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Mario, driving himself up the wall.

In Real Life, if you throw yourself at a wall hard enough and spring off quickly enough, you can just about do a Wall Jump, propelling yourself even higher than your original jump. Once, sure. More if you're fit, or a Le Parkour expert like Jackie Chan.

Some Video Game Characters, however, have the speed, strength and stamina to Wall Jump all day. Give them two walls close enough together and they can wall jump repeatedly to climb up the shaft. Some need only one wall, by steering themselves back onto the wall they jumped off at a higher point, then jumping off again. Some video game characters would rather Wall Jump than use the stairs.

Also known as a "triangle jump", after the path traced during a typical Wall Jump. Part of Jump Physics. May be paired with Running on All Fours and Wall Crawl. Compare Building Swing.

The Ur Examples of this trope were the Sega Master System games Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (1990) and Ninja Gaiden (1992).


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Action Adventure 
  • In Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Giana can do this albeit only on certain walls.
  • In La-Mulana, after collecting a certain item, Lemeza can cling onto walls and kick off of them to reach platforms below him that he normally cannot reach. However, he doesn't gain height with wall jumps; wall jumping simply increases his horizontal speed when he falls off the wall.
  • In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, this is one of the after-Boss power-ups you get, each one being some kind of physical ability (mostly), that helps you advance.
  • Mirror's Edge has the wall jump and the wall run as staples of Faith's movement abilities. However, you can only wall jump or wall run once unless the walls are very close together (even then, the second jump really doesn't give you much extra height at all, and there's not much point).
  • Total Overdose: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico: Most of Ram's best-scoring gun kills come from springing off a wall, either by jumping into it and flipping back, or walking sideways up it and wheeling in air. Slow-mo is even slower during these moves, giving a higher rate of fire and more time to headshot more skulls. "King of the Wall!"
  • In Ōkami, Amaterasu can gain purchase on any smooth wall to perform a wall-jump. With the appropriate skills, she can do successive leaps.
  • Used by the protagonist in Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, perhaps justified by the "legendary pants" he gains the ability from?
  • Shadow Complex has this as one of the first upgrades, along with grabbing ledges.
  • Louie the Rabbit from Bomberman Hero can do this.
  • Eshe from Sundered has this ability, and she will jump further if the player presses in the direction that she’s jumping. She can also perform Mega Man X-style Wall Kicks in certain windy areas.
  • Misa Nikko from Feathery Ears can jump from wall to wall to get to higher places.

    Action Game 
  • Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. Lots of ninja games. In fact, ninjas love this stuff.
    • The original NES trilogy lacks a wall-jump mechanic, having instead a wall-clinging mechanic. The first Ninja Gaiden game with a proper wall-jump mechanic was Ninja Gaiden (1992) for the Sega Master System. The wall-jump mechanic was then later adopted by the 3D Ninja Gaiden games.
    • One particularly physics-defying example requires Ryu to scale a square well by wall running, jumping to the next wall, wall running, jumping to the next wall, and so on.
    • Then there's his ability to scale narrow shafts by repeatedly wall jumping back and forth between the walls.
  • Alex Kidd: The Ur-Example of this trope is the game, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, released for the Sega Master System in 1990.
  • This is officially named "Kick Jump" in the Devil May Cry series. While jumping and making contact with walls, the playable characters can bounce off walls by pressing the jump button again. However, this can only be performed once for each attempt; you cannot repeatedly bounce off from the same wall when you're already airborne, though it will fortunately reset when you land. This enables the character to reach higher locations even before the Air Hike ability is unlocked, but it can still be used alongside the latter.
  • The Matrix series uses this, both in the games and the movies.
  • Almost every video game incarnation of Batman, starting with the first NES game and the Game Boy version of Return of the Joker.
  • The Gunstar Heroes.
  • Strider:
    • Strider Hiryu. The NES game has problems with this due to sloppy controls, while the arcade version lets Hiryu cling to the wall with a grappling blade, Ninja Gaiden style. He gets the blade in Marvel vs. Capcom too, and even uses it for a throw.
    • Spider-Man can naturally jump and stick to walls. His first Super "Maximum Spider", starts off with him jumping against a wall and kicking off, before crossing the opponent up with a one-man wall-jumping Air Joust.
  • The player character from Ghostrunner can run along walls and bounce off them, on to another wall, and then bounce again. This is a key part of navigating Dharma Tower, and at times, you'll have to do this off of moving platforms, disintegrating platforms, and even platforms that you spin around with your Technopathy.

