Bomb Name: "Unfinished Business"

A new bomb, inspired by the Soul.

There's rotten souls and fresh souls, good souls and bad souls. Several of the good Souls are very grateful for your work in freeing the ones trapped in the Grasping Plateau, and feel bad about the ones that explode in your face. They will help you out the only way they can - BOOM. (Well, the ones who can't talk anyway).

Bomb acquisition:

This bomb is not associated with any events, though interestingly, you can buy the recipe for it from the Lost Soul in the Obsidian Nexus or Montague for relevant tokens. Perhaps it is because they are associated with the undead? The recipe can rarely drop from boxes in Graveyards or the loot rooms at the end of danger missions (only danger missions that spawn souls). So, either wait for an event and farm, pay for someone to craft+unbind it for you, or endure RNG! Your choice. I think players need more choices like this. Unlike many other items, the bomb is crafted as a 5-star item. (Similar to Mask of Seerus). It will be bound when you craft it. IMO it doesn't have to be bound on craft, but economic balance and all that blahblah. Or just have it as an event item, I don't really care about this part.

Aesthetic:

Looks almost exactly like a little soul in the palm of your knight's hand. Little "bubbles" circle and bob around and through it, not in a set orbit. Like how the bubbles float around the main Soul body. But it doesn't have eyes - this bomb is just a sort of soul portal that looks like a clear bubbly crystal ball, not an actual soul. You're letting souls pass on by charging it up and using it, not using the same soul over and over. Souls can come out of limbo through this "Unfinished Business" bomb and finish their business! By EXPLODING! It has a slight prismatic tint to it, like a pearl in a way. The bomb and spirits are synced to your soul. Watch out you don't explode yourself too!

Bomb damage behavior:

Charge it up and put it down like any other bomb. As the detonation progresses, a central soul will gradually increase in size, vibrating and then kaboom (very much like a nitronome, but 0 knockback) - this is familiar, but... an exploding soul that gives its last fight for a knight in need is much more powerful than lowly enemy souls. Not only is this exploding soul larger and harder-hitting than your regular lost souls, it has buddies (implied that the little bubbles are also potentially dangerous bits of soul energy):

In addition to a nitronome-like normal explosion of the big soul (souls deal normal dmg, not shadow), 4 smaller balls of energy will quickly orbit the main exploding soul as it "detonates," dealing tiny amounts of damage to any enemy they touch (pretty much a much less powerful normal type Dark Retribution). This is unusual for a bomb, because this means the bomb will be dealing damage as it detonates...interesting but not that important. They'll orbit around once as the center soul detonates. But that's not all, the business must be finished - no slacking off. As soon as the big soul explodes, these four smaller soulenergyorbs seek out a target and smash into it, dealing a small amount of normal damage with a small chance to inflict strong fire, freeze, shock, or stun (random per energyball). So you could have a lone enemy get hit with all 4 and suffer from multiple status effects, or none at all. This effect is aesthetically exactly like the "vengeful spirits" summoned under met conditions of the Maskeraith's "Haunted Haze" ultimate, except - you guessed it - they're prismatic instead of purplish-pink! Well unless you're that color lol.

Hidden aspect: does not make enemies shield up, ignores front shields of trojans etc. Could this be because they're ghosts? Or just game logic? You decide! Remember, the little souls are more tactical than damaging.

Tip: due to the random status chance, it would be best not to use this against certain slimes.

Tip: this bomb will cause a lot of lag. Wait, that's not a tip.

In short -

Craft a soul-themed bomb that's like a nitronome+dark retribution+haunted haze combined that deals an okay amount of damage, has zero knockback for friendlier team play in general (knockback bombs have their place! just not fun to have in most situations), a tiny chance to inflict different status conditions, and 100% chance for fun. Balanced by the fact that it's a bomb (lol) , it is a nice mix of no-nonsense damage and tactics.

On a side note, the Cold Iron Vanquisher gets tweaked: its charge attack has a 100% chance to inflict minor freeze with any "second" hit and doesn't deal any knockback. Its blade passes through the souls of enemies instead (so no knockback) and chills them beyond their bones. Its chains will ensnare and draw enemies slightly closer with any "first" hit, like a vortex bomb, but not so close that the knight could get trapped in the middle of a bunch of frozen hostiles. Its damage will not be buffed because these abilities are pretty (literally) cool. Oh wow, suddenly this amazing looking sword is ALSO truly functional and great for farming the Grasping Plateau! But not perfect, because some enemies there are immune to the freezing effects of its chilled blade.

Thoughts? That is correct. I do not like knockback. I prefer you to "come at me bro."