Rocket Jump

A rocket jump (RJ) is a multiple purpose movement technique (that broke many records during its inception). Like the name suggests, it is a jump that is accentuated by the blast form a rocket explosion. Other explosions can be used such as grenades (Grenade Jump, such as the record breaking one on E1M3), barrels (Barrel Jump, such as the record breaking one on E1M1), or a combination of the above (most popular being "Grenade/Rocket Jump").

It is achieved by jumping first and then triggering the explosion. For example, look down, jump, and shoot a rocket in quick succession. This move is perfected by minimizing the time between the jump and explosion. However, if you do not jump before the explosion, it will not work.

Scripts exist to facilitate this move. The most blatant such script, the forward rocket jump script (such as kfjump), is banned from most tournament play. If you are to use a script, the best one is a combination of exclusively +attack and +jump directives (one each), and no movement directives. This script is effectively indistinguishable from manual and a script (except a manual can potentially have a variable number of frames between the two commands), and is thus allowed, or at least looked over, in tournament play.

Rocket jumps (and other explosion jumps) can accelerate you up to a ledge not reachable by jumping, or can accelerate you forward/backward/sideways much faster than by running or Bunny Hopping. Many important tactics in all aspects of QuakeWorld are built around the RJ.

Trivia

It is interesting to note, however, that the RJ was not in mind when the original levels of Quake were designed, and their original design is therefore easily (sometimes too easily) circumvented by RJ. It is even more interesting to note that at least one original map (The Palace of Hate - E4M4) *was* designed to have a secret area reached by Grenade jump, or rather by shooting a grenade into a small hole in the floor, and then being shot by it into a teleporter (jumping was not necessary).