KF2 Small Tricks: Boomstick Jump, Ammo Swap, Parry and Reload Cancel

This is a collection of small tricks gathered by a Japanese player "from what I know", ordered from common to more obscure. Some of the tricks depend on game behaviour that may have changed in later updates, so test them yourself.

Big jump with the double-barrel

Fire the alt fire of the Double-barrel Boomstick while jumping.

• Shooting downward launches you about your own height plus a little more.
• You can also shoot forward to boost yourself backward.
• It is typically used to gain distance from enemies or to escape when surrounded.
• On custom maps it can put you in places that are normally unreachable. Players on big servers often do this.

Breaking a door that is in the way

Useful when a door blocks your view of enemies whichever way it opens.

1. Close the door.
2. Weld it to roughly 1 percent.
3. Throw a grenade at it.
4. The door breaks.

More reserve ammo, efficiently

Several perk skills increase reserve ammo:

• Commando: Prepared (level 15, right)
• Demolitionist: Extra Rounds (level 10, right)
• Firebug: High Capacity Fuel Tank (level 5, right)
• Sharpshooter: Always Prepared (level 20, right)
• SWAT: Ammo Vest (level 15, right)
• Survivalist: Ammo Vest (level 15, left)

The trick is that the bonus can stay on a weapon even after you switch to the opposite skill:

1. Equip the ammo-increasing skill.
2. Drop the weapon with the enlarged ammo on the ground.
3. Change the skill.
4. Pick the weapon up again.

Other players can pick it up with the extra ammo too. The reserve is only reduced on a skill change while you are holding the weapon. The author notes that is why his health drops by 25 during trader time when he plays Commando (a side effect of the change, according to him).

Easy parry with melee weapons

Mash the parry key and the reload key together. The reload cancels the parry animation and makes parrying work even with sloppy timing.

A fast reload cancel

The author lists the reload cancels he knows: bash or self-heal, pressing "previous weapon" twice, and switching to another weapon. He then describes what he believes is the fastest one. In his notation: bash is V, left click is LC, reload is R. LC can be replaced by alt fire or firing a medic dart.

1. Start reloading with R or LC.
2. Once the reload begins, hold LC.
3. At a suitable moment (when the ammo gets loaded) tap V very briefly.

This cancels the reload animation and fires a shot at the moment of the cancel. If it succeeds no bash animation shows up despite pressing V; if it fails, the bash animation plays. The timeline looks like R LC (LC) (LC) (LC) V, and LC can also be pressed right before V. How short the V press must be varies by weapon. Practise with something forgiving like Dual M1911s or the Medic AR; the Rail Gun without reload speed skills is very strict.

Because it works by cancelling at the V press and then accepting the LC input, it also works before ammo is loaded, which allows tricks such as:

• Gunslinger: if Zed Time starts while you are reloading, cancel and then reload again so Zed Time is not spent only on the reload.
• Medic: fire a dart immediately if a teammate goes down while you reload.
• Support: spam the Double-barrel's alt fire.

Gunslinger dual pistols on a budget

Buy a single pistol, drop it on the ground, buy another single and pick the dropped one up. A single comes with starting ammo of 64 rounds (M1911), 42 (Desert Eagle) or 30 (.500 Magnum). Buying a dual straight away gives the same amount, but holding a single while picking up another adds the ammo together. With the trick the starting and maximum ammo become 128/144 (M1911), 84/122 (Desert Eagle) and 60/105 (.500 Magnum). With M1911s you hardly need to buy ammo at all. The author removed two further tricks that stopped working after an update.

Bonus

The final section teases what happens if you change perks while holding six grenades as Survivalist, without giving details.

For related movement and weapon-swap tricks see ADS reload cancel and extra ammo capacity skill swap.