HOW TO USE AND COUNTER SPIKE – GUIDE

Hey everyone what’s happening and today I’m going to tell you all about the legendary brawler Spike, how to use him, how to counter him, where you should be playing him all about a shot mechanics and much more so stick around for this legendary guide.

OVERVIEW

First off let’s take a quick overview on Spike now he is one of the three legendary brawlers in the game and if you’ve been lucky enough to get him well then you’ve certainly beaten the odds because the chance for that baseline is 0.11% that’s not a high number so pretty much I just have to use gem to get some Spike action. Basically now his main shot is called needle grenade and what it does is it shoots out a medium distance and when it reaches its target or it reaches max distance it explodes and shoots out six spikes in different directions. We’re gonna get into the very specifics of that attack is shot patterns how to control it more a little bit later in this guide so you definitely want to stick around for that now his super is called stick around what he does is he launches out a big cactus ball when it hits the ground it creates a massive circle and within that circle, cactuses grow up in the enemy that’s caught in the circle they’re slowed as well as they take damage over time. It is one of the best supers in the game right now and it really excels with crowd control now a star power is called fertilised, it really combines with his super and what happens is if Spike is standing within the area of effect of his super he will start to get healed for 500 health per tick it is exceedingly strong and probably one of the strongest in the game right now on a sidenote the healing from his star power does not scale with Showdown power so it doesn’t matter if you have zero showdown power-ups or ten you’re still getting healed for 500.

Read More: Spike’s Basic Information

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS

Now let’s go over some of Spike’s strengths and his weaknesses because of the way his shot mechanics work he has incredible burst capability. He can pump out a ton of damage especially up close and will mid rage to up-close at distance he can still do a decent amount of damage but at that range, he’s more of a her than he is really a heavy damage dealer he has great crowd control not only from of the area effect of his main shot but mainly his super can really really stop people from coming into areas as well as trap people in areas. It’s a really great super and I’ll show you guys more later on how to use that in the most effective means. Another strength for Spike is that he has incredible defensive capabilities in fact in most game modes aside from gem grab you’re really gonna be playing more of a defensive role with spike and with that he can shred tanks really fast, he can slow enemies down from like trying to score in brawl ball, he has incredible defensive capabilities and you’re really gonna want to utilize those Spike is one of the most versatile brawlers in the game. He can play in almost every game mode maybe not the best in all of them but he can play in all of them, the bounty would probably be his worst game mode however we’ll get into all the specific game modes later on in this guy and finally and perhaps the most important one is that he has a skin that’s pink.

But he’s not the perfect brawler, he does have plenty of weaknesses as well namely his range which is only a medium range. His health which is very low near the very bottom like with dynamite can crow its way down there with him as well as his speed he is the slowest brawler in the game well I mean he’s tied with like a bunch of other brawlers for the slows but nevertheless, he’s the not the slowest brawler in the game now one of the most interesting and probably useful aspects of Spike is his shot mechanic.

MECHANICS

What happens is he shoots out a shot and once it reaches its maximum distance or it hits its target or an object like a wall not that I would ever shoot a wall it will explode and shoot out six projectiles. Now, this shot pattern despite Spikes relatively slow reload speed is the reason why he has such huge burst potential. Let’s take a closer look at this pattern so that you can understand how it works and how to utilize it to your advantage now as I was saying Spike shot goes out and when it reaches its maximum distance or it hits his target it shoots out in 6 projectiles as you can see here in this picture above. This is the pattern that it always is it doesn’t matter which direction you’re facing up down left right upside down in another galaxy it doesn’t matter this is his shot pattern every single time it used to be different it was a little bit orangey but now this is it knowing this we can utilize that to our advantage now if we take a look as you can see the point of impact right there is on the bottom left-hand side and then the spikes travel out if you’re looking at that there’s only one spike that’s going to hit and it does as you can see that other arrow so two bits of damage will hit on that box at that time. Let’s see it again but now with two spikes hitting if we go over there just a little bit more it’s a better shot as you can see now two spikes are gonna travel upwards to the left and to the right in both hit and you can see even they turn black there it’s there are three spots connecting the damage down initially as well as the two other points you can get it on the safe and heist if you time it just right well if you stand in just the right spot you will get four shots on once that’s pretty impressive and if you get two boxes stacked up together like say in showdown you can deal a ton of damage if you stand right on the middle of them it just really racks out the damage.

