Wallcrawling Guide For Dummies

You'll want to begin your training in Secret World 9, the place where it all began.
Before you begin, I hope you've perfected the "Space Jump First" sequence break. To learn more, go here: Space Jump First

Begin by following the method to enter Secret World 9, but stop when you get to the highest ledge. Make a tiny jump up to the highest part of the wall. Now, look across the gap where the Missile Expansion was sitting, and space jump over the gap and fall behind that wall. Samus will fall down just below the room with a "thud". Now, walk over to where the door which leads to Ruined Shrine Access. Stand directly below it, look up, and shoot at the door with trial-and-error shots until you notice it turn grey.

Once it's turned grey, lock your view in any direction and go nuts below the door, strafing right and left and forward and backwards, and all this time, rapidly press B. You will hear what sounds like a "swishing" noise which is Samus trying to jump. Every so often, you will be able to space jump upwards. When this occurs, push Samus head right into the door and as you fall, pull the control stick in the direction of where RSA would be. You should hear the door open and voila, RSA will appear right above your head! If not, don't fret, this is a common occurance. Just keep doing it over and over and you'll eventually get RSA to appear.

Suddenly, you realize you've just taught yourself some wallcrawling basics! First was using the terrain of the level to get yourself around the room. By jumping the top of the wall to the top of another wall, you minimize your risk of getting "stuck" outside the room. This is very important; you can never expect to just leap right into the Secret World and expect to get somewhere. You must make the right steps.

Next, you used the standards of the room to reach where you needed to go. In this case, the door to RSA is very close to the standard of Main Plaza. In different rooms, you will find that many doors are way above the standard or that some areas of the room cause you to fall much further down than in other places. This is important to recognise; be careful where you walk or you'll find yourself far below where you need to be.

From there, we see how trial-and-error and consistency are integral to wallcrawling. Nothing will ever happen 100% of the time. All Secret Worlds are unpredictable and our job as wallcrawlers is to find what works most of the time. By hopping repeatedly underneath the RSA door, you will see that there is no solution set in stone. Jumping in a SW is always like this. You'll never be able to jump 100% of the time in any given spot, so be patient and just keep on trying.

Next is the all-important step of contacting and loading rooms. In order for Ruined Shrine Access to open, we must push into the door and try to convince the game that we're entering RSA. You must learn to do this well, or else you're never going to get far from any given SW. Essentially, all that is required is that you get close to the door leading to the next room, turn it grey, and jump or fall or do whatever is necessary and get as close as possible to the door and/or the room you're trying to load. In this case, jumping up to the door and pulling in the direction of RSA is usually sufficient to load it.

Now let's try something different. Get up into SW 9 and on top of the highest wall again. Then, look across the same gap but instead of falling behind the wall, land on top of the wall. Now, carefully walk along the wall and lock your view down. Jump down as carefully as possible and position yourself for a landing right on top of the tube leading to the RSA door. Once here, you will notice one of two things. You will either see your arm cannon and be able to freely move and jump about, or you will not seem your arm cannon and not be able to move (and rarely, a mix of the two where you can't move but still see the arm cannon). This is always the state of a Secret World; you can either move or you can't. In cases such as this, you must rely on morphing into a ball and laying bombs in order to displace yourself from your current position to a more standable ledge. Sometimes, you can get completely stuck and not be able to move as a ball or unmorphed, and in cases such as this, you must reset your game. Otherwise, a key to wallcrawling will be to find where you can and where you can't stand. Finding places to stand will exponentially reduce some frustrations you may encounter.

Once you're un-stuck, slowly walk your way over to the RSA door and from above it, shoot it grey. Carefully jump right on top of the door and wait a few moments. Then, lock your view down and strafe or jump off the door to the direction of where RSA should be. Hopefully, it should appear under your feet this time. If not, don't fret, just keep on doing it. It will eventually work.

This is another common method of loading rooms. Sometimes you want to be above the door, and sometimes you want to be below. What you must consider is the next room: How high is its standard? Do I need to be on top of the room to reach where I need to be? Consider everything before you absent-mindedly load the next room and fall way down (like in SW 12).

And there you have it! Your wallcrawling basics. Take a minute to reflect on what you learned:

1. Getting into Secret Worlds
2. Using boundaries and scenery to traverse a Secret World
3. The importance of trial-and-error and consistency in wallcrawling
4. Loading rooms from above and below the door
5. Using the standard of a room to get where you need to be
6. Bomb jumping out of a "sticky" situation.

If you haven't yet loaded Ruined Shrine Access from Secret World 9, I suggest you continue practising before reading on. Learn the basics, then you can become a professional!