List of Worms weapons and tools
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These are the weapons available in the Worms series of games.
Contents |
Weapons and Tools in Worms Armageddon
Projectile Weapons
These weapons generally follow projectile motion.
Bazooka: The bazooka is a weapon that launches a shell that explodes on impact. Unlike most throwable weapons, the bazooka is affected by wind. It is possible for a worm to fire the bazooka in one direction, and have the wind carry the shell back in the other direction into a target.
Homing Missile: The homing missile behaves just like the bazooka, above, except that it is not affected by wind and it locks onto a target (select by the mouse before launching). The explosive shell, however, does not lock on very strongly and tends to make a very wide curve as it homes into the target. This can result in it missing completely, or hitting land well before reaching the target. The homing missile can be used underwater, but if it goes beneath a certain depth it drowns.
Patsy's Magic Bullet: Essentially a more intelligent and powerful version of the homing pigeon, above. It rarely collides with land.
This weapon was first introduced as a secret feature in Worms 2, then called "Patsy's Magic Bullet", quite possibly a reference to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Mortar: The mortar behaves like the bazooka (see above) except that it is not affected by wind. Its launch power cannot be specified, so it is always launched at the same speed, which limits its aiming capabilities. On detonation, the mortar produces a very small explosion and releases several bomblets, which spread as they are released and also detonate on impact with small explosions.
Grenade: The grenade can have a fuse setting of 1-5 seconds and can also be set toggled between minimum/maximum bounce ability.
Cluster Bomb: The cluster bomb behaves exactly as the grenade does, except that it creates a smaller explosion on detonation and releases several bomblets that detonate on impact. The cluster bomb is very effective in confined spaces, as the bomblets will likely detonate simultaneously.
Banana Bomb: The banana bomb works in precisely the same way that the cluster bomb does, except that it creates far more damage and injury. The Banana Bomb may be a homage to the weapon used in the game Gorilla, a predecessor to Worms.
Holy Hand Grenade: The holy hand grenade is a much more powerful version of the regular grenade. It also differs in that the fuse is fixed at three seconds, and it only detonates when it has come to a rest on the terrain.
Almost every aspect of this weapon resembles the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch which appeared in the Monty Python movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Petrol Bomb: The petrol bomb detonates on impact, creating a small explosion and releasing fire. Unlike most fire that disappears in one turn, the fire produced can last for up to 3 turns, unless a worm falls on it.
Super Banana Bomb: The Super Banana Bomb has exactly the same explosive power as a Banana Bomb, but the player can detonate it by remote control rather than with a timed fuse. Once thrown, the player can send a signal to explode the main banana bomb into its five bomblets, and then (if not hit by this explosion) send a second signal to detonate the bomblets. This weapon can be devastatingly more powerful than the Banana Bomb, because the five bomblets explode simultaneously, each with the force of Dynamite. If left for long enough, the Super Banana Bomb will explode spontaneously.
Firearms
These weapons shoot in a straight line; they are not affected by gravity or wind. The shots also tend to propel the victim worms in a direction, enhancing the strategic potential on the weapons.
Handgun: The handgun fires six bullets in slow succession. The aim can be altered while firing. It does scarce damage.
Uzi: The uzi fires ten bullets in quick succession. The aim can be altered while firing. It deals moderate damage.
Minigun: The minigun fires twenty bullets in quick succession. The aim can be altered while firing. This weapon is much more powerful than both the Uzi and the Handgun, and shot at close range it can cause heavy damage.
Longbow: The longbow provides the player with two arrows and therefore two shots, which can be taken separately (as opposed to fired automatically in succession, as with the pistol, uzi, or minigun). If the arrows hit land, they remain there and form a part of the terrain. Because of these features, it has a strategical value, rather than just brute force, on the game.
Shotgun: The shotgun provides the player with two shots, which can be taken separately (as opposed to fired automatically in succession, as with the pistol, uzi, or minigun). Each shot can create a relatively large hole in the landscape, large enough for a worm to occupy.
