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Alto’s Odyssey Ultimate Guide: 17 Tips, Cheats & Strategies to Master the Game

The makers of Alto’s Adventure are back with another title from the Alto universe that’s sure to whet your appetite for pulling off aerial tricks and chaining together combos. Alto’s Odyssey was released by Snowman for iOS devices a few weeks back, and this game, like its predecessor, invites you to go on a wild adventure on your sandboard, as you travel through various landscapes, including dunes, canyons, temples, and other majestic attractions that await you as you travel “far from home.” As we’ll be explaining in this detailed strategy guide, there are different ways to grind and bounce across the environment, though it wouldn’t come without challenges, which include, but are not limited to, deep and unpredictable chasms, and “mischievous” lemurs that are out to spoil your fun.

Although Snowman describes their new title as being “easy to learn, (and) difficult to master,” you shouldn’t let that standby description of casual games lure you into thinking that this is a simple, no-frills title. In fact, there’s so much to learn about Odyssey, even if you had previously played Adventure and know it like the back of your hand. With that said, join us and check out our Alto’s Odyssey ultimate guide, where we teach you the ins and outs of performing tricks, stringing combos together, and exploring the various environments and landscapes in the game.

1. Know Each Character

While Alto is, without a doubt, the most popular character in the games that bear his name, there are other characters you can use when sandboarding and stringing tricks together in Alto’s Odyssey. As anyone who played Alto’s Adventure should know, the characters in the series’ universe aren’t just different in terms of appearance; they have their own strengths and weaknesses, which means one character may be ideal to use in a certain run, while another might not. But most players agree that Maya is the best character to use in the early stages of the game — she unlocks at level 11, and she’s easy enough to use that you can rely on her until you unlock the newest, and best character in Odyssey, whom we will be discussing a few paragraphs down.

Some runs may require you to spot super coins and other items, or perform tricks in such a way that you’ll be able to get these items easier. When in such a situation, you can go with Maya, as she isn’t the fastest when it comes to sandboarding, or you could possibly go with Alto, who, as the main character, is an all-rounder, a jack of all trades

When talking about performing backflips close to ground level, you’ll want to use Maya, or Sumara, who becomes available once you reach level 51. That’s because they have a good spin, or rotation, on their flips, making them perfect choices if you’re trying to achieve the “backflipping close to the ground” goal in the early goings. And it’s pretty simple to leverage these characters’ skills — once you’re on the first few dunes, quickly tap on your screen to perform a jump, right when you’re around 5 meters short of the peak. This allows your chosen character’s head to be within 8 meters of ground level, giving you 300 points easy and allowing you to complete the achievement.

If you’re trying to break multiple rocks as quickly as possible, or at the very least bounce off of them, you can use Paz, who is big, “tanky” character in this game. He may not have much of a spin, and his burly physique might make you mistake him as being slow, but that’s not actually the case — he happens to be the fastest in terms of ground speed. You can use him when grinding on balloons, rock walls, and other surfaces, which allows him to make use of his size to destroy multiple rocks or bounce on them.

Need a character who can use special maneuvers to get out of a tight spot? Try Felipe and Sumara, who can last longer in the air by double jumping — just double-tap on your screen, and you’re good. They can easily use this simple move to avoid falling into a chasm, or make the right contact with a rock or a grind.

While Alto is an all-around character, the same can be said about Izel, who unlocks at level 31. In fact, you can say that she’s more all-around in the true sense of the word, instead of being a mere jack of all trades. She’s the go-to character for all gadgets, which you can purchase with your in-game currency, and when it comes to her actual sandboarding performance, she can flip faster than Alto and Paz, use her rocket sandboard to move faster than Maya, and achieve ultimate precision with her wingsuit.

