So you've played Descenders for a few hours, and finally completed 3 sponsor tracks. You excitedly pick TEAM KINETIC because you firmly believe braking is for losers, and going anything under 60 KPH is baby speed.

So you go to the shed, slap on that slick jersey, and select the team kinetic bike: the TJ DH12. You hop on that slick ride and start career mode,and start blazing down the tracks. Hell yeah.

and then...this starts happening A LOT:


If you're having a hard time adjusting from the arboreal bike to the hot and sexy TJ bike, then don't worry. Veteran Kinetic Pancakes here, to offer some friendly advice to any novice kinetic players taking off the training wheels.

This guide is intended for beginners who want to play the game normally, but using the Kinetic bike.

First things first, let's get to know our Bike a little better before we take her out on the trails.



"This downhill bike was made with the aim of going beyond the limits"
HELL YEAH that's what I like to hear

Now let's go over the strengths, and weaknesses, of the bike. Starting with perhaps the most obvious:




This is probably the reason you picked this bike, and kinetic to sponsor you. Going fast is cool as ♥♥♥♥ and, oh baby, does this bike GO FAST. The TJ is able to hit speeds of 50-60KPH on small inclines and up to 100 - 120 KPH on the steepest downhills. Not only does this bike have the highest top speeds, but it can reach them quicker, and with less of an incline then the other bikes.


The TJ is heavier then the other bikes. My friends and I like to joke that this baby is 150 pounds of pure ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ titanium because it sure feels like it. Its heavier weight is why it can go so quick on downhills. It is also the reason you have so much control on them as well. The TJ can hit 80 KPH without subjecting you to any speed wobbles, or throwing your ass off the path at every tiny bump in the road. So the bike can go fast, and you can still be precise in your movements

Another unexpected perk of the TJ is that is has an easier time surviving impacts then the other bikes. This is probably due to the TJ's higher momentum, and lower jump height; the bike tends to go off ramps with more horizontal momentum then the other bikes, resulting in similar airtime, but with less vertical momentum.

Now let's look at the weaknesses:


The TJ has the slowest turn and tweak speed of all the bikes, both in air and on the ground. Riding this baby truly does feel like you're just riding a motorcycle. On this bike you won't be able to pull as many double back-flips as the other bikes. You'll have to be much more careful and deliberate about when you choose to do double tricks.

The TJ also has the weakest bunny hop in the game. It has less height and distance then the other bikes, which I demonstrate here:

Kinetic/Enemy:


As you can see, the Enemy bike can nearly CLEAR the entire truck with a bunny hop, while the TJ can just barely land on the back of it. This weak bunny-hop makes certain tricks difficult, and some tricks impossible at lower speeds.

This 150 pounds of pure titanium is HEAVY. It accelerates the slowest of all the bikes. This just reinforces that Kinetic lives and dies on steep slopes. 0 steepness tracks will feel like TORTURE on this bike. Practically speaking, there will be far more tricks you'll have to skip due to insufficient speed, and you'll be completely unable to do any tricks that have an uphill segment leading up to it.

Lets go over a couple general tips, before moving on to more specific advice.

"Wait a minute" I hear you saying
"I thought we were team Kinetic, I signed up because I didn't WANT to use the brakes!!"

Trust me, my fellow Kinetic, I feel you. But the cold harsh reality is that if you wanna survive to get to the peaks you have to SLOW THE ♥♥♥♥ DOWN. Going 110 KPH on an 8 steepness 8 curves forest track is only going to embed you and your sweet sexy bike into a tree.

As you get experience you'll come to get a good "feel" for how much speed you should be hitting each ramp with. You'll also get a sense for when you're safe to maintain/gain speed, and when you need to be dumping it. Until then, here's a few general pointers on when you need to slow down:

Blind Corners / Turns

Anytime there is a corner or turn where you cannot see what's on the other side you should be reducing speed. Turns can often lead into other turns, and if you're going too fast it will be impossible to make the second turn. They may also lead into a trick that will sending you flying into the horizon if you're going too quick.

Stunt Ramps

As a general rule hitting any non-boss/miniboss ramp going over 80 KPH is generally ill advised, as landing these jumps requires very specific environmental conditions.

