Table of contents

Kid Chameleon Tricks

All movie references are for Truncated's Kid Chameleon in 14:18.

Different walking speeds

Speeds are measured in pixels:subpixels, where 256 subpixels is one pixel.
Character CrawlWalk Run Jump UphillDownhill
Kid etc. 1:0 2:0 3:128 2:160 1:0 3:0
Maniaxe etc.1:0 2:0 3:128 2:160 0 4:0
Juggernaut -- 1:128 3:0 2:128 -- --
MicroMax -- 1:0 2:0 1) 0:128 1:128
Skycutter -- 2:0 4:0 -- -- --
1) MicroMax's jump does not work like the others. 2:130 can be taken as a preliminary value. His jump speed is on average higher than his running speed in any case. To be investigated.
In the air, all characters except SkyCutter decelerate 0:1 per frame. This is called air drag throughout this article. Air drag is present regardless of if you walk off an edge, jump, or bounce off enemies. If your speed goes below 2:95, it will instantly be set to 2:160.
Bouncing off an enemy gives a speed boost. The mechanics are to be investigated. You can get several boosts in a row.
Walking on rubber decreases your max speed. For Kid, with 0:128 for walking/crawling, and 1:0 for running.
Walking on ice speeds you up with about 0:4 per frame. To be investigated.
This means that you will try to jump as little as possible, except for jumping on enemies, and up hills. You can see clear examples of this in the first two levels in the video. Keep in mind that this applies only to maximum speed, the acceleration is bigger for jumping than for running. Sometimes it pays off to start with a small jump instead of running, mostly when the ceiling is low so you can start running soon again.
For MicroMax (the fly), you will instead try to jump all the time, and walk as little as possible. You can see this anywhere MicroMax is used in the video.
For SkyCutter (green surfer):

Different jumping heights

Character Stand Walk Run
Kid etc. ?? ?? ??
Red Stealth-5:96 -6:204 -6:93
Eyeclops -5:224 -5:92 -6:249
Cyclone -5:224 -5:92 -6:249
Juggernaut ?? ?? ??
Micro Max -5:224 -5:159 -5:92
SkyCutter -5:224 -5:100 -6:216
Under construction.

SkyCutter

SkyCutter is a peculiar character. He has many advantages: higher running speed than all the others, higher vertical speed than Cyclone, and near flying abilities. But he is also very difficult to control: he cannot stand still or jump straight up, turns around slowly, and gravity affects him in mysterious ways.
Gravity
If, while in the air, forward or B (jump) is held, gravity will affect SkyCutter less than otherwise. Horizontal speed is only dependent on if A (run) is held or not. Some examples of this in use can be seen in the next to last level Final Marathon, to hit the two-block gaps without losing any speed.
Double upside-down
This bug actually works to your disadvantage. If you turn upside-down two times in too quick succession, SkyCutter will turn three times, and turning again will not be possible for some time. This makes flying straight horizontal very difficult, you will often go in a sine-wave motion instead.
Knock unreachable blocks
When falling (up or down doesn't matter) you can flip sides just before you land on a block, and the up/down-wards momentum will send you head-first into whatever block is in the way. This is used for show on The Black Pit and Plethora, but it could potentially save a lot of time in a level like Frosty Doom (if that level is incorporated in the path) since the floor is made of ice and the goal is just below.

MicroMax

MicroMax can cling to walls and is only 1 block in height and width.
Climb faster
If the tunnel you are climbing up is 1 or 2 blocks in width, it is faster to zig-zag between the two sides. If you use only one side, MicroMax needs some time to turn around in the air. You can see examples of this on Blizzard Mountain and Caves of Ice.
Avoid cannon blocks
MicroMax fits in (just barely) between the horizontal spikes which the cannon blocks shoot. (Any normal-width character fits between the vertical spikes). This makes for some interesting maneouvres, see for example Alien Isle and the end of Beneath twisted hills.
Increased air control
Unlike the other characters, MicroMax can affect how high/far he jumps by holding/not holding B even after the peak of the jump. This is used throughout the run to adjust jumps, but it is difficult to spot.

Maniaxe

Maniaxe (which incidentally is a tribute to the Splatter House character) is not used in the video, but has an interesting bug which might be useful: Stand in a corridor two blocks high. Throw an axe. Normally, you cannot throw another axe until a set time has passed. But if you jump, the throw animation is cancelled, and you can throw another axe quickly. This can be repeated to throw silly amounts of axes.
The best known method so far is B (jump) for one frame, C (throw) for four frames, repeated. This throws an axe every 5 frames, compared to every 18 frames when throwing normally.
A similar method involves jumping to a rubber block such that you hop on it is as short as possible. This method can throw axes down to as low as every 8 frames.

Red Stealth

Our samurai has a few bugs with his sword.
Strike backwards
If you press C to start a strike, you can turn around just before the animation ends. Since you can run while striking, this can be used to repeatedly hit an enemy following you. This can be seen on Bagel Brothers, it is most obvious on the third bottom head.
Strike while jumping
Normally you cannot strike in the air (you destroy blocks below instead), but this bug remedies this somewhat. As above, you start a strike with C, but jump midway in the slash. It looks like the strike is aborted, but shortly after the last frame of the strike is shown. It can only be used to hit enemies relatively close to the ground. This can also be seen on Bagel Bros.
Fast striking
This is similar to the Maniaxe bug. If you stand in a corridor 2 blocks high, start a swing and jump to abort it, the sword animation will be interrupted and you can steer as normally, but any object in front of you will still receive damage a few frames later. You can do this over and over for massive damage. Also seen on Bagel Bros.
Usually, the samurai can attack once every 13 frames. With this bug, he can attack every 5 frames. The currently best known method is C (attack) 1 frame, B (jump) 1 frame, nothing for 3 frames, repeated.

