Level/Speed Boost

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*Main articles:* Dive Boost (DB), Fancy Flying

The **Level Boost**, also called **Speed Boost** (and possibly *Fast Boost or* *Flat Boost*?) is a flying technique where one doesn't put the camera all the way to the ground during the dive, but rather levels it to a certain degree. It increases the horizontal speed and distance covered, but also provides better height after boosting when done efficiently.

## How to do it?

Difficulty:

Make sure to have a look at the Dive Boost page first (similar technique, and the advice given there won't all be repeated on this article even if they still apply).

### Instructions

1. Start a **dive**, like for dive boosting. Just after, **raise the camera a little** more toward the horizon.
	* The reason you should **give the camera a strong first input** to the ground (until you start diving) and **only then level it out more horizontally** is because you simply can't start a dive without **pushing** the camera down.
		+ The only situation under which you don't need to press the camera down to initiate a dive is if you were boosting facing the camera before attempting a second dive: the right stick from a controller can stay in a neutral position and the remaining boost will help initiating the dive for you !
	* Make sure you are hearing wind to confirm you are still diving.
2. **Jump regularly** during the dive to stay longer in the air and reach a further distance: jumping slows down the falling speed a lot (on top of having the camera more flat than usual).
3. If the dive lasts for a rather long time, and depending on how flat the camera angle you chose is, it might be a good idea to **progressively aim the camera more to the ground**, little by little.
	* The flatter the camera is, the sooner you will reach a max boost power value. The goal would be to adjust the camera down frequently before reaching this max boost value. (see "Why does it work?")
	* Knowing when to adjust the angle can be hard, which is why it is always safer to dive a little too much rather than keeping the camera too flat and get a weaker boost.
	* The more you practice, the better you will know when to adjust the angle for optimal distance and/or height gain.
4. **Boost** the same way as when dive boosting (camera to the sky with a forward motion, or moving toward the camera while pushing it to the ground).
	* Upon boosting you can also level the camera instead of having it fully to the sky for example, to gain more distance forward than up.
	* If you want **to reach a specific platform**, try to aim just a little over it: **this is better done with a camera aiming at the sky when boosting**.

### Camera angles

As seen on the graphic above, there are **many camera angles possible** to dive with, ranging from about 26° to 52° under normal conditions:

* Under 26° below the horizon (**yellow** on the graph), it is impossible to dive.
	+ The wayfarer won't be in a diving position but will just fall slowly (no wind sound).
	+ If this happens after you level the camera, it means you went back too far and should start over.
* A little more than 26° (**red** color on the graph) gives the most optimal camera angles to **gain lots of distance fast** during the dive, but the boost possible to gain will be almost nonexistent (no matter how long you dive !)
	+ Such angles should be avoided (especially for beginners), however, under rare situations these very flat angles can be something speedrunners aim for because of the strong horizontal speed it gives. Here is a speedrun example in which the dive starts this way after entering OOB in Sunken City, and then the dive ends with a camera aiming slightly more down (at 5:29 in the video) to allow two short (and weak) level boosts, before touching the ground in an automatic sliding part of Sunken City where you can't dive any further anyway.
* Great **level boost** angles (**green** color on the graph) then go on until the camera aims fully down (=Dive Boost).

### Suggested training

A common place to practice speed boosting is at the end of pink desert, when trying to reach the top of the carpet/War Machine factory, starting from the big hills of sand surrounding it.

Because of its distance, you cannot easily reach the top with a single dive boost (especially with a shorter scarf). You can instead level the camera not fully to the ground during the dive, and empty your scarf slowly (taking your time with flaps rather than pressing "jump" continuously and ending up losing altitude very fast at the end of the dive).

You can dive all the way down pretty far, while avoiding getting too close to the ground however. Boost by moving the camera up when near the factory shadow line. Aim the camera a little over the top of the shrine platform, and you should (if done correctly) easily reach it. See video under.

### Why does it work ?

Whether your camera is leveled during a dive or fully to the ground, **the boost power increases as fast in both cases.**

The main difference to consider is **the flatter the camera angle is, the slower you lose altitude during the dive**, hence the better height after boosting. (it also allows to dive longer/further before reaching the ground)

However you must be careful to always dive with a camera enough down to be able to build more boost power that what you already have ! Again: **The flatter the camera angle is, the sooner you will reach a max boost power value.**

The maximum boost possible to get out of different camera angles is linear. This means the frequency or speed at which you progressively aim the camera a little more down can be constant throughout the dive (the max boost is reached after 19 seconds when the camera aims fully down for reference).

When Flyer Boosting, chirping at flyers prevents you completely from losing altitude during the dive. By chirping at them continuously for a long time it is a good idea to use a Dive Boost camera angle for a very strong boost! (More info on the flyer boost page)

### Common Mistakes

* Killing the boost by choosing and keeping a too flat camera angle for the dive: if you adjust your camera too much at a horizontal angle during the dive, it is likely you will stop building up boost power very soon. Try aiming the camera a little more to the ground next time.
* Diving too much too early during the dive: this will lead to less altitude gained after boosting and less distance covered during the dive. In case you aren't very high in the air when starting the dive it will also prevent you from diving for a long time to charge a better boost.

