target. Remember, help is available if your teammates are pro enough.
If you need just 1 added hit to be able to kill your enemy, don't be afraid
to use teamtalk and ask for their help. Otherwise, if you have things under
control you shouldn't ask. Also, if you are really owning your enemy and
have a large lead in life on them, you might look for situations where you
can help your teammates (or else ask them if they want help). Also...
sometimes in a score game, suicide is preferable to letting the enemy get the
kill because by suiciding you can choose a drop location right away and respawn
faster. If you're definitely going to die in the next turn or two,
then suiciding isn't a bad plan. Don't do it automatically every time though.
Sometimes it's more helpful to force the enemy to use up a turn finishing you
off, which takes some heat off of your teammates.
One other cute score trick: On maps with thin land, fire a shot 1 where you can
see the enemy will land. They'll drop into the pit and with any luck you can
actually bunge them on your next turn. You can also make a pit straight through
the bottom of the ground. If the enemy drops through that pit, they don't lose
a life, but they must waste 4 more turns before they can come back.

TAG: Just remember to F7 when your life gets low, around 40% or so. A good tag
partner for armor is turtle since both can fire using the same 2.4 bar fixed
power aiming system. Turtle also has naturally high defense like armor, and
you'll find that having the two toughest mobiles as tag partners means you live
longer than most other bots.

Other armor stuff:

-For most shots, especially on a flat map like metamine, it is best to use a
low, flat angle like 35. Both parts of your shot 2 can hit easily, and you
can judge power by feel pretty easily. The shot 2 will do best damage if it
hits right at the enemy's feet. It's hard to get that kind of hit by using
higher angles.

-From many positions, using angle 35 makes no sense, but trying to make the shot
using fixed power method isn't wise either (because it would mean using your
weak angle or the shot is so close it makes no sense to high angle it).
For these situations, I like to use angle 60. It is good to learn at least 1
highish fixed angle for armor so that you can make good, fast shots using feel
alone when there's no time or reason to calculate.
Some simple landmarks to make shooting with angle 60 easy:
1/4 screen: 1.2 bars
1/2 screen: 1.7 bars
3/4 screen: 2.2 bars
1.0 screen: 2.5 bars

To shoot at a flat angle like 35, the power levels are almost identical, just
subtract about .1 bars and you'll hit the same locations. What that means
is that there really is a lot of room for error on the angle you're using as
long as you get the power right, especially in close distances. Any angle
between 32 and 60 can cause your shot to land in the approximate locations
listed as long as you use the powers listed above, though there is that
.1 bar difference that you will need a little feeling to take care of.

-When you miss a shot using the 2.4 method, just use your power meter to guide
how many angles to change... 1 bar on your power meter is ~4 angles, so it is
easy to judge.

-Sometimes a target is between angles, or 1 wind is making you worry about
a miss... i.e. at 4 wind towards the enemy, your last shot barely hit his
rear end, and in 5 wind you're worried it will go too far. In situations
like that, don't worry about changing your angle when you know you can
easily adjust with just a tiny power difference. Use 2.3 or 2.5 bars if
you think 2.4 may miss. The 2.4 method is not just about making a good
hit on your first try, it's also about making sure your test shot is
so close to the enemy that adjusting for a miss will be quite simple.
-Full power high angling: I don't recommend this with armor at all, it's so
much harder to aim these than it is to aim a nice flat shot, and within 1 screen
you don't need full power shots, 2.4 bars will do. If you want to high angle
anyway, or are forced to because of a bad position, Angle 79 goes a hair over 1
screen. Angle 85 lands just in front of the 1/2 screen mark, so you can use
84 not-quite-full to hit half a screen away. Also, the distance between angles
gets smaller and smaller the further you shoot. So when high angling, the
first screen can be considered 11 parts (actually a little less), each part can
be hit using angles between 79 and 90. The second screen can be considered 12
parts, and to hit those areas you would use angles between 78 and 67.

-Don't get fooled into thinking you need to adjust power/angle when you switch
to a different shot. Shot 1, Shot 2, and the SS all have the same weight even
though shot 1 travels quickly through the air and 'looks' lighter. You DO
need to watch out for the angle changing when you switch... because if you're at
the edge of your aiming angle and switch to a shot with less angle range, your
angle changes automatically.

-If you want to use the SS, angle 35 2.4 (full screen) does NOT open up in time.
Angle 60 full screen does. So if you plan to use a flat angle SS, the enemy
must be really far away, like 1.5 screens. A hurricane can keep an SS in the
air an extra half second so that flat angle SSes become possible. For example
example you can almost shotgun an SS from one end of metamine to the other
if a hurricane is in the way to keep it airborne longer.

-If you want to get a sure shot on someone and can shotgun them... do it.
But keep in mind that armor's shot bunges the enemy quite a bit, so if you try
a dual shotgun the enemy will often drop down a cm or so and make your second
shot miss. Aim low when shotgunning duals to prevent this.

