Introduction

Warning: Major lacerations detected! Warning: Limb-fracture! Life-signs critical!
Guess you really should have packed a parachute, eh?

Overview

The parachute instantly slows a falling hedgehog down to a safe speed, and is effected by wind.

Properties

• Weapon Slot: 8
• Can arm secondary weapon
• Affected by wind: Yes
• Usage can be cancelled
• Lasts until hedgehog touches the ground, or cancelled
• Ends turn: No
• Crate type: Utility

How to use

The parachute will automatically be activated if your hedgehog is falling too fast, or it can be deployed manually by pressing the fire key (default: SPACE).

When activated, the hedgehog will drift in the wind, and float slowly downward. By pressing any of the arrow keys, the hog can be accelerated in that direction (default: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT). By using this approach it is possibly to either steer your hedgehog or quicken/slow its descent.

While airborne, you may also arm a secondary weapon by selecting it from the ammo menu (or by using the slot keys). Note however, that not all weapons can be armed. Once armed, the secondary weapon may be dropped via the jump key (default: ENTER).

At any time, the parachute can be cancelled by pressing the fire key again, although this may result in fall-damage if you are still too high above ground.

Hints

• Always pay attention to wind before using a parachute. If the wind is too strong you may be unintentionally blown into mines or float out over the water and drown.
• Parachute is an excellent secondary weapon to select if you are attempting to jump across a large gap, or fall down a steep cliff. If parachute is not needed, you will not consume any ammo. But, if it turns out that you miss the jump, or that the fall is dangerous, parachute will automatically deploy and stop you losing your turn via fall damage.
• Parachute is not only useful for stopping a fall, it also effectively acts as a wind-break, stopping a slide. If you are sliding rapidly towards a cliff edge for example, you can quickly select parachute and fire it to stop you going over. This allows you to (for example) use rope to slide into hog so that he is being pushed towards a cliff edge, then quickly select parachute and stop yourself falling over the edge, too.
• If for some reason you find yourself flying high into the air and are completely out of control (e.g. after trying to be 'pro' with the rope), you may deploy the parachute as an emergency stop to give you a few extra seconds to think. While you are slowly floating downwards, you may then select either the Flying Saucer or Teleport and save your hog. This is especially useful if your hog is falling towards the water and would otherwise drown.
• Parachute can also be instrumental in a tactic called 'jump-knocking', which involves knocking a hedgehog's feet out from under them via a jump (so that he flies into mines/water) and then quickly using a parachute or rope so that you are saved the same fate.

Videos

As of yet, no-one has uploaded a video detailing the usage of parachute.

Trivia

• There are two parachutes in the default weapon set.
• Parachute is called gtParachute in the code. The ammoType is amParachute.

History

The parachute was one of the first utilities to be added in the game.