Rocket Jump: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''For the next three hundred years, people who needed to get to the second floor used the only method available to them: shooting a rocket launcher at their feet. Yes, it was ridiculous, crippling, and awful, but what are you going to do? Not go to the second floor? That’s where your bed is.''|''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', "[http://www.teamfortress.com/war/victory/ The Gunboats]"}}

A technique most commonly encountered in [[First -Person Shooter]] games, Rocket jumping involves explosives (often rockets, obviously, but grenades or other explosives and items can be used in the same way) used to propel the player to normally unreachable places. Depending on the game, this might either be the only way to jump, or it has to be combined with timed jumps for full effect. Rarely is this practice implemented as a necessary skill in the game itself (''Nitro Family'', for subversive example, utilizes air-juggling your opponent with rockets and shooting them with other weapons while they are airborne to gain buying-points). When developers began realizing the potential of this trick, they thought to hide [[Easter Egg|Easter Eggs]]s and secrets with it. On the other hand, rocket jumping has also been used, with incredible effect, [[Speed Run|to completely humiliate]] [[Sequence Breaking|structural efforts used by developers]] to [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom|streamline your gaming experience]].

In most cases, this technique will hurt the player, so he has to consider the sacrifice of health (including possible fall damage) versus the benefit of the jump. In the case of the Video Game ''[[Doom]]'' in one of the levels where you would do a [['''Rocket Jump]]''' to get to an otherwise unreachable region, this potential for severe damage was averted by providing access to an invulnerability sphere you could use before using the rocket to launch yourself into the special area; thus the damage would be zero in that case.

With that in mind, rocket jumping is either considered as an exploit of a game engine processing physics and explicit numerical damage, or considered as an [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|acceptable break from reality]] in video games that just emphasizes how tough your [[One -Man Army]] really is. The game has to take into account, among possible other considerations: movement across the 'z'-axis (3D) or Y-axis (2D), splash damage that produces a kickback effect on both the player character and enemies, that rockets do not kill in one hit as a specific function of being hit with a rocket, and that explosive damage is dealt rather liberally (to accommodate armor loss/reduction, frequently utilized as in the ''Serious Sam'' series, where the amount of armor can actually help influence the height of your jump). At the very least, the game attempts and fails at properly applying or understanding impulse and momentum.

{{examples|Examples:}}

== [[FirstVideo Person ShooterGames]] ==

* ''[[Starsiege: Tribes]]'' and sequels allowed players to shoot the Spinfusor (explosive blue frisbee launcher) at their feet for insane speed boosts and ''massive'' jumps; firing a spinfusor while jumping in the Classic mod for Tribes 2 allows you to jump well over a ''hundred meters'' into the air. In ''Ascend'', pathfinder class has impact nitrons which can effectively used for extra boost due to their relatively low damage.

* ''[[Doom]]'' was one of the first FPSs to feature this (albeit as a horizontal push rather than vertical jump), followed by ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' (with grenades), ''[[Quake (Video Gameseries)|Quake]]'' and ''[[Unreal Tournament (Video Game)|Unreal Tournament]]''.

** While it was possible to do a literal rocket-jump in ''[[Unreal Tournament (Video Game)|Unreal Tournament]]'', the method recommended by the game's tutorial was to use the Impact Hammer -- aHammer—a melee-only weapon that was essentially a powerful pneumatic piston which inexplicably could cause splash damage (including a slight push) to the wielder if "fired" at a nearby surface (like, say, the ''ground'').

** Taken to its logical conclusion with the practice of "trickjumping", in which rocket damage is turned off for the purpose of setting up complicated and difficult jumps. [[Rule of Cool|Need we ask why?]] Multiple examples can be found in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525095458/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4242993143278425715&hl=en-GB this video,] by the ambitiously-titled ''Infinite Trajectory'' team.

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', the Soldier and the Demoman can do this with rockets and stickybombs respectively. In theory, every class can do it, but only if an enemy shoots them (since there is no friendly fire). Of course, the technique was already present in the original. Both classes since received weapons specifically designed to be used to train this technique, as they deal no damage.

** ''[[Team Fortress Classic (Video Game)|Team Fortress Classic]]'' had it, too. Rocket-jumping was possible with the soldier's rockets, the demoman's pipebombs, or with any kind of grenade, although grenades dealt significantly more damage. Since you could only deal armor damage against team mates in non-friendly fire games, you could also assist your teammates by rocket jumping them, and it was a particularly favored tactic in games like Hunted, where it would let the president bypass several nasty sniping points. Particularly effective grenade jumps could be performed with the concussion grenade (basically a flashbang) used by scouts and medics, as it had much greater knockback/lift and it dealt a completely minimal amount of damage, making the medic one of the preferred flag-capturing units. Notably difficult maps, such as 2fort, made flashbang jumps the ''only'' way to fly.

*** At least one map (epicenter) was completely broken due to the aforementioned practice of "concussion jumping". The point of said map was to carry a flag to a point in your enemy's base, and the map reset once this was done, after which the flags were locked up for a minute. On most servers with sufficiently skilled players, the match quickly devolved into races between the team's opposing scouts/medics, as two well-placed concussion jumps would take you from just outside the building where your flag was to the capture point. ''Everything and everyone else was irrelevant''. It's breakage like this that led to grenades being removed altogether from ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]''.

* Since this was the only way to jump in the earlier ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' (aside from ramping off stairs,) it was required for many later levels. ''Marathon'' also allowed normal gunfire to amplify existing jumps, known as gun-climbing.

