Air Strafing
A movement exploit originating from a bug in Quake II that allows players to exceed intended speed caps through precise strafing and mouse movements.
Air strafing is a technique used to increase a player's movement speed in computer games based on the Quake engine and its successors, most of which are first-person shooters, by jumping and turning one direction or the other with the mouse and using the strafe keys.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Airborne movement technique
- Franchise
- Quake
- First appeared
- Quake (1996)
- Most iconic in
- Quake III Arena (1999)
- Engine family
- id Tech 1
- id Tech 2
- id Tech 3
- Related techniques
- Bunny hopping
- Rocket jumping
- Air acceleration
- Developer
- id Software
Lore & Background
Strafe-jumping was a result of a bug in the code base of the 1997 first-person shooter video game Quake II. In sequels it was decided to be kept intact, as it had become a standard technique used by players.
Reader's Guide
Strafe-jumping requires a precise combination of mouse and keyboard inputs. The player holds the move forward key, accelerates to maximum walking speed, jumps while holding a strafe key, and moves the mouse slowly in the direction they are strafing while airborne. To prevent speed loss from ground friction, the player immediately jumps again on landing. Switching the direction of strafing and mouse movement compensates for the curved trajectory. Sustained strafe-jumping is mainly a matter of muscle memory.
Did You Know?
- In Quake III Arena and some games based on its engine, slight increases in jump height can be achieved by playing the game at specific frame rates.
- The pre-strafe (also known as circle jumping) is an action performed at the start of strafe-jumping, giving an initial burst of speed using the same mechanics but on the ground before the first jump.
More in Combat & Movement
Elsewhere in Quake
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