We’ve mentioned Sumara several times in the above paragraphs, and as we mentioned, she becomes available once you reach level 51. As she unlocks later than everyone else, it’s no surprise that she possesses all of the previously mentioned character’s strengths, including Maya’s flips, Paz’s ground speed, Felipe’s double-jumping, and Izel’s all-around skill. Best of all, she’s impervious to attacks from those pesky lemurs, who don’t take too kindly to fancy tricks, and attack any character they see pulling them off. For some reason, the lemurs choose not to attack Sumara, which means you can feel free to improvise in the desert even if they’re around.

2. Stringing Trick Combos Together Is The Name Of The Game

Alto’s Odyssey is a very trick-based game, and that probably goes without further elaboration for those who had previously played Alto’s Adventure. Even if there are several new features and environments in Odyssey, one thing in particular remains the same — it’s all about stringing ‘em together when trying to pull off the more elaborate tricks in the game. It often starts with a simple backflip, which we shall be examining further in our next tip. But first, let’s talk about the points you can earn by doing tricks, and how each trick you string together in a single jump will add to your multiplier.

We won’t get into the specifics of how many points you can earn for each trick, but let us assume that in a span of one jump, you landed a double backflip. That’s a fairly simple combo, but since a single backflip is worth 10 points, and a double worth 60, you get 70 points for that, as the single and the double count as two. Speaking of two, that’s also the value of your multiplier, which would give you 140 points for that jump.

3. The Backflip Is Still Your Best Bet For Gaining Momentum

Of all the things your characters can do in Alto’s Odyssey, the backflip remains the best choice when it comes to gaining speed and momentum. In order to do a backflip, simply tap-and-hold — the tap will allow your character to jump, after which their legs will be pulled in to do the flip. Just make sure you’ve got enough speed to begin with, and are at the right height to pull the trick off. Another way you can work the backflips in is by doing them close to the ground, as that could give you more speed, and more of those all-important trick points. Likewise, you can continue holding from there, in hopes of landing multiple backflips.

The backflip, however, won’t always be your go-to move. It is important that your board is aimed toward the ground before you actually hit it, and it will take some getting used to if you’re uncomfortable with how slowly backflips materialize. Sometimes, the best thing to do when it comes to backflips is NOT to backflip, even if it means sacrificing a chance to pull off a combo string.

Another thing worth noting is that different characters have different ways of doing backflips. Alto’s jump is probably the most basic of them all, while other characters could go about things differently; Paz, for instance, won’t have much spin, but will make up for that with his speed on the ground, while Maya will have more spin while flipping in the air.

4. Use The Environment To Make Longer Strings / Chains

The environment is where a lot of the trick-chaining magic will occur in Alto’s Odyssey, and that would mean the various objects you see around you, such as the ponds, the rocks/rock walls, the ramps, and the hot air balloons. Tornadoes also count as objects, same with the multiple grinds you will encounter in the game. Landing on grinds, walls, or ramps will, of course, put an end to your jump or series of backflips, but you can still string tricks together by continuing grinding, or better yet, landing another flip after you’re done with the grind.

With that in mind, let’s take another look at how your points can add up if you use the environment to create a longer string of tricks. Let’s assume you started out with a single backflip onto a wall grind, then followed up with a wall jump onto a balloon grind, and ended with a backflip. You get 10 points for the backflip, 5 points for each meter on the wall, 20 points for the wall jump, another 5 points each for the length of the balloon grind in meters, and finally, another 10 points for the single backflip. Assuming the wall and balloon grinds were six meters each, the chain will be worth 100 points without the multiplier. But since you were able to string five tricks together, your multiplier is 5, giving you a total score of 500.

5. What Are The Best Items To Extend Combo Strings?

The balloons appear to be a favorite of many players as a device they can use to string together impressive combos. Likewise, rocks, water ponds, and tornadoes are also quite popular. That’s because you can simply bounce off of them, instead of landing on them like you would in the grinds. The direction you’re facing does not matter; what matters is the fact that your string won’t be broken, even if, for some reason, you release your finger from the screen of your phone for a split second.

