Juggling

**Juggling** is a technique present in all Meteos games.

## Synopsis

Juggling is a technique basically described by intentionally keeping multiple stacks disconnected and ignite them periodically, trying to keep them up for as long as possible. Although hard to execute, it can be very useful as an alternative to Shielding, and sometimes can be the most optimal way to play a planet.

As with most other techniques, it can be customized to a certain extent in order to match the needs & skill of the player, and works on most planets to a great extent. It is preferrable to use planets which can have all of its playfield divided into 4-wide or 3-wide stacks, which limits its most optimal use to 8 and 9 column planets.

*Please note that, due to the nature of juggling and the physics of the following planets, this technique is impossible to perform on Hevendor and Gravitas.*

## Practical Uses

### Offensive Juggling

Juggling can be divided into two main types when used in gameplay: offensive juggling and defensive juggling. Offensive juggling is mainly used on planets that have slow falling speed and have little to no interference on stack rise and fall speed from the speeder, such as Brabbit.

It can basically be summed up into constructing and mantaining different stacks, igniting as soon as they hit the ground with the speeder on constantly. Although it can be overwhelming to micromanage such amount of stacks with the speeder on, it can be used to great effect in order to send huge amounts of meteos to the opponent.

### Defensive Juggling

Although the differences between offensive and defensive juggling are minimal, they exist and are sufficient to separate both playstyles. Defensive juggling is mainly used on planets that have slow falling speed but have their juggling capabilities hindered by speeder usage and/or a suboptimal column count that prevents dividing its playfield into only 4-wide stacks or only 3-wide stacks.

When using juggling defensively, you should proceed just like offensive juggling, but you should wait as long as possible before igniting again (suboptimal column count planets), or prepare an ignition, let the stack regenerate and ignite to create another stack (optimal column count planets). Additionally, it is recommended to keep the speeder off or keep its use limited in order to not mess up your juggling.

## Notable Planets

* Megadom

Juggling is the only way to play the planet in a way that isn't outright counterproductive or simply not good enough and/or too hard to perform effectively (such as Air Docking). In fact, it becomes quite decent once it is applied in gameplay, enabling the planet to send good amounts of meteos and have good survivability in addition.

* Brabbit

Not only can Brabbit shield, it can juggle too! Its optimal column count, relatively slow fall speed and good speeder synergy make it the perfect planet for using offensive juggling. In fact, it can be arguably better than shielding, as using a shield makes it extremely hard to recover from a regeneration should things go south, while recovering from a single stack regenerating is a lot easier when you're juggling.

* Mekks

Don't let Mekks' suboptimal column count fool you, it's a very good juggling planet as well! Making a 4-wide stack and a 3-stack can prove for a good defensive juggling strategy, which boosts its survivability and is easier and more reliable than simply shielding instead.

* Meteo

Perhaps an odd planet to mention here, with its 11 columns making for one of the hardest planets to juggle on, its extremely slow stack fall speed makes for quite a good defensive juggling choice. Provided you can micromanage all stacks effectively and quickly, juggling can boost its survivability to unprecedented levels which wouldn't otherwise be possible while using other strategies, such as Step Jumping, for example.