Wavedashes
A wavedash is a commonly used technique in Celeste that allows the player to perform a small, but long jump, while also regaining a dash. It's introduced in Farewell, right after passing the heart gate, and it's frequently required in order to pass a lot of rooms in the chapter.
Functionality
Wave dashes are used for a quick boost of high velocity which throws the player forward. Wave dashes are mainly used in more difficult maps (such as farewell) or for speedrunning purposes (since you get so much speed from them). Wave dashes give you less height than a normal jump (about 3/5 of a normal jump) meaning it can still be used even if there are spikes very close to your head. Stringing wave dashes makes for differant types of ultras which are a bit complex to cover here.
Other variants
Bubble Wavedashes
Bubbles allow players to stall in mid-air for a short time, and if they're at a specific height, Madeline will be able to perform a wavedash if the player aims in a down-diagonal position and jumps off of the ground before the dash momentum wears off. Although the vanilla game never requires you to do this trick, it's often used by speedrunners or in custom maps, where they're often used as setups for consistent wavedashes.
Extended hyper
For short, extended hypers are a grounded variant of a wavedash. While the game teaches you to do wavedashes from a specific height, it's not necessarily required, as long as you jump when Madeline's hair flashes white. The effect is the same as with a regular wavedash, but it's an alternate way to perform for people who don't feel comfortable doing it from air. Its only disadvantage is that it's much more difficult, it is tougher to get conistent with as well since it relies more on muscle memory than visuals. It is able to be done on any plaform 2 tiles or larger (2 is very tough though) but generally waves are better if possible.
Reverse wavedash/extended hyper
While performing a wavedash or extended hyper, a player can quickly switch directions while dashing (dash in the direction and while moving hold the other way), to do a backwards jump. This move is useful for places where the player might not have enough room to do a normal wavedash and still gives the same speed and height as a normal wave dash
Extended demohyper
A type of extended hyper that's performed by jumping after doing a demo dash from ground, usually used with a demo bind. A demohyper behaves nearly identically to its normal variant, except for it giving you slightly more distance due to the player doing a straight crouched dash, instead of a diagonal, as well as it allowing players to do a demohyper from mid-air. Due to the technical difference, it's usually not recommended to use demohypers from ground, but they're often used by speedrunners to perform the move from mid-air. If you do a demo hyper mid air, begin you're demo hyper from further back, the dash will refill giving you your dash back (making it extended).
Trivia
- Even though Farewell teaches the player how to do wavedashes, the chapter can be completed without doing a single one, as well as without any extended hypers, but a lot of the skips require other, often more difficult solutions such as tight Superdashes or Ultradashes.
