The Powerpack is a new back item in Spelunky 2. It can be found in crates with a 0.2% chance, shops, and in other locations. It primarily focuses on the concept of a back item granting the player a variety of primarily combat-based abilities, but does not provide any extra mobility.
Functionality
The Powerpack grants its wearer multiple buffs while worn. It grants the following upgrades:
- Fire Whip - The player's whip is now on fire, now dealing 2 damage and able to damage whip-immune enemies as well as while they are stunned. It also now effectively a fire source. As such, it can be used to light torches, cook turkeys, burn jungle foliage/cobwebs, and provide other utilities.
- Of note is that the fire adds 1 damage in addition to the whip's, instead of setting its damage to 2. This effectively makes it so that stunned enemies and whip-immune enemies will only take 1 damage, as the whip cannot normally harm them.
- Increased Fire Rate - This is applied to most weapons like the Shotgun, Camera, Freeze Ray, and even the Plasma Cannon.
- Reduced Recoil - This allows the Spelunker to fire their weapon without being pushed back much or at all. While on ladders or other climbable objects, Shotgun recoil no longer causes the player to fall off. The reduction in recoil does however prevent the player from "gun-jumping" up an extra tile.
- Giant Bombs - Makes the player throw giant bombs, with massively increased explosion radius and a damage increase from 11 to a massive 21.
The Powerpack, just like all other pack items, explodes if it catches fire or is punctured by an attack dealing 2 or more damage. This explosion has the same potency as the giant bombs that the Powerpack grants the player, dealing 21 damage with an increased explosion radius.
Strategy
- The Powerpack, being originally developed for military use, shines the brightest in combat.
- Players can easily stun and finish off angry NPCs with their whip now imbued with the power of fire, as well as utterly destroy any adversaries with a hail of bullets from the Shotgun or any other weapon.
- Croc Men are easily dispatched of with the Powerpack, as just a single fire-powered whip will stun them, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
- A player with both a Powerpack and a Plasma Cannon are capable of mass destruction, easily and quickly annihilating adversaries and chunks of levels with ease.
- As the Powerpack grants no additional mobility, it is generally considered a weaker option compared to other back items, such as the Jetpack or Vlad's Cape. Despite this, it is still worth picking up if there are no better options, especially in the earlier stages of the game where its upgrades will prove useful until the player finds an option they prefer.
- The lack of mobility can be partially made up for with the help of Spring Shoes and/or Climbing Gloves.
- The fire upgrade to the whip makes the Powerpack an excellent item for the Jungle, allowing the player to burn shrubbery tiles that would otherwise block their path, burn cobwebs in the player's way, and even kill Mantraps with a single whip (while not stunned). In a way, the Powerpack fulfills the same role as a Machete.
- Giant Bombs are an incredibly valuable tool, greatly increasing the value of the player's bombs.
- Giant Bombs can be used to easily destroy large swathes of The City of Gold, gaining massive profit in a very short amount of time.
- Giant bombs deal double damage, effectively cutting the bombs necessary to defeat bosses by half.
- If the player wishes to throw normal bombs instead of giant bombs, they may simply take off the pack by crouching and pressing the "enter door" button.
- This is strongly recommended for opening Waddler's cave in Olmec's Lair, as giant bombs that open the way to him will always destroy a piece of his abode, angering him.