Mechanics

Kicks

Wild Claw

Damage

Zipping

Techniques

Bike

Wall Ride

Simply put when Carol's bike comes in contact with a wall it will stick to it like glue. This can be accomplished by hitting it in midair, or driving up a slope onto the wall. You can then drive up by moving to the direction of the wall or down if no directional buttons are pressed. To get down faster just move to the opposite direction and Carol's bike will fall down.

While on the wall Carol can preform any actions that do not require her to be in the air, or turn around. This means things such as boosting and attacking will work.

It is also important to be ready to avoid Wall Ride when necessary. There are parts of the levels where you need to get down faster without sticking to any surfaces. To do this just don't press any directional buttons and let Carol fall down freely. Mistakes will happen though, so make sure you are ready to push away to detach from the wall if you do get stuck.

The wall doesn't have to be a flat surface and/or in front of Carol in order to her to stick to it. She can easily get a grip to surfaces above her head given high enough velocity. Most of the time it is undesirable and will send you in the opposite direction, so watch your movement carefully. It is said that Carol's bike is made of glue for a reason.

Wall Riding is the basis for many different tricks, and will be used extensively in speedruns.

Boost Claw

After pressing a boost button, hit the attack button to make Carol do her Wild Claw attack.

On a bike it is only possible to perform Wild Claw attack if boost was used in before.

Double Jump Claw / Jump claw

By jumping during the boost animation, Carol can use Wild Claw in midair. This can be combined with Double Jump to deliver the attack higher into the air.

This move is not too useful however, as most bossfights are done on feet to avoid losing the bike, or because of excessive momentum you get from boosting.

For some reason, this move does not work when jump-boosting off an upwards slope.

Double Jump Cancel

Carol can cancel the double jump animation at any time by performing an attack. Because Double Jump gives most of its momentum right at the beginning. This does not make difference in a long run, however by doing so you remove the energy cost of double jump which drains your Special Bar as long as you are spinning in midair. In situations where Kicks Attack will be needed shortly, preserving energy in your Special Bar is vital.

It is also worth noting that double jump spin deals less damage than any other of one Carol's attacks, so in most cases it is not worth spending energy on.

Double jump canceling is useful in areas where you would get a lot of hitlag otherwise.

Boost Turnaround

A simple trick that makes Carol instantly go in other direction with full momentum.

While driving forward, pressing the opposite direction slows down the bike. Doing a boost during this animation, Carol instantly gains all her momentum back. She can even do this in the backwards direction! When done really fast it looks like Carol just rockets herself in the opposite direction in a blink of an eye.

In almost every situation where changing the direction of movement is necessary, Boost Turnaround is the most efficient and fastest way to do it.

Bike Dismount

By coming to a full stop on the bike by either holding Down button, or pressing the opposit direction until fully stopped, Carol can leave the bike behind. To do this, hold Down button and press Jump while bike is stationary. Carol then will pounce in the direction she's facing.

Most bosses are substantially easier, safer, and faster to fight on foot rather than risking your bike to be destroyed, so being able to leave the bike fast is a valuable skill for speedruns.

There are very few situations where you wish to use the bike in combat - when the enemy is ouf of reach of regular jump and there are little risk of losing the bike, or there are more bike powerups nearby (examples: Sky Battalion Metal Ship miniboss, Serpentine fight's second phase in Jade Creek).

Wall Launching

Wall launching is a very useful tool for Carol, you can use it to wall climb very fast, and it gives you amazing mobility to reach areas unintended for player to access.

While preforming a Wall Ride there are several ways to leave the wall: to press the opposite direction to fall down, to reach an edge at the end of a wall. To wall launch you can boost, boost double jump, jump or boost jump off a wall.

In most cases wall launching with boost jump is the best option as it covers the most distance without using double jump, so you can use your double jump to turn around efficiently in midair and attach to a further wall (example here). As boost jumping can be quite hard/inconsistent, when it's not necessary you should jump without a boost. To perform this, ride up a wall, jump off and quickly hold the opposite direction to reserve momentum. After that if you need to maneuver better you can hold the direction you want to go to and double jump. The version with boost is the exact same except you want to boost same time or slightly before you jump.

