G-Switch Timing Guide: When to Flip and Why Runs End

The flip is not a jump

New players treat the flip like a jump and press it as if the runner needed a run-up. It does not work that way. When you flip, gravity reverses and the runner crosses to the other side while keeping the same forward speed, so the crossing is close to a straight line. You cannot shorten or stretch it: how long it takes depends on how far apart the two surfaces are at that point. The only decision you make is when the crossing starts, and the right moment is usually the last step of the surface you are standing on.

You can only flip from a surface

The game checks whether the runner is touching the floor or the ceiling before it lets a flip happen. A press in mid-air does not flip you a second time. It is not thrown away, though: the game holds a mid-air press for a quarter of a second, and if the runner lands inside that window the flip happens on landing. So if you press a little early just before touching down, it still counts. If you press too early, the press runs out and nothing happens.

Running off an edge is a fall, not a flip

If the surface ends and you do nothing, the runner does not stay level. They drop off the edge in the direction gravity is pointing, so a runner on the ceiling falls up and a runner on the floor falls down. Sometimes that is exactly what you want, because a short drop to a lower ledge saves you a flip. Watch the track and decide on purpose whether to flip, drop or stay put.

Where to look

In single player the camera keeps your runner near the left side of the screen, and everything that can end the run comes in from the right. Watch the incoming track, not the runner. Name each obstacle as it appears (gap, step, wall) and decide the flip for it before you have finished with the one in front of you. If you are reacting to the obstacle under your feet, you are already one flip behind.

The three ways a run ends

• Falling out of the screen. A runner who goes off the top or the bottom is out. This happens when a flip comes late and there is nothing on the other side to land on.
• Scrolling off the left edge. When the runner runs into a wall they stop, but the screen keeps moving. Stay stuck and you drop off the left side. If you land on a surface that ends in a wall, flip straight away, even if the landing looks messy.
• Speed. The track speeds up slowly the whole time you are alive, and striped speed strips on the track give it an extra push while you run over them. The timing that worked a minute ago will be a little late now.

Story checkpoints and Endless

Story mode is one long run with checkpoints along a progress bar at the bottom of the screen. Each checkpoint sets its own starting speed, and one late section starts much faster than the sections around it. After a fall you go back to the last checkpoint you crossed, and the game saves it, so Play offers to continue your previous game next time. Endless starts faster than the first story section and builds its track from random pieces. Some of the harder pieces only show up once the speed is high enough, so a long Endless run gets harder in two ways. Your score is the distance you cover, and the game saves your best.