Strategies unique to the shotgun include:
- Blasting a hole in the landscape with the first shot to give the player a clear second shot at an enemy worm.
- Shooting the landscape out from under an enemy, causing it to fall. The second shot may be used to finish it off if the fall lands it in a precarious position.
- Blasting a nearby explosive barrel in order to deal more damage to the enemy worm. The explosion and the resulting fire can deal, with a well-executed shot, a lot more damage than directly firing both rounds at the worm.
- Shooting a land mine. This will send the mine flying and can be used to both clear the way for the player and hitting enemies. However, it's very difficult to deal a reasonable amount of damage to an enemy worm since the mine's bounce makes the shot very inaccurate. The opposite thing, shooting worms to knock them into mines, can be done too, and it's fairly more useful, although they won't be sent too far.
Close combat
These weapons tend to do little injury and no damage, but can send victims over relatively great distances. They are generally used to hit enemy worms into the water or into mines, rather than for their injury alone.
Baseball Bat: The baseball bat is used at zero-range and will propel the target over a great distance. It has a variable launch angle, up to about 70 degrees to the horizontal. If several worms are positioned next to each other, this weapon can launch all of them. The weapon does a small amount of damage, but is usually used to launch worms into the water where they drown.
Viking Axe: Used at zero-range, this weapon will halve the victim's health (rounded down). No other effects are achieved. Interestingly enough, even with the 'Double Damage' effect on, this weapon still only does half damage.
Dragon Ball: With this weapon, the worm fires a pulse horizontally towards the enemy, propelling them with a fair amount of force, with a greater horizontal component than vertical. The fireball has a limited range. The dragon ball may be initiated during a jump. This weapon is based on Ken and Ryu's fireball attack in the fighting game Street Fighter II, even to the point of the worm in question shouting "Hadoken!" while attacking. The Dragon Ball and Fire Punch get their names from their Street Fighter II counterparts, swapping around the words - originally Fireball and Dragon Punch. When a Worm prepares to use these attacks, he'll put on Ryu's signature red headband.
Fire Punch: When using this weapon, the worm leaps vertically into the air, carving through terrain, and delivering a forceful blow to any worms in the way. The victims are propelled roughly to the diagonal, and this extra height gives the fire punch an advantage over the dragon ball, above, in that it can be used to launch worms over obstacles. The fire punch may be initiated during a jump, giving extra height. Like the Dragon Ball, this is also based on one of Ken and Ryu's attacks in Street Fighter II.
Prod: This zero-range close combat weapon does no damage or injury, instead it provides only a small push to the victim, which can be enough to kill the worm if the worm falls a great height or lands into the water or mine. The main point of this weapon is the absurdity of being defeated by such a feeble assault, thus humiliating the enemy. In this way it is vaguely akin to a knife kill on Counter Strike.
The prod was not available in the original Amiga game, although it was listed in the instruction manual. It is rumoured that the move could be accomplished by pressing a number of keys in a certain sequence.
In Worms 4: Mayhem, in a multiplayer mode, the prod can be made to kill a worm instantly.
Kamikaze: The Kamikaze is a suicidal move, in which the worm launches itself in a horizontal or diagonal direction. The worm will carve through the terrain, and any worms caught in the path will be punched out of the way as though struck by the Fire Punch, though with slightly more damage. The kamikaze worm explodes after a very short flight.
Suicide Bomber: When used, the worm detonates and produces a small explosion, releasing poisonous fumes that will poison any worms caught up in them. Worms poisoned will lose 5 life per turn, until they have one HP left.
Drop-and-run Explosives
These fused weapons are the simplest to deploy.
Dynamite: The dynamite has a fixed five-second fuse time. It's very powerful, dealing a significant amount of damage and creating a big hole on the landscape.
