OvO Movement Guide: Smash, Dive and the High Jump, Explained

OvO has six inputs and that is the whole game. The tutorial section shows each one once, then the later sections assume you can chain them without thinking. This is the order to learn them in, and what each one is actually for.

1. Run and jump

Left and Right run; you reach full speed in about half a second. Up jumps, and the height depends on how long you hold it, so a tap clears a single block and a held press clears two. Everything else is built on these two, so before you move on, get used to jumping late: OvO gives you no coyote time worth relying on, and most early deaths are jumps pressed a frame after the ledge is gone.

2. Slide

Press Down while running and the figure drops flat. The slide fits under the low bars the game starts using in Getting Serious, but its real job is that it keeps your run speed. You lose nothing by sliding, which is why the fastest players slide through open ground rather than run through it.

3. Dive

Press Up during a slide. The dive is a long, low jump — not much height, a lot of distance. It is the move for wide gaps and for crossing rooms in one go. Land, slide, dive again: this three-beat rhythm is the core of an OvO speedrun. The tutorial level that says Jump while sliding to dive is the one to replay until the rhythm is automatic.

4. Smash

Press Down in the air and the figure slams straight down. Two uses. First, it breaks the cracked blocks that block a path (the game marks them with you can smash this). Second, if you press Up on the frame you land from a smash, you get a taller jump than normal. That high jump is how you reach the ledges in Higher Order that seem to need a double jump. The game does not have a double jump; it has this.

One warning the game gives that everyone ignores: smashing onto a jumper does not trigger it. Land on bounce pads normally.

5. Wall slide and wall jump

Fall against a wall while holding toward it and you slide down slowly. Press Up to kick off. The later you press, the further the jump carries, so if the next platform is far, ride the wall down first. Wall jumps also chain: two facing walls become a ladder.

6. Restart

R restarts the level. Ctrl+R resets the whole run in Play mode. The timer measures the run, not the level, so a slow finish costs more than a quick restart. When a first jump goes wrong, restart at once.

Putting it together

The dive is a jump, so it can start a wall jump; the smash can end a dive; the high jump can start a slide. Once those three facts click, the Mechanics section stops feeling unfair. The options menu lets you move the keys to WASD if the arrows cramp your hand, and hard mode tightens every layout for a second run through.