Cave Boost



Cave Boost and Cutscene Boost are two almost identical boosting techniques that exploit the camera when it leaves its usual viewpoint and becomes fixed on a different spot, before returning to the normal third-person view from behind the wayfarer's back. These forced camera angles can be abused to provide very powerful boosts, for example when combined with Dropshoot based methods.

The stuck up cameras can allow to dropshoot with a Wayfarer seen as running on the ground sideways, head in the sand and feet in the air, in a ridiculous way.

As described by one of the community members (edited for brevity), here is the difference between both:


 * "Cave Boost requires fixed cameras which can be found in specific spots throughout the game."
 * "Cutscene Boost requires a cinematic cutscene and therefore can only be done once" (per level / during a playthrough)

Note in this article the word "Caveboost" will oftentimes refer to both Caveboost and Cutscene Boost for simpler sentences.

Info needed regarding if it is possible with mouse and keyboard. There is a chance it can work rather nicely with keyboard only, though it may not be possible to keep the stuck camera while boosting towards the camera, rather than aiming the camera to the sky in order to boost.

How to do It
Difficulty:

''"There are 13 cutscene/cave boost spots, sadly none in cs, pd, ug and paradise. Some of them must be done in reverse." ''

The change of camera angle needs to be abrupt in order to perform a caveboost or a cutscene boost. A camera zooming out or sliding away to show something in the game won't work (ex: you can't do a cutscene boost upon discovering the UG kelp room, with the camera zoomed out).

Broken Bridge Caveboost spot
BB Caveboost spot is the most well kwown place for Caveboosting.

When entering the mural cave there is a sudden change of camera angle (there isn't when leaving it), which means you start performing the caveboost here upon entering the cave only.

Starting the caveboost
The most easy way to start it with a controller only is as follow:


 * 1) Walk into the sandfall leading to the glyph cave with a left stick fully forward. Once in it you will notice your wayfarer is walking to the left instead of forward: congrats, it means you have a stuck camera angle and are ready to caveboost!
 * 2) Now try to get out of the cave without loosing this stuck camera. For this, slowly move your left stick from a forward position to the right, and you should walk out of it effortlessly. If you loose the camera angle while doing this it probably means you were too fast while moving the left stick!
 * 3) Slowly push your left stick fully forward again and you should see your wayfarer moving sideways (if not just turn the camera left or right a bit and you should see it now). If you loose the stuck camera, again, you moved your left stick too fast.
 * 4) Push the camera fully to the ground and then jump in the air 2 or 3 times with a left stick still fully forward. Hold jump upon touching the ground to start dropshooting. You are now caveboosting !

The "normal" way to start it (harder)


 * 1) Enter the cave while holding the left stick fully forward during a dropshoot or a dive: you can enter it from the left, right or even front (fully North), depending on your preference.
 * 2) Then your goal is to dropshoot your way out of it while keeping the stuck camera angle. To do this, you can't abruptly change direction with the left stick, or you will loose the angle. Try instead to get out of the cave while having a left stick fully forward, or slowly tilt it to the right or to the left a little bit (depending on the direction from which you enter the cave). It can be a bit tricky depending on how you approch the cave in the first place, and you may prefer entering from one side compared to another. With experience you will learn how to only lightly enter the cave and get out of it very quickly. If you get too deep inside the cave you can slowly move the left stick sideway to dropshoot to the right side, and then slowly push it back forward again when out.

Note it is also possible to caveboost after entering the headbonkers cave in Broken Bridge and getting close to the mural from the OOB side.

The caveboost dropshoot

 * When out of the cave and dropshooting, try to keep your left stick fully forward, to keep the caveboost going on as long as you can. Any abrupt movement with the left stick can make you loose the stuck camera angle.


 * You can move the camera stick left and right to try to control where you move at, but it will take some time to get accustomed to it. If you aim the camera in a direction for long enough and hold the left stick forward, your wayfarer will slowly turn toward this direction (it can take many seconds !). This is because the wayfarer's response to your camera movements is effective only with a delay when caveboosting. It can result in a wayfarer going in any direction, based on how fast you move your camera around. To make the wayfarer turn efficiently it may be a good idea to exagerate your camera movements (especially when the camera is placed sideways to the wayfarer's direction). You can also try to caveboost in a circle by continuously moving the camera sideways.
 * If you were to just try and initiate a dive after walking out of the cave, without aiming the camera to the ground prior to that, you will notice how slow the wayfarer is to getting into a diving position for the dropshoot !
 * The Dropshoot rule of keeping the camera angle more to the ground for a stronger boost still applies for caveboosting. Hence why you should consider flicking the camera stick to maintain it down if you want the strongest boost possible. It may be hard to get a great camera angle once out of the cave everytime, especially when you don't dropshoot right away, which is why it can be a great idea to make a short boost and then dive again to start another DS with a better camera angle (see below how to proceed).

