# Balloon Jumping

When a Balloon is placed into a wall, it remains there for about **16 frames**. This gives you time to land on the despawning ballon and jump again. This is most obvious in Ring Man's stage, and Cossack 2.

#### [![image.png](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2023-11/scaled-1680-/4IMimage.png)](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2023-11/4IMimage.png)

<p class="callout warning">Its worth noting that the time might be reduced due to when you land on the balloon. So placing it weirdly might cause issues</p>

While only used at top level, balloons have a weird quirk while climbing a ladder.

See normally balloons are just placed straight to the direction Mega Man is facing.

[![fceux_5o93MYN0qg.png](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/scaled-1680-/fceux-5o93myn0qg.png)](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/fceux-5o93myn0qg.png)

However by standing on specific pixels, the balloon will be offset downwards, which allows Mega Man to land on it. We call these specific placements **Ladder Balloons** they dont have a lot of usage in the run, but it's a very nifty trick.

[![fceux_Zhse3lPA8e.png](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/scaled-1680-/fceux-zhse3lpa8e.png)](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/fceux-zhse3lpa8e.png)

This can allow Mega Man to skip all the climbing here for instance. See [Cossack 2 spike room](https://goodboyrush.net/books/mega-man-4/page/spike-room) for more details about it.

[![fceux_SRdC2EWK46.gif](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/fceux-srdc2ewk46.gif)](https://goodboyrush.net/uploads/images/gallery/2024-07/fceux-srdc2ewk46.gif)

#### Considerations

You can't be completely against the wall when you shoot.

You still need to move forward onto the balloon.

Speedrunners joke that "16 frames is a literal eternity", but that's still less than half a second.

Despawning the balloon is not only useful for getting up tight passages, but it **ALSO** reduces lag by immediately removing the balloon from the screen.