Corner Bugs

## Corner Bug Variations

These are all the known corner bug types in the Tomb Raider Classics (TR1 - TR5). Bugs are listed in approximate order of usefulness to speedrunning. Some bugs listed do other things besides move you up.

### Normal Corner Bug

The short version: stand with outer foot at the corner, turn 45 degrees toward the corner, and perform vertical jumps.

In more detail: you will be testing or speedrunning. For testing, it's inconvenient if you turn too far, because you move off the corner and must set up again. So turn a little short of 45 degrees, test, and then increase the angle by a small amount if needed.

set up a couple of inches from the cornerTurn almost 45 degrees. Use Look to check the angle.When Lara is at the correct angle, if she is too far from the corner, each jump will move her along the wall by a small amount.When she reaches the corner, Lara may appear to move a little past it, but don't give up.Keep jumping and she may move sideways toward the corner as well as forward, and begin to imbed in the corner. Note Lara's left leg is partly in the wall.

Or, as here, the ground may be flat enough to activate the bug after imbedding by walking into the corner (running works too, but Lara immediately runs off the other side and falls to her death). If the corner requires many jumps, this may be faster, or easier while being attacked.

A few corners allow the bug only if certain offsets are set to begin the process.

During speed running, of course you want the process to work as quickly as possible. Learn the best offset and angle to make the bug work. Sometimes the game helps you find the angle - if the other side of a corridor or other object is behind Lara, and you first use Look to get a side view, the camera will suddenly shift to another angle just at the point where the bug works. Other actions besides jumping may help to start imbedding. In TR3+, a crawl corner bug sometimes does not work on its own, but imbeds enough for jumping to work.

Pressing Forward while off the ground may reduce the number of jumps needed. Sometimes you can even bug from a square of spikes, because the bug may work during the first jump.

This video shows both a normal corner bug, and one with Forward pressed while in the air.

If the wall has a sloping top, hold Action while jumping and Lara will catch the bottom edge of the slope and hang. This only works on the face below the bottom edge.

### **Arch (Corner) Bug**

The arch bug may exist at corners where the other face of the corner is covered by a surface, such as a wall with a flat top that has a doorway in it.

**Example from Bartolis Hideout****Turn and imbed in the corner by jumping.****Run forward. Lara runs onto the upper surface.****Or, after 5 more jumps, she bugs to the top but falls off the edge.****Quickly press Roll to prevent the fall.****Here is a video showing both successful outcomes**

### Turning Corner Bug

At many corners, trying to imbed by jumping appears to be working, but Lara just hops out the other side of the corner. In such cases, stop near the halfway point. Then turn ***continuously*** toward the corner, about 90 degrees, and press Forward, **WITHOUT STOPPING THE TURN**. Lara will run onto the high surface; it's like an arch bug with a twist.

This example is near the hedge corner of the racetrack in TR3. Use this offset from the corner.When you turn to the 45-degree angle, a vertical jump moves Lara a little toward the corner.More jumps begin imbedding her in the wall.When Lara imbeds this far you are ready for the continuous turn.During the turn, while holding the Right key.Add Forward while keeping the turn going. Lara runs onto the roof. The normal corner bug does not work here

At first, players usually stop the turn momentarily, and Lara just pops out of the wall. But this form of the corner bug works more places than any other, so it's wise to practice it until you can do it reliably.

Here's a video from TR2.

### Crawl Corner Bug

Works in TR3+. The bug may raise her to the upper surface immediately, or only after you allow her to stand.

Set Lara a foot or so from the corner:Turn a little MORE than 45 degrees from the wall. Here's a view using Look to make the angles easy to see:Release Look, and hold the Duck key:Still holding Duck, press Forward for a moment. Lara should imbed her head into the wall:Press Forward for a moment again. Lara should shift to the right slightly, and imbed a little more:Now just release the Duck key, and Lara should pop up to the balcony and then stand:If you started a little farther from the corner, when you release Duck Lara may only stand, without the bug working. That's OK - just hold Duck and press Forward again. Lara will move closer to the corner.

