Gameplay Tips (Hook Champ)

This is a page with gameplay tips not associated to any specific level.

  • Jake is the recommended character for beginners. If you're having a hard time you should consider buying Hookbot. After completing a certain level you will unlock Gunny who is able to go faster thanks to her having more shotgun blast upgrades available, but even after unlocking her you might want to keep playing as Jake. When you don't make any more accidental falls, switch to Gunny.
  • Don't waste all your money on hats! Only buy the ones you're actually going to use until you've upgraded your important items fully, then you can start collecting hats.
  • Have you seen all the skulls hanging from the roof in most levels? They give you a hint on what the next swing is going to be like. If the skull hangs close to the roof prepare to go up, if the skull hangs far from the roof prepare to go down. Even experienced players use them to pinpoint where they are supposed to go.
  • When preparing to make a jump into the unknown, latch at the very end of the roof you're under in order to launch yourself as far as possible. This can save you from a long fall.
  • When swinging through a long passage of hanging pillars you don't have to latch the small bottom area of the pillars. Instead latch earlier and you'll hook onto the left wall of the pillar, giving you a significantly larger area to aim for. Still be careful though: latch too high and you'll hit the hanging pillar instead of going under it. Once mastered this can make even the hardest parts of the game a breeze, but using this method might require a long rope.
  • When you enter a large open area that seems awfully hard to get through, try using rocket boots to fly up to the roof and latch to it instead. There are several areas with tricky spring and ring combinations where you actually are supposed to launch yourself up to the roof. If you even find a few skulls marking when you're supposed to drop down again you'll know the developers wanted you to go there.

Getting Money

  • There are two types of loot: coins and rubies, that are worth 20 coins.
  • Want to earn easy money? Play through a level and note how many coins you got them divide it by the time it took for you to finish to get a coin/second ratio. The Golden Bull has a good ratio which is approximately 0,6-0,65, but there are a few easier levels with the same ratio.
  • A cheaper way of money hoarding is playing the Silver Hatbox and dropping down to your left at the very beginning of the level, grabbing all the four rubies under the starting platform and dropping to your death directly after. You will earn 20 coins (each ruby being worth 5 coins) in approximately five seconds, giving you an unrivaled ratio of 4.

Getting Faster

  • No character, costume or hat will affect your general speed.
  • Travel in a straight line. Release your hook as soon as you begin moving upwards (but do it too soon and you'll fall) and latch again just before you begin falling for a as straight line as possible. Doing this will make you go marginally faster than moving in a wave up and down across the entire tunnel, but if you're going for a global highscore every split second counts.
  • Don't hit any walls or touch the floor if you want a great speed-run. This one should be fairly obvious, but even a slight nudge will slow you down. If you're trying to make a perfect run you should restart if you hit any wall or touch any floor, but hitting the roof won't slow you down (other than because you probably are moving in a wave-shape, see the tip above).
  • For levels where you have to drop down holes, make sure your last latch before the drop makes you go just over the edge of the fall. In levels where you need to go up a level make sure you are traveling close to the roof before the opening to the higher roof. Sometimes you'll be able to latch directly to the new roof, but if there's a risk that you'll hit a floor at your original travel height you can latch right at the end of the lower roof swinging yourself upward into the new area. If it goes diagonally upwards-forwards you might want to use Rocket Boots instead.
  • In any passage that goes diagonally upwards-forwards you might want to consider using Rocket Boots. Using Rocket Boots also works in a passage with a flat roof, in case you're close to the finish line and too lazy to latch.
  • Shotgun blasts should only be used when you are low on momentum. At the very start of a level can be a good time to use a blast, then after any vertical section when you have been going upwards using Rocket Boots, a high-launch spring or after a fall. If you have remaining blasts make sure you use them in a straight corridor, otherwise you'll quickly hit a wall.
  • For the Rat Levels and Hatbox Levels, try saving your shotgun blasts for when a Chaser is right behind you. Remember not to waste your shotgun blast on just fending off the Chaser though, it should still be profitable for you speed-wise.
  • Springs are great, but not always the fastest path.
  • Blocks will only break if you hit them at a high speed. If you land at the side of or on a block without enough momentum it won't break, but will slightly crack and break by itself after about a second.
  • If you want to bust through block walls two or three lines thick it's important that you don't somehow get stuck in the later lines of blocks. If you go to steeply upwards you might end up standing on a block in the last line one row above your entry point and if you go steeply downwards you will rarely have enough momentum to get through them all. Try going in a straight line through the blocks with high speed and you will be unstoppable.
  • For really long lines of blocks you will want to use a shotgun blast or play as Hookbot with the Block Buster ability purchased.
  • In any level with bats taking full advantage of them will be the best choice. If you have upgraded your Husk Musk fully you can safely throw yourself straight into any number of bats and trust in them to carry you forward. This will very rarely fail.
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