-Dual shot 1 isn't very strong, but it bunges a lot and is a good way to
try to drop the enemy through some thin land when a single shot 1 probably
won't be enough.

-There are some tricks you can use to screw the enemy's angle when playing
with Armor. This can put them in a position where they have no shot or are
forced to change their aim to someone else. Some examples:

1. The enemy is on an upward slope and you can position armor right next
to them. Drop a shot 1 on their nose (don't hit directly), and they may
end up being blocked by the same hill they were using to get angle.
This can also be done with a high angle shot 1 as long as it lands perfectly.
Example: http://media.virtuafighter.com/media...mor_angle1.jpg

2. If you do a dual+, usually you will use 1 followed by 2. But if you have
an enemy with a low-positioned angle like A.sate, you might try using 2, then
1... and miss a little in front of the enemy. My crappy photoshopped pic
is not perfect but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.
Shot 2 makes a narrow hole, and the enemy ends up clinging to the back of the
slope that this hole created. Then shot 1 comes in, makes a large 'underhole',
and your enemy with any luck falls into that hole. Even if they don't they
are forced to move backwards or shoot backwards to get a decent angle.
Example: http://media.virtuafighter.com/media...mor_angle2.jpg

-Follow general gunbound strategy and play smart. Don't use shot 2 if shot 1 is
enough. Don't high angle when fixed power is enough. Don't use more than you
need to for a kill. Don't toss out a dual when you're not very sure on the hit.
Don't aim for enemies who are very close to teammates. Don't use a fancy shot
when a shotgun will do. You get the picture.

-Packing items: I use two duals and a dual+. Teleport used to be important to
me, but I find the better I get the less I need to use it. If you want to keep
a teleport in your pack, use dual, dual+, teleport. Dual+ is too good not to
use, and dual is important for finishing off enemies with more than 300ish hp.

-Practicing: The perfect practice settings are 1v1, jewel mode, death 40,
SSdeath, solo/score, no items except maybe wind change. You have multiple
targets to aim at in jewel mode and that makes it great for practicing the 2.4
shooting method. Metamine is a good map for practice because it's large enough
and has frequent wind changes so you can learn how to adjust for various wind
changes. It also is easy to get angle on that map. Miramo town is also good
because it's a large map and you can practice 3.1 bar shots or high angles.

Ok, that's it, I hope this is helpful.



TURTLE GUIDE
by CreeDo
W00t

================================================== ==============================
If anyone wishes to repost this guide, do not alter or remove any portion of it.
It is only to be reposted in full, with credit to the original author (CreeDo).
================================================== ==============================

Turtle's not used a lot, so I decided to try to make myself into a pretty good
turtle just to see if it sucks or is just underused. It turns out it's just
underused. Turtle's not godly or top tier, but he's got a nice combination of
the strongest defense in the game with the ability to inflict 500+ dmg duals.
That's a pretty happy combo.
Turtle's also super fun to play as. Everyone's bored to death by now of boomer
backshots, JD high angles, etc.. .but how many times do you see a good turtle
SS? I never did until I hit blue wand, after thousands of games.
So try turtle.


Turtle's shots:
----

Shot 1: A basic shot, it inflicts maybe 150 damage on a solid hit, sometimes
more, and makes a smallish hole if it hits dirt. There's only 1 part and it's
kinda thick, so there really are no tricks to this shot, just aim and hit.

Shot 2: You fire 2 streams of water that spiral back and forth as they travel
along the shot path. It's similar to mage's shot 2, but turtle's is nice because
after traveling through the air for a few seconds, the 2 streams of water merge
to form a narrow double stream that moves in a straight line. If you try to hit
someone before the 2 streams have a chance to merge, you often will get only 1
to hit (or maybe the other is only a half hit). If you find a way to keep the
shot in the air long enough for the streams to come together, usually both will
hit if either of them is on target. A solid hit from this is about 240,
sometimes as high as 270+ but I've never seen 300 without weather assistance or
suiciding or avatars.

SS: The hardest shot to use correctly (in the entire game). Turtle fires a big
waterblob that opens up after being in the air a certain length of time (about 3
seconds). When it opens, it splits into several smaller waterblobs. Depending on
the direction and speed of the shot, they will either fall together in a cluster
or spread way out like the spreadshot in contra. Remember contra? That was a
great game. Anyway the idea behind the SS is simple. You must either A: Fire it
so that the spread is narrow and vertical and all the balls rain down on the
enemy's head... or B: Fire it so that it splits a fraction of a second before
landing on the opponent, so that the balls smack their body before they have a
chance to separate. A correct SS is at least 300+ damage for a 'nice try' and
500 for a nice shot. It's possible to get 700 I believe on a perfect hit.

