Lynx Run by the numbers: speed, obstacles and shields
The first hundred metres of Lynx Run are a gentle jog through a pine forest. By two and a half kilometres the lynx is running almost twice as fast, obstacles come nearly a second apart, and there are eight kinds of them. Nothing about this is random in the way it feels: the game follows a few simple curves, and knowing them changes how you play.
Speed: 300 to 550
The lynx starts at 300 units per second (the distance counter shows 20 units as one metre, so that is 15 metres a second). Speed then grows in a straight line with distance and tops out at 550 units per second - 27.5 metres a second - after about 2,270 metres. From there on it stays the same, however far you go.
The time between obstacles shrinks too. At the start there are 1.45 to 2 seconds between one obstacle and the next. By 2,600 metres it is 0.9 to 1.45 seconds. Put the two together and the late game is a different sport: almost twice the speed and half the breathing space.
| Distance | Speed | Time between obstacles | New here |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 m | 300 | 1.45-2.0 s | Rocks, logs |
| 60 m | 307 | 1.44-1.99 s | Tree stumps |
| 100 m | 311 | 1.43-1.98 s | Gaps with a stream |
| 160 m | 318 | 1.42-1.97 s | Hanging vines |
| 260 m | 329 | 1.40-1.95 s | Birds |
| 350 m | 339 | 1.38-1.93 s | Pairs of rocks |
| 700 m | 377 | 1.30-1.85 s | Stacks of boulders |
| 1,500 m | 465 | 1.13-1.68 s | - |
| 2,600 m | 550 | 0.90-1.45 s | - |
After 700 metres every kind of obstacle is in play. They are not equally common. Plain rocks are the most frequent; pairs of rocks and boulder stacks the rarest:
| Obstacle | How to pass | Share after 700 m | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rock | Jump | ~20% | |
| Gap with a stream | Jump across | ~15% | |
| Log | Jump | ~13% | |
| Tree stump | Jump (it is taller) | ~13% | |
| Hanging vines | Slide | ~12% | |
| Bird | Slide (or jump) | ~11% | |
| Stack of boulders | Double jump | ~9% | |
| Two rocks | One long jump | ~8% |
One more rule shapes the rhythm: the same special obstacle never comes twice in a row. You can get rock after rock, but never two gaps, two birds or two boulder stacks back to back. After a boulder stack, you know the next obstacle is something else.
The jump, in numbers
A jump lifts the lynx about 130 units and keeps it in the air for 0.63 seconds. The second jump, in mid-air, is a little weaker but restarts the climb, adding roughly another half second in the air.
Here is why that matters. In the late game the next obstacle can arrive 0.9 seconds after the last one. A single jump takes 0.63 of those seconds, which leaves you a moment on the ground to react. A double jump you did not need keeps you in the air for about a second - long enough to come down right on top of whatever comes next, with no jump left to fix it. That is the real reason to save the second jump for the boulder stacks: not that it is weak, but that it costs time you do not have.
The game helps a little at both ends of a jump. A tap pressed just before landing is remembered and fires as soon as the lynx touches the ground, and a jump pressed just after running off an edge still counts as a jump from the ground. Both forgive being a few hundredths of a second off.
Diving: the move worth learning
Swipe down (or press ↓) while the lynx is in the air and it dives: it drops at full speed and slides as soon as it lands. That turns a long, floaty jump into a short one, and it is the answer to the nastiest late-game pair - a log followed closely by hanging vines or a bird. Jump the log, dive straight away, and you land already sliding under the next obstacle.
A slide on its own lasts 0.62 seconds, or for as long as you hold your finger or the key down. For long vines, hold. A swipe that begins as a tap turns the small hop it started into a slide, so a hurried swipe still does what you meant.
Birds are timed like rocks
Birds fly towards the lynx 90 units per second faster than the path moves, so they look as if they are rushing you. But they are launched so that they arrive exactly when a still obstacle in their place would. In other words, a bird keeps the same rhythm as everything else - it just starts further away. Do not react to the moment it appears on screen; react to the moment it would reach you, the same as any rock.
Two kinds of shield
Shields come from two places, and they behave differently:
- The berry shield. Every 25 berries fill the basket and turn into a shield. It lasts until you crash, however long that takes. If you already have a shield, the full basket waits and becomes a new one the moment the old one breaks.
- The blue power-up shield. It floats above the path every few hundred metres (along with the red berry magnet) and lasts 14 seconds. If you already have a shield when you grab it, it fills your berry basket instead.
A shield takes any crash: the lynx blinks through the obstacle for 1.2 seconds, and if it falls into a gap, the bubble bounces it back out. Since the berry shield never runs out, the berries are worth more than they look. A run through the late game with a full basket waiting behind an active shield is effectively two extra lives.
The berry magnet lasts nine seconds and pulls in every berry nearby. Grab it when you can - it is the fastest way to fill the basket.
The four lands
The landscape changes as you run: Pine Forest from the start, Birch Glade from 400 metres, Snowy Pass from 1,000 and Northern Lights from 1,800. After 2,800 metres the cycle starts again, each land fading into the next over 40 metres. The lands change the sky, the trees, the weather and the bird (a crow or an owl), but not the rules. If the snow feels harder, it is the speed, not the scenery.
Continues
When the lynx crashes without a shield, the run is over - unless you continue. You get two free continues per run. The path in front of the lynx is cleared, and it waits for your tap with the same distance and berries. Use the pause to breathe: you will restart at full speed.
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