Climbing is all about negotiating tricky terrain, and each mountain features its own combination of vital footholds and troublesome obstacles. A proper understanding of terrain helps you identify the fastest and easiest path to the top of a mountain.
Floors
Some floors can be broken, while others are impenetrable. Some floors allow you a chance to stop and catch your breath, while others carry unsuspecting climbers to nearby gaps. Luckily, each type of floor features its own distinct appearance.
Standard Floors
Standard floors rank among the most reliable footholds a climber could hope to find on a mountain. As luck would have it, they’re also quite common.
Breakable Floors
Breakable floors are made up of destructible blocks of terrain. To create a hole in a breakable floor, simply stand below it and jump—your hammer does the rest!
Unbreakable Floors
Unbreakable floors are made up of indestructible beveled blocks. They serve as excellent footholds, but also make effective obstacles. When you reach an unbreakable floor, your only option is to find a path around it.
Moving Floors
Moving floors act like conveyer belts. If a climber stands on a moving floor, it won’t be long before he or she is carried to a nearby gap and dropped to the floors below. In many cases, you can counteract the effect of a moving floor by running in the opposite direction. However, some moving floors are faster than others.
When running isn’t enough to overcome the pull of a moving floor, perform a series of jumps to minimize the floor’s effect on your climber.
Breakable Moving Floors
Breakable moving floors feature a pattern of uniform diagonal lines. If the lines are angled downward from left to right, the floor moves to the right. If the lines are angled downward from right to left, the floor moves to the left. To create a hole in a breakable moving floor, jump up and hit it from below.
Unbreakable Moving Floors
Unbreakable moving floors feature a pattern of irregular diagonal lines over a row of indestructible beveled blocks. Again, the diagonal lines indicate in which direction a floor moves: if the diagonal lines are angled downward from left to right, the floor moves to the right. Otherwise, it moves to the left.
Clouds
In lieu of solid ground, passing clouds can make serviceable (but temporary) footholds. Some clouds move much faster than others, but even the slowest cloud offers only enough time for a jump or two before it carries your climber out of position. A cloud always passes through at least one obstacle before it reaches the border of the area, ensuring that any onboard climbers are knocked off a cloud before it reappears on the opposite edge of the screen.
In most cases, clouds serve as helpful platforms. However, clouds that pass along floors can scoop up unsuspecting climbers, carrying them away from hard-earned footholds or into nearby hazards. It’s also worth noting that a climber can’t pass through the bottom of a cloud—colliding with an overhead cloud interrupts your climber’s jump, increasing the chances of a costly fall.
Big Cloud
In general, the larger the cloud, the easier it is to jump onto.
Small Cloud
Landing on a small cloud takes precision timing—particularly if it’s moving quickly.
Group of Clouds
You’ll sometimes encounter a group of clouds moving as a single unit.
Pillars
Pillars are essentially indestructible walls. They feature the same beveled blocks found in other unbreakable terrain—just stacked vertically!