Vinnie & Spike/Builds/Blowing Bubbles and Daring Dives

"Nyah!" Vinnie and Spike are a dastardly duo that strike fear into the heart of any Awesomenaut they happen upon. Using a combination of piercing bubbles and diving headlong into the fray, the terrible twosome can poke down anyone and secure kills even through walls. This build will focus on an early bubble upgrades, into a damaging dive, adn reserving the smokescreen for late game utility.

Using your insane mobility and positively outrageous damage output, you should have little trouble demolishing the enemy. Late-game you will be an absolute terror to behold and you will have the pleasure of seeing your enemies flee at the very sight of you, or fall beneath a barrage of bubbles and spikes.

Fanciest Duds
Spike Dive:   [Antique Machinegun]   [Dead Seahorse Head]   [Chrome File]

Smoke Screen:   [Red Bandana]   [Clown's Mask]   [Withered President Mask]

Bubble Gun:   [Sharky & Remora]   [Scarfish]   [Al Carper]

Utility:   [Space Air Max]   [Solar Tree]   [Power Pills]

How to Dress to the Nines
It will take 235 solar to buy both Spike Dive and the Solar Tree, so if you don't get that in the drop, I recommend going and fetching some in a hurry.

Solar Tree, Power Pills, and Spike Dive at first buy

Al Carper 1/3

Al Carper 2/3

Sharky & Remora

Al Carper 3/3

Scarfish 1/2

Scarfish 2/2

Space Air Max

Antique Machine Gun

Dead Seahorse Head

Chrome File 1/2

Chrome File 2/2

Red Bandana

Clown's Mask 1/2

Withered President Mask 1/3

Withered President Mask 2/3

Withered President Mask 3/3

Clown's Mask 2/2


 * Full Build*

Speakeasy Tips
As Vinnie & Spike, you have the unique ability to jump forever. Unlike Yuri, this allows you to fly unlimitedly without being predictable and heading in a simple straight line. You should take advantage of this and your ridiculous ranged poke to harrass your enemies from above. By flying overhead, you should be immune to all melee attacks while still outputting large amounts of damage with your bubbles.

Your Spike dive does lots of damage in an area around where you dash to, use this to catch runners and unload some burst into your lane. With upgrades, you can take half the enemies' health in a single dash, combined with your bubbles, this will push almost anyone out of lane or punish them for staying.

The Spike Dive can also be used for mobility such as getting to lane faster or to escape that annoying Clunk when he decides to implode. Perfecting when and when not to use your dive will give you strong lane control due utility of this skill. Use it to escape at low health when the enemy decides to chase, use it to finish the enemy with one final burst, or use it to pick up several jungle creeps at once, the choice is yours.

Another fun use of Spike Dive is its ability to shoot spikes through walls. This can grab you an easy kill or two by shooting your spikes through the walls of Ribbit IV when they decide to flee behind the turret, or to pop a spike through the floor of the top tier of Sorona. You can even camp the floor of the top tier in Sorona to keep the lane pushed and scare the enemy away from the ground.

Harrass. This is one of THE reasons to play Vinnie & Spike. Your bubble gun at max upgrades will allow you to smack the enemy around to the tune of 18 damage a shot, as well as piercing into any of the nearby enemies as well. Combine this with a well placed Spike Dive, you will be chunking anyone who dares approach you. Be sure to float out of their reach, bombarding them constantly with bubbles and apply pressure to anyone brash enough to hang around past half health.

Note: Vinnie & Spike are a late game Awesomenaut and, unless you're facing unskilled players, you will have a hard time until you get to the Spike Dive upgrades. Be sure to play cautiously until you have achieved the damage output to crush the competition. Take special care in the transition from early to mid-game as the enemy Nauts will be grabbing their own upgrades to combat you with. This can really set you back if you hang around when they back and they come back with twice the damage output you were expecting.

The Smokescreen can be a powerful tool, but as a harrass and damage focused Naut, you whould avoid it until late game when you can use it as a get out fo jail card with which to play more aggressively. Be sure to pop it whenever you get in close quarters with a strong shortranged Naut like Clunk or Froggy G, as its silence will ensure they can't burst you down before you burst them.

Smokescreen can also be used to cover your retreat or that of an ally's. Place it near a chokepoint and the pursuers will be loath to charge in after their quarry despite how low you may have been. If they do make the mistake of following you into the cloud, make sure to punish them with as many bubbles and spikes as you can muster. They will be at a distinct disadvantage and will have much difficulty even hitting you, let alone finishing you off before you silence them for good.

Juking is also very imortant: if they follow you into the Smokescreen, fly out the way you came in and try to get to safety before they figure out your ruse. Spike Dive can give you the extra distance to complete the deception before the blindness wears off. Also, jump pads are your best friends. Use them to blast out of a sticky situation before the enemy can even blink, or jump mid-flight to cancel most of the momentum and watch your pursuers fly by while you float the other way.

The absolute best evasion technique may simply be flying out of their range. This works best on Sorona, but beware that flying out of the map will disable your jump for a time. Be careful about Yuri as this will not work against him, though you can drop faster than him as most Yuri players will never deactivate their jetpack. This guide is a WiP so expect some more explanations and tips as I go. I wish you the best of luck with this build, enjoy.

--Necromanticer 20:32, January 13, 2013