Abilities

Thirteen in total: five Kiki starts with, and eight taken from bosses.

The rule that shapes all of them: seven of the eight abilities taken from a boss are also keys. Each of those opens a kind of gate that starts appearing from that point on. None of them is a stat increase.

The odd one out is Time Core, which opens no door anywhere. What it unlocks is the last encounter, which is a different kind of lock.

What you start with

Double Jump. A second jump in mid-air. A wall jump refreshes it.

Wall Cling. Slide down a wall instead of falling past it, then jump off. A chimney with walls on both sides can be climbed indefinitely.

Dash. A fast burst forward. It cancels your fall, ignores gravity for its duration, gives you a few invulnerable frames, and keeps part of its speed when it ends so it flows into a jump. One in the air until you land or wall jump.

Charge Shot. Hold attack to charge. Three levels; the heaviest one pushes you backwards a little when it fires, which you can use.

Time Stall. Your first special. Slows everything inside a bubble around you for a couple of seconds. It is an escape tool, not a win button, and it costs enough that you cannot lean on it.

What you take from bosses

Using them

Dalek Plasma and Cyber Dash and Time Core are passive. You do not press anything; they change what your shots and your dash already do.

Gravity Pulse only works in the air. That is deliberate: on the ground it would be a free room-clear with no commitment. From a jump it costs you height and leaves you recovering, and it is the only thing that breaks a marked floor.

Cryo Shot fires a freezing projectile, and what it freezes is whatever it lands on - so aim it. It opens frozen vents and it damages what it hits. It does not leave a block you can stand on, and it does not freeze enemies in place.

Perception Pulse refuses to fire when there is nothing in range to reveal and nothing to hurt, so a mistimed press does not cost you a bar. It strips the disguise off anything wearing one, which matters in exactly one fight.

Photon Burst is the widest and most expensive. It relights a dark room, clears shadow patches, does double damage to anything that lives in the dark, and is the only counter to a blackout.

Temporal Memory takes two presses. The first anchors where you are standing. The second brings you back to it. It is how you keep hold of anything the Silence takes, and it doubles as a way out of a room that closed behind you.

Switching

Only specials go on the wheel, and only the ones you own. The switch button cycles between them, works in mid-air, and costs nothing.

The HUD shows the equipped one at the bottom left and greys it out when you cannot afford it. "You have no ability" and "not yet" look different on purpose.

During the Angel fight, the switch button blinks instead. There is nothing to shoot in that room, so the wheel is dead weight and the button is better used.

Gates

A locked route is never on the critical path. Every gate hides a collectible, a secret room or an upgrade, so if you arrive without the ability you can always carry on. You will just see exactly what you are leaving behind, which is the invitation to come back.

Some gates deliberately want an ability from a later stage. That is what the relics are behind.