10 Unexpected Ways To Master Challenging Video Game Mechanics
3. Let Go Of The W Key While Rocket Jumping - Team Fortress 2
Since the release of Quake some 25 years ago, rocket jumping has been a popular technique in FPS games for players to achieve ridiculous feats of speed and movement.
Typically speaking, rocket jumping involves looking down at the ground, jumping upwards, and firing your rocket launcher, which depending on the game can cause you to fly absurd distances albeit at the possible cost of massive health loss.
2007's Team Fortress 2 opted to include rocket jumping as its own well-defined and totally intentional mechanic, but it's also safe to say that mastering it is no picnic.
Players using the Soldier class can rocket jump, but controlling your movement during "flight" is much tougher than you might expect, and that's because there's an hilariously simple knack to it.
To control your path through the air, you need to rely on the strafe keys (A and D) rather than the forward key, W, which makes movement and control much more challenging.
Not pressing a key might seem like the simplest, silliest tip ever, but breaking entrenched muscle memory is incredibly difficult, so some players have even resorted to re-binding the forward movement to another key entirely or even creating a macro for rocket jumping.