Otherwise, any ramp that sends you horizontally can be taken between 60-70 KPH. However, any ramp that sends you more vertically then horizontally should be slower. 50-60 KPH should be fine depending on the environment, and if you have the landing impact perk.



Sliding is your absolute best friend when riding the TJ. Sliding gives you points based on your speed, reduces your speed, and allows you to make tighter turns. Any time you take a turn and don't want to be gaining/maintaining speed you should be sliding.

On max steepness tracks it is very easy to get 1000 points from sliding alone. As a general rule, the faster you're going, the earlier you need to start your slide as the amount of degrees you turn per second scales negatively with speed.

A quirk with the TJ is that sliding is actually the fastest way to alter your direction. In the gif below you can see that I come over a bump and am heading straight for a tree. As soon as I land I slide hard to the right and just barely manage to get out of the way; something I never could've done with just steering alone.




There are going to be times (mostly in the forest) where there is a curve that is far too sharp for you to slide around at your current speed. There also may be times were you need to stop your momentum ASAP, such as when you've entered an uncontrolled descent down a mountain slope.

This is where the "brake slide" comes in. To perform a brake slide on a turn, press the brake button a little before the turn. Hold the left stick towards the direction the turn is going. This should cause your back wheel to swing in the direction of your slide. Release both the brake and slide right before you are aligned with the direction of the turn. You should continue to hold the acceleration button the whole time. Your character will start pedaling as soon as they are able, and this will result in a bit of your momentum being transferred in the new direction you are now facing.




Desenders uses procedural generation to create it's tracks. The generator will sometimes generate a series of ramps that are very difficult to do on the TJ, or downright impossible. At times your own driving and mistakes may put you in a bad position to take a ramp. However, knowing when the right time to skip a ramp mostly comes down to experience, so until then, here are some general tips on when you should consider driving around a ramp:

1. Wrong Speed or Misaligned
On the TJ, I recommend a minimum speed of 40 KPH for any ramp. Some ramps can be taken at lower speeds of 30KPH, but it may be unsafe to perform a trick off them at such low speed. Sometimes it is better to go around a ramp to attempt to gain more speed for the next one.

On the other hand, if you are approaching a ramp at extreme speeds, it may be safer to go around the ramp, rather then attempting to slow down to a safe speed. Though this decision is entirely contextual.

2. Uphill into Ramp
Uphill segments of a track quickly sap your speed on the TJ due to its heavy weight; if the track generates an uphill segment that leads to a ramp the safest option is generally to skip it.

Before diving into the biomes themselves, let's take a moment to go over some kinetic bike specific over-world strategy.

When selecting a track you want to:

Steepness → Maximize
Curves → Minimize
Stunts → Preference

Avoid any 0-2 steepness tracks if you can, as it will be hard to capitalize on the TJ's strengths due to it's low acceleration. Stunts are entirely preference, but I personally find 8 stunt and 8 steepness tracks to be difficult on some maps because the map generation AI tends to closely group stunts together.

Perk/Crew member selection is often a highly subjective and hotly debated topic. So before moving to individual perks let me take a moment to talk about my theory behind perk choice.

In Descenders, all rep gained from tricks is at least partially based on your speed when executing said tricks. With the TJ DH12 you gain speed very quickly on downhills, and you have the highest top speed of all the bikes; this gives an incredibly high potential for rep gain on everything you do as long as you can actually use that speed without bailing.

Therefore, when selecting perks, the most important to select are those that enable your high speeds. Perks that help you to get speed, and maintain that speed without wiping out should be prioritized. After that it can be up to preference on how you prioritize selection of perks, but here is how I generally prioritize them:

Prioritize perks that:

1. Enable High Speed (i.e. Landing impact)
   
2. Address Bike's Weakness (i.e. Bunny Hop and Spin Speed)
   
3. Miscellaneous (i.e. all of the blue perks)

Now, finally, let's move on to individual perk suggestions, roughly in order of priority:

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A reminder that this is not a tier list, but a way to help you get started if you are new and unfamiliar with the perks.

Increases chances of staying on your bike when landing hard.

