Am I broken or is it the slingshot?

Not sure exactly how to use the slingshot at the fair. (I'm playing on PS4). When you first go in you are facing away from the targets. The left thumbstick turns you around but I am finding it very hard to control and I end up facing away from the targets again. What am I doing wrong?

 

It's the slingshot that's got the weird control scheme, don't worry. If I recall, you point the thumbsticks away from the target rather than towards (I'm assuming that's what you're doing?). It's kind of hard to get used to, admittedly.

 

This. I've never liked the way the slingshot was implemented, and wish some other ranged weapon had been provided which was point-and-shoot.

 

The logic, I guess, is that you pull back the slingshot to aim. So you have to go in the opposite direction. A little target should appear showing where you will actually shoot. But it's fairly hard to aim, even with a mouse, I suspect it's worse on a controller. I usually don't bother with it.

 

Agreed. I get why it was done, but it's something that doesn't work so well when it comes to actually using it.

 

The slingshot is without a doubt my least favourite thing about this game, full stop.

 

THIS. I just do the fishing minigame to get the star points needed, because the slingshot is so bizarre. I'm used to the point-and-shoot type and this is "pull back to stimulate the act of pulling back of the slingshot". I don't bother with the slingshot or upgraded version that you find in the mines, wish I could get rid of them as soon as I get them, but nooooooooo you only get one so you have to deal with it.

 

I have never used the slingshot outside of a couple of times at the fair (keyboard/mouse), and that's always ended in massive failure.

 

I thought they'd added a way to get rid of them, but apparently I was wrong. You get more than one I believe, and they take up space. I guess that's not a lot of space, but if you manage to get them early you sure notice a lot more.

I applaud the creativity, it's just way better in theory than practice and I loathe them all the more for being forced to keep them. I'm not forced to keep a single other piece of equipment!

 

I started using them to clear rocks near walls, and ... I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. I don't kill monsters with it, but I definitely will shoot monsters near rocks just to pop the rocks then switch to the Galaxy Sword for clean-up. (SC obv)

 

There is but one excuse for the existence of the slingshot and upgraded version thereof. At Combat level 9, you unlock the recipe for the Explosive Shot, which basically is a ranged version of a Cherry Bomb. You see, it's not actually a weapon, per se, so much as a ranged mining tool. You can clear out a level in the Skull Cave quite rapidly with them, assuming you have enough. You can purchase them for 100g/ea from the Adventurer's Guild if you have your sling/Master Sling in your inventory when you go in, which is a third the price of a Cherry Bomb from Dwarf, and can be used at range.

Granted, the aiming is wonky, but since you are just aiming at a cluster of rocks to clear them more rapidly, accuracy isn't really necessary.

 

Yep, explosive ammo is the one redeeming feature of the slingshot. Mainly because it's cheaper than cherry bombs are. It's also great for permanently dispatching mummies.

 

Man, I never thought of that. I usually dump them in a chest and happily forget they exist. I'm going to have to try them now.

 

As far as I remember, this doesn't actually work. I tried this a long time ago and I believe the ammo flew right over the rocks. They only explode when they hit the wall or a monster, but they don't hit rocks. It does blow up rocks near the explosion site, but you won't be able to get the rocks in the middle of a level.

EDIT: Oh and I personally don't even bother to pick them up anymore on new saves. Not worth it imo and they just take up space. No thank you, they can stay in their chests!

 

Not the case. Edited: I was wrong. Didn't test thoroughly enough and fooled myself into thinking I saw something that wasn't there. See below. Just pulled up an old save and tested it, trying to not aim for walls. The aiming and pulling back leaves a lot to be desired, and I don't think this will turn the slingshot into my weapon of choice for killing monsters, but explosive ammo works as Shneekey described... and I can't wait to get the recipe on my current playthrough. Will definitely change my skull cavern tactics!

 

Interesting! That must have been changed in the 1.1 update or something because I tested it before that and back then the ammo did indeed fly over rocks.

This video shows how it worked before the update and you can clearly see the ammo fly right above rocks on several occasions.

 

My first (and only) try with the slingshot was regular ammo and trying to kill a slime on the other side of the screen. Needless to say, I didn't use it after that. haha

 

I'm afraid you're mistaken. You may not have been aiming for walls, but inspecting the video closely, I can see that you are hitting them. This matches my experience as well. It does have a blast-radius of 3, so it has no trouble blowing up rocks as long as they're near a wall, but it won't hit the rocks themselves.

 

Well, shoot. (Not with explosive ammo, please!) I stand corrected. I had never used explosive ammo before my very quick test run yesterday, and it really looked to me like I was blowing up rocks without hitting a wall. I just tried again, putting the footage in slow-motion to better see what was really going on, and you're right, the ammo sails right over rocks in the middle of the room. It also appears that unlike regular bombs, the explosive ammo will not "dig up" sand or dirt areas in the mines. (Interestingly, while I was not able to successfully aim at rocks in the middle of the room, it appears that a ladder in floor in the middle of the room will work for stopping the ammo and causing an explosion. Video game logic at it's finest?)

I don't think the explosive ammo is completely useless, though, especially since it's cheaper to buy than than cherry bombs. I was intrigued enough by something in the game that I hadn't tried before to test it out, and I intend to incorporate the slingshot + explosive ammo into my overall mining for my current game as soon as I get far enough along to do so. There are plenty of mine levels where most if not all the rocks are within a 3-tile range of a wall, and it should save me some time running around placing and then fleeing from bombs. Plus, exploding projectiles are fun.

 

Wernher von Braun would heartily agree.