Return to Sender

A prehistoric hunter who was frozen in ice for thousands of years, Gnar arms himself with a primitive bone boomerang. After breaking free, he found himself in a strange world filled with new prey to hunt. Gnar has the ability to transform into a powerful beast, but he has plenty of tricks up his sleeve even when he’s in his miniature form. His boomerang is able to inflict damage and slow his opponents at the same time. This allows Gnar to maintain distance and avoid retaliation. This is paramount given Gnar’s fragile state prior to his transformation. The battle mistress Sivir might have been a more obvious choice for this list, but her weapon is more akin to a glaive or a giant shuriken whereas Gnar’s weapon looks and behaves like a real-world boomerang. If nothing else, Gnar is the most adorable boomerang user in League of Legends.

Sonic has so many friends that I’ve stopped keeping track, but Sega wanted Sticks the Badger to be a meaningful addition to the core ensemble of the franchise alongside Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. Her quirky personality and wacky sense of humor make her stand out, and her off-kilted nature is a welcome addition. Her tendency to speak her mind comes across as socially uncalibrated at times, but her battle instincts are anything but. She’s known for being an outstanding hunter, and her wild side serves as the foundation for a fearsome warrior. Sticks can throw boomerangs with absolute precision, and she is even able to create her own boomerangs from ladles, robot parts, and other garbage that she finds lying around. Sticks also gets bonus points for styling her hair in the image of a boomerang.

Despite being a secondary weapon, the boomerang-like wingstick is the signature weapon of RAGE. Nicholas Raine masters use of the weapon by practicing against mutant-shaped cardboard cutouts, and they become an invaluable part of his arsenal. The weapon appears to be made from broken propellers or fan blades, but they actually have a high-tech nano cores for advanced targeting. They track enemy movements and can loop around to kill them even if they miss on the initial pass. The weapons can ricochet off walls in certain situations, but they will break if they thrown against a hard surface or an armored opponent. There’s also a chance that they will become lodged in an enemy. Fortunately, they are not hard to come by and Nicholas can always buy more or engineer new ones if he needs to.

Cham Cham is an energetic catgil who attacks with sharp claws and fights alongside her pet chimpanzee. Her oversized wooden boomerang seems out of place in a series centered around samurai, but the weapon is deceptively dangerous since Cham Cham can infuse the boomerang with her energy to increase his potency. Cham Cham swings her boomerang in large sweeping motions and throws it at varying angles. The weapon can be very effective for countering jumping opponents since it can be thrown vertically as well as horizontally. When thrown, the boomerang can pass right through projectiles and nullify animal attacks. The biggest downside to the weapon is the lengthy recovery time associated with it. After throwing the boomerang, Cham Cham is left open to counter attacks – but this only serves to highlight how important the weapon is.

Zhurong was the only female character who actually fought in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Her husband Meng Huo is the King of the Nanman and is basically portrayed as a bumbling fool, but Zhurong shows steadfast loyalty to him and passionately leads her own special group of guards called the Amazoness. Zhurong sometimes arms herself with throwing daggers, but her weapon of choice is the boomerang. Dynasty Warriors doesn’t worry too much about physics or realism, so Zhurong’s boomerangs not only return after being thrown, but they sometimes pull enemies back towards her. Zhurong is purported to be the daughter of the God of Fire, and she adds credence to this claim when she sets her boomerang ablaze. She can literally tear through hundreds of enemy soldiers.

Mailk Caesar was brought up in an era of political unrest and joined the military out of a desire to reform the country from within. He was eventually named the instructor of the Knights’ school and was held in high regard for being a man of honor and discipline. In battle, Malik is capable of unleashing a number of powerful elemental blasts, but many of his attacks focus on his trademark “bladerangs” instead. The bladerangs are effective for mounting long-range attacks, and Malik learns to increase the speed at which they return in order to reduce the amount of time that he is left unarmed. Malik’s skills with bladerangs are so advanced that he can somehow land repeated hits on an enemy with a single throw. He’s talented enough to stand on a bladerang like a hoverboard and surf into his enemies.

Gusto was a peaceful cloud wrangler who learned to harness the power of the wind under the guidance of the mysterious Cloud Dragon. He was forced into battle when a fleet of dragon hunters emerged from a distant land. He had no combat experience and was armed with a simple curved stick, but he had incredible aim and was able to fend off the invaders. As a reward for his bravery, Gusto was given a special “Traptanium” boomerang. The size of the weapon makes it an ideal for melee attacks, but it’s more interesting when used as a projectile. If Gusto charges his weapon before throwing it, it can somehow be split into three smaller boomerangs. His boomerangs also can create gusts of wind, cause electrical damage, or act as a shield by orbiting his body. Gusto can also increase his power significantly simply by inhaling his boomerang.

Aika’s youth was marred by tragedy. Her parents were killed when she was a small child, she fell down a well as a young girl, and nobody ever taught her how to swim! Despite her situation, she’s an ever-cheerful girl with an energetic personality. Surrounded by supportive friends and driven by an obsession to find treasure, Aika belongs to a group of sky pirates known as the Blue Rogues. Although she looks harmless, Aika has a short temper and adopts an aggressive fighting style. Her massive boomerangs can either be used as melee weapons or projectiles, and her magic abilities make them even more dangerous. When paired with the right magic, her boomerang can create cyclones of fire to eliminate multiple targets at once. Despite being comically oversized, boomerangs seem like a perfect fit for Aika.

The boomerang is one of defining sub-weapons of the Zelda franchise. It can freeze enemies in place, but it’s best known for its ability to retrieve items from across the screen. Link uses a number of different boomerangs in his adventures, and many of them have special properties. The Gale Boomerang from Twilight Princess creates powerful gusts of wind while the Magical Boomerang from Oracle of Season can be controlled mid-flight. In The Wind Waker, the boomerang can lock onto five separate targets with a single throw – which makes it an ideal item for solving puzzles involving switches. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks actually allow players to map out the boomerang’s trajectory ahead of time on the DS touchscreen! It’s hard to imagine anyone having more control over a boomerang than Link does.

Ty is a walking Australian stereotype. He hangs out with koalas, collects opals in the Outback, and arms himself with an assortment of boomerangs. All told, he makes use of over a dozen boomerangs during his adventures. The Aquarang can be used under water, the Frostyrang freezes enemies and turns them into makeshift platforms, the Flamerang sets things on fire, the Zappyrang is electified, the Zoomerang is ideal for long-range attacks, the Multirang hits multiple targets at once, the Infrarang has buil-in sonar capabilities, the Megarang can home in on specific enemies, the Kaboomarang does exactly what you’d expect it to do, the Chronorang creates a rift in time, and the Doomarang can be guided by remote control. Ty’s boomerang skills are unmatched and nobody on this list comes close to his expertise.