This bug can be a problem if you don't turn enough. In that case, when you press Forward Lara shuffles in place, but doesn't enter the wall. If you're too near the corner and the angle isn't quite right, Lara pops sideways AWAY from the corner.

The crawl corner bug can also work if you start at the corner and turn to exactly 45 degrees, but the other way is much easier to perform quickly.

The crawl bug works at most corners, but with a serious limitation: if the ground levels next to the two faces of the corner are more than a few inches different in height, the bug fails. Even then, sometimes you can imbed by crawling and perform a normal or turning corner bug.

### Shelf Corner Bug

At corners which you approach while under the edge of a shelf, face the wall and place the outside edge at or just inside the line from the corner. Turn a little past 45 degrees, and press Jump and Forward. If Lara is at the correct angle she will jump from the top of the corner. If she is not turned far enough, she will make a landing sound and remain in the same position; turn a bit more and try again. If she has turned too far, she will jump through the bottom of the corner; this also happens if you set up a little over the line.

In this case, press Jump-Forward-Right together, and she curves onto the shelf.But such constructions are rare, so this bug will be MOST useful as a form of embedding in a corner. Start as above, and hold Action while you jump forward; Lara will fall down in an embedded state. Then do other bugs. Sometimes Action is not necessary. There are many corners where no other form of embedding works.

This bug should be very useful in TR1 & TR2, because there's no crawl bug to aid embedding. It's in TR3 (as seen above). The full bug does not work in TR4 and TR5; Lara always embeds straight away when at the correct angle.

Here's a video of the same place.

### Swim Corner Bug

Works in TR1 – TR5 and some custom levels. Most corners in water deep enough for swimming allow some form of the bug. Generally, place Lara against the wall so she reaches near the corner when her arms stretch out.

Then turn at least 45 degrees, usually so a couple of inches of wall shows between Lara’s head and the corner, like this:Press Swim (same as Jump). Lara will begin to duck under water. She may bug up immediately, or she may dive all the way to the bottom, begin to rise and then bug up. Timely addition of the Up or Down key may aid this.Depending on the corner, the bug may work at a range of distances or angles to the corner; experiment to find the best position.

At many corners with edges at the top on both sides, Lara just falls off the other side, but sometimes there are ways around this. At northeast corners, face Lara against the wall. When her arms extend, her hand should be right at the corner, or no farther than this:

Her hand should not extend past the cornerTurn a little short of 45 degrees. Use Look to see the waterline hit the bottom edge about here:

Dive and bring Lara horizontal. Her head should be pointing at the corner. Press Forward for a moment. If her head begins to enter the corner, inch her in until the bug works. Otherwise turn a bit further from the wall and press Forward again; be sure not to hold it.

Here's a video of four examples around the Sacred Lake. The second example shows the result of pressing Action (fall and re-bug) and Roll (fall away from the wall). The fourth example illustrates the full setup.

### Turning Swim Corner Bug

Or at some corners you can use one of the two varieties of the Turning Swim Corner Bug. In one, dive (Swim key) and swim to the surface after embedding.Turn the other way and dive again.Lara arrives on the roof.

Sometimes Lara gets too close to the corner during the first dive; to get around this, as you begin press Swim for a moment so Lara ducks her head and embeds, then with the Down arrow alone tilt her straight up. Now swim to the surface, leaving Lara a small distance from the corner. Turn and dive.

The second form of the turning swim corner bug may work where Lara cannot swim up after embedding. Start her facing the wall with an inch or two from her outstretched fist to the corner. Turn toward the corner a little more than 45 degrees. Dive till embedded, tilt up, and turn away from the corner; she pops to the roof. If it's a ceiling flicker motion is possible. A video by rr\_carroll, also in Venice, shows this.

