Movement

This guide will cover everything you need to know about pilot movement mechanics. Pilot movement is an essential part of pilot gameplay. Mastering pilot movement allows you to be able to strafe mid-air and wall ride, making you very hard to hit. To survive on the battlefield, every pilot must use their jump kit to the best of their ability. All pilots are immune to fall damage. Good movement will help you survive, such as obtaining batteries more easily. Titanfall 2 runs on the source engine, so momentum, gravity, and other movement mechanics can be used if you know how.

Jump kit

All pilots are equipped with a jump kit, which is a small jump pack worn around the pilot’s waist. The jump kit allows the pilot to wall run and double jump mid-air. It will also provide the pilot with complete immunity to fall damage and other dangers involving acceleration and height. The jump kit provides pilots with the ability to vault, ledge grab, and slide; the jump kit gives a benefit across all movements.

The movement guide will be split into 3 skill levels that will explain and dissect each skill level of pilot movement.

Beginning Level

Walking

Inherent to all first-person shooters and titans is the ability to walk forward, left, right, and back. These are represented by the WASD keys, W being forward, A being left, D being right, and S being backward. A combo of W-A, W-D, S-A, and S-D for diagonal movements, basically a 45-degree angle.

Running

All pilots can initiate a run, a non-toggled faster movement speed. Pilots cannot fire or use ordnance while running, unless mods or kits allow it. You cannot run backwards in Titanfall 2. To run, you need to hold the left shift while pressing W.

Crouching

Crouching is the ability that pilots can do that reduces footstep sound, increases visibility, and increases accuracy. While crouching, you move more slowly in all directions. Crouching can help you get into tighter spaces that you couldn’t normally fit into. Crouching will reduce your hit box. The left control key activates crouching. Holding control and any WASD key is what allows you to move while crouched. Crouch can be used in the air.

Sliding

Sliding is a combination of running and crouching, causing the momentum to transfer towards the pilot and causing them to slide on the floor. Sliding is a very useful tool to reduce the time it takes to get into positions and move across the map fast. Crouching makes your pilot harder to hit. Sliding can combo with melee for a quick execution kill. You can use ordnance, shoot, and reload while sliding; therefore, you can slide to allow time for such things without removing momentum from running.

Jump and double jump

All pilots can jump and double jump. Jumping slows the pilot down to get over objects and get into high areas. The space key is for jumping and double jumping. Double jump will automatically be used if activated at any time in the air. Only one double jump can be used until touching the ground or wall riding. A double jump will give a boost to momentum. Activating double jump while pressing S will cause you to lose momentum.

Strafe - Tap Strafing

Strafing is the mechanic of moving your character left or right while maintaining forward momentum in the air. This is very useful for “cutting” through the air and changing direction without removing momentum. Strafing allows you to aim and attack targets, but it will be more challenging when learning it. Strafing is done by pressing the W-A and W-D or just the A and D keys. For those performing movement combinations, you will need to use Tap strafing. Normal strafing will remove your momentum, but tap strafing will keep your speed. To tap strafe, you simply tap either A or D. Move with the flow and don’t look away too sharply, or else momentum is canceled. Strafing can be done in combo with any other movement mechanic as long as it is in the air.

Ledge grab

Pilots will automatically grab ledges if they are nearby them. Ledge grabbing helps pilots go up buildings and objects if they didn’t have a high enough jump. Ledge grabs will cease all momentum, so be mindful and avoid being high up on ledges to prevent unwanted ledge grabs. You can hang off a ledge, but you won’t be able to shoot or use any ability. Do this by letting go of the W key.

Wall ride

All pilots in Titanfall 2 can slide along walls for a short time until falling off speed, which will increase when wall riding and jump acceleration is increased when jumping off of walls. You cannot wall ride the same wall and the same wall side twice. There is no cooldown to wall riding, so as long as you can keep finding walls or big objects, you won’t stop moving. You can shoot, reload, and throw ordnance while wall riding. Wall ride speed increases are gained much faster if switching between parallel walls frequently.

