Reverse Dive Boost (RDB)

Reverse Dive Boost is an advanced flying technique that involves performing a Dive Boost with reversed controls, i.e. looking at the sky instead of the ground, and diving towards the camera.

How to Reverse Dive Boost
Difficulty:

Dive, pointing the camera fully to the sky and head towards the camera, possibly flapping along the way for a better boost. Before you hit the ground, either start moving away from the camera, or point the camera at the ground, to rise up.

If simply running off a ledge without any momentum, while facing the camera pointed at the sky, you will not dive at all (=no boost) ! To force a dive backwards, you have to gain momentum beforehand. There are at least 2 basic ways to reverse dive boost, (that can both be done from bridge sections of Broken Bridge for example):

First method: Dropshoot into RDB

 * To force your wayfarer's head to the ground, you can start with a short dropshoot on the floor, with a cliff behind you.


 * After one or two wing flaps (or more, but you might miss the void/hit the top of the cliff), you can stop jumping and fully reverse both the camera and your movements direction at the same time, to boost shortly and then dive backwards. The dropshoot is only used here to build a little momentum, transformed into a short boost. Possibly because the camera tends to move faster while boosting, this boost allows to force the camera all the way to the sky, or the wayfarer to dive backwards at a steeper angle.


 * Once you are into RDB position, start to flap (press jump) to build momentum, before boosting.

If you dropshoot on plain ground, when reversing your camera and movements you can instead Reverse Dropshoot. So be sure to dive over the void.

If you wish to dive forward after the dropshoot part, start by putting the camera to the side while dropshooting, and reverse both camera and movement more or less at the same time. The key is to have enough momentum for this transiton (make a nice Dropshoot !)

Second method: Dive into RDB
Making a successful dive with this method is a bit more technical.


 * First dive for about 1-2 seconds or more. The wind you will hear will indicate you are gaining momentum and are ready to switch into RDB position. You can flap once or a few times to increase the momentum some more as well (not required at all). This dive can also be done with a leveled camera, but be sure to keep it enough towards the ground to still build momentum in this case, or you won't manage the following parts.


 * Start turning the camera fully to either side. You can compensate the direction you are flying to by progressively adjusting the left stick position to the side a little as well, on a controller.
 * When halfway there (e.g. when you see your wayfarer from the side), start putting the camera towards the sky and around the same time invert your movement direction from forward/side to backwards. The moment you will start moving towards the camera will often result in a short upward boost, before the reverse diving part, thanks to the momentum gained by diving beforehand. The timing you choose to reverse the camera and character movement can give different results if not done at the same time exactly:
 * You can also have the camera aim already above the horizon line before reversing your movement towards it. In this case the transition can be very smooth with no visual upward boost of your character on the screen (they will keep a diving position the whole time). If you wait too long before moving towards the camera you won't be allowed to dive backwards though.
 * You could also reverse the movement first (=boosting up with the wayfarer's head over their feet) and just after it make the camera cross over the horizon line to aim at the sky. However if you do this, you will need more momentum to manage the reverse dive position after ! Because this option tends to make you loose a little more momentum in the process, it is less recommended as you can fail it more easily.
 * Finish the camera and direction transition, and start to flap a few times in reverse dive position before boosting.

On a controller both sticks make half of circles while compensating each other, for a smooth transition.

'' Example for a controller with standard button mapping : if you put the right stick (camera) from up to the right during the dive, when halfway there you would then continue its half circle motion and put this stick down, while the left stick is also doing a half circle from up to down (passing by the left side for a smooth transition). This shouldn't be overthought and will come naturally with practice.''

Note that you can also RDB towards the opposite direction you are diving to. This a similar move to the first method described above (dropshoot into RDB). When diving, "simply" reverse the camera and the movement direction at the same time to dive backwards. However when falling off a cliff with this method you would then dive backwards directly towards the cliff's wall. Therefore you should consider make a turn in the air during the first diving part. This method is easier to perform but seems to be useful on fewer occasions when playing.

Common Mistakes
For the second method, you can fail the RDB transition if you don't build enough momentum from the initial dive, or if you don't start to move the camera over the horizon before the wayfarer does the mini boost transition. This will result in a non-existent dive, just like when walking off a ledge backwards while facing the camera without any momentum.

Further Tips
If you don't have lots of space in front of you when dropshooting with the first method : start doing a big chirp the moment you land on the ground, and upon releasing it, reverse both direction and camera. (This can also help you with the reversing of both camera and movement direction, as chirps can press you to the ground )

For the second method, you can level the camera a little before making the RDB transition, instead of a dive with the camera straight to the ground.

This trick might not give a better boost than the regular dive boost, however it can be interesting to try it as a learning transition to Reverse Dropshoot, which is way more efficient for boosting.

Reverse Dropshooting off a cliff will result in a reverse dive, the way a normal Dropshoot will result in a Dive.

If you have some residual momentum from previous fancy flying tricks, can can simply jump backward with a camera to the sky to dive!

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