Another method in tighter areas is to boost, then almost instantly hold the opposite direction which causes you to launch to the side very fast. You can use your double jump while in midair to get more height if wanted, and if you use it instantly after boosting off a wall you gain/keep massive speed. This is one of the best methods to navigate through areas, but can only be used if you do not have any special meter, as otherwise you would wild kick which makes you unable to double jump and prevents you from attaching to walls. Example can be seen here.

Roof Riding

A situational technique. It can be useful in different levels where landscape allows to make use of this skill. For example, with current route there are three times when Roof Riding is needed in Dragon Valley.

As we've mentioned before, Carol's bike is made of glue. She can grab surfaces that are above her. In Dragon Valley for example they are rounded edges of landmasses as can be seen here. Touching surfaces like this while pressing the directional button will cause Carol to stick to it in peculiar way depending on where she grabs it.

It is useful to experiment will all such surfaces on your own to feel what parts of it gives better grip. Certain parts will cause Carol to get stuck, while others will allow her to boost and ride the entire curve which is the preferable option.

To do a Roof Ride let Carol touch the surface, in most cases it will require a double jump. After you stick to the surface, use boost to gain speed. If "the good" part of the surface is missed, Carol may gets stuck. You will have to jump off and double jump back onto the curve, but most of the time it won't give you Roof Ride anymore and instead you'll have to jump your way up to the top.

This trick is difficult to grasp at first and the approach to each Roof Ride is unique due to different circumstances. But with practice comes understanding how it works. The general advice though - do not rush your double-jump and try to loose as much momentum as possible before hitting it and touching the needed surface. Examples of Roof Riding can be seen here.

Boost Jumping

By jumping immediately after boosting Carol can extend the length of her jump. Done frame perfectly this can launch Carol substantially further than just simply jumping at high speed. A very useful technique to build into being a second nature. There are very few times that it is better to not Boost Jump, especially since Carol will fly faster than doing a normal jump. An extra major benefit of Boost Jumping is that it takes little to no room to perform, allowing it to be used without a run up.

Examples of when it is useful are plenty: when approaching ships in Sky Battalion, to make long-distance jumps in Jade Creek or pretty much anywhere where you need to jump forward while preserving the maximum speed.

When Boost Jumping is done on a upward slope it yields amazing vertical height. This can allow Carol to reach places that would otherwise require a double jump, or even skip certain Wall Rides. And example of such jumps can be seen here.

Edge Boost

The way Edge Boost sometimes works is still a mystery. It is executed by pressing Boost button and holding it down as Carol reaches the edge of a wall she's riding. As she goes over the edge it converts most of her vertical momentum to horizontal allowing a faster transition between vertical and horizontal surfaces.

This move is beneficial in nearly every situation, there are almost no places where Edge Boost isn't wanted when going over the edge of a wall.

The confusion comes in with how Carol makes her transitions. Sometimes she goes nearly vertical, other times she can go at such a steep angle that she literally grabs the floor immediately. It appears to have something to do with how long the boost has been going until the top of the wall was reached and some individual walls seem to send her at different angles. Some walls have tendency to just flip Carol 90 degrees and place her in horizontal position instantly (it appears to be an issue when there is a jump pad or another interactive object near the edge of a wall). Further testing is required.

Note that there are two major types of edge boosts:

Kicking: When carol has enough energy left in her Special Bar an Edge Boost will result into transition to horizontal movement with Carol performing kicks in the air. In most situations it doesn't matter, but kicking does prevent carol from double jumping.

Kickless: When going over the edge without enough energy left to perform Kicks Attack, Carol will launch forward in a move similar to Jump Boost. The advantage of this type of Edge Boost is that Carol can then Double Jump to extend the length of her flight. Kickless Edge Boosts are why you will often see Carol runners spending their Special Bar extensively during the run with unneeded boosting.

Propeller Kicks

This trick allows Carol to gain slight boost underwater.

