Jetpack

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

Wearing it, the player can fly: holding jump in mid-air lifts him for as long as its fuel lasts, and landing fills it again. Rare Shops and the Dice House offer it; it's rare in Crates and blocks, and one waits in the mothership. It's worn from the moment it's picked up or paid for until the game ends, unless a Cape takes its place.

Picking up a free jetpack, paying for one or carrying one out of a shop puts it on: the message "YOU GOT A JETPACK!" shows, the jetpack disappears, and an icon of it joins the row under the hearts ^{[3] [4]}. From then on it's drawn on the player's back ^[5]. It stays on until a new game starts, which clears it ^{[6] [7]}.

Whenever the player stands on the ground, its fuel is set to 50 steps ^[8]. In the air, as long as the player didn't leave the ground with the key still held (walking off a ledge counts as letting go; after a jump, it has to be let go of once), holding jump with fuel left fires it: each step it sets him moving up at 1 pixel a step, adds a jump's push, takes away gravity and burns one step of fuel ^{[9] [10] [1]}. Every 3 steps of thrust it throws out a spark and plays its sound ^[11].

In play, that's a climb of 3 pixels a step (90 per second) while jump is held, and a full tank lasts 1.67 seconds: in the clip, the player leaves a shop with it, lands once (refuelling), jumps, lets go of jump and holds it again, and the jetpack carries him over a gap and up a shaft at 3 pixels a step to the ceiling, where its fuel runs out 50 steps later; he falls onto a ledge, and landing fills it again ^[12]. Letting go of jump stops the thrust, and pressing it again in the air restarts it while fuel is left.

A shop stocks one only if the level hasn't got one already ^[19], even for a player who wears one ^[20], and it adds 10% of the base price for each level past the second ^[21]. Shops are made from level 2 on ^[22], and level 16, Olmec's Lair, has none:

The Dice House puts its prize up from a set of rare items, and a roll of seven gives it away and puts up another ^{[23] [24]}. Every block of rock away from the level's edges that isn't gold and holds no gem has a 1 in 1200 chance of hiding an item, one of nineteen at random ^{[25] [16]}. The mothership's last room, the Alien Boss's, has a free jetpack set inside one of its blocks ^[26]. Kali's first gift, when the player's favour with her reaches 8 at one of her altars, is one of eight pieces of equipment he hasn't got, the Cape among them; when he has them all, it's a Jetpack, or a Bomb Box if he wears one already ^[27]. In custom levels, it's the level editor's tile J ^[28].

Carrying one out of a shop without paying puts it on and angers the Shopkeeper, as with any ware; whether it goes on at once depends on whether the player or the jetpack leaves the shop first ^[20]. In the clip, the player jumps out of the shop at 6 pixels a step, ahead of the jetpack he holds out in front of him, and it goes on at once ^[29].

• The Jetpack and the Cape are never worn together. Putting on the Jetpack while wearing the Cape drops the Cape at the player's feet, free to pick up again; putting on a Cape drops the Jetpack the same way ^{[30] [31]}.
• The fuel only refills standing, running, crouching or looking up on the ground: hanging from a ledge or climbing a rope or ladder doesn't refill it, and the jetpack can't fire from either ^{[8] [32]}.

• At 3 pixels a step for 50 steps, a full tank lifts the player about 150 pixels, nine blocks; a taller shaft needs somewhere to land and refuel on the way.

• On level 2, a shop calls it "JETPACK FOR $20000." Past level 2, the message is rebuilt with the new price, and as the Jetpack has no shop name of its own it reads "A JETPACK FOR $22000." ^{[33] [34] [20]}
• A jetpack lying in the level destroys itself while the player is invisible, which he is once he's been crushed, or once his hearts have fallen below -99 ^{[35] [36]}. It's the same check as the worn Cape's, which removes the Cape drawn on the player's back ^[37].