GunBound

GunBound World Champion
Developer(s)	Softnyx
Publisher(s)	Softnyx EU GOA JP HANGAME NA Softnyx
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	June 2005 [1] NA July 2006 EU January 2007 (Beta) [2] JP January 2007 (Beta)
Genre(s)	Artillery
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Distribution	Download Only

GunBound (Korean: 건바운드) is a free-to-play, turn-based, room-to-room, multiplayer online game with many similar features to the popular Worms game series.

GunBound was developed and is maintained by South Korean developer Softnyx. It is currently in its third major release, subtitled Season 2 internationally. It was called GunBound Revolution in North America with ijji as its host before it was shut down on July 24, 2009. The first major beta release was Thor's Hammer.

Gameplay

GunBound has turn-based artillery gameplay, bearing properties of two-dimensional games and ballistics-simulation games. In GunBound, players are assigned to two opposing teams which take turns firing at each other with vehicles called "Mobiles" in GunBound parlance. Each Mobile has three unique weapons, labeled "1", "2", and "SS" (Special Shot).

Factors like terrain condition, wind currents and elemental phenomena force players to continuously change their aim and trajectory power setting while rethinking their strategy at the same time. GunBound also implements a "delay" turn system which is influenced by the Mobile, the weapon and/or item a player uses—using items or taking time with actions results in a longer wait before the player's next turn.

Avatars

A user's character can be equipped with clothing and other items, termed Avatar Items, which provide additional statistical bonuses that will assist players in the game, except on specific servers where avatar bonuses are disabled. This adds an element of customization for players. Gold (the game's currency) earned from battles can be spent on these Avatar items. Avatars can also be bought using cash which can be bought using money from a credit card or cash using PayPal or mail (Gcoins). Most common avatars can be bought by gold, and very strong avatars by G Coin, but some can be bought with both.

In Gunbound International, avatars can be leveled up by enchanting, and this can only be done with Cash. The maximum level is currently 20. Each level boosts significant stats to the avatar.

Mobiles

The game has twenty Mobiles in total. Every Mobile falls under one of three different defense categories: Mechanical, Shielded, and Bionic, and one of four different attack categories: Laser, Explosion, Impact, and Electrical.

Different mobiles have different defenses, attack and health levels, delay, angle ranges, bunge (land damage) ability, and moving ability. The 21 Mobiles are Armor Mobile, Mage, Nak, Lightning, JD, A. Sate, Tiburon, J. Frog, Kalsiddon, Trico, Bigfoot, Boomer, Ice, Turtle, Grub, Raon Launcher, Aduka, Maya, Wolf, Phoenix, Dragon, and Knight. Choosing Random (which randomly picks a bot) is the only way to obtain the Dragon, Knight, or Phoenix (if you aren't a Power User, Cash is used to pay for this EX Item) mobiles; the other bots can be chosen at any time prior to a battle. In the Gunbound Revolution version, Maya is bought in the Cash store. In June 2010, 4 new mobiles were introduced in Gunbound International. They are Shadower Walker, Princess, Assassin and Carrior. They're named by regular players.

Game modes

Solo

Each player has only one life during game play. Once dead, the deceased players access a three-in-a-row, rolling slots game in which they can gain gold, alter wind conditions (affecting the shots of still-living players), or drop randomly chosen items or bombs from the sky.

Tag

Tag mode is similar to Solo mode with only one difference: Players are allowed two Mobiles at the beginning of a match. In this mode, each player is permitted to switch once per turn between his or her chosen primary and secondary Mobiles, each with its own health value (Initially, secondary Mobiles only have half of its total health. This, however, can be mended using Healing items). Players cannot switch Mobiles once dead.

Score

In Score mode, the objective is to kill or bunge opponents until the enemy life counter reaches zero. Bunging is when you can destroy the land around the opponent's area and cause him/her to fall. The lives allotted in Score mode relies on the amount of team players participating in a match. For a team composed of n players, there are (n + 1) lives. Lives are pooled between players in a team. A team wins if the opposition's life counter reaches zero, or if there are no more opponents left on the field. Dead players, upon dying, have a choice of their drop location and drop at that point in the field in a set amount of 4 turns after the point is chosen. Should a player not hit land, he or she will continue to fall and the team life counter will not go down, but instead cause the player to reselect the drop location and wait another 4 turns. The player's drop location is slightly affected by wind conditions.

Jewel

Participants are required to eliminate targets called Jewel (seen in the form of Raons). Each Jewel is assigned a point value for being destroyed. Point values include -5, 5, 10 and 25. Shots fired at the enemy will not cause damage, but can destroy land. Teams win the game by rounding up at least 100 points, or bunging (hitting the land underneath them until they drop down) their opponents until none are left.