Cyclone

Cyclone is the pinkish guy which can fly by pressing C repeatedly.
Keep higher horizontal speed
Usually when flying, you go slower than regular walking. But when falling off a ledge or bouncing on an enemy, Cyclone can start to fly and keep the higher forward speed while flying. (Landing on ice works in a similar manner for all characters.) The speed decreases because of air drag like other jumps. See Under Skull Mountain 1 for two instances of this trick in use.

Berzerker

Berzerker is the grey dinosaur/football player crossover who can destroy walls by running into them.
Berzerker usually destroys two blocks at a time with his headbutt. By jumping just as he hits the blocks, it is possible to destroy three blocks, and bump your head into anything above. This can be used to keep some of the momentum after a hit and continue forward quicker.
It is also possible to duck just as he hits, destroying only one block. This incarnation of the trick doesn't have any known uses.
These tricks were discovered after the current video was made. A new version is needed to incorporate them.

P-Blocks

Any object from a P-block will first appear on top of the block. If there are no other blocks below it, the item will fall through the block. If there are blocks below the item will stay on top.
If you are quick you can bust the block from below and jump on top of it to get the item, even though there are no blocks below. This is first seen in level 3, but there are numerous occurences.

Bouncing on enemies

Gain speed
Every time you bounce on an enemy, you gain speed. If you bounce on many in succession, the speed gained is incredible. You can get even more speed by falling onto the first enemy instead of jumping.
There are some double bounces in the video, for example the fourth level (two hands), and Beneath Twisted Hills (two stone tanks). There was one triple bounce in the previous video, but it was removed in the new video because it sent you into the ceiling, hindering forward motion for a while.
Multiple hits
If an enemy is as high from the ceiling/top of the screen as you are tall, you can score hits much faster than normally, since the bounce is interrupted. You can see this both on Bagel Brothers and Plethora.

Eject from wall

When you end up inside another block, you will sometimes die and sometimes be displaced to the left, right, up or down. The exact behaviour is unknown. This happens for instance with ghost blocks (the dis/re-appearing ones) and sometimes when you come out from crouching under a block. For the former, see Elsewhere (up), Woods of Despair 2 (up) and Alien Isle (right). For the latter, see the very beginning of The Land Below where the player is quickly displaced to the right.

Air jump

Sometimes the game makes incorrect assumptions about when you are standing.
Fade in to new level
If you hold B while the screen is fading in to a new level, you will jump, regardless of whether you start on the ground or in the air. This appears to be a flag default value error. It is used on the second level, on Nightmare Peaks 2, and others.
After a grab move
If you grab a block while it disappears (for example a ghost block or a cannon block), the game will still assume that you are standing when the move is finished, even though the block isn't there. This means you can jump from thin air. It is not demonstrated in the video.
After a crouch
Similar to Rygar, the game always thinks you are standing after a crouch. See this demonstrated, together with the eject from wall trick mentioned above, at the beginning of The Land Below.

Grab move

Kid Chameleon has this ability when he's not wearing any mask.
Stop murder wall
If you do the grab-ledge-move (Uhn!) as no-masked Kid, the murder wall will stop for the whole animation of the grab move, and then continue. This is not demonstrated in the video.
Air jump
See above.

Ducking

Touch objects
When ducking with any of the normal sized characters, the boundary box changes instantly from (width * height) 1*2, to 2*1. This means you touch objects one half block away in one frame, which is usually faster than the speed you are normally going at. It is used to touch the flag a little earlier in the first level, but could also be used to pick up objects a little quicker, or activate teleports a few frames earlier.
Pass gaps
Since your width is 2 blocks when ducking, you will not fall into 1 block gaps. Usually one single frame of ducking is enough to get you over a gap without jumping. See in Diamond Edge.
Sometimes you can run over one-block gaps without ducking. This is probably related to luck in the player's pixel placement; the player is on one side of the hole one frame and on the other side the next frame, because he moves more than one pixel at a time.
Air walk
Since the game erroneously thinks you are on solid ground every time you come out of a crouch, you can walk off a cliff into thin air if you quickly alternate between ducking and standing. This works for any of the normal-sized characters, meaning everyone except SkyCutter (who can fly anyway), MicroMax and Juggernaut. The player's X-velocity when entering an air walk is also saved until the ducking chain is broken. This is used to preserve a higher speed over some sections which would slow the player down. A short demo of the glitch can be downloaded here.
When air walking off vertically-moving platforms, the player is instantly teleported to the platform's current or despawned Y-position when the ducking chain is broken. This is used to defeat the final boss slightly faster in this submission.

Helmets

Pausing on the frame a helmet is collected and selecting 'restart round' will restart the level as the helmet you just collected, but with Kid's color palette. This was not demonstrated in the video.

Teleporters

Various

Random glitches thought to have no use.

Authors

Further reading

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GameResources/Genesis/KidChameleon last edited by on 1/1/2022 6:13 PM
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