The queen of perks. This enables you to hit ramps at faster speeds giving increased rep, and additional height to enable double back-flips and spins. Both aids in survival and in rep gain. Should be top priority whenever it appears. I cannot think of a playstyle or situation where this perk wouldn't be useful.

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Smoothens out the path curves in tracks.

The top priority of the TJ is gaining and maintaining high speed, there are two primary things that force you to reduce your speed: ramps, and hard curves. Ramps are opportunities to "spend" your speed on rep. Curves, however, often force you to dump your speed for little reward. This perk will significantly smooth out curves. Turns that you would normally have to hard brake on can be easily done with a slide, and many curves you can just take without sliding at all. This perk is particularly useful for the forest, where sharp 90 degree turns are most frequent. Here is a without/with comparison.

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Lowers the curvature of all tracks.

Allows you to maintain a higher average speed; less curvature means less scenarios where you need to brake to make a turn, and less opportunities to wipe out from taking a turn badly.

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Encounter fewer obstacles & trees off the track.

This perk seems to just delete 40-50% of trees/rocks and other obstacles in the level. Meaning you can ride faster without fear of becoming embedded in a tree. Personally, I think the perk is well worth it, with how often you can go flying off the track due to high speed. Take this perk if you're struggling to live through the forest. Here are comparison images without/with

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Makes the path wider and the berms higher.

Makes the path about 50% wider at any given point. Same idea as "less curves" though. Wider berms means more room for smoother turns, and less times where you have to dump speed to make a turn.

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Allows for quicker flips & spins.

The increase here is significant. This perk opens up more possibilities for double spins/flips on normal ramps, and triple spins/flips on boss ramps. I actually recommend prioritizing this over Smoother Curves, Less Curves, Fewer obstacles and Wider Path if you have at least 1 of them already.

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Increases bunny hop force.

The TJ's low bunny hop height can actually prevent you from being able to take certain ramps in the later maps. This perk lets you take those ramps again, and also leads to improved rep gain when performing tricks with the extra airtime it provides. Be careful about taking this without landing impact though as increased jump height will actually be a bad thing if you can't survive the fall back to the ground.

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Increases the amount of in-air prediction to correct your bike automatically

This can be a little confusing if you're new to the game, so let me explain. When you are about to land after jumping the game will automatically adjust your wheels a very small amount to land with the surface beneath you. Taking this perk increases that "very small amount" to the point that if feels like magnetism between your bike and the ground.

Practically, this results in MANY more clean landings, and a noticeable increase to rep gain (clean landings add 40 points base). Landing cleanly also affects the odds that you will survive a hard impact. I'd prioritize this over Spin Speed/Bunny Hop if you find yourself struggling to survive falls, or get clean landings on your own.

Be careful though, this perk can sometimes result in some weird bails when jumping with a slope/wall at your side; as the game will magnetize your wheel to the wall at your side instead of the ground beneath you.

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These four perks all offer decent bonuses, but those bonuses are either outclassed by the above perks, or simply are meant to address a weakness the TJ does not have.

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Beyond here, are all of the "Blue" crew member's perks along with any perks I haven't mentioned. Feel free to prioritize them as you wish, they are all almost entirely based on preference and playstyle.

The simplest and least threatening biome. A good place to stock up on lives, and earn easy points to get your first 3-4 perks.


Notes
Be careful about going over this ramp at low speeds as carelessly attempting a trick can end in an unlucky bail. If you're going slow try jumping off the front ramp at an angle so that you don't land on the ramp. this can safely allow a small trick at low speeds.

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Notes
It can be hard to get much out of these on the TJ. I'd honestly recommend skipping them and trying to gain more speed for the next trick. You can actually go through them and maintain your speed if you pump at the bottom of each divot.


Speed
30-50 KPH

Notes
It can be hard to get a trick off on this mini-boss without "bunny-hop" or "spin speed". At specific speeds you can get one on the first little ramp, and you can get a quick spin in on the last jump as well.

Speed
35-65 KPH

Notes
For this mini boss, worry less about your speed and more about your alignment. You want to hit the first ramp dead center, or you'll miss the wood plank connecting the two towers. As long as you hit the first ramp at a good angle, you can actually go upwards of 60 KPH and survive this boss jump.

When jumping off the second tower, do not do a trick as the clearance can be pretty unreliable. It is also a disappointing way to die if you got a double back flip can can on the first jump.

