Owl Griffon Mount: how to gain altitude?

[Ashantara.8731]

I just watched last Friday's Guild Chat on Twitch, and if you look at timestamp 00:09:50, you will see the player firing their griffon up high into the air.

How on earth do you do that??? :o I thought it was impossible for the griffon to gain altitude, and especially like that! (That was a jaw-dropping moment for me.) Also, how do you enter superspeed mode?

What am I missing about its mechanics? Help, please! :)

[Astralporing.1957]

You require the whole mastery track, and a very precise use of both mount skills (swoop and wing flap) and directional keys. You dive with swoop, flap wings to add speed, then start ascending with "move backward" button. Repeat ad nauseum (and remember to switch from going backward into going forward when necessary). Personally i think it's unnecessarily overcomplicated and not really all that fun, but there are apparently people that disagree.

[Aurelian Omenkind.2470]

From what I understand, not having my own griffin yet, you can’t gain altitude higher than your starting point. So you must climb first to take the most advantage of the open skies.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Astralporing.1957 said:You require [...] a very precise use of both mount skills (swoop and wing flap) and directional keys. You dive with swoop, flap wings to add speed, then start ascending with "move backward" button.

That is totally counter-intuitive as the backward key usually works as a break and let's you descent with your griffon. That was a weird design decision. I would have taken double-tap forward/spacebar over this.

[castlemanic.3198]

You can gain altitude with a LOT of effort, and that altitude gained is minimal for each time it's done, and it requires a really high point to start from as well, on top of requiring the full track and learning how to efficiently use all three movement ability keys, dive, climb and wingflap.

From a high starting point, once in the air, you dive (either the engage ability, default 1, or the dive movement ability, default v) and then wingflap as you're diving (default space). As soon as you're done wing flapping, start climbing (either the backward movement key, default s, or movement ability 2, default c) and wing flap during the climb and when you finish the climb too.

You should be at a slightly higher height than you were before, do this multiple times to gain a largely noticeable altitude from your beginning height. I havent yet mastered this, but I've done it a couple of times and it is just fun. You can also use the dive and wingflap to gain a large amount of speed and climb to just go horizontal and use that speed to get to places much faster than even a raptor on completely flat land with infinite endurance.

Those with better experience may be able to say exactly how much altitude can be gained and better timing of this stuff, I've only just started learning how to do this and I've managed to return to a ledge I couldn't get to even with wingflap.

If you don't use the dive/climb technique, you can't gain altitude, you can only readjust it so that you're slightly higher than the moment before the wingflap, but there's a long enough time between wing flaps that means you ultimately lose height.

[Haishao.6851]

check at around 00:20:00 in the same video, they show how.

[Ohoni.6057]

Gaining altitude is not easy, nor particularly productive, but what it Is good for is gaining a lot of speed while staying at roughly the same height that you started. Like basically, let's say you are on cliff A, and if you just did a straight flapping glide you could reach cliff B, which is relatively far away. You could just flappy glide over there, but you would be moving at normal speeds. But if you're high enough up, what you can do instead is hit 1 to dive, and then it will auto-level off, and you'll have tier 1 speed boost (wind gust aura). This will allow you to travel the same distance at 2-3 times the ordinary speed. But when you get there, you'll be lower and will smack into the cliff! So you pull back, causing you to shoot upward to roughly the same height you started, and you land on the cliff safely.

Now if you're REALLY high up, you can hit 1 to shoot down, then hit space to flap while dropping, causing an orange aura to appear. You'll fall even further, but shoot out of that at ROCKET speeds, and when you want to, you can pull back to shoot upwards.

Now, the thing to remember is that this all runs on "gravity fuel," which the game tracks but there is no display for it. The more you feed into it, the more you can pull out, but everything you do while flying spends it until you're left at normal flappy speeds again.

So for example, if you start up very high and then dive, and are still high enough that you can glide practically forever, then you will be super speedy for a while, but eventually even just flat gliding will cause it to wear off. You will have spent all the "fuel" you gained by diving. The "dive+flap" gives you more fuel to work with than a simple "dive." As near as I can tell, each time you flap to gain a little altitude while speed gliding, you burn a little of that fuel. Also, you can pull up at any time, and it will spend some, but not necessarily all of your fuel. So like if you make a big dive, and shoot forward, and then a little bit later pull up just slightly, 1/4 of the distance you fell, then you might continue to shoot forward at tier 1 speed, but it'll burn out faster than if you'd just kept gliding. If you get a tier 2 speed going, then you can pull up in multiple small bursts and keep forward momentum.

I find that for long trips, it's best to plan a route, dive for speed, then pull up to land at a high place, climb even higher if you can using small hops, and then dive off that to get back to max speed. The speed you gain makes up for the time wasted climbing.

