Strategic Advice

[David McMurdo]

I thought it would be a good idea to start a discussion where people could share strategic advice with other players. One thing I really like about the Worms series is that skills are pretty transferable from one instalment to the next; if you were good at Worms Reloaded then you're probably good at Worms W.M.D, and so on.

I've been playing this series since the first game in 1995 and I expect to reach Rank 6 within three games when I get home from work later on. I'm not going to claim to be the best Worms player on Earth, but I am very good at these games, so I hope someone will find what I have to say useful.

The thing is that at the current time the ranking system doesn't seem to make any attempt to match players according to rank. Either that or few people have played Worms W.M.D as obsessively as myself since release and so—failing to find someone of comparable rank—the game just puts me up against whoever is available.

As a result of that I often feel pretty guilty as I mercilessly decimate a player who is very clearly new to the Worms series. I'm not about to throw a match, but the fact that I know that they're not enjoying the game lessens my enjoyment too, which is why I decided to try and help people out by starting this discussion.

Being good at Worms isn't just a matter of knowing what to do and what not to do; you also have to play a lot in order to get the "feel" of the game and its dynamics. Being constantly aware of the state of the terrain and the ability to think ahead are essential too. Nonetheless, here are some basic practices that will help you a lot:


Don't Place Worms Near Water and in the Open: People learn this one very quickly. If I see that you've placed one of your worms in a compromising position I'll happily use my jet-pack or worm select immediately to punch or prod him into the water, because it's worth the cost. Conversely, don't assume that a worm near the water is ripe to be instakilled. If he has even a few pixels worth of shelter then you're not knocking him anywhere, except perhaps with a mine. Even then, there are probably better targets to go for.

Claim the High Ground: When placing your worms always bear in mind that you have one jet-pack, one teleport, and three ninja ropes. When these are gone you have no means whatsover (unless there happens to be a helicopter nearby) of reaching high ground unless you craft new ones. It's far easier to target someone below you than it is to target someone above you, so if you've stranded yourself on the lowlands of any given map then your opponent has a huge advantage, not to mention the fact that if you fail to destroy him it'll be your worms that drown when Sudden Death begins. So look for little niches in high ground terrain where you can safely place your worm so that he isn't vulnerable to being knocked to lower ground. I'll typically place three worms in elevated positions and one "wild card" worm somewhere on lower ground to do a variety of dirty work, safe in the knowledge that I have plenty of tools to get that worm to safety when the time comes.

Don't Place Worms Inside Terrain: There are a few pro players out there who have a legitimate tactical reason for doing this, but for the most part people do it because they think that it'll keep the worm in question safe. And yeah it will for a while, but it also renders him worthless. Until air-strikes become available he might as well not be in the game at all. More often than not he proves to be a burden on your resources as you're forced to worm select on his turn or eventually teleport or blow-torch him out of there. And while your worm is hiding underground my entire team is focussed on killing his friends. When they're dealt with I'll turn my attention to your now vastly outnumbered worm inside his bunker. Since I now dominate the map's surface it's only a matter of time until I acquire the resources to craft whatever weapons and tools I might need to get to you no matter how many drone guns and magnets you employ. I might even just wait until you drown in there.

Don't Place Worms Beside Vehicle Mines: If I ever get hold of a helicopter or a mech I'll be going over there specifically to trigger that mine to get some cheap damage on your worm.

Don't Obsess Over the Vehicles: The new vehicles can be highly effective and are always fun to use, but I often see players breaking themselves to reach and utilise them when a good, honest bazooka or grenade shot would be just as effective and less of a hassle to do. It's like they get hypnotised by the presence of a vehicle and become determined to do whatever it takes to use it. This obsession has won me many games. In fact I often use vehicles as bait to lure enemy worms into totally compromising positions. Just stop to ask yourself if it's really worth trekking across a lot of terrain—possibly using up valuable tools in the process—in order to reach that vehicle. If there's an alternative then it's often better to take it.

Use Vehicles and Mounted Guns to Traverse the Terrain: Sometimes you'll come to an awkward ledge that you need to get over and which requires either some tricky backflipping or some ninja-roping. But if there happens to be a vehicle or a mounted gun on the higher ground that you're trying to reach then you can save yourself valuable seconds by simply jumping at it. You can enter these assets in mid-air, so if you can get close enough to be able to get into them, you can effectively teleport yourself over that awkward piece of terrain by doing so. Then you just exit the vehicle/gun and continue on your way.

