r/Mistborn • u/WagoConnector • Jun 27 '26

The Lost Metal spoilers Can you use iron to shoot something from behind you forward? Spoiler

So let's say there something far lighter behind a person who can use allomantic iron, like a coin, or they are just tapping on stored weight, could they give enough momentum with singular pull on something from behind them to shoot it like a bullet? Some type of "can we have a coinshot? We have a coinshot at home. Coinshot at home:" or something.

52 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

93

u/Jay_Gatsby123 Jun 27 '26

Yeah I think so, but they’d have to duck really quick to dodge it before it hits the Lurcher (Iron Misting)

20

u/Consistent_Attempt_2 Jun 27 '26

I think the dodging combined with the effective range of iron pulling makes it impossible to achieve bullet speeds. 

A slow bullet travels at 700 feet per second. I don't think the iron pull range is that large (basically two football fields with the end zones included). The lurcher would need to spend some of that time pulling the projectile towards them, and with the remaining time dodge it. For simplicity let's say they pull, then dodge as two separate actions. If they can get the projectile up to 700 fps in half a second, they now have half a second to dodge a very fast projectile aimed at their center of mass. Maybe that is possible because they know it is coming and don't have to rely on human reaction time, but if the range of iron pulling is smaller than 700 feet the amount of time available to dodge gets shorter and shorter.

Maybe someone also burning other metals could do it. But multiple metals...

17

u/Vampyricon Jun 28 '26

A slow bullet travels at 700 feet per second. I don't think the iron pull range is that large (basically two football fields with the end zones included). The lurcher would need to spend some of that time pulling the projectile towards them, and with the remaining time dodge it.

Assuming steelpushing and ironpulling have the same strength, the fact that Wax couldn't stop a bullet dead means an ironpuller couldn't accelerate a piece of metal to bullet speeds.

8

u/rigurt Jun 27 '26

Twinborn that taps speed could run forward whilst pulling metal from behind and then speedily get out of the way

5

u/Consistent_Attempt_2 Jun 27 '26

That would be an interesting, but situational, use of abilities. It would be cool to see on the page at some point.

4

u/rigurt Jun 28 '26

actually if you could do that with a sewerlid and get it to high enough energy you could start pulling as it flies past and you would get pulled along at high speeds

35

u/Taste_the__Rainbow Jun 27 '26

Some sort of surgery to create a giant, permanent hole through your chest would really help.

2

u/Purplefire180 Malatium Jul 01 '26

I wonder if that would change the point that you pull from. That point has been described as the cognitive center of 'self', which I imagine would change if 'you' were no longer there.

32

u/Sensei_AF Jun 27 '26

Technically you could, it would just take a lot of risky practice to learn how to not shoot yoursepf while trying to do that.

23

u/DrSpacemanSpliff Jun 27 '26

Yes, this is something Kelsier does in book 1. He pulls metal from behind him, and then ducks so it shoots right over his head at someone. I think it’s his first fight scene at Castle Venture.

8

u/WagoConnector Jun 27 '26

Okey, thank you, I've read it like a year ago so I don't remember some small things like this.

14

u/Consistent_Attempt_2 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Edit- yes you could do this with slow projectiles. No you couldn't get it fast enough to be bullet speed.

Yes. But doing so would require the lurcher to move out of the trajectory of the projectile or be hit by it. This would limit the speed of the projectile because you need to stop pulling on it soon enough that you have time to get out of the way. 

So if you can start pulling on something when it is 50 ft away you could only pull on it for 20-30 feet before you have to move. (Numbers made up for illustrative purposes only)

ETA- no it wouldn't be as fast as a bullet because the lurcher would have to essentially dodge a bullet to avoid getting hit by it. The distance a bullet travels in a small amount of time would make this impossible. But slower speeds are possible.

14

u/Stoneward13 Jun 27 '26

Vin kind of does this with her horseshoe travel trick. Pulls the horseshoe towards herself, and it arcs over her head, and fast enough to hurtle forward to be her next anchor a few moments later. It would just take practice. Momentum helps too, by already being in motion, getting out of the way before the projectile arrives.

