Dash Run is three subway tracks through a city that keeps getting faster. Trains are parked on them, trains come the other way, and a guard with a dog chases you from the first step. You dodge, jump, roll and grab coins. It sounds simple, right up until the speed catches you out.
Read the shape, not the colour
Everything on the tracks tells you what to do by where it blocks you. Low means jump. A bar with a gap under it means roll. Tall and solid means move. A slope means go up.
- Striped hurdle. Red and white stripes on two short legs, about knee height. Jump it. Run into it and you trip.
- Gate. A striped bar on two tall posts, with a gap underneath. Roll under it. Upright, it stops you dead.
- Barricade. A tall striped board with a red cross on it. Too tall to jump in normal shoes. Change track.
- Subway train. Grey with red stripes, two to four cars long. The front ends your run, but the roof is a floor.
- Freight car. A red, blue or green container, lower and narrower than a train. Also a floor, if you can get up there.
- Yellow ramp. A slope with chevrons on it, leading up to the front of a train. Run straight up it onto the roof.
Hurdles and trains are the two you will meet most. A hurdle only trips you. A train ends the run. So when you are not sure what is coming, the safe mistake is the one you make at a hurdle.
Roll late under gates
A gate is beaten by being low, and jumping makes you higher, not lower. There is no jump that gets you through one.
The roll lasts about six tenths of a second, so start it late. Even at top speed that is fifteen metres of rolling, plenty for one gate. Press down in mid air and you drop straight out of the jump into a roll.
Get up on the roofs
A train with a yellow ramp in front of it is an invitation. Run up the ramp and you are on the roof, three metres above everything on the tracks, usually with a line of coins to follow. Trains parked side by side make one wide walkway, and you can change between their roofs freely.
Run off the end and you drop back down to the tracks. Some roofs end in a short gap with another train after it: jump across and keep going. With Super Sneakers on, you can skip the ramp and jump up onto a roof from the tracks.
Two trips and you are caught
Hitting a hurdle, or clipping the side of a train while you change track, does not end the run. You stumble, and the guard and the dog close right in behind you. Trip again within about eight seconds and they have you.
So after a stumble, play safe for a few seconds: stay on open track, skip the risky coins, and let the guard fall back out of sight. Passing the very end of a car is not a trip, so a lane change just as a train finishes is safer than it looks.
Coins and power-ups
Every metre is a point, and every coin is worth ten more at the end of the run. Coins also go into your wallet, and the wallet buys a second chance: KEEP IT GOING costs 60 coins, then 120, and you get two a run at most.
Power-ups start turning up after the first 170 metres. The magnet pulls in coins from all three tracks. Super Sneakers jump high enough to clear a barricade or land on a roof. 2x doubles your distance score. The jetpack lifts you above everything for seven seconds, along a trail of coins in the sky. The hoverboard lasts thirty seconds and takes one crash, or one second trip, for you.
The speed ramp
The run starts at 13.5 metres a second and never stops getting faster. By one kilometre you are near 19, by three kilometres near 23, and after that it creeps toward 25. There is no plateau to settle into.
The scenery changes every 420 metres: city streets, a rail yard, a tunnel and a station hall, then round again. It is a look rather than a difficulty setting, but the tunnel is darker, and an oncoming train shows up there as two headlights first, so listen for the horn.
Most runs end at the point where you are still reacting at the old speed. Once you know that is coming, you start moving earlier, and the wall you kept hitting disappears.
