How to bunny hop

Bunny hopping, or bhop, is jumping again the moment you land and turning in the air to gain speed. Done right, you move much faster than you can run. It works in games with Quake-style or Source-style movement, such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod, and in BUNNY-HOP, a game made for it.

The short version

1. Run forward and jump.
2. In the air, let go of forward.
3. Hold A and move the mouse smoothly to the left.
4. Jump again the moment you land.
5. On the next hop, hold D and move the mouse to the right.
6. Keep swapping sides, one hop each.

Step by step

1. Jump the moment you land

Run forward and jump. When you touch the ground, jump again straight away. Any time spent on the ground slows you down, so the whole trick starts with never standing on it. In a game with auto-hop you can hold the jump key. Without it, most people put jump on the scroll wheel and roll it just before landing.

2. Let go of forward in the air

This is the part nobody believes. Once you're off the ground, the forward key does nothing for you and gets in the way. Use it to get moving, then let go of it and leave it alone.

3. Strafe: key and mouse the same way

In the air, hold A and move the mouse smoothly to the left for the whole jump. Your speed goes up. That's air strafing, and it's where all the speed in bunny hopping comes from. The key and the mouse must go the same way: A with mouse left, D with mouse right.

4. Swap sides every hop

Land, jump, and do the next hop the other way: D and mouse right. Then A and left again. Swap the key and the mouse together, while you're in the air. One hop left, one hop right, and you travel in a gentle zigzag that keeps getting faster.

5. Keep it smooth

Turn the mouse at a steady pace, not in a flick. Turn too little and you gain nothing, turn too fast and you lose speed. Watch the speed number while you practise: it should climb a little on every hop.

Why it works

Two things. Friction only slows you while you're on the ground, so jumping the moment you land means it never gets the chance. And in the air, the game only limits how much speed a strafe key can add in the direction you're pushing, not how fast you're going in total. By turning while you hold the key, you keep pushing in a new direction, and every push adds a little more.

Common mistakes

• Holding forward in the air. The most common one. Let go of W as soon as you leave the ground.
• Key and mouse going opposite ways. A goes with mouse left, D with mouse right. Opposite ways, you fight yourself and slow down.
• Turning the mouse with no key held. The mouse alone does nothing. Hold A or D while you turn.
• Holding a key and looking straight ahead. The key alone does nothing either. You have to turn.
• Whipping the mouse. A fast flick costs speed. Slower and smoother.
• Strafing the same side twice. Swap to the other side on every hop.
• Jumping late. Every moment on the ground takes speed away. Jump as you land, not after.

Where to practise

BUNNY-HOP has a tutorial for exactly this. A coach called Gus takes you through each step above, one at a time, and after every hop tells you which of these mistakes you made. Your speed is on screen for every jump, and you can hop with auto-hop, a key or the scroll wheel. It isn't out yet: wishlist it on Steam.

Counter-Strike 2 works too. Start a private match, turn cheats on and enter sv_autobunnyhopping 1 and sv_enablebunnyhopping 1 in the console to practise strafing without worrying about jump timing. Community bhop servers have maps built for it.

Questions

Is bunny hopping cheating?

No. It's a skill that uses the game's normal movement. Scripts and programs that jump for you are a different thing, and most games and servers ban them.

Do I need the scroll wheel?

Only where there's no auto-hop. The wheel sends many jump presses as it rolls, which makes hitting the landing much easier than timing a key. With auto-hop you hold the jump key and think only about strafing.

How long does it take to learn?

The idea takes a few minutes and the first clean chain of hops usually comes within an hour. Doing it at speed around corners takes a lot longer, which is why people keep playing it.

What's the difference between bhop and surf?

Bhop is chaining jumps across the ground. Surf is sliding along ramps too steep to stand on, steering with the same air strafing. BUNNY-HOP has both.