Force floor
A force floor is a sliding tile that differs from ice in two different ways. Unlike ice, the direction of a force floor is determined by the direction of its contours, and Chip can step off force floors in any legal direction when specific conditions apply.
MS
In MS, Chip can only override force floors if his last move was involuntary, or in some cases after hitting a Chip-acting wall. If a force floor pushes Chip directly into a wall, Chip can override. The Headbanger Rule is an extension of the latter, where a sliding block one space behind Chip will be hit by Chip and, in the case of force floors, stop Chip from moving for [1/2]. Also, objects beginning a level on force floors will not be affected by them as long as they stay on the square. Blocks beginning on force floors will affect Chip as normal, and the block is also pushed normally.
If Chip attempts to move backwards on a long slide, he can remain largely motionless, staying on only two tiles.
Lynx
In Lynx, Chip is more limited than in MS: only when he was previously on another force floor can Chip override, and he can never override backwards. Chip can walk on force floors the same way he walks on ordinary floors with a pair of suction boots, but at the expense of moving at only 5 m/s. If Chip, a monster or a block starts the level on a force floor, it will start sliding immediately. Also, like on ice, blobs slide at half of the speed of other creatures.
If Chip attempts to move backwards on a long slide, he will slow down, but will keep sliding.
Chip's Challenge 2
In Chip's Challenge 2, force floors generally behave like in Lynx, but with a few differences. Backwards overrides are possible when the first sliding tile Chip or Melinda entered is another force floor. Rovers, like blobs, slide at half the speed of other creatures. Ghosts treat force floors as acting floors, regardless of whether they have suction boots or not. Speed boots have no impact on sliding speed. If Chip or Melinda atempt to move backwards on a long slide, they will remain largely motionless, staying on only two tiles like in MS.
Random force floors
Force floors that are shaped in a spiral-like formation are random force floors, which take Chip and blocks in a random direction; monsters treat random force floors as acting walls in the MS ruleset only. Its override conditions are identical to normal force floors. In Lynx, random force floors circle clockwise in their chosen direction.
In action
A demonstration of the properties of force floors can be found in the diagram below:
If Chip steps R, he will always slide >R, but can then step in any legal direction off [3, 1]. Assuming he steps U, he is then subject to a >L move, and can then override [2, 0]. However, since [1, 0] is an east force floor, Chip will not be able to reach the exit unless he has suction boots. Chip also cannot exit by starting with an U move, because his last move was voluntary.
Trivia
- In the original Lynx game, the force floors were magnetic floors forcing Chip to follow their movement, and the boot was a magnet allowing Chip to repel their force and move normally.