Most of these controls can be customized by launching Settings.exe before starting the game. Also, you can swap the order of the A, B and C buttons during the game by going to OPTIONS on the main screen.
:: Directional Button
- Hold down LEFT or RIGHT to move your character in a certain direction.
- While standing still, hold UP for a few seconds to pan the screen upwards. Hold DOWN and your character will crouch down.
- While your character is running, press DOWN and they will curl into a ball. As a ball, you can smash through rock piles and fragile walls. Sometimes, the environment will force you into a ball automatically.
- As LILAC, hold UP while underwater to swim.
:: Button A
- Press A while on the ground to jump. The longer you hold the button down, the higher your character will jump.
- If you are playing as LILAC and have a full Energy meter, press A while in the air to perform a Comet Boost. While the boost is charging, hold UP or DOWN to perform a diagonal Boost. Lilac can smash through rock piles and fragile walls while boosting.
:: Button B
- As LILAC, press B to perform a Hair Whip. You can use this move to attack enemies.
- As LILAC, hold UP while pressing B to perform a Rising Slash. This move causes more damage to enemies than the Hair Whip.
- As CAROL, press B to punch. Carol will punch faster when attacking enemies.
:: Button C
- If your character has a shield, press C to hide the shield. If your first shield is hidden and you collect another shield, press C to swap your current shield with your hidden shield. You can see which shield is hidden by looking at the icon next to your character's life icon, on the bottom-left corner of the screen (See "The Game Screen" for more info).
:: Lilac
Lilac is the main heroine in Freedom Planet. She is very fast and agile, and her attacks are strong. However, she must travel through some of the most challenging obstacles in the game.
Lilac has an Energy meter, which is displayed underneath the timer. She can charge this meter by running at high speeds. The faster she travels, the quicker she gains Energy. When Lilac's Energy meter is full and starts to blink white, press A while in the air to boost forward at high speed. While Lilac is charging the boost, you can hold UP or DOWN to change which direction she'll boost in.
A good way to charge energy is to run down a steep hill or find a horizontal spring to knock yourself away at high speed. Keep in mind that your energy will charge more slowly when jumping or curling into a ball.
:: Carol
Carol is Lilac's best friend. She can scale walls and attack very quickly, but her attacks are weak and it takes her a while to reach full speed.
Carol can scale walls by repeatedly jumping off of them. To do this, hold A and LEFT, or A and RIGHT, to jump towards a wall. Keep holding the directional button and Carol will attach herself to the wall. Press and hold A to jump off of the wall.
Carol can also use JUMP PADS. These special floor pieces are marked with blinking red lights. To use a JUMP PAD, stand on top of it and press A. Carol will immediately jump to the next JUMP PAD. Keep pressing A and she will jump through all of the JUMP PADS in sequence. Press A as soon as you land on a JUMP PAD or else you'll fall!
:: FAQ
Q: Will Freedom Planet run on Mac or Linux?
A: Unfortunately, Windows is the only platform that's 100% supported. You can attempt to run the game on a Mac using a Windows emulator, but expect performance to be far slower than usual.
Q: When I try to run the game, I get the following message: "Cannot load joystick2.mfx. This object might need an external program or library not yet installed."
A: Make sure that xinput1_3.dll in your system directory (which is usually located in C:\Windows\system32). The file should be included with Freedom Planet, but if not, you should be able to download it on the Internet. If the message remains, try disabling your firewall. If that doesn't work, update your system to the latest version of DirectX.
Q: I'm getting a lot of input lag while playing.
A: This is a known issue on slower computers. Make sure that you have the latest version of both DirectX and your graphics hardware. Also, try closing all other programs and disabling your firewall while running the game.
Beyond that, your computer's processor, graphics card and RAM are three of the most important things when it comes to running games at a decent speed, so if you're looking to get some upgrades done, they're your best bet.
