- 1. Start at angle 60.
- 2. Lower your angle X degrees. X is determined by wind strength and direction. You multiply the wind strength by a certain number, and that number can be determined by looking at the wind's direction. For example, wind blowing directly left or right you multiply wind strength by .5, so you'd lower your angle by Wind/2 degrees. If you've done this step correctly you have found the 'tk angle'... the angle at which your backshot will fly directly back at you and cause you to suicide. Sometimes the 'tk angle' isn't truly a suicide shot, it just barely misses your head. The point is that you've found the absolute lowest angle you can possibly backshot with.
- 3. After step two, you will (usually) have some angle lower than 60. You now are going to RAISE your angle based on how far away the enemy is. Measure the distance between you and your enemy in 'distance units'. There are 30 distance units to a screen, so a half screen's distance is 15 units. You measure your angle by the number of distance units between you and your enemy. Remember: 1/3rd screen is 10 units, half screen is 15, full screen is 30 (which requires some pretty uncommon wind to pull off). Raise 1 angle per distance unit.
- 4. Now that you've found the angle needed to hit your enemy, cut loose with your backshot using 2.5 bars. That sounds like a ton of power, and it is.. but if you've done your formula correctly it won't hook down and fly forward, and it won't kill you or fly way over the enemy's head.
Tips for use
- As I said, sometimes the lowest angle you can possibly use for a backshot won't necessarily be a suicide shot. When the wind is strongly upwards, you should assume that your 'tk angle' will cause the shot to land 1 or 2 distance units behind you... so you'll need to adjust your calculation at step 3 to account for that (for example if the enemy is 5 distance units away but the wind is very strong and upwards, you might only want to raise your angle by 3 or 4 degrees from the 'tk angle').
- You must compensate for height differences and mentally imagine the path the shot will take. For example, if the enemy is half a screen away but also below you, you don't want to raise your angle by 15 to hit them. You need to raise the angle by less than 15. Imagine the path the shot will take to successfully hit the enemy, then mentally draw a straight horizontal line from the center of boomer's body to the imagined backshot path. The length of that line is the number of distance units you actually want to use in your formula.
- If your shot can't reach with 2.5 bars, you can either raise your angle or use more power. If you suspect you aren't near your maximum backshot range, you should just raise your angle.. measure the number of distance units between the spot where your missed shot landed and the enemy, then raise your angle by that much. If the shot flies over them you can lower the angle using the same measuring trick. If you suspect the shot has fallen short because of a lack of power, you can try 2.9 bars. You can also just move boomer closer to the target, which is quite safe and reliable. Try not to make the noob mistake of attempting lots of backshots when you've already reached your maximum range. Remember that the absolute best backshot distance will occur at angle 66, using 2.9 bars of power only.
- Watch for small wind changes, if your last shot was in 18 wind and the next shot is in 20 wind, you'll need to lower 1 or 2 angles in order to prevent the shot from flying further than it did last time.
- If the shot dips down instead of flying back, you've given yourself a tk angle that is too low. Redo your math.
- When wind is strongly downwards, your measuring technique becomes much easier. You just want to start at angle 60 and raise your angle 1 to 6 degrees based on the enemy's distance. You can't hit an enemy more than 6 distance units behind you in this kind of wind. If the wind is strong, start at angle 61 and remember that your maximum backshot distance will come from angle 66. Higher than that is useless.
- Some links to make it a bit easier:
A: The original post by 0o0o0o0, who translated this info and put it on the now-defunct gunbound-hq site:
B: My personal backshot wind chart, if you find my style of math easier than calculating numbers like .65 (Mine may have a few small errors, forgive me).
- Dealing with tornados:
If you must hit an enemy on the other side of the tornado, and you're using
the 2.5 bar fixed power method to aim your backshots... find the original
backshot angle and then raise your angle by either 5 or 6 (for most situations).
A trick to help you decide how many angles to adjust:
Visualize the path of a shot that curls around the tornado perfectly to hit
the enemy. remember the more upward and strong the wind is, the flatter the
path of the shot. Once you've imagined a successful tornado backshot,
fire up your imagination again and trace the path the backshot would take
if the tornado were not there. Typically this will result in a backshot
path that ends up 5 or 6 angles behind the enemy's position. Estimate for
yourself whether 5 or 6 angles is correct, and adjust your shot.
It is also possible to have a shot enter a tornado, come out, hang in midair, then fly backwards like a typical backshot and come into the tornado again. It then exits the tornado at a point slightly higher than it entered the nado. I don't have a surefire formula for this, but if you want to try it.. you'll want strong wind that is either mostly upwards or diagonally up. Find the angle you'd use to hit your target normally using the 2.5 bar method. Now lower that angle by 1 degree and fire into the nado. the important part is to not use too much power. If the shot has a lot of power exiting the nado or if it hangs in the air too long, it will automatically hook downward instead of fly back. I'd estimate that 1.7 or 1.8 bars is enough, but that also assumes the tornado is pretty close to you. If you do it correctly the shot comes out of the nado above your head at the same place it would if you wanted to backshot without the tornado, and your enemy eats the hit. You only need a very small adjustment of 1 or 2 angles to get the shot in the right position.