Proximity Land Mine: Mines remain on the landscape when they are deployed and are only triggered when they are near a worm. When triggered, a three-second fuse begins and the mine explodes when the fuse expires. Mines can be knocked about on the landscape by explosions, firearms and various close combat weapons. The fuse time for the mines that appear on the landscape at the beginning of each round can be customized.
Priceless Ming Vase: The Ming vase behaves like the dynamite, except that on detonation it releases a few bomblets that detonate on impact and also create powerful explosions. Like all cluster weapons, the Ming vase is especially effective in confined spaces.
Ming vases are sometimes featured in slapstick comedy. Because they are so famously valuable, to break one in trivial or exaggerated circumstances is seen as comical.
Animals/Walkers
Just like the drop-and-run explosives, above, you don't need to aim these: just land the weapon. These weapons will start moving as soon as they are deployed with some degree of intelligence.
Sheep Launcher: The Sheep Launcher can be used to fire a sheep (see below) in much the same fashion as a mortar. It can be used to launch a sheep over long gaps that it would otherwise fall into, and up ledges.
Homing Pigeon: The homing pigeon is similar to the homing missile (see above), except that it will fly itself to the target using path-finding AI. The AI is notoriously weak, however, and pigeons invariably fly themselves into the terrain. The blast from a homing pigeon is about twice as strong as that of the missile, however.
Aqua/Super Sheep: The super sheep goes about like a regular sheep, but when the detonation key is pushed again, it launches vertically upward, giving the player the ability to steer it while it is in air. It explodes on contact with the terrain. The aqua sheep is an enhanced version of the Super Sheep. Its only difference from the Super Sheep is that it can enter the water without drowning. While in the water, it travels exactly as it does through the air, though at a slower speed. Using the Super Sheep takes a fair amount of skill.
Cloned Sheep: Only appearing in Worms 2, the cloned sheep is like a cross between Mad Cows and Sheep. Activating it will release a selectable number of sheep (up to 5), who will then walk and jump around in the usual way. Pressing the fire button again will detonate them all at once, doing 75 damage points each. This can be dangerous at times, however.
The cloned sheep is a reference to the first successfully cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep.
Mad Cow: Mad Cows march forward over the terrain when they are released and will only explode when they encounter an obstacle or steep upward slope. They can be launched in a herd of up to five Cows, enabling the player to use the first few Cows for excavation of the terrain and the later Cows for the attack.
It is also possible to change the worm's direction as the Cows are being released, causing them to be released both ways.
This weapon is a reference to the Mad Cow disease epidemic in Britain, which was the subject of much attention in the media at the time Worms 2 was being developed. See also exploding cow.
Mole Bomb: When released, the mole bomb scuttles over the terrain very slowly, with small jumps when it encounters obstacles. When the detonation key is pressed a second time, the mole launches upward with a slight deviation from the vertical, with parabolic motion, and burrows into any terrain it encounters. Hitting the detonation key for a third time will detonate the mole, which produces a small explosion. The mole detonates automatically on contact with a worm, barrel, or a second block of land.
Old Woman: When released, the Old Woman walks slowly over the terrain with a fixed fuse of five seconds, before exploding. The Old Woman changes direction when it encounters an obstacle.
Salvation Army: The Salvation Army behaves exactly as the Old Woman does, except the fuse is significantly longer and it can be detonated remotely with a second press of the detonation key. Additionally, powerful bomblets are released on detonation.
Sheep: The sheep is a convenient weapon that can cause significant damage to enemy worms. When fired, the sheep bounces off in the direction your worm is facing. By firing a second time you cause the sheep to explode. Alternatively, the sheep will explode on its own after about 10 seconds. A sheep explosion is fairly powerful: it can cause a maximum of 75 damage points, the same as a stick of dynamite.
The sheep explosion will propel a worm, so a victim can be launched and possibly drowned. The explosion will also detonate oil cans and crates, which may cause enough additional damage to kill even a strong worm.
