Difference between revisions of "Short Charge"

Revision as of 10:11, 3 August 2022

Short charging is the manipulation of the way the Speed Booster functions to attain blue suit in a shorter distance than normal, or compared to quick charging.

Speed Boost Counter

The speed boost counter is what determines when you attain blue suit. When the counter reaches "4", you will attain blue suit. It's that simple.

The speed boost counter is separate from momentum. For every frame you are on the ground while holding dash and a direction, your momentum will increase. The speed boost counter will increment when dash is held while Samus's legs are in the following position (typically referred to as the "magic frame"):

Stutter Step

You can release the direction you are using for a moment before pressing Dash. One method for timing this is using the word "lollipop." The "lo" is pressing the direction for the first time, the "li" is pressing the direction for the second time, and the "pop" is pressing dash.

Tapping

In addition to stutter stepping, you can tap dash only when the magic frame is happening. To be explicit, the sequence for humans should be:

• Press dash
• As short of a time you are comfortable with
• Magic frame happens
• As short of a time you are comfortable with
• Release dash

If executed correctly, your speed counter will increase at the usual speed, but your momentum will increase much slower because it is only increasing while you are holding dash.

Combining these techniques can give many different patterns of short charges with varying distance and ease. You should figure out which pattern works best for you for each situation.

You can reference the short charge pattern you are using by referring to the number of times you press dash during it and whether or not a stutter is involved. For example, if you perform a stutter and tap dash three times total during the pattern, it would be referred to as a "stutter three tap" or "stutter 3."

Beyond four dash taps is impractical because you only need four taps for the speed boost counter to reach "4" and thereby attain blue suit.

Short charge can be achieved using a tempo between 153-160bpm, by pressing forward at the start of the bar, and tapping dash on each successive beat. For example: 1. hold forward 2. tap dash 3. hold dash (2 tap) or 1. hold forward 2. tap dash 3. tap dash 4. hold dash (3 tap). Pressing down at the first beat of the next bar will charge a shinespark. See the tutorial by Truemoss for further details.

4 tap rhythm:

An example of a "stutter 3" short charge:

An example of a short charge being performed to swiftly obtain the Missile pack in Main Street:

Pixel Values

Here, some pixel values are provided for short charging on NTSC. These assume perfect taps. Values are given in pixel.subpixel, and it is the space from start to charging a spark. Slightly less space would work, as Samus "slides" into the wall as she crouches.

• No short charge: 501.08192 (about 31.3 tiles)
• 1-tap (quick charge): 351.00000 (about 21.9 tiles)
• 2-tap: 272.16384 (about 17 tiles)
• 3-tap: 236.40960 (about 14.8 tiles)
• 4-tap: 225.45056 (about 14.1 tiles)

Stuttering is a lot more complicated to discuss. For simplicity, only the best patterns with no dash button use are considered. The values here assume a perfect 4-tap afterwards.

To specify the pattern that gives this value, something like 9_14_ is stated. This means press forward for 9 frames, release for one frame, forward for 14 frames, release for one frame, and then the next frame is the first magic frame.

• Single stutter: 199.16384 (about 12.45 tiles) [Pattern: 11_13, or any longer initial walk up to 24_]
• Double stutter: 175.00000 (about 10.94 tiles) [Pattern: 9_14_]
• Triple stutter: 167.57344 (about 10.49 tiles) [Patterns: 5_7_10_, 6_7_9_]
• Quadruple stutter: 165.28672 (about 10.34 tiles) [Patterns: 3_4_5_9_, 3_5_4_9_, 4_4_4_9_]
• Quintuple stutter: 165.16384 (about 10.33 tiles) [Patterns: 3_4_4_3_6_, 3_4_3_3_7_, 3_3_3_4_7_, 2_3_4_4_7_]

Any higher-order stutter is less optimal, although may provide more consistent short charges so shouldn't be discarded.

Note these stutter patterns were found by exhaustive search. Conclusions about stuttering from this are:

• It is always best to release forward for the shortest amount of time possible (every additional frame of forward release adds another pixel);
• It is best for your last stutter to happen just before the magic frame (although this makes it harder to tap);
• Your initial walk should be shorter than following runs, except for a single stutter where it just needs to be long enough;
• Your last walk should be longer than previous ones, except for a single stutter again.

The last two pieces of advice are about optimal stutters: Usually, it is easier to evenly space stutters.

Finally, to complete distances, here are TAS patterns:

• Cpadolf's old TAS pattern: 164.12288 (about 10.262 tiles)
• sniq's new TAS pattern: 164.08192 (about 10.258 tiles)
• sniq's moonwalk TAS pattern: 162.28672 (about 10.152 tiles) [Note this requires being able to moonwalk backwards for a frame at the start, so might be misleading given how distance was measured.]

Tutorials

• Kojakt - A Stutter 3-Tap Explanation.
• Sweetnumb - Stutter short charge tutorial
• Dbx - Super Short Charge tutorial
• Charles_Black - Short Charging with stutters and without
• TrueMoss - Short Charge tutorial
• Oatsngoats - Short Charge/Stuttering tutorial

See also

• Quick charge
• Shinespark
• General Movement

External links

• Danstwitch's demonstration
• TASVideos description