Speed
50+ KPH

Notes
This jump is more about distance then height. You can make this jump just fine if you're going over 50 KPH. If you're going between 40-50 KPH you'll need to execute a "moonjump" to get across the gap, and you won't be able to get a trick in. If you're going below 40, or aren't confident in executing a moonjump, skip this trick as it will take a life from you without remorse.

Speed
65-72 KPH

The speed listed is how fast you should be going upon reaching the bottom of the ramp, and includes a bunny hop at the top of the ramp. It was tested without perks.

This ramp is more about speed control then anything else. Anything over 72 KPH will cause you to fly past the ramp on the other side of the track. You can actually clear this going ~62 KPH but you will hit the train if it is on the track.

The forest, a Kinetic player's worst enemy. The forest has the sharpest, most sudden turns of any biome. It also has far more obstacles for you to run into, and those obstacles also obscure your vision of the upcoming track. If you're new to the game you should play this biome much more cautiously then you did the highlands. On high steepness and/or curves tracks you should not attempt to get bonus objectives where you don't break / don't release accelerate. Take the time to learn this biome, or it will end your run without mercy.


Notes
You need to be extra precise when attempting this ramp. The logs on the side will severely punish you if you're misaligned. Skip this trick if you're not 100% confident you are aligned correctly.

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Notes
I would recommend not bothering with this trick. If you're going between 30-45 KPH the first hump will just end up sending you flying into the second hump dumping a lot of your speed in the process. Attempting a trick on here doesn't seen to give much reward for the risk it brings and the loss of speed. You can actually get a near miss on this ramp if you ride close to the side of the ramp when you skip it.

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Side Note: I'm going to be skipping "Shorebridged" and "Switchback" as they don't really need much explanation.

Speed
40-55 KPH

Notes
DO NOT TAKE THIS RAMP OVER 55 KPH. Going too fast into this trick has a chance to kill you when you hit the start of the ramp. Otherwise, this is an alignment check. Make sure you hit the start centered.

Speed
40+ KPH

Notes
This one can be a bit tricky to survive, here is how I clear it consistently:

If I'm going 50 KPH I go into attack mode (hold down on the right stick) and go over the ramp without a bunny hop. If I'm going below 50, then I do the same thing, but add a bunny hop at the end of the ramp. I don't do a trick when going through this one as it has a chance to clip the posts on the tower and cause a bail.

Speed
78-80 KPH (Over the tower)
68-77 (On the tower)

Notes
The speed listed is how fast you should be going upon reaching the bottom of the ramp, and includes a bunny hop at the top of the ramp. It was tested without perks.

The tower is pretty wide, so at low speeds you can still land on it even if you mess up the angle a bit. Going over the tower requires very precise speed though, too little and you'll fly between the gap of the exit ramp and tower, but too much and you'll miss the top of the exit ramp and wipe out.

♥♥♥♥ YEAH, the CANYON BABY. This is your time to shine fellow Kinetic. Smooth turns, steep hills, low obstacle count. Time to show those Arboreals who's in charge


Notes
Here's the short version: if you don't have "bunny hop" don't do this trick. The safest option is to skip it every time.

On the TJ you can only successfully jump onto the ramp in very specific scenarios. If you're going too quickly, you'll jump onto the ramp and your momentum will cause you to bail. If you're going too slow, you won't have the jump height to get fully up onto the ramp, and you'll crash into the side of it. The speed required is very specific to how the terrain is generated. You'll need a lot of practice to get a good feel as to when it is safe to attempt this trick. For now, here are a few guidelines:

• If the ramp is on a steep, downward slope, do not attempt it. Your vertical momentum will cause you to bail due to how the ramp is structured.
  
  
• Do not attempt if going under 40 KPH; you won't have enough speed to make the jump unless you have bunny hop.
  
  
• Do not attempt if the ramp is abnormally high off the ground (more then twice your character's height). The game occasionally generates the ramps like this for some reason.

The reality being, this ramp is way too inconsistent on the TJ for the reward you get when landing it. It's actually safer, and generates similar rep, to jump to the side off the ramp, off the mound of dirt that generates in front of it.


