Explosive Ammo
| Explosive Ammo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Combat Level 8 |
| Produces | 5 Explosive Ammo per craft |
| Sell Price | 20g |
Explosive Ammo is a slingshot round that bursts on impact. Instead of hitting a single target, it blows up and damages everything close to where it lands. That makes it a ranged bomb, useful against groups of monsters and for clearing rocks from a distance. The recipe unlocks at Combat level 8, and each craft gives a small stack of rounds. After that, Marlon's Adventurer's Guild also keeps it in stock.
Recipe
Reaching Combat level 8 teaches the recipe. Crafting one Iron Bar with two pieces of Coal makes a batch of five rounds. Iron Bars come from smelting five Iron Ore with a Coal in a Furnace. Both the ore and the Coal come from breaking rocks in the Mines.
Once the recipe is known, the Adventurer's Guild beside the Mines sells the ammo too. Buying it costs far more per round than crafting, so a Furnace and a stack of Iron Ore are the cheaper route. The Guild counter only opens to a farmer who has finished Marlon's Initiation quest, which means killing a handful of slimes in the first floors of the Mines.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Iron Bar | 
|
1 |
| Coal | 
|
2 |
Use
Like any other ammunition, it has to be loaded first. In the inventory, pick up the ammo and right-click it onto the slingshot.
Firing is a charge and release. Holding the attack button winds the sling back and raises a red target marker, and letting go sends the round along that line. The shot keeps going until it meets something, so an open cave floor is no limit on range.
A round explodes as soon as it hits a monster, a cave wall, a ladder or water. It flies straight past rocks and plants without stopping. To break rocks with it, aim at a nearby wall or a monster standing among them, and the blast does the rest.
The blast is small, reaching about two tiles around the point of impact. That is less than a Cherry Bomb covers. Its advantage is distance: the farmer can stay well back from dangerous monsters while the explosion does the work.
Notes
Both the basic Slingshot and the Master Slingshot can fire it. On a direct hit, a round does about as much damage as a piece of Iron Ore fired from the same slingshot. Gold Ore and Iridium Ore hit a single target harder. The real value of Explosive Ammo is the blast, which catches everything nearby at once.
The cheap ammunition sits far below it. Stone, Coal and Copper Ore all hit for a fraction as much, and fruit, vegetables and eggs barely scratch a monster. That spread is why a slingshot carried for serious work is usually loaded with either explosive rounds or the richest ore on hand.
In the Skull Cavern, a few rounds can clear a cluster of rocks quickly while hunting for the ladder down. Placed bombs do the same job, but they have to be dropped at the farmer's feet.
Spare rounds have a use above ground as well. They count as a red dye, so a handful dropped into the red pot at Emily and Haley's house will recolour a shirt the farmer is wearing.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
