Mechanics

Kicks

Wild Claw

Damage

Slopes

Ladders

Zipping

Techniques

Bike

Wall Ride

Simply put when Carol's bike comes in contact with a wall it will cling 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 the wall but not down. To get quickly down from the wall simply pushing away will drop you from the wall. Pushing towards the wall will drive up the wall. 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 boosting and attacking work. This will be the basis for many different tricks, and will be used extensively in the speedrun. The only way to wall ride downwards is when a slope causes it.

It is also important to always be ready to avoid wall rides. There are times where Carol comes into a section and wishes to go downwards. However she may get stuck to a wall, she will only do this if you hold towards the wall. Simply by not holding a direction any issues can be avoided, but still be ready in these sections to press away to get off that wall if you do get stuck and resume falling to eliminate the loss of time. The wall doesn't have to be flat for Carol to be stuck to it either. She can easily get stuck to sections, and due to being at a high speed, get launched in the opposite direction than the goal you were heading to. Watch where the bike is going, it is said to be made of glue for a reason.

Boost Claw

While preforming a boost, inputting an attack will execute a Wild Claw. it is not possible to preform a Wild Claw on the bike without first boosting.

Double Jump Claw / Jump claw

Simply by jumping during the boost animation, Carol can use her wild claw in midair. This can be combined with a double jump to place the claw very high. Generally not too useful however as most fights are done off the bike, or the movement needed to boost gets in the way. Does not work when boost jumping off an upwards slope

Double Jump Cancel

By attacking while in the double jump animation, the double jump is immediately cancelled. However because the double jump gives most of it's momentum right at the start this does not make a difference in the long run. However by doing this you remove the cost of the double jump which drains your special bar as long as you are flipping. In situations where kicks on the bike will be needed shortly this can be vital to do. Also the double jump deals less damage than other forms of attack, so doing so in the few situations the bike is used for combot will increase the speed of those fights. In most situations though, there is little reason to cancel a double jump other than habit, and in fact sometimes you may want your special bar to be drained. Other than in a fight, or in particular situations, this technique tends to be inconsequential.

Boost-Turnaround

A simple trick. While driving in one direction pressing backwards simply slows down the bike. However by pressing boost while holding backwards will instantly turn around and be heading in full speed in this direction. In almost every situation that turns the bike around, a boost-turnaround is the most efficient and fastest way to do it.

Bike Dismount

By coming to a full stop on the bike either by holding down, or slowing down slowly, Carol can leave the bike behind. She does this by holding down and pressing jump while at a complete stop. This leaves the bike directly into a pounce. Most bosses are substantially easier, safer, and faster on foot so getting used to leaving the bike is needed. There are very few situations where you will wish to use the bike in combat, only when the enemy is high with no nearby walls, or fast enough to kill on the bike that it's irrelevant.

Wall Launching

While preforming a wall ride there is a few ways to dismount it. You can press away to fall off, reach an edge at the top, or jump to boost away from the wall. Wall Launching makes use of the latter. In most cases Wall Launching is used to instantly transition into moving away from the wall that was being ridden. To do this hold towards the wall, jump, and then quickly switch to holding away from the wall. A proper launch with change all the momentum from the jump directly into heading in the desired direction. The only time that launching vertically is really used is in the few cases of roof riding.

Roof riding

A situational technique. There are at least three times in dragon valley that this is used alone in the current route however. All three do is in separate ways. In all cases this is done on a roof that rounds up sort of like the bottom of a bowl. Landing on this roof will cause carol to stick to it in very peculiar ways depending on how she grabs. It will be useful to experiment will all cases on your own and see what parts of the roof seem to stick the best. Certain parts will cause Carol to simply get stuck, while others will allow her to boost and ride the entire curve which is the preferable option. Getting onto the round section on the same point a struggle on it's own in many situations. However with a bit of time spent practicing it is very possible.

The steps to doing a roof ride are simply to grab the rounded section of the roof, then boost. If Carol gets stuck she will have to jump off and double jump back onto the curve. The approach to each roof ride is unique due to the terrain, and it is best to treat each approach as part of the trick, learning them together.

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 simply jumping at speed. A very good technique to build into being second nature. The only times this technique is not useful is to conserve stamina, or when a shorter jump is required. An extra major benefit of Boost Jumping is that it takes next to no room to preform, allowing it to be done without a run-up. This is especially usful when approaching ships in Sky Battalion.

The trick does not increase height when launching from the ground, it actually increases the speed Carol leaves the ground at. Due to this it actually saves times to be boost jumping in situations where a normal jump would suffice.

Done on a slope yields amazing vertical height. This can allow carol to reach places that would otherwise require a double jump, or even skip certain wall rides.

Edge Boost

This technique is still not fully understood. It is executed by boosting as carol reaches the top of a wall, and as she goes off continue to hold boost. This will launch her forward off the wall rather than directly up. This is beneficial in nearly every situation, there is almost no places where an edge boost isn't anted while leaving the top of a wall. The confusion comes in with the angle that Carol leaves the wall at. Sometimes she nearly goes 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, but further testing is still required. Note there are two major types of edge boosts:

Kicking: When carol has some remaining special bar and attempts to edge boost she will launch off the wall at incredible speeds directly into her kick attack. In most situations that's fine, but kicking does prevent carol from double jumping. It however possible to edge boost with special remaining and not kick, the reason why is not understood and is mainly done by feel currently.

Kickless: When going off a wall without special bar (or in some cases even with special) carol will launch forward in a state almost identical to jumping out of a boost. The advantage of this is that Carol can then double jump to extend the length of this boost and reach walls that the kicking boost may need to land and then jump for. This kickless boost is why you will often see carol runners spamming boost to keep their meter down. There are times however that carol will need to be able to kick and you must know when an area like that is coming up.

Propeller kicks

when you kick you cancel water physics and start falling down. Then you press jump and get vertical momentum. Overall it boosts you forward slightly. Overall not the most useful techniques, the major place this was useful for is now no longer seen due to a route change in Jade Creek. It does have the benefit of being able to seemingly drag out a boost from a ledge underwater to carry the momentum for longer due to removing water physics. As is there is only a few times that Carol will be underwater, and in the majority of them riding the bottom is simply the better option. Of the two that this is potentially useful in Jade Creek, only one is commonly used after Neera is frozen, because in the other you may wish to conserve special for an upcoming fight. Even in the one spot that some runners use it however, it is not much slower to simply ride normally and rise to the surface.

Because of the aforementioned reasons this technique tends to be inconsequential and should not be a priority to learn. However the route is constantly evolving and more uses may be found at any point.

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.

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

Slope Roll

Roll Blocking

Pounce claw

Roll Claw

Rapid Clawing

Reverse Claw

Major Skips

Relic Maze Zip

Thermal Base Box Zip

Final Dreadnought 2 Zip

Final Dreadnought 4 Zip