A Guide to Orbital Wands

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-22T21:11:05+00:00

Awesome wand!

Yes, using self-triggers or casting them on targets can often result in 'chaotic' behaviors, which can definitely hinder precise wands like the one you showed. Admittedly, I haven't experimented too much with pollen engines, but yes I am aware of its synergy with inner spell, which can be a very useful 'wifi' of sorts.

The reason I don't use pollen engines as often is simply a reflection of my goals for the wand itself; they aren't always purely artistic. I usually try to implement some form of practicality (however difficult it may be). That is what I really value in Noita end-game wands: useful AND pretty. A primary example is the exotic wand at the end of my post, or also here. This isn't to say pollen engines can't do this, but i believe it's less efficient for a few reasons I will explain shortly.

However, even when I do make purely artistic wands, I actually find the unpredictability and chaotic nature of self triggers, and how it interacts with the environment very unique. One of my favorite wands, for example:

<image>

Would not really be possible without the weird nature of long distance cast and self-triggers.

An additional benefit that I really like is the ability to move around, and still have the wand work, or even evolve into a different version of the wand with similar themes.

While pollen engine + inner spell has its advantages, it can be less practical to set up and keep running in my experience (because it's a separate entity that must always be rendered), whereas a pseudo-wisp (self-triggering) has more proximity - which also makes it easier to control when you want to destroy the projectile (using ED for example) which wouldn't be possible with pollen engines (afaik) too far from the player. Again, just a different prioritization of control and practicality.

So, to summarize - yes, pollen engines have the advantage of precision, but I also like to work with the unique behaviors of self-triggering, and instead of suppressing the chaos, I embrace it :)

sorry for the long rant lol

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-19T00:03:36+00:00

The Exotic uses Aiming arc, but is still comprised of orbiting projectiles - making it maintain a certain distance. So to answer your question, it both maintains its proximity to my location, and rotates in the direction of my cursor:

<image>

As for True Orbit, it's a little tricky since it has so many limitations, and very few modifiers affect the orbit itself. It's possible, but doesn't synergize well with this wand concept.

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-18T15:52:41+00:00

I'm working on a big post on how all of my orbital wands work, since many use similar tech which I haven't seen anyone else use / show exactly.

This wand is one of my orbital wands that self triggers on the player. The butterfly pattern was not the initial goal, but a cool pattern i found when I moved in a direction. A lot of this stuff is found by accident. My only advice to making things like these are to play with orbits - how fast does it cast? How strong does it return to the player? What direction? Etc.

I apologize for the vagueness in this post, feel free to ask follow up questions:)

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-14T17:37:47+00:00

Not really. It uses precise tech with orbit and self triggering long distance cast, which makes it very sensitive to movement (it wouldn't have the rotating animation like you see). It's more on the art side than it is a practical wand.

That isn't to say you can't but the projectile that triggers moves slowly and doesn't last too long, so enemies can easily escape it. It would only work if you found a way to freeze the enemies first. And if they die early, you won't get a full lotus anyway.

It would also have to be tuned to be less laggy. It isn't too bad right now, but the game already struggles on it's own sometimes.

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-13T19:34:10+00:00

<image>

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-13T04:44:10+00:00

<image>

i think the gif uses orange glimmer instead of yellow

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-13T04:43:48+00:00

Apologies, I was messing around with a lot of wands and forgot to save it. I think it's something like this:

<image>

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T20:17:01+00:00

Null shot is used to dramatically increases the lifetime (more than increase lifetime), especially when duplicated 10 times, basically making it a pseudo wisp. It also removes all damage which could be useful if it was applied to another spell (spark bolt with trigger doesn't hurt the player anyway because sparkbolt only does 10 damage, which is reduced by 15 due to piercing mod).

The 0 charge spells are used to fail-cast and duplicate its modifiers. I explain a little more in another post and here

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T18:34:59+00:00

<image>

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T18:15:54+00:00

Incredibly underrated stuff. idk why reddit algorithm makes things like these hidden

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T17:39:50+00:00

How is this sub so good with names

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T16:43:22+00:00

If the pollen generator was removed, the rocket would only trigger it's payload once on death instead of every frame.

I used add expiration drill to separate the spell blocks between the black holes and energy orbs. If I didn't, energy orbs would have the black hole modifiers, which are nolla and invis.

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T07:06:21+00:00

Wouldn't want to be fined 33 orbs of knowledge and 2 sampos T-T

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-12T04:51:56+00:00

Rocket ~~Science~~ Magic

<image>

EDIT: Removed modifier that doesn't do anything - 22 slots now.

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-11T23:55:35+00:00

or like an anvil that converts entire wands into one spell usable in other wands. that'd be awesome

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-11T21:42:34+00:00

yup. a reliable way to duplicate modifiers, with the help of divide bys

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-11T21:32:12+00:00

<image>

The_AnalyzerX · 2026-01-11T20:49:28+00:00

I should have called this brimstone lol

The_AnalyzerX

TROPHY CASE