HB's rumble guide

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<page under construction! If I booched something, please reach out to me on discord or ingame (Hurtposs)!>

Rumble guide by Hurtboss

Who am I and why am I writing this guide? Actually, this is my second Rumble guide. I wrote one a decade ago and posted it on the forums. As we all know however, the forums went belly up and it’s not possible to recover the guide anymore. My pirate is Hurtboss, or HB for short, and I’ve been playing since 2006. My home ocean was Viridian. Due to a very long break from the game, and due to other external factors, my original pirate has been locked for inactivity pending review. That is why I’m mostly seen playing on Hurtposs these days, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is a very clever way to disguise my original name. As for me, my credentials are having hit #1 Rumbler in pretty much all oceans, starting with Viridian and Hunter in 2011. I won the Rumble OCL in 2009 (though a thinner tournament than usual) and I think I’ve won north of 200 familiars overall. I’m writing this guide because I want to play the puzzle. I’d love for more people to be interested in Rumble, and I’d be especially happy to help those wayward souls who already *enjoy* Rumble (!) stick around and try to improve even further. Back in the day (though I promise not to overuse this expression), it was common to see half a dozen tables going in Rumble, and we had a vibrant Ultimate list, full of potential. Yeah, I know we’re not hitting the 2.5k players per server that we did back then, but hey – maybe the guide will still be helpful. So, the fine print before we move any further – this guide is, clearly, based on my own, subjective opinion. Not everyone puzzles the same way, and no one is the undisputed champion of anything. There are scores of players out there who will disagree with what I put forth here, and that’s fine. If you have a differing opinion, please open it to the floor in the talk page. Furthermore, the guide assumes you will be going through it step-by-step. If a given concept or terminology doesn’t immediately make sense to you, it might be that it was covered in a previous section.

The basics

Some theory (don’t skip me! Reading is fun!)

Intro to the puzzle

Rumble is played in an hexagonal board where you fire colored balls to build attacks to send to your opponent. You use balls of up to 6 different colors to manage your board while trying to make your opponent’s board go lower than yours. You win a game if any part of your opponent’s board crosses the line at the bottom of the board. This is different from Swordfight, where an opponent only loses when column 4 is full. In Rumble, you can lose due a single stray ball crossing the line, even if your board is still very high up. Rumble is played by shooting the different colored balls out of your triggers, or hands if you would. For regular Rumble encounters, you will have a left trigger and a right trigger, which are independent of each other. They are intuitively controlled by your left mouse button and by your right mouse button. There are many different approaches to playing Rumble, and there are both PvP and PvE Rumble encounters. This guide is focused on 1v1 PvP Rumble. However, some of the information in the guide can prove helpful for PvE encounters, such as when pillaging, or when doing CI frays. For further info on the basics of the puzzle, see the Rumble YPPedia page.

Sprinkles

Sprinkling is both an offensive and defensive tool that consists in clearing your board without charging any balls. Once you match 3 or more balls of the same color, you will immediately pop them and queue up some balls to be sent to your opponent’s board. These balls are sent from the bottom of your opponent’s board, and they greatly vary in their amount. Clearing a group of more balls, or clearing a group that has dropoff below it – more on that in just a second – will send a larger number of sprinkles to your opponent. Inversely, clearing a group with fewer balls can send little to no sprinkles to your opponent. Sprinkling serves as an offensive tool, in the sense that it adds mass to your opponent’s board. However, the mass added by sprinkles is easy to clear. For this reason, sprinkling alone will likely not be enough to win you a game. You need more tools in your arsenal, such as striking. On the other hand, sprinkling also serves a very important defense mechanism, as it means you are managing your board. You will also find further information and advanced tips on board management further on in the guide.

