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Hey guys, I don't know if any of you still remember me back from OCN, but for those who don't, I'm that Asian kid who builds fast cannons and farms monuments (not to be confused with beanbutt ). Banter aside, I was feeling a bit nostalgic today and decided to visit what was left of old OCN forums. I then remembered that I had written a guide to modern TNT cannoning before OCN shut down. Here I am now saddened by the fact that cannoning is no longer seen as much on OCN, especially those who practice it wholeheartedly. I hope by the reposting of these essential cannoning guides I am able to arouse the interests of some people who still have/had the love of cannoning and hopefully see it alive again this time on Stratus.

Sincerely yours,
pjMCCX 

CREDITS:
Big thanks to Ain360  for kickstarting my interest in cannoning and objective-focused gameplay and being my inspiration.

[avatar-user:Varis5H] for your montages and cannon guides that helped me learn a lot and gave me something to challenge myself to emulate.

HardstyleRaver

  for being a chill dude whom I can talk to about cannoning and anything.

Blade00000009

  for being my cannoning buddy and inspiring me to write ths guide.

ocktick

  for being my OCN buddy and supporting me in everything I do.

beanbutt

  for being my arch-nemesis, everlasting rival, and inspiration to keep on getting better and faster.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

PICTURES COMING SOON™

PJ's Ultimate Guide to Modern TNT Cannoning

• with excerpts taken from Varis' Guide to TNT 2.0.0

Cannon Parts

: There are a lot of components in a cannon.

• Charge

  : This is what will fire your cannonballs or other item you want launched.




• Cannonball

  : This is the TNT you fire out of your cannon.




• Activator

  : This is what you use to activate the TNT in your cannon.




• Water

  : This is what you use to keep your cannon from blowing up. Cannons that don't use water are called "dry cannons."

Mounting blocks

: Mounting blocks are what cannonballs sit on before they are fired.

• Slabs

  : Slabs give a low angle shot. They are not a good mounting block for a line fire cannon due to decreased range, but they are very effective for a spread cannon before the 1.8.2 update.




• Full block

  : Full blocks are the worst mounting block ever. They have a bad range and a bad angle. NEVER use it as a mounting block on a cannon unless you plan on shooting the TNT straight down.




• Fence post with pressure plate

  : This mounting block has the longest range of all mounting blocks. It gives a low angle but not lower than the slab and is, therefore, the best mounting block for regular purposes such as firing a cannon at the enemy base. A pressure plate isn't required if you can place the water in the very back of the cannon.




• Ladders

  : Ladders give a slightly lower range than a fence post, but it has quite a good angle that it fires at. Therefore, ladders are the best mounting block when countering an enemy cannon that is higher than your cannon.




• Trapdoors

  : A closed trapdoor is the optimal mounting block for a long range cannons as it gives the lowest angle to your shot. Trapdoors can replace a pressure plate on a fence post, giving equal power. A trapdoor that is open can replace a ladder as a mounting block. With this in mind, you can have a lever on the block that your trapdoor is standing on and give your cannon extreme versatility in its angles.




• Double Ladders

  : Double ladders give the highest angle to your shot and can be used to fire at skybridges much closer or almost in front of you. It is also the mounting block of choice when firing at high-altitude skyrbridges that are distant from you provided that your cannon has the range capabilities.

Designs

Line-fire Cannons

: As the name suggests, line-fire cannons shoot their cannonballs in a straight line on your X and Z axis. The angle of the shot on the Y axis varies depending on the mounting block and the cannon. Dry cannons on the other hand don't use water. Therefore, these cannons can only be used once. NEVER build a dry cannon near an allied cannon. Golden rule for dry cannons: Always build up and out from your base when building a dry cannon (7 blocks up and 7 blocks out).

Whiskey Cannon

: The modern whiskey cannon has many modifications possible to increase its range. It is the simplest cannon that exists but is still very powerful. Any time you need a line-fire cannon, in most cases, this is the cannon you want to use especially when you have no redstone in hand.

• Author: Trazlander, Jikosh

Avery Cannon/Gramps Cannon/303

: The 303 is a popular choice for cannoneers who need faster build time in expense of more diverse charge placements. This cannon is faster to reload than a modified whiskey but has lesser capabilities.

• Author: gramps223

Adding more firepower

: Sometimes 2 TNTs are not enough. We can keep our firing pattern but add more destruction to the shot by using modifications that involves redstone and/or wooden button.

• 
  3-shot upgrade

  : Use this whenever you have redstone and need slightly more firepower but don't have enough time to build a 4 cannonball cannon.




• 
  4-shot upgrade

  : Use this whenever you need more firepower than a normal and 3-shot cannon.




• 
  Wooden button upgrade

  : This utilizes the fact that wooden buttons have a longer redstone signal, and that TNT starts falling immediately when it has a block above it. It is essentially a modification to a cannon to make it more efficient without the use of redstone.