[OGDeadHead.8326]

@Ohoni.6057 said:Now if you're REALLY high up, you can hit 1 to shoot down, then hit space to flap while dropping, causing an orange aura to appear. You'll fall even further, but shoot out of that at ROCKET speeds, and when you want to, you can pull back to shoot upwards.

I'm just wondering - is there a difference between using "1", as in the attack button vs the normal dive ability? I haven't noticed any difference, but others may have?

Also, I rather use the climb abilty vs backwards as for some reason I prefer to keep my forward key pressed (even though it's not necessary afaik) - any difference between these?

[GrubySzymek.1362]

When you use 1 and hit the ground you get dismounted.

[Ohoni.6057]

@Kheldorn.5123 said:When you use 1 and hit the ground you get dismounted.

Sometimes, but not always. It's kind of random. I've also heard that using the "special ability" version is less likely to cause a bug where you just die for no apparent reason, but I'm too lazy to fiddle with the keybinds so I just use 1 and back.

Anyway, I can't really tell if there's any real differences, the outcomes can vary and moving at those speeds it's hard to judge specifics. Theoretically hitting move 2 is better than hitting "back," since "back" can sometimes cause you to stall, but you just have to not press it when you lack full speed.

[Llethander.3972]

To answer the OP's question:

Step 1: Climb to an appropriately high point for the best starting altitude.Step 2: Juuuuump!Step 3: Use either the Attack skill (Warning: this can cause the Gryphon t-pose bug) or the Mount Ability 1 to initiate a dive.Step 4: (Optional) Use the Wing Flap (Spacebar) during your dive to gain additional speed. (Note: If you decide not to Wing Flap you must gain an adequate amount of speed prior to attempting Step 5 or you will be unable to regain altitude.)Step 5: Use either the Move Backwards button (Warning: if not released early enough you can actually kill all forward momentum and begin a slow descent) or Mount Ability 2 to ascend until your momentum runs out.

Note: If you decide not to ascend to your starting altitude you can, if done correctly, regain a decent portion of lost altitude whilst also retaining a notable flight speed boost.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

I mean "1" is engage attack so it should dismount you on hit. That's why I changed my keybinds to Q and E being mount skill 1 and 2. Once you get used to it flying is amazing. Helps with finishing adventures too.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:You require [...] a very precise use of both mount skills (swoop and wing flap) and directional keys. You dive with swoop, flap wings to add speed, then start ascending with "move backward" button.

That is totally counter-intuitive as the backward key usually works as a break and let's you descent with your griffon. That was a weird design decision. I would have taken double-tap forward/spacebar over this.

I disagree. In many games where you fly the backwards button works like in a flight simulator. Imagine a joystick you pull towards you to gain altitude. It's pretty normal imho.

[OGDeadHead.8326]

About Aerial Finesse, it says "Wing Flap can now be used while diving and pulling up to gain a burst of speed in your movement direction." While diving I most definitely see the speedboost when also using Wing Flap. When climbing however, I'm not so sure I acutally see the burst of speed when using Wing Flap, but maybe it's just hard to actually tell, or maybe I'm already maxed out with speed after a very long dive with several wing flaps boosting the dive speed already.

Edit: A small indicator for speed would be a nice little qol thing to add to the ui imho, even though you get a feel for things pretty fast, but still...

[Llethander.3972]

@OGDeadHead.8326 said:About Aerial Finesse, it says "Wing Flap can now be used while diving and pulling up to gain a burst of speed in your movement direction." While diving I most definitely see the speedboost when also using Wing Flap. When climbing however, I'm not so sure I acutally see the burst of speed when using Wing Flap, but maybe it's just hard to actually tell, or maybe I'm already maxed out with speed after a very long dive with several wing flaps boosting the dive speed already.

Edit: A small indicator for speed would be a nice little qol thing to add to the ui imho, even though you get a feel for things pretty fast, but still...

I interpreted it as this: "Using Wing Flap while diving will grant a burst of speed upon exiting the dive."

[castlemanic.3198]

@OGDeadHead.8326 said:About Aerial Finesse, it says "Wing Flap can now be used while diving and pulling up to gain a burst of speed in your movement direction." While diving I most definitely see the speedboost when also using Wing Flap. When climbing however, I'm not so sure I acutally see the burst of speed when using Wing Flap, but maybe it's just hard to actually tell, or maybe I'm already maxed out with speed after a very long dive with several wing flaps boosting the dive speed already.

Edit: A small indicator for speed would be a nice little qol thing to add to the ui imho, even though you get a feel for things pretty fast, but still...

The speed you get simply allows you to climb higher, it doesn't mean you get a speed boost when going level from a climb, because you can only climb if you have a speed boost from a dive.