Tips and Tricks

No climber ascends the tower without the great power of Knowledge beside them.

General Tips:

• Practice makes perfect. It makes sense that the more you play the game, the more you'll learn about it and the better you'll get.
• In the Ruins you can travel outside the tower but you run the risk of getting struck by lightning! (Note: Lightning strikes happen randomly. While it is extremely unlikely, it is possible to get struck immediately as you leave the tower.)
• It is a good idea to mentally map out a downward escape route in the case of a poison gas hazard.
• Leave the beehives alone unless you really need a golden berry. If you blow up a beehive, you will find a golden berry in the center. However, you will also release a swarm of angry bees that will chase you presistently. If they sting you while you are climbing, you can easily fall to your death.
• Bees have a chance to give a small vertical boost when they sting you; if there is no pressure to ascend quickly and you're in a situation where being stunned won't be dangerous, they can be used to add about 1 block to your jump height.
• You can jump on a floating pod to push it downward. This will allow you to change course more freely than normal, and also to time your ascent through whirling blades.
• Try to keep at least four golden berries in your inventory in case you need to buy a revive potion. If you can spare it, try to have eight if possible, as you may die twice in the same level. Those extra jump potions won't help when you're dead.
• It's usually easier and faster to run than to fight. Try to avoid fighting when possible, as it also tends to use up resources.
• Learning to throw is a very important skill. Practice throwing and catching until you can do it with little thought.
• If you're in a bind where you need to get higher, and have no jump potions or teleport potions, you can use a corrosion potion to item jump, but not straight out of the potion throw. You first have to throw it and then catch it in your hands. This can either be done by throwing and then immediately hitting the run button, or throw it up, jump, and catch it out of the air. Either way, I'd suggest throwing it up.
• Sometimes Treasure Chests can spawn in lava. Look for the top of the chest sticking out. If you want it, you can get rid of the lava and reap the rewards.
• A line of text across the bottom of the screen indicates that you are on a hazardous level. A strange feeling level contains the Wizard, a level with an unbearable smell  is filled with dogs, a "ground trembles" level is stuffed with worms, an excruciating heat level has a lot of lava geysers and lava drips, a level where the air throbs means there are a lot of beetles and worms (big worms!) throughout the level (and the beetles seem to hatch faster), and the !!! levels have stone heads that spit lava out in timed intervals along with bats.
• In !!! levels and air throbbing levels, try to move through them fast. The stone heads spit out lava at timed intervals, so if you climb past them quickly enough, you don't have to deal with them. In the throbbing levels, it's easier to run past the beetles than to fight them, as there are way too many.
• The Path of Exiles, while fun, are not the safest path. It's a high risk, high reward path.They tend to be more difficult than the normal levels, but they will skip a whole section of floors in the normal game and a floor in the Centurial Trials. For inexperienced climbers, the risk of death is high and the reward may not justify the danger and resource comsumption. However, if you can succeed in Zardo's Gallery, you will win three treasure chests.
• In Zardo's Gallery, if you run out of time, Zardo will get rid of the platforms to try and kill you. However, you can grab onto the ceiling and live. Zardo will get annoyed at the nerve of you trying to live and come out to kill you himself. If you kill him here, this can mean a vapour wand and three chests! Just be warned that if he hits you here it's an instant fall into lava death.

Inventory Management:

• If your inventory is full, you can and should pick up an item to carry around, if only to use it for an item throw.
• Learn to prioritize what items are more useful than others. This may differ from climber to climber, but it helps to think of the different facets of items. Blast berries can be more useful to carry around due to their large amounts of uses than say a crate, which is only useful for extra height and item jumping. An egg falls into the almost completely useless category unless baking a cake, at which point it's a priority item. Gloves are always useful to take, but if climbing speed is good, it doesn't need to fill inventory. Spring boxes tend to only be situationally useful, and when used they might as well be a crate, so they can pretty much be given the priority of a crate. Seeds can be useful, but they tend to cause more problems then solve. If the inventory is empty, it can help to fill it with blast berries or give jumps, but other than that, it's really a low priority item. The orbs can come in handy, but if the inventory's full with useful stuff, they can just be used on the spot, as they tend to not really be necessary.A weapon is always great to have, so if one comes up, it should be grabbed.  However, the old sword is probably the worst weapon in the game. Its slow swing and low throw damage pale in comparison to the speed and damage of the Bitchbane. It's also usually more effective to throw a spear than use the sword. The boomerang is useful for doing distance damage and grabbing faraway items, so it's usually pretty useful on its own.
• If the inventory is full and an item that gets used when thrown such as a blast berry, but there's an item that you want to replace in your inventory, there's a way to preserve the berry and replace the item. Move the inventory to the item you want to replace, then throw the berry into the air. Immediately toss out the item (throwing it down to your feet usually works best), then jump into the air and grab the berry before it hits the ground. When you've grabbed the item you want to replace the other item with, put it on the ground, toss the berry back into the air, grab the item, put it into the inventory, then jump and grab the berry again.  If you're quick enough, you can do it with just one throw up, where you have the item to put into the inventory at your feet, toss the berry up, toss the item to be replaced away, grab the item you're putting into the inventory, hit the store button, jump, and then grab the berry. This maneuver can take some practice, but it will help in conserving items.
• If low on items and you have a blast berry or corrosion potion, destroy a row of spikes with the berry or potion and you essentially get three or four spikes for the price of one item. That means more item jumps and enemy killing tools.

