SpeedRunners is one of those games anyone can pick up at a convention or party. Every now and then though there's this one guy at these events that starts to kick everyone's butt. It's probably because he knows the basic strats of the game. Good thing I'm here to share these with you. If you're a novice player, or someone considering buying SpeedRunners (it's in Early Access until April 19th!), you might find these tips useful. Let's start with the basics and work our way up. Before I get to items, I assume you understand how SpeedRunners work -- 4 players spawn in a map, and the camera follows the players in front. If you fall off-screen, you lose. "Press a to jump and figure it out" is usually good enough of an explanation. One important thing to understand is momentum and how to get it. A very simple example is the gif below.

Getting Momentum With Slopes

• Both players jump down
• Both players hit a diagonal slope
• The slope transfers their downwards momentum into sideways momentum. That's why they have that fancy trail.

Let's Talk About Items!

Items are what makes SpeedRunners the friendship-destroying game many people love. I'm going to use GIFs to illustrate proper use of items. Note that these are basic tactics just to help new players understand what's happening.

The Crate

The crate might seem like a useless object as it's easy to jump over, but pro level SpeedRunners players had decisive matches because of it.

• Use it to dodge golden hooks
• Place it in spots where players have to slide, that'll slow the others down or force them to burn items
• Place them where upwards ladders end - that forces players to awkwardly jump over, costing valuable momentum

The Golden Hook

The Golden Hook is probably the most iconic and friendship ruining weapon. There's more to it though as we've seen from high level play.

• It's easy to dodge over long distances by sliding
• Most efficient against other noobs or close-range against experienced players
• Having it in your inventory limits experienced opponents' actions

Let me talk about that last point for a second. When you have the Golden Hook you're playing a mind game with the people in front of you. Most people will anxiously slide all over the place, anticipating the hook -- while others will keep onto items like the Crate in order to dodge. The best players in the world use the hook to break opponents' super-speed which is also very effective. Remember that you also take your opponents' momentum when grappling them.

The Rocket

The Rocket is a slow but effective weapon. It will slowly lock onto a target and follow it... if there's open space. Otherwise it can be used efficiently in tunnels when you need to stun the 3 players in front of you.

• Effective in close-quarter situations
• Slow in open spaces
• Great stun if it hits

The Freezeray

The Freezeray was added as a more direct item that can freeze multiple enemies. The core feature is that it goes through walls and can be used with great efficiency during varying vertical paths.

• Has a build-up
• Fires through walls
• Freezes your enemies for a couple of seconds

If your enemies had momentum, that momentum will transfer to their frozen state -- it's not always good to freeze someone going a downhill slope very fast.
In the gif above, you see that the momentum of SpeedRunners with no friction transfered to the downhill slope -- and the freezeray wasn't as effective

The Shockwave

The beautiful shockwave is an effective area weapon. In the most recent iteration, ti fires in front of the casting player. It will blow up all over items and push players away from its central direction. It means it's also great for boosting yourself forward.

• Area weapon that counters everything in the game
• Great for offense and defense
• When used skillfully, creates magnificent moments of all players slowing down

The Fireball

A very fast weapon that just keeps on rolling forward. The Fireball is players' favorite item to clear a path (including through other players). It can be fired backwards to knock down players mid-air, and has the same stun effect as The Rocket.

• Fast forward-rolling weapon
• Great for clearing paths, like getting rid of crates
• Efficient for both offense and defense if used properly

Learning To Counter

The fun of SpeedRunners comes when all items come together and result in situations like this:

Those are the basics!

I hope this helps people get a head start in SpeedRunners and eventually get a s good as these guys from the recent King of Speed finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=425xdDwOlQc Community! What do you guys think? Am I missing any vital beginners tips?