Mirror's Edge

Note that this list is for the console versions, and things may function a bit differently on PC.

Tricks and Glitches

Balance Beam Jump

When you land on a balance-beam there's a very small frame window where you can jump again, and repeat for as long as the pipe goes. As it seems to work it frames it's needs extreme precision, and is more instinct than any real timing method. Also, try experimenting with both standard jumps and coiling; their timing seems slightly different and you may find one much more comfortable than the other (conversely, if you're having problems, trying swapping your technique and see if you do it better).

3-step Rule

Someone on On-Mirrors Edge came up with the rule that to not lose speed from turning in jumps you need to move around 3 steps after landing and then start turning, that was discovered for the PC version and may be different on Consoles.

Side-step Boost

Sidestep (left or right+jump), and turn towards the jump for an instant momentum boost, the more precise the more speed you gain so this is much easier on the PC.

Coil Boost

When your speed is around 20 (the more the better), do a coil-jump with a smooth landing; it's hard to describe the proper timing, so you'll just have to do it until you get the feel, each coil is higher than your run speed; do another the instant you land and repeat as many times as possible. If you pull-off the jumps smoothly enough you are continuously moving at the coil jump speed (seems to max at 30 vs 26 for sprinting). Try and jump from elevated surfaces where possible, as that gives you more coil airtime, and therefore more overall speed.

Wall-run Boost

Wall-run and jump off (you can also just let the wall-run finish a lot of the time) while going straight and your momentum instantly boosts a lot when you land, to the maximum sprint speed a lot of the time. This is useful for speeding up (especially as the side-step is harder to do perfectly on console).

The jump itself also puts your momentum above maximum for a short time. There are two forms of this wall-run boost; one is done by jumping off the wall the instant you jump to it (the more you face the wall the better). The other is done by turning towards the wall and jumping off part-way through the run. The instant jump seems to give the best boosts, but isn't usable in many situations. This boost is the fastest general method of movement in the game.

Drop-off Boost

Dropping off objects slightly off the ground (what this works on can be a little arbitrary at times) instantly gives a big momentum boost a lot of the time, considering they both involve falling this may have some relation to the wall-run boost.

Landing Mat Slide

When falling on a landing mat (the ones that stop you for a couple of seconds), do the flip-off move (RB+RT on 360, obviously add LT when you are on a zip-line) and start turning sharply just before you land and you slide on the mat. If you turn too early it won't work, and the allowance seems to vary for each mat.

Skill-roll Boost

You only lose momentum from a skill roll if you move forwards after, in other words, sidestep diagonally forwards for a short time after the roll then go forwards and you will have full momentum (the initial boost seems to max at 24, but I may not have did it fast enough yet). You can only do it if you have momentum before, so you can't do it from stuff like vents.

Jump-Kick

When glass or other such obstacles are in the way, the best method is generally to jump very early, allowing you to do a jump kick and smash through with barely any momentum loss, it also works on doors, but needs perfect timing to not slow you at all (although it's still faster than ramming it open even when you get it wrong).

Wall-run kick

If you kick from a wall-run (you may have to do it at the lowest point), then Faith can fall larger distances than is normally allowed. It generally only seems useful for exploring out-of-bounds areas, but it has a few uses in actual gameplay.

Fast Vent Fall

It seems like you can randomly drop from vents at about double the speed you normally do; this is usually a bad thing and messes up your timing, but if a way to do it consistently was found you could theoretically use it to speed up falls. I've seen it happen in a few places that aren't vents too.

Fall-Break Kick

On a near-straight fall (E.G. out of a vent), if you do a kick as you come close to the ground you will land without having to roll. You can potentially do this from any jump, but killing your momentum in mid-air is tough.

Wall-Run Kick Jump

After doing a wall-run kick, Faith momentarily stops on a sort of invisible ledge on the way down (which is probably why it works in the first place), if you time the jump just right (it seems to be as exact as jumping across pipes) you jump from the invisible ledge. This allows for major shortcuts at some points.

Wall-Climb

Wallrun vertically, then do a sidestep in mid-air and you can do a double-jump to reach higher places. Thanks to RunescapePKing for discovering this and posting a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGVRvx0Fqwg .

Barbed-Wire Boost

Barbed-wire gives you boosts if you hit it at the right angles. Ovendonkey found a small use for it in Chapter 9. That's all so far.

Wall-Climb Boost

Wall climb at certain pieces of geometry and you get a massive boost away from it. The biggest use has been found by Shivar at the end of chapter 2; doing a wall-climb sidestep into wire at the right place lets you skip the entire end area.