The goal is to send bruises to your opponent. Because bruises take more effort to clear, the hope is to decrease the number of sprinkles your opponent can send for each row drop their given. Just to give you an example of what we're looking for, here are a couple screenshots I took - these are from a Renowned rumbler (Amatoria) fighting me, an Ultimate rumbler, showing that you don't have to be the best rumbler in the ocean to pull this off. The only caveat is that I sent her nothing but sprinkles, and she knew that was coming. I'll talk about why that's important, later. Here's her first strike against me:
Notice the large number of bruises in that strike. That was the first strike she sent in the game. None of those bruises are from board drops. Here's what happens if you continue using this approach effectively:
What a mess. There are some groups of similar colors in there but, all in all, it's a nightmare to clear. And remember, this is someone that's Renowned. You don't have to be an amazing rumbler to pull this off - you just have to understand the strategy. What nasty bludgeon was used to create this mess, you ask? Rope coils - a bludgeon often known as having one of the worst strike patterns in the game. It's truly the technique, not the bludgeon causing the mess.
Understanding Bruises
First of all, it's important to understand how bruises are created. When you trigger a major strike (triggering a charged group), the size of the strike is determined by the number of charged groups that are triggered and how many total balls are in those groups. However, the number of bruises included in the strike is determined by how many loose balls "fall off" of the puzzle due to the clear. I've not tested it, personally, but Boothook claims that up to one half of the volume of a strike can consist of bruises. It seems about right to me, so I'll assume that's true.
That means that, if you send a 20 ball strike, up to 10 of those balls can be bruises. What does that mean for your strike, though? Well, if you send that strike as is, there won't be any bruises (unless you're using a bruising bludgeon, like a hammer, of course). If you want to turn 10 balls of that strike into bruises, you need to add 10 "loose" balls to your strike so that, when you clear it, those 10 balls fall off the puzzle, turning 10 balls of your strike into bruises. That means that you're using a considerably larger number of balls to send a strike that's no larger, at all, but a strike that's filled with bruises.
Because it requires so many extra balls to create srikes filled with bruises, they're not often used. However, if you're fighting someone that likes to sprinkle endlessly, you can use their attack strategy against them in the form of bruises.
Let's take a look at how it works.
Step 1: Pay very special attention to the sprinkle pattern of your opponent.
In this case, I'm fighting someone using bare fists. The sprinkle pattern, from left to right, is red/yellow/orange.
Step 2: Set your trigger group.
The goal here is to make a fairly large strike so we need to assume that the opponent will send one or more sprinkle attacks while we're busy building. That makes it very important to start the combo by placing the trigger group in such a way that it lines up with your opponent's strike pattern. In this case, my trigger group is orange on the right, which lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. If my opponent sends any sprinkle attacks, the orange balls they send will simply attach to my trigger group, keeping it available for me to trigger.
Here's the basic setup:
This may not look like much, but there are two things to note. First, my trigger group is oranges on the right. As I said earlier, I know this lines up with my opponent's sprinkle pattern. Second, notice that the charged groups stretch all the way from one side of the board to the other. Here's an illustration to help you see it:
What's so important about that, you ask? Well, the important part is that anything that comes up from below is bound to fall off the puzzle when you break this combo. So, no matter how many sprinkles your opponent sends, those balls can be incorporated into your attack and sent back.
Step 3: Cut off the charged groups.
If you allow the balls to all mesh together, you're going to create a nice, wide strike, but it's not going to be very large, unless you can create a combo with a lot of individual charged groups. Because turbo sprinklers can fill your board so quickly, it can be hard to build a combo with a lot of charged groups. That means you end up wasting a lot of the attack.
To take full advantage of your opponent's attack style, make sure that these groups aren't all connecting. So, if you have a red charged group on the left (where your opponent is sending red balls), be sure to block it off with some other balls. That ensures that the red balls become a separate group. Your goal here is to make sure that your opponent's attacks become unattached groups. As long as they're unattached, they'll become bruises in your counter-strike.
Here's what it looks like when you're ready to trigger the attack (I've left the black line in place so that you can see where the cut-off is):
Step 4: Trigger the Strike
A couple things to notice here. For one, the strike is actually pretty small. There are only 6 charged groups in there. That means my strike is only going to be about 4 or 5 lines long. However, notice how large that group of oranges is on the right. That's because my opponent's attacks all accumulated onto my trigger group. Because that group is so large, my strike is going to be very wide, even if it is short. Also, look at how many uncharged balls are just hanging off that strike. Tons. Honestly, there are far more hanging off it than there need to be. Because a strike can only be about half bruises, I have many more balls hanging off this strike than I need. Many are simply wasted. Nonetheless, I really wanted to illustrate the strategy, so I kinda overdid it.
Step 5: Follow the attack
Once you send the strike, you're not done. You need to keep the pressure on and make sure that your opponent doesn't have time to recover. If you immediately go back to building a large strike, you're going to allow your opponent a chance to dig through all those bruises. My suggestion is to send a lot of small strikes. Small strikes are good for a few reasons:
- It pushes the bruises down at your opponent, forcing them to work through them.
- It deprives your opponent sprinkles to clear to help work through the bruises. Your opponent is forced to fire balls from their gloves to clear the bruises, causing them to get more row drops.
- It helps to scramble the bruises about, making them more difficult to clear.
So that's the basic strategy. Please note that, in order to make this work, you do not have to cut off the entire board with charged groups, from one side to the other. It's nice, if you can do it, but it's not essential. If I were to set a trigger group on the orange, I could charge the red on the left and then cut it off. Anything that attaches to that group would become bruises in a strike - just make sure that those balls don't attach to anything except the red group, which will break. To make it a little more effective, you could attach balls to the edges of the group hanging off the red, so that it catches more rising sprinkles.
You can even slow down a bit when using this technique. Very quickly get the setup in place, setting the trigger group and making a line of charged groups for attacks to hang off of. Once that's in place, though, let your opponent do the work. Let them fire ball after ball and fill your screen with sprikle attacks. This causes them to get many more board drops (and with them, bruises) than you do. Finally, when your board is nearly full, let it rip. Once you're at this stage, get back on your horse and get to work, sending small strikes to keep the pressure on.
Also, you need to be careful when using this strategy. It can be very useful against someone that is only sending sprinkles, but, if you're busy building and your opponent sends a strike attack your way (even a small one), it can really screw up your board, making you easy prey.
This certainly isn't a strategy that works against everyone, but it can be useful against those that want to play sprinkle tennis against you. I hope you find it helpful.