Boosting (and diving again)
After charging for a while, you can boost like usual, by simply pulling the left stick toward you and pushing the camera to the ground. However, this will most likely result in you loosing the stuck camera instantly, because of the abrupt left stick change.

In order to keep the stuck camera while boosting, with your left stick make a  slow half of a circle trajectory to the right or to the left, until you lift off the floor and can stop on holding the jump button down. You can press the camera to the ground when boosting, to make sure it aims fullly down.

When ready to dive again, do the opposite and make another slow half of a circle trajectory with your left stick until it aims fully forward again. Hold jump on the ground to DS again and start over.

Keeping the stuck camera upon boosting can be hard at first, but once you get the hang of it you will enjoy this boost completely.

Note you can also boost by aiming the camera directly to the sky, and keeping on holding the left stick fully forward. However, because of how slow the wayfarer response is to the camera direction it will take a few seconds until you manage to lift off the ground, and you will loose some boost in the process (plus diving again later will take some time, unless you choose to reverse dropshoot instead: see the next headline).

Doing RDS with BB Caveboost spot
Upon caveboosting or doing a cutscene boost, it is possible to switch from a "normal" caveboost (DS) to a reverse one (RDS), and vice versa.

However the transition to "reverse caveboost dive" is even harder than going from a normal dive into a reverse dive, because of how slow the camera is to affect the wayfarer's diving angle. You will actually need a huge amount of momentum to be able to make the transition into a reverse dive!

Here is one way to proceed:

Start boosting like explained above (camera facing down), and shortly after put your camera fully to the sky (no need to be gentle with the right stick, like you have to with the left stick). Placing the camera more near the head side of your wayfarer rather than their feet can help in order to have a reverse camera angle faster (it can sometimes get stuck more or less horizontally and take a few seconds until looking at the sky). Just wait until your wayfarer gets into a reverse dive and pray you had enough momentum for it. If not, dive again with yet another slow half of a circle trajectory with the left stick, and push your camera to the ground again to start over.

Another way to proceed would be to simply aim the camera fully to the sky while dropshooting and wait a few seconds until the wayfarer lifts off the ground. You can then make the slow half of a circle trajectory with the left stick to get into a reverse dive before running out of boost.

RDSing with the caveboost camera doesn't seem to provide a better boost than a normal caveboost, but it can be very fun to do and watch.

In order to charge well with it you should try to push the camera under the head of the wayfarer while pressing the right stick to the sky. But if you just want to enjoy the view, level your camera more horizontally and appreciate the silly show ! (the boost will be bad)

Why does it work?
??? Mystery...

It seems the abrupt change of camera angle messes with how the wayfarer responds to the camera angle and direction by slowing it down. Why does it make the boost this powerful though?

Common mistakes

 * When your scarf is empty and the wayfarer doesn't stick to the ground anymore, keep the left stick fully forward! You can simply recover by stopping on holding the jump button down, wait to recharge a bit, jump once and a second time + hold the button upon making contact with the ground again.


 * If for some reason you loose the stuck camera angle while dropshooting, it may be a wise idea to boost instantly rather than loosing most of your momentum (it will diminish very fast).
 * Once again, when you need to boost (or when dropshooting), avoid moving the left stick too fast sideways or you will most likely loose the stuck camera.

Further tips

 * Caveboost seems to work with flyer boost and slow dropshoot as well (can the combo caveboost+slow DS give an even better boost or is it not significant? Same question for superboost? NeedsToBeChecked-SMALL-75x43.gif)

Other Cave or Cutscene Boost spots
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(you can watch Apno's twitch playlist linked below in "Gallery" for some ideas)

Gallery
The following videos demonstrate Cave Boost in Broken Bridge. Here is a link to 4pn0d0d's twitch channel where you can find an impressive collection of twitch highlights called "Cutscene and cave boost videos". Have a look at it to see caveboost and other cutscene boosts in various levels, and their combination with many other Fancy Flying techniques: https://www.twitch.tv/4pn0d0d/videos

Trivia
Eventually any wall can become a Charge Boost point upon caveboosting because of how much the wayfarer is diving

It is actually not rare to get a Cutscene Boost camera unwillingly upon chirping at a shrine in the Tower level, if you move in a direction during the cutscene for example.

There is another occurence in the game that can make one loose complete control of the wayfarer: while in a screensaver and in the air (not sitting). Depending on where the camera faces at in the screensaver, having a left stick fully forward will make you move depending on the screensaver image ! This actually affects glitched speedruns in the Tower level, when they use the screensaver to boost through the ceiling of the whale room. It also may be the most problematic RNG you can get in Journey upon speedrunning (it can make one waste 2 or 3 seconds depending on the screensaver they get and how close to the Snow trigger they are when regaining control of the wayfarer).

Quotes
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