What Is a Ricochet Shot in Games? Bouncing Bullets Explained

A ricochet shot is a bullet that hits a wall or the edge of the screen and bounces off instead of stopping. If you are asking what is a ricochet shot in games, that is the short answer: bullets that bounce off walls, so you can hit targets you cannot reach with a straight line.

Tank City Reboot is a free browser game where you can try this yourself: its second game, Tank City Zero Day, has an upgrade that makes your shots bounce, and it plays on a computer or a phone with nothing to install. You can find it at tankcityreboot.vlvd.net.

What is a ricochet shot in games?

In most games a shot has a simple life. You fire it, it flies, and it ends when it hits something. A ricochet shot has a longer life. When it hits a certain surface, it changes direction and keeps flying.

That one change turns walls from obstacles into tools. A wall that used to block you can now help you hit an enemy standing behind cover. Pool players call this a bank shot. Game designers use the same idea in shooters, puzzle games and tank games.

Not every ricochet is the same. Some games bounce bullets in random directions. Others use a clean rule, so a careful player can predict where a shot will go. The predictable kind is the one that rewards skill.

How bullets bounce off walls: the angle rule

The common rule in games comes from basic physics: the angle in equals the angle out. Picture a flat wall. If your shot arrives at 30 degrees to the wall, it leaves at 30 degrees on the other side, like a ball thrown at the floor.

Three cases are worth remembering:

• Straight on. A shot that hits a flat wall head-on comes back along the line it came from.
• A shallow angle. A shot that grazes a wall barely changes direction and slides along it.
• A corner. Hitting two walls that meet at a right angle turns the shot around after two bounces.

This is the general rule. It is a way to think about aiming, not a statement about the exact math inside any one game. What Tank City Zero Day tells you is simpler: with the right upgrade, your shots bounce off silicon walls and off the edge of the arena. Use the mirror idea to plan, then watch the first shot and adjust.

Why game designers add ricochet shots

Bouncing bullets solve a few design problems at once.

• They reach behind cover. Enemies that hide behind a block stop being safe.
• They reward planning. A good bank shot feels earned because you read the room first.
• They make the map matter. Every wall becomes a possible mirror, so the layout changes how you play.
• They add a trade-off. A shot that goes everywhere is harder to control, so you have to think about where it ends up.

Bounce limits: how many times can a bullet bounce?

A bounce is almost always limited. A shot that bounced forever would fill the screen. Games usually give each shot a small number of bounces and treat the next hit as the end.

Tank City Zero Day makes the limit visible through an upgrade called Load balancer. Its card says shots bounce off walls and edges, and the page explains the name: "A load balancer spreads requests across many servers." The idea fits, because your shots get spread around the arena.

Here is how it works in the game:

• Load balancer gives each shot one bounce per level.
• It has two levels, so the most you can get is two bounces.
• The bounce happens off silicon or the arena edge.
• Firewall does not bounce a shot. It breaks, and it stops the shot.

The upgrade does not show up every time. After each wave, Patch Tuesday offers three upgrade cards, and you pick one. The cards are drawn from upgrades that are not yet at their limit, so Load balancer can show up, but you cannot count on it in a given run. Upgrades last until the run ends and reset when you start a new game.

How to aim a ricochet shot step by step

Here is a method you can use in Zero Day once you have the upgrade.

1. Pick the card. At the upgrade menu, move with up and down, then press Fire to choose Load balancer.
2. Read the arena. Every wave is a freshly generated 13 by 13 arena. Find the silicon blocks and notice where the edges are. Arenas are mirror images left to right, so a bank shot that works on one side has a twin on the other.
3. Choose a mirror. Pick a silicon block or the arena edge. Skip firewall, because it will stop your shot.
4. Line up the angle. You can aim in eight directions. Use a diagonal when you want the shot to leave the wall at a different angle than a straight shot would.
5. Fire and watch. Hold Space, J or Z to keep shooting. The first shot tells you where the others will go.
6. Adjust by one step. Move one tile and fire again. Small changes in where you stand change where a bounce lands.

