Techniques: Dash Jump
Discovered byVarsis Erion, TreborSelbon
Dash jumping is a technique that gets extreme distance, much more than any space jump is capable of. There isn't much height gained, but when something is very far away and not much higher than your starting point, this is usually the perfect thing to use.
The dash jump is actually derived from an intended move in the game, the regular dash where you press B while strafing to the side and locked on something. The difference comes in releasing L just after pressing B to remove the lock on; doing this causes Samus to fly off to the side at a high speed. Using your second jump makes her go even further and adds a respectable amount of height to the jump.
To explain it in full: first lock on something with L. When ready to dash, move left or right and press B, then let go of everything as fast as you can after pressing B. Never hold B or L; holding B makes you rapidly lose height until you hit the ground, and still holding L after you've started the jump won't let you dash jump in the first place. There are also very few situations where you'll want to actually hold left or right, so let go of the stick when you press B. These are all common mistakes to make when starting to learn dash jumps.
Dash jumps can be done with any visor. Valid targets are anything you can lock on: enemies, stalactites, grapple points (when you have the grapple beam and are close enough to attach to one), and so on. When using the scan visor, you can also dash from any scan point, but there is one thing to know about this. If the target is in scanning range and it's been previously scanned to completion, holding L for too long will cause the screen to freeze so you can read about the target. To be able to dash, you need to be fast enough that you release L before the screen freezes. This doesn't apply to objects that are considered out of scanning range, yet still close enough to be locked on.
Additional info:
- Scan dashes do not work in any version of the game but the original North American release.
- The height gained from a dash jump depends on whether you have space jump and use the second jump in the dash. The first jump gets very little height (almost nothing), while the second is more like a dash and a jump at the same time. Due to this, it's possible to dash to places higher than your starting point, as long as you use the second jump. A great example of this is the Observatory dash.
- If you need to move forward or backward in the middle of a dash jump, hold the stick up or down to slowly go in that direction. This is known as "bending" the dash. Some dashes are much harder (or can't be made at all) without bending. Two great examples are Geothermal Core and the Thardus dash. Bending a dash forward or backward doesn't reduce distance, so don't hesitate to do so if it'll help you avoid bumping into something. Turning left or right does, however.
- If you don't have space jump and need to test how high your destination is, fire at it with power beam shots. If they hit the ledge, it's higher than you are, and so you probably wouldn't make the dash.
- A dash jump can be stopped early by pressing or holding L. It reduces Samus' momentum at a very fast rate until she stops, and is very useful when you don't want to go too far.
Examples of Dash Jumping include getting the Space Jump without the Boost Ball, getting the Frost Cave Missile Expansion without needing the Grapple Beam, getting through Metroid Quarantine A without the Spider Ball and negating the Thermal Visor Glitch.