ITB's Ricochet Guide (How to play Ricochet if you aren't a huge baby with no friends)

This is a semi-serious guide aimed at people who would like to get into Ricochet more and improve their play. I will help by explaining gameplay basics and how Ricochet works, as well as the maps and other aspects of the game.

Starting out (Introduction to the game.)

PRESENTS

A Ricochet Guide.




While this game isn't very well known, and to those who it is known to, it is generally hated with a fiery passion, it's actually not that bad of a game. I think the fact that you're simply thrown into the game without any explanation on what to do throws people off and they don't really give the game a chance. Or perhaps the game really does suck ass. Who knows?

Anyways, let's begin.

MENU AND OPTIONS

You'll notice the title screen is pretty bland. There isn't much to it other than "Find Server" and "Options".


Both are rather self explanatory, but I'll explain them anyways.

The find server option displays available servers to connect to. Not surprisingly, there are few. Maybe 20 tops. Most have relatively bad ping, but some are okay.



Secondly there is the options. Here you can change your name, mouse sensitivity, among other things. Not really much to say.


This concludes the menu section and introduction of this guide. Hopefully you'll give this game a chance and continue further with this guide.

Gameplay Basics

GAMEPLAY BASICS

Now that we're passed the menu and introduction, let's begin with the gameplay basics.

If you join a server, the first thing you'll notice are the many platforms.


These are the platforms you jump off and onto. You use the platforms to evade and attack.
To go from platform to platform you simply walk onto one of the yellow arrows, and depending on the direction of that arrow, that is the way you'll go. However, that isn't necessarily true, you can jump to a platform that wasn't attended for you to jump to from a particular arrow, but we will cover that later.

In addition to the arrows, there are bounce spikes. They are yellow spikes that bounce you vertical up to a higher platform.

These are seldom seen, however.


I suggest you practice going from platform to platform, and get a hang of it. It can take some time but movement and evasion is a big part of Ricochet, and becoming good at the game.

Now, let's cover attacks.

ATTACKS

You'll notice in the bottom middle of the screen you have 3 discs, this indicates how many discs you have available to throw.

If you have a mouse, you have right click and left click. If you right click, you will throw a disc. This disc will bounce off the yellow bars (bounce bars) and ricochet. If you hit a player directly with one of these discs, they will be pushed. This counts as 1 point. However, if the disc ricochets off a bounce bar, this will count as a rebound kill, granting 2 points. If you aim your shot well, you can use bounce bars to hit players where you normally wouldn't be able to in a situation.

If you left click, you use a decapitation disc. Rather than pushing/forcing a player off a platform, it will instantly decapitate them resulting in a instant kill. However, using the decap disc will use up all 3 of your existing discs, and will not work if you have only 1 or 2 discs at your disposal.

In this screen I narrowly dodge a decap. disc while pickle complains about players:

In other-words, right clicking throws a bounce disc, and takes only 1 disc out of three, while left clicking throws a decapitation disc that kills instantly, but takes up all of your available discs. Your discs will not return until the decapitation disc disappears via hitting the map boundry or being hit by another disc.

These are your primary method of attacks.

This covers gameplay basics. We will cover maps next.

The Maps

MAPS

Onto maps. There are actually very few maps in Ricochet. I'll cover the two most common: RCDeathmatch, and RC Deathmatch 2.

Let's start with rc_deathmatch.

This is the first map in the Ricochet rotation. It's also the most common map ran on servers.
Here is what it looks like:


Bottom



Top


There are 4 platforms on the bottom and top, as well as a middle platform.

Not much to say here. It's a good beginner's map.

I suggest you practice jumping from platform to platform and mixing it up a bit here to try to get a hang of how Ricochet works.


and now the more advanced rc_deathmatch2:

Bottom


Middle


Top


This map is more catered to experienced players, as there are far more platforms to jump to and it has 3 height levels. Here is where you can learn to make different jumps and learn how to evade well.

This concludes the map portion of this guide; there are actually more maps, even custom ones, but I won't delve into that.

Power-ups and Advanced Tactics

Power-ups

Here we will begin to cover the Power-ups and different tactics.

Let's begin with power-ups. There are 4 power-ups you can obtain in Ricochet. They all have their added benefits, and in general make the game a bit more fun and exciting.

First off, we have the power-shot. This power-up when obtained will grant you decapitations without having to use up all your discs, as well as also granting the ability to ricochet.