A worked example

Say a cryptominer sits just behind a silicon block, so a straight shot stops at the block. You have Load balancer at level 1 and Multithreading at level 2, so each volley is three shots, fired at 0 and plus and minus 12 degrees. This is a sketch of how to think, not a recorded play.

Stand so the outer shots meet the silicon or the arena edge beside the block. Each shot carries the bounce, so a shot that would have died on the wall can turn and head back toward the target. Every shot that hits an enemy takes one hit point, and a cryptominer takes 5, so expect to fire a few volleys. After each one, move a tile and fire again.

That combination is useful because each shot in a spread carries your Load balancer bounces, along with Encryption and Pipelining if you have them. You do not need to set anything up twice.

Ricochet shots in tank games

Tank games are a natural home for bouncing bullets. The map is a grid of walls, and you already think in straight lines and turns.

Tank City Reboot has two games, and they handle shots differently. In the first game, only firewall, silicon, the CPU core and the map edge stop a shot, and nothing bounces it back, so you win by lining up shots and using power-ups like Overclock. Zero Day adds the ricochet, along with 8-way moves, dashes and upgrades.

A few Zero Day details make bank shots worth learning:

• Cryptominers do not walk. A cryptominer is a turret that fires rings of shots. It takes 5 hits and is worth 250 points, and because it stays put it is a good target for a planned bounce.
• Kill chains. Every kill within 2.5 seconds of the last one adds to your chain, and the multiplier climbs up to x8. A bounce that hits two enemies in a row feeds the chain.
• Faster shots. Pipelining level 1 makes your shots fly 35% faster, so a bounced shot reaches its target sooner.
• Piercing shots. Encryption lets each shot pass through one more enemy per level, so one bounced shot can hit several targets.

If you want to see the game before you play, the second game lives at tankcityreboot.vlvd.net/zero-day.

Common mistakes with bouncing bullets

• Bouncing off firewall. Firewall breaks under fire and stops the shot. Aim for silicon or the edge instead.
• Expecting a bounce over coolant. Tanks cannot cross coolant, but shots fly over it. It is not a mirror and it is not a wall for your bullets.
• Staring at the shot and ignoring the threats. While you line up a clever angle, enemies keep moving. Your shots cancel enemy shots, and a dash lets you slip through fire, since you cannot be hit during the 0.2 second dash.
• Chasing armored targets with single shots. Ransomware takes three hits and the boss takes 40 or more. Read how armor works in games and plan a volley, not one shot.
• Losing a life for a trick shot. Losing your tank resets the kill chain. If you are curious how lives and score connect, see how extra lives work.
• Neglecting the core. The wave bonus grows with how much core integrity you have left, so a flashy shot is not worth a core hit.

Frequently asked questions

What is a ricochet shot in games?

It is a bullet that bounces off a wall or the edge of the play area and keeps flying. Designers use it so players can hit targets behind cover.

Do ricochet bullets bounce forever?

Usually not. Most games cap the number of bounces per shot. In Tank City Zero Day, Load balancer gives each shot one bounce per level, up to two levels.

Which walls bounce shots in Tank City Zero Day?

With Load balancer, shots bounce off silicon and off the arena edge. Firewall breaks and stops the shot, and shots fly over coolant.

Does the first Tank City Reboot game have bouncing shots?

No. In the first game, shots stop at firewall, silicon, the CPU core and the map edge. The Load balancer bounce is an upgrade in Tank City Zero Day.

How do I get Load balancer?

Survive a wave, then choose it from the three cards Patch Tuesday offers, using up and down and then Fire. It is not offered every time, so keep playing until it appears.

Get started with Tank City Reboot

Open Tank City Reboot, press Play, and click the game so it has focus. In Zero Day, move with the arrow keys or WASD, fire with Space, J or Z, and dash with Shift, K or X. On a phone, a touch pad floats over the game, in portrait or landscape.

Play a few waves, pick Load balancer when it shows up, and try one bank shot off a silicon block. The game is free, plays in your browser on a computer or a phone, and needs no account to play. It needs a current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari with WebGL 2.

Play Tank City Reboot: it is free, plays in your browser on a computer or a phone, and needs no account.