Press and holdan arc shows the jump you are about to make. Slide until it points where you want and let go.
Only left and right matteryour thumb beside the climber is a near-vertical hop, out at the edge is a long flat leap, either side. How high or low you touch means nothing at all, so you can hold the phone however you like.
Let go to jumpyou only get one jump per landing, so the arc is the decision.
Walls bouncea flat leap into the wall comes back. Bank shots are real.
The jetpackhold anywhere in mid-air and it burns - upward, and toward whichever side your thumb is on. A new one only slows your fall; relics turn it into real lift and make the tank last longer. It refills when you land, never on a timer.
Let go before you jump againa press that was still down when you landed will not jump. Lift your thumb and press again. Nothing you do to save yourself in the air can throw you off the ledge you just saved.
The circles are your lifeall of it. The swarm or a crawler touching you empties one instead of ending the climb; with none left, the next touch is the end. There is nothing else keeping you alive, so what you see at the top of the screen is the whole truth.
You start with no circles at allrelics are the only thing that gives you one, and they keep it forever. Until then every catch throws you skyward instead, which is how this game used to work and is still a fine way to climb.
Catch the drifting thingsbubbles, moths, birds, balloons and sparks. If you have an empty circle they fill it, and every filled circle makes your jumps a little stronger too. If you are full, they throw you upward instead.
Relicsthe spinning gem in a pillar of light - not a booster, a different thing entirely, and the only permanent thing in the game. SHELL is another circle, up to five. The rest raise your jetpack, your jump, your float or your grip. They all keep between runs.
The platforms
Crackedgives way shortly after you land, and the fuse gets shorter the higher you climb.
Springbounces you straight back up without spending your jump.
Rocketfires you a long way up the moment you touch it.
Gooholds you for a beat and takes the power out of your next jump.
Slickno grip. You keep sliding and you will go off the end.
Driftingnever where you left it.
Nestalready occupied. Touching one of them ends the climb.
Slabdown in the halls. It settles under you and keeps going. Do not stand and think.
Capin the caves. A soft bounce that costs you nothing and gains you a little.
Limbin the forest. It bows, then throws you higher than any spring - if you are still on it.
Cloudin the open sky. You sink into it and it thins away underneath you.
Drifting rockout in orbit. A ferry. Ride it as far as you like; there is nothing to hold on with.
Things worth catching
Every zone has one, and hitting it throws you upward - bubbles in the flooded halls, moths in
the caves, birds in the forest, balloons in the open sky, sparks out in orbit. They come
back a few seconds after you take one.
The swarm
They have been coming up since the moment you started, and they follow your best height. Standing still lets them reach you. Falling drops you into them. Early on they are close behind; the higher you get the more rope you have, but they move faster.
Reward bands
The bar at the top fills as you climb. Cross a band and you are given something - a shield, a net, a rocket, or the swarm shoved back down. Every few bands is a safe zone that pushes them a long way back and hands you a shield.
Self-tuning
The game is tuning itself. Every run reports how long it lasted, how high it got and whether the player came straight back; those land on the rungs that were in play, and a cohort of runs closes an epoch and re-picks the numbers. When the shared table is reachable, every player is on the same configuration and the comparison is between epochs rather than between runs. ×n is how much evidence a rung has.