Jumping

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Click to listen

— The Scout

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Jumping, like with other games, is a core ability of players in Team Fortress 2. Jumping is used to reach elevated positions, shorten walking distance or avoid fire. You can jump by pressing default "A" for the Xbox 360 version, "Space" on PC and "X" on the PS3.

Crouch-jumping

At any point during a jump, the player may crouch. This brings his legs up, allowing the player to reach higher surfaces or shrink his hitbox to dodge enemy fire. By default, a player may only crouch and uncrouch a few times while in the air. This prevents several exploits that require rapid changes in the player's hitbox.

Crouch-jumping is also used to boost the effect of explosive knock back. By design, any jump involving an explosive will go further with a crouch-jump than a regular jump.

Air Strafing

Air strafing allows players to curve in mid-air. While airborne, hold down a strafe key and simultaneously move the mouse smoothly in that direction. Be sure to release forward as holding it down will cancel the strafe. You can freely switch directions at any time.

See the Air Strafing page for more specifics.

Scout jumps

The Scout is the only class with an innate jump ability, the double jump. This can be augmented with the Force-A-Nature, creating a triple jump or force jump.

Double Jump

By pressing the jump key a second time after the initial jump, the Scout can perform a second jump in any direction. The extra height and distance this ability grants can be used to access places which other classes cannot.

Double jumping disregards air physics, so the Scout can quickly shift from one direction to another by holding the respective directional key as you jump. Use this to dodge enemies during combat or to quickly peek around corners without taking damage.

Use double jumping to avoid fall damage. The Scout can fall great distances and avoid taking extra damage by using the second jump just before landing.

If your timing is right, you can double jump over enemies' heads. Use this to confuse your foes.

Care should be taken when dodging Snipers, as a careless double jump (such as at the peak of the first jump) will leave the Scout falling through the air in a smooth, easily traced path, a prime target for a skilled Sniper.

Triple Jump

With the Force-A-Nature equipped, the Scout can use the recoil from a shot to propel himself even higher into the air while airborne from his second jump for an effective Triple Jump. The third 'jump', produced by the Force-A-Nature shot has more horizontal force and is slightly more difficult to aim and predict than a double-jump. However, the Triple jump allows the Scout to reach all sorts of places Scattergun equipped Scouts cannot reach by double jumping alone.

Force Jump

Yet another jump, similar to the triple jump, is the Force Jump. By running into a jump and firing a Force-A-Nature shot downwards 'against' your jump, you propel yourself higher than a double jump, but with your second jump still usable. Doing this kills your horizontal momentum in exchange for the height you gain.

Rocket jumps

A rocket jump is any jump assisted by the explosive knock back of the Soldier's own rockets. A player can propel himself great heights and distances, usually at the cost of some health. This technique is often used to reach unusual locations on the map, cover ground quickly, bypass barriers, and surprise foes. To assist with rocket jumps, the Soldier has 40% damage resistance against any rocket he fires that does not damage an enemy. Critical hits do not deal extra self-damage or extra knock back to the Soldier, so they will not propel him further. Any rocket jumping Soldier will display burning, smoky boots until he lands.

Basic Rocket Jumping

Simultaneously jump and fire a rocket at your feet. The angle of the shot and your distance from the explosion will determine the velocity and height you reach. Crouch-jump just before you fire, and the explosion will launch you significantly further. The sooner you set off the explosion after you jump, the further and faster you will fly. Refrain from using crouch on low heights as rocket jumping too high will result in fall damage. A good example of a rocket jump that can be done without crouch is getting onto the battlements on 2Fort.

Advanced Rocket Jumping

There are multiple variations on the basic rocket jump. Most are regularly used on jump maps, but they can be used in a normal game to gain great speed or height.

Faster rocket jumps can be made off a combination of wall and ground. Aim down at the corner where the wall intersects the ground, crouch-jump and fire. These jumps tend to have a low angle and high velocity, and they often go further than regular jumps.

Wall jumps can be made while in the air and against a wall. Continue to hold crouch and fire down below yourself on the wall. The explosion will produce a second jump. Rocket jumps and wall jumps can be chained together to gain great distance or height.

Pogo jumps are secondary rocket jumps made against the ground to increase your airtime. You pogo by firing down as you approach the ground, popping you back up in the air. This technique is difficult and requires a lot of practice. Skipping is the high speed variant, achieved by planting a rocket directly at one's feet before landing. Prediction is necessary to ensure the rocket lands directly beneath the player. The resulting explosion should keep the player airborne as well as dramatically increase forward momentum.

Double rocket jumps require two rockets to detonate as you jump. This is only possible on jump maps because of the extremely long distances required. If you fire a rocket downwards and fall after it, you will eventually fall faster than your own shot. After landing, you then rocket jump as your first shot strikes you. The combined explosion sends you much further and higher than is otherwise possible.