Preserve Your Most Valuable Tools and Weapons: Jet-packs, air-strikes, dynamite, worm selects, and teleports are assets that every player constantly wants more of, so don't waste the ones that you start with. There are few things more satisfying to me than reaching an end game in which I still have all of those things ready to use while my opponent wasted them all very early on. I think that players often get very excited about the prospect of using the delayed weapons like the air-strikes and dynamite, and so employ them as soon as they're available. It's better to wait until an opportunity to use them in the most devastating way possible presents itself. It's the same with all of these weapons and utilities. I'm not about to squander a jet-pack to get over an awkward piece of terrain and target a particular worm when I can shoot his friend with a bazooka. These items can win you the game if you preserve them to the last minutes of a match.

Get Sheepish Over Sheep: I think that Worms W.M.D might just contain the most unpredictable sheep in any Worms game. Unless a straight tunnel or completely flat terrain lies ahead of me I just won't use them. Consider disassembling that sheep for the precious banana seeds that you can then use to craft a jet pack, air-strike, bunker buster, or something else that will ultimately prove to be far more reliable.

Keep an Eye on the Time:Think twice about using your ninja rope to perform some elaborate stunt with ten seconds left on the clock unless you're supremely confident in your abilities with the tool. You'll probably just end up with a wasted turn. It's far better to take some wild bazooka or grenade shot.

It's Not Always a Good Idea to "FINISH HIM" So you've reduced an enemy worm's health to below twenty points and now have the chance to kill him. Most players will go straight for it without even thinking about it. I understand the impulse. They're thinking "yes! I get to kill an enemy worm!" But is there a healthier worm that you can target? If you kill a worm with nine hit points using a bazooka that has the ability to inflict forty-five points of damage, then you've essentially wasted thirty-six points of potential damage. Why not target a healthier worm and get the most bang for your buck? You can mop up the worms who have one foot in the grave with a few cluster bombs later. Just try thinking in terms of efficiency when it comes to choosing targets. I love it when an opponent chooses to eliminate one of my near dead worms in favour of going for a healthier one. It stops my healthy worm being hurt and rids me of a burden for reasons that I'll mention in the next point.

Don't Lose Hope Over Worm Deaths: The Worms series has a kind of inherent balancing in its gameplay. Lets say that I somehow kill two of your worms on my first go. You might be tempted to lose hope and give up, but remember that in some ways you have an advantage with less worms than your opponent. It's easier for you to focus your efforts while your opponent has to either wait for a specific worm's turn, or use worm select to put him in play. This is why even in a four worm versus one situation the former team will probably lose at least two of them before the game ends. It's hard to effectively utilise a team that's spread across a map against a single opponent whose next turn it always is. Of course it's better if your worms stay alive, but you can still be a living nightmare for your opponent even in the worst case scenario. Giving up is easy, but you'll never know the kind of amazing comeback you might have had.

Everyone Was Terrible Once and Everyone Makes Mistakes: No-one was born good at any game. They became good at it through persistent practice. If they can, then you can, and even the best of players messes up to an embarassing degree now and then. Whether it's accidentally placing a worm on a mine, sending your own worm flying to his death from a ninja-rope, or just the good old fashioned blowing yourself up with your own bazooka because you failed to notice those pixels in front of you, these things happen to everyone. This is important to remember both so that you don't lose heart when you yourself screw up, and so that you bear in mind that even in the most dire circumstances there's always a chance that your opponent will make a mistake. The longer you stay alive and the more pressure you put on him, the greater those chances are.

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to share any advice that you might have.

[Tilen]

That's some great advice! Keep 'em coming.

[*^SaoSin^*]

And you know what? I quee for first time in ranked and my first enemy knows everything displayed here. I am a damn newbie and he executed me like an hardcore veteran difficulty turning my almost win map controlled game and vehicles into his game...

Great now I can be tilted for the rest of the day, I hope they repair that hellish rankeds because they are completely unbalanced match making people with whatever rank they find in quee cool.

[The Courier]

Sorry, you expect to get to rank 6 in 3 games? You must not understand the games' ranking system yet. It is a points based system according to wins and losses. I've played 50 games and have an 85% win ratio and have just passed rank 8. Although the ranking system is extremely bugged currently, often deducting points for a win.

[San]

Originally posted by Skullz:

Sorry, you expect to get to rank 6 in 3 games? You must not understand the games' ranking system yet. It is a points based system according to wins and losses. I've played 50 games and have an 85% win ratio and have just passed rank 8. Although the ranking system is extremely bugged currently, often deducting points for a win.