--------------

Shooting styles -

There are five key shots with turtle, and you will have to learn which is the
best in any given situation. For the most part, to play turtle like I do you
will be using fixed power shots. If you can't do fixed power shots, you look to
shotgun, and if neither of those is available, you try for one of the other
shots. The last one I list (fixed power) is the hardest and most important shot
to learn, so if you only read 1 thing, read that.

LOBS:

Lobs are just my term for what most people call a 'normal shot'. If you can't
get a low enough or close enough angle for a shotgun, and you can't get a high
enough angle for a fixed power shot, you use a lob. The idea behind a lob is
pretty simple: Pick an angle that you're comfortable with and take a guess at
how much power to use to hit the target. If you miss, you simply adjust your
power during the next shot. A lob is generally a lowish angle shot (like 45 or
less) and you don't need to pay a lot of attention to wind. The downside to
using lobs is that they aren't really suited for getting maximum damage out of
turtle's shot 2.
Lob tips -

*Pick an angle to practice lobs at, and stick with it. After using it enough you
will develop a feel for that angle and can make good shots with it on demand.
What angle you use is up to you. I find that a low, flat angle gives you some
room for error, so I tend to use 35. I'd also recommend learning 45 or 50.
Anything higher than that, and you can probably switch to fixed power shots.

*Stick with shot 1 when lobbing, except for lobbing across a full screen or
further. If you use shot 2 for shorter range lobs, usually one of the water
streams hits the ground in front of or behind the opponent. A half hit with shot
2 is a big waste of delay, and you're better off sticking to shot 1 until you
can stop lobbing and move on to a different (better) type of shooting method.

*If you only need a single weak hit to kill someone, stick to lobs (even if
other shots are available). Lobs give more room for error and are less mentally
challenging than high angles or fixed power shots.

SHOTGUN:

Shotgunning is where turtle is at his strongest... it's easy to do and you tend
to get the best possible damage from your shot 2. If you don't already know what
I'm talking about, you might use the term 'direct' shot instead of shotgun/sg. A
shotgun attack is a close range shot where you aim your red needle directly at
the enemy's body and then fire with maximum power. It works well because when
your shot 2 leaves turtle's cannon, it starts out with both streams together,
and then after travelling about 1/4th of a screen the shot starts to spread out.
If the enemy is closer than 1/4th of a screen and you make sure to fire at
maximum power, you get both streams to hit, and depending on how carefully you
aim you might hit the enemy's sweet spot for anywhere from 240 to 275 damage.
Even a crappy shotgun is good for at least 220+ damage.
Shotgun tips -

*This is kind of basic gunbound strategy, but some players don't catch on to it
right away. If you're at the bottom of a hole and want to shotgun the enemy, and
you can't do it from your current position and you can't do it by moving
forward... then move back. Moving back to the slope of a hill behind you lets
you get your needle pointing downward enough to shotgun the guy in front of you.

*Use shot 2, unless you're using a dual+ or need to use 1 to save delay. The
whole idea behind shotgunning is that you can get full damage from shot 2
without a lot of mental effort or precise power adjustment.

*Some people may tell you that max power is overkill and stupid when shooting
directly... for most bots you only need to shoot hard enough to reach the enemy,
and shooting any harder can have ugly results. Turtle is the exception to this
rule, the harder you shoot shot 2, the more distance the water streams will
travel together before they start to split apart. Therefore you must not shotgun
with low power.

*Make sure the enemy is close enough for the shotgun, if they're about 1/3rd of
the screen away you can count on only half of the shotgun hitting while the
other half hits dirt or flies over their head.

*When doing a dual shotgun, (or any shotgun) aim low towards the enemy's feet.
You don't want to aim so low that your shot mostly hits dirt, but if you aim too
high the first shot settles the enemy into the ground a bit, and then the next
shot flies over their head. It's important to figure out the sweet spot so that
both hits of your dual connect. Alternately, you can make sure you use an angle
that won't fly over the enemy's head no matter where you aim. A nice bonus to
aiming just to hit the enemy's feet is the damage: The feet on any mobile is the
sweet spot where a solid hit will do the best possible damage.

*Shotguns aren't just restricted to low angles or enemies across from or below
you. You can shotgun an enemy above you too. If you're at the bottom of a pit
and the enemy is on the slope facing you, just shotgun them.

*You can pass a shotgun through a small bit of land without part of the shot
blowing up and getting wasted. Any bit of land that's about 4 pixels or less
will not interfere with your shot, even if it appears that there's a solid wall
of pixels between you and the enemy.