A sheep attack is especially useful early in a game, when the explosion can be centered among multiple victims. This works especially well if the sheep explodes in a tunnel. Because the sheep can travel quite a long way, and can drop down over a ledge without hurting itself, it is also a useful weapon for long-range damage, especially when a there is not room for a projectile weapon.
There are dangers to using an exploding sheep. The sheep will turn around if it bumps into an obstacle, and may walk right back towards your worm, or in the very least, away from its intended target.
A sheep will walk right off a ledge, and if this is above water, it will drown.
The sheep is also a tool in that it can collect crates that are in its path. If it walks into a crate, then you get the contents.
Exploding sheep are a phenomenon that occur in some other computer games.
Skunk: The Skunk behaves like the Mole Bomb in its initial phase, in that it moves slowly, with small jumps. After five seconds, it begins releasing green-coloured fumes, which poison any worms caught up in them and drift with the wind. After another, longer fuse, the skunk detonates in a small explosion. Both detonations can be caused remotely before the fuses expire, by hitting the detonation key a second or third time. Worms poisoned will lose 5 life per turn, until they have one HP left.
Air strikes
Air strikes occur remotely and so can be used from anywhere on the map. They are generally only useful for hitting exposed targets. They cannot be used in cavern terrains.
Air Strike: The Air Strike is the simplest aerial attack. A number of bombs are dropped together from an airplane, follow a parabolic path, and explode on contact.
Carpet Bomb: The Carpet Bomb behaves like the Air Strike but the bombs resemble rolls of carpet. Each carpet roll bounces on the terrain, causing an small explosion with each bounce. Each carpet roll eventually disappears in a final impact, after a few bounces.
French Sheep Strike: The French Sheep Strike behaves in a similar way to the Carpet Bomb, above, only more destructive. Each bomb, which resembles a sheep on fire, bounces twice on the terrain before disappearing. The explosions are more powerful and a lot of fire is released too.
This weapon is based on French sheep-burning events in which British sheep imported into France were burned either in protest or because of fear of diseases such as foot-and-mouth.
Mail Strike: A Mail Strike releases a number of bombs that resemble postal letters. They are heavily affected by wind and fall slowly, making it difficult to target the weapon precisely.
The "Mail Strike" is probably based on postal strikes or just a reference to mailbombs.
MB Bomb: The MB Bomb, which resembles a balloon (which in turn resembles a cartoon face) drifts down from the sky directly over the targetted area at a constant speed, but is affected by wind. It detonates on impact and creates a very large explosion.
The cartoon face is based on Martyn Brown, one of the developers of the game, and this is where the intitials MB come from. In the manual for the PC version of Worms Armageddon, the MB Bomb is described as a confused computer games developer.
Mine Strike: The Mine Strike drops land mines in a parabolic arc down onto the terrain below. The mines will bounce around before coming to rest. The mines behave like regular mines, and have 3-second fuses.
Mole Squadron: When this is used, moles are dropped from the sky in a parabolic arc, and when they hit the ground, they begin to dig. They typically dig all the way down to water, but if they encounter an open space and fall out of the terrain, or encounter a worm or barrel, they explode on contact.
Napalm Strike: This weapon behaves initially as the Air Stike does, except that the bombs explode immediately an release fire which drifts down over the terrain. This weapon is effected by wind.
Concrete Donkey: The Concrete Donkey drops vertically downward over the targeted area. It bounces on contact with land, and creates a large explosion with each bounce. It continues to bounce over the target, smashing through the terrain, until it reaches water and sinks.
The Concrete Donkey is based on a similarly-themed outdoor ornament in the garden of Andy Davidson, the creator of the Worms concept.
Global Weapons
Weapons that affect the whole terrain and therefore require no aiming.
Armageddon: The Armageddon is the most powerful weapon in the game. It consists of a shower of meteorites, with each meteorite exploding on contact. This attack typically destroys 3/4ths of the landscape, killing most worms present except those burrowed deep underground. Extremely hard to obtain, Armageddon can be gotten either by beating all of the missions or, slightly cheaper, making crates fall much more often, increasing the chances of obtaining it.