He expects to reach rank #6 on the leaderboard within 3 more games. He played alot but just needs 3 more games, you doofus.

Ps; great post man. And gg's (I beat you twice). ;)

[```skunk3```]

- keep in mind that we now have 1-6 second fuse timers (I often forget that 6 seconds is an option now)

-phone batteries of any sort are excellent for taking out sentries, even if they are last in the chain

-use buildings to your advantage as much as possible. People often forget that worms are in there

-start crafting from the very first turn of the match and craft during EVERY turn

-disassemble any weapon that you feel you are likely to never use (I think that
disassembling sheep, sheep on a rope, and some others are good ideas)

-learn the colors of the various unwanted presents based on current fuse length (the present changes colors)

-use different fuse lengths on the unwanted present rather than 3 or 5 every time. Yes, a higher fuse length will do more damage, but the longer the fuse, the more likely someone is to get away from it

-abuse vehicles every chance you get for either movement or damage (this is a sad but true part of WMD)

-try to save jetpacks and ropes for SD

-craft only weapons that suit your play style

-industrial electromagnets are often very useful and aren't 'expensive' to craft, as is girder girth. Even normal magnets and girders are extremely useful to have, depending on the scheme. (most schemes sadly are too OP and girders / magnets aren't much help)

-practice making long range shots with zooks and nades rather than relying on point and click weapons, super weapons, etc. the deadlier from long range you are, the more effective you will be.

-if you can, prevent others from accessing helicopters. fly it to a high, safe part of the map so your opponent(s) can only reach it if they use up a jetpack

-remember that torches can go in many directions now, and you can switch directions while torching (still undecided as to whether I like the new blowtorch mechanics or not)

-if you know your enemy has already used their select worm utility, start absusing turn advantage if they have worms separated from each other and you have teleports or other movement utilities to burn, that way even if they do end up hitting you, they are still damaging their own worm. save your own select worm utilities for when they are absolutely necessary... don't use them early on, but make sure to use them before you end up with 1 worm, if that occurs.

-use weapons that have infinite ammo if you can. There's no need to use a dynamite on a worm that's near water, and in most cases, you can use a grenade instead of a mine, etc.

-sentries are quickly nullified with girders

-it is better to press one direction at a time when jetpacking. for example, if you need to go up and to the left, it's better to go up, then left, then up, etc. Holding up + left at the same time drains your jetpack fuel 2x as fast. it's also better to tap the directionals rather than held them down in terms of fuel conservation.

-leave some horizontal space between your worms so that your whole team doesn't get taken out by a donkey

-whenever attacking, you want to knock your enemy down to lower terrain, if at all possible. This will force them to eventually HAVE to use movement utilities, and if they are out of them, they are screwed when SD kicks in. The newer Worms games are very much "king of the mountain" in a sense, at least when SD is enabled.

- remember that using a select worm resets turn order from the worm that is selected

- bear in mind that all explosions have a larger area of effect than before, so it's very easy to take damage / get knocked back by explosions that in the past games wouldn't have affected your worm(s)

- utilize and memorize fkeys (even though the way the weapon lines are currently mapped doesn't make any sense IMO) to save precious seconds

- remember that girders are placeable in tunnels

- you can view a player's stats while in a hosted game lobby, and a part of that stats page will show you that person's favorite crafted weapons, so you can get a sense of how they play. (obviously this isn't possible for a ranked match)

[David McMurdo]

Originally posted by San:

Originally posted by Skullz:

Sorry, you expect to get to rank 6 in 3 games? You must not understand the games' ranking system yet. It is a points based system according to wins and losses. I've played 50 games and have an 85% win ratio and have just passed rank 8. Although the ranking system is extremely bugged currently, often deducting points for a win.

He expects to reach rank #6 on the leaderboard within 3 more games. He played alot but just needs 3 more games, you doofus.

Ps; great post man. And gg's (I beat you twice). ;)

Yeah that's exactly what I was saying. I'm rank 6 now. Would be nice if there was a way to check the Worms W.M.D profiles of other people. Maybe there is and I'm just missing it. I've had around 110 matches by this point. Sure does take a lot of gaming to move up through those ranks, but I'm making the most of the ranked mode while the servers are at their busiest. And thanks.

Thanks also for the contributions to the list of strategies so far. There's a few that had never occurred to me before.

[```skunk3```]

Originally posted by Balöder Rebs:

skunk, this is about ranked matches, most of your advice makes no sense

I must have missed the part that said that this was about ranked matches only. Also, the majority of what I said applies to ranked matches as well.