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Chasers and runners
Nothing in Quad Chase moves at random. Every chaser that hunts you and every runner you hunt has a personality, and each one is a different problem rather than a harder version of the same one.
The game tells you who you are facing. Before each round, the intro names the personality and adds a short hint about its weakness. Reading that line is the cheapest improvement you can make to your game.
The chasers (when you are the evader)
All four chasers share one habit: they don't run at where you are, they run at where you are about to be. What differs is their speed, how far their lunge reaches and how often they can throw it.
THE RUNNER
Hint: keeps pace, watch the lunge.
The all-rounder, and the one you meet first. It runs about as fast as you and has a medium lunge on a medium cooldown. It is honest: it only fully commits when it lunges, so the lunge is the thing to watch. Sidestep it late, then use the couple of seconds it needs to recover.
THE LUNGER
Hint: slow feet, long lunges.
Slower than you on foot, but its lunge reaches further than the Runner's and comes back sooner, so it fires often. You can walk away from it, you just can't rest. Keep moving in long curves and save your dash for the lunge you can't step out of.
THE STALKER
Hint: fast but clumsy up close, sidestep it.
The fastest of the four, and it never lunges at all. It just keeps coming. You won't outrun it in a straight line, so don't try. Let it get close and step to the side at the last moment: it overshoots, and turning round costs it more than it costs you. Blocks are very good against it.
THE AMBUSHER
Hint: weak legs, leaps half the arena.
The slowest on foot, with by far the longest lunge: from a standing start it can cover half the arena. Distance doesn't make you safe from it; a clear line between you does the opposite. Keep a block between you and it, and when it does leap, it needs a while before it can leap again.
Two chasers at once
From round 8, most rounds send a second chaser, and the two flank you rather than queueing up behind each other: one comes at you while the other swings wide to cut off where you would run. Every third round stays a lone chase, so the pressure comes in waves. Against a pair, keep both in front of you and use blocks to take one out of the fight for a moment.
Elite chasers
From round 14, a chaser can arrive elite, marked with a gold ring. An elite feints: it charges its lunge and then holds it, to make you spend your dash on nothing. It also sees through a DECOY sooner, shaking off the ghost before it expires instead of chasing it for its whole life. Against an elite, react to the burst, never to the wind-up.
The runners (when you are the chaser)
On the chaser side the roles flip, and the runners have personalities of their own.
THE SPRINTER
Hint: raw speed, wide turns, cut the corner.
Faster than the other runners, but it turns wide. Chasing it in a straight line is hopeless. Watch which way it is curving and head for where the curve ends.
THE TRICKSTER
Hint: jukes hard, dashes often, bait the dash first.
A little slower, but it weaves constantly and its dash comes back quickly. Lunging at it while it still has a dash is a waste. Get close, let it spend the dash escaping you, and lunge in the short gap before it is ready again.
THE GHOST
Hint: calm and watchful, reads your wind-up early and won't take your snare bait.
It notices your lunge charging earlier than the others, from the very first rounds, and it ignores the lure your SNARE drops. Lunge from closer than feels comfortable, so that seeing it early doesn't buy it enough time.
THE ACROBAT
Hint: hugs the walls and rebounds, cut the angle, don't follow.
It runs along the walls and bounces off them. Following it along a wall is a chase you can't win. Stand off the wall and meet it where the rebound takes it.
Wilier runners and two at once
From round 14 every runner gets wilier: it spots your wind-up from further away and runs faster. From round 18 most rounds send out two runners. Catching one pays points and adds five seconds to the clock, which you'll want for the second. Only a clean double escape costs a life, but letting one go halves your combo.
Chasers in the Arena
In the Arena the same four personalities patrol the ordinary floors. The two floors before each boss are stalked by its junior, a "YOUNG GALE" before THE GALE for example, with the same instincts and less of everything, so you have learned to read it before the real fight. Beat a boss and its kind joins the ordinary chasers for the rest of the descent. The four bosses themselves each break one rule the ordinary chasers obey: THE GALE is faster than anything else, THE ANVIL never stops lunging, THE ORACLE goes where you are about to be from half the arena away, and THE VEIL fights in the dark. The boss guide covers each fight.
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