If you've spent more than five minutes sprinting through the dark hallways of the mall, you already know that nico's nextbots speed is the only thing that actually matters when a giant, floating PNG of Sanic is screaming in your ear. It's that frantic, heart-pounding velocity that defines the entire experience. You aren't just playing a horror game; you're playing a high-stakes game of tag where the "it" is a relentless AI that never gets tired, never misses a turn, and moves significantly faster than your casual stroll.
Understanding how speed works in this game is the difference between making it to the safe room and becoming another casualty in the kill feed. It's not just about holding down the shift key and hoping for the best. There's a specific rhythm to the movement that you have to master if you want to survive for more than thirty seconds.
Why the Bots Feel So Fast
Let's be honest: the first time you see a nextbot coming at you from across the map, it feels like they're cheating. Their base speed is tuned to be just slightly faster than your default walking speed, and they have the advantage of perfect pathfinding. While you're fumbling with your keyboard trying to remember which way the exit is, they're calculating the shortest possible line to your current coordinates.
The thing about nico's nextbots speed is that it's consistent. They don't have a stamina bar. They don't get tripped up by small props on the floor, and they certainly don't hesitate at corners. This creates a constant pressure. You can't just outrun them by moving in a straight line for five miles because, eventually, you'll hit a wall or run out of space, and they'll still be right behind you at that same, terrifyingly high velocity.
The Perception of Speed
Interestingly, different bots can feel faster even if their coded speed is identical. It usually comes down to the audio. When you hear the distorted music of a bot like "Obunga" or "Selene Delgado" getting louder and more distorted, your brain panics. This panic usually leads to mistakes—like running into a dead end or failing to time a jump—which makes the bot seem much faster than it actually is. In reality, you have the tools to stay ahead; you just have to use them correctly.
Mastering Player Movement and Momentum
If you want to beat nico's nextbots speed, you have to understand momentum. The movement system in Nico's Nextbots isn't like your standard Roblox obby. It's got a bit of weight to it, and it rewards players who know how to chain movements together.
Sprinting is your bread and butter, obviously. But just holding Shift isn't going to save you forever. The game uses a physics-based system where your character takes a second to accelerate to top speed. If you keep stopping and starting, you're never going to hit that peak velocity needed to clear a long hallway before a bot catches up.
The Art of the Slide
One of the most important mechanics for gaining a quick burst of speed is the slide. By hitting the crouch key while you're already sprinting, your character will drop into a low slide. This is incredibly useful for a few reasons. First, it can help you duck under certain obstacles, but more importantly, it gives you a slight directional boost if timed right.
Experienced players use the slide to "kickstart" their momentum or to navigate tight corners without losing too much velocity. If you just try to turn a 90-degree corner while sprinting, you'll notice your character swings wide, almost like a car drifting. Sliding into the turn can help you keep your trajectory tighter, keeping you just out of reach of the bot's hitbox.
Bunny Hopping for Survival
If you've played games like GMod or older Source engine shooters, you might be familiar with the concept of B-hopping. In Nico's Nextbots, jumping while maintaining forward momentum is key. If you time your jumps correctly as soon as you hit the ground, you can maintain your sprint speed more effectively than if you were just running on flat ground.
It's a bit of a learning curve, and you'll probably mess it up and get caught a few times while practicing, but once it clicks, the game changes. You start seeing the map not as a series of rooms, but as a racetrack.
Map Knowledge and Environmental Speed
You can have the best movement skills in the world, but if you run into a bathroom with no windows, your nico's nextbots speed advantage is effectively zero. Map knowledge is the silent partner of movement speed.
Each map, from the Mall to the Parking Garage, has its own "speed traps." These are areas where the geometry makes it hard to maintain momentum. Tight stairwells, cluttered storage rooms, and narrow doorways are where most players die. The bots don't care about clutter; they glide right through or around it. You, on the other hand, can get snagged on a rogue trash can or a chair.
Using Elevators and Lifts
Verticality is a great way to reset the chase. Taking an elevator or jumping down a floor (if you can survive the fall) forces the bot to recalculate its path. While the bot is busy finding the stairs, you can use that time to build up your momentum again. Just remember that some bots are smarter than others at navigating stairs, so don't get too comfortable just because you're on a different floor.
The Role of Lag and Performance
It's hard to talk about nico's nextbots speed without mentioning the technical side of things. Since this is a Roblox-based game, your frame rate and ping play a massive role in how fast you feel. If you're playing on a toaster with 15 frames per second, your inputs are going to feel sluggish. You might think you've timed a slide perfectly, but the server sees you standing still for a fraction of a second—and that's all a nextbot needs.
If you're serious about surviving long chases, lowering your graphics settings can actually help your "functional" speed. A smoother frame rate means more responsive movement, which makes it much easier to pull off the advanced maneuvers like B-hopping or tight cornering.
Keeping Your Cool Under Pressure
At the end of the day, the biggest factor affecting your speed isn't a mechanic at all—it's your nerves. The game is designed to be overstimulating. The loud music, the shaking screen, and the visual of a bizarre face flying toward you are all meant to make you mess up.
When you panic, you tend to mash keys. You might accidentally toggle off your sprint or jump into a wall. The best players are the ones who stay calm. They treat the chase like a rhythm game. They hear the music get louder, they know exactly how much distance they have, and they use their knowledge of nico's nextbots speed to stay exactly one step ahead.
It's a weirdly addictive cycle. You die, you learn a little more about how the momentum works, and you jump back in. Maybe this time you'll slide through that doorway just as the door closes, or you'll successfully B-hop across the entire food court. Whatever happens, just remember: don't stop moving. The second you lose your momentum, it's game over.