FORK SHOT:

This is a goofy name I gave to a fundamental and useful turtle shot. Ramza calls
it the impossible shotgun in his guide. The idea is simple: Get both streams of
shot 2 to connect at close range, even though you cannot shotgun and cannot use
a high angle/fixed power shot. This shot is pretty much reserved for situations
where both you and the enemy are close together on flat ground. In such a
situation any bot should be able to shot 2 or dual for maximum damage, but for
turtle it's actually kinda tricky. If you shoot the shot normally as a lob then
half of your shot misses and flies over the enemy. If you shoot soft enough to
try to get both shots to hit, you often end up screwing yourself or driving one
of the streams into the ground. When you do it right, the shot looks more
distinctly like 2 different attacks, the first stream comes out straight and
hits the enemy's mobile in the face, then a split second later the second stream
comes out of the top of your cannon and follows a weird curvy arc to land on the
enemy's back.
Fork shot tips -

*A highish angle, something around 50 or above, is good. Shoot with about 2/3
of a bar power, assuming you and the enemy are nearly kissing. You won't ever
need to shoot stronger, but shooting a bit softer for strong wind towards the
enemy is advisable.

*Please be careful not to shoot too softly or you take half the damage or all of
the damage on yourself.

*If there's a fairly large height difference between you and your enemy, you
should look for a chance to shotgun instead, or else use a fixed power shot. It
might seem silly to use a high angle fixed power shot when you're right next to
the enemy, but a solid high angle or shotgun hit is better than a halfassed fork
shot.

TURTLEKAZE/TURTLECIDE:

This is a form of suicide that allows you to inflict MUCH higher damage than
usual with your shot 2 or with a dual shot 2. It's basically a fork shot from
inside the enemy's body. There's no way to get this massive damage without
hurting yourself, so you should use it as a desperation tactic to help end the
game or finish off an enemy who really has to die. You can also use it as the
finishing shot of an already surefire win, so you get more gold and GP out of
the final shot of the match. A nicely done turtlekaze dual can inflict about 675
damage, or over 330 per shot 2.
Turtlekaze tips:

*First judge how far you have to move in order to pull the shot off. You need to
be deep inside the enemy's body, so that the blue nozzle of your water cannon
is aligned with the center of their mobile. In fact I've seen it work well when
their body and yours are almost lined up evenly, because turtle's shot comes
from the center of his body (not from the cannon).
If you can't walk far enough, don't try turtlekaze. You'll just end up doing
tons of damage to yourself and only normal damage to the enemy.

*Treat this as a fork shot and try to use a fairly high angle if you're on level
ground. Naturally you can adjust the angle if the enemy is on a downslope or
upslope relative to your body. The idea is to aim the needly roughly in the
center of their mobile and a bit above horizontal. Once you're inside their body
and have chosen an angle, just lightly tap space (if using slice) or left click
the mouse (if drag) to shoot with 0 or near-0 power. It may be better to have
a tiny bit of power than to have absolute 0.

HIGH ANGLE:

High angle shots are common for all bots, and if you're experienced at high
angling with someone else (like j.d) then you'll find turtle is very similar.
High angling is just shooting at full power, but at a very steep angle (usually
higher than 70). The angle you choose determines where the shot will land. 89
will hit someone right next to you. Angle 79, full power, hits roughly 1 screen
away. In between is angle 84 (unfull), which you can think of as half a screen.
The rest you can estimate for yourself. Wind adjustment is complex and I'll
cover it in the fixed power section coming up next. Wind adjustment for high
angles is the same as adjusting for the lower fixed power shots. The nice thing
about high angling is that no matter what angle you choose to shoot at, your
shot 2 always spends enough time in the air to merge together into a tight dual
stream.
high angle tips:

*Don't high angle if you don't have to, fixed power shots and even long range
lobs are easier than turtle's high angles. A fixed power shot has a very small
difference between 1 degree. High angle shots have a lot of difference and the
enemy can actually sit between one angle and the next, so that you're forced to
adjust both angle and power in order to land a hit. High angles are also less
predictable than fixed power shots and you're more likely to miss badly and/or
TK.

*Beyond 1 screen, choosing an angle is difficult and it's hard to predict where
shots will land without a lot of testing and experience. The shot seems to lose
power as it travels, so while 1 screen is exactly 11 angles... 2 screens is not
22 angles. I think of the first screen as 11 angles and the second screen as
12 angles, so 1.5 screens would be 11+6 ... 17 angles. You may find using
3 bar shots easier than high angles for distances up to 1.5 screens. I outline
3 bar shots later in the fixed power section.

*If your max power high angle lands juuust barely in front of the opponent, you
have 2 solutions. The first is to physically move your mobile forward a bit,
then try the same shot on your next turn. The second solution is to lower your
angle by 1 degree, then fire again at about 1/5th bar less than full power. If
you lower 1 angle and fire at full power, the shot goes past the target. So you
must fire with less power (about 3.8 bars) to plant the shot where it needs to
go. A shot fired using this method is usually called an 'unfull' high angle,
i.e: "85 full lands just in front of him and 84 full lands just behind him, but
84 unfull will hit him".