In some cases it may help this second form if you make small turns the “wrong” way, then make small turns the right way.

In TR2 and TR3 where the corner has a ceiling, Lara may be flickering at the top after the bug. In TR2 press Roll to start flicker motion (see below). In TR3, hold Action and Forward; she usually cycles through dropping, bugging up again, and pausing at the top for a second. Press Roll during that second to start flicker motion. Here's a video that shows this. After flicker motion starts, it shows backing through the corner by holding Roll.

### Turn-in Corner Bug

This works only in TR2. At some corners, you can make the corner bug work by turning into the wall while holding Forward, and then pressing Roll starts flicker motion back across the square. Another Roll makes her fall from the stopping point.

More precisely, it works at those few faces of corners where Lara doesn't run off the corner if you turn past 45 degrees, as she normally does. Instead, Forward causes her to move slightly forward and sideways into the wall. It's as if she's hooked on the corner. When you release Forward she moves back to her starting position, like she's spring-loaded. This all happens even if you turn her well past 45 degrees, to look almost straight along the wall.

Here's a "useful" example near the top of the zip line in the Great Wall. Despite apperances, the knee-high straight section makes this a corner.

Turn to less than 45 degrees at the corner. Hold Forward and turn slowly until Lara imbeds in the wall like this:

Her right leg should almost completely disappear, as shown.She'll stop when she reaches the other corner of the square:Press Roll again. Lara is ejected forward and sideways, so she lands atop the wall, which is too high for jump-and-catch.If you turn too far, Lara will run through the corner (because of the triangular portion beyond the corner, here she may slide through the corner).

Then turn right slowly until she is about 45 degrees to the wall. If you turn too far or she isn't deep enough in, she will pop out of the wall entirely, but it's easy to just turn the other way and start imbedding again. If it works, you will see a quivering closeup of wall texture.

Press the Roll key. Now you can release Forward. Hold Look and use the arrow keys to see Lara moving along the top of the wall.

The ladder to the cavern below is a few paces ahead. Possibly this is a few seconds faster than the normal way (drop from the cliff to a square, traverse right).

Incidentally,a normal corner bug does not work at this type of corner.

This corner bug variation was found on the tombbugok site.

### Flicker Motion

So far corner bugs have been discussed only in terms of lifting Lara to a higher surface such as a roof. But some corners go to the top of the "room" (which may be an outdoor area). Bugs at such corners may lift her to the top and drop her right back down, but usually she appears stuck at the top of the corner in a flickering state. Since her braid points straight up, she is falling and bugging back up in a rapid cycle. In TR2 you must hold Look to see this.

For TR2, if you press Roll, Lara switches directions by 180 degrees and moves along the top of the wall, making a machine gun-like noise! She stops at the other side of the square, but then pressing Roll again ejects her forward and away from the wall a few feet (this also occurs while still moving).

Occasionally this lands her on a ledge for a shortcut.

TR3 is different: imbed in the corner somehow; if Lara is flickering at the top of the corner, press Action to drop her down, which may cause some damage. Then press Roll and Lara will bug up and begin moving along the top of the wall immediately. But in TR3, she moves as long as the wall continues! Roll is also different: Lara falls BACKWARDS, and will restart flicker motion if she is high enough; the depth of imbedding may change, altering the rate of flickering and the speed of motion.

Turning the corner can be complicated. When Lara reaches the corner, she stops flickering and becomes silent. Turn so she faces along the next wall (hold Forward to turn faster). If the next wall is to the right, use the Right key, and vice versa. Stop turning when she begins flickering noisily again. Press Roll; in rare cases she will restart flicker motion, but usually she faces toward the corner. If you hear a single footstep sound, you’re almost done, but often she’s silent. Roll again to face forward (and restart the noise), turn a few degrees and repeat the test. After the single footsep sound, rolling forward is silent. Slowly turn more away from the wall, stopping when the noise starts. Then press Roll, and she should take off along the next wall; sometimes it takes two separate presses of Roll. If that doesn’t work, turn a little more and try Roll again.