### Further Tips

* To adjust the camera angle when diving, it's often best to give it soft inputs from time to time, and **leave the right stick in a neutral position** the rest of the time (or not moving the mouse / not touching the up-down arrow keys from a keyboard). Feel free to press the camera sideways if you want to make a turn during the dive though.
* In order **to** **boost in the same direction as you are diving toward**, but while keeping the camera to the ground: start to move the camera to the side before the end of the diving part, and move towards the camera while finishing to turn the camera around and pointing it down. This needs some practice to be done smoothly (and can be done instantly with a mouse). It can be useful to practice this move because emptying all your boost with a camera fully to the sky will make it slower to retrieve a diving position again later (very slow camera movements when not boosting, with a controller). Keeping the camera down all the time allows for **faster transitions between dive-boost and boost-dive again** (not really true on PC with a mouse).

## Trivia

The level boost might be the favourite diving technique from glitched speedrunners, because it allows them to move fast, while still building rather strong boosts after, and it also gives the ability to turn the dives into dropshoots upon landing.

This is especially true in Pink desert or the Underground level. You can see an example in Pink Desert here (same speedrun as linked above for the SC example).

## See also

Flyer Boost: Recharge your scarf between dive boosts and level boosts, to also build up a stronger boost.

The Slow Boost is basically a dive boost that provides a stronger boost by pressing the movement stick only a little forward (losing altitude slowly). It can be done with a leveled camera angle as well during the dive.

The Ainshent Boost (or "infinite boost" with jumps) combines both the knowledge of level boosting and slow boosting. It is a very hard fancy flying technique that allows to gain more and more height over time, little by little.

 Fancy Flying TECHNIQUES

Beaming Down • Cave Boost • Charge Boost (CB) • Coasting • Dive Boost (DB) • Dropshoot (DS) • Dry Boost • Fancy Flying • Flap Boost • Flyer Boost • Goo Boost • Infinite Boost (IB) • Infinite Flight (IF) on PC • Infinite Flight (IF) on PS4 • Reverse Charge Boost (RCB) • Reverse Dive Boost (RDB) • Reverse Dropshoot (RDS) • Slow Boost • Steam Infinite Flight Tricks • Super Boost • Tandem Flying
 FANCY FLYING BASICS
Fancy Flying is when you control the character and camera together in order to gather energy with a dive and release it in the form of a boost, to gain lots of height, distance and/or speed.

Refer to the main article for general information and tips.

**Basic FF-techniques**, recommended to learn first:
**With Companion:** Tandem Flying. **Solo:**
Dive Boost (DB), Dropshoot (DS), Charge Boost (CB)

Expert Mode
**Expert Mode** introduction article to everything beyond the most basic gameplay.

See also: Glitches, Out of Bounds (OOB), Tricks, Challenges, Category:Expert Mode Glossary.

**Robins Guide for Newcomers** . 26 Minutes, full of tips, tricks, dos and don'ts.

Expert Mode

Carpet (Glitched) • Carpet Warp • Challenges • Crash Zones • Disco Wayfarer • Disco Zones and other Disco Stuff • Dune settings and PC glitches • Expert Mode • Expert Mode on iOS without Controller • Faceplant (FP) • Faceplant Jump (FPJ) • Fancy Flying • Glitches • Glossary • Guide to arranging a meetup • History Lesson Banner (HL Banner) • How to find Nick • Infinite Flight (IF) on PC • Infinite Flight (IF) on PS4 • Naked Wayfarer • Off-sync • Out of Bounds (OOB) • Peeling Grounds and Sanded Wayfarer • Sky Painting • Steam Infinite Flight Tricks • Surfing, Slides and Drops • The Difficulty Meter • Tricks • War Machine (Glitched) • Wayfarers (Glitched)

 Fancy Flying TECHNIQUES

Beaming Down • Cave Boost • Charge Boost (CB) • Coasting • Dive Boost (DB) • Dropshoot (DS) • Dry Boost • Fancy Flying • Flap Boost • Flyer Boost • Goo Boost • Infinite Boost (IB) • Infinite Flight (IF) on PC • Infinite Flight (IF) on PS4 • Reverse Charge Boost (RCB) • Reverse Dive Boost (RDB) • Reverse Dropshoot (RDS) • Slow Boost • Steam Infinite Flight Tricks • Super Boost • Tandem Flying
 FANCY FLYING BASICS
Fancy Flying is when you control the character and camera together in order to gather energy with a dive and release it in the form of a boost, to gain lots of height, distance and/or speed.

Refer to the main article for general information and tips.

**Basic FF-techniques**, recommended to learn first:
**With Companion:** Tandem Flying. **Solo:**
Dive Boost (DB), Dropshoot (DS), Charge Boost (CB)

Expert Mode
**Expert Mode** introduction article to everything beyond the most basic gameplay.

See also: Glitches, Out of Bounds (OOB), Tricks, Challenges, Category:Expert Mode Glossary.

**Robins Guide for Newcomers** . 26 Minutes, full of tips, tricks, dos and don'ts.

Expert Mode

Carpet (Glitched) • Carpet Warp • Challenges • Crash Zones • Disco Wayfarer • Disco Zones and other Disco Stuff • Dune settings and PC glitches • Expert Mode • Expert Mode on iOS without Controller • Faceplant (FP) • Faceplant Jump (FPJ) • Fancy Flying • Glitches • Glossary • Guide to arranging a meetup • History Lesson Banner (HL Banner) • How to find Nick • Infinite Flight (IF) on PC • Infinite Flight (IF) on PS4 • Naked Wayfarer • Off-sync • Out of Bounds (OOB) • Peeling Grounds and Sanded Wayfarer • Sky Painting • Steam Infinite Flight Tricks • Surfing, Slides and Drops • The Difficulty Meter • Tricks • War Machine (Glitched) • Wayfarers (Glitched)