--Skip--

Searching for water-based Powers I found apoli:ignore_water.
I was using Elytra at the time and it caused me to "fly" under the water,
with all the physics and gravity of flight. It was super satisfying, but
needed some active boost, I would just glide to the seafloor.

I tried pixie dust to boost at first, which felt like an underwater Forge Sprite
(and indeed, they both apply the same velocity to their boosts)
So instead Elytra became conditional on dust, which fit with the thematic
"these creatures use dust to fly around"
This was satisfying, but a little weird. You could boost a lot, and have only
a little dust for gliding, or not really boost, and have a glide? It didn't
jive with the mobility-centric game design.

At this point Skip Sprite had water breathing, but aquatic origins that can't
breath underwater always catch my attention. So my lightbulb moment - make it
cost air. Air forces them to go above water, losing dust, which forces them
underwater, ad infinum. A (small) game loop, mechanics driving mechanics.

Geyser us my solution to allow them to start flyswimming at any point.
It also functions as a panic button (like Forge's push), and a substitute
for the seeming lack of surface mobility.

I say "seeming" because, if you are near a body of water, this Origin's skill
ceiling is *incredibly* high- probably the highest I've designed.

Let's break it down...
Gliding (in air) with full dust, is about a minute of flight time, 3x in rain.
Dashing uses air bubbles and will deplete all air in about 4.5 seconds.
Dash adds 0.3 speed, constantly.
Speed underwater is capped at 2.
If you're still reading, thanks, put a heart on the post :)

You might look at this and think
"oh, well if I can fly for a minute, why would I go back into water?"
- it's all about the max speed. Alternating between underwater and surface
flight, skipping, will keep you near the speed cap of 2. You will have to dash
in and out of water to have any mobility (though with rockets, this may be op).

Sun and Forge sprites are gated by dust - if they spam their mobility, they have
to wait to use it again. The Skip Sprite has infinite mobility while near a
body of water. The only limit is the skill of the player, thus high skill ceiling.
It could be unmatched if you play perfectly in the right conditions, and doesn't
have nearly the same weakness as Forge Sprite's with water.

I'm super proud of Skip Sprite specifically.
Thank you so much to Neville, the Fisherman of Stinky SMP,
for their testing, feedback, and insight into aquatic origins!