This weapon may be a reference to the 1998 movie Armageddon, which featured destructive meteorite impacts on cities. The Marvel Comics supervillain Blackheart also has a meteor-dropping attack called Armageddon in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Or perhaps it is a reference to the Christian eschatological beliefs.
Earthquake: The Earthquake shakes the terrain, causing worms, barrels, mines and crates to bounce around. Causes very little damage usually, unless a worm happens to be knocked into a mine or over the edge of the map.
Indian Nuclear Test: When detonated, the water turns white and rises, drowning any worms too near it. All worms on the landscape are poisoned. Worms poisoned will lose 5 life per turn, until they have one HP left.
This weapon was originally a political reference to the French nuclear weapons testing which was in the news at the time Worms 2 was being made, but for Worms Armageddon it was more topical to reference the Indian nuclear weapons program. The weapons were tested underwater and produced the same 'whitening' effect as is seen in the game.
Scales of Justice: The Scales of Justice redistributes the total health in the game. Firstly, the health is divided equally between each team, and then the health within each team is divided equally among the worms. It is debatable that this is the most potent weapon in the game. If a team of 5 has only 2 HP per worm, and another team has 98, it will save the first team from losing.
Low Gravity: This will decrease the gravity for the current turn, causing worms and objects to fly higher. It is possible to deactivate this in the middle of a turn by using another Low Gravity. It affects both the height of such attacks as the fire punch and the distance traveled by the worm hit by it, but not the weapon's power.
Construction Tools
Blow Torch: The Blow Torch is used to create near-horizontal tunnels in the landscape. It can be used as a weapon, but does not do much injury. The Blowtorch is most often used to push worms around, like the Prod, when used as an offensive weapon. Its main use, of course, it's for digging tunnels for worm protection or just as underground passages. It's the safest guarantee of survival against an Armageddon.
Pneumatic Drill: The Pneumatic Drill is used to create vertical tunnels downwards into the landscape. It can be used as a weapon, but rarely achieves anything beneficial. Its main use is similar to the Blow Torch's.
Girder: The Girder is a strip of metal which can be placed in an open space near the active worm and acts like it is a part of the landscape thereafter. It can be placed as a bridge, ladder, shield, block, or platform. Intelligent use of girders can be a deciding factor in a match.
Girder Pack: The Girder Pack is a set of five Girders, above, that can be placed on the same turn.
Transport Tools
Bungee: The Bungee allows a worm to walk off a cliff without falling and hurting itself. The bungee is selected, and activates automatically when the worm walks off a high cliff. Pressing the detonation key will release the worm from the bungee, which then disappears. It's very difficult to use it properly.
Jet Pack: The jet pack allows the worm to fly around the terrain, but it only has thirty seconds of fuel.
Ninja Rope: The Ninja Rope allows worms to traverse the terrain, particularly cavernous terrains, very quickly. The Ninja Rope requires a lot of practice to use effectively, with the masters being able to get to places with it better than with the jet pack.
Parachute: Providing it is selected, the parachute will deploy when the worm falls too far, or if the detonation key is pressed while the worm is in mid-air. This allows the worm to float to the ground. It is heavily affected by wind, and the player can influence the direction or speed of the parachute.
Teleport: The Teleport tool allows the worm to transport itself quickly and easily from one location to another. The turn ends when the teleport is used.
The Teleport tool in Worms is a homage to Star Trek. Almost every aspect of the Teleport in Worms is similar to the Teleport in the Star Trek series, though the Teleport is different in Worms Armageddon and Worms: Open Warfare.
Other
Skip Go: Skip Go ends the player's turn. The worm starts jump roping for time limit of turn, pressing fire again will end turn quickly.
Surrender: This surrenders the player's team, and the player is unable to do anything for the rest of the game.
Crate Spy: When collected in a utility crate, the player is able to see the contents of all crates for the rest of the game.
