Why the Fireball is Required

There is a good reason the Fireball is a required weapon in Cave Story.

Consider:

• Gum Base
• Charcoal
• Jellyfish Juice

We know that charcoal is flammable, and we can only assume that jellyfish juice is also flammable.
However, there is nothing to light the explosive when it is finished.

To start off the explosive, you need a flame. The fireball provides that. Otherwise the game can't progress past Grasstown / Bushlands.

Jellyfish Juice might also be mostly water. In this case, it would prevent the explosive from destroying too much.
Notice that when you activate the bomb, it only makes a blast big enough to unseal the rusted door.
The bomb does not have enough power to kill an enraged Mimiga the size of Igor, for instance.
However, by removing the Jellyfish Juice, you could potentially make the bomb into a useful Cave Story weapon.

 

The fireball has the magical power of making Chaco spawn the jellyfish around Grasstown. Without the jellyfish, you can't get the jellyfish juice. Clearly the fireball is some sort of object of status that is required for the ceremonial summoning of the Jellyfish.

 

I'm concluding that the jellyfish juice does absolutely nothing to the bomb except make it weaker.

Jellyfish juice is used to put out fires (so that you can get the Bubbler, or go through Chaco's house). That means, when combined with fiery explosives, the jellyfish juice probably reduces the power of the bomb blast.

 

In my Cave Story X mod, you can get the fourth ending, but you can't get the Fireball until Sand Zone if you choose that path.
Maybe I should rethink that (lighting the Bomb).
(Chaco spawns jellyfish either way in my mod)

 

The Fireball is also required at Chaba's shop if you don't have the Machine Gun or Spur. If you don't have any of these, Chaba will give you Turbocharge (iirc), which is completely useless unless you have the MG.

 

The fireball is required because it's necessary to impress chaco so she'll let you into her cave fireplace, duh.

 

Is the Fireball actually related to the turbocharge? Does an <AMJ with the Fireball occur?

EDIT: Wait how do you get the turbocharge without the Machinegun? Does it also work on the Bubbler?

 

No it doesn't. Iirc I got TC without MG someday. Wtf

 

Turbocharge only affects the machine gun. Chaba should only offer it if you have the machine gun on your person.

 

Does Turbocharge affect Spur? [Not that you can get that combination in a normal game]

As for why the fireball is required...
Maybe without the fireball, Chaco won't be impressed by you? Thus, she never tells you the importance of the jellyfish outside.
[I'm assuming the jellyfish were there all along, but Quote only sees relevant things]

EDIT:
In regular Cave Story, there is a bug that allows you to bypass Santa and Chaco, but I forget what goes wrong with the game... Probably no Jellyfish?

 

Without the fireball, you can't re-light Chaco's fireplace, and the secret passage would be so "secret" anymore. Besides, in a world of robots, teleporters, and insane immortal wizards, I doubt you wold have to light a fuse to set off a explosive.

 

Well, if you go back through chaco's house later without the fireball (as in you got the snake or something) and go through the fireplace, it still re-lights. So that might not be the reason. Of course this is all assuming the polar star can't make heat (I always considered the bullets to be condensed light or something) and that the Charcoal isnt used in some part to ignite the bomb.

 

Wasn't that bug fixed in version 1.0.0.9 of Cave Story?

(Of course, you have to talk to Tyrone to get it...)

 

Chaco can relight the fire...

 

Randolf what sort of drugs are you on
If you don't have the MG or the Spur when you talk to Chaba you get the best weapon in the game

 

Well, snake has always seemed like a black sheep to me. It seems like it has no rhyme or reason in the story really. I think its kind of just a gun pixel put in because it was the first one he made ( I think so...I may be wrong). I mean you cant trade it to anything, it has no story value, except chaba who has little character development, and though its very effective, its just not worth the loss. If you've kept the polar star up to this point, your not gonna give it up now.

 

Well, snake has always seemed like a black sheep to me. It seems like it has no rhyme or reason in the story really. I think its kind of just a gun pixel put in because it was the first one he made ( I think so...I may be wrong). I mean you cant trade it to anything, it has no story value, except chaba who has little character development, and though its very effective, its just not worth the loss. If you've kept the polar star up to this point, your not gonna give it up now.

I'd agree with everything in this post except that generally the snake is better than the spur. The spur takes too long to charge up to be useful really, so it just has poor damage output. Plus the snake shoots through walls.

 

Polar Star: I GUESS you could say it has story relevance because you need it to go on
Missile Launcher: no story relevance
Fireball: yeah
Bubbler: no story relevance
Machine Gun: yeah okay
Blade: definitely
Snake: no story relevance
Super Missile Launcher: no story relevance
Spur: no story relevance
Nemesis: no story relevance

That's like four weapons with story relevance.

"Not worth the loss"? You either think that the Fireball is useful after Grasstown or that the Spur is better than the Snake, and wrong in either case.

 

The machinegun is a actually a symbol of promiscuity because of flight and firepower combined in one.

 

Here's how it is to me.

I'd agree with everything in this post except that generally the snake is better than the spur. The spur takes too long to charge up to be useful really, so it just has poor damage output. Plus the snake shoots through walls.

I didnt say that spur was better, I just was trying to say that most people if they havent already traded their polar star in for a machine gun, are saving it for the spur. I know that I restarted, not cause I think that the snake is bad or anything, but it took my polar star and my Fireball.

Also:

Spur: Its not main story relevance but it still can lead to a part of the game that makes you think, wow, without the gunsmith I couldn't have made it this far he was a background character but really, he helped you the whole time. The gunsmith then goes on a speech about how much you have used your gun and that he believes in you. I feel like that has more relevance then a shopkeeper taking two guns and making a new one.

Nemesis: Another not main story quest but again you do a whole sub-quest where you bring a man back to his family and curly does use it, that might be important... actually thinking about it it seems like another black sheep, considering its description says its for "advanced players".

Also, I know that rocket launcher and super rocket launcher are supposed be different guns, but really one is pretty much just more powerful than the other, I think of them as one gun.