Flicking is rapidly turning around and firing the rocket mostly behind you. This can be combined with any other technique to fine tune the direction and power of a jump. An easier equivalent is to face backwards while you make your rocket jump. Always turn in the direction of your weapon. Doing this results in a faster and more precise jump, as projectiles in the Source engine are spawned at the end of the player's viewmodel, not in the center of the screen.

No damage will be dealt to the Soldier when rocket jumping if he has the Rocket Jumper equipped, although he will still receive fall damage. However fall damage can be prevented by using a variation of a pogo jump. This technique involves holding crouch and firing a rocket just below you as you are about to land. This is also a useful technique for a Soldier equipped with Gunboats as the splash damage will often be less than the fall damage they would receive.

Sticky jumps

A sticky jump is any jump assisted by the explosive knock back of the Demoman's own stickies. Compared to the Soldier's rocket jump, the Demoman pays more health but jumps much higher and further. This technique is often used to reach unusual locations on the map, cover ground quickly, bypass barriers, and surprise foes. To assist with sticky jumps, the Demoman has 25% damage resistance against any sticky he fires that does not damage an enemy. Critical hits do not deal extra self-damage or extra knockback to the Demoman, so they will not propel him further. Any sticky jumping player will display burning, smoky boots until he lands.

Basic Sticky Jumping

Place a sticky on the ground and wait for it to arm. Jump over the sticky and detonate it. Your distance from the sticky's wide explosive radius will determine height, velocity, and damage taken to a significant degree. Crouch-jumping will cause the explosion to launch you significantly further.

Advanced Sticky Jumping

Advanced sticky jumping techniques are similar to a Soldier's rocket jumping techniques, but the mechanics are somewhat different because of the sticky's arming period.

Double sticky jumps begin by setting two stickies on the ground instead of one. You'll lose vastly more health, but you'll jump vastly further and higher. It's best to only attempt this jump while a Medic overheals you or ÜberCharges you. In regular games, this is often used to leap across an entire section of the map.

Triple sticky jumps use three stickies. They cannot be done without an overheal, ÜberCharge, or the extra health from an Eyelander. Because the player will often land with less than twenty health, his destination should either be very high up or have a Health Pack.

Like rocket jumps, more powerful sticky jumps can be made by launching the sticky at the intersection between a wall and the ground. These jumps generally give you more speed and distance at the cost of some height.

Wall jumps can also be made with stickies. Because of the arming delay, the player must launch a sticky at the wall and rapidly detonate the sticky under his feet before the wall sticky arms. Then he must detonate the wall sticky as he passes. The height and distance gained from this technique is extreme. It is possible but extremely difficult to chain further wall stickies together, but this can only be done on jump maps which heal you during your jumps.

Pogoing is also possible with the Demoman. To pogo, you must fire a new sticky at your destination and detonate the old one beneath you just before the second one arms. You repeat this combination over and over to remain in the air.

Mid-air pogoing is also possible on a jump map. You place two stickies below yourself, fire a third sticky upwards or outwards, and then jump after the airborne sticky. If done correctly, you will catch up to the sticky while it arms in mid-air, and you can detonate it for a further boost.

No damage will be dealt to the Demoman when sticky jumping when the Sticky Jumper is equipped, although he will still receive fall damage.

Grenade jumps

Much like rockets, stickies, and other explosives, a Demoman's Grenade Launcher can be used to jump. The explosion has power and damage comparable to a rocket jump, but it's far more difficult to time and execute a good grenade jump. These are rarely used in actual play, but they have a niche for Demomen wielding the Chargin' Targe. This form of jumping may also be preferable if you have stickies already placed and do not wish to detonate them to jump somewhere.

There are three rules of thumb for executing a good grenade jump.

Fire straight down or against a wall or corner to control grenade positioning. Firing it forward will make it very difficult to track, and it may explode before you've reached it.

Crouch-jump over the grenade roughly two seconds after you fire it, absorbing as much of the explosion as possible. Jump too early, too late, or without good timing and the jump will have little power or control.

Vertical jumps require you to crouch-jump without any lateral motion. Proper grenade placement will give you the forward momentum to bypass a high barrier.

A tip for perfectly timed grenade jumps is to immediately reload after deploying the grenade and jump after the second audible click plays.

Sentry jumps

A Sentry Gun jump is any jump assisted by the knock back of Sentry rockets or bullets. In general, an Engineer must use the Wrangler to control his Sentry and fire at himself. However, in rare cases a Pyro can Sentry jump with reflected Sentry rockets, or enemies can jump and allow the Sentry to push them out of range to safety.

Sentry jumping is often used to reach unusual locations for Sentry nests and Teleporters.