*If you're getting frustrated trying to find just the right blend of angle and
power and the wind never seems to cooperate and you keep barely missing the
enemy, don't be afraid to switch to a long range lob. At 1.5 screens away, your
shot 2 has enough time to merge together even if you shoot at the enemy with a
fairly low angle like 45. You might find that easier than doing all the mental
gymnastics needed to make a clean high angle shot.

FIXED POWER:

This is the key to playing really good turtle, I think. Traditional turtle style
has been to high angle anything you can't shotgun, or else shoot by feeling
using less than full power and try to get lucky with shot 2. Using the fixed
power method, you can get better accuracy than merely shooting with feeling, and
at the same time you still get the shot 2 to spend enough time in the air to
merge together and connect for a solid damaging hit. You also don't need to
struggle so much for angle when using fixed power method... if you need to hit
an enemy half a screen away with high angles, then you must be able to attain
angle 85 in a 0 wind situation. Using fixed power, you only need enough slope to
reach angle 75.
So what is it? Fixed power means using the same power for every shot, and merely
changing your angle to aim at different areas on the screen or to adjust for
missed shots. It seems like a backwards style of shooting if you learned by
using the same angle and varying power (like 99% of gunbound players do).
Benefits of fixed power method:

*Assuming wind isn't too tricky, you can get super accurate shots without a test
shot and fire off duals with confidence. You can nail anyone within 1 screen
distance once you master this. If wind cooperates and you have angle, you can go
an entire game without a miss. You'll look and feel PRO ^_^

*Your shot spends enough time in the air to allow your shot 2 streams to merge
together. Your shot 2's will hit for maximum damage.

*You get a high angle bonus for most shots, which is a nice way to earn extra
gold with every shot.

The following is stolen from an armor guide I wrote. Turtle can use the exact
same shooting method with (nearly?) the exact same power to get accurate hits.
Turtle may need to adjust by firing with 2 or 3 pixels less power. It's hard to
say, I seem to be doing fine with the same power my armor uses.

2.4 bar fixed power method:

Always use 2.4 bars power for shots within 1 screen distance.

Landmarks:

1 screen = angle 60 - measure by putting your mobile half off the edge of the
screen and if the enemy mobile is half off the other edge, that's considered a 1
screen shot.

edge of the screen to end of your power meter = 66 - right click and drag until
you're at the left edge of the screen. If the enemy is over the end of your
power meter, that's an angle 66 shot. If you're on the right edge of the screen,
check to see if the enemy is over the line that divides the light blue from the
dark blue section at the beginning of your power meter. That's also angle 66.

half screen = 75 - you can measure this by using right click and dragging
yourself to the edge of the screen (half off the screen again)... if the enemy
is under the center of the wind marker, that's angle 75.

All button to half power mark = 80 - right click and drag your all/teamtalk
button under yourself or your enemy, whoever is further to the left. Let's say
it's you. If the target is over the half power (2nd bar) mark of your power bar,
that makes for a perfect angle 80 shot.

Width of your item meter = 82 - right click and drag the screen so that the item
meter is hovering over you and the opponent. If both of you barely 'fit' inside
the left and right edge of the item meter, that's a perfect angle 82 shot. Of
course you could just as easily use the angle 80 measurement above and then
eyeball it to determine how many degrees to raise.

With so many markers you should be able to calculate slight angle differences
easily, but just to help: 1 bar on your power meter is about 4 angles, maybe a
hair less. So let's say the enemy is 1 bar past the half screen marker. That
would be angle 75 - 4 degrees = angle 71.

It also is a good idea (if you don't consider it cheating) to make a piece of
paper as wide as your screen and mark the 85, 80, 75, 70, and 65 spots. Make
sure gunbound is actually running when you make this cheatsheet, and make the
paper exactly as wide as the edges of gunbound's screen... not necessarily the
glass part of your monitor or even the visible area you see on your desktop.

Fixed power shooting tips:

First, a link that helps explain visually what I'm talking about:
http://media.virtuafighter.com/media/gb/fixed.htm

And now the tips:

*Make the cheatsheet, it helps a lot and nobody has to know. If you don't make
the cheatsheet, memorize as many screen landmarks as you can. You might also
want to mark down turtle's high angle landing points on your sheet, just divide
it into 10 even parts with a different colored marker/pen.

*Spend time between turns calculating the angle by making liberal use of right
click to measure how far the enemy is from you in terms of screen distance. This
is easier when you're playing a 4vs4 game and have a lot of time to measure and
calculate wind adjustment. You should even go as far as to say "ok I will use
angle X if the wind is like this, and if the wind is 2 more or 2 less I will go
with angle Y"... it helps to mentally talk over what angle you need because that
angle will stick in your head if your position gets disturbed later.

