Some movement tech that's worth knowing about. Don't get discouraged if you don't know all the tech, routes win races!
For brevity, the speed of options will be described like "2x the speed of holding forward". i.e. if it takes 10 seconds to cross a room by holding forward, taking 5 seconds is "2x".
Certain movement options can be rapidly chained together, especially when you learn to cancel them.
backdash -> crouch -> backdash -> crouch -> backdash...
The bread-and-butter movement tech that you can always use. Backdash comes out at max speed, but quickly slows down with lots of end-lag. Thankfully, the inputs for backdash and crouch mutually cancel eachother. By crouching right after you backdash, you can immediately backdash again (and then immediately crouch again, etc.). The faster you can chain together backdashes, the faster you go. Depending on your skill level this is about 1.3x to 1.8x faster than holding forward, around 1.9x with Moon Belt.
There is however a tradeoff with canceling too fast: the gap between the crouch and the next backdash is losing speed. So really you want to get the "meat" of the backdash's start, and then once you crouch try to backdash again as soon as possible. This is why optimal backdash cancelling is pressing down on the same frame as backdash. This effectively gets read as "crouch, backdash" meaning you get pure backdash value with no slowdown.
"Jankdashing" is intentionally delaying the crouch input for reliability (recommended for beginners/intermediates). Decent Backdash Chaining is viable even on analog sticks thanks to the fact that you don't need to release the crouch input to start the next backdash, but digital inputs make everything easier. Consider remapping backdash to another button if you're having trouble with ergonomics.
"Backmashing" is just mashing backdash without any attempt to cancel it. This option is about 1.15x the speed of holding forward, 1.5x with moon belt.
jump -> jump -> dive -> slide -> jump...
After a double-jump, if you hold down and jump again you will do a very fast diagonal dive-kick that can bounce off of enemies and candles (restoring your ability to double-jump). The landing lag of a dive-kick can be cancelled with either a backdash or a slide to rapidly chain divekicks.
slide -> (backdash) -> slide -> slide -> slide -> slide -> (backdash) -> slide...
You don't need to do any cancelling to get most of the benefit of slides, just hold down and mash jump to chain slides (this is "Slidemashing" if you want to distinguish from the fancier technique below).
This is about 1.4x faster than holding forward, 1.8x with strider belt.
A bit more can be squeezed out of slides by weaving in backdashes to cancel the slow end of a slide. Unfortunately, slide-cancelling puts backdash on some kind of cool down, meaning you can only cancel every 4th slide with a backdash. Also note that the slide and backdash naturally want to go in opposite directions, so unless you very quickly cancel the backdash with another slide you'll just waste more time then you save, making slide-cancelling usually not worth the effort (especially without Strider Belt).
(Unclear what the benefits are of this optimally)
Some weapons have useful Techniques. All weapons that can perform a technique do so with identical properties.
⬇️
Gram, Schedar, or Durandal
You start to slowly charge forward then quickly gain speed to ~accelerator speeds, making it ideal for long stretches. Can go forever as long as you hold attack, but constantly drains MP. While charging you are vulnerable and will get stopped by enemies. Directional and jump inputs will not register in this state, but backdash can cancel the end animation.
Depending on the distance you're able to cover with one Sickle Moon, this is ranges from 2x to 4x the speed of holding forward (because it needs space to build up to its full speed).
⬇️
Gondo-Shizunori or Leng Yan Ju
You immediately start charging forward at ~accelerator speeds. Can go forever as long as you hold attack, but constantly drains MP. Your attack will damage enemies in fround of you. Directional and jump inputs will not register in this state, but backdash can cancel the end animation.
This is roughly 3.7x the speed of holding forward.
⬇️
Kung Fu Boots or Dragon Shoes
(in air) -> flash kick -> flash kick -> flash kick...
This technique can be immediately chained into itself, allowing you to travel through the air horizontally without losing height. This can be used to sequence break over large gaps like Gardens.
➡️⬅️➡️+Attack
Raikiri or Mikazuki
Jinrai - > backdash + Directional Shard when you hit the sweet spot -> zoom
Normally this attack winds up and then does a sudden hyper-speed dash to slice. Backdash during the actual hyper-speed part can cancel the animation. If you then quickly hold out an (ideally continuous) directional shard (Directed Shield a favourite) you will preserve the hyper-speed and zip through straight halls much faster than even accelerator.
Accessory that flat buffs your movement speed -- always equip it unless you have moon/strider (Miriam is regrettably not anime enough to wear multiple belts). This makes holding forward 1.2x faster, but doesn't change the speed of backdashes or slides.
Accessory that improves the speed of backdashes, making whatever level of Backdashes you're doing Even Better. Backdashes also become "meatier", and so the gap between "bad" backdash chains and "optimal" backdash chains narrows. Mashdashing improves from 1.2x to 1.5x, while most Backdash Chaining ends up around 1.9x (from a wider range of 1.3x to 1.8x).
Accessory that improves the speed of slides. Improves Slide Mashing from 1.4x faster than holding forward to about 1.8x (notably making it as good as optimal Backdash Chaining with a fraction of the effort/skill).
Shards to keep in mind for movement:
Black Panther continues to be the GOAT of movement, over 4x the speed of holding forward.
Optimally chaining DS casts can be very fast movement and of course lets you fly (very MP heavy). TODO: explain how to speed up DS chaining -- naively it's no faster than holding forward.
You can cancel the animation of an iron maiden catching you by launching Gale Crawler. If this happens the iron maiden will be permanently closed and can be freely pushed without the need for Craftwork, and sequence break into Oriental Sorcery Lab.
Miriam does not care of she fits or if the chair is 100 feet below her, she will sits. Can be used to clip through walls. Can be used to have miriam dive deep under water and sequence break into Caverns from the garden entrance.
From fastest to slowest -- gaps represent big jumps in speed
4.5x: Accelerator
4.0x: Gram (in long corridors)
3.8x: Speed Spear
2.0x: Gram (in short spaces)
1.9x: Moon Belt Backdash Chains
???x: Dimension Shift Chains
1.8x: Strider Belt Slidemash
1.8x: Optimal Backdash Chains
???x: Double Jump Chains
~1.5x: Jankdash
1.5x: Moon Belt Backmash
1.4x: Slidemash
1.2x: Backmash
1.2x: Speed Belt
1.0x: Hold Forward