Photon

Photon

Overview

Type: Shield

Hit Points ✯✰✰✰✰

Attack Power ✯✯✯✰✰

Mobility ✯✯✰✰✰

Utility ✯✯✯✯✰

Learning Curve ✯✯✰✰✰

Photon is a light-burst pod launching tank. Photon has a couple of properties that sets it apart from other tanks. Its firing-angle range is centered directly on top of its head, a characteristic shared only with Plaz, and its projectile trajectory type is wholly unique to it. Photon launches pods in straight lines that follow a certain geometric pattern and are minimally (but not negligibly) affected by wind. Because of these of these traits, Photon is very adept at finding favorable defensive positioning, but the constraints on the allowable angles and distances of its shots offer a double-edged sword. Otherwise, Photon is fragile, being in the lowest base-HP category, has above average attack power, can make excellent use of clouds, and can play a minimal/supportive role in terms of bungee and land destruction. Photon's shots are so little affected by wind that it is, on paper, a fairly easy tank to use, but mastering Photon requires a deep familiarity with a very idiosyncratic shooting style and a very high degree of situational awareness in order to avoid major pitfalls.

Shot 1

S1 fires a pod that travels in a straight line and changes direction once, then continues for some distance before stopping in air and releasing three energy bursts in succession downward. The relationship between the angle of launch, angle of direction change, and angle of energy burst release could perhaps be loosely defined as something like "the sum of the angles will always be some fixed, predefined value", but no mathematical description of Photon's shot behavior will likely help a player understand how to use it. Furthermore, one will notice that the middle segment of the orb's path is always fixed in length, while the length of the initial launch segment is adjusted by shot power. Whatever it may be, lowering the pitch of the initial angle causes the second angle to pitch upward into a tent-shape and vice-versa. When the energy bursts are released from the pod, they will travel in a mostly straight line as well, although their path will gently curve outward. This curve will be more exaggerated the greater the distance the bursts travel, and is weakly, but noticeably, affected by wind direction and strength.

The pod itself will pass through allied tanks but collide with land, totems, or opposing tanks. If the pod collides with anything before releasing the energy busts, it will do a measly amount of damage and fail to execute. If all three of the bursts hit a tank, it will deal moderate damage, around 200-220.

Shot 2

S2 functions identically to S1 except that it has a wider angle and deals slightly more damage, typically around 220-240.

Special Shot

SS similarly operates like each of Photon's other shots, except more bursts are sprayed out from the orb, its angle are closer to but slightly different from S2, it does more damage (around 400 if placed ideally), and the scatter apart the further they travel.

Tips and Techniques

1. In general, Photon should position itself so that it has clearance above and immediately to its sides in order to avoid being stuck in a spot that prevents it from reaching any opponents.

2. On maps with "floating, smaller islands" type designs, Photon can often angle S2 straight across the ground to 'hook' the orb up and over to another piece of land from below to shoot from cover or hit an enemy hiding in cover.

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