Meteor

"An explosive that affects a wide area: Meteora."

- Shiori Usami about Meteora.

Meteora is a Gunner Trigger.

Appearance
Meteora is a projectile which appears as a luminous trail once shot. On impact, it explodes with a flash, releasing a large amount of smoke. The size of each bullet is directly proportional to the trion levels of the user. Shooters form a trion cube that can be divided in smaller regular polyhedrons, their size and shape depending on how many are created at once, whereas Gunners fire Meteora through different types of gun-shaped Triggers, discharging a single, large orb. The grenade launcher gives it an arched trajectory.

Overview
The origins of this Trigger are unknown. It was first used by Shooters only, until firearm Triggers were invented.

Abilities
Meteora lacks Asteroid's penetrative power, but its explosive properties allow each bullet to inflict damage over a much wider range. The size of the explosion scales with the amount of trion used. A trion body can be destroyed just by being engulfed in the blast, without direct contact with the bullets. It seems it consumes more trion than Asteroid, since it was deemed unsuitable for Osamu, who however uses Asteroid regularly.

Meteora has multiple strategic applications. It can be employed to demolish buildings and other structures in order to bury the opponent in rubble, clear lines of fire from obstacles, deprive enemies of hiding spots, and delimit areas of the map by making their points of access, such as bridges, unfit for use. The curtain of smoke that follows the explosion can obstruct the target's vision, leaving them open to further attack. Likewise, destroying buildings can work as a diversion or as a way to create chaos on the battlefield.

Shooters also have access to a variety of tactics unavailable to Gunners. By setting the speed of one or more Meteora cubes to zero, they can set traps that explode after a certain amount of time, or that they can set off manually by firing at them with long-ranged Triggers when the opponent is in range. Meteora cubes can be combined with Spider to create booby traps that go off when the tripwire is removed. Conversely, Meteora provides an excellent counter to strategies centered on Spider wires, by wrecking large areas and destroying both the wires and the structures they are attached to. If the user is confident in their close quarters abilities, they can rush at the target to use Meteora at close range, for example right after striking with an Attacker Trigger, in order to maximize the area of attack and dictate the pace by covering their retreat.

When shot through Gunner Triggers, Meteora is released as a single explosive projectile of great power. Grenade launchers cause its trajectory to become arched, which makes it possible to bombard several locations or opponents in quick succession.

Composite bullets created from Meteora combine its explosive properties with the specific abilities of the other Gunner Trigger. The trajectory of Tomahawk can be programmed beforehand due to it being derived from Viper, and Salamander, the fusion of Meteora and Hound, can home in on a target.

Users
See also: Meteora Users

Meteora has 20 known users among official agents, 12 of whom utilize it as a Shooter bullet, and 8 as a Gunner one. Among the latter, 6 utilize it in conjunction with an assault rifle and 2 with a grenade launcher. This list excludes those members of branches who do not participate in Rank Battles, but includes Yūko Kumagai and Akane Hiura, who added it to their Trigger set in preparation of the match against Suzunari First and Tamakoma Second. It is unknown if they retained it afterwards. In the anime, Kyōsuke Karasuma also uses it as a Shooter.

Trivia

 * Like other Gunner bullets, Meteora may have been named after a missile, the MBDA Meteor, commonly known simply as Meteor.
 * Meteora is the only bullet used in conjunction with a grenade launcher.
 * It is also the only Gunner bullet not to be used in conjunction with a handgun.