*If your angle is ruined and you have to walk forward or back to regain the
correct angle, remember that in the process of walking you have changed the
angle you need to shoot at, and you should take a few seconds to re-measure.
Once you get good at using fixed power, you can judge how many angles to adjust
your shot just by eyeballing the distance you made turtle walk. Usually it's
only 1 or 2 angles difference. Remember also to recalculate if the enemy walks
or has his position changed by someone's shot.

*Remember that a height difference will alter the angle you need to shoot at. If
an enemy is below you, you need to shoot at a higher angle than your cheatsheet
would indicate. If the enemy is above you, you need to lower your angle. The
shot is following a 'rainbow' path, remember. Let's say you put yourself under
your all/teamtalk button and you see an enemy positioned above your half power
mark. From the section above, all-to-half-power is angle 80. However if the
enemy is quite a bit below you, the shot will only pass the half power mark when
it is perfectly even with your mobile's body. Then as it continues to travel,
it's moving forward as well as down, and it will pass the angle 79 mark, then
78, then 77... etc... until it finally hits ground. If the enemy was directly
below the half power mark, you'll notice your shot's forward momentum carries it
past them and you'll be off by 1 or 2 angles. The same principle applies to an
enemy above you. You must visualize a specific shot path and then try to imagine
whether or not the enemy is in the way of your shot as it travels to a
destination somewhere beyond their body. If you don't account for a height
difference and lower your angle, your shot will end up landing directly below
the enemy and not actually touch them.

*Fixed power is tricky in different winds, and when you mix in height
differences you might find yourself unable to decide which of 2 angles is
correct to hit the enemy. You might even find that the opponent is situated
almost directly between two different angles. In those situations, it's
acceptible to vary your power and try to cheat the system a little... for
example if you think angle 80 might fall a little short and you're scared angle
79 passes over the enemy's head, try angle 80 with 2.5 bars instead. If it turns
out angle 80 at 2.4 bars would be dead on, you still might get an acceptible hit
with 2.5 bars.

*Remember that when wind is down or against, your maximum range for 2.4 bar
shots is shorter than usual. You may only be able to hit enemies about half a
screen away. Also remember that because of the nature of turtle's shot 2, a shot
against the wind might hit the enemy but still not have enough time in the air
to merge into a tight stream. The same problem can happen when firing at an
opponent far above you... the aim is correct but the shots just don't have time
to come together before contact. In these situations you should still try shot
2, and if you can only get a half hit, move to shot 1 instead until conditions
change.

*You can shoot beyond 1 screen when the wind is helping your shot, and you don't
need to increase power... for example if angle 60 hits 1 screen away in 0 wind,
and you have 6 wind blowing towards the target, an angle 60 shot at 2.4 bars
will travel about 1.05 screens. You can use this to your advantage when an enemy
is more than 1 screen away and you don't want to hassle with high angle shots.

****Wind adjustment: (also copied and pasted from my armor guide, some of it
might not be perfectly accurate due to slight differences between armor and
turtle's shots)

From my experience, adjusting for wind with any bot at any fixed power is nearly
the same. Using the adjustments I'd use for high angling with cake has served me
well for using turtle/armor 2.4 bar method.
Wind adjustment works like this: figure out the angle you need in 0 wind.
If wind is up or towards the opponent or both, raise angle to compensate.

If wind is against you or down, lower the angle to compensate. Remeber that if
you are using a maximum power of 2.4 bars, you cannot reach certain distances
when wind is against you... for example if you try to hit someone at angle 70
with 20 wind against you, you will fall short always. So in moderate or strong
wind blowing against you, I recommend you abandon using the 2.4 bar formula.
It's still ok when wind is blowing towards the enemy.

For calculating wind adjustments, look at the wind power, round down to the
nearest even number (i.e. 25 wind is really 24 wind)... then divide wind power
by a certain number. The number you use is based on wind direction.
A note about turtle: I realized recently that 1 wind difference DOES matter to
turtle. I don't know if that's always been true for all bots, but high angle and
fixed power shots do land in slightly different places if there's a different
wind from the last shot. Before, I'd always treated 19 and 18 wind as the same
thing, or 4 and 5 wind as the same, etc.

Here's a wind adjustment chart, I hope you get it:
http://media.virtuafighter.com/media/gb/WindChart.jpg

Also remember that at very close ranges, wind adjustments become skewed and
you're better off not screwing around with formula shots.

AN ALTERNATE FIXED POWER SHOOTING METHOD:

It is possible to use a fixed 3 bar shooting method with turtle. The actual
power you should use varies:
Inside half a screen (not recommended): 2.8 bars
1/2 to 1 full screen distance: 2.95 bars
past 1 screen (1.5 screen max): 3.05 bars

Using this system, you calculate the angle using some different landmarks from
the 2.4 method. Using 3 bar system:
1/2 screen = angle 80
1 screen = angle 70
1.4 screens = angle 60

So half a screen is 10 angles, 1/4 of a screen is 5 angles. The distance
between angles is larger using the 3 bar system than the distance between
angles using the 2.4 method. That is only logical - the more power you use, the
further the shot will travel with a small angle change.
A useful landmark (for me) if you already know the 2.4 bar system and want to
learn the 3 bar system is to treat 5 angles distance (using 3 bar) as about the
same as 7 angles distance at 2.4 bars of power.