Intermediate Level

Wall hop ascension

A more advanced wall riding technique, if the pilot wants to climb straight up on walls with little surface area, you start by quickly touching the wall and hopping off the wall quickly, then very quickly look behind the close parallel wall and ride that one, then repeat. This only works if two surfaces are parallel or connected at 45-90 degrees inward, and the walls need to be close enough. This technique requires fast button pressing and quick looking. You must act quickly so you can keep the height momentum gained from switching between each wall. Quickly switching between walls will allow you to climb very quickly, giving you access to very high up and hard-to-reach places. Normally, you can ascend up walls and such by slowly going up while wall riding; this technique is to improve ascension time.

Wall bounce

While wall riding, the pilot can hop off, causing backwards momentum that can be combined with other techniques. This is easily achieved if you are holding onto the ledge. Press the space bar and your pilot automatically goes back; this is also useful for rodeoing enemy or friendly titans. Wall bounce is a perfect starting technique for runs across the map.

Wall ride corner ascension

Some maps will have 90-degree angles that will end normal wall runs; however, with some technique, you can continue wall runs with hard strafing and double jumping. With practice, you can time your double jump to hard curve you to the other side of the 90-degree bend.

Titan climb

When an ally or enemy Titan is nearby you can rodeo them, during the rodeo animation you can jump off the titan causing you to move backwards fast, this is a good technique if you need to escape a bad situation by going up high, this will allow you to get higher up on the map pretty fast, of course inherently this requires a nearby Titan so this technique is more situational. Where you jump back is also decided by where the Titan is looking. If you finish the rodeo, you will be sent back, but at the cost of predictability.

Crouch hopping

Crouch hopping is one of the best ways to preserve your momentum. This is very helpful when moving across the map extremely fast. Crouch hopping can commence once the pilot has enough momentum, to crouch how the pilot must crouch and then jump immediately after touching the ground. Crouch hopping can only occur if the pilot touches the ground, so this isn’t exclusively an air mechanic. Crouch hopping is the main way a pilot can speed through maps at uncharted speeds, so this is a priority to learn and to combo with all other movement mechanics.

Ejection Strafing

Pilots can strafe in the air when ejecting to arc their trajectory, allowing them to land elsewhere from where they were ejected. This is incredibly useful for survivability and positioning. To eject strafe, the pilot must, while initiating ejection, press W, A, S, D or a combo in which direction they want to strafe, then once in the air look and aim towards where you want to go and hold down W. If stim is equipped it can increase the speed, distance and curvature making the ejection strafing much more reliable.

Stim

Once stim is activated, the pilot gains a huge speed increase in only forward momentum, allowing their movement mechanics to be extremely fast for a short duration. Stim does not affect jump height and can be interrupted in a few ways. Stim will not make your pilot more “bouncy” since all of the momentum can still be canceled from ledge grabbing, titan rodeo, melee, and any physical objects blocking your path. Stim will require some proper execution for its benefits to be maximally utilized. When using stim, it is recommended that you use it while wall riding, as that gives the biggest speed benefit compared to other methods. Always use crouch hopping with stim to increase speed and to keep the momentum up for as long as possible. Stim will still apply a speed buff to running and walking, but not as much compared to wall riding or crouch hopping. On a final note, stim should be used at the start of movement combos or to evade immediate danger. Never activate stim in the air unless you are ejecting strafing, since it will not make you fall faster, resulting in a wasted stim. Keep in mind any titans in your path to avoid unwanted rodeos or body blocks. With proper use of stim, you will be a flash to your enemies, making you nearly impossible to hit.

Advanced Level

Gravity star jump

The gravity star, after a short duration, will explode, giving the pilot who threw it a big movement boost if said pilot is near the explosion. This requires sharp timing but can be hugely beneficial to movement combinations. The gravity star will last 4 seconds and will explode after the 4th second. The gravity star jump can be used to begin or continue movement combinations. This will require serious knowledge of timing and careful execution for it to work. Keep a mental 4-second timer in your head to help. Do keep in mind that the explosion will harm you, so don’t use it if you are critically injured.

Grapple

The grapple tactical is one of the most complex but useful movement mechanics in the game. Let’s break down a few of its mechanics. Grapple’s concept is pretty simple; however, proper execution of grapple requires a lot of practice and skill.