Second, we have the fast-shot. This is a particularly useful power, as it increases the amount of discs you can fire, as well as speeding up the throw times. Other than that, it doesn't do much else.



Thirdly, we have the freeze-shot, arguably the worst power-up in the game (in my opinion). What it does is it adds a freeze attribute to your bounce discs, which will freeze your enemy when it hits them, HOWEVER, while freezing them, on the first shot that you hit on them, they will NOT be pushed off. This is the major downside and annoyance of this power-up, which is why I find it to be more of a hindrance than a upside. It does however, have another ability which is homing. This isn't particularly useful unless you're jump-camping, since if you're looking to get good at ricochet, there is no need for homing, it's just better in-general to develop good aim.



Finally, we have triple-shot. This is a very good power-up. It adds 3 adjacent discs to your shots, meaning that it covers a far more wider area for you to possibly hit someone. There isn't much more to triple-shot other than that.


That covers power-ups. I should also say that power-ups can indeed stack, meaning you can get all the added benefits of them all at one single time, which is very good.

Advanced Tactics

Let's begin with advanced tactics. In general, Ricochet is hardly complicated. You simply jump from platform to platform throwing discs at one another.. right? Well, yes. That is the jest of it. However, there is more.

Along with power-ups, there are tactics that you can use to give yourself the upper-hand.

Map Tactics

It is a good idea to stay on the highest level of platforms that there are. If you can control the top platforms, then you're more likely to score, as you can prevent others from getting up by hitting/decapitating them when they try to jump up. This is done by jumping to a platform where they are about to jump up to, and timing your shot so it hits them right as they get onto the platform. This is a fairly useful tactic, as if you can pull this off, you can control the highest point in the map, which generally houses power-ups, as well.

Platform Hopping

Platform hopping is simply going to a platform from one where it isn't intended. This can be done by hitting the jump arrows, and instead of going to the intended platform, you strafe to another. Not much else to that.

Power-up Persistance

Power-ups are nice and all, but they do actually fade. It takes only 3 shots for triple-shot to be wasted, and 6 shots for fast-shot to run out. You can actually maintain them though. Many people like to spam their power-ups to get a guaranteed kill, but this is inefficient. If you maintain your power-ups, by aiming and predicting making sure you hit your target, you can make it much easier to get kills.

Platform Evasion

Using platforms to evade. Give yourself an advantage by continuously moving from platform to platform and firing shots. This will throw your enemy off and make it far more difficult for you to be hit.

The S-Jump

The S-Jump is essentially an easier way to get on the top of dm1. You simply hit the arrow you would normally hit to reach the bounce spike, but rather then going for the bounce spike, you strafe your way to the end of the adjacent top platform above you.

Here's a video demonstration (Courtesy of Humba Gamers):

These are some tactics that you can apply in-game and see improvement in your scores.
Try experimenting and coming up with your own. Develop your own style that caters to you.

The Fling

You're probably wondering, what the ♥♥♥♥ is the fling? Well, the fling is a somewhat uncommon occurrence that happens upon respawn, where in you are suddenly and abruptly flung from above the platform you spawned on into the dark abyss below. I am not too sure what causes this, but it seems to be more prevalent among those who are towards the bottom of the scoreboard. However it could very well happen to anybody, and in all likelihood it probably will happen to you. And you will get mad. Very mad.

There's actually a confirmed reason for why the filng happens, but ITB is going to keep it a secret, as it's a very annoying thing, and could easily be exploited.

Pickler getting flung.

Conclusion

This concludes ITB's Ricochet Guide.

I hope whoever reading this (no one plays this game, therefore, no one will read it) has found this guide at least somewhat helpful. Maybe it will change your mind and persuade you to think that this game isn't as ♥♥♥♥♥♥ as people make it out to be.

Thanks for reading.

- itb.Teioh & itb. Pickler

(last update: January 14th, 2013 @ 10:45pm)

ITB's Ricochet Steam Group

[Average Genestealer]

I'm having a bug where whenever i look down/to the right/left, my camera resets. I can't turn!

[Χάρης]

be my friend daddy

[harpie]

ye au r

[Χάρης]

TIL I am a huge baby with no friends.

[可以的超超]

WWW

[Cascade]

Cheers

[Markster]

Thanks for helping me play this dead game :D

[Dokromos]

How do I fling

[what'sawingedhorse]

You forgot one offical map, rc_arena. Its a team based one with 1v1 duels

[coronal 🦌]

This is pretty cool! I'll be sure to use a few of these the next time I play Ricochet! :D