Advantages of 3 bar:
*Can make calculated shots beyond 1 screen distance without resorting to
full power shots, which can be more difficult to estimate perfectly.
*Sometimes in downward wind, 2.4 bars of power won't keep shot 2 in the air
long enough to allow the 2 streams to merge together. The result can be
a half hit if you try to fire with just 2.4 bars of power, even if you
choose the best possible angle to shoot with.
Turtle can switch to the 3.05 bar system to ensure there is enough airtime.
*In upward winds, 3 bars is near the minimum you need to make a good high
angle SS shot, one that opens at the very top of the shot's arc. If you can
already estimate where shots will land under the 3 bar system, you will have
some idea of how to make a decent SS shot in the right wind conditions.
*If wind is against or down, you can't even reach 1 screen's distance using
2.4 bars, and it becomes necessary to use more power to hit an enemy about
1 screen away.

Disadvantages of 3 bar:
*Inside of 1 screen, using 3 bar is usually unnecessary and makes the shot
harder to estimate.
*The wind chart for 3 bar shots is a little bit different, and if you're already
used to 2.4, you might find yourself calculating wind incorrectly.
*The distance between 2 angles using this method is large... large enough for a
mobile to hide so that one angle might go to far, but the next higher angle
comes a bit short, and neither can successfully hit the target. In such
situations it becomes necessary to find the correct angle and also adjust your
power a bit.

-----------
PART 2:
-----------

Using SS:

The SS must spend about 3 seconds in the air before it 'deploys' (opens). If you
play boomer or armor you're familiar with that idea. The catch with turtle is
that after the shot opens, it spreads out into a bunch of small balls and these
balls tend to fall in a flat spray that covers a lot of ground. Each ball only
does 100 damage or a bit less, so if most of what you shoot splatters on the
ground then you're looking at a really weak 100-200 damage SS unless you aim it
very very carefully.
It's not enough to keep turtle's SS in the air 3 seconds, you must also try not
to keep it in the air too long because the shot spreads out too much.

There are two ways to aim the SS to make a decent impact and hit with 5 or more
balls. You may wish to check out my visual aids first then read the following
info on how to use the SS:

http://media.virtuafighter.com/media/gb/turtle_ss.htm

METHOD 1: TIMEBOMB METHOD

I love the 'timebomb' SS method. The idea is to fire your SS so that it
opens up a fraction of a second before hitting the enemy. If it deploys at
pointblank range, it doesn't matter much what direction the small waterblobs try
to move in, because they're going to smack the enemy's mobile before they have a
chance to spread out. If your SS opens too early, only 1 or 2 balls hit for
minimal damage. If it opens too late, you do the embarassing 'plop' shot and hit
the enemy before the blob opens. The result is about the same, a crappy bit of
200 damage and a huge waste of delay. So if turtle's SS opens in 3.0 seconds,
your goal is to find a shot that will stay in the air between 3.05 and 3.2
seconds. It sounds impossibly hard but it's not if you have a formula to start
out with.

The basic short range SS:

0 wind
Angle 75
1.9 bars power (about 49% of your full meter)
Distance = From your all button to the half power mark.

-So to recap, first you right click and drag the all button under your turtle
(assuming the target is on the right). Next you check to see if the enemy is
positioned over your half power (2 bar) mark.

-You choose angle 75 if wind is 0 or 1.

-Finally, shoot with just a bit less than 2 bars... just barely under half
your power meter.

If the enemy is level with you and all other conditions are met, this SS is good
for 450ish damage at least. The thing is, how often are you going to get perfect
conditions like that? Well, you won't always get them but there are some tricks
you can use to adjust to different wind, different distance, and different
heights.

Modifying the basic SS for wind, terrain, distance, etc:

*Adjust for wind the same way you'd adjust when doing fixed power or high angle
shots... for example if I'd be shooting at angle 75 in 0 wind, I'd lower to
angle 74 if wind was 2 against me. I'd raise to 78 if wind was 6 towards the
target. You have to understand wind compensation before you have a hope of using
the SS.
Also note that in very strong wind you will have a hard time 'timing' the SS
properly, even if your aim is spot on, for example in strong wind pointing down,
you could lower your angle to 72 or so and then shoot at 1.9 bars and hit the
enemy, but because the wind is shoving your shot down it hits the enemy earlier
than you'd expect. You end up doing a 'plop' and the SS never opens up.
Therefore in downward wind or strong wind against, you must get creative and
shoot with more power and with less adjustment to your angle. You may even find
that in downwind you can leave your angle alone (shoot at 75 still) and simply
shoot harder to compensate for the wind by feeling.
At the other end of the spectrum, if wind is blowing strongly towards the enemy,
you may need to shoot almost straight up, and what happens is the shot goes up,
hangs for a second, then is abruptly blown towards the enemy. For shots like
this, the shot is actually in the air a longer time than you'd expect and you SS
will open a bit early and result in a crappy hit. So you must shoot at a lower
angle and reduce power slightly.