Sentry Rocket Jumping

There are two ways to Sentry rocket jump.

The easy method is to wrangle your level 3 Sentry and fire rockets at your feet while you crouch-jump. Since the Engineer receives no self-damage resistance, he loses a great deal of health but flies very far. Landing spots must be chosen carefully.

The hard method allows the Engineer to jump and carry his Sentry with him. You must fire the rockets, switch away from the Wrangler and pack-up the Sentry before the jump carries you out of range.

Scripting can automate the hard method, but the technique can be learned manually. While looking at your Sentry Gun, tap the following keys in rapid succession: Crouch-jump and fire rockets simultaneously, switch to your last weapon, and then pack-up the Sentry Gun. The default keys are Spacebar + Ctrl + right-click, then Q, then right click again. If you want to avoid crouch-jumping, you can cut out that step by standing on your Sentry instead.

Using the hard method, you can rapidly relocate and redeploy your level 3 Sentry in unusual or aggressive locations.

Sentry Bullet Jumping

Bullet jumps are more difficult than Sentry rocket jumps, but they can be performed with any Sentry and often do less damage to the Engineer. The Gunslinger's Mini-Sentry is especially useful for bullet jumping. It deals even less damage and fires faster, giving more knock back for the jump.

The technique is deceptively simple. Stand on top of your Sentry Gun, aim in the direction you want to go, crouch-jump and fire. Your bullets should propel you high into the air. Most bullet jumps fail because you aim too low and fire the gun beneath you, or because the angle of the Sentry Gun's fire isn't pushing you up fast enough to overcome gravity.

If a player has difficulty bullet jumping at angles, a simpler technique is deploy your Sentry beside the location you want to reach, stand on it, and fire almost straight up. Once you are nearly at the height you desire, aim a touch in the direction you wish to go, and the last few bullets will nudge you horizontally at your target.

Pyro Jumps

The Pyro can take advantage of the knock-back effect of reflected Projectiles to propel himself horizontally and vertically at great speeds. The Pyro lacks self damage-reduction for projectiles resulting in more distance, height, and damage taken. There are two ways to Pyro jump:

Pyro Rocket Jump

This can be achieved with Soldier rockets (both Regular and Direct Hit, though the latter is much more difficult) and Sentry Gun rockets. The first step is to move to the left or right of the approaching rocket. The position is relevant to your viewmodel. If you use a right-handed view model, then approach the rocket from the left, and vice versa. Once the rocket is at your side, quickly turn toward it, aim down into the ground at an angle, and fire a compression blast. You should be propelled a great distance. This is similar to the Soldier's flick jump.

Pyro Grenade Jump

This is more difficult than a Pyro Rocket Jump, as it requires precise timing and the free time to do so. Reflect an enemy Demoman's grenade toward a wall or other surface to prevent further movement and suspend it on the ground. Immediately stand over the grenade and look down. This is the difficult part: Watch the rings around the grenade. They will pulse increasingly faster as it reaches detonation. Run forward and jump right as the grenade explodes, and you should be propelled a great distance.

Pumpkin jumps

Pumpkin jumps use Pumpkin Bombs to launch the player into the air. Because the pumpkin explosion has such a wide blast radius and high damage, here are some rules of thumb for using them:

Lighter classes should stand far away and crouch-jump while shooting the pumpkin.

Heavier classes, including the Heavy, can stand beside the pumpkin and fire for a larger boost. By standing on the edge of the pumpkin, a Heavy with a revved Minigun can jump further than a Demoman's sticky jump at the cost of roughly half his health.

As a Scout, Bonk! Atomic Punch can be used to protect the Scout from any damage. Although this requires the pumpkin to be shot by a player of the opposing team.

With either the Sticky Jumper or Rocket Jumper equipped, Pumpkin Bombs detonated by the user will not cause self damage, however Pumpkin Bombs set off by other players will still damage you.

Cannot jump

There are certain states a player can be in that prevents them from jumping. Players cannot jump while:

Playing Sniper when scoped or drawing an arrow.
Playing Heavy with your primary weapon revved.
Taunting.
Stunned.
There is something above the player.
They are underwater.
They are in the air (with the only exceptions being the Double jump and Force-A-Nature knockback).

Exploit jumps

These jumps have been patched out of the game, but they once allowed players to perform unusual and unintended behavior.

Needle Boosting

Prior to the December 31, 2007 Patch, Syringe Gun needles pushed friendly players a small amount. With enough Medics, a player could be launched very high on a wave of needles.

Bunnyhopping

Prior to the October 31, 2007 Patch, you could jump repeatedly to preserve forward momentum. Rocket jumping, airstrafing, and other techniques could be used to increase that momentum, allowing players to move far faster than intended.