Jump Cancel Guide

Jumping is brand new in Gameplay Overview, and it does far more than move you over gaps. Striking while airborne produces a jump attack, and chaining those strikes with a technique called jump cancelling can massively raise the damage output of slow, heavy melee weapons. This guide explains what jump cancelling is, how to perform it, which weapons benefit, and how it interacts with enchantments.

What jump cancelling is

Every melee weapon has a jump-attack animation that plays when you attack mid-air. Jump attacks hit harder per hit than ground swings, but they repeat more slowly, so on their own they are not always a damage upgrade. Jump cancelling exploits weapons whose jump-attack animation is simple and whose ground swing has a long pause between hits: you swing once on the ground, jump a fraction of a second later, and attack in the air. The first swing lands while you rise and the jump attack lands while you descend, fitting two hits into the time one ground swing would take.

Tested numbers show how large the payoff can be. On the Clobberer, normal swings measured around 126 DPS, plain jump attacks reached about 151 DPS, and jump cancelling climbed to roughly 214 DPS — about 70% more than the ground combo. For comparison, the Emerald Hammer's ground normals dealt about 226 DPS while its jump attacks dealt around 216 DPS, and on at least one other weapon the ground combo dealt 64% more damage than jumping. The technique only wins on the right weapons, so picking your gear matters.

How to perform it

On Xbox, attack with X and jump with A. Start a ground swing, then almost immediately tap jump and attack again while airborne. The window is tight: too slow and you land before the aerial strike, too early and the jump attack never triggers. It takes timing practice, and the feel differs between weapons, so train on a dummy or weak mobs before relying on it in a boss fight.

Jump attacks also pay off when paired with combo- or jump-triggered enchantments. Enchantments like Lightning Surge (an S-tier wave enchantment dealing 90% weapon damage at tier III) reward hit frequency, and slow weapons fit more jumps per second into the window of a full ground combo, keeping the enchantment's waves firing at a steady rate.

Which weapons benefit

Jump cancelling suits slow, heavy weapons where the pause between normal swings is long. On fast weapons the gap barely exists, so there is little to cancel out of. The tier list ranks several heavy weapons by their best measured technique, and these are the clearest winners:

• Redstone Wrecker — an S-tier unique whose jump cancels raise its DPS, with a built-in wave worth 80% weapon damage that replaces Lightning Surge entirely.
• Clobberer — an A-tier weapon measuring 388 DPS with jump-cancel plus Lightning Surge, against only 157 DPS from basics.
• Pickaxe — A-tier at 371 DPS with a two-hit jump cancel.
• Claymore — A-tier at 363 DPS with a two-hit jump cancel; plain attacks manage only 191.
• Greataxe — A-tier at 353 DPS with jump cancelling.

One exception proves the rule: the Battle Hammer measures 360 DPS while jumping, but its jump cancels tested worse — not every heavy weapon gains from the cancel.

When to use it

Jump cancelling is a bossing and elite-killing technique. It demands concentration and precise timing, so it shines in controlled fights rather than chaotic mob packs. It also doubles as a movement option, since you are airborne while dealing the bonus damage. If you are chasing the Y-Axis Unlocked achievement for defeating 1,000 mobs with jump attacks, practicing this technique builds the muscle memory naturally. For endgame loadouts, combine a jump-cancel weapon with wave enchantments and soul-generating artifacts to keep the hits flowing — many Best Builds on the tier list rely on exactly this playstyle.