Some examples of the basic 75 angle SS in different wind:

Wind 10 towards the enemy: I'd shoot angle 81, 1.9 bars.
Wind 6 up and against me: Angle 72, 1.85 bars. Normally this is 2 angle
adjustments for wind diagonally up and against, but because the wind is
upward the SS will spend more time in the air and open early. To get a good
hit, I must use less power than usual, then compensate by lowering my angle
1 more. If I didn't lower 1 more, then 1.85 bars of power would make my SS
land a bit in front of them.

Wind 10 straight down: Angle 75, 2.15 bars.
Wind 8 straight up: Angle 75, 1.7 bars.
Wind 14 against: Angle 67, 1.9 bars. You compensate 8 angles for 14 wind.
Wind 20 towards: Normally I'd adjust 12 angles, so I'd go from 75 to 87 with 1.9
bars. But I find the SS opens up early in that situation. So I'd lower to 85,
1.8 bars.

*Adjusting for height differences is sort of based on feel. Remember that at
angle 75, 1.9 bars, your SS explodes when it's roughly level with your mobile.
If the enemy is a few cm's below you, that means it's going to explode early. So
how do we get it to explode later, closer to the enemy on the lower level?

First you need to reduce power, which means the shot spends less time in the
air. But if you reduce power, then angle 75 is no longer good enough to hit the
opponent. So you must compensate for your decreased power by lowering the angle.
How much to lower it? I don't have a perfect formula yet but a good rule of
thumb is to lower it 2 angles for every 'finger' of power you reduce your
strength. So let's say you decide the correct power to hit the enemy is 2
fingers less than usual, which is about 2.8 bars. You therefore want to lower 4
angles about, so shoot at 71 instead of 75.

Similarly, if the enemy is on a platform above you, you need to keep the SS in
the air longer. You would increase power, and also raise your angle to keep the
SS from flying too far past the enemy. Use the same method described above to
decide how many angles to alter your shot... but keep in mind that the closer
the enemy gets to you, the less you have to worry about raising your angle. If
your math tells you to shoot at angle 90 in 0 wind, you're probably doing
something wrong ;D.

*Compensating for distance differences isn't too bad. Basically, think in terms
of 8 angles = about half of your normal shot distance, which is 1/3rd of a
screen. Therefore, if you need to shoot 1.5 times the usual distance, lower
your angle by 7 or 8. If you need to shoot half the usual distance, raise
your angle by 7 or 8 (7 if they're a bit further than half, 8 if closer).

If you don't understand all this and are worried you're going to screw up, find
a buddy who is willing to practice with you and go into jewel mode. Figure out
the maximum and minimum ranges for 1.9 bars power, and figure out which angles
hit where in low wind. Play with SSdeath mode so you can practice a lot, and aim
for jewels so that you can see how much damage you're getting... but don't try
to actually win. You want to shoot the basic 75 SS over and over until you get a
feel for it at different winds and distances.

Math problem time:

-The enemy is about 1.5 times further than the usual angle 75 SS distance.

-The wind is 3 against you.

-The enemy is higher than you and you guess that you'd need to increase your
power by about 2 fingers to keep the SS in the air long enough.
What angle and power SS should you try?

Well, first I position my needle for the basic angle 75, 1.9 bar SS.
Second I see that the enemy is about 1.5 times the usual SS distance, so
I need to lower my angle by 7 or 8. Let's call it 8.
Now I'm at angle 67.
Next I see wind is 3 against me. I lower 1 angle to compensate, angle 66.
Now I see that the enemy is above me, and I'm going to shoot at about 2.1 bars
instead of the usual 1.9 bars. I compensate 4 angles for 2 fingers of added
power. Therefore my final result is angle 66, 2.1 bars.

That's a lot of math and it really helps if you do all this stuff between turns,
and it also helps if you've fired a test shot first... because none of my
formulas are perfect.

Other good known SSes:
47 2.3 bars = 1 screen (needs more testi

__________________

Peekill

i caN READ THE WORDS 50mm tal ok...

__________________

Nefari

Very informative and helpful.

magicjubin

turtle ss fixed shot is 2 bars + or - some

average ss should look something like this
http://rapidshare.de/files/21742633/...25-62.avi.html