Using the SS

Turtle's SS is difficult to use, and even a very good player can rarely top 500 damage with it. 500 damage is good for an SS, but when it's as tricky to use as Turtle's is, you feel happy just breaking 350 or so. It may be possible to get 600+ dmg. There are two types of SS. These can be referred to as type1 and type2, but I think those names are hard to keep straight. I call them the 'timebomb' and 'high angle' method, both of which are descriptive enough to figure out easily.

Timebomb method: Get the shot to explode a split second before it lands on the target. If your timing is tight, the damage is high and the balls hardly spread at all before they all plow into the target.

Basic timebomb angles to remember:
75, 1.9 (1/3 screen...distance from all button to half power mark)
67, 2.0 (1/2 screen... may need a tiny bit less than 2 bars).
47, 2.3 (1.0 screen distance).

Here are some timebomb method screenshots to give you an idea of how it works. Read below each pic to get an explanation of how I chose the angle and power.


Ok, I have a dk set up nicely for me a bit over 1 screen away. I consider a 1 screen SS to be angle 47, 2.3 bars (approximately). Because the enemy is just a hair over 1 screen away, I'd usually add just a little power, I'd use maybe 2.4 or 2.45 bars of power. In this case, I also have to deal with 8 wind blowing against me (not shown) and so I must add about 1/5th of a bar of power to the power I would use in 0 wind. I sort of used feeling for how much power to add, no set formula for this type of 1 screen SS. Now for the angle. I'm already fairly confident my shot has about the right power, but will it get too much airtime? It's already travelling in a very flat arc, so adding power doesn't really add a whole lot of airtime for the shot. Trico's 1 screen 3in1's shooting from right to left work on the same principle: It's already a flat shot at angle 44, so you don't need to do lots of math to keep the right amount of hangtime, just add power and it will pretty much spend the same amount of time in the air, only landing further away. Still, I'm worried the turtle SS will open a bit high over the enemy's head. So I lower by just 2 angles to angle 45. This doesn't change the path or distance of the shot much because it's such a flat shot with lots of power. All it does is change the arc so that the shot is travelling lower (closer to the ground) and should detonate closer to the enemy's skull. As it turned out, I could have stood to lower even 1 more angle, but the SS timing was pretty good, I did 450ish to 1 enemy and the other caught some splash too. For the 1 screen+ SS, it's mostly about power adjustment with a little bit of angle change. For the basic 75 SS coming up, it's mostly about angle change and there's very little adjustment made to power.

NEXT:


Here I am at the right distance (almost) to use the basic angle 75 SS. If the wind were 0, a basic 75 SS is done like this:
Angle 75
Power 1.9 bars
Distance from all button to half power mark

In this case the distance isn't right, I am a little too far for the usual angle 75 SS, so I lowered to angle 72. Because wind is 0, and because I am almost perfectly level with the enemy, I don't need to make any other adjustments except for the distance. I fire with the correct power (a hair under 2 bars) and the result is a nice little chunk of damage to the grub.

NEXT:


If this were 0 wind, I'd use angle 77, 1.85 bars. why 1.85 and not 1.9? Because I am a tiny bit above the enemy so I don't want the shot to explode when it's perfectly level with turtle, I want it to explode a little later. So I decrease power to decrease the hangtime a little bit. Lastly, you notice my angle is 64, not 77. That is because the wind was blowing at 22 strength directly against me. Consulting my windchart (linked on the main page) you can see the rule for wind directly against is: Lower your angle by (Wind/2), then lower 2 more if wind is over 18 strength. So - 22/2 = 11. I lower from 77 to 66. Then I remember the special rule for wind over 18 strength and I lower 2 more angles to 64. Now the SS will land in the correct location as well as have the right hangtime.