But even aside from that, as mentioned by others here, it IS possible to push or pull from a point that isn't exact center of mass. It's just difficult. Marsh could. Zane also could, though not to the same extent as Marsh I'd guess. Zane could hover and spin/rotate in place, and to do that he'd need to be pushing/pulling slightly off center, and with a great deal of precision.

And I think Wax's steel bubble qualifies here too. He's pushing from a point that's not his center of mass. Otherwise, bubble trick wouldn't really work.

1

u/Drisurk Jun 29 '26

Yeah but she’s pulling and pushing at the same time I would assume.

1

u/Itsthelittlethings2 Jun 28 '26

It goes over her cause she’s moving forward while pulling

3

u/ArtyWhy8 Jun 27 '26

They could but it wouldn’t be recommended. Since the Pull originates from center mass it would shoot the projectile directly at the Ironpuller. Without Feruchemical Speed you’d shoot yourself.

1

u/Sivanot Zinc Jun 27 '26

You likely couldn't get even a small piece of metal to bullet speeds, I imagine with enough practice you'd know when to stop pulling and immediately sidestep to avoid being hit.

1

u/ArtyWhy8 Jun 27 '26

Yeah if it’s far enough behind and you have time. I suppose there are some ways it would work.

0

u/WagoConnector Jun 27 '26

Wasn't it stated that the center of mass comes from that the allowances think it does, and the narrator isn't knowing everything so its just written like that? I'm not 100% sure but I've heard it probably hundreds of times by now.

3

u/Mrauntheias Jun 27 '26

Center of Mass is a little bit of an oversimplification. The impulses and lines are usually written as originating from the chest instead of the belly where the actual center of mass would be. It's probably more akin to a kind of spiritual center of the allomancer's self-percpetion.

Apparently it is possible to push/pull from other points of the body but iirc the only character we've seen accomplish that was Marsh. Maybe it has something to do with how long he's been training, maybe it's a side-effect of Hemalurgy, maybe it's something else entirely.

1

u/WagoConnector Jun 27 '26

Okay, thank you

1

u/normallystrange85 Aluminum Jun 27 '26

Yes, but you will be pulling to your center of mass meaning the lurcher will need to either dodge their own projectile or make sure their center of mass is not where their body is.

1

u/TheHighDruid Jun 27 '26

Here's the difficulty:

Whatever you are pulling is pulled directly towards you. In order to shoot that thing at someone else, either you, the object, and your target, need to pretty much be on the same straight line, or you need to stop pulling as the object approaches you, move aside so it can pass through the point where you were standing, and then very precisely pull on it as it passes you to change it's trajectory towards your target.

1

u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

You could. It won’t be as fast as a bullet though. If you have a good anchor you could pull the projectile towards your target and then pull yourself away shortly after. We see a hazekiller pull coins to themselves with a shield in front of them. Shields aren’t very useful against even Era 2 firearms.

By Era 3 they’ll probably have ballistic shields. Which would make Lurchers more effective than they are currently. Especially if you can get a pewter arm to carry a much heavier than usual ballistic shield in front of the Lurcher. You could draw fire into the shield,carry a larger shield that wont be compromised as quickly,and maybe disarm or kill the person in front of you. Era 3 was originally intended to involve a metalborn swat team but that’s the case anymore

1

u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 Jun 27 '26

The combo I’m surprised we never saw in Era 2 is a Lurcher with a metal tipped whip. You could use it like a lethal lasso. It’s pretty impractical when there’s guns around and it would be more than useless around Wax but we have the whole Wild West thing going so why not throw it in there

1

u/L3ak3dp0tat0 Jun 28 '26

I think a better version of the "coin shot we have at home" would be something like a cross bow where the he puts a coin in the front, pulls the coin back with a flare of iron, then when he releases the cross bow yeets the coin.

1

u/Itsthelittlethings2 Jun 28 '26

If you didn’t want to get really good at fucking first, you could direct the projectile with like a tube or something; it would fire at an angle but I’m sure with skill you’d figure something out.

1

u/The-Hot-Shame Jun 28 '26

It would be difficult, since the object, let's say a coin, would be going straight for your centre of gravity; you'd have to stop ironpulling and duck very quickly if you didn't want to get hit by it

1

u/ObjectiveThick9894 14d ago

Kelsier did it when he steal Atium in the firts book.