Spring slide

A spring slide is an advanced technique in Chip's Challenge related to the spring step, but involving moves after leaving sliding tiles.

Mechanics

Voluntary moves of Chip and any 5-m/s monsters can only happen once per turn. There are two different types of spring slides, both with the result that the second voluntary move after sliding can occur only [1/2] later than the first voluntary move, rather than [1] as normal, even though they both occur within one turn each (just as a spring step does).

There are four ways to execute a spring slide: two involving the move after naturally leaving any sliding tile and two after overriding a force floor. When Chip is deposited at the end of a stream of sliding tiles, the spring slide is possible if Chip has slid over an odd number of sliding tiles since his last voluntary move, as the last slide will have been the first half of one turn. This can also be accomplished over an even number of sliding tiles if Chip waits [1/2] before sliding, as the [1/2] moves will cancel; this is rarely useful, however.

By contrast, when overriding a force floor, one fewer slide than the number of sliding tiles has actually occurred, so the numbers are reversed in this case: if this is an even sliding tile, a spring slide normally occurs on the two turns after the override, and odd numbers can be handled by waiting [1/2] likewise.

Strategy

In addition to sliding across odd or even numbers of sliding tiles, strategies for maximizing the spring slide include spreading them apart by two voluntary moves. If the boosting-assisted voluntary move itself moves onto a sliding tile, then the second half of the spring slide is wasted. The following cutout from Cake Walk illustrates how it is used:

When Chip starts to build across the ice to the west, he has several opportunities to use spring sliding. The first block that passes the west ice column lands on [1, 3], and coming back from the dirt is the first chance for Chip to use it.

To reach [6, 0] the quickest, instead of moving 3R 3U, the quickest path is RU 2R 2U. If Chip begins with 2R, the opportunity to move twice within one turn from [3, 3] is lost.

See also

• Spring step
• Boosting
• Bounce