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So, some general tips:
1) Resource management is going to be tricky for the first few levels. Alchemists can do a lot of things. However, taking advantage of those capabilities will mean fewer Bombs for you to throw. You basically cannot play a support Alchemist and be a Bomber in the early levels (around levels 1-5). Either you will play support, and have next to no Bombs to throw, or you will throw Bombs and be unable to support.
I'm currently playing my 2nd Bomber, Level 3, in Outlaws of Alkenstar. The extent of his support is two vials of Soothing Tonic a day to help with out of combat healing (although in desperation last session he actually gave one to a downed colleague.) Otherwise it's Bombs and Quicksilver Mutagen.
You're going to need a backup weapon. The classics are slings and crossbows.
2) Quicksilver Mutagen is your best friend. I can't imagine playing a Bomber without it. Fantastic stuff. Bombers are high dex and (should) use Quicksilver... lean into the Dex skills. Stealth especially.
3) You are absolutely correct: lots of Bombs give statuses. My favourite is Bottled Lightning (I've taken it as a Signature on both my Bombers). Dread Ampoules are good. Frost Vials are great at impeding mobility. Peshpine Grenades (if you can get them) Stupefy spellcasters.
If you like debuffs, Skunk Bombs are great, but only once you can take them as Perpetual Infusions. The DC for Skunks is a bit low without Powerful Alchemy.
4) Straight up damage can be surprisingly ok, but you'll generally need to lean on persistent damage if you want to go that route. Which is why I love Acid Flasks (my other Signature, both Bombers.)
Final note: The Pathfinder2e subreddit goes private every Tuesday. It'll be back tomorrow (just in case you weren't aware.)
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2) Quicksilver Mutagen is your best friend. I can't imagine playing a Bomber without it. Fantastic stuff. Bombers are high dex and (should) use Quicksilver... lean into the Dex skills. Stealth especiallyI've never cared for Quicksilver mutagen, for the simple fact that it deals damage to you. Double your level in damage could mean life and death in some circumstances. And to my knowledge there is no way of avoiding the damage.
It's more like as you get a -2 "Con" into your HP once you can recover it.
The main idea of Quicksilver Mutagen is sacrifice some HP in order to get a higher "Dex". For range its usually worth.
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Well, Mutagens don't wear off because you fall unconscious. Thankfully. My Mutagenist (yes, I play three Alchemists total) has been knocked unconscious once or twice.
Revivifying Mutagen can end a Mutagen early and give you a bit of healing on the side.
It basically changes you to a d6 class instead of d8
This is the main thing. Yeah, you turn into a d6 class. You're a ranged striker with a built in speed bonus. Keep out of the way of melee strikers, and bomb the daylights out of ranged strikers should there be any. My main Bomber is 11th level and has used Quicksilver the whole way... trust me, you'll be fine.
Quick Bomber is a must for action economy.
Far Lobber because more range means more options.
Agreed with both. Quick Bomber is great for Stride/Strike/Stride for example. Just don't fall into the trap of throwing multiple Bombs a turn unless you're in a situation where just Splash is ok (like a strong Weakness). Mostly, throwing multiple Bombs a turn just wastes Bombs.
If you end up needing to pick one or the other, I recommend Far Lobber. When your main shtick is that you're a Ranged Striker, more Range is always good.
Consider Dual-Weapon Warrior into Dual Thrower right about the time you get Double Brew (level 9). Double Brew + Double Slice (throwing) with a -2 instead of -5 MAP on the second attack makes for more accurate follow-ups especially if your first bomb is a Bottled Lightning.
It's really hard to find Class Feats to spare with Bombers. The OP hasn't said whether or not this is a Free Archetype game or not.
If you're using Quicksilver Mutagens, consider getting a Collar of the Shifting Spider to help with the action economy of using the mutagen.
The Collar is a good option. Just keep in mind it's still an Interact action to activate it, even if it is a free action. You need a free hand to use it.
