Tomb Run

Tomb Run is a minute of running flat out down a straight stone corridor, 600 m to the gold gate at a base pace of 10 m/s. Nobody can stop or slow down on purpose, so places change hands two ways: mistakes (a wall clipped, a pit missed, a stone ball to the shins) and speed (pads, Boost and the slipstream chained into a gap).

The corridor

The track is 30 sections of 20 m, laid out fresh every round: the first three always gentle, the last five always hard. Hurdles and 3 m pits block some lanes and can be jumped; walls block some lanes and cannot; low bars cross every lane and must be slid under. Wrecking balls swing across the lanes on a 2-second cycle, staggered along each beam so the gap moves. Green pads give 30% more speed for 1.5 s to feet that touch them. Six times a race, between 70 m and 470 m, a row of crates crosses every lane.

Running into anything solid knocks you back a metre and stuns you for 0.8 s. A pit or a wrecking ball sends you back to the start of your 20 m stretch, frozen for 1.5 s. Nobody is ever knocked out.

Keys worth knowing

A jump carries you about 6 m. S pressed in the air drops you straight down and slides you as you land: the quickest way from a hurdle into a bar, and the quickest way into a pit.

Hold E to burn Boost for 35% more speed. The bar starts half full, a full bar lasts 2.5 s, and only crates refill it, half a bar each. Q fires your item once the slot stops rolling; fired while sliding, a stone ball or homing orb goes backward.

The items

What a crate gives depends on your place when you take it. The leader mostly gets stone balls and spike traps; last place gets Boosts, Sandstorms, homing orbs and the Golden scarab.

• Stone ball: rolls down your lane at 22 m/s and trips the first runner it reaches. A jump clears it.
• Homing orb: chases the nearest runner ahead at chest height. Jumping does not help.
• Spike trap: dropped behind you, it stops anyone who runs onto it for a second. Jump it.
• Boost: 50% faster for 3 s.
• Sandstorm: everyone ahead of you runs at 60% for 3 s and loses their item. Nothing blocks it.
• Golden scarab: 60% faster for 4 s, and untouchable by balls, orbs, traps and bumps.
• Shield: soaks up the next hit.

Running in a pack

Tuck in within 5 m behind a runner in your lane and you run 12% faster. Reach their back and you slingshot past at 50% extra for a second, then wait 4 s for the next one. Change lanes into a runner level with you and you shoulder them a lane further over with a short stumble, longer if they are pinned against the wall.

How good runners win

• Speed boosts do not add up. You get the best of pad, Boost, item Boost, Golden scarab and slingshot, with only the slipstream on top, so burning E on a pad gains almost nothing and during a slingshot nothing at all. Spend the bar on bare track.
• Fire your item before the next crate row. Every lane has a crate, and taking one throws away what you held.
• Empty the Boost bar between crate rows, or the next crate's half has nowhere to go.
• As leader, slide and fire the stone ball backward, at the runners your odds are built for.
• Hold B to look back before firing backward or dropping a trap. It also shows a stone ball rolling up behind you in time to jump it.
• A shoulder bump just before a wall row can push a rival into a blocked lane.

A bigger field

The corridor is three lanes wide for up to 4 runners, five for up to 8 and seven for up to 16, with one wrecking ball per three lanes on each beam. Three lanes usually leave one lane open at each obstacle row, wider corridors two side by side, so a big pack still has to squeeze.