So, if your main goal is to hit with four shot 2's... what do you need to know? Well, first you need to know that not every shot 2 will hit for full damage. The wide spirals (aka "spins") made by shot 2 are so far apart that at their widest point, they will completely wrap around an enemy's body without touching him.
You need to shoot a certain way to be sure that the shot is coming together when it reaches the enemy. Then you get full damage (240-300 for a solid hit). To make that happen, use these shooting methods:
Shooting modes
- Shotgun - you aim directly at the enemy and shoot with max power.
The range is limited to about 1/4 screen and you usually need a hill behind you
to get a low enough angle, so it's not available any time you want it. - High angle shot - you give the shot lots of airtime by firing with a high angle and
enough power to keep the shot flying through the air about 2.5 seconds. Then the
shot stops spiraling and comes together into 1 powerful stream. Probably the safest
way to get full shot 2 damage when shotguns aren't available. - Short fork - if the enemy is close to you, and you can't get a low enough
angle to shotgun them, you can use low power and a highish angle to cause
your shot to spread out only one time, then come together and hit them. - Long fork - this is a challenging alternative to using high angle shots.
You must control the airtime of the shot carefully so that it spins 4 or 5 times,
then comes together to hit for full damage before it can spread out again.
Your shooting plan:
- Whenever possible, shotgun the enemy with shot 2. You get full damage for no effort. You don't need to calculate the shot or think hard about the power or angle. You don't have to look at the wind. You can drag the shot with full power and get your shot off in half a second, which improves your chances of beating someone else's delay. In fact, I usually will dual when I get the chance to shotgun... unless I'm convinced that I could live longer by saving delay and not dualing. There's really no reason NOT to shotgun, as long as you know you're aiming at the right target (i.e. the biggest threat or the enemy who needs to die before they can shoot again). Some dumbasses will try to tell you that shotgunning is for noobs and is a weak way to play gunbound. Don't listen to them, they just say that because they hate to see someone have a 100% guaranteed, full damage shot against them. They'd rather see you do a foolish, unnecessary high angle or fork shot and miss. Always shotgun when it's available and ignore the whiners.
- If you can't get a good angle to hit with a shotgun, but you have an enemy who is very close to you, you can use a short fork to easily get high damage with no effort. This is another shot where power, angle, and wind aren't that important. It's so easy that you can usually fork instead of a shotgun, if you want. Shotguns are a little more damaging and reliable, but you should know the short fork anyway because often you cannot get a low enough angle to shotgun. I'll cover how to fork properly later.
- If the enemy is too far to shotgun or fork, use a high angle shot. There are several formulas available for doing this. These formulas use a fixed power shot, which is important for Turtle. The more power you have when shooting with a high angle, the more airtime the shot will have, and by giving the shot lots of airtime, you can get shot 2 to converge in the air (so you don't have to worry about getting full damage). About 2.2 bars of power is the minimum to get the shot to converge properly for full damage. High angling, no matter what formulas you choose to learn, is important for Turtle. In many situations you will NOT have an easy shotgun or fork shot available, and if you don't use a high power, high angle shot... then you have to work very hard (or get lucky) to get the shot to 'fork' the enemy. If you learn nothing else in this entire guide, learn the high angle shots. It's Turtle's "main shot" and should be used as much as possible unless there's an easier alternative.
- Sometimes you just can't use a high angle shot because the land is too flat. In those situations, knowing how to use Turtle's long fork shots can be very useful. It's difficult to control the airtime of the shot perfectly and get good damage with Turtle's fork, but it can be learned with time and practice. It can save your life when you can't get a high angle and there's just no way to keep your shot in the air long enough to get it to converge. It's also a nice way to show off. Pros know it's a hard shot to calculate.
- Occasionally you will be stuck on very flat land, so even a fork shot isn't guaranteed. In those situations, I like to walk towards the nearest useful slope and fire a shot 1 at my enemy. You could just fire shot 1 behind you to create the slope, but I think hitting with a weak shot 1 is better than wasting a turn making angle, in most cases. Eventually the enemy will shoot at you and will probably damage the land to create the slope you need, and after 2 turns you should be able to walk far enough to get a good angle anyway.
- SS - as I said, it's not necessary to know SS to be good. But in some rare situations, there will be matches you cannot win without using the SS. If the opponent's next shot kills you, and you have no items left or it's item lock... and you absolutely need at least 400 damage to kill them... knowing SS will be the difference between a win and a loss. The SS delay is also lower than a dual, but does the same damage. Early on in solo games, there are lots of duals fired in an attempt to end someone quickly before they even get a chance to shoot. It's very useful to be able to do 500-600 damage with lower delay than all the enemies who fired duals. You could weaken an enemy enough for a teammate to kill them, or else finish off an already weakened enemy... then you get to shoot AGAIN before everyone else. So at the very least, a Turtle player should learn easy 0 wind SSes and keep the SS in mind as an option to beat the delay of someone else's dual. If you choose never to learn the SS, you can still be a good Turtle, but you're robbing yourself of some fun and you might lose a few games you could have won.