    Beat 'em Up 
  • In Final Fight, one of Guy's special attacks is his "Off-the-Wall" jump. Maki in Final Fight 2 also has this.
  • Judgment: A staple in Takayuki Yagami's moveset, and so far the only character in any RGG-developed game that is capable of such a feat. He even gets unique EX Actions depending on the style that he's fighting in. Other than Yagami himself, the Final Boss in the first game can also use this against Yagami, being a Mirror Boss of Yagami that combines elements from both of his movesets.

    Fighting Game 
  • Felicia in Darkstalkers can often jump off and cling to walls, but in true cat fashion, will start to slide down the wall if she stays too long.
  • Much like Felicia, Chipp Zanuff from Guilty Gear can jump off and cling to wall, but he also can perform certain specials from this position.
  • The King of Fighters: Similar to Street Fighter below, many sufficiently nimble characters have this as a part of their moveset (and it functions much the same way). The most notable examples include Mai Shiranui, Nakoruru, and Ramon.
  • Quinn from Pocket Rumble is able to do this and divebomb his opponents when jumping off.
  • Sufficiently nimble characters in the Street Fighter franchise (Chun-Li and Vega in Street Fighter II) have this ability. Curiously, it can be used from either edge of the screen, even when the fighters scroll to one side so that one "edge" is actually empty space.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • Super Smash Bros. Melee: Some of the characters can wall-jump. They are: Mario (but not Luigi or Doctor Mario) Fox, Falco, Samus, Captain Falcon, Sheik (but not Zelda) Young Link (but not regular Link) and Pichu (but not Pikachu). However, all characters can wall-tech jump if hit into a wall. This technique is the only way Young Link can even start (and then clear) his Target Test challenge.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
      • In the absence of Pichu, Pikachu can wall-jump now. Zero Suit Samus (but not regular Samus) was also added. However, wall jumps have diminishing gains in altitude until your feet hit something reasonably horizontal. This goes for everyone now. Just give Lucario a single wall as tall as you want, and he can go from bottom to top in a matter of seconds.
      • Squirtle, Lucario, Diddy Kong, and Sheik have the extra ability to stick to walls.
    • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U: More characters have the ability to do a wall jump such as Greninja and Little Mac, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate included Joker (DLC) as well.
  • Shanty the goat from Them's Fightin' Herds can attack by running up, clinging to, and jumping off of the screen's walls.

    First-Person Shooter 
  • The Hunter from Left 4 Dead is able to do this, though it takes practice and good timing.
  • Unreal Tournament 2004 is a then-rare FPS example. A wall-jump is performed by jumping near a wall, then "dodging" in the direction facing away from the wall. This carried on to Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict and Unreal Tournament III, and ups the ante by giving you the ability to Double Jump from wall-jumping. It's further enhanced by a mutator called multidodge. This allows for unlimited wall-jumping and, with enough frantic button bashing, wall-running
  • Portal 2 has Repulsion Gel, which normally lets you jump high, but if applied on opposite walls (or a wall and a Hard Light vertical bridge), let you jump off them for greater distance or height (depending on the layout of the walls).
  • In Warsow, wall jumping is an ability which is recommended to master.
  • V1 in ULTRAKILL can wall jump three times before having to land.
  • Player character in REAVER has unlimited wall jumps. Wall jumps also increase player's overall movement speed.
  • Turbo Overkill features the ability to wall jump, once the player has equipped an augment to do so.

