THE POPULOUS BIBLE
C.18 Blast
Blast is probably one of the most widely-used spells in the game. The blast spell can usually kill a follower in one hit unless it is a warrior or Shaman - many times a preacher will not die in 1 blast either.
You get this spell by worshipping the Vault of Knowledge in the tutorial, but even if you don't play the tutorial, it is available from the beginning in level 1: "The Journey Begins". The maximum shots of this spell you can store is 4.
Blast is a very important spell. It can be used in a number of different ways, some ways are better than others at different times.
First, there is straight on target. If you click on the follower it will do a homing blast on it and bounce forward. You can use this to kill a follower in one go or a group of followers that aren't near water. Because a direct hit throws the enemy forward, it isn't a good idea to directly hit a Shaman walking to your village, as she will be thrown closer to it.
Then there is blasting next to the follower. This will blast it the opposite way of where you blast. This is good to knock a follower or a group of followers into the water. You should also use this to blast a Shaman off a cliff or into the water.
Last is blasting near it but not next to it. It is used on followers and maybe the Shaman from reaching you. If some Firewarriors are going up a hill then blast from a near range and it will stop them from coming up. Keep doing it to kill them.
In online gaming, being a good blaster is a really important skill. Actually, having a good shaman skill is one of the best ways of being a good Populous player - and since blast is the bread and butter spell in Populous, mastering this spell is a key factor. There are even maps where only players only have their shaman and fight other shamans in arenas - those levels can be fun to play, and at the same time will practice your shaman skill - it is important to be a good blaster and a good blast dodger, aswell as predict enemy's spells and learn his moving patterns.
If your shaman is rolling towards water, cast a blast immediately to stop her. This will many times avoid your shaman of rolling to water and dying, but many times you need fast reflexes.
Cast blast (several times if the lava is not gone by when she lands) when your shaman is caught on lava to stop her from dying.
Cast blast when your shaman is caught in a firestorm to be able to regain control of her. If an enemy shaman blasts you and you blast her right after, she’ll take damage and you won’t (you actually take damage, but almost none) if you time it right. This is called the blast trick or glitch (see more in section F.)
The blast itself causes little damage - what causes most of the damage is the blasted unit being blasted to a big height and then fall off again: the damage of the fall is bigger than the damage from the blast itself. This can easily be explained:
If you blast a brave that was in low height terrain, he will get blasted high and take big damage from blast and from the fall damage - he will die.
But if you blast a brave that initially was in a low height terrain but gets blasted to a high height terrain, most of the times he will only take damage from the blast and not from the fall: this happens because, once blasted, he reaches a maximum value of height. What matters is the distance between that point to the landing point - this is called the fall damage.
