The rocket explosion knockback in 18052020 was vector-based. If you jumped exactly 3 frames before the rocket hit the floor, you would achieve a "perfect horizontal RJ," sending you across the entire width of maps like The Junkyard or Power Plant. Current builds nerfed this window to 1 frame (effectively randomizing it).
To understand the speedrunners build 18052020, we must travel back to May 18, 2020. At that time, DoubleDutch Games and tinyBuild had been refining SpeedRunners for years. The game was in a healthy state. The competitive meta revolved around "cancelling," "rocket jumping," and intricate grapple interactions that rewarded thousands of hours of practice.
Build 18052020 (dated May 18, 2020) was initially perceived as a routine stability update. The patch notes were benign: "Bug fixes and performance improvements." speedrunners build 18052020
However, within 48 hours of the release, the top 100 ranked players noticed something horrifying. The "slide-boost" physics had changed. The timing for the "swing-boost" off the ceiling had become inconsistent. Essentially, the muscle memory built over four years was obsolete.
Within one week, a grassroots rebellion formed. Players refused to update. They began data-mining Steam depots to locate the exact manifest for build 18052020, realizing it was the last viable version before the "physics overhaul" that would eventually kill the Western competitive scene. Launch the game
Launch the game. On the main menu, look at the bottom right corner. If you see v1.6.0 - 18052020, you have successfully built the golden age.
Because 18052020 is a frozen time capsule, it lacks the optimization patches of later years. However, you can brute force performance. Because 18052020 is a frozen time capsule, it
Examples (illustrative):