    Platform Game 
  • Castle on the Coast: George can propel himself up walls by kicking them.
  • Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure: The eponymous character is equipped with suction cups in his hands, allowing him to not only jump between walls but also stick to them. Icy walls will slowly make him descend, as will certain metallic setpieces in the last regular level of the first episode. The special magenta walls that appear in the Bonus Stages cannot be attached to in any capacity, so the trope is averted in those levels.
  • Glam: Glam can slide down walls, as well as jump off of them.
  • Shantae: The Monkey transformation can cling to walls then jump off from them:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Super Mario 64: Starting from this game, Mario has earned the ability to jump between walls in the 3D installments (and in the Nintendo DS remake of 64 itself, he's the only character capable of doing so).
    • Super Mario Sunshine makes the technique much easier, as Mario will slide down the wall instead of bouncing his head off it, and the quirk was carried over since.
    • New Super Mario Bros.: The subseries integrated the ability to wall-jump into the 2D Super Mario games, though it was theoretically possible in the earlier installments due to glitchy collision checking.note  All other playable characters across the subseries (Luigi, all Toads, and Nabbit) can do it as well.
    • Super Mario Galaxy: The Spring Mushroom makes wall jumping faster, but also more unpredictable (since the spring coil will make Mario and Luigi bounce immediately upon contact with each wall).
    • Super Mario Maker: It is possible to perform wall jumps in the New Super Mario Bros. U game style (Super Mario Maker 2 makes it possible on the added Super Mario 3D World style as well), but not in the older ones as the ability wasn't present in their respective source materials.
    • Mario Tennis: This is taken further in Mario Tennis Aces as Mario can actually wall jump from thin air during his special shot.
  • Prince of Persia:
    • Taken to an absurd extent in Prince of Persia (2008). You rarely run more than 10 feet on any given piece of land; most of your travel is done by wall.
    • The Prince in the Sands of Time tetralogy can employ the inverse of this trope as well: if two walls are far enough apart, he can Wall Jump down the shaft.
  • Metroid:
    • Technically, the wall-jumping ability is taught to Samus Aran (and, by extension, the player) in Super Metroid by some creatures she finds in the caves, but she can use it from the beginning of the game. In Metroid: Zero Mission she even keeps this ability when she doesn't have her Power suit. In any case, wall jumping is usually 100% optional in the 2D entriesnote ; its main purpose in the aforementioned games is actually to facilitate Sequence Breaking, as mastery of the technique can allow you to climb up using a single wall indefinitely and break the game wide open. As a result, the mechanics of it differ greatly from most games, with the inputs needing to be sequenced rather than done simultaneously like in, say, Super Mario.
    • Metroid Prime Trilogy: In the later entries (namely Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption), the Screw Attack can be used to this effect on special wall surfaces.
    • In Metroid Dread, not only can Samus can jump off walls as usual, but Chozo Soldiers can also jump off a wall before doing a Ground Pound with their spears in an attempt to hit Samus. Fitting, given that Samus was herself raised by Chozo.
  • Mega Man:
    • Mega Man X: Wall Jump is exploited. Combined with the ability to change direction mid-air, X can do something called a wall kick, in which he reverses course back to a wall after a wall jump, allowing him to rapidly ascend a single wall by jumping up it. It is quite handy when dealing with bosses with ground-spamming attacks. Zero can also Wall Kick, as can anyone who can transform in the Mega Man ZX series.
    • Project × Zone: One of X's and Zero's limit breaks in the game has them attack while performing wall jumps... in mid-air, without the wall!
    • Several bosses in the series use this too, like Sigma from the first game, Flame Stag, Neon Tiger, Split Mushroom, Mattrex, Dark Mantis, etc. And when playing as Cut Man in Mega Man Powered Up, he has the ability to wall jump, though the game doesn't allow you to use like in other Mega Man games and you slide off icy surfaces.
  • This trope is used in various degrees throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog games:
    • In Knuckles Chaotix, this is Mighty's method of scaling.
    • Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog have the Triangle Jump, where Sonic, Shadow, and Espio have the ability to cling to a wall and use that to jump forward from wall to wall. Espio can cling to the wall indefinitely, while Sonic and Shadow fall down if they don't jump within a few seconds. As a result, their teammates can also do it, but only when controlled by the computer.