Looking at the possibilities these items can create, let’s look at a third example of combo-stringing in Alto’s Odyssey and the points you can earn. In here, the string starts out with a single backflip, followed by a bounce off a balloon, and your backflip turning into a double, then a triple. Those tricks are worth 10, 60, 60, and 200 points respectively, adding up to 330 without the multiplier. Multiply 330 by four tricks, and you’ve got it made with a total of 1,320 points for the entire string. That’s actually a pretty low figure compared to what some players have achieved, but much higher than what you normally could get if no balloons were involved!

Pro-tip: Aside from the aforementioned objects, you can use your wing suit (assuming you were able to unlock/buy one) to create a longer combo string. The wing suit’s purpose is to help you avoid coming in contact with the ground, so you can easily use this item to pull off more backflips or other tricks while staying in the air for longer.

6. Beware Of Chasms

The signs should say it all — you should be very, very careful of chasms in Alto’s Odyssey. These huge gaps appear in your path from time to time, and in many cases, they won’t be easy to traverse. Some of them come with twists that you might not expect, which means there won’t be a one-size-fits-all approach to crossing them. It could be as simple as timing your jump properly, or you might need to do something more complex like a wall grind, which we will be explaining in a bit. Either way, be very careful when trying to cross a chasm, and don’t worry if you fall into one the first time around — it happens even to the best of us!

7. Even Sunrises Could Earn You Big Points

Scoring big in Alto’s Odyssey isn’t exclusively about stringing combos together. Sometimes, you can earn big points at certain points in the game’s day. For one, you can earn points if you are able to travel through an entire day and night. And if you’re lucky enough to witness a sunrise while sandboarding, you can earn another 1,000 points as a onetime bonus to your trick score. That’s why it makes sense to play the game with the sunrises and sunsets in mind, if you’re looking to beat your old high score. You can also earn some points at the end of your run if you’re able to witness a certain number of biomes (landscapes, in other words), or if you’re able to jump past a specific number of chasms.

8. Try To Memorize The Shapes Of Objects

This may sound like a bit of an odd tip, but if you know how things work in Alto’s universe, you will know that you will often have to deal with different times of the day and different weather conditions. At times, you’ll only be able to see shadow images of objects, and if you’re not used to the gameplay, there’s a chance you’ll find this aspect of Alto’s Odyssey to be challenging. But as you play the game more often, you’ll eventually be able to remember the small details that you might have thought weren’t worth remembering at all.

9. How To Deal With Lemurs

Lemurs may not sound like the most threatening animals out there, but in the world of Alto’s Odyssey, they are a bane to sandboarders, just like sandboarders are a bane to them. They are this game’s equivalents to the Elders in Alto’s Adventure, and they appear in a similar way, showing up every couple thousands of meters on your run. But they have an extra edge over the Elders, as they’re able to disrupt characters by jumping on grinds and chasing them down. As you can see, they’re not a force to be trifled with. So how can you evade the lemurs and enjoy a less troublesome run?

When trying to evade lemurs, your best option is to use quick backflips, but if you want to ensure yourself of further safety from their attacks, you can use your backflips to string together a combo of tricks. But if you’re using a character who’s not too good in doing backflips, you can choose to out-jump them instead. If they get especially close to you, then time your jump in such a way that you make the leap right after the lemur hits the air. This may take some practice, but if you can time your jump perfectly, any lemur who tries to chase you won’t be able to grab your board; you can then try rebuilding your speed by performing a trick, or a combo of tricks.

Pro-tip: Make sure you aren’t grinding too long when the lemurs are in hot pursuit; they can jump on your board and end your run to show you they mean business!

