Summary stuff
- Watch wind every single shot, because it matters more with boomer than anyone
else. You must not only watch for the meteor (wind change) weather effect, you
must also be careful to watch for variations between your current turn and the
last turn. "wind" is no excuse for missing a shot with boomer, because any
basic noob boomer must watch it carefully. For a pro to gripe that he missed
because he failed to see the wind is like saying "I shot my toe because I forgot
to see if the gun was loaded".
- Get in the habit of taking the smartest shot you can. If you know a weak angle
shotgun can kill the enemy, then use your weak angle shotgun. If you have a
choice between drilling through some dirt to kill someone or trying to shoot
over the dirt and risking a miss, then drill through the dirt. That isn't just
true for the final shot to kill someone, if you have ugly wind then don't feel
ashamed to clear some dirt for a shotgun angle rather than risk a hard shot.
Also don't be afraid to change targets if you have to, damage to any bot is
generally useful damage, a miss is never useful.
- It's kind of common sense, but if you didn't figure it out yet: If you can't
get a high enough angle facing forwards, just turn around and you can get the
angle you need while facing backwards. Backwards facing hooks and high angles
are common and useful for boomer.
- At the opening of the match, your shot 1 delay is lower than anyone else's.
Therefore if the target went before you, your response should automatically be to shot 1
unless the enemy was another boomer or A.Sate (who also has super low delay for
shot 1). Don't use up too much time aiming the shot 1 or you won't win the
delay race.
- Your SS needs time to open. If you use a high angle or lob, it always has
enough time to open. If you use a backshot or hook, it's iffy. Use it with
backshots if the target is far or if you're using the 2.5 formula.
Use it with hooks if the target is 1/3 screen distance or more.
When shotgunning, the lowest angle you can use is 14 full, which is what
you'd use if you wanted to shotgun an enemy almost 2 screens away.
- For hurricanes, reduce power if the shot will be travelling upwards when it
enters, increase if the shot will be travelling downwards. How much to change
your power depends on how steep the angle is that the shot enters the hurricane.
A rule of thumb some boomers can use with full power 0 wind high angles:
Raise 1 angle if shooting up into the hurricane and lower 1 angle if the shot will be
coming down through the hurri. It's not foolproof though.
Hooking on the way up into the hurricane (especially where the
shot is at the top of the hook's arc) causes the hook to exit the hurri
in a drifty, weird way. It's almost impossible to reliably hit someone by firing
your hook upwards into the hurricane, even if you use my 'nado hook bomb'
system. Safer to switch to low angles when dealing with hurricanes.
- Don't forget movement as an option for adjusting your aim. If a shot misses by
a hair, just moving boomer and doing the same shot is easier
than trying to fire with a hair more or a hair less power.
- Remember that you can die in 2 duals, and it's especially common vs Sate, nak,
and often another boomer. When you die and choose your drop location in a score
game, drop far from those bots, and also drop where you think the wind will be
the easiest for you to handle (i.e. if wind is blowing gently left and you think
you're pretty good at hook shots, drop on the left side on the screen. If you
think you suck at hook shots but rule at backshots, you can drop on the right).
- Items: Every boomer should pack at least 1 dual because the ability to kill
someone who has nearly half their life remaining is damned useful. Beyond that,
I strongly recommend dual+, and teleport is often useful too, though I wouldn't
say it's absolutely necessary for boomer (who has great angle range and drills
through land easily). Some players recommend bringing a wind change,
but if you bring 1 wind change you then must pack another relatively useless
1 slot item, leaving you room for only 2 of the valuable 2 slot items.
My personal item load is dual, dual, dual+.
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