Bombs

A bomber has to keep cool when he's got an explosive in his hand, and the brains to know the right time to throw it.

Bombs governs your ability to wield explosives, ranging from firecrackers to miniature nuclear pellets. Handling explosives with poor Bombs skill is a great way to get to the clone tank in a hurry. Top-end bombs are very powerful, capable of taking out even endgame players on their own with enough firepower. They are much less useful in PvE because many mobs have explosive soaks to prevent them being cheaply 'naded to death.

Bombs is governed by Brains and Cool, which means that HellMOO is about the only place where it's a good idea to be smoking while handling combustible material. Bombs skill is taught from raws 1-4 by Erik in New Clearwater, and from 4-15 by Ted Yablonski in Mountain Pass.

For a list of bomb-type weapons, see here.

Using Bombs
Different bombs require different methods to use, but the most common type of explosive is grenades:


 * - holds and lights the bomb, or pulls the pin on the grenade.
 * - throws item from hand to specified location/direction.
 * - holds item from inventory, lights it, and throws it to specified location/direction.

Other considerations:
 * If your Throw skill is poor, the grenade may just drop at your feet and blow you up. If your Bombs skill is poor it will probably blow up in your hand.
 * If you are using a suicide vest or belt, the commands are different. First, wear the vest/belt, then it when the time is right. If your Bombs skill is bad you will probably detonate it prematurely when you wear it. If you get hit in an area covered by the vest/belt, it will also blow up immediately.
 * Landmines also differ, and must be manually planted on the tile you want them on. Once planted, they'll blow up as soon as anyone walks onto their tile. Remote mines are instead triggered using a ham radio.
 * Bombs will also blow up other bombs on their tile in a chain reaction. This can be very useful! Landmine explosions are easy to dodge, but a landmine with a more powerful bomb on the same tile can be very dangerous.
 * If you're using a grenade launcher, first load the bomb into the launcher, then set the distance (number of tiles away you want the bomb to hit), and then fire. Requires Bombs skill to not whiff.

Some bombs don't actually do explosive damage, and instead have strange and humorous effects. Again, see the explosives index. Others are Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), which is a fancy way of saying "multi-tile". These have very high damage and their explosion covers several tiles in a radius around the explosion, but they are relatively rare. You can see if a bomb is multi-tile by appraising it.

Bombs are sold from various stores, but the best ones are rewards for completing journals or crafted. No explosive bombs work in the Freedom City area, so you can't nuke SWAT, but other bombs like spergnades work fine. Using any bomb in FC will get you stars!

Getting Blown Up
If you die an explosive death, you will often be gibbed, unless you have Silicone Skin. This will blow up all your implants and make you un-defibbable.

Explosions are avoided with dodge skill; you'll "shield yourself from some of the blast". This also works with sticky bombs, which is why you'll sometimes 'nade someone with a sticky bomb and they won't even get debuffed; they just dodged your dodge debuff.

High XP provides some explosive soak, while Silicone Skin provides a solid chunk.

If you want to save all your buddies, you can on any lit bomb that enters your tile, such as a grenade. Note that this will most likely deal critical damage to you!

Miscellaneous Explosives
Some slightly more obscure explosions don't actually involve the bombs skill.
 * Flak cannons in the Necropolis and near the Skydock will deal explosive damage to any planes or Flight mutants that enter their sky tile. Mosquito ultralights are fast enough to zip past flak as long as the pilot is quick! Flying mutants can also soak the damage very well with Silicone Skin.
 * There are several oddball bombs around the gameworld that will blow up if you do dumb things to them or near them. The implications vary case by case, but remember - play stupid games, win stupid (and hilarious) prizes.
 * Planes can be fitted with detonator modules, which will spawn a remote that you can use to blow up the plane at will - see Pilot. This can be used to ensure nobody gets your stuff, or to blow up someone else's plane on the sly. Some people also use these to set up plane-bomb traps in conjunction with stickycams. Planting the module requires no skill.