PERFECT PATTERN

So if you’re gonna be open up those boxes in Showdown just walk right up to him and stand on top of them you’re gonna deal more consistent damage than if you try to from far away. Now if you get really good at aiming those shots and knowing the pattern you can more accurately predict if your shots are going to hit one two or three or possibly even more at one time. Now I will say that the size of the hitbox of your target you’re shooting at does make a difference on how many spikes will land the bigger the hitbox the better chance you have of multiple projectiles hitting that target now that you know that shot pattern you can use that to your advantage what you can do is if somebody’s hiding behind the wall or at an angle that you know it’s going to hit because you know the pattern. Now you can use that spike shot to reach targets behind a wall or are waving off to a corner in the bottom left like you’re seeing right now it can come in extremely handy and when an opponent thinks that they’re out of reach you can still reach out and touch them now as you can see in this clip it is clearly better to manual aim than it is to auto-aim at a distance. You’re never going to hit your target with auto-aim unless the person is just standing still the only time it’s acceptable is if you’re within about two tiles or so if you’re really close to somebody than Auto-aim is fine otherwise manually aim spike he’s got a wide range it’s easy to hit your shots just manually aim just don’t do the auto-aim. Now let’s go over how you want to play Spike. Spike is a support brawler that means he’s not like saying gem grab he’s not the gem carrier he’s not gonna be the aggro brawler he’s gonna be support he’s there to make sure that the rest of the team is able to do their job without being impeded too much from the other team now you could use your super in a both an offensive ended defensive manner heck.

USING YOUR SUPER

I mean you can even use your super to heal yourself in a pinch if that’s really what you need to do it’s probably not used best for that but if you have your star power you can absolutely make use of that if like it’s a crucial moment and you don’t have time to stop shooting to heal up you can use your super to help heal yourself back up but Bar None the best use of your super is absolutely no that’s not it who took that clip that is not a good use of a super I mean Touche Touche but truly the best way to use your super is either to trap an opponent from escaping from an area or use that super to block off and make an area inaccessible from an enemy. Now if you have your super and you’re up close and a confrontation is inevitable you can also throw it down at your feet on the other brawler as well you will be healing yourself you’re already toe to toe so you’re gonna be in a scuffle anyways so you’re gonna be dealing damage and you’re gonna be healing yourself and many times just that extra health is the difference between winning and losing a one-on-one fight one thing you want to be careful with Spike is being too aggressive you have to remember Spike is a glass cannon he does a lot of damage but he has very little health.

PLAYING TIPS

So don’t be too aggressive and put yourself in a situation where you’re just gonna get taken out. One thing you might want to consider doing is hiding in a bush and jumping out at a medium distance and throwing those shots off toward somebody and then backing off and getting back into cover. You want to keep tanks at a comfortable range, you don’t want them on top of you for obvious reasons but you don’t want them too far away because your damage is more inconsistent at a further range. So keep them at just at an arm’s length where are in Primo’s case a fists length away from you while you’re still dealing your damage. Now against a long-range brawler, you’re probably going to want to play it smart, you’re gonna want to slowly try to work yourself into a position of cover and then use that cover to peek out and throw those shots out and do your damage and keep them back because again Spike doesn’t have a very long range in other brawlers. The ones that do have a long-range you’re gonna want to either gonna have to just flat-out outplay them by getting them to miss shots and you’ll and yours or you’re gonna have to play it smart. I would recommend you do the latter of the two now because of spikes shot pattern enemies that clump up are in big trouble because he can really throw out tons of damage. If you get multiple enemies in the same spot and if you see that take advantage of it as soon as possible it’ll put a ton of pressure on them it’ll build up your super and it’ll give you your team the chance to take control of the field