If all this fails, start over at the corner before any turning. Drop with Action and turn toward the next wall by 20 or 30 degrees; jump a couple of times, which may help he stay imbedded as you turn more. Keep turning in this cautious fashion until Lara is facing more than 45 degrees toward the next wall.

Try **WALL HOPPING** (vertical jumps) or a **WALL SLIDE**

(press Forward) to move away from the corner. If she is stuck, try turning a few more degrees. When she is several inches from the corner, do a continuous turn (toward the wall) until Lara is almost facing the other way, but still about 10 degrees into the wall. Press Roll, and flicker motion should re-start.

Wall hopping and wall slides also work in TR2. In both games, they can be used to cause flicker motion toward the starting corner.

This video shows all of the moves for both games.

#### Wall Slide

Another form can be started with the RUN-EMBED BUG, which works mostly in TR2. It was found by Spearmint. The bug works when Lara hits the vertical face at the side of a slope about half way between her knee and holster strap. There are 3 possible outcomes as shown on the right.

A wall slide can lead to a corner bug. Here we see an arch bug in Lara's Home of TR2. This type of wall slide also works in TR1, as tartancroft has shown.

You can wall-slide a bit in TR3, but that's all. TR4 shows nothing. A useful spot is not yet known.

#### Flicker and Trigger Bugs

Flickering at the top of a wall, whether moving or not, has an odd effect in TR2 and TR3. Lara gains Distanced Travelled at about one-and-a-half kilometers per second! It's half a kilometer per second with TR3 flicker motion. Flicker motion is the usual way of activating trigger bugs in TR3. So this suggests that the game engine is trying to place Lara at many nearby squares every game cycle; that is, many times a second. It appears like a bug in the checking loop allows Lara to trigger actions that only require her to enter the square, and this bug only works when there are no active moving objects in the level. Oddly, there seem to be no trigger bugs in TR2.

Don't forget that the distance meter has a bug in TR2 & TR3; the digit just to the right of the decimal point is always missing.

Various kinds of embedding don't show this enormous increase of distance in TR4.

#### Drop-Catch Trick

Works in TR4 and some custom levels. This trick can also allow wall transfer at a corner. Discovered by apel.

The Drop-catch trick can also be used to leave a crawlspace quickly. Under Advanced Movement, see the Quick Crawlspace Move.

### Wall-Catch Bug

Used to bug up a wall and catch the bottom of a slope. Use some kind of corner bug to embed, drop to the ground, and turn continuously to look almost along the wall. Then move forward by Wall-Hopping or a Wall Slide (see above Paragraph). Hop at least 3 times. Then hold Action, start a turn toward the wall and without stopping, add Forward when Lara is facing straight at the wall. She will bug up to catch the top of the wall; quickly release the turning key and Forward, or she may move in a way you don't want.

Here's an example from The Deck of TR2, where it allows a wonderful shortcut. In this case you'd want to perform a Wall-Slide to the other side of the square before bugging up.

The same actions work if the top is flat, too, but then you can usually do a simple turning corner bug. So far, I know this works in TR2, -3 and -4. Reported by apel.

While perhaps not a separate bug in its own right, this deserves its own name because it's unlikely to be discovered otherwise.

### Roll-Teleport Bug and Fall-Forward Bug

Works only in the TR3 engine. Think of Roll-Teleport as "bugging up around the corner". As an example we will do it in RX-Tech Mines, at the column corner to Lara's left in the screenshot.

Embed in the corner by some means, such as a crawl bug and dropping with Action. Turn to look almost straight along the wall, as below. Save. Hold Roll so Lara tries to start flicker motion; but she doesn't, because Roll keeps making her fall backwards to the corner. Count the "bump" sounds until she bugs to the ceiling; she falls because you're still holding Roll, which ejects her away from the column.

