The most basic nado SS works like this: You're very close to a nado. There's an enemy just on the other side of the nado. You use a medium angle (50's - 60's, it doesn't matter a lot, I've seen 35 hit) and fire with very very low power into the nado. About .2 bars is fine. The shot spins slowly through the nado, and there's more than enough time for the SS to open. When the shot finally exits the nado on the other side, all the balls rain down on the enemy's head. It works because the nado gets rid of the minimum airtime requirement, and when the shot opens in the nado the balls don't spread horizontally at all because the shot's momentum at the time of opening was very very low. A shot exits a nado at the exact same speed and angle it enters a nado with. So if you fire with .2 bars, the shot exits the nado as if you'd fired with .2 bars from somewhere above the enemy's head.
There is one small problem with trying this kind of shot, and another other nado ss. There's a bug where the SS will always exit the nado on the same side that it opened on. Like, in the above picture, if I had used a little more power then the shot would have moved around to the front of the nado, then gotten to the back (the left side, where I am) before opening. It then will do a complete second lap around the nado and exit on the left side. The result is that I hit myself. This is good for laughs, but not a good way to win the game. This can even happen in the other examples given below. You could fire a shot with 2-3 bars of power into a faraway nado, and have the shot get spat back at you. One cute trick, which I saw used successfully only once, by Chill, is to intentionally face the wrong way and overpower the shot so that the SS opens on the wrong side (but it's really the right side because it's the side the enemy is facing).
There are several type 3 ss variations.
- Facial spray SS: In situations where the wind is blowing towards the enemy, this will allow you to do a nado shot. If you do it the usual way, the shot exits the nado, falls in a line, but the wind blows it past the target. So what you try to do (it's very tricky) is to move a bit away from the nado, and fire the shot so that it's just starting to fall downward when it enters the nado. The shot then spins slowly at a downward angle towards the enemy rather than an upward angle towards the area above their head. If the shot is moving slowly enough it will open, then after finishing 1 lap in the nado it hits their face on the way out. It's even possible for the enemy to be inside the nado a bit, and then the shot kind of timebombs in their face.
- Opposite wind line ss: Again the wind can screw up a 'typical' nado ss, in
this kind of wind you use a lower angle and more power. Then the shot actually
flies completely through the nado at a fairly quick speed, and doesn't open
until after leaving the nado. In normal wind it'd be moving forward too fast to
cause the balls to fall in a line... but in opposite wind, the shot is held back by
the wind so that it's barely moving when it opens. The shot falls in
a pretty tight line and if the enemy is under that line, you're a happy camper. This is
actually a boomer skybomb shot.
- It's also possible to get a skybomb SS another way - when you and the target
are both far from the nado (but roughly equal distance, or the enemy is a little closer
than you are) you can try to get your shot to enter the nado at the absolutely highest
point of the shot. You'll know it when you have the correct power because a test shot
will wrap pretty slowly around the nado and then exit the nado at the same height that
it entered with. This is a typical skybomb except that you use lower power, and
the nado buys enough time for the shot to open. As you can see from the shot, the
chance to do this doesn't happen very often. In this example it helped that wind was
a bit against me, but it's not necessary.
- There's yet another nado SS: A true nado skybomb that doesn't use any tricks
except feel to get the perfect airtime. The only screenshot of it was made by someone
else, and I forgot their name, but I'd like it if they could contact me and get credit.
Basically you fire into a close nado even when the enemy is far away. You must feel
or guess the power perfectly so that after spinning through the nado, the shot is at the
highest point when it opens. This kind of nado skybomb will go nearly as high as a
regular skybomb. There's no set power or trick to doing this, it's all about feel. The power
will differ depending on how far you are from the nado, how far they are, the original angle,
etc. It might be possible to test shot with this kind of SS using shot 2. You can watch for
the moment when shot 2 stops moving around and starts coming together after it leaves
the nado. This is the point where the shot opens. But remember that the heavier skybomb
balls will land closer than the shot 2 does. I think a decent starting power to work with is
a bit over 2 bars when you're pretty close and using angles in the 70's.
- You can also do a line SS where the shot opens before passing through a nado. If the line is pretty tight and vertical when it enters the nado, it will still be nice when it exits. The usual method of aiming this is to do a skybomb with 1 angle less than you would if there were no nado.
- One more? It's also possible to use a nado with a timebomb if the nado is right in the enemy's
face. You can either pretend the nado isn't there and let the nado carry the shot into the enemy's
face (so it enters the nado at the same place it would travel without any nado). You can also aim the
SS as if you wanted to shoot past the enemy a bit. The shot enters the nado somewhere above the
enemy, but after spinning downward through the nado it's right in their face when it opens. You have
to visualize it and maybe get a bit lucky.
You can also timebomb when the nado is in front of you or halfway between you and the target. To do that you need a lower angle and less power. But how much lower and how much power is guessing/feel. What I do is use a sort of "speed index" to estimate how much to lower my angle, then I simply feel the power. When the nado is right in front of you, or right in front of the target, I will start out with my basic SS (after wind and elevation adjustment) then lower about 14 angles for distances near 1 screen (thank you to mishi for sharing that info). This is used when the shot is going to be moving quite fast through the nado (as it would when the nado is close to you or the enemy). For closer shots, you adjust more because the shot is going to be moving more slowly through the nado. The more slowly the shot moves through the nado, the more angle adjustment is needed to timebomb. If it's moving faster, then the adjustment is smaller. For a closer shot with a nado that's a bit past halfway between me and the target, I might adjust 15-16 angles. Please don't be sad if this info doesn't work for you, because I am not an expert and have only done it a few times with good damage. To get the right power just use feel.
I can't resist showing the screenshot of my best time. This is 1.5 screens away, with 16 upwind, and it blew up almost perfectly in armor's face. Sometimes you just have to try the stupid shots :D Does anyone know why I got an excellent shot bonus!?
