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Banjo-Kazooie Movement Guide

Movement Speeds

All these assume flat ground, when you apply up and downhill slopes some properties may change. For instance, your XZ speed will decrease if you go up slopes, but increase as you go down slopes. Going uphills you want to slide as little as possible and going downhills you want to slide as much as possible (sometimes may even be worth reaching the end of the slide to just stay walking downhill depending on the length and steepness of the slope). This concept applies to all forms of ground movement for all transformations and shoes.

Other Forms of Movement

• Transformations – Aside from the crocodile, they all accelerate to their top speed when they jump, but they don’t have a slowdown at the end like talon trot.
• Crocodile – Chomping is the fastest form of movement. Although sometimes it’s better to walk down slopes instead of chomping down steep slopes because if the slope is steep enough the croc wont stick to the ground while chomping.
• Walrus – The walrus on the sled has the same speed as talon trot, and actually gains speed jumping uphills. (Jumping uphills on the sled makes your speed go above 700 whereas jumping uphills in talon trot makes the speed go below 700 yet still faster than just walking uphills)
• Bee – Holding B while flying makes you go almost double the speed or normal talon trot. When you take flight you want to make sure to hold up a tiny bit until the sparkles goes away. It’s essentially the same concept as the slide after talon trot. If you don’t hold up before the sparkles go away then you’ll lose some speed
• Holding B has no effect on your Y speed in any way
• Flutter Cancelling – On flat ground, flutter cancelling occurs when you press A on one frame to jump, then wait a frame, then press A on the frame right after to flutter. This makes it so your flutter doesn’t fully finish which will allow you to go back to normal walking again. This is significantly easier on uphill slopes and impossible on downhill slopes.
• Roll-Fluttering – Roll fluttering is the fastest form of movement without talon trot. In Ideal situations on flat ground you want to extend your roll as long as possible and flutter cancel then roll again right away.
• Backflips – You can chain a backflip out of a roll. If you have a backflip planned (for instance, leaf buds in spring 1) then its best to chain a backflip out of a roll so you can start your backflip asap and don’t have to wait for the launch.
• More Backflip quirks – after a backflip there is a brief moment of time where you cant roll or get in talon trot, but you can jump, beakbarge, or bearpunch. After backflips if you can get a flutter cancel before getting in talon trot then its worth it to do so, otherwise its wise to just wait it out to get in talon trot afterwards
  

  Notice how you have to wait to roll (left) but you can jump-flutter almost immediately (right)

• Claw Swipes (bear punches) – Like rolling, you can chain backflips out of claw swipe if you want a tiny bit of momentum for your backflip. You can also jump out of claw swipe at any point.
• Flying – You normally fly at a speed of 600 (completely horizontal). If you hold down, then your XZ speed will decrease drastically and you’ll start to lose height. If you hold up then you’ll lose height but your XZ speed won’t decrease as drastically.
• Beakbombs – Beakbombs go at a speed of 4,000 (completely horizontal).
• Beakbombs always aim towards the center of the screen
• If you want to beakbomb up then holding down will give you a higher angle if you plan to use about 6~ or more feathers, however holding up is usually faster and will give you more horizontal distance, but sometimes wont get you enough of an angle.
• Swimming – Swimming fluctuates between speeds up to 590 and as low as 200 while holding B (note that these speeds are assuming you are going completely horizontal). Ideally in most situations you want to surface out of the water right before you start to drastically lose speed
• Swimming on surface – Jump fluttering above water fluctuates between speeds of 320 and 500. So the average speed will be a lot higher than just swimming below the surface, so its generally faster to jump flutter above the water.
• Swimming up slopes – if you swim completely horizontal against an uphill slope then the slope will give you a free push up, so no need to change angle when approaching slopes
  

  Banjo is swimming completely straight here without angling up at all, and the slope is pushing him up automatically

• Intentional fall damage – If you plan to take intentional fall damage you want to do it in a way where you don’t do the full animation of getting back up. To do this you take fall damage on one platform, then while you’re taking damage you want to slide off so your shadow goes off the platform and onto another, then you can either flutter back on instantly or fall to the lower platform and won’t have to watch the entire animation

General Movement Tips

• Always peck into jiggies and note doors if you are in talon trot so you don’t watch the animation of getting out.
• If you ever want to leave talon trot always make sure to leave talon trot with a peck on the ground (as opposed to just letting go of Z to watch the entire animation). Even just doing a neutral jump then tapping B on the ground is faster than watching the entire animation.
• Always try your best to jump to turn for all forms of ground movement. You lose speed if you slide to turn or just walk to turn, if you angle your turn with a jump then you keep your max speed at all times.
• In some places where theres a slope connected to a wall you can hug the wall to get a big speed boost up the slope
  

  It's hard to notice but Banjo makes it up the hill faster when he hugs the wall here

• Since jumping up slopes makes your speed go below 700, its wise to try your best to touch an uphill slope as late as possible (at the peak of your jump) so your speed stays at 700 as long as possible
  

  Notice how the H-Velocity stays at 700 longer for the first jump and goes below 700 instantly when Banjo hits the hill right away

• If you’re going down small slopes then sometimes it will be hard to jump since you might not actually be on the ground the whole time. You might hit a tiny bump that makes you be in the air for a tiny amount of time, and you cant jump in mid air so make sure you don’t plan to jump on downhill slopes unless they are completely straight.
• While short jumps in talon trot have no speed difference compared to long jumps, its wise to make sure you don’t have to change your angle mid air which may be necessary in some places if you do a long jump. Changing your joystick angle mid jump is generally a bad idea because you’re not holding the direction you’re going in so you’re not keeping your top speed. In an ideal world you’d hold the direction of your jump for the entire jump
• If you are climbing up a vine or ladder or any climbable surface then you want to make sure you DON’T climb all the way to the top because you will get an animation of jumping off the pole and landing on the platform. Ideally you would jump from right before the end, and flutter onto the surface
• If you are gold feathering off a platform to get to the ground without having to flutter (or without having to take fall damage) then you want to make sure you get out of wonderwing as you are falling rather than after you land
  

  Notice how much sooner you can move if you release Wonderwing early

• One camera turn with C-left/right is roughly equal to one notch on the joystick, so you can use that to figure out exactly how to adjust your joystick when changing the camera
• Turning the camera with C-left/right multiple times with a gap in between gives you a different result than if you changed it multiple times fast. The fast your press the C-buttons together the faster it will change but the less it will change overall
  

  This shows 2 instances for pressing the C button 3 times. The first leaves a gap in between the inputs and the second presses them rapidly right after each other and gives a different result

• You cannot use R to change the camera until the effects of C-left/right presses are over
• The game compensates for lag until 20 fps. Meaning if you go below 30 fps chances are you aren’t going to lose time to lag unless its really laggy
• If your slope timer reaches its max when you are just about to jump/land onto a normal platform then the game will try to put you in a “sliding” animation so you will just end up pausing on the ground for a tiny bit. To avoid this you want to jump high enough above the normal platform so the game has time to reset the timer before you land
  

  Notice how in one of them Banjo’s momentum is halted and he loses his slide (left), whereas in the other Banjo keeps his momentum and keeps his slide (right)