Introduction / Fundamentals / Dash / Cut / Wind / Ghost / Shoot / Poke / Nest / Pulse / Leech / Stim / Corp

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If you're already good at the BOTOLO's fundamentals, Nest should supplement your abilities well. Where most powers are a verb, Nest is an adjective - it amplifies the game already present, rather than altering it. Nest tends to fare poorly against space control powers, and, as the defender, discourages a retreat-heavy style of play. That overview might not sound spectacular, but don't let that dissuade you. Nest's increased speed of point accumulation is one of the most significant buffs in the game.

By merely standing inside the nest, you place your attacker in a terrible position. Should they steal infrequently, they will rapidly fall behind in points. Should they steal frequently, it becomes much safer and more beneficial for you to throw out random blocks, netting you even more points even faster.

Nest not only improves the speed at which you'll accumulate passive points, but causes you to begin getting points sooner as well. Whenever you block in BOTOLO, you will immediately stop accumulating passive points. On releasing block, your passive accumulation will take some time to reach full speed again, reflected both in the charging sound that accompanies point accumulation and it amount of sparks on your side of the zone. Effectively, when you block you spend not only shield, but time that you could have otherwise spent getting points too. While Nest does not negate this entirely (as otherwise the optimal strategy would be to sit in the nest and throw your shield up until it ran out) it does lessen the time spent regaining momentum following a missed block. Where normally you would be required to spend at least a second after block gaining no points, standing within your nest allows you to instantly begin gaining points again, making blocking less expensive in turn.

Nest should always endeavor to spend as little time as possible building their nest. Against classes that do not control space, a nest not much larger than the player's own body is often effective. Otherwise, larger nests are necessary.

While it may seem useful to build a nest overlapping two zones at once, the time it takes to build an effective nest on two zone tends to be greater than the time it would take to build two effective nests on each zone. Very rarely would I recommend trying to build a nest over multiple zones at a time.

Nest, perhaps more than any power in the game, benefits from maps with an odd number of zones. Consider the situation in which both players need only one more zone to win. On even maps, two zones will always remain, but on odd maps, only one zone will. Thus, maps with an odd number of zones will more often force the opponent to contend with your nest, while even maps will always provide them some escape.

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