Quick Answer: Press Shift to dash. Rock Bottom never runs a dash tutorial, so plenty of players finish the whole game without knowing the ability exists. Learn it early. It cuts the walking time out of every cave, and dashing mid-fall is what gets you into the hidden crab cave, the rarest achievement in the game.
Version note: Written for v1.0.1 (July 2026), assembled from developer replies and player reports on the Steam forums, linked inline.
Every layer is a lot of ground to cover on foot. The dash is the traversal tool the game never tells you about. (Screenshot: Logan Games)
The Dash Nobody Told You About
Rock Bottom's keyboard controls are minimal: WASD to move, E to interact, Space to jump, Shift to dash. Nothing in the early game requires the dash and no objective mentions it, so players learn about it from each other, often after beating the game. One launch-week thread captures it: a player asked how to reach the crab, someone said "use the dash move," and the reply was "You can dash?"
If you're mid-run right now, press Shift. You've had it the whole time.
Ground Dash: Faster Everything
On the ground the dash is a burst of movement in your current direction. There's no cooldown to manage, so just fold it into normal movement. Layers get wide and chunk objectives send you back and forth, so the savings add up over a 3-5 hour run.
Mid-Fall Dash: The Technique That Earns an Achievement
The dash also works while airborne, and that's the version that matters:
- Walk off a ledge. Don't jump — just drop.
- While falling, press Shift with a direction to drift sideways mid-air.
- Steer into openings that walking and jumping can't reach.
The canonical use is the Best Friends achievement. The hidden crab lives in a crevice under Orc Base 1 that you can only enter by dropping off the cliff and dashing left during the fall. It's the rarest achievement in the game at ~8% of players, largely because so few players know the dash exists. Full route: Crab Location guide.
Don't Rebind Your Movement Keys Right Now
In-game key rebinding is bugged, and dashing is one of the two abilities it breaks (swimming is the other). Rebound keys keep firing their default action on top of the new one. The developer acknowledged this on July 18 and no fix has shipped.
Until it's patched, do one of two things:
- Keep the default WASD + Shift bindings, or
- Remap outside the game through Steam Input or your controller software. The game still receives the default keys, which sidesteps the bug entirely.
Current status on the bugs & fixes page.
FAQ
Is there a dash upgrade or skill node? No. The permanent skill tree focuses on mining power and effects (chain lightning, explosions), and players use the dash from early in fresh runs. Treat it as a base ability.
Does the dash work underwater? Swimming is its own movement mode, and v1.0.1 raised swim speed. The rebinding bug affects swimming and dashing both, which is one more reason to stay on default keys.
I pressed Shift and nothing happened. If you've rebound any movement keys in-game, that's the rebinding bug above. Reset to defaults and try again.