In Brawl Stars filled control and holding your position is a huge thing so be sure to take advantage of that now some specific game-mode advice and Jim grab you’re gonna be playing a lane, you’re not going to play in the middle you’re not gonna be the aggro you’re gonna be in a lane like say on crystal cavern you’d probably want to play on the right and with that, you’re going to want to focus on the person that’s in front of you that’s coming down your lane now if there is no one in your lane feel free to crossfire into the center at the opponent’s gem carrier puts a lot of pressure on them at two versus one because your Jim a carrier is gonna be on them as well two versus one is a not a fight that almost anybody can win so that’ll really help out. Now in the heist, you’re much more of a defensive player slash field control of course if you see an opportunity to get to the safe well then you’re going to go ahead and do that as well and again if you’re free and clear on the safe be sure to stand right on its toes where you’re just barely in front of the safe and you will deal max damage to that safe but for the most part you’re going to be playing a defensive role and a control role you’re really just providing the opportunity for your tank and probably your thrower to be able to get to the safe and deal max damage in brawl ball. You’re playing a very similar role than what you were in heist it’s more of a field control defensive stopper but also you can be kind of a playmaker as well because you can use that super to slow down an enemy to create gaps and lanes and opportunities for your ball carrier to really get in there and score so save your super for spots that are really critical that you see that like okay if I slow this brawler down they’re not gonna be able to get to this spot in time and that’s going to leave my ball carrier and opening the score and look for those spots and take advantage of them.

COUNTERING SPIKE

Now let’s talk about some ways to counter Spike, if you don’t have Spike yourself you’ve probably played against him and thought holy crap that brawler is insanely strong and he is I’m not disputing that but there are some very good ways to counter him like most things when you’re looking for a counter you want to take a look at them analyze their weaknesses and then exploit that. So if we take a look at Spike’s weaknesses again health range and speed as far as range goes that’s pretty simple if you plan a brawler that just simply outrages Spike like a Piper a Brock a Rico or a Colt just stay at your max range and Spike will not be able to get you but just out range him flat out range him make it to where he can’t touch you try not to let him get position on you and then abuse that range so that he never has a chance to get in there and land those shots on you as far as his health goes. If you’re a tank and you can get close to Spike you will obliterate him really quickly but that’s where the rub comes in because it’s not always super easy to get Spike.

Spike is actually a pretty good tank stopper now you can’t get there but you’re going to have to play smart slowly work yourself into position and once you get there, try to heal up again trying to avoid those shots and then when you see your opportunity you can get close to Spike and you can absolutely take them out real quick or alternatively you can hide in a bush and you can jump them that way as well. It only takes a couple of shots from a bull to take them down as far as speed goes just like we were talking about before in Bravo let’s say you’re a mortise and you got the ball look for those openings that you can get around Spike once you get past him he’s not going to catch you so you can use that speed to your advantage or his lack of speed to your advantage and your speed and you can really get away from Spike in a hurry. So look for those opportunities to be able to get around him now let’s talk about the game modes that you should be looking to push Spike in first off Jim grab the answer is yes what Maps the answer is yes it’s always yes and Jim grab spike is amazing and Jim grab it’s probably his best game mode showdown the answer again is yes is he the very best that’s kind of map-specific so your mileage may vary but solo showdown yes.

CURVEBALL

We’re going to be talking about Spike’s new star power curveball and makes the spikes that come out from his little cactus ball projectile thing you spin all around so it’s impossible to actually aim is this actually an advantage or is it just making Spike harder to use. I don’t actually have the star power yet myself but I’ve looked at a ton of footage and I think I’ve come to a pretty solid conclusion so let’s jump right into talking about our good ol spikey boy so there is one pretty significant advantage to his star power that we can talk about right off the bat you know those dirty Bowl players you get down to like 20 health and then run and hide behind a one tile wall and somehow survive and heal back to full health no longer is that an issue introducing curveball just throw one giant cactus blob and let the spikes do the rest. They’ll curve right around any quarter you need and smack that bull right where you need it now obviously the main attack can also hit around walls but with the curveball then you’re going to have a much greater chance of actually hitting whatever is behind there especially if the wall is vertical with the original attack there are spikes that go perfectly horizontally which is great for hitting people around horizontal walls but there are no spikes that go perfectly vertically only diagonally. So it’s very very difficult to actually aim and hit things behind those vertical walls but with the star power, there will be multiple spikes that make it behind a vertical wall at different distances both left and right hands up and down so it covers a lot more area and makes it much much harder to hide behind a small wall now there is one main drawback with this the spikes are going all over the place so it’s very very difficult to accurately aim.

