Editing Worms (series) (section)

==Gameplay==
{{More citations needed|date=April 2020}}
[[File:Worms World Party screenshot.png|thumb|right|The fully deformable landscape can be radically altered by the use of weapons, often requiring players to scrap their plans and adopt new strategies to cope with the changes.]]

''Worms'' games are [[Turn-based strategy|turn-based]] artillery games presented in a 2D or 3D environment. Each player controls a team of several worms. During the course of the game, players take turns selecting one of their worms. They use whatever tools and weapons are available to attack and kill the opponents' worms, thereby winning the game. Worms may move around the terrain in a variety of ways, normally by walking and jumping but also by using particular tools such as the "Bungee" and "Ninja Rope", to move to otherwise inaccessible areas. Each turn is time-limited to ensure that players do not hold up the game with excessive thinking or moving. The time limit can be modified in some of the games.

Over 50 weapons and tools may be available each time a game is played; differing selections of weapons and tools can be saved into a "scheme" for easy selection in future games. Other scheme settings allow options such as deployment of reinforcement crates, from which additional weapons can be obtained, and [[Sudden death (sport)|sudden death]] where the game is rushed to a conclusion after a time limit expires. Some settings provide for the inclusion of objects such as land mines and explosive barrels.

When most weapons are used, they cause explosions that deform the terrain, creating circular cavities. The types of playable terrains include "island" (terrain floating on a body of water), or "cave" (cave with water at the bottom and terrain at both top and bottom of the screen that certain weapons such as "Air Strike" cannot go through; this type is not available in 3D versions due to camera restrictions). If a worm is hit with a weapon, the amount of damage dealt to the worm will be removed from the worm's initial amount of health. The damage dealt to the attacked worm or worms after any player's turn is shown when all movement on the battlefield has ceased.

Worms die when one of the following situations occurs:
* When a worm enters water (either by falling off the island, through a hole in the bottom of it, or by the waterline being raised above the worm during sudden death)
* When a worm is thrown off either side of the arena
* When a worm's health is reduced to zero

===Weapons and tools===
The ''Worms'' series is notable for its extensive variety of weapons. With each new game that is released, weapons are added, though many were removed in the 3D versions for gameplay reasons. As a result, the 2D series has accumulated 60 weapons, and the 3D series 40 weapons.

The weapons available in the game range from a standard timed grenade and homing missiles to exploding sheep and the highly destructive Banana Bomb, both of which have appeared in every ''Worms'' game so far. The ''Worms'' series has seen weapons such as the iconic [[Holy Hand Grenade]], the Priceless [[Ming Vase]] and the Inflatable Scouser.

Some of the bizarre weapons in a particular game are based on topical subjects at the time of the game's release.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://forum.team17.com/showthread.php?t=24544|title=What things were the weapons in Worms based on?|publisher=Team17|work=Team17 Forum|access-date=April 17, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323182659/http://forum.team17.com/showthread.php?t=24544|archive-date=March 23, 2007|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The Mail Strike, for example, which consists of a flying postbox dropping explosive envelopes, is a reference to the postal strikes of the time, while the Mad Cow refers to the [[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy|BSE]] epidemic of the 1990s. The French Nuclear Test, introduced in ''Worms 2'', was updated to the Indian Nuclear Test in ''Worms Armageddon'' to keep with the times.

Other weapons are inside jokes. The MB Bomb, for example, which floats down from the sky and explodes on impact, is a cartoon caricature of Martyn Brown, Team17's studio director. Other such weapons include the "Concrete Donkey", one of the most powerful weapons in the game, which is based on a garden ornament in Andy Davidson's home garden, and an airstrike known in the game as Mike's Carpet Bomb was actually inspired by a store near the Team17 headquarters called "Mike's Carpets".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forum.team17.com/showpost.php?p=17699&postcount=7|author=Martyn Brown|title=Mike's Carpets|publisher=Team17|work=Team17 forum|access-date=April 17, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927015202/http://forum.team17.com/showpost.php?p=17699&postcount=7|archive-date=September 27, 2007|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Since ''Worms Armageddon'', weapons that were intended to aid as utilities rather than damage-dealers were classified as tools. This classification mainly differs in the fact that they do not fall in ordinary weapon crates, and instead appear in toolboxes. Many tools were left in the wrong class for the sake of keyboard-shortcut conveniences. This was resolved in ''Worms 3D''.

Some weapons were inspired from popular films and TV programs, including the [[Holy Hand Grenade]] (from ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'') and Ninja Rope (named the Bat Rope in early demos of the original game).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forum.team17.com/showthread.php?p=17699#post17688|author=Martyn Brown|title=Batrope and Mike's Carpets|publisher=Team17|work=Team17 forum|access-date=August 3, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210044829/http://forum.team17.com/showthread.php?p=17699#post17688|archive-date=December 10, 2008|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=July 2020}}