Strikes

Strikes are made by charging groups of balls and then triggering them. They are the most important offensive tool in your arsenal, and they are the best way to pressure your opponent’s board. Much like sprinkling, charged groups can only be formed by collecting at least 3 balls of the same color. Once you have 2 balls of a specific color, you can charge up a 3rd ball of the same color by clicking and holding either of your triggers, and then releasing it. Striking is done by charging more than 1 group at a time. The groups also remember the order in which they were charged. Triggering and sending your strike is done by popping one of the charged groups with a non-charged ball of the same color. Any group that you pop will also pop all the other groups that you charged after your trigger. Example: you charged group A (red), group B (yellow), and group C (orange). You send a non-charged red ball to group A, popping it. As group A was charged before group B and group C, these groups will also pop. This means your strike consists of 3 groups. In this same example, should you choose to pop group B (yellow), your strike would consist of 2 groups, since group A (red) was charged before group B. Strikes vary in how much mass they send to your opponent, and vary even in shape and size. All strikes send mass to your opponent from the top of their screen, although some come from the top and drop down horizontally, while others come from the corner. This depends on the type of strike you sent, namely whether is it a wide strike or a narrow strike.

Wide strikes

Wide strikes are strikes that come from the top of your opponent’s board. They are effective at both adding mass to your opponent’s board, and at scrambling your opponent’s rows. Wide strikes are formed by charging at least 2 groups that include a minimum number of dropoff. More on dropoff in the next section. <gif here>

Narrow strikes

Narrow strikes are strikes that come from the corner of your opponent’s board. They are not as effective as wide strikes at adding mass, but they can be more disruptive depending on the state of the game. Narrow strikes are formed by charging at least 3 groups that have fewer than the minimum number of dropoff required for a wide strike. <gif here>

Dropoff and bruises

Dropoff are the balls that are ‘dropped’ when you send sprinkles or when you send a strike. For example, if you have a charged group of 6 orange balls and add 5 other balls below it without triggering the charged group, this will be considered as 5 dropoff. Dropoff plays a vital role in Rumble, as it influences major parts of the game. A higher number of dropoff helps you in the following aspects:

1. your sprinkles send a higher number of balls to your opponent
2. your strikes become wider and scramble your opponent’s rows
3. your strikes send bruises

For the most part, dropoff is a resource you want in every offensive action you take. For instance, a narrow strike might disrupt your opponent’s board by shooting a diagonal mass across their board, but it is only a wide strike, with dropoff, that decisively makes your opponent’s board fall further down, and even scramble their rows. At the same time, dropoff inserts bruises into your opponent’s board. Bruises are blue/black balls that are not naturally attainable in your board. They can only be received through your opponent sending you a strike, or through a board drop – more information on board drops in the next section. These bruised balls replace a standard, colored ball and are difficult to get rid of. Instead of being able to match 3 to pop the balls, bruises require you to pop groups that are immediately adjacent to them to begin clearing them. After doing this process twice, bruises become ordinary balls that can be interacted with in the usual way. Due to the higher difficulty in clearing bruises, they become a hurdle when you are trying to clear your board. They evidently require more balls to clear them, but they also require more clicks and more time. Every moment you spend clearing a bruise is a moment you’re likely not on the offense, yielding your pressure and giving room for your opponent to catch up. Bruises also interact with dropoff in a mathematical sense. For instance, there is a minimum number of dropoff before your strike becomes wide. There is also a maximum number of bruises that your strike can send to your opponent. The YPPedia page on Rumble strike calculations includes a plethora of information on the dropoff relationship with bruises and strike width. I will go over some key information on dropoff and bruising in an upcoming section. Consistent bruising is the cornerstone of a high-level Rumbler. They are of key importance to your strategy, and often help you win games. I will also share more information on gathering dropoff more easily in a later section.