Grapple’s Base Mechanics

Grapple has 2 cooldowns. Grapple works by extending out a line that will attach to any hard surface. Once attached, your pilot is pulled towards wherever you latched on; this also includes all friendly titans and all enemies. If you grapple your own titan and move towards it, you will automatically embark. If you grapple onto an enemy, such as a grunt or pilot, you will automatically melee once they are close enough to you. Grapple has a long but limited range; the farther the surface, the longer it takes to reach. Grapples can be canceled if you press your tactical button or if you take too long to reach your latch on spot. Rarely can a grapple get caught on something and cause it to break, but this is only possible around antennas and other small, tall objects on the map. While grappling, you cannot use or switch any weapons, and are unable to use ordnance or melee. To quickly shoot a target, you must cancel the grapple. When grappling an enemy titan, be mindful that enemy titans will get a warning prompt saying the titan is being grappled; auto titans and titans in frontier defense will ignore this. You can use your double jump while grappling. Grappling will make noise on any titan you grapple with and any nearby enemies. When grappling is activated, the cooldown is activated relative to the time you are being pulled; therefore, if you grapple for a short amount of time, the cooldown is reduced. Grapple will be blocked by particle walls and gun shields. Looking away from the grapple attachment location will cause the grapple to break, although it is unclear how far away you must look to automatically disengage the grapple; therefore, use the edge of your monitor as a guide.

Slingshot

When a pilot grapples, it greatly increases your momentum when pulling you towards the attachment area. If grapple is disengaged at the right time and the right way, you can keep that momentum, which in turn will throw you across the map at very fast speeds. This is referred to as a slingshot. There are a few variations of a grapple slingshot, but they all have the same idea: using the momentum from the grapple to give the pilot a huge speed boost. With all of the variations of grappling, the more of a buildup, the stronger the slingshot is. To build up your slingshot, you will need to hold down the S key, or the A or D buttons, to resist the grapple pull. When you resist the grapple pull, it will increase your momentum. When slingshotting, always crouch hop after so you can preserve your momentum longer. After practice, you will be able to fly across the map. Just like stim, the momentum, it can be canceled if you don’t slide, slam into objects, or titan rodeo, so make sure you are spatially aware. When doing any slingshot, you must use and time your regular jump and double jump wisely, as that can be the difference between a successful slingshot and a failed one. For your regular jump, you must time it right before you are pulled so you can keep your double jump. If you try to jump too early, you will lose momentum and possibly prevent you from going above the object you are grappling with. Timing your double jump will come with experience, but generally, if you need to cross a large cavern or open area, it is better to hold onto the double jump to increase your mid-air time. Furthermore, you will sometimes not even need to use any jumps, as the grapple will be enough. This usually occurs if you are on flat surfaces or are already moving fast enough.

Below will be the variations and other advanced mechanics not mentioned above.

Grapple arch shot

As the name implies, this is used if the pilot wishes to be thrown over big objects instead of being pulled into the side of said object. In general, this is better if grappling at a much higher surface above you. To do this, you will need to latch the grapple hook as close to the corner or edge of the object you wish to go over. Now, to do the arch shot correctly, you will need to hold w and then look directly up, but facing away from where you are grappling to create an arch in the air, causing you to be thrown. Make sure not to look away too far, or else the hook will detach. If done correctly, the pilot should move in an arch trajectory. A good tip is to have your back to the hook location to prevent you from slamming into the side of the object. There are additional uses that the grapple arch shot can be used in, but it is generally used to gain vertical height while providing good forward momentum.

Grapple swing

The grapple swing is a simple mechanic of using a grapple on tall walls/objects or ceilings to increase your time in the air. This technique is more often used to avoid touching the ground if need be. To use the grapple swing, just aim in front of you and let the grapple drag you wherever you want to go. With practice, you learn to disengage it at the correct times to keep your momentum uninterrupted, since the grapple can pull the pilot back if still engaged. Grapple swing can help by giving you the extra momentum and speed.

Grapple floor shot

This slingshot variation requires you to be on a flat surface, for this slingshot technique you will be grappling the floor from a distance then you hold the back button to build up momentum(only if you are too close to the latch on area), once you are flung forward time your jump right when you are above your grappled spot to continue the momentum. This is useful for maps with distant walls and flat plains. This is very useful as a getaway as well if needed. Floor shot is a perfect way to start movement combos, as it allows you to crouch hop with good speed. Although this isn’t the fastest slingshot, it still has its uses and viability when needed.