Player abilities¶
This page covers your moment-to-moment toolkit: the core actions you always have, the kick-off move, and the skills you unlock as you level up. Every action can be rebound in the controls menu, so the names below refer to the in-game action rather than a specific button.
Core actions¶
- Dash. Your main burst of movement and the foundation for several other abilities. Many skills build on top of it.
- Light attack and Heavy attack. Your melee combo. Light attacks are quick, heavy attacks are slower and stronger and chain into a combo.
- Parry. Press the Heavy attack button right before an attack or projectile hits you to parry it. It works against any attack or projectile.
- Grapple (grab and throw). Grab an enemy and throw them. A thrown enemy collides with and hits other enemies along the way. Bosses and enemies that do not move cannot be grabbed.
Kick Off: dashing off walls and enemies¶
Normally a dash carries you straight through enemies. The Kick Off skill lets you treat an enemy like a wall instead: while you are dashing into one, change your direction and dash to kick off of it and launch a brand new dash the way you are now aiming.
- It works on both walls and enemies. Either way you push off and fire into a fresh dash in your new direction.
- To trigger it you have to swing your direction at least a quarter turn (about 90 degrees or more) away from the way you were heading. A gentle curve will not do it, you have to redirect sharply.
- The new dash comes out with a speed boost (around 1.7x a normal dash) and a short hit-stop on contact for impact.
- You can chain kick-offs across walls and enemies to keep your momentum going and cross a room in a few hops.
- You cannot kick off the same enemy twice in quick succession (there is a short per-enemy cooldown), so chaining off enemies means bouncing between different targets. Walls have no such limit.
Kick Off pairs well with anything that raises your dash speed, and with the fluid dash skills below for crossing hazards at full momentum.
Skills¶
Skills unlock automatically as your character level rises. The descriptions below are the in-game skill text.
| Skill | What it does | Unlocks at |
|---|---|---|
| Crushing Blow | Adds a final, third hit to your heavy combo. | Level 1 |
| Empowered Dash | Fluids can be dashed across infinitely, so your dash no longer fizzles on them. | Level 2 |
| Running Start | Start a melee combo by punching during a dash. Works with both the light and heavy punches. | Level 3 |
| Safe Dash | While dashing you are immune to fluid effects such as poison and water. | Level 4 |
| Kick Off | Use walls and enemies to perform extra consecutive dashes and gain a speed boost. | Level 5 |
| Great Leap | Increased leap distance lets you cross larger gaps. | Level 10 |
Safe Dash and Empowered Dash both interact with Fluids: Safe Dash stops fluids from affecting you while you dash, and Empowered Dash stops fluids from cutting your dash short.
Notes¶
- The unlock levels above are character level milestones. You learn each skill the first time you reach its level.
- Many items change how these abilities feel, for example by boosting dash speed or adding effects to your punches. See the Items for those.