Ahead of the OlliOlli World launch on February 8, the team at Roll7 is sharing some of our best tips for players old and new. Kuan-Ting “Tin-Tin” Chin (QA whizz with superhuman reflexes and godly controller skills) has some advice for veteran players, and I (writer with reflexes of an overtired sloth who recently broke my controller by rolling my chair over it) have some tips for folks who are just starting out.

On the subject of tricks… * My Tips: There are a huge variety of tricks available to you in OlliOlli World – sure, you could get more points for doing bigger, flashier, more complex tricks… or you can begin to improve your score simply by stringing tricks together with manuals. Linking tricks together lets you build combos, which are key to improving your scores!

• Tin-Tin’s Tips: You should always be doing something – if you aren’t pulling any tricks or grinds, it’s going to cost you your high scores. Study the “Tricktionary”, try to pull off the most complex combos you can, and get greedy! Also, make sure you’re aiming for the most varied trick selection possible – repeated use of the same trick will yield lower scores.

Timing is key * My Tips: Unlike in previous OlliOlli games, a mistimed landing won’t end your entire run in a brutal slam that totally wipes out your score. It’s possible to complete levels and challenges without timing every single move perfectly… but you won’t be making the number one spot on the leaderboards with wonky landings. First, focus on making it to the end, then try coming back to earlier levels once you’ve had a chance to improve your skills!

• Tin-Tin’s Tips: Perfect timing doesn’t just improve your base score – it also boosts your score multiplier, which is one of the key elements you’ll want to focus on if you’re chasing seriously high scores. A poorly timed landing can seriously impact your final score. When you’re bringing a complex combo to an end, you need to focus on sticking the landing with perfect precision.

Check your checkpoints * My Tips: if you try to do a level all in one long combo, and then mess up once right toward the end? Yeah, you lose your whole score. Instead, I like to end my combo once I’ve passed a checkpoint – this banks the score accumulated so far. It also means that if you slam you’ll only lose a little bit of the score that you’ve been building up over the course of the level.

• Tin-Tin’s Tips: Checkpoints aren’t just for beginners – they also provide an awesome opportunity to really learn each part of the level. Checking out the multiple different ways you could approach a series of obstacles will be a huge help in enabling you to get the best possible score. There’s no point replaying the whole level from the start to practice landing one really tricky jump – so use checkpoints to brush up on your skills, and you can then restart from the top to get your perfect run in one smooth combo.

And finally – no matter your skill level, it’s always a good idea to check out level replays and watch what others are doing in our asynchronous multiplayer modes. There are multiple ways to complete each level, and often seeing somebody else try something new can help work out the best way to approach a tricky challenge or to max out your score.

OlliOlli World launches tomorrow, February 8 on PS5 and PS4!