Mission 12 - No Substitute

[Mablak]

Method Credit: c0o1, Lex, Deadcode

It's been known for some time that this mission is doable in 2 turns, if you start off with a HHG that gives you a triple kill. The challenge was making this repeatable, and I've found a really good way to do this.

Turn 1: The objective with HHG here is to A) place it in a very exact location, and B) get an angle to avoid the randomness of the crate's flames. Forward jump twice, then walk to the end of the gun and fall off. Forward jump twice again, then just 4 nudges left, and you're in position. Lay the HHG, then do the hokey-pokey, as shown, and it's a triple.

Part of the point of this routine is to preserve the same sub-pixel alignment each time, and doing a different series of jumps will change this. Come to think of it, not totally sure if skip walking changes things. Also, this trajectory gives a very quick slide on the upper right worm.

Turn 2: Assuming the Field Soldier worm hasn't moved, just shotgun it, and it's a sure kill. It's helpful to memorize this crosshair position:



Then if you do 2 nudges right, you can just forward jump the whole way to the other worm, ending with a landing on them, which saves time. The fastest shotgun shot would then be close to the horizontal; give yourself some space though, since shots can go through if you're pressed up against the worm.

Backup Strategy: If the Field Soldier worm has moved and can't be killed, you could just opt for a zook kill followed by a homing kill. I'll give an example of this later. Also, very rarely Field Soldier will simply kill your lower worm. In this case I think it's best to just restart; you could get a kill per turn, but it will be unnecessarily hard.

[KinslayeR]

how many missions left mablak?

[Mablak]

how many missions left mablak?

21 left. I've got solid ideas on pretty much all of them, a few still make me feel like something's missing. The next one for example is just a nightmare.

[Lex]

Great job with the shotgun and repeatable shots.  However, there's one part between the first and second shotgun shot in which you jump up the slope where poor skip-walking or regular walking would be faster.  Jumping up slopes of that steepness is very slow.

[Mablak]

Great job with the shotgun and repeatable shots.  However, there's one part between the first and second shotgun shot in which you jump up the slope where poor skip-walking or regular walking would be faster.  Jumping up slopes of that steepness is very slow.

This might be worth timing; I think forward jumping only will yield a greater 'expected value' here solely because you land on the worm in the end. Which you might miss if you're not lined up. I'm assuming that saves enough time to justify it, but haven't measured.