Obby Jumping Technique: Camera, Timing and the Three Falls Everyone Makes

The camera is part of the controls

Nearly every fall in an obby is a jump taken at a slight angle. The avatar goes where the camera points, so before any long jump pull the camera round until it sits directly behind you and the target platform is centred on screen. In Rainbow Obby this takes half a second and saves a stage. Mobile players have it harder because the joystick and the camera swipe share a thumb; do the camera first, then the run.

Jump from the edge, not from the middle

A jump's distance is fixed, so the only variable is where it starts. Walk to the last pixel of the platform and jump from there. If you are unsure where the edge is, the shadow under your avatar tells you: when the shadow starts to disappear you are on the edge. Jumping early is the most common fall on the wide gaps in the later rainbow stages.

Moving platforms: ride, do not chase

Let a moving block come to you and step on when it is closest, then stand still until it is nearest the next platform. Chasing a block that is moving away means jumping at a target that is also receding, and the physics does not add your speed to the block's. Rotating platforms are the same idea: wait for the side that is coming towards you.

Hold the direction in the air

The jump in most 3D obbies, Rainbow Obby included, keeps carrying you as long as the movement key is held. Releasing it mid-air cuts the jump short and drops you a platform early. Hold the key through the whole arc, and only let go once you have landed and want to stop dead.

Touch the flag

Checkpoints save on contact with the flag pole, not on landing near it. Walk into it, see the colour change, then move on. It is the cheapest insurance in the game and the thing most restarts come from skipping.