Class Discussion: Kernel Corn
Kernel Corn time!
One of my favorites added to GW2, even if he and Peashooter share a lot of the same space as assault style characters, although the kernel feels more like the zombie foot soldier thanks to similar main weapons. BBQ Corn got nerfed early on, and is largely considered overnerfed. I’m partial to Commando Corn myself but all these characters are fun for me. In BfN, like the foot soldier, corn got his main weapon nerfed so has made a large chunk of the community displeased with his BfN iteration. I’m less unhappy with BfN’s corn, but I get why so many aren’t happy with him, and the main weapon is a big reason why. In BfN, it seems they want you to heavily rely on Butter Beacon for the extra damage it gives you, but when it’s down, it makes the character feel weak.
Shogun Guard also needs mention here as it’s unique to BfN. I love the concept and don’t mind using it, but even after a minor buff it got, it’s just not up to the 2 zombie legendary upgrades. It’s not awful, but it’s considered to be (and may have been parsed to be) worse than nominal kernel corn. If they want to keep something like this for the new game, and I personally would love them too, it would need some work. With this upgrade you are more reliant than ever on Butter Beacon to boost your damage, and the shield isn’t all that effective. I personally am glad they didn’t make the shield as powerful as Citron’s but while it will block headshots briefly from the front, it’s an upgrade that looks cooler than it actually works. Some of his other upgrades are pretty handy though, I like being able to reload much faster with rapid recob and super spin can help you keep the pressure up too.
Shuck Shot and Multi-Shuck. Shuck Shot is a solid, powerful attack, similar to the foot soldier’s ZPG (the 2 characters really do feel similar), with an obvious visual and audio cue. Great ability that I’ve always loved. It’s pretty solid in BfN too, no real complaints here from me, at least until we get to the alternate ability; Multi-Shuck. Multi-shuck is quite possible the only alternate ability worse than Super Pea Jump. I tried it for awhile and went back to the basic ability. As always, I love having options for our abilities, but they have to be worth taking, and multi-shuck is not. It needs to have the projectiles sped up at the very least, and I’m sure they need more than that to be a viable option!
Husk Hop has no alternate abilities. It’s a bit of a mess at times, it can really bug out in GW2 (I’ve not seen it bug out in BfN), where you hop but don’t flip upside down and don’t release all the kernels below you, or you do flip and drop kernels but it acts like there’s an invisible wall you can’t get through so you jump straight up and can’t go anywhere else, this has only happened to me when there are 1 or more zombies very close when I hit the button, but it’s a frustrating experience none the less. It seems to work fine in BfN but I’ve never compared damage values, generally if you place it well, almost any zombie under you is doomed. There’s been nerf calls for this ability since it was added to the game due to how it’s basically Rocket Jump with damage.
Butter Barrage, Bigger, Better, Butter, and Butter Beacon. I remember when BfN first hit Founders and a lot of people were upset about Butter Beacon replacing the butter barrages from GW2 and I get it. That being said, I actually like all 3 abilities and feel that the beacon is underrated and very useful when it reveals that there’s a bunch of zombies behind a wall that you otherwise weren’t sure exactly where they were. I’m a big fan of tac intel (tactical intelligence) in games and they needed to cut the spotting icons from GW2 out, so we got a couple different abilities to give us some tac intel, and while I wish we had more of them, butter beacon was the first one added (2nd is co-star wizard which is coming much later in this series), and I use it a lot as the kernel is still a go to character for me. It can give some good XP for spotting vanquishes and makes all your attacks do more damage. This is why I didn’t mind losing the barrages that much, that and it doesn’t get stuck on terrain above you when you call it down and it does nothing, which happens in GW2 more than I’d like to admit. Both barrages are of course, great damage abilities in GW2, and especially effective in Ops where you can hit a ton of AI at once. I’ve been using the bigger, better, butter version mostly this entire time, but you really can’t go wrong with either.
BfN’s corn model is fine for me although his sprint doesn’t really look that hot. His actual kernels look a bit too plastic in certain lighting conditions, but he’s not all that different from GW2. He lost 25 health (but then he had 125 health initially in GW2), is a taller plant but also narrow, not sure how accurate his hitbox is though. This health value puts him on par with the zombie foot soldier, which as I already said, is the closest zombie analog to this character. Like the soldier, he lost some damage on his main attack, but unlike the soldier, one of his abilities also changed significantly with butter beacon, making him more team oriented than he used to be, but also a bit too reliant on its effect to cause decent damage.
For a future game, I would once again use the variants and add more like usual (no frozen corn? Really? Maybe too simple of a variant but there’s frozen corn in the supermarket! It fits so well!), adjust damage values/health/upgrades as needed, and fix multi-shuck. I’d leave in both barrages and the beacon as choices for that slot. Also, fix husk hop so it doesn’t get stuck or not work.