Advanced Techniques:

• Item Jumping: Can be done with any item except the boomerang. Simply jump into the air and throw the item down. You get a nice little extra jump out of it, which can be used to reach walls that are out of reach, give some extra horizontal jump distance or save yourself from fall death, since it stops your falling speed. The item used can even be conserved if it's thrown to a place where it can be reached again, especially with items that stick such as the spear or spikes.
• Side wall to ceiling transfers: Climb down a wall until the climber's feet are sticking out under the ceiling. Once there, hit up and the climber will transfer from the side to the underside of the block. This can be very useful for improving maneuverability and reducing item usage, but it can also be tricky to do. Make sure to practice it first in a safe place before trying it in a place where you can fall to your death. It might not be a bad idea to be ready to use a jump potion or have an item ready for an item jump, just in case. This technique gets harder with gloves on since it is easy to overshoot the sweet spot for it.
• Ledge hops: Not really an advanced technique per se, but it's not something that comes to mind naturally. If you look at the climber when they get to the lip of a ledge and hit the jump button, they do a little jump up. Usually one is inclined to simply jump onto the ledge the climber is attached to, but you can instead jump away from the ledge, either in the interest of climbing faster or avoiding danger. Also, it can give you more horizontal distance than a regular jump if a ceiling is directly overhead.
• Boomboxing: The boomerang can be used to grab distant items, and this includes items used for item jumps. This works best with crates, but it can really be used with most items, with the exceptions of blast berries, corrosion potions, seeds, spikes, and orbs (since they get used up when thrown). Have the item to be used for the item jump in hand and move the inventory so that it's on the boomerang, as soon as the run button is let go, immediately throw the boomerang in the same direction as the item, usually down. If done fast enough, the boomerang will grab the item and return it to the climber. It works better with the crate because of how big it is and the trajectory it moves at, so it's a lot easier to also throw the crate diagonally and have the boomerang catch it. Once the boomerang catches the item, it will come back to you, so try to move to flat ground so that when the boomerang is grabbed, the item will drop on the ground and not back to where it was thrown before. This is just called boomboxing because crates are pretty much boxes, and combining boomerang and box = Boombox
• Advanced Boomboxing:  You thought boomboxing was hard, eh? This requires good coordination and fast reflexes. So once the boomerang is thrown down and it grabs the item in a boombox, it comes back to you. If you're fast enough, you can reclaim the boomerang and the item while on a wall, in cases where there isn't a convenient floor nearby. When the boomerang comes back, hit the run button to grab it, store it back into inventory, then let go of the run button and quickly hit the button again to grab the other item. This takes practice to do, but it is possible.

Weapon and fighting tips:

