Explosive Projectile
Explosive Projectile is a modifier spell that increases the size and potency of a projectile's explosive effect. It will also add an explosive effect if one does not already exist. Increasing explosion radius above specific threshold values can increase damage by a substantial amount - making this modifier a huge early game damage booster. Stacking two is recommended with most spells.
Tips
- The best return for your mana when using this modifier is to combine two with as many low cost spells as possible.
- While many of the explosions produced by use of this modifier won't hurt you, they may cause secondary explosions which will.
- Nearby explosions can also set you
On fire, or spray liquids around that may hurt you. - The added explosion may not damage terrain, depending on the spell the modifier is used with.
- Disc Projectile is an example of a projectile that has the default explosion config. This means that it has an explosion radius large enough that a single explosive projectile can increase its radius above 32 granting 325 explosive damage.
Explosion Radius & Damage
At a glance, Explosive Projectile seems like a very expensive way to add 
5 damage to a projectile. Its' true power comes from the other stat it modifies - explosion radius. The explosion radius determines the size of the hole made in the world, and the area of effect inside which enemies take damage, but also determines the minimum damage an explosion can cause.
If explosion radius is added, e.g. by using Explosive Projectile, then the minimum Explosion damage is subject to thresholds based on the total radius.
Spitter Bolt has an explosion radius of 2, and does no Explosion damage. Adding two copies of Explosive Projectile (+30) increases the radius to 32, activating the 325 minimum damage threshold.
Lightning Bolt has an explosion radius of 35, and does 125 damage. It is not subject to the minimum threshold effect unless you add a copy of Explosive Projectile (+15), which increases the radius to 50, and a minimum of 325 damage.
Explosive Projectile and Clusterbolt are currently the only spells that add to the explosion radius. Several spells (notably the Divides) reduce the explosion radius, which can nullify the effect of Explosive Projectile - A more detailed explanation is available here.
Combinations
The majority of spells not already exceeding it will reach the minimum 325 damage threshold with just two copies of Explosive Projectile. Three copies are only needed for spells with a radius of 1.
These spells are ideally suited to use with this modifier, having low mana cost and producing 325 explosions that won't hurt you using two copies of Explosive Projectile.
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A few spells (with a radius 17 or greater) reach the 325 minimum damage threshold with a single copy of Explosive Projectile. These will harm you without explosion immunity.
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Spells without a radius will use the default of 20, which similarly only requires one Explosive Projectile.
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Some spells require specific setups to gain this effect.
- Summon Rock paired up with Explosive Detonator, Fizzle, or some matter destroying spell.
- Delayed Spellcast will explode in response to Explosive Detonator, is player-safe, and has the default 20 explosion radius.
Diminishing Returns
- Use of more than the 1-3 copies of Explosive Projectile needed to cross the first minimum damage threshold becomes increasingly inefficient on a mana-per-damage basis.
- Explosive Projectile is of very limited benefit after the last threshold is reached (guaranteed at 9 copies) - beyond this each copy of the modifier only adds 5 damage to the base explosion damage, which is likely to be less than the 500 damage minimum from the threshold.
This table shows the number of Explosive Projectile modifiers needed to reach each damage threshold. Adding more copies becomes increasingly less efficient in mana/damage terms.
| Threshold | # of |
Mana Cost |
Dmg/Mana (Efficiency) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radius | Min. Dmg | |
 |
 | ||
| 32 | 325 | 1 | 30 | 10.83 | ||
| 2 | 60 | 5.42 | ||||
| 3 | 90 | 3.61 | ||||
| 64 | 375 | 4.17 | ||||
| 4 | 120 | 3.13 | ||||
| 5 | 150 | 2.50 | ||||
| 128+ | 500 | 8 | 240 | 2.08 | ||
| 9 | 270 | 1.85 | ||||
Friendly Fire Explosions
When used with spells that do not already have an explosive effect that can harm you, the explosive effect added by Explosive Projectile is usually also not capable of harming you.
Exceptions to this include:
Trick Kills
When Explosive Projectile is used with some spells, deaths caused by the explosion effect will count as Trick kills. All of these spells produce explosions which harm you so use with caution, e.g. inside a trigger payload.
Some lightning spells, such as Lightning Bolt and Ball Lightning, also register as trick kills when combined with Explosive Projectile. These are, however, very hazardous to use without immunity to both electricity and explosions.
Material Spell Boost
The amount of material produced by these spells depends on their explosion radius, and can be increased using Explosive Projectile.
Gallery
History
- Apr 8 2024: Changed the spawn probability on tier 4 from 1 to 0.8.
- Spells with positive cast delay
- Spells that modify speed
- Spells that modify recoil
- Spells related to explosion damage
- Spells tagged with terrainreact
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- Spells tagged with trickkills
- Spells tagged with radiusbonus
- Spells tagged with radiusmaterial
- Spells tagged with digging
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- Spells of type Projectile modifier
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