What the anniversary update actually changes
Super Dash is a held roll: keep the roll button down and Otus keeps accelerating in the direction he faces. Auto-aim locks the gunner onto the nearest target as soon as you move with the arrow keys, so a second stick is optional.
The changelog tells you what was added. This page is about how the anniversary update actually plays: what Super Dash does to movement, what auto-aim takes away, and which of the four toggles are worth turning on for a first run.
The short version: the update makes Owlboy playable with a keyboard alone, makes moving across a room faster, and removes a lot of the small interruptions that made the 2016 build feel stop-start. It does not change the structure of the game. The full changelog is separate if you want the raw list.
Super Dash: hold, don't tap
Before the update, rolling was a tap. You tapped the roll button, Otus did a short dodge, and if you wanted to cross a room quickly you tapped again and again. The anniversary build changes the input: hold the roll button and Otus keeps accelerating in the direction he is facing, leaving a puff of smoke behind him.
Three things follow from that:
- Ground travel is faster, because you no longer lose speed between taps.
- The dodge still exists. A short tap behaves like the old roll, which matters for dodging boss attacks.
- Holding the button into a wall or a ledge wastes the dash. Release before you land.
The official announcement describes it as an alternative to "spamming the roll button". In practice it is the single biggest quality-of-life change in the patch, and it is the one you will use in every area, including the gravity platforming in the Floating Tower.
Auto-aim: what it locks onto
Auto-aim is a toggle, not a replacement. With it on, the gunner snaps to the nearest valid target as soon as you move Otus with the arrow keys or the left stick. The second stick still works for manual aim, so you can leave auto-aim on and still fine-aim when a boss has a small weak point.
What it does not do:
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does it choose which gunner to fire? | No. Q and E still switch gunners |
| Does it aim at destructible scenery? | It targets enemies; puzzles that need a specific object still need positioning |
| Does it work with the mouse? | Mouse aim remains available; auto-aim is the fallback for keyboard-only play |
| Can I turn it off mid-boss? | Yes, it is an Options menu toggle |
The developer's reason for adding it is unusually candid: the lead had carpal tunnel and found mouse aiming painful, and the original two-stick requirement was the most common complaint in reviews. The result is that the game is now fully playable on a laptop trackpad.
ZXC: the keyboard layout
The update adds three letter-key actions on top of the existing keyboard scheme. The full table, including the older bindings, is on the controls page; the short version:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Z | Interact, throw, cancel |
| X | Shoot, teleport gunner, confirm |
| C | Spin attack |
| F | Fast-forward cutscenes |
| Space | Roll and Super Dash |
| Q / E | Switch gunner |
The important detail is that X does double duty: if you are not carrying a gunner, pressing X teleports the selected one into Otus's hands and fires. That is what makes keyboard-only play work without a separate "call gunner" button.
Fast-forward and cutscene skips
Holding F (or the right bumper) speeds up cutscenes. Separately, the update removed several cutscenes entirely, mostly the ones attached to entering and closing doors. Those are different changes and they stack: the doors no longer stop you, and the scenes that remain can be skipped.
For a returning player this is the difference between a replay and a chore. The 2016 opening in Vellie has several door transitions that used to interrupt the first ten minutes; they are gone.
The toggles, in order of usefulness
- Auto-aim — turn it on for keyboard play, leave it off if you like manual aim.
- Drop Gunner On Dodge — useful in tight platforming, harmless elsewhere.
- Screenshake — off if you play with headphones and motion bothers you.
- Flash Effects — off if flashing screens are a problem; bosses flash a lot.
Each is explained with its trade-offs on the accessibility settings page.
Should you replay for the update?
If you finished Owlboy in 2016 and remember the story, the update is a comfort patch rather than a reason to replay the whole game. The Speed-runner Mode is the exception: it is aimed exactly at people who already know the route and want the old movement back.
If you bounced off the controls, this is the version to try. The combination of auto-aim, Super Dash and removed door cutscenes fixes the three most common complaints in one patch.
Before and after, in one table
| Situation | 2016 build | Anniversary build |
|---|---|---|
| Crossing a flat room | Tap roll repeatedly | Hold roll for Super Dash |
| Aiming with a pad | Second stick required | Auto-aim toggle, stick still works |
| Opening a door | Short cutscene, control locked | No scene, control kept |
| Missing a jump | Fly back and retry | Dash recovery is faster |
| Fire room | Health drains while touching fire | No drain, only contact damage |
| Stealth section | Pirates wake up again | Permanent stun options |
The table is the honest summary of the patch. Nothing in the right column changes what the game is; it changes how much friction sits between you and the next room.
The first hour after the update
Start a new save and the differences show up immediately. Otus leaves the house, the door does not stop him, and the walk to Asio is uninterrupted. The first Geddy section plays the same, but the dash makes the trip back across Vellie shorter.
The one place the update can confuse a new player is the ZXC layout. If you press Z expecting to jump, nothing happens: Z is interact and throw. Flight has no jump button at all. The controls page exists because that trips people up, and the beginner guide walks through the first ten minutes with the new bindings.
_Checked 2026-11-03 against the Steam news posts of 2026-10-01 and 2026-11-01 and the developer's alpha notes of 2017-11-22._