If you've spent any time running around Wuthering Waves' sprawling open world, you've probably seen other players zipping past, pulling off smooth flips mid-air while you're still fumbling with your glider. I've put over 120 hours into Wuthering Waves since launch, and I still run into players every week in co-op who ask how I'm pulling off those quick flips mid-fight. I spent three days testing every movement combo on both PC and mobile to figure out exactly how to backflip in Wuthering Waves, and it's way simpler than most guides make it out to be. This move isn't just for show, either: it can help you dodge incoming attacks faster, reset your glide mid-fall, and even shave seconds off your time trial runs.
How to Backflip in Wuthering Waves: Exact Control Combos for Every Platform
The biggest misconception I see floating around community groups is that you need a specific character or paid movement upgrade to pull off a backflip. That's not true at all: every playable character in the game can do this move, no unlocks required, as long as you input the controls correctly. I tested this on 12 different playable characters, from 4-star units like Verina to 5-star limited units like Xiangli Yao, and the input works exactly the same for every single one, so you don't have to re-learn the timing when you swap characters. The only catch is you have to be on solid ground first, or mid-dash before you leave the floor, to trigger it properly.
- PC (Keyboard & Mouse): Hold the S key (backward movement) and press the space bar (jump) at the same time. You don't need to hold shift to sprint, but you will get a higher flip if you're dashing first.
- Mobile (Touch Controls): Swipe down on the movement joystick and tap the jump button immediately. You'll see a small animation trigger if you input the combo correctly, instead of a regular backward jump.
- Controller (Xbox/PlayStation): Pull the left analog stick directly backward, then press the X (Xbox) or X (PlayStation) jump button. Make sure you don't tilt the stick left or right, or you'll trigger a side jump instead.
I noticed a lot of new players mess this up by pressing the buttons too far apart. If you wait more than half a second between pressing the backward input and jump, you'll just do a regular slow backward jump, not the smooth backflip. It takes 5 or 6 tries to get the timing down, so don't get frustrated if you don't nail it on your first attempt.
What Can You Use a Backflip For In-Game?
Most people assume the backflip is just a cosmetic, flex move, but it has actual practical uses that make it worth learning, even if you don't care about showing off to your co-op party. Once you know how to backflip in Wuthering Waves, you'll start noticing all the little places where it's useful that no one talks about. First, it's one of the fastest dodge moves in the game against large, slow enemy attacks. If you see a boss winding up a big AOE attack directly in front of you, a backflip will get you out of range faster than a regular side dash, and you can follow it up with a charged attack immediately after landing.
It's also really useful for traversal, especially if you're climbing steep cliffs. If you slip and start falling, a well-timed backflip can reset your position just enough to grab onto a ledge you would have missed otherwise. I've saved myself from falling off the top of the Jinzhou Observatory three times now using this trick, so it's saved me a lot of wasted climbing time. If you're doing time trial challenges that require you to hit floating checkpoints, a backflip can give you just enough extra vertical height to reach a checkpoint you would have to glide to otherwise, cutting seconds off your run time.
Oh, and if you're recording clips for social media, it's a great way to make your montages look way more polished, no editing required. Backflips also cancel the end animation of most light attack combos, so you can chain them into faster follow-up attacks if you're fighting fast-moving enemies like hidden mandrakes that dart around the battlefield.
Common Mistakes That Stop You From Pulling Off a Backflip
Even after you memorize the controls, there are a few common errors that will make your backflip attempts fail 90% of the time. If you're still struggling to figure out how to backflip in Wuthering Waves after 10 minutes of practice, the issue is almost always one of these three mistakes. The first one I see most often is trying to do a backflip while you're already mid-air. You can only trigger the backflip animation if you're standing on solid ground, or in the first 0.2 seconds of a forward dash. If you're already falling or gliding, you won't be able to trigger it, no matter how fast you press the buttons.
Another mistake is tilting your movement input slightly to the left or right when you press back. If your movement stick or keyboard input is even a little off-center, the game will register it as a side jump, not a backflip. If you're on PC, I recommend tuning your keyboard input delay down to 10ms or lower in the settings menu if you're having trouble with this, as higher input delays can make the game misread your key presses. Don't hold the jump button down either. A backflip only requires a quick tap of the jump button, not a hold. If you hold jump, you'll do a high backward jump instead of the flip animation, and you'll lose the speed and i-frames that come with the backflip.
Some characters have longer attack animations that can't be canceled into a backflip, so if you're mid-attack combo, wait until the animation finishes before trying to trigger the flip. You also can't do a backflip if you're carrying a quest item like a survey drone, so keep that in mind if you're running around doing side content.
Advanced Backflip Combos to Try Once You Master the Basics
Once you can pull off a backflip 10 times in a row without messing up, you can start combining it with other movement moves to make your traversal and combat way smoother. The easiest combo to learn first is the backflip into glide. If you tap the glide button immediately after you trigger the backflip, you'll launch yourself higher into the air than a regular glide start, which is perfect for crossing large gaps without using your grappling hook. I use this all the time when I'm exploring the mountainous northern regions of the map, where grapple points are spread far apart.
Another useful combo is the backflip into charged heavy attack. Most ranged characters like Jiyan get a 15% damage boost on their first charged attack after a dodge, and a backflip counts as a dodge for this bonus. I use this combo all the time when fighting bosses that charge at me: I flip backward to avoid their attack, then immediately fire off a charged shot to deal extra damage while they're recovering. This combo alone has helped me beat several high-level world bosses without having to use healing items.
If you're playing co-op, you can also do the backflip into emote combo for a fun flex. Trigger a backflip, then tap your favorite emote button right as you land, and you'll pull off a seamless transition that looks like a custom animation. My go-to is the backflip into the wave emote when I beat a boss before my party members get to the arena, it always gets a laugh in chat. Just don't waste stamina on backflips when you're low on climbing or gliding stamina, since each backflip uses a tiny bit of stamina that can add up if you're spamming them.
At the end of the day, learning how to backflip in Wuthering Waves is a small skill that makes a huge difference to how fun the game feels to play, both for combat and just messing around in the open world. You don't need to grind for hours to master it, either: 10 minutes of practice in a flat, open area like the plains outside Jinzhou is enough to get the timing down for your platform of choice. If you're still struggling, slow down your inputs and make sure you're pressing the backward and jump buttons at almost exactly the same time, no extra speed needed. Once you get it down, you'll wonder how you ever played the game without it, and you'll probably start showing it off to every co-op party you join, just like I do.