Now I’m sure after using this star power a lot and I mean a lot you might be able to consistently figure out where these spikes are going and aim accordingly but if not then you’re really just hoping that the RNG is nice to you and you hit them but exactly how much better are your chances of hitting someone with that curved shot. I took some quick pixel measurements to find this out and I made this scale diagram right here of his shot pattern you can see the original paths of the spikes in red and then the curved paths of the spikes with the star power in black so I was able to get this by roughly estimating where the spikes went by taking a bunch of screenshots at different points in their time of flight and the path actually closely approximates a parabolic trajectory so that’s what I’m going to use in order to compare it with the original linear direction and then I graphed that parabolic trajectory which looks oddly like the shape of spikes head huh and then I used the arc length formula to determine each spike would travel approximately 517 pixels on this path at least on my computer then I just straight up measured the line of the original non star power paths of each of the spikes and I got that those traveled about 288 pixels.

So with the star power the spikes are going to be covering 80 percent more distance which is 80% more area almost double so it does seem like you get a pretty nice boost from this star power and it’ll be a lot easier to hit people but is this star power really better than the other option where you gain 500 health per second by standing in his super area? This honestly depends on the game mode if you’re in solo showdown you’re not often gonna have close 1v ones with other brawlers unless you have a ton more power cubes than them and if it comes down to just two brawlers left you and a bolt there’s no way you’re gonna win by charging up close to him so in that situation if you wanted to actually gain something from your star power you just have to use your super on yourself then since there’s no way you would be able to get close enough to be able to stand in the area while simultaneously attacking your opponent and if you’re that far away then 500 health a second really isn’t that much since you probably can’t attack you anyway but then in modes like bounty or gem grab or a siege we’re staying alive is super important and dying would give a huge advantage to your opponents then the star power would provide a ton of value and there will be times when you can get a close one v1 in with weaker low health brawlers and having that bonus health is a huge factor in winning those mini 1v ones within the entire scope of the game and honestly in that case I don’t think the slight increased damage from the curveball would really be all that great compared to the ability to completely wipe out one of your opponent’s brawlers by healing while attacking them I can’t really say for sure because I know some people might get really really good at curve ball and take advantage of its ability to curve around walls and that extra percent area but as of now I think it’s pretty safe to say that the fertilized star power will be better in most situations but that’s all for this video guys I hope you enjoyed make sure to leave a like and a comment down below about what you think about these two star powers but that’s all for today

GAME MODES

Spike is very good duo showdown I think he’s even better because he works really well as a damage dealer and control so he really feels both roles and so he’s very versatile and can work with a lot of different team comps so look to play Spike in showdown and duo showdown cuz he works great in either one in Bravo again the answer is yes look for those maps that are kind of mid-range Maps like pinhole punt or a triple dribble backyard Bo works okay super stadium puddle splash sneaky fields is kind of hit or miss because there’s so many tanks there and they can get up on you so close but look to play him in Bravo because he is great as a defensive player in a field control so what about heist that’s maybe it really depends on the map  Hot potato, its is also probably my favorite map to play spike on because he can really control the middle there where that grasses tanks likes to sneak through there for the most part spike it’s just kind of a middling option. There’s almost always a better option than Spike on heist but there are some apps where he can definitely work and does work well.

The last normal game mode, of course, is bounty and that would be a big fat if nope no spike really doesn’t work very well and the reason is because bounty is flooded with very long-range brawlers remember we talked about how the best way to counter spike is with range so you’re taking spike into a mode where your counters exist. I’m not saying he can’t work because he can but there is always a better option than Spike on bounty he’s just not the best so I would stay away from bounty and take a look at some of those other game modes that we talked about so what about the special events? It’s a pretty simple rule here if it has a robot in it the answer is no so big game he actually works pretty well as of both the boss and the attacker, not the best options like for the boss itself probably Jesse or Nita are probably better but he can work pretty well so that’s gonna wrap it up for my guide on Spike that’s a bunch of information a process but I hope that this helps you if you were lucky enough to get Spike congratulations, he is such a great brawler one of the best in the game right now. I hope you enjoyed this guide get out there and put it to use use it to your advantage and you will be climbing up the trophies on Spike in no time because he is a great brawler that’s gonna wrap it up for today’s article.