10. Wall Grinds Work Differently In Alto’s Odyssey

The wall grinds in Alto’s Odyssey are definitely not the ones you may know from the game’s predecessor. That’s a good thing, in the sense that they offer you some tantalizing possibilities when trying to create a long and impressive combo string, but it’s also a bad thing, as wall grinding is considerably more difficult in Odyssey, as compared to Adventure. Before anything else, however, you’ll need to pony up to the tune of 750 coins and buy yourself a sandboard at Izel’s shop.

As for the actual process of wall grinding, it starts out with a simple enough move. After you jump onto a wall or canyon, leave your finger on your device’s screen until you’re at the end of the wall. But the thing you really need to master is the wall jump, as that will get you 20 points for successfully ending your wall grind before it’s supposed to naturally end. If you time things perfectly, you can get a small, but important increase in upward momentum, allowing you to transition into a backflip, or to grab the wall and continue moving higher. In any case, it’s possible to do several wall jumps within a single wall, and greatly add to your multiplier and combo string. While the timing may be tricky, the process of wall jumping is also simple — release your finger off the screen to end your grind.

11. Get More Out Of Your Wall Grinding

As you might have guessed, wall grinding and jumping are both must-have skills if you want to rack up high scores and chain together longer combos. There are a few things you can do to improve your wall grinding skills, for starters, and these include replaying the tutorial level after you’ve purchased your sandboard. Unlike some other games, the tutorial can be accessed multiple times, and at any time, without requiring you to start from square one and undo all your progress. Just hit the Menu button, choose Settings, and scroll down until you see Replay Tutorials. Tap on Sandboard once you’re there, and you’re all good to go. While you won’t be able to move forward in the tutorial unless you’ve completed the required trick, the good thing, once again, is the option to replay — practice makes perfect, so keep practicing by replaying the tutorial!

Once you’ve perfected your basic technique, you can then use wall jumps to avoid falling into a chasm, or to get some airtime while on the downslope. So how does this work? Well, when it comes to the wall grinds, you will move up the wall, then arc downward in a gradual motion. You can keep doing wall jumps to prevent this from happening, and if you’re on the downslope, you can use those wall jumps to stay in the air for a little longer. You’ll want to use this technique when you’re trying to cross chasms that start low and end high, but not if you’re crossing a conventional wall from start to finish. When doing this, perform wall jumps while you’re midway through the grind, as that will prevent you from arcing downward, maintaining your momentum and helping you land on the sand dunes, and not on the rocks.

12. How Do Vine Grinds Work?

Alto’s Odyssey has some new wrinkles, or should we say, features that aren’t available in the previous title, and these include vine grinds. These grinds are, in a way, similar to the flag grinds you may remember from Alto’s Adventure, as the vines are found hanging from poles and trees. But that’s where the similarity ends, because if you hang on to the vines for too long, they can break and end your run. Make sure you’re playing the game with the sound on, to warn you if the vines are at their breaking point; depending on your device, you may also feel it if a vine is about to break. Regardless, you will have some advance warning for you to jump to the next grind, or flip off of the vine in order for you to keep your combo string going.

13. The Basics Of Using The Wingsuit

For the whopping cost of 7,500 coins, you’ll be able to buy the wingsuit from Izel, allowing you to glide, instead of grinding through the game’s environments, while, of course, stringing together more tricks and adding to your combo. The wingsuit works best when Izel is using it — she invented it, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise — but each character’s suit has their own quirks that you can use to your advantage. Simply tap to activate the wingsuit once you’ve “unlocked” it by performing a specific number of tricks in a given amount of time, but take note that the wingsuit does not come with infinite fuel! You’ll need to pay a lot of coins in order to upgrade the wingsuit to allow it to last longer; you’ll start out at level 0, which really won’t offer you much, but if you spend on those upgrades, you can get the most out of the wingsuit and use it for as long as possible.

14. What Activates Or Extends The Wingsuit?

If you want to unlock, or activate the wingsuit for use as soon as possible, you’ll need to string together a rather impressive combo — one with an 8x multiplier or greater. It won’t be easy if you’re a beginner, but once you’ve gained enough experience pulling off tricks and stringing them together to form a combo, it should, at some point, become second nature.