Speed
45-70 KPH

Notes
DO NOT TAKE THIS RAMP OVER 70 KPH. Going too fast into this trick has a chance to kill you when you hit the start of the ramp. If you're going under 50 KPH you may have to moon jump to land on the raised platform, otherwise you may fall in the gap between the start ramp and the platform.

Speed
50-70 KPH

Notes
DO NOT TAKE THIS RAMP OVER 70 KPH. Going too fast into this trick has a chance to kill you when you hit the start of the ramp. There is a quick dip before this jump, make sure you pump right before going down it or you may catch air.

Speed
55-70 KPH

Notes
Taking this ramp at about 55 KPH should be enough to clear the windmill here. Be careful about doing a flip, as you can clip the windmill easily while rotating.

Its also worth noting that you can't land on or touch the wooden beams protruding from the back of the windmill's blades. They seem to be hard-coded to cause a bail if you land on them.

Speed
72-80+ KPH

Notes
The speed listed is how fast you should be going upon reaching the bottom of the ramp, and includes a bunny hop at the top of the ramp. It was tested without perks.

This ramp sends you mostly horizontally so it's actually possible to take this ramps upwards of 85 KPH. But you can go wild for this one Kinetic; especially if you have the landing impact perk.

The final area, and another good place to go FAST. You can hit some insane speeds at the peaks, and if you have smoother curves it makes it easy to coast above 70 KPH for entire levels.



My fellow Kinetics...please be wary of this jump.




Notes
This is one of the most dangerous tricks when using the TJ bike. You need high speed to clear it, so if you fail the jump it's almost guaranteed to take 2 lives from you, and on top of that, your ability to clear this trick is based almost entirely on how the terrain around it was generated.

There are about 100 factors into determining if you can make these jumps, but until you can feel it out for yourself I can simplify it a bit for you:

If you can't see the other side of the jump, DO NOT ATTEMPT IT.

This trick is generated with the slope of the track, so the amount of vertical clearance you have can vary immensely. The terrain generation also does not take this trick into account and can, and will, generate hard curves directly after this trick.

To make matters worse, there is no way to know if you'll be able to safely perform any tricks while jumping this gap, so you'll gain almost no rep for attempting this.

If you're going to skip this there are two safe ways to do so:

• Go around on the sides of the mountain slope
  
  
• Come to a complete stop, and drop down into the gap and ride up at one of the corners

If you have bunny hop this trick is significantly safer to attempt, but you should still be incredibly cautious.


Speed
55-75 KPH

Notes
The biggest problem you'll have with this ramp is height, you need to bunny hop at the very end to clear the tower, and it still might clip your tire. Don't even bother if you're going below 50 KPH.

Speed
45-55 KPH

Notes
Be careful about going too quickly off this ramp, as you can easily wipe out from the railing on top of the building. If you don't have a lot of speed you can also drive through the building or down the staircase on it's side for points.

Speed
45-70 KPH

Notes
DO NOT TAKE THIS RAMP OVER 70 KPH. Going too fast into this trick has a chance to kill you when you hit the start of the ramp. Try to angle yourself downwards when landing, so that you match the angle of the landing ramp.

Also be careful of the divot right before the start ramp, as going to quickly will cause your to catch air and fly face-first into the first ramp.


Speed
75-78 KPH
105-110 KPH + moon-jump (Over the helicopter)

Regular Jump
There is a lot of speed precision required for this jump. The goal is to land on the down slope of the helicopter ramp and ride it down to maintain enough speed to get to the exit ramp. If you go too fast you'll land too far into the helicopter ramp and won't be able to make the jump to the exit ramp. If you go too slow you'll miss the helicopter ramp or wipe out on the front tip of the ramp.

Over the Helicopter
This is an incredibly difficult feat that requires a bit of luck on the terrain generation. You need to be going between 105-110 KPH and jump at the bottom of the ramp AND be perfectly aligned. If you're going over 110 KPH the ramp may just outright kill you when you ride into it. The goal of this jump is to land on the slight down-slope of the exit ramp, but it is possible to land farther down the exit ramp and survive if you have Landing Impact.

Thanks for reading! Good luck and have fun out there, and I hope to see you on the daily challenge leader board soon!