• The bitchbane is a wonderful weapon. It can be problematic when an enemy is right in front of you and the sword swing only hits above the enemy. However, if you jump, then let go of the jump button mid-jump, and then hold the jump button again, you can swing the sword at a lower height. This doesn't work so well when you have a jumper's aura, as you will just propel into the air instead, usually away from your target.
• The bitchbane can also just be thrown at an enemy instead of swung. It kills most enemies in one hit and if you're in front of the enemy when it's thrown, you can just quickly hit the run button again to regrab it on the rebound. This can be effective when you have a jumper's aura, hitting those pesky bats out of the air, or hitting a dog just hanging off of a ledge.
• The sword (any of the swords) can deflect lava drips when swung. It's not easy to do this in the moment, but a swing of the sword may just save your life in a !!! level.
• The spear is an amazing weapon in the disguise of a simple wooden shaft with a tip. It has a variety of uses and is a must have item for any climber. Here are some uses of the spear:
  1. If grabbed by a bat, throw the spear. It is a guaranteed hit on the bat, and if the run button is just let go of and then pressed again, the spear is reclaimed and good to go. This means that if you're in a hurry, just run up to a bat, throw spear and grab, and then keep on running. It barely breaks your stride so the bat poses minimal danger and you can keep on moving. This can also be done on worms, but be careful to do it after they come out, not before. This can also be done on Zardo.
  2. The spear can be thrown to kill any enemy it affects in one hit other than Zardo. He takes a few hits no matter what.
  3. The spear can be stuck into a wall and jumped off of. You can do this in conjunction with a vapour wand to break platforms above you without hitting the wall you're stuck to or throw potions with a little more accuracy. You can leave the spear behind and hope to get a new one, but who would want to leave such a useful item behind?
• The boomerang only does weak damage, which means you'll have to hit Zardo twice as much as with a spear or blast berries, so it's not the most efficient way of fighting him, but its range does mean you don't have to be in front of him when he shoots his blast. Unfortunately, this also means the blast may hit the boomerang and turn it into something else.
• The boomerang can be a great weapon for dealing with beatles! On hitting the beetle the first time, it stops it dead in its tracks and forces it to the ground. This gives time to recover the boomerang and throw it again. Just make sure you're not throwing it up at a beetle, as it will probably come down and land on you.
• Be careful when killing dogs. When they die, they have a split second of standing up, which means if you're standing right on top of them when they die, they'll take you with them.
• Beetles can be downright frustrating, as they usually try to make a beeline for you. However, this can be manipulated to your advantage by moving the beetles where you want them to go. Just lead them to where you want them to go, and they will go there for the most part (they like to mess around and dawdle sometimes). If brave and fast enough, you can move around them at this point, completely avoiding fighting them altogether. Be careful though, this means you might be getting pretty close to them, and that's dangerous!
• Dogs have a cycle of being awake when they first come on the screen, then going back to sleep and waking at random intervals. Usually, they wake up for the same amount of time every time, so get a feel for how long it takes. They won't hurt you while they're asleep, and once they go back to sleep, you can run by safely with no threat of them waking up as you run by. Don't just stand there though, they like to wake up at the most inconvenient times.
• Killing the Giant Worm:
  1. The Giant Worm is best fought either with the Bitchbane or Cake. The Bitchbane does bonus damage to him while the cake kills him in one hit. With every hit, the worm recoils for a second. With the Bitchbane, you can use that time to get in a few hits before retreating when he recovers. When he does recover, he moves at a slightly increased speed. Get out of there before he gets you.
  2. It's best to find some whater or a good square arena without obstacles to fight the worm in. The most ideal place is Zardo's Gallery in the Centurial Trials (the one that has the worm obviously). That way you can lead him in circles without having to criss-cross around and mess with obstacles at the same time. If fighting in the water, it might be a good idea to kill the piranhas that around around so you don't have to deal with them at the same time. If you have meat, toss it out so the fish go to that instead.
  3. While fighting the worm, if you lead it correctly, you can have his head be pretty far away from you and have his tail right in front of you. this means you can sit there and slice and dice his tail without too much threat from him nabbing you. This is best done underwater, where maneuverability is highest.
  4. Be careful to move the worm where you want him to go. You certainly don't want him to go through lava blocks, spikes, or lanterns when you're nearby. If possible, try to move him around these obstacles.
  5. Make sure to utilize short hop swings or hanging swings with the sword so that you can quickly hit him.
  6. Don't get impatient.

Maneuverability tips:

• You can hold onto walls while climbing so you don't slide down. To do this, simply hold the jump button alongside the direction of the wall (e.g. To hold onto a wall to the left, hold the left key and the jump button together). This can be very helpful for timing your next move.
• Ice can be tricky to move on. Remember that it builds up momentum the more you move on it. If you take small steps, you can move a little at a time. If you jump, it stops all of the momentum, so that's the best way to stop that. If you sprint in the opposite direction you will slip, causing your character to be stunned briefly. Always walk to change directions on ice or else you may slip off and drop down!
• Spikes can be scary. Fall on spikes from too high and you die. You can step off one block's worth of height onto spikes, but literally a pixel higher will have you impaled. It is perfectly safe to walk across and hop slightly above the spikes, though when jumping towards platforms with spikes always aim for the ledge.
• If your way is blocked by lava, you can use your jumper's aura to get around it. You can also blow up one of the blocks at the end or under the lava to get rid of it. Just watch out for the spray of lava drops that come out of it.
• If you're on a block, and there's a ceiling above you to the right or left just out of reach when jumping straight up, you still might be able to reach it. If you do a non-running jump you'll jump higher and be able to move forward a little bit. If jumping from the edge of the platform, you can reach a ceiling about one block's space away.
• Shoes help immensely! They increase how far you can jump, which can mean conserving on potions reaching those far away blocks. Get used to the increased speed so that you don't accidentally stumble into lava (don't worry, it happens to everyone).
• Glove and shoe effects stack, so having two gloves makes you climb even faster, and having two shoes helps you jump even further. Just be aware that too much speed can be a bad thing, as sometimes having too much climbing speed will actually pop you off ledges and jump you up into things. This can be used to your advantage though.
• Cooked meat can help you climb fast in short spurts. If you're dealing with a lava level without gloves, this will help you outclimb the lava.
• If you hit the jump button, sprint button, and a (usually diagonal) directional input all simultaneously you can retain the height of a standstill jump and the horizontal movement speed of sprinting with a single jump. This can be used to get across gaps you would otherwise be unable to cross.
• If the level is flooded with water, in addition to being able to infinitely jump, you can also swim downwards by pressing the jump key and holding down. This comes in pretty handy while using a sword or traversing later sections in the game.