Adding more range

: You can increase the range of a standard 3-charge whiskey cannon through various modifications using redstone and a couple of blocks.

• 
  

  Whiskey upgrades

  :

  
  
  
  
  
  • 
    Redstoneless wooden button upgrade

    : Use this whenever you have no redstone and need slightly more range. This is often useful in late games of Spaceship Battles.

  
  
  
  • 
    5-charge/Marksman cannon upgrade

    : This cannon was made famous by the tournament team Ambush (Ain360), but it existed for a lot longer. This whiskey cannon upgrade is used to increase the range of your whiskey cannon by just simply placing 1 redstone dust and 4 additional blocks, therefore making it the speediest and most efficient upgrade to the whiskey cannon.

  
  
  
  • 
    7-charge cannon upgrade

    : This is a design made and used by varis5hawk during the Breaking Core tournament. It has the most redstone efficient charge segment of all line-fire cannons containing redstone.

  
  
  
  • 
    9-charge cannon upgrade

    : This is an extremely long ranged cannon designed by varis5hawk in 2013. The design was upgraded to its current state during the Breaking Core tournament. This is the direct charge upgrade to the 7-charge cannon upgrade.

  
  
  
  


• 
  

  303 upgrades

  :

  
  
  
  
  • 
    x-1-z upgrade

    : By increasing the height of the middle of the cannon by 1 block, you are allowing an extra TNT to be placed that is within reach of the redstone signal, therefore making your cannon more powerful and having more diverse charge settings.

  
  
  • 
    x-y-4

    : This upgrade allows an extra TNT to be placed at the back therefore making your cannon more powerful and having more diverse charge settings.

  
  
  • 
    x-1-4

    : This upgrade basically combines the x-1-y upgrade and the x-y-4 upgrade, therefore making it the best and most efficient upgrade to the 303 in terms of charge placement diversities and range.

  
  
  
  

Most Important Regarding Cannons

This guide goes on for ages about different designs, but honestly, that happens to be the most useless information there is. This small part will hopefully allow you to navigate through the massive amount of information here to find what you actually need. The most important factor in cannoning is knowing the designs you feel that you need, be able to build them as quickly as possible, and knowing how to use them in as many ways as possible.

What comes first is knowing what cannons you need. To know this, you first need to know what you can make different designs do and then try to get it down to as few cannons as possible. You can extend the possibilities with each cannon by knowing how you can easily modify them for extra range, different angles etc. To present this concept as clearly as I can, I'll give an example of how you could do this.

Cannon 1: Whiskey Cannon

Reasoning: The whiskey can be used as a simple cannon without using redstone, but can also be extended into a more advanced cannon, such as what is referred to here as a "marksman cannon" by adding a piece of redstone and placing a few blocks on top of the cannon. You could also add more firepower to the cannon by simply adding a 3 cannonball extension in the front. It can also fire at very high angles by using two ladders as a mounting block, and can then attack sky bridges, especially with range extensions.

Cannon 2: A cannon which isn't mentioned in this guide but is seen here.

Reasoning: This cannon can fire extremely far at skybridges that are still under construction. It can also fire at skybridges much closer with double ladders. It's very useful on massive maps with high height limits where enemy teams can skybridge a lot.

For modern cannoning, those two cannons fill what i believe to be your basic needs. Generally, when looking for your go to cannons, try and go from what i did here. Take mounting blocks into account a lot, because they can change a cannon drastically. Experiment in singleplayer how much you can do with one design.

Now, you've made everything a lot easier for this part, because you don't need to remember as many cannons. Construction is probably the flashiest part of cannoning. High build speeds are extremely useful. Try and find a way of building your cannon which you find the easiest to build a cannon. Try to avoid having to jump, as that becomes a limitation. Sometimes, though it may be useful, if you place a lot of blocks during the jump. For example, if you're building a whiskey, you can build the two front pillars very easily by placing a block under you, then putting them up during two jumps. Generally, just find the way that works best for you, then practice it, a lot. It takes a lot of practice to become consistently fast when building cannons, but it will set you far off from most people.

Aiming is probably the most overlooked part of cannoning, but maybe even the most important. Experiment with how different placement of TNT affects your shot. Practice timing. Aiming comes with experience, lots of it. Playing public matches and finding different, difficult targets to cannon improves this skill vastly, but it takes a long time. It is the same way you know how to angle a bow if you want to hit somebody. Experience is key here.

Cannoning, really just requires experience and some thinking, just like everything else does.

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btw if anybody wants to play overwatch with me, hmu on discord pjMCCX#8163

hehe its nice to be back too :)

so hows it been going here?

Guess you failed at PJ's quote ;p

Nice to see you back pj