Board drops

Board drops are an automatic event that take place every 8 balls you shoot, unless you receive a strike before shooting 8 balls. If you do receive a strike, the counter resets to 0, and you have to shoot 8 balls before the board drops. Board drops are the game’s way of moving the action forward, punishing turbo-clearing (as in, very fast sprinkling without charging groups), and keeping things moving. Board drops introduce 1 row of balls at the top of your board. The row of balls that is introduced is the same for all players in the match. Players playing at a different pace however might receive board drops that appear different, especially later on during the match. However, the way that you used up your balls between the last board drop and the next one will influence whether you receive bruises with the new row. Frequent clearing without having recently charged groups might mean that your board drop introduces a heavily bruised row. This, in turn, makes it harder to clear your board, and forces you to click and shoot more balls to achieve the same goal you had before the board had dropped. In practice, this means that your next board drop will come more quickly, and will likely introduce even more bruises, and so on. Consistently charging groups means you’re managing your balls more slowly, considering the time it takes to charge a ball. This means that your board will drop more slowly than a sprinkler’s board will. At the same time, the board drop you’ll receive will likely include no bruises at all. The exact calculations for the board drop bruise distribution is unknown, and is not likely to ever be solved. Consider the rule of thumb: clearing = faster board drops and more bruises charging = slower board drops and fewer bruises.

In practice

Having seen all of that basic information, what should then be your plan for a match? There are a number of different approaches to Rumbling, and different styles to carry you to a win. I will cover these styles more in depth in an upcoming section. However, all Rumbling requires a balance between offensive and defensive action. You need to strike a balance between charging and sending strikes, and clearing and defending your own board. Insisting upon a single aspect of the game will leave you vulnerable in other ways. For instance, someone who only sprinkles and does not strike is unlikely to generate enough pressure to beat high-level opponents. On the other hand, someone who only strikes and fails to clear and defend their board will let all the pressure they receive pile up, and become unable to find groups to charge or to otherwise stay afloat. From my point of view, the correct way to play Rumble means you take all of the levers at your disposal, and you pull the correct lever at the right time. This means that for each strike that you send, you should try to clear your board and prepare for the next stage of the match. Striking -> clearing -> striking -> clearing gets you in a good position to be able to both react to your opponent and to pre-emptively apply pressure through different means (e.g. a narrow strike vs. sprinkling offensively). If you do not invest the time in attacking and defending in equal parts, you risk leaning on only one of them for too long, making it easier for your opponent to strike back. For instance, sending strikes without sprinkling not only means your board is a bigger hazard for you, but it also means that after 3 or 4 punches your opponent’s board has no variance. Only receiving strikes makes your pattern become very homogenous and easy to clear. I will offer some more advanced tips on board management in an upcoming section.

The not-basics

Opener

Your opener is defined as the first punch you send in a match. This punch can be of any size you deem appropriate, but you'll often find it best to stick to a smaller, concise punch. The usual recommendation is a 3/9, meaning a 3-group punch with 9 added dropoff. This punch combines both pressure - adding mass to your opponent's board - and scrambling/bruising. It is also one of the quickest effective strikes you can send. When your match begins, you should immediately begin charging one of your balls. This is a best practice that will save you time when preparing your opener. In the best case scenario, the ball you charged will lead to a charged group. In the worst case scenario, the ball's charge is effectively wasted, but at a 0-cost to you. This is because when you start a match, your first task is to analyze your board and check the best possible route, or the path of least resistance, to getting a 3/9 off. Since this opening time is spent surveying your board, your initial charging is effortless. Another hint for when preparing your opener is to check if there is any natural dropoff in your board. This can be a combination of 2 or more groups that, when charged, yield free dropoff that you did not need to add manually as it was already naturally present in the board. This is the optimization with the biggest impact in your opening speed, and it is a skill that easily translates to the rest of your game plan. <gif here, bridge with dropoff> <gif here, ideal 4/13 opening>

Bludgeons

Tier list (no bludgeons games)

Fists

1. Intro & bludgeon's goal

...

1. Criteria for success

met? not met?

1. Pattern analysis

Strikes: 0/10 Sprinkles: 0/10 Reasoning

1. Overall rating: 0/10

Recommended bludgeons

Fists

<why it's recommended, what's my goal when using this blud>

External resources

Boothook's guide

[1]

YouTube channel

[2]