Scarlet Skips Upgrades: All Cards, Tiers & Best Picks
The rule run footage and player commentary keep circling back to: take jump height and rocket fuel early for safety and airtime, never skip luck when it appears, add ropes once your rhythm is steady, and treat fire as powerful but expensive — it only pays off if you can keep reinforcing. Every level-up offers 1 of 3 random cards from a 10-card pool, so no two runs get the same shopping list. Nothing below is an official Yerk Games tier list — the studio has published card counts and example effects but no card names — so every specific pick is player-reported, and unusual claims are marked.
How level-ups and the card pool work
The only upgrade facts Yerk Games has officially confirmed live on the Steam store page. As of September 2026: exactly 10 upgrade cards, and three published effect examples — "increase jump height," "add a jump-rope," and "set it on fire." Steam has published no card names and no official pairing between those effects and specific cards.
Everything else comes from community guides and run footage:
- Level-ups arrive as you skip successfully; recorded runs show a level bar along the right edge of the screen.
- Each level-up pauses the action and shows three random power-ups; you pick one and the run continues. Guides note this lets players adapt rather than follow a fixed route.
- The card names below are read from the on-screen card UI in long-run footage; two separate recorded runs show the same names and effects.
- Footage names 7 of the 10 cards; an eighth, one that extinguishes fire, is referenced but never named; the rest is undocumented.
Every upgrade mentioned in the materials
This table covers every card the source materials name or clearly reference. "Rocket boots" is community shorthand for the rocket-fuel card.
| Card (name as shown in footage) | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Increase Jump Height | Makes Scarlet jump higher, adding clearance and airtime. | Blue card, feet icon. Matches the store's official "increase jump height" example. Guides note it improves clearance but changes airtime and landing rhythm. |
| Add Jump Rope | Adds another rope, so each jump passes more rope. | Matches the official "add a jump-rope" example. Footage reaches double and triple ropes; one player mused five ropes "might be insane." |
| Ignite Jump Rope | Sets a rope on fire and raises the visible flame multiplier. | Red card, flaming rope icon. Matches the official "set it on fire" example. Speedrunners call it extremely powerful but warn about "open flames." |
| Reinforce Jump Rope | Makes ropes sturdier; footage treats it as the card that keeps ropes from being lost. | Red card, heart-and-rope icon. Players call it constant "maintenance" once ropes burn and say that once every rope you own is reinforced, the card stops being offered. |
| Upgrade Rocket Fuel | Adds rocket fuel so holding the button keeps Scarlet airborne longer. | Purple card, shoe-and-flame icon. Players call it "rocket boots" — "the more fuel the better." |
| Increase Jump Rope Speed | Makes the rope or ropes spin faster. | Green card, fast-forward icon. Late-run card in most strategies; early speed is blamed for blunders. |
| Increase Luck | Increases luck; footage shows a "LUCKY" banner when it has been taken. | Green card, four-leaf clover icon. Exact effect is not documented anywhere official. |
| Fire-extinguishing card (name not documented) | Appears to put out a rope that has been ignited. | Referenced only in player talk. One speedrunner accidentally took it and called the result buggy, costing several upgrades to fix. |
Stacking rules
Scarlet Skips is a stacking game: guides are explicit that compatible upgrades stack, and recorded runs show multiple rocket-fuel picks, several jump-height picks, extra ropes, repeated ignitions, and repeated reinforcements in single runs.
What "stack" means in practice, based on footage:
- Same card, many times. Upgrade Rocket Fuel is the clearest example — players say you need roughly two fuel picks before the boots give a workable rhythm, and every extra pick adds fuel. Ignite stacks too, pushing the flame multiplier up each time.
- Extra ropes multiply with height. Taller jumps mean longer airtime, and longer airtime means every extra rope passes more times per jump. Runs celebrate "triple jump rope" the same way they celebrate a 5x multiplier.
- Fire multiplies on top of both. The flame multiplier climbs with ignition stacks, so a tall jumper with several burning ropes scores far more than the sum of the parts — and needs the most upkeep.
- Reinforcement has a cap. Players report that once every rope you own is reinforced, "that's the one perk you can't get anymore."
- Rope speed stacks too, and the risk stacks with it; one speedrunner spent minutes refusing speed offers.
The exact multiplier math is not published. Footage shows a flame-icon multiplier climbing x2, x3, x4, x5 across an early run and well past x100 in one marathon run; the formula behind it is Unconfirmed.
What each card is actually for
Jump height: margin
Jump height is the safety card. Guides say it improves clearance while shifting airtime and landing rhythm, and speedrunners want it for the same reason: "we need one more jump upgrade to really kick this into safety." It also enlarges the landing window, which one player called a strategy in itself.
Extra ropes: score volume
Every added rope means more rope passes per jump — more score and faster level-up progress. Volume runs push from one rope to double and triple. The tradeoff is complexity: guides warn that extra ropes create more complex patterns, and a rope added at the wrong moment can wreck a rhythm you already found.