Load the save and do the same as before, except this time try to release Roll just before you hear the "bump" when the bug occurs. When you get the timing right (it's not difficult), she stays at the top, as in the first picture below.

Now you're ready for Fall-Forward. Save again. In quick succession, hit Roll and Action; both keys should not be down at the same time. Vary the timing until you see Lara fly forward. In this case, she lands more than a square ahead, as you see in the second picture. The first time might take 10 or 15 attempts.

This video shows both bugs.

Roll-Teleport can be used to start other things; at this location, turn left 90 degrees to start flicker motion, or stop turning just before f.m. and hold Roll to do another Roll-Teleport bug!

You might object that Lara can simply bug up at the other face of the corner in the first place. That's true, but then Fall-Forward doesn't work. And there are many corners where the other face is unavailable. Madubu Gorge has doorways in the face of a cliff, and in some cases Roll-Teleport lets you bug to the top of the sheer wall.

apel reported these two bugs and their combination.

Column on the left of laraTurn to look almost straight down the wall and **save** here
### Corner Bug with Sprint Cancel

Discovered by apel. Sprint toward a corner and release only Forward to start a slide; cancel the slide with a flare cancel. This must be precise to leave Lara on top of the corner, so it's probably useful only in TAS (tool-assisted speedruns). The bug is a bit easier with a Perpetual Flare Cancel. Here's an example in Nevada Desert of TR3.

### Flying Corner Bug

In TR1, AKA has discovered what he calls the Flying Corner Bug. That is, a running jump at a corner can allow Lara to bug up. The trick (in TR1, at least) is to turn toward the block a couple of inches before she hits the corner. In my tests this bug was easier when Lara is a tiny amount from the right-hand edge.

In TR2 and TR3, the bug appears to work when Lara falls a long distance. This example from TR3 shows the runner ending the Crash Site level using the bug.

### Roll Crack Bug

This TR2 bug works at the same cracks that permit the ordinary crack bug. It raises Lara to the upper surface of the object on one side of the crack, so it might be thought of as a form of the corner bug. Movable blocks can create it.

Here's an example where a wall meets a corner of Lara's mansion.Lean through the crack to check Lara’s angle in the corner.If you angle a few degrees toward the mansion, Lara bugs to the top of the wall.If you angle toward the wall, she appears on the roof! This is probably the fastest way up there.

### Effects of Movable Blocks

The first three games and some custom levels have these. Placing a block against one face of a corner or touching corner-to-corner may create or destroy bugs, or leave them unchanged. Don’t forget to test the corner from on top of the block also.

Blocks can also create crack bugs and roll crack bugs (see above and "Through Bugs").

## Compass Directions and Corner Bugs

Though there are many exceptions, in general northeast-pointing corners exhibit normal corner bugs, southwest corners have no bugs, and the other two directions show turning corner bugs. So this can guide your corner bug searches to some degree.

TR2, TR3 and TR5 have no compass, but PC players can use the position editor. Also, any platform can determine compass direction by using the one-step running jump. Perform tests at the edges of a horizontal surface.

Here’s Lara on the second obstacle of the TR2 assault course. Stand at an edge, turn a few degrees from straight on, and take one step back.Attempt a short running jump (hold Walk, add Forward and Jump, then release Walk before the first step finishes).At this location, Lara performs a running jump, so you know this is a north or east edge. (If it had been a standing jump, this would be a south or west edge.) Make a similar attempt at the edge to the left, for example. If it’s another running jump, this second edge must also be north or east, and the only way that both edges can be north and east is for the left edge to be north and the first edge east.

But in actuality the left edge leads to a standing jump, implying that the left edge must be west and the original north. Similar reasoning works for any pair of edges at right angles to each other.

This video has several attempts at one-step running jumps. The first confirms that being exactly 90 degrees to the edge spoils a one-step running jump. The others show the results in all four compass directions.