Post
Getting hit on purpose because the knockback launches you exactly where you need to go faster than walking.
Damage boosting turns the game's punishment mechanic into a movement tool. When enemies or hazards hit you, most games apply knockback, a burst of velocity in a specific direction. Runners intentionally take damage to exploit this knockback for extra distance, height, or to bypass obstacles. The tradeoff is health: take too many damage boosts without healing and you'll die, ending the run. Advanced routing calculates exactly how many damage boosts are possible with available health pickups, turning health into a movement resource to be spent rather than preserved.
Example
In Mega Man games, damage boosting through enemy gauntlets is a core routing strategy. Instead of carefully fighting every enemy, runners plow through them, using the invincibility frames after each hit to pass through enemies they'd otherwise need to kill. A Mega Man 2 speedrun might take 10-15 intentional hits per level.
Why it matters
Damage boosting reframes how runners think about game resources. Health isn't for survival; it's movement currency. This philosophy extends to other resources like ammo, items, and time, and represents the fundamental speedrunner mindset of using every system in ways designers didn't intend.
Related concepts