Game Controls

Tales Runner characters are controlled using keyboard.

Moving
Pressing Direction keys makes character accelerate in the direction corresponding to the direction key, relatively to the camera view. For instance, pressing the Up key makes the character to accelerate away from the camera. Pressing multiple direction keys (usually one of up/down and one of left/right) makes character accelerate diagonally. The acceleration continues while keys are pressed. After reaching maximum speed the character stops accelerating and continues moving at that speed.

Releasing all direction keys or pressing a direction key in the opposite direction of the direction the character is currently moving at makes the character come to a halt.

Shaking[[Image:Shake.gif|right]]
When the character gets electrocuted (e.g. in maps with Daddy Octopus boss monster), pressing Left and Right direction key shortens the recovery time.

Jumping
Pressing the Jump button makes character to jump. To make another jump, the Jump button must be released and pressed again. Jumping is not possible while swimming.

Double Jump
Pressing the Jump button once more while the character is in the air from previous jump makes the character double jump - the character will jump again from its present position in the air. Double jumping is not possible while skiing.

Falling[[Image:Jump Tapping.gif|right]]
In free fall, tapping the Jump key makes the character to fall faster.

Climbing
While climbing, tapping the Jump key makes the character to climb faster.

Dashing
Pressing the Dash key makes the character accelerate with greater power and at the same time increases its maximum speed from maximum running speed to maximum dashing speed. Upon releasing the Dash button the character will quickly deaccelerate back down to its maximum running speed.

Dashing uses the Dash storage. When the storage is depleted, character becomes exhausted, stops and takes a while to recover.

Landing Dash
Pressing the Dash key shortly before character touches the ground from free fall makes the character to start from that point at maximum dashing speed and keep that speed for a short while. It also adds small amount of Dash to the Dash Gauge if it's not full.

Landing
Pressing the Dash button in free fall will make the character to straighten and prepare for landing. Upon reaching the ground the character will not crash and recovery time is shorter compared to crashing. Using this prevents Landing Dash.

Using Item
In Item races, pressing the Item key activates the item the character is currently holding.

Passing Baton
In Relay races, pressing the Item key determines the quality of accepting the baton from previous racer or passing the baton to the next racer. There are three different qualities that can occur depending on when the item key is pressed. These qualities are bad, cool, and good. A bad quality pass will result in the characters tripping to the ground and requiring them to spend a short amount of time recovering. A cool pass will result in the character recieving the baton starting at maximum dashing speed. A good pass will result in only a successful passing of the baton in which neither character trips to the ground.

Fury
When the character is ready to use Fury (i.e. it has filled up its Rage and Dash meters), pressing the Item and Dash keys at the same time will activate Fury.

Dash Jumping
Dash Jumping is an advanced running technique allowing the character to keep maximum speed while minimizing the usage of Dash.

It uses the fact about Game Mechanics, that the character does not lose speed when the Dash key is released if it either entered second jump phase of Double Jump, or is on descending part of single Jump.

There are two basic variants of Dash Jumping. They are both variants of the same technique and it is possible to combine them.

High Dash Jumping
This method provides very low usage of Dash but jumps are relatively short. Atsutane's Dash Jumping Tutorial on YouTube provides detailed demonstration of this technique.
 * 1) Gain maximum speed using the Dash Key, Dash Pad or other method
 * 2) Press and hold Dash key
 * 3) Press Jump key
 * 4) Press Jump key again to enter Double Jump. The time between these two presses affects Dash usage and also length of the jump
 * 5) Release Dash key (the character won't slow down because it is in second jump of double jump)
 * 6) Shortly before touching the ground and hold the Dash key to not lose speed on contact with ground
 * 7) Repeat from point 3

Low Dash Jumping
Compared with High Dash Jump, this method uses much more Dash but also provides twice as long jumps which reduces the Dash/distance ratio
 * 1) Gain maximum speed using the Dash Key, Dash Pad or other method
 * 2) Press and hold Dash key
 * 3) Press Jump key
 * 4) Wait till the character reaches maximum height of the jump
 * 5) Release Dash key (the character won't slow down because it is in descending phase of jump)
 * 6) Shortly before touching the ground, press Jump key again and enter Double Jump
 * 7) Shortly before touching the ground after second jump, press and hold Dash key to not lose speed on contact with ground
 * 8) Repeat from point 3