After taking a quick jaunt down the clockworks with the new RSS I have come to one conclusion: The new RSS is a completely different bomb. This jaunt into a wolver strata included a pure bomber loadout: Mad Bomber set (no UVs), Barbarous Thorn Shield (no UVs), Elite Boom Module, Penta-Heart Pendant, Nitronome, Dark Briar Barrage, and the nerfed RSS (4* I didn't want to invest anymore crowns into a weapon i might never use again). If u hadn't already figured it out, with this set up I am able to achieve maximum damage to all monster families and maximum charge time reduction to all my bombs. That being said, I am also not the greatest bomber in the game. I am just an average swordsman who like to dabble with other play styles to keep the game interesting a fresh.

Depth 24 Treasure Vault: Fortune Smiles On The Greedy
i was lucky to land on this floor because with it i was able to judge the "radius" of the new RSS. Having landed right in the middle of an organized arrangement of grass patches I decided to take the opportunity to charge the RSS and plop it at my feet. Detonation and boom, 8 shards fly out towards the grass patches, 3 seconds later the second detonation occurs and the grass patches are still there, the RSS's shards failed to clear the patches. I then charge my DBB and plopped it at my feet, boom the grass patches are gone and I am left with 2 crowns and a heart. I continue down the depth and find my first victim, a Kleptolisk. Charging a RSS (which is now a pure pierce damage weapon) I attack the lizard. I see 2 different numbers fly off the beast, one in the high 180's and another in the mid 160's. I am still unsure which number belongs to the initial blast and to the shards. A few moments later I find myself at a classic treasure vault barrier, the multi-colored crystal wall. I used this moment to find out that the RSS shards actually don't spawn if placed too near to an obstacle making mineral excavation a somewhat tedious task. So I finish the depth and continue on to a wolver den.

Depth 25 Wolver Den: Raving Rabbids
I have to admit, reaching a wolver den was my main priority in this adventure into the clockworks. As u may or may not know each tier 3 clokworks wolver den has one small arena in which you fight three waves of wolvers, alpha-wolvers, and silkwings. My main task was to compare the effectiveness of the new RSS to the DBB. The DBB could be charged and spammed fairly well and the "knockdown/flinch" it causes to light bodied mobs allows for a near continuous stream of damage pouring out of them. i attempted to reproduce this in the new RSS. The RSS's initial blast causes a slight knock-back sending monsters into the secondary charges. If stun is inflicted on to the monster, it was more than likely going to be hit by the secondary charge. Other times the wolvers would teleport out if the blast radius and appear behind me. Very rarely did I see a wolver flinch, as I believe the new RSS did not inflict it as well as it did in it's previous state. However, I am also lead to believe that hitting a monster multiple times in quick succession can also produce the flinched state in monsters. I believe this to have happened to a few of the beasts while on my journey.
I should also note that I am also an avid "bush-whacker", hitting bushes for the off chance they will drop crowns. Although the DBB and nitro do this efficiently I wanted to clear the entire depth of shrubbery with the new RSS. Using the RSS in this manner didn't seem too different from using my other bombs except for the time consuming back tracking that was caused by the shard's 3 second fuse time. I would be in one spot setting up RSS charges to take out bushes when a previous RSS's shards would detonate and reveal crowns. Of course, I was already 3 seconds away, now I had to run 2 seconds back to pick up the crown and continue the landscaping project.

Depth 26 Aurora Isles: Low Gardens
This map was a secondary objective simply because I like the layout, and it contained a large amount of beasts and landscaping opportunities. No new discoveries except for the fact that shards do not fly over low walls anymore (I had to use my nitro to take care of gun puppies, you would have to be a troll to try and take one out with a DBB).

Depth 27 Iron Edge Arena: Beastly Brawl
I did this floor simply for the crown payout, but forgot that bomber gear and polyps don't mix too well. I also learned that in order to hit a mineral multiple times with the new shard bombs, you'll have to place the bombs so that the mineral is about halfway between shards to hit it with 2 shards at once (of course simply spamming the RSS around mineral crystals is simpler and kinda pretty).

over all notes:
-overall blast radius of (at least the 4*) shard bombs is slightly smaller than the DBB or nitro
-shards don't spawn if the bomb is placed too close to an obstacle
-shard bombs don't "knockdown" monsters effectively
-"bush-whacking" is more time consuming
-shards don't go over low walls