Now if you’re trying to extend your wingsuit usage and refresh the fuel, you’ll need to create combo chains with 1x to 7x multipliers before the fuel runs out completely. And if you can’t pull off an 8x combo, you’ll need to end your chain/string before the timer ends, because if you don’t, you’ll need to start from scratch and reactivate the wingsuit by pulling off some impressively long chains.

Pro-tip: If you’re using an iPhone that has the 3D Touch feature, you can use it to activate the wingsuit (if available), and easily toggle between regular gameplay and gliding, while still playing the game with one hand. However, the quirks of 3D Touch mean that there will be some drawbacks to wingsuiting, and that could make it hard for you to string together the right kind of combo. If you want precision control when using your wingsuit, you’ll want to turn 3D Touch off for the meantime — go to the Settings menu on your iPhone, then uncheck the 3D Touch box, so you can enjoy more control and properly maneuver your wingsuit without the unexpected twists the feature could bring.

15. You Can Fly With Birds Of Paradise While Wearing The Wingsuit

We mentioned that lemurs can be a nuisance, but they won’t be the only form of wildlife you will encounter while sandboarding your way through those dunes, or simply making your way through the different environments in Alto’s Odyssey. However, you don’t need to worry too much about the Birds of Paradise, who will follow you while you’re in the air wearing your wingsuit, effectively giving you a “pet” of sorts that might be of help while you’re performing tricks.

16. Additional Tips For Increasing Your Score

As we mentioned earlier in this guide, the magic number for flying above the sand is 8 meters — anything within that range is considered proximity flying. That will reward you with some bonus points, and you’ll know that your score is adding up due to your being in that 8-meter range if you hear certain sound effects, including that of the sand just a few meters beneath you. Also, you’ll want to purchase the Compass for 4,000 coins, so that you can switch from biome to biome, albeit at the cost of 1,000 coins per switch. This is useful if you want to easily achieve different goals; for example, you may need to do some wall grinding in the Canyons, some vine grinds in the Dunes, or encounter some balloons in the Temples. You won’t always need to use this instrument, since biomes do switch automatically in intervals of 4,000 to 6,000 meters, but if there are specific goals you need to achieve, this can be very, very useful.

17. Try These Other Items Out From Izel’s Store

Most likely, you will be using the sandboard and the wingsuit more often than the other gadgets over at Izel’s store. The Compass, as we just mentioned, may be costly, but it has its merits. But there are other items you can check out, starting with the Magnet Timer and the Lotus Timer. The former can help you by automatically drawing coins fro the sand to add to your coin totals, and while it only costs 250 coins to purchase, you will end up paying a total of 16,750 coins if you want to fully level it up. The latter, while not technically a returning item from Alto’s Adventure, is a take on the Feather found in Adventure, as it allows you to fly just a few meters above the surface, while protecting you from falls and blowing up any rocks that you may encounter. Its base cost and total cost to upgrade are exactly the same as the Magnet Timer.

Anyone who wants to preserve their high score with a bit of an “insurance policy” against crashes can use the Helmet, which costs 1,500 coins, but can only be used once per purchase. Likewise, the Chasm Rescue tool does exactly as advertised, preventing you from falling down chasms by accidents. It costs 3,000 coins, and is also one-use-only.

Lastly, the Mysterious Radio and Signal Amplifier is quite the mouthful to say, read, and type, and it doesn’t come cheap either, costing you 5,000 coins. Using this item will allow it to draw a series of green crates that come with prizes inside. These crates may include items such as Magnet Timers, coins, and other freebies that would normally cost you some in-game currency. You can use the item’s Signal Amplifier feature to add to the number of crates you can pick up during your runs, with the first level costing you 500 coins, and a full upgrade setting you back by 9,000 coins.