* In ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]: Episode 2'', there is a point where you must do a grenade jump ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzl1mhJYhPU protected by a metal plate], as Gordon is not that dumb) if you want that rocket launcher. Succeeding earns you an Achievement - Gordon Propelled Rocket.

* In ''[[Battlefield (Video Gameseries)|Battlefield Vietnam]]'', grenades sent players flying to when hit by one. One day it was discovered that friendly players were affected by this as well when friendly fire was off. The best results happened when a friendly player laid down on a grenade, which sent a player flying upwards. Combined with the ability to instantly deploy a parachute to avoid fall damage this tactic was used to fly over walls and on top of buildings. This was later patched by taking away all force to grenades, meaning that corpses and players stayed put when killed. In later Battlefield games this was fixed by making grenades damage all players.

** This is known as C4 Jumping in ''Battlefield 2''. With Friendly Fire off, players can dump all 5 C4 packs on the ground, stand a little in front, and blast away! [[Shout -Out|The tallest buildings can be reached in a single bound.]] This can also be done with manned friendly vehicles, and with enough C4 players and proper timing, such a loaded vehicle can literally fly across the entire map in seconds! (Maps take ten minutes or so to cross on foot!)

* In ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces Saga (Video Game)|Dark Forces]]'' you can lay down a mine, stand on top of it, and use the resulting explosion to access higher areas.

* ''Assault Cube'' got more sane [http://assault.cubers.net/docs/maneuvers.html#riflejump Rifle jump] (using recoil). Grenade jumping kind-of-works too -- providedtoo—provided there was enough armor to survive the damage -- butdamage—but leaves the performer both [[One -Hit -Point Wonder|severely wounded]] and [[Interface Screw|shell-shocked]]. The latter isn't removed by medi-kits.

=== [[Action Adventure]] ===

** On the other hand, the ''other'' kind of bomb-jumping used in ''[[A Link to The Past]]'' (using a bomb to propel you horizontally, ignoring pits and other hazards), while not required, was useful in a couple stages--atstages—at the least, Dark World Level 3 to escape from that one room (you know the one), and in Ganon's Tower to access a faerie spring. A lot of romhacks of the game ''do'' require it, to the annoyance of [[No Damage Run|No Damage Runners]]ners.

** ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'' had a glitch involving quickly switching to the Hoverboots immediately after taking damage from a bomb. It's been used in [[Speed Run|SpeedRuns]] occasionally.

* Cannoneers in ''[[Maple Story]]'' have Cannon Jump, which has the added bonus of not damaging the character.

* Tristana of ''[[League of Legends]]'' has this as her 2nd spell in which she propels herself into the air and causes [[AoArea Eof Effect]] damage where she lands, With no damage to herself, though its a risky move to use, often leaving her open to attack.

=== [[Platform Game]] ===

** In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'' and ''Brawl'', the bomb move can be used for recovery, although it's not very effective if you don't know how to use it well.

* In ''[[Jazz Jackrabbit (Video Game)|Jazz Jackrabbit]] 2'' you can use the Rocket powerups to propel yourself along 2 walls if they are next to each other, as a kind of [[Wall Jump]].

* One of the logbooks in action/strategy/platformer ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'' describes an alien military game where one player wearing ridiculously heavy armor is thrown into the air by rockets and other explosive munitions; it even mentions ''juggling'' the player with rockets. This is a not-so-subtle hint to get hit by enemy attacks and use your own [[Splash Damage]] to fling yourself into otherwise inaccessible areas. To reach one secret area you must blow yourself up ''nine times'' (The very frist thing you get upon reaching that area is a dialog from Iji: THAT HURT!!"). In a less extreme application, you can use the recoil of the Nuke weapon to hurl yourself across gaps with too little headroom to jump over.

* "Flint jumps" are a traditional part of races and method to bypass obstacles in battles in ''[[Clonk (Video Game)|Clonk]]''. With timed explosives (and a lot of health) it's possible to do a (mostly horizontally-propelling) mid-air flint jump as well. There's also a fan-made scenario where players compete to see who can blow themselves the furthest.

=== [[Role -Playing Game]] ===

* One of the bomb parts in ''[[Custom Robo (Video Game)|Custom Robo]]'' is made for this: It does no damage, has the highest possible recoil, and fires ''at your feet.''

=== [[Wide Open Sandbox]] ===

* This is possible, but very tricky, in ''[[Minecraft (Video Game)|Minecraft]]''.

* The "Rhino boost" in the ''[[Grand Theft Auto (Video Gameseries)|Grand Theft Auto]]'' games (from ''[[Grand Theft Auto III (Video Game)|III]]'' onwards) is a variation on this. When driving the Rhino tank, you can turn the turret around so that it is pointed behind you. The recoil created by firing the cannon provides you with a speed boost, which easily turns one of the slowest vehicles in the game into one of the fastest. Combine that with the fact that any vehicle that the Rhino so much as bumps into [[Every Car Is a Pinto|explodes]], as well as the vehicle's [[Made of Iron|astounding durability]], and the Rhino practically becomes a [[Game Breaker]]. ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Video Game)|San Andreas]]'' [[Nerf|nerfednerf]]ed this ability, though it came back in the later ''Stories'' games.

== [[Anime]]Web and [[MangaOriginal]] ==

== [[FilmWestern Animation]] ==

* The [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for this trope is the Orion Engine, a proposed starship drive that could be built with today's technology, which does this ''with nukes''. Like the ''[[Half-Life 2 (Video Game)|Half-Life 2]]'' example above, the ship is protected by a large shield (the "pusher plate") and some enormous shock absorbers. The pusher plate is in turn protected from the heat by spraying oil onto it between shots.