Double Damage: When collected in a utility crate, all explosions and injury are twice their normal strength for the rest of the turn. If not used carefully, this can be more of a liaility than a helping effect, since some weapons reach gigantic-scale damage, such as the Banana Bomb.
Double Turn Time: When collected in a utility crate, the player's available turn time is doubled.
Fast Walk: When activated, walking speed is increased.
Freeze: When used, the Freeze will encase the user's entire team with ice. Any frozen worm will not take damage, and cannot be moved, but the land underneath the worms can still be destroyed, and the frozen worms will fall. Frozen worms can still fall into the water and die. Worms cannot be poisoned while frozen.
Invisibility: Only usable in Internet games, this will make the user's worms invisible to the other players. Using a weapon will normally deactivate the invisibility, but transport tools and a few others do not.
Laser Sight: This will show a long straight line when using firearms, making it easier to aim.
Select Worm: This allows the player to select and use another worm at any time during the player's turn.
Weapons and tools in other Worms games
Sheep-On-A-Rope: This weapon, included only in Worms: The Directors Cut for the Amiga, was essentially a sheep on the end of a Ninja Rope. The rope behaves in exactly the same manner as it would if used normally, however if the sheep comes into contact with the landscape while not connected to the rope, the sheep will detonate. Using the "Monkey Mode" cheat replaces this weapon with Kenny-on-a-Rope, so called after one of the artists who worked on the game.
Homing Strike: Only available in Worms 2 and the Game Boy Advance version of Worms World Party, the Homing Strike calls in blue airstrike missiles, which will then home in on the target and explode on contact.
Gas Canister: Introduced in Worms 3D, one lands this next to a worms, and this grenade will emit a cloud of poisonous gas. Any worm caught in the cloud will be poisoned. The gas canister was originally conceived for inclusion in Worms: Armageddon, but was replaced by the skunk before release.
Homing Cluster Bomb: This is a blue bomb that works in almost the same manner as the Cluster Bomb. Before firing, the player must specify a target point. They then throw the bomb. When the bomb explodes, it releases smaller bomblets which then home in on the target point, exploding on contact with anything solid. This weapon is available only in Worms 2.
Sticky Bomb: Introduced in Worms 3D, this weapon behaves similarly to the grenade, but instead of bouncing it will stick to the first thing that it touches, be it a piece of land or a worm. There it will stay until it explodes. Loosely based on Hand Grenade Number 74 ST, an anti-tank Hand Grenade with a tendency to stick to the soldier throwing it.
Blowpipe: This was only in Worms 3D. With this, the user would simply have to take aim (most likely on a worm, but also blows up drums), and fire. If you happen to hit a worm, they will be blown back a very little bit, and cursed with poison.
Mega Mine: Only appearing in Worms 3D, this weapon is similar to the mine, but is much larger and takes off 100 points of damage. It will also hurl the target much further away when exploding.
Doctor Strike: In Worms 3D, this strike is used to drop 6 health crates over a self-designated area. If one worm collects all of these, then they'll become a god among worms.
Lottery Strike: This is the Mail Strike in Worms 3D. It is greatly affected by the wind, falls slowly, and can do damage between 1 and 49. This is not a very reliable weapon.
Inflatable Scouser: This Worms 4: Mayhem weapon could be controlled to approach your opponent. Once he touched the opponent, the inflatable scouser grabs him, inflates, and explodes in midair, causing some fall damage. Very useful when the wind blows toward the water.
Starburst: Starburst is the Worms 4: Mayhem equivalent to 'Kamikaze,' except you can actually steer. A worm straps a rocket to his back and launches himself. Steered with the movement keys.
Tail Nail: The Worms 4: Mayhem equivalent to the viking axe buries the victim in the soil, creating minor damage and disabling the worm's use of certain weapons. The worm cannot move at all unless he is blown out. A tail nail is both irritating and cruel, so savour the moment when this close-combat weapon does its work!