Powerball

Same as Score mode, except that only the 'teleport' item is available. Instead, Powerballs representing the various items drop from the sky. Collecting the Powerball grants the corresponding item's ability. Different effects can be stacked. There are five Powerballs: Thunder Ball, Dual Ball, Gold Ball, Force Ball and Bomb Ball. The Thunder Ball will cause thunder to strike where the bullet lands when it is shot as if it went through a thunder storm in other circumstances. The Dual Ball acts as if the player had used a Dual item but does not affect delay. The Gold Ball increases the gold earned from completing certain feats. The Force Ball increases the damage done when hitting another player. The Bomb Ball is the only non-beneficial Power Ball and deals 100 damage to whoever it hits. The damage can stack when multiple Bomb Balls hit a player. Each player is allowed to have up to 4 bombs stacked at a time.

Items

Before the start of every game, the room master has the option to disable certain items from being used during that game. All or none of the items could be disabled. Items either take up one or two slots, and each player is allowed to acquire any combination of items as long as they fit in six slots. Generally, strong items take up two slots, while weak items take up one slot. There are currently four different types of items available. They are attack items, defensive items, weather item, and other items.

Attack items show the greatest variety; they can allow you to shoot twice (dual, dual+), boost the power of your shots (blood, power up), imbue your shots with lightning ability (thunderbolt), or blast away extra terrain (bunge shot).

Defensive items are healing items. They increase the health of your 'bot' upon usage. The bandage item takes up one slot and recovers about 10% with an extra 5% for biological bots. The First-aid kit item takes up two slots and recovers about 25% with an extra 5% for biological bots.

Weather item consists of only one item: Changing Wind, which switches the direction of the wind.

Other items consist of teleport (the player's bot will be teleported to the location of your next shot) and team-teleport (one player switches the location of his/her bot with a teammate).

In Gunbound International, Items 2 can be bought in the Avatar Shop. Most of them are only available with Cash, and the ones that can be purchased by gold are much weaker in comparison to the Cash ones.

Items 2, like Items 1, occupy 1-2 slots but not necessary based on their strength. Unlike Items 1, each slot can store as many of the same items as the player have.

By default, there's 12 slots for Item 2, and players can expand it by using Cash (available through the Avatar Shop). Items 2 are generally much more powerful than Items 1, in which some can completely block an opponent's attack or even completely bunge/kill the opponent(s) in just one turn.

As a result, Items 2 have received critical criticisms from majority of the players regularly throughout the years ever since it was first introduced. These are most commonly seen in the forums of Gunbound International official website.

Forces

In Gunbound, there are 11 force icons which could affect the projectile path or damage of a shot. These forces: are lightning (a circle with lightning symbol), tornado (a hurricane symbol), force (a sun symbol), thor (a thor symbol (that looks like a gun)), wind (a comet symbol), land (an ice pellet symbol), protection (a crescent moon symbol), ignorance (an eclipse symbol), dark force (a purple tornado symbol), joker force (a question mark symbol), and mirror force (a trapezoid mirror symbol). These forces cycle throughout the match and the number of times they appear depends on the map.

Lightning, force, mirror and thor add damage to your shot(s). Mirror also reflects any airborne shot that makes contact with it. Protection allows every player to gain some health. Mirrors (unlike other forces) do not reach from top to bottom. Instead, it starts at the bottom and its height depends on the map. Tornado changes the projectile's path. Wind changes the strength and direction of the wind. Land increases the destruction of land although the land icon is not in any of the current Gunbound maps. Ignorance disables the use of items and shield recovery while that icon remains active. Dark force decreases the damage of your shot by 50%.

The number of turns equals the number of player's shots before the next icon cycles through (including opposing players rounds); 1 vs 1: Every two turns; 2 vs 2: Every four turns; 3 vs 3: Every six turns; 4 vs 4: Every eight turns. Even if someone leaves the room it will still be the same number of turns before the moon disk changes.

Critical reception

The UK edition of PC Gamer magazine gave Gunbound a rating of 83 out of 100.^[3] Netjak gave Gunbound a rating of 8.3 out of 10.^[4]

See also

• List of free Massively Multiplayer Online Games
• Ijji
• GunBound Revolution
• Softnyx

References

External links

• GunBound – Official list of servers
• Softnyx – Developer's main site
• GunBound Thor's Hammer – Official site

Wikis

• Gunbound guide at StrategyWiki