    • Starting with Sonic Unleashed, Sonic can use a more traditional Wall Jump, complete with a Mario Galaxy-esque slide down. Though the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 version requires getting the Wall Jump Shoes to use it, the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 2 version and every other 3D game afterwards has it available from the start. In Sonic Generations, it can only be done by Modern Sonic, and only from certain surfaces.
  • Used in a rather weird fashion in Ristar. Ristar can grab onto any surface in the game that isn't spiked or otherwise harmful to touch, but he can't hold on unless there are rungs or other handholds; otherwise, he will slam into it and bounce at an upward angle. However, by grabbing a wall over and over again in rapid succession, it is possible to bounce up the wall. Unlike the typical Wall Jump, only one wall is needed for this, although it can be done with two opposing walls as well. This move is impossible on Planet Freon, presumably because the walls are made of cold, slippery ice that causes Ristar to withdraw his hands in discomfort upon touching it.
  • I Wanna Be the Guy has certain walls you can wall jump off, and lots and lots and lots of other walls that kill you in nasty ways.
  • In N, you control a Ninja whose only real ability is this.
  • The title character in Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure can do this on any wall surface with his suction hands. Walls which happen to be made of ice make it maddeningly difficult, though. Fortunately, those only appear in a few levels.
  • Jumper series. This has become Ogmo's staple ability since Jumper Two.
  • Kirby
    • Kirby's Ninja ability in Kirby Super Star allows him to stick to walls and do a Triangle Jump. Of course, since he has unlimited flight, this is rather useless. However, in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, the Ninja ability returns, and some optional puzzles take advantage of the fact that Ninja Kirby can cling to walls and throw knives from his elevated position.
    • Kirby: Squeak Squad: Kirby can throw shuriken while sticking to walls; a much better attack overall than his weak air puffs and helpful in rooms full of flying enemies.
    • Kirby's Dream Land 3: Rick the Hamster, to make up for the fact he can't fly, can wall jump indefinitely with any single wall surface.
    • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards: Rock + Cutter gives the ability for Kirby to carve himself into the shape of his animal friends from Kirby's Dream Land 2 and 3; in Rick form, he can wall jump.
  • Toad Man, an example of an enemy of having this ability, abuses it in Rockman 4 Minus ∞.
  • InMomentum has wall jumps as a core game mechanic.
  • The first game of Fancy Pants Adventures has the wall jump as an unlockable ability for completing a challenge. The sequels retain that ability as part of normal gameplay.
  • In Super Meat Boy, you have so much air control, that you can wall jump on just one wall. Meat Boy can even jump higher from a wall than from the floor. The designers justified it by saying that he "push[es] with his legs AND his arms".
  • In Zen: Intergalactic Ninja, this is your main mode of travel during the sidescrolling levels, many of which are more vertical than horizontal, and many of your enemies are airborne.
  • Buster has this ability in Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The game's manual refers to this move as the "Super Jump".
  • In The Floor is Jelly, the protagonist has this ability and can even do this to climb up walls similar to the Mega Man examples above.
  • Luigi gains the ability to wall jump with the power of the Atheltic Peach in Something Else
  • The protagonist of 2 gains this ability after finding the Banner powerup.
  • In Rabi-Ribi, the Wall Jump item grants Erina the ability to do up to two wall jumps, with the first upgrade for it granting a third. Utilizing two hidden techniques, Erina can perform two wall jumps without the item. Mastering these techniques is essential for clearing the game without any items.
  • In Akane the Kunoichi, this is necessary for Akane to reach certain areas, including quite a few of the collectables. It's also necessary to defeat the final boss — you can't use it to reach her, but you can use it to get high enough to throw kunais at her.
  • In Ultimate Chicken Horse, characters slide down walls and can jump from this state to reach higher ground. The very loose Jump Physics mean that you can "climb" walls by wall-jumping, then turning around in mid-air and jumping off the same wall several times.
  • Wall jumping, combined with Wall Run, make up the majority of the action in Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void.
  • Rena from Grapple Force Rena can jump from wall to wall to get to higher places.
  • Funk Unplugged: Ampy has the power to jump from wall to wall to get up them.
  • Android Hunter A: A, being an Expy of Mega Man X, can do his wall kick ability to climb up walls.
  • Treasures Of The Aegean: Marie can jump off of walls as well as slide down them.
  • Psychonauts 2 adds a wall jump to Raz's moveset.
  • Twin Robots: The titular robots can hang off walls, and then jump off them.
  • Grey Area (2023): Hailey's dive is a lesser version of this. Diving into a wall will cause her to bounce diagