TURTLE GUIDE

by CreeDo
W00t
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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:

67 1.95 bars = 1/2 screen
49 2.35 bars = 1 screen.

METHOD 2: High angle method.

The idea behind the high angle method is to fire the SS at a very high angle
with a certain amount of power (not necessarily full power!) and hope that the
SS opens up right at the absolute peak of the shot's arc. It's possible if wind
is mostly horizontal (and expecially if wind is low/0) to use a measuring
technique for this type of SS. You base the measurement on where a high angled
shot 1 or shot 2 would land. I'll describe that method here:

Step 1: Fire a shot 1 test shot at full power. Your goal is to find a situation
where your test shot will land just behind the enemy, doing no damage to them.
For example, 84 full will pass behind an enemy half a screen away.

Step 2: On your next turn, if wind conditions are the same (or close enough
so that you can adjust easily)... fire an SS based on the angle you used for
your test shot... only this time use about 1 cm less power (2.8 bars).
If you're good/lucky enough, the SS will explode fairly close to its peak and
rain all the blobs down onto the enemy's head for about 500+ damage.

This trick was originally brought to my attention by kiwibonga, so I'm giving

him credit here for it.

Some other tricks to keep in mind when using this method:

-Firing with 1 cm less power will make your shot land as if the wind were
blowing 1 strength-level harder against your shot than it did last time.
That sounds weird, so lemme give an example:
Full power shot 2 lands just behind the enemy in 4 wind against.
In 5 wind against, it hits the enemy.
If you want to SS and the wind is 4 against, shooting with 1 cm less
than full makes the shot land as if the wind were really 5 against.

Some tricks you can use once you understand this fact:
1: If wind is blowing 1 more strength against than last time, a full power
SS should hit the enemy... but it opens at the wrong time if you use max
power. Therefore a smarter shot is to reduce the power 1 cm, but also move
a bit closer to the enemy before firing.
2. Sometimes you can spot a shot where using less than full power is the
correct way to hit them with a high angle... for example to hit exactly
half a screen with a high angle you must use angle 84, less than full power.
Knowing that, if the wind is 0 you can probably fire off a good half screen
SS using angle 84 unfull... even without a test shot.
3. If you're familiar enough with high angles to know where they land, you can
spot other no-test-shot SS situations, for example an enemy who is just a bit
less than 1 screen away can be SSed with angle 79, 1 cm under full.
4. Let's say you have a situation where the wind is different from 1 shot to the
next.. you can use that to your advantage when trying an SS. For example:
85 full hits the enemy squarely with 6 wind blowing 6 towards the enemy.
The next turn, the wind is 7 towards the enemy, so you know that 85 full
would fly a bit past them. Any time a shot will fly a bit past the enemy
with full power, you know you can fire an SS with 1 cm less power and get a
good hit. So having that 1 wind difference made the SS easy.
5. The opposite example, and a more perfect setup, would be if wind is against
you. Your test shot when wind is 5 against you hits the enemy with full power.
The next turn, wind is only 4 against. So the test shot would land behind them.
So fire with less than full power and use your SS, and bam... a ns.

Some other notes about the SS and why it can be high angled:

The direction and spread of the balls is determined by the direction and speed
of the large waterblob when it breaks up. If the waterblob is heading up when it
opens, the small balls fly upwards too. If it's heading down, they head down.
The higher the velocity of the blob when it opens, the more the smaller blobs
will spread... so you want the blob to be baaaarely moving when it opens. That
ensures that the balls spread out as little as possible. You also don't want it
to be traveling too horizontally, because the idea is to get the balls to rain
down in a straight vertical line on the opponent. So even if you get the shot to
always open at its peak, you don't want to try attacking an enemy who is far
away because the forward momentum of your shot will cause the balls to split up
quite a bit.
I guess the bottom line for a high angle SS is that it needs to A: open at the
very peak and B: be used to attack someone fairly close, someone you could hit
with an angle higher than 80 probably. I think it also helps to have the wind
slightly against you. The wind going against you cancels out the shot's forward
momentum and prevents the balls from spreading out much horizontally. The best
SS I ever tried with this technique had strongish wind mostly up and a little
against me, and an enemy about 1 mobile width away. The balls didn't spread
horizontally at all.

The correct SS power: This is determined by wind. The only thing you need to pay
attention to when deciding how much power to use is how much the wind is blowing
UP or DOWN. It doesn't matter how much the wind is blowing left or right. The
base power you work from in 0 wind is about 3.7 bars. If wind is pointing
directly left or directly right, you still use 3.65 bars because there's no
upwards or downwards part to the wind. Your shot should still break up right at
the peak of your SS's arc.

The correct SS angle: You have to decide this based on what power you decided
to use ahead of time. That can make it hard, because if you need to use 3.4
bars of power... does anyone have a system for finding the right angle using
3.4 bars of power? Probably not. A flaky rule of thumb to use is
this: every 1/5th bar makes your shot land 1 angle closer, so 3.4 bars makes
the shot land 3 angles closer than full power would. If anyone has a better
system then let me know.

Determining the SS power:

If the wind is blowing UP at all, you need to use less power, because if you use
2.65 bars the shot will blow up early, before it reaches its highest point. How
much less power you use is a matter of practice and feel. The absolute lowest
you'd need to go is about 2.9 bars (1 finger under 3 bars). Let's say the wind
is blowing a little up and mostly left, you ignore the left part and treat it as
wind blowing slightly up. You therefore use maybe 3.5 bars instead of 3.65.
Let's say the wind is blowing diagonally up and against. It's not blowing up as
much as possible, so 2.9 bars would be too little. It would probably be correct
to use about 3.2 bars. You're only gonna use 3.0 bars when the wind is blowing
very near vertical.

If the wind is blowing DOWN you need to use more power, because otherwise the SS
will be heading downward with a bit of speed before it blows up, and that causes
an ugly flat spread for your SS. I'd say that if the wind is blowing at 10 down,
use max power (4 bars). If it's blowing more than 10 down, your high angle SS is
going to suck no matter how much power you use. If wind is a little down and
mostly towards, you'd use 3.7 or 3.8 bars. I hope by now you get the picture cuz
I've typed a ton about it. Remember, ignore left or right and just think of the
wind in terms of how much up-ness or down-ness is affecting your shot.

To compensate for left and right wind, use the wind compensation stuff listed in
section 1, and don't be shocked if you miss. Shooting around 3 bars is awkward
and hasn't been tested much for any bot as far as I know. The usual high angle
and fixed power rules might not work. Also, I wouldn't bother with the SS if
wind is blowing more than 2 or 4 towards the enemy. When the wind is blowing
towards them, it encourages the shot to spread out more and will result in a
crappy hit. Shots against the wind are best.

One last SS strategy I should mention. Some players find it quite effective.
It is possible to count the seconds during a test shot, and if you use the
game's sound effects as an aid, you can correctly measure whether or not your
shot is getting just the right amount of airtime. Credit to Ramza for sharing
this method:

When you hear the "tssss" of your test shot leaving the cannon, that is "1".
Mentally count to 2 as the shot travels through the air.
Mentally count to 3, and as you hit three, you want to hear the test shot
hit the ground ("splat" sound effect). If the shot splats early then the SS
would open too late, so add power and if necessary raise angle. If the splat
happens quite a bit after the "3" then your SS opens early and does shitty
damage, so you need to lower power and/or lower angle. This takes practice
and maybe a few test shots, but the more you do it the better your feel for
the 3 second time limit will become, and the more damage you can count on for
your SS.

---

TURTLE STRATEGY -

*If you can shotgun, do it, and don't listen to any noobs who imply it's cheap
or skilless. Always shotgun whenever possible. In fact, if the angle is there to
land a sure dual shotgun and hit the enemy's sweet spot, then cut loose with
that dual for 500+ damage. My feeling is that any time you have a chance to
remove over half the enemy's life, you should take it, and to hell with the
delay. If you survive to see a second turn you'll be able to kill them (maybe).
If you don't survive to see a second turn, then I guess using the dual was a
smart decision anyway (who wants to die after inflicting only 200 damage?).
Remember that even if a shotgun isn't immediately available, you might be able
to back up and get a shotgun angle by finding a slope behind you. Also remember
that you can shotgun through the first few pixels of any land that seems to be
blocking you.

*If you cannot shotgun, look for nearby slopes that would allow you to get an
angle higher than 60 (and preferable an angle that's higher than 80). You can
then switch to using the 2.4 bar fixed power method.

*If the enemy cannot be shotgunned and there's no slope to practice your 2.4,
but you can get right next to them, use a fork shot.

*If your enemies are too far to shotgun or fork shot and even too far to use 2.4
bar method, then switch to using high angles. That basically means you switch to
high angles any time the enemy is more than 1 screen away.

*If all else fails, lob shot 1s as a last resort until you can get the position
you need to make more useful shots.

*If there's no angle to shoot and you're forced to lob, make sure you gradually
move turtle towards a place where he can either get shotgun angle or fixed power
angle. It might take 2 or 3 turns, but that's ok... it's not like lobbing shot 1
is totally useless. If you're desperate and you're in a place that's far away
from most enemies, you can waste a turn using shot 1 to make a hole right in
front of you. You can use this manufactured slope later to get an angle and
start pounding away with fixed power shots.

*Remember that you're a tough mofo with the highest defense rating in the game
(30%). You don't always need to move just because you got hit once, and it's not
worth moving to avoid a hit if you give up your angle and can't effectively use
shot 2 anymore. Turtle struggles a lot for a good angle, once you have one you
don't want to give it up... with that being said I'd rather be a useless turtle
than move on top of a teammate and give the enemy a free double kill.
*If your angle gets ruined and you're forced to move to get angle again, re-
measure what angle you want to use for your fixed power shots. If you can't get
a high enough angle to shoot your original target anymore, then look for a
further away target who you CAN hit with fixed power. If it's important to try
to shoot the original target, you can just guess at how much power to reduce
your shot by... remember that lowering to 2 bars makes the shot land about 5
angles closer.

*When it really counts and you've got low health and you know you're going to
die the next time the enemy shoots anyway, it might be a good idea to use
turtlekaze. If you can suicide and take out 2/3rds of the enemy's lifebar,
you've pretty much done your job. This is what I look to do when I'm getting
gangbanged in solo mode. Also consider the suicide shot when your team needs 1
more kill and you want to be absolutely sure you inflict enough damage to finish
the enemy off. 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.

*Sometimes you'll be in a nice little hole with perfect angle to shoot out and
wreck some people with shot 2, then some smartass drops something in the hole
that ruins your angle. You can do 3 things:
1. If the left wall is ruined, try using the angle on the right wall (or vice
versa).
2. If you can still get angle and must waste a turn shooting through some dirt,
then do that... use shot 1 if it's enough to destroy the impeding land.
3. If you know that it will take 2 or 3 shots to destroy dirt that's blocking
your shot, and you can't shoot anyone by using the opposite wall, you can use
shot 1 and make yourself a new angle. It costs 1 turn but it's better than doing
nothing.

*It's possible to hit someone at the edge of a hole using shot 2 and without
resorting to a high angle. This is described in ramza's guide as a slug shot. It
works if you're in a shallow hole and aim to make a gentle lob with shot 2 just
like you were using shot 1. The first part of the shot travels straight and lobs
into the enemy, and the second part flies up, does a funny little loop, then
comes back down on the enemy's back.

*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.

ANTIMOBILE TECHNIQUES:

*Vs cakebot, you should generally win unless he's skilled enough to keep
wrecking your angle. You simply outrace him in damage by a large margin, even
though you suffer from worse delay. Cake's shot moves you around a lot, but
generally provides you with plenty of angle to work with for fixed power shots.

*Vs lightning, you also have a damage edge, but lightning's harder to trash than
cake. The good news it that his shot doesn't always disturb you much like cake's
does. There's no special strat I use vs lightning except to hit harder than he
does. Lightning's narrow holes can screw your angle easily, if you're halfway
in a hole and you can climb out you might want to do it to prevent yourself from
getting screwed. You might lose angle for 1 turn, but lightning will probably
give you an angle with his next shot.

*Vs boomer, you have an edge in defense but not in attack strength. Boomer is
one character I'd actually move around a lot to avoid getting hit by. It's very
easy to screw up and miss a little when trying boomer trickshots like hook, high
angle, or backshot. A slight movement from your turtle can really fuck up their
program, so always give the boomer a varied target (unless you can see he's a
noob and is hitting you with low damage weak-angle shots).

*Vs nak, you can sit in the back of a hole and shotgun him, and he will have a
hard time hitting you with a shot 2 because there's a bit of air protecting you.
I'd rather use an awkward high angle facing the wrong direction to hit nak than
move to the front of the hole and present him with an easy shot. Ideally you can
get an angle on a thin spike of land with some airspace in front of it, which
forces nak to rely on shot 1 to get any damage on you. If you cannot use a hole
or air pocket from nak, just get away and use shot 1 lobs. Always move away from
him because the further he has to shoot, the harder it is to get a decent,
accurate hit. He also has very short walk range and if you make a pit in front
of him with your shot 1, he has a hard time following you. You may even consider
teleporting away from him, because 90% of nak players cannot hit with shot 2 at
a full screen's distance. Basically focus on making all of his shot 2's hit
for the lowest possible damage, and you can beat him by using solidly hitting
shot 1's if you have to.

*Vs raon, don't get into shotgun position against him. Raon can shotgun mines
for enormous damage and you should always make it priority to ensure he's got no
shotgun angle on you. Otherwise let him pound away with shot 1 or mines. Don't
bother trying to walk away from babies, your move range is too short. Focus on
killing the raon before the babies activate. This is a disadvantaged matchup
for you because raon does more damage to organic types. It helps if you
can get in a position where there's a big hole behind you, so that raon's
babies land in a pit behind you and only 1 is likely to hit.

*Vs grub, you once again have a damage edge, and close range is better than long
range because you don't want his grub balls the chance to roll around a lot
before hitting you. Letting them roll a bit before they hit you means the balls
do more damage and tend to put you in a tiny, awkward pit. The usual antigrub
strategy applies if you are shooting at long range... sit on a tiny spike of
land (which makes landing full damage shot 2's difficult for grub). It's ok to
stay on a spike and shoot weak lobs, the alternative is to get in a pit for good
angle and risk getting reamed by his shot 2 or SS.

*I have no specific anti trico strategies, except to say that if he manages to

hit you with a good 3in1 shot (a shot 2 where all 3 balls hit)... move back and
force him to adjust angle or power. Landing 3in1's is hard and forcing trico to
adjust may cause a half-miss, which is fine. I recommend you DON'T get in a
shotgun war with trico, trico shotguns can top 300 damage, so you should make it
a priority to get somewhere where trico is forced to lob his shot 2.

*Sate pretty much ruins you, you'll have to just accept it. You do good damage
to him, but you're organic and his lasers hurt quite a bit. They also constantly
screw up your angle. Sate's a pain in the ass. I always dual sate once I know he
has a lock on me, because if I don't then I might never get the angle or
position I need to try again later. At very close range you may want to look
for super close range shotguns or even turtlekaze. If you can take off 60% of
his life with your first turn, then you might live to your 2nd turn which
means a sure kill.

*Bigfoot is kind of irritating, it's always wrecking your angle. On the other
hand, it's the weakest bot, damage-wise, at mid or long range. If you're not in
danger of getting bunged, you should outrace bigfoot in damage even though he
pounds you over and over with shot 1.
*Armor is a bastard and the only good thing about facing it is he usually leaves
you with an adequate angle to attack back. This is a pretty even matchup, but
armor bunges more and causes more splash damage on near misses. If you have a
lot of precision or you can use your last shot as a guideline, aim to wreck
armor's angle. A lot of his wide angle range is weak angle and a really good
shot 1 or shot 2 might make the kind of ugly pit where he cannot shoot back at
all. It's easier if wind is against you, you can sort of make a hole right at
the base of the hill/slope he's shooting from, and the hole actually cannot be
used to get angle later because it's under a lot of dirt.

*Aduka = ha ha. Don't lose to aduka.

*Mage is a laser type and does pretty decent damage to you, but generally leaves
you with plenty of angle to work with. I don't have any specific anti-mage
strats to share. Shotgunning is great vs mage and other shield types, you
should inflict more damage than the mage from shotgun positions. If possible,
suiciding a little while shotgunning can let you get 300 dmg from shot 2
while only taking 50ish damage to yourself.

*Ice's lengthy HP and ability to constantly harrass your angle with shot 1 makes
him a pain. He can't inflict much damage to you though. If you're lucky the ice
will use shot 2 mostly, which often won't disturb your angle at all and uses up
a lot more delay than 1.

Okay one last bit -

Packing items: 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 once SSdeath rolls around you can learn how
to use turtle's fun SS.

Playing in score: If you're getting gangbanged, dual whenever you have a sure
shot. If you're not, play for delay and treat a matchup with another enemy as
a 1v1 battle.

Playing in solo: Always assume you are going to die fast and use up your duals
every chance you get, unless it's absolutely clear nobody is going to
double team you.

Playing in tag: Just don't forget to F7 when your life gets low. A good
tag partner is armor, who can aim using similar methods because his shot weight
is very close to turtle's.

Ok, that's it (whew). Hope this is useful.