How to Swing Farther in Stickman Hook: Release Timing, Long Ropes and Bounce Pads

Most people stuck on a Stickman Hook level are pressing at the right hook and letting go at the wrong moment. The game has only one input, so all of the skill is in timing. These are the three habits that fix most levels.

1. Let go on the way up

Picture the swing as a clock face with the hook at the centre. The stickman swings down through six o'clock and comes up the other side. If you release between about four and two o'clock on the forward side — past the bottom, still rising — he leaves the rope moving forward and upward, which is the long, flat throw you want.

Release later, near the top of the swing, and his forward speed is almost gone: he drops nearly straight down. Release before the bottom, on the downswing, and he is thrown forward and down, usually into the floor or off the screen. If you keep falling short, you are almost certainly letting go too late; if you keep hitting the ground, too early.

2. The rope is as long as the distance when you press

The rope does not have a fixed length. It catches the highlighted hook at whatever distance the stickman is from it at the moment you press, then pulls him in a little. A short rope makes a tight, quick swing — good for climbing between hooks that are close together. A long rope makes a wide, fast arc — the only way across the big gaps.

So on a long gap, do not grab as soon as the dashed ring moves to the next hook. Let him fall a little further below or past it first, then press. The swing will be deeper and the release much stronger. The risk is waiting too long and dropping out of the screen, so try it a few times; the level starts the same way on every attempt.

3. Use the bounce pads

The white pads on floors and walls send the stickman back up at the angle he hit them. Many levels are designed around them: a high release that looks like a miss lands on a pad and bounces him up to the next hook. When a level puts a pad under a gap, the intended route is usually to drop onto it rather than to swing over it.

Pads work in your favour with a steep fall, because the bounce keeps the height. A shallow skid across a pad goes nowhere. If you are not going to reach the next hook, aim to land on a pad from above.

Watch out for blocks

Some levels place solid blocks between hooks. Clipping one while you are on the rope reverses the swing and kills most of your speed; clipping one in the air just knocks you off course. Let go a little earlier to pass over them, or grab the hook late so the rope arc passes underneath.

When a level still will not go

• Press R the moment a try is lost. Waiting for the fall wastes more time than the level itself.
• Play one hook at a time. Get the first release right three times in a row before you worry about the second.
• Switch to Space instead of the trackpad. A key gives a cleaner press and release than a tap on a Chromebook touchpad.
• Take a break on the Halloween edition: same physics, different scenery, and your level carries over.