Updated to 17/12/2025 patch. (Australian time). Consider me back for a little bit. -compsoter
Created by compsoter
Maintained by compsoter, Acurrz, bonclide, dimeq, noct, monster_domosed, millie, and karebu
Hosted by .k8ict
Artechs asked to be somewhere on the wiki.
This is an old revision of the document!
AnimGraph2 is a new, more optimised animation system implemented in certain Source 2 games. AnimGraph2 is intended to replace the older, less optimised AnimGraph system.
During the switch to AnimGraph2, certain animations have had their properties changed, resulting in strange or unusual interactions compared to the rest of the cast. As of current writing, everyone has transitioned to AnimGraph2.
Ag2Dashing (short for AnimGraph 2 Dashing) is a technique that allows you to gain large amounts of velocity out of a dash slide through certain pre-requisites, those being match time and dash bucket.
Ag2Dashing can only be done in select timeslots, or windows, for reasons currently unknown. These timeslots are the same across characters in the same dash bucket.
When Ag2Dashing, you will dash slide with a large amount of velocity (for dash bucket 1, ~1123±10 u/s; for bucket 2, ~1080±20 u/s; for bucket 3, ~1075±10 u/s), after which, after a short period of time, you will be able to jump out of for greater conservation of speed. If you do not jump, large slide friction will set in at the regular time.
Ag2Dashing, with the right execution and appropriate method, can be extremely effective; high speed and low barriers (i.e. needing a slope and one stamina) allow it to become a superb chasing or escape tool.
There are multiple methods to Ag2Dash, which are listed below the timeslots.
Ag2Dashing only works during set times in the match and is dash bucket dependant.
| Bucket | 1st Time Window | 2nd Time Window | 3rd Time Window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bucket 1 | 0:00–0:15 | 0:30–1:01 | 2:05–34:03 |
| Bucket 2 | 0:00–0:05 | 2:05–17:01 | 34:03 onwards |
| Bucket 3 | 0:00–0:15 | 1:19–4:12 | 17:03–68:16 |
| Regular Method | |
|---|---|
By dashing and then on the subsequent tick, sliding, you can execute an Ag2Dash. This method has the least obstacles to execution but requires tick perfect inputs.
If you press dash and crouch on the same tick instead of one after the other, you execute a worse variation that does not put you in the slide state colloquially called “g2shitdash”. This variation has no benefits.
| Slide Storage Method | |
|---|---|
You can utilise Slide Storage to execute an Ag2Dash. This method is extremely lenient in its timing window and is extremely consistent compared to the regular method. This method requires you to either come to a standstill and use the backwards movement key, which might not be desirable depending on the situation; or to bind dash to scroll wheel or dash tick perfectly to avoid sliding before dashing.
To execute an Ag2Dash using Slide Storage, jump in the air, hold crouch. Upon landing, press any cardinal direction and dash. This method becomes considerably more consistent if you hold the backwards movement key while on the slope to avoid sliding before dashing, but can be circumvented by binding dash to the scroll wheel (this will allow you to use slide storage method without pressing the backwards movement key) or by dashing tick perfectly.
| Poster Method | |
|---|---|
You can use the campaign posters from the Old Gods, New Blood update to execute an Ag2Dash. This method is a variation on the slide storage method which uses the posters to stop you from sliding and force you to stand up
This method can also be done by instead using a light melee, although the light melee method requires you to
To execute an Ag2Dash using posters, be on a slope. Jump in the air, look down and place down a poster. Upon landing, press any cardinal direction and dash. If you bind dash to scroll wheel and spin it when you land, you can eliminate the chance that you might instead slide.
| Air Dash Method | |
|---|---|
The air dash method is another variation of the Slide Storage method that utilises an air dash in order to prevent dashing early.
To execute an Ag2Dash using an air dash, jump in the air and air dash. Hold crouch and upon landing, press any cardinal direction and dash. It is heavily encouraged to set scroll wheel to dash and to spin it when landing, or to spam the dash key.
On the 23rd of March 2020, Valve released Half Life: Alyx, the third instalment in the Half Life series. Alyx utilised a new data driven skeletal animation system called AnimGraph to realistically control how the non-player-characters moved throughout the world, the specifics of which will not be covered here, but can be read about on Valve's developer portal.
AnimGraph worked well for the singeplayer Half Life: Alyx, but was ill-equipped for multiplayer games due to networking and bandwidth issues. To combat this, Valve worked on a sequel to this system, AnimGraph 2.
AnimGraph 2 would be quietly worked on and implemented into Deadlock from late 2024 into the middle of 2025, culminating in 
Dynamo, 
Kelvin, and 
Ivy quietly being converted to use AnimGraph 2 during the months of June and July.
This push introduced the regular method of Ag2Dashing. Ag2Dashing would go under the radar for a few weeks until a few community clips surfaced with Ag2Dashing in it, at that time unnamed.
The first mention of the term “Ag2Dash” would be the Deadlock Movement Wiki page written by compsoter on the 10th of July 2025, initially thought of as an oddity4). At this time, only the three characters could Ag2Dash, that being the three with Animgraph 2 enabled. At this point, everyone shared the same timeslot: 0:00—0:30, 2:05—8:30 then 34:05 onwards.
On the 07-29-2025 update, dash speed became character dependant, resulting in the current dash buckets we have now. The timeslots changed, but it is unclear what they were or if they were the same as they are now (at the time, Ag2Dashing was not thought to be related to the dash buckets).
On the Six New Heroes update, Valve converted 
Abrams, 
Bebop, 
Billy, 
Holliday, 
Lady Geist, 
Lash, 
Mirage, 
Mo + Krill, 
Pocket, 
Seven, 
Sinclair, 
Vindicta, 
Vyper and 
Warden to AnimGraph 2. Consequently, these characters gained the ability to Ag2Dash.
On the Old Gods, New Blood update, Valve converted all remaining characters to AnimGraph 2. Consequently, those characters gained the ability to Ag2Dash.
Ag2Dash timeslots became unclear during this time due to a lack of testing, and wouldn't be tested until January 2026, when compsoter tested various characters and concluded that Ag2Dashing was tied to dash buckets, resulting in the current timeslots we have now.
On the 2nd of Feburary, the community member Acurrz noted that you could Ag2Dash by jumping back, holding crouch then dashing when you landed, leading to the discovery of other methods; on the 15th, mikoboy discovered the poster and air dash method, followed by .lithium_ using scrollwheel with the slide storage method.
