Boulder: four pellets beneath a stone-like silhouette

AoA 3.7.1 / Minecraft 1.20.1 · released-source profile and concept proposal · no accepted native upgrade.

What it actually does

Boulder is a four-pellet Spreadshot shotgun, registered directly with BaseShotgun. There is no dedicated Boulder subclass in this release. Its shared firing path consumes/validates ammunition, then creates the pellet loop with LimoniteBulletEntity, age input 4, multiplier input 1 and piercing input 0.

Despite the name, this is not evidence that it fires large boulders, explodes terrain or shares Boulder Bomber's mechanics. Likewise, Boulder Dash is a different item: matching a substring in a recipe is insufficient provenance.

Released field	Value / boundary
Registry ID	aoa3:boulder
Stored damage input	11.5; not guaranteed final damage
Pellets	4
Durability	1080
Delay	58 ticks; nominally 2.9 seconds at 20 TPS
Recoil input	0.5; not camera degrees
Knockback input	Approximately 0.4; not measured distance
Ammunition	Spreadshot
Fire mode	Non-automatic
Sound selector	Medium long shotgun firing sound

There is no Purity/Destruction-style shared boosted-shot roll in this base firing implementation. Four projectiles do not guarantee four successful hits or a fixed aggregate damage number. Enchantments, shared attack behavior and target immunity remain relevant.

Original appearance

Preserve the short chunky charcoal body, stepped gray upper blocks, muted crimson lower structures and angled crimson grip. Stone-like armor is a visual interpretation of those anchors and the Rocky upgrade association. The source recipe alone does not establish a canonical maker, dimension-origin story or literal granite construction.

Illustrated upgrade route

Input	Kit	Result
Demolisher	Rocky Upgrade Kit	Boulder

1. Obtain Demolisher and a Rocky Upgrade Kit in the exact pack/version. Their acquisition routes need separate confirmation.
2. Use the shipped aoa3:upgrade_kit route described in the Divine Station guide, not an ordinary crafting-grid arrangement.
3. Check preservation of enchantments, names and any new customization data before upgrading a valuable weapon. Unverified data transfer must not be promised.

The exact source is data/aoa3/recipes/upgrade_kit_boulder.json. The images above are actual packaged textures enlarged without adding painted details. Recipes for Boulder Dash and Boulder Bomber are intentionally excluded from this weapon's evidence.

Revised concept

The first concept incorrectly showed oversized rock projectiles and a harsh stone palm-contact surface. Revision two uses four smaller pellet markers and a contoured crimson grip insert. The stylized trajectories, dust and material treatments are proposals, not captures of the original projectile renderer. Physical hand reach and all model/animation acceptance remain open.

The optional inspection lifts and reseats one armor slab. That is a newly proposed cosmetic flourish, not a released levitation ability. It must remain independent from firing and authoritative gameplay.

Complete feature plan

• Fire and recoil: heavy, readable four-pellet discharge with a short bounded flash; separate weapon-body motion from camera feedback so integration cannot accidentally double recoil.
• Projectile and impact: preserve original default projectile behavior; optional trails and surface-specific dust/sparks/decals. No terrain destruction inferred from stone styling.
• Animation set: equip, idle, aim, fire, optional reload, inspect, interruption and third-person versions. Any moving slab needs swept-volume and hand/attachment clearance checks.
• Attachment ideas: compact quarry-style sight, protective muzzle ring, alternate foregrip, cushioned red grip and armor-shell treatments. Precision and scatter conversions need explicit new costs, pellet count and handling rules.
• Craftable variants: distinct recognizable parts and recipes; a future rock-projectile conversion would be a separately balanced new mode, never silently relabeled original behavior.
• Customization: gameplay-earned charms and their explicit bonuses; skins; static, animated and emissive stickers; custom emblems; configurable projectile/tracer/impact and finisher effects. Preserve original concepts and alternatives.
• Reload policy: optional according to chosen ammunition mode; do not impose an unrequested magazine system on original mode.
• Visual modes: coherent Minecraft/TaCZ-fit and higher-detail concept-fidelity materials with the same source silhouette. Include reduced-effects and accessibility options.
• Performance: bounded effect lifetimes, pooled particles, decal limits and LOD testing. No performance guarantee before representative native benchmarks.

Required acceptance

• Record the original projectile in flight and on entity/block impact in this release.
• Validate the four-pellet ammo and damage path in-game, including missed/immune targets.
• Approve concept-to-model silhouette, grip comfort and both texture modes.
• Check all animation sweeps, hands, sights, charms and attachment combinations.
• Validate native export, multiplayer, interrupted animation and save/reload behavior.
• Implement and assess every required effects/customization family, without silent omissions.
• Measure representative frame-time, memory and dense-combat effects budgets.

Complete weapon standard · Machine-readable evidence · Armory gallery

Recoil interpretation

For this pinned 1.20.1 release, the stored constructor recoil input is not the inherited modifier getter: the inspected BaseGun.getRecoilModifier() returns approximately 0.35. The per-shot method and later client application determine the actual recoil path. Do not infer a stronger or weaker measured kick from the constructor column alone. This clarification does not change the original values, weapon balance or acceptance state. Resolved method routing.