I haven't bothered with a collar on my 11th level Bomber, because he has hour-long Quicksilver now and I've basically been making six of them per day. My Mutagenist though, it's great there.(My 2nd Bomber is two levels away from being able to get a Collar.)
If you like debuffs, Skunk Bombs are great, but only once you can take them as Perpetual Infusions. The DC for Skunks is a bit low without Powerful Alchemy.By the time you have perpetual infusions [lvl 7] you already have powerful alchemy [lvl 5]
True.
What I meant was this: the static DC for Lesser Skunk Bombs is 15. For Moderate it's 17. Both of those are 2 points below the normal Class DC for an Alchemist, and keep falling from there as you level up. So, you'll want to raise the DC by using Quick Alchemy for Powerful Alchemy. That gets pricey though. So, it only really starts working when you can take Lesser Skunk as a Perpetual Infusion at Level 7.
FYI I'm not just referring to the debilitating bomb tree, a lot of bombs give statuses upon hitting.
If you are really into statuses, you can also consider taking an Animal Companion. The Bird companion gives the Dazzled condition if you deal damage to an enemy (which is trivial with a Bomb) makinn it a far better choice than Debilitating Bombs. Also, an AC is rather useful at low level when you lack the reagents to last (from first hand experience).
FYI I'm not just referring to the debilitating bomb tree, a lot of bombs give statuses upon hitting.If you are really into statuses, you can also consider taking an Animal Companion. The Bird companion gives the Dazzled condition if you deal damage to an enemy (which is trivial with a Bomb) makinn it a far better choice than Debilitating Bombs. Also, an AC is rather useful at low level when you lack the reagents to last (from first hand experience).
The bird is... not as easy a win as you might think by that.
1 - You need to use the Support Benefit to make it happen, which means that you need to use an action ordering the bird. That's either a move-then-support or an attack-then-support order.
2 - Your Bird's abilities in combat are directly dependent on how many feats you've poured in,which means that if you don't keep putting in feats, they wind up *dreadfully* fragile later on. On the bright side, signs suggest that this is likely to change at least somewhat with the remaster. We don't yet know what it's going to change *to*.
3 - Bombs are generally area-effect, and the bird could be in that area. Now, this is the sort of thing that you can solve with any of a variety of feats and features, but they all have their little costs, downsides, or awkwardnesses. If you don't have a bird out there (and no one else has a bird out there) then you can do the silly thing where you buy backfire mantles for you and all your friends and then crank the area up as high as you can and giggle at all the little bonus damage pings.
Now, there are certain cases where you can still get real entertainment value with the bird+alchemist trick. In particular, everyone who's damaged by your splash damage counts as "your strikes damage". So if you can put your bird where it threatened two or three or four foes (and not have it immediately die) and then drop a bomb so that all of them get caught in the splash (and hopefully the bird doesn't) then they all get dazzled and also bleeding. Directional bombs might help here. Still... this is not trivially done, and you certainly won't be able to pull it off every time... and alchemists tend to be pretty hungry for actions... and with usage that's this aggressive, there's a decent chance that you'll be out there trying to replace your animal companion pretty regularly, and building up a list of the dearly departed.
The bird is... not as easy a win as you might think by that.
It depends on what you compare it to. If you compare it to Debilitating Bombs it's 1000 times better and overshadows it entirely.
In absolute, it's also very interesting. It helps during the low levels when you strongly lack reagents as Animal Companions are efficient at low level. And the trick is super efficient against bosses: Near automatic Dazzled for a few rounds is absolutely excellent.
Overall, it's a very nice chain of feats for the Alchemist. With FA, it's awesome. Without FA, it's worth it (and I speak from experience) but as it's costly I can understand if you spend your feats on something else.
PS: You don't care splashing the Bird, the damage is not high enough for it to be an issue.
Sorry but what is "FA"?
Free Archetype. Which means if you are playing with extra feats from the FA option.