Bouncing Burst
Bouncing Burst is a projectile spell which fires a fast projectile which bounces off surfaces many times before stopping, decelerating slightly with each bounce. It will also stop whenever it hits an enemy, or if it loses too much speed. It is a possible starting spell, and otherwise often found in the first few levels.
Tips
- Its low damage of 3 and mana drain of 5 makes it deal damage similar to that of Spark Bolt, although the latter also adds crit chance.
- The spell synergizes well with all trail modifiers (for example Water Trail), since the projectile stays in the world for quite a while, bouncing around.
- It also works very well with arc modifiers (such as Electric Arc), which can tend to arc all over the place as the projectiles bounce around. This can prove very dangerous if you are not immune to the effects of the trail itself.
- Combining it with Freeze Charge tends to create quite a lot of Snow, which can be useful for blocking narrow passages, but can also have a negative performance impact.
Speed & Damage
The Projectile damage dealt by some spells, including Bouncing Burst, depends on the speed of their projectile. Specifically, base damage is multiplied by the ratio of its Final Speed and Initial Speed, i.e.:
Since all the projectiles that have this effect naturally slow down over their lifetime, the damage they cause reduces over time. If you modify them such that they speed up instead then damage increases - the effect works both ways. You can increase the ratio, and thus bonus, by reducing the initial speed, increasing the final speed, or ideally both.
- Accelerating Shot is ideal for this since it reduces the initial speed, increases speed over the projectile's lifetime, and prevents it from losing speed from moving through the air.
- This modifier provides no acceleration in the first frame of the projectile's life, and so alone it can't save projectiles that spawn with too little initial speed.
- For Bouncing Burst, up to three copies can be used without additional acceleration 650px/s initial speed ×
0.32 × 0.32 × 0.32 = 21px/s, which is above the limit of 5px/s - For Energy Sphere, up to two copies can be used without additional acceleration 400px/s initial speed × 0.32 × 0.32 = 41px/s, which is above the limit of 20px/s
- Heavy Shot also reduces initial speed while providing a hefty damage boost (which is multiplied by the speed damage).
- Rotate Towards Foes is also ideal since it does not change the projectile's speed, only the direction it is moving in.
All the projectiles with this effect also have a minimum velocity below which they die. If you reduce their starting speed too much they may not spawn at all, or only when you point your wand downwards. Gravity or Anti-Gravity are easy fixes for this, providing enough acceleration to avoid early projectile death. The check for low velocity, and the recording of the projectile's Starting Speed, both happen at the end of the first frame of its life, meaning the die on low velocity speed is the lower bound for the bonus. The upper bound is the projectile's Terminal Velocity, which for all those with this effect is 1000px/s.
Since this damage is calculated as a bonus on impact it cannot be absorbed by Spells to Power. You can do it the other way around though, use Spells to Power to add damage from other projectiles to one with speed scaling - the damage absorbed by Spells to Power will be multiplied by the speed bonus at impact.
Gallery
History
- Apr 8 2024: Reduced the spawn probability on tier 6 from 1 to 0.2.
