Welcome back to Phantom Abyss 101, your weekly training ground for all things speedrunning, trap dodging, whip tech, and more. Whether you’re a phantom, a relic hunter, or just a curious player trying to improve, this episode is a treasure chest of game-changing movement techniques. Today’s focus: mastering the art of moving faster, smarter, and more efficiently in Phantom Abyss.
The Foundations of Movement: Speed Starts With Slopes
Movement in Phantom Abyss is deeper than simple sprinting and jumping. The game’s physics engine rewards momentum—and understanding how to build and preserve that momentum is the key to shaving off time and reaching world-record speeds. First lesson? Slide down slopes. Whether it’s stairs, ramps, or even surfaces with just a one-degree incline, any slope provides a momentum boost when you slide. It’s subtle, but when chained with other techniques like ledge boosts, the effect stacks quickly.
When to Slide, When to Skip
Here’s where nuance matters. In certain rooms—like the large starting room—sliding down all the stairs might be satisfying, but it’s not always optimal. If your goal is speed over loot, skip the slope and jump straight to the end, especially if you know how to ledge boost. This is a recurring theme: movement techniques are situational, and experience will teach you when to go all in and when to bypass entirely.
Ledge Boosting: Advanced Yet Essential
Ledge boosting is one of the most powerful techniques in the game. Timing your jump at the edge of a sloped platform gives you a significant speed and distance bonus. It’s hard to get consistent with it—but don’t let that scare you. Dozens of players have picked it up in under 10 minutes. Even the pros struggle with consistency, and that’s okay. Just practicing this skill gives you a huge advantage. Even if you miss, your whip and roll mechanics are there to keep you safe.
Another tactic to pair with ledge boosting is break falling—jumping just as you hit the ground. This preserves your momentum (especially useful in the tutorial, where fall damage is disabled), and with blessings like double jump or hover, you can completely neutralize landing penalties.
Pathfinding and Room Familiarity
Phantom Abyss features a massive range of room layouts, but patterns emerge. As you gain more experience, you’ll start to recognize stair placements, trap positions, and elevation points. You’ll know exactly which direction to sprint, whip, or jump to save seconds. Until then, train your eye on the possibilities. And remember—you can always buy skip doors. If you’ve got 100 gems and a brutally long room ahead, don’t hesitate. Save your hearts and your time.
Ledge Grabbing and Vertical Movement
Grabbing ledges isn’t just for emergencies—it’s a speedrunner’s tool. When scaling tall structures, aim your whip just below the top. This lets your character surge upward, then immediately grab the ledge for a faster whip reset and climb. If the grab doesn’t auto-trigger, spam crouch near the edge. It’s faster than landing, waiting, and re-whipping—and in rooms filled with vertical layers, this can be your best path forward.
Skipping Traps, or Using Them to Skip
Skipping isn’t always about avoiding. Sometimes, you use the trap. Take the hammer, for example: intentionally getting smacked can yeet you across the room in exchange for a single heart. In some cases, that’s a trade worth making. Conveyor belts, fast-moving platforms, and rolling cylinders can all be exploited for movement boosts—just jump in the direction they’re moving for extra lift. Be mindful of FPS settings here, though—trap mechanics are tied to frame rate, leading to inconsistencies. 60 FPS or lower is recommended for consistency.
Slide Hopping: Ledge Boosting Without a Ledge
Slide hopping is your go-to technique on flat terrain. By crouch-sliding and then jumping, you create a miniature momentum burst. It’s not as strong as a ledge boost, but it beats both normal running and jump-spamming (which is actually slower than just walking). If you’re struggling to slide hop effectively, reconsider your keybinds. Map crouch/slide/roll to your mouse or another accessible key—avoid system shortcut keys like ALT that interfere with gameplay.
This technique also applies to the Ice Whip. While it already makes you move faster during slides, chaining that into slide hops makes you move even faster. Small optimization, big gains.
Maintaining Momentum: Double Jumps and Bunny Hops
Building momentum is one thing—keeping it is another. Use your double jump during descent, not at the peak of your jump, to extend airtime and keep your forward momentum intact. The timing matters: the later you trigger the second jump, the better you preserve speed and distance.
Then there’s bunny hopping (B-hopping). Trigger your jump at the exact frame you land to avoid friction and preserve momentum. It’s tougher than ledge boosting and even more difficult to string together, especially around tight corners. But when mastered, it’s immensely powerful and can carry momentum from a big ledge boost across entire rooms.
The Lightning Whip: Speed Through Simplicity
The Lightning Whip operates on a unique set of rules. Unlike other whips, sliding actually slows you down. The best advice? Just run. Seriously. Let your natural sprinting speed carry you, and avoid overusing jumps, slides, or whips unless necessary. You can ledge boost, but a failed attempt will punish you harder due to how Lightning handles momentum. Stick to clean jumps and run paths whenever possible.
By contrast, other whips should always take advantage of ledge boosts. There’s no penalty for missing, and the potential speed gain is massive.
Wrap-Up and What’s Next
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations—you’re well on your way to becoming a movement master in Phantom Abyss. These techniques—from slope slides to bunny hops to intentional trap yeets—are foundational tools for speedrunning and efficient relic collection. The more you play, the more these mechanics will become second nature.
In the next installment, we’ll explore how to phase through traps without taking damage. Subscribe or check back soon for that, and don’t forget to join the Discord community or stop by the Twitch stream for giveaways, Q&A, and more daily content.
Until next time—stay fast, stay safe, and stop hugging that guy. Seriously. What the hell is wrong with you?
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