Fire: risk versus reward
Ignite is the risk/reward card. Commentary is blunt about the upside — "the fire is so powerful, it's insane" — and the flame multiplier is what turns a long run into a monster score. The downside is "open flames": a burning rope is dangerous to clip, and one player called a near miss with fire almost disastrous. Because fire demands constant reinforcement, players only run it when they can afford the upkeep.
Rocket fuel: airtime and the foundation
Upgrade Rocket Fuel is the foundation card in speedrunning strategies. Players stack it before height: "the more we can increase rocket boots before we start jumping high, the better." Stacked high, holding the button keeps Scarlet airborne long enough for level-ups to trigger mid-air — where the strongest strategies begin.
Luck: the safe filler
Luck has no official description, and its exact effect is Unconfirmed. Footage shows a "LUCKY" indicator appearing after the card is taken, and players treat lucky runs as special. Run commentary advises taking it whenever offered — "it's better to get luck than to get an upgrade that's going to get us killed." Strategy write-ups claim luck yields more and better card offers per level-up, but that mechanic is player-reported and unverified.
Reinforcement and speed: maintenance versus pace
Reinforcement is the maintenance card that keeps an ignited, high-multiplier rope set alive. Increase Jump Rope Speed is the pace card saved for late: it banks more jumps per minute, but early speed is blamed for killing runs — "if you do it too early, you start blundering."
Best picks early vs late run
These priorities come from speedrun commentary and player write-ups, not the developer, so treat them as a fallback order:
- Very early: take jump height for margin, start stacking rocket fuel, and grab the first added rope once the base rhythm feels comfortable. Take luck over a card that could kill you.
- Mid-run: keep stacking rocket fuel before jumps get tall ("always increase rocket boots"), then spend on jump height. If fire appears, players prefer pairing it with reinforcement — one long-run plan was "four fires and four reinforcements in a row" — and they dislike carrying an open flame they cannot reinforce.
- Late run: once fuel and height are strong enough that several upgrades can land in a single jump, the talk shifts to ropes, then rope speed, with reinforcement as permanent upkeep. Speed is deliberately last: "I'll wait until it's forced on us."
- Throughout: adapt — every pick steers toward whatever foundation the run still lacks.
See the beginner guide for the early-run version of this advice.
Builds players talk about
No official builds exist, and no official record or leaderboard confirms any of these outperforms the others; they are community archetypes from run footage and player write-ups.
Rocket-boots float (infinite flight)
The most discussed long-run build is pure airtime: stack Upgrade Rocket Fuel heavily, add jump height, and hold the button so Scarlet floats instead of landing. The goal, in one player's words, is "a point where we can float long enough to get upgrades... that's when you start cooking" — every mid-air level-up leads straight into another float. Unconfirmed: the strategy write-up that popularized this build claims rocket boots refill their fuel every time you take an upgrade, letting a run chain multiple upgrades per jump. It is not visible in the run footage and has no official confirmation. The high-score guide covers how the same loop is used to chase score.
Multi-rope fire
The score-volume build: several ropes, a big flame multiplier, and constant reinforcement to keep the burning set alive. Runs on this path celebrate 5x as a milestone and call fire insane but expensive — "the only problem with the fire is the maintenance costs." Players also warn about the failure modes: too many ropes can break the rhythm, one misclicked card can undo the fire state, and an unreinforced open flame ends runs.
FAQ
Which upgrade should I pick first?
Player-reported consensus: jump height or rocket fuel on the first level-ups, luck if it appears, rope speed only once the run is stable. There is no official answer.
What does luck do?
Officially, nothing is documented. Footage shows a "LUCKY" indicator and players treat it as a win; the claim that it improves per-level-up card offers is Unconfirmed.
Why do players call it "rocket boots"?
The on-screen card is named Upgrade Rocket Fuel and shows a shoe-and-flame icon. "Rocket boots" is shorthand for the same card.
What is the flame multiplier?
A number with a flame icon that rises as you stack Ignite — x2, x3, x4, x5 in early footage, past x100 in one marathon run. Its formula is not published.
How many of the 10 cards are actually known?
Footage names 7: Increase Jump Height, Add Jump Rope, Ignite Jump Rope, Reinforce Jump Rope, Upgrade Rocket Fuel, Increase Jump Rope Speed, and Increase Luck. An eighth card that extinguishes fire is referenced but unnamed.
How do I get the only achievement?
Scarlet Skips has exactly 1 achievement: "Off to a Great Start." It fires when you fail your very first skip — let the rope hit Scarlet's feet instead of jumping. Since it is the only one, that completes the list in about ten seconds. The method comes from a single community guide and is Unconfirmed by a second source, though it fits the achievement's name.
Can fire be removed from a rope?
A card that extinguishes an ignited rope appears to exist but is never named in the materials. The one player caught on camera taking it called the interaction buggy and wasted several upgrades recovering — treat it with caution.