When you do Kicks Attack underwater it seems like it cancels water physics for a duration of the attack and Carol starts falling down. Then you press Jump to get vertical momentum. Overall it boosts Carol forward slightly.

Currently this trick is used to fly out of the water pit in second last screen of Dragon Valley as you will not lose any speed while wild kicking in water which can be combined with jumping to get great heights (example). It is also used in Thermal Base to skip a switch entirely as you can use propeller kicks to decline the effect of the flowing water when combined with a boost to give forward speed (example).

Foot

Wall Jump

Secretly Carol is zero... or at least she has very Megaman-esque wall jump. Carol can climb walls as if she game right out of Megaman x. This technique is simple, and can be used to help kill tall bosses at a much faster rate, and navigate levels when a bike isn't available. Learn to time the jumps rather than mash to get the best possible speed up walls.

Use this to skip ladders no matter how small.

Slope Pounce

Carol's pounce instantly puts her at her normal running speed in the direction you're facing. This makes is an amazing way to maneuver. If Carol preforms a pounce and lands on a slope however she gains a massive amount of speed in the direction she is heading. depending on the angle of the slope this speed can almost rival that of the bike. The mechanics of the pounce allows this to be done even on slopes such as those that would allow you to run up a wall.

Pounce Turnaround

The animation for a pounce can always be cancelled by pushing in the opposite direction, and Carol can always pounce in mid air if she is not in the animation already. This means she can pounce in midair to instantly reverse herself at full speed, even directly out of a pounce in the other direction!

Spring Pounce

When being launched by a spring Carol can pounce immediately to travel in that direction instantaneously. Doing this can allow carol to reach places she wouldn't be able to reach simply by jumping off the spring even holding in that direction. It can be done off both blue and yellow springs.

Slope Roll

There are three ways to god down slopes on foot. Simply run, roll, and pounce. Pouncing is the fastest, but when that's not available, or that's too fast rolling is nearly as good. It builds speed at a much faster rate than just running, and essentially any time you're not pouncing on a slope you should be rolling.

Roll Clanking

The way clanking works in this game allows many hitboxes to be ignored. Rolling can put out enough hits to essentially become invulnerable to certain hitboxes. It has the advantage over kicks in certain situations due to having less hits so it causes less hitlag frames and is thus very slightly faster, plus it also saves some special meter.

Pounce claw

One of the two ways Carol can preform Wild Claw. Simply attack out of a pounce to do it. The has the benefit of reaching high and ease to control, plus Carol can do it right out of climbing a wall! It will be one of the corner stones to fight bosses, along with Roll Claw. In many cases the two can be substituted depending on style.

Reverse Claw

During the first frames of the pounce claw, pressing the opposite direction will cause the claw to come out behind Carol. Fairly difficult to do and very situational, but it does have the potential to hit targets both in front and behind carol in the same motion.

Roll Claw

The second way Carol can preform a Wild Claw. By attacking out of a roll at any point Carol will transitions directly into clawing. Doing it this way has the benefits of being able to hit with the roll before clawing on an target, and being able to claw from a nearly stationary position. It is also excellent for hitting targets low to the ground.

Rapid Clawing

Rapid Clawing is simply putting out as many Wild Claws as you can in a short period of time. This is the single fastest way to do damage in the game except for perhaps a dragon boost from Lilac. It can be done two ways.

Pouncing: Remembering that pounces can be turned around in the air, Carol can put out rapid claws in mid air. This is quite hard to do properly and most runners prefer to kick directly out of a pounce claw, but done properly it will do higher damage. Even done somewhat improperly it can still provide an alternative for while the special bar is empty. Perhaps in the year 20XX Carol runners will do rapid reverse claws to do a ridiculous amount of damage to a focused point, but the amount of technical speed that would require is insane.

Rolling: Carol can begin a roll as soon as the claw animation is done. This can pump out a massive amount of claws while being able to do it almost stationary. An amazing way to destroy everything close to the ground. Master this and things like the Bone Golem will go down in no time flat!

Major Skips

Relic Maze Zip

Thermal Base Box Zip

Final Dreadnought 2 Zip

Final Dreadnought 4 Zip