SANABI Beginner Tips - Chain-Hook Movement and Combat

SANABI is a fast 2D action-platformer by WONDER POTION and NEOWIZ where almost everything flows through one tool: the General’s chain-hook prosthetic arm. It is how you cross gaps, climb, swing, strike enemies, dodge danger, and keep momentum through rooms that look impossible at first glance.

This guide focuses on the base SANABI campaign. It avoids late-story details and treats the later A Haunted Day spin-off DLC separately, because that content uses a different playable character with a different action style.

Essential Tips

1. Aim Before You Commit

SANABI rewards fast movement, but fast does not mean random. The chain-hook sends you toward the point or target you choose, so your first job in every room is to read the next safe latch, enemy, or wall before firing. If you are missing jumps, slow down for one attempt and watch what the room is asking from you.

The most reliable rhythm is simple: look, hook, swing, correct, then hook again. When you start mashing the hook because the room feels stressful, you usually lose control of your angle and arrive at the wrong height.

2. Use the Chain Arm as Movement and Weapon

Your arm is not a backup tool. It is the center of both traversal and combat. In platforming spaces, it carries you across gaps and around hazards. In combat rooms, it lets you zip into enemies and keep moving after the hit.

Treat enemies as part of the route. A safe attack can also become a midair reposition, and a good bounce after a defeated enemy can set up the next swing. When a room locks you in until every enemy is gone, plan a path through targets instead of fighting them as separate chores.

3. Boost to Extend Swings

Boosting gives your movement extra reach and speed. Use it to carry a swing farther, clear a long gap, or recover when your first hook angle is short. The mistake is boosting at the start of every motion; that often launches you past the clean line.

Practice boosting at the middle or end of a swing, when you already know your direction. Once that timing feels natural, you can use boost as a correction tool rather than a panic button.

4. Respect Walls That Reject the Hook

Not every wall behaves the same way. Some surfaces accept the arm and let you climb or swing; others reject it and force the arm back. When the arm retracts, do not keep firing at the same spot. Look for the next valid latch, a platform edge, an enemy, or a route through hooks and moving objects.

This matters most in longer rooms. One rejected hook can be harmless if you react calmly, but repeated attempts at the wrong wall usually cost your height, your timing, and your health.

5. Watch for Temporary Platforms

Some early platforms drop after you hook onto them or stand on them. When a platform starts falling, commit to the next move instead of trying to settle your footing. SANABI often wants you to touch a surface only long enough to redirect.

If you keep falling in the same place, stop trying to stand still there. Enter with more momentum, land lighter, and have the next hook target already chosen before the platform gives way.

6. Attack From the Right Angle

Many enemies can be handled by zipping straight into them, but not all of them should be approached from the front. Some encounters are safer if you dodge first, strike from behind, or use the room’s hazard layout to your advantage.

When a direct attack keeps getting punished, assume the enemy is teaching positioning. Change your height, cross over it, bait an action, or attack after it has committed. A clean angle is usually stronger than a faster button press.

7. Touch Checkpoints Deliberately

Checkpoints are generous only if you actually trigger them. SANABI can ask for a long, clean chain of jumps, hooks, hazards, and enemy clears, so do not rush past a checkpoint marker just because you are carrying speed.

Make checkpoint touches part of your route. If you die after a great stretch and restart farther back than expected, the lesson is not just “play better.” It is also “confirm the checkpoint before pushing ahead.”

8. Treat Red Hazard Zones as Route Boundaries

Danger fields and laser-style hazards are not background decoration. They define the safe line through the room. If you clip one, the knockback and slowdown can trap you, especially when the room is already moving around you.

Look for the intended path around these spaces before trying to brute-force through them. Advanced movement can bend some hazard rules, but for a first clear, consistency matters more than flashy shortcuts.

9. Use Invincibility Windows With Intent

SANABI gives you brief safety moments around damage recovery and movement tech, and skilled players can use boost timing to pass through some dangerous situations. Do not make that your default survival plan right away.

First, learn the ordinary route. Then practice invincibility timing in places where you can repeat the setup quickly. Used well, it saves a run. Used blindly, it becomes another way to fly into a worse position.

10. Let Mari’s Help Shape Your Priorities

Mari is not just story noise. Her role includes opening locked doors, revealing enemy weaknesses, and handling encrypted information. When the game pauses around her dialogue or assistance, pay attention to what the scene is changing in the room.

That does not mean you need to overthink every line. It means that when a door, enemy, or route suddenly becomes readable, fold that information into your next movement plan instead of rushing back into old habits.

11. Approach Bosses Like Movement Puzzles

Bosses are not only damage races. Some fights test pattern reading, target recognition, survival routes, or how well you can keep swinging while the arena changes. If you lose near the end, expect to restart the fight, but use the previous attempt to identify which phase or attack actually broke your route.

On a retry, do not change everything. Fix one problem: your opening position, your attack angle, your boost timing, or your response to one repeated hazard. Small improvements stack quickly.

12. Separate Base-Game Habits From DLC Habits

The base campaign is built around the General’s chain-hook arm. The A Haunted Day spin-off DLC centers on Major Song and a different aerial combat kit. If you move between them, do not assume the same inputs, recovery options, or attack priorities apply.

For a first SANABI clear, build muscle memory around the chain hook, boost, enemy latch attacks, checkpoint rhythm, and room reading. Save DLC-specific habits for that mode.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Do not fire the hook without checking the target - Bad aim turns clean rooms into accidental detours.

2. Do not treat enemies as interruptions - Many enemies are also movement anchors and route links.

3. Do not boost at every possible moment - Extra speed helps only when your angle is already useful.

4. Do not keep attacking a rejected wall - If the arm retracts, look for a different route immediately.

5. Do not stand on unstable platforms - Use them as brief redirects and move before they drop.

6. Do not force frontal attacks on every enemy - Some threats are safer from behind, above, or after a dodge.

7. Do not rush past checkpoints - A checkpoint only helps after you deliberately touch it.

8. Do not rely on hazard invincibility before learning the room - Movement tech works best after you know the basic path.

9. Do not skip all story context on a first run - The game uses story beats to frame routes, allies, and enemy information.

10. Do not carry DLC assumptions into the base campaign - Major Song’s toolkit is not the General’s chain-hook toolkit.

Summary

Category	Top Tip
Movement	Aim first, then hook with a planned exit
Combat	Route through enemies instead of stopping for them
Boosting	Use boost to extend or correct a swing
Hazards	Read red zones as boundaries for the safe path
Platforms	Move quickly when a platform starts falling
Checkpoints	Touch them deliberately before pushing ahead
Bosses	Solve one pattern problem per retry
DLC Scope	Keep Major Song habits separate from the base campaign