Quick Answer: Press Shift to dash. That's the whole secret — but it's one of the game's best-kept ones: Rock Bottom never forces a dash tutorial on you, and multiple players on the Steam forums report finishing the entire game without discovering the dash exists. Learn it early: it speeds up every cave you'll ever cross, and dashing in mid-fall is effectively required to reach the hidden crab — the rarest achievement in the game.
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 — the game only uses WASD (move), E (interact), Space (jump), and Shift (dash). Nothing in the early game requires the dash, no objective mentions it, and the result shows up constantly in the forums: players discover it from other players, often after beating the game. One launch-week thread captures it perfectly — a player asked how to reach the crab, someone said "use the dash move," and the reply was: "You can dash?" (Answer, from the community: "Yes, with shift button.")
So 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 simple speed — a burst of movement in your current direction. Layers get wide, chunk objectives send you back and forth, and dashing between rock formations adds up over a 3-5 hour run. There's no cooldown management to think about; just make it a habit alongside WASD.
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 (~8% of players), largely because so few players know the dash exists. Full route: Crab Location guide.
Warning: Don't Rebind Your Movement Keys Right Now
There's a confirmed bug with in-game key rebinding, 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 the bug on July 18; no fix has shipped yet.
Until it's patched:
- Keep the default WASD + Shift bindings, or
- Remap outside the game via Steam Input or your controller software — the game still receives the default keys, which sidesteps the bug entirely.
Details and current status on the bugs & fixes page.
FAQ
Is there a dash upgrade or skill node? The permanent skill tree focuses on mining power and effects (chain lightning, explosions) — no forum report ties the dash to any unlock, and players have used it from early in fresh runs. Treat it as a base ability.
Does the dash work underwater? Swimming is its own movement mode (and the section everyone finds slow — 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 almost certainly the rebinding bug above — reset to defaults and it should work.
Sources: Steam community forums, launch week July 2026 — dash keybinding confirmed in the "Befriend Crab Achievement?" thread; rebinding bug reports July 16-19 with developer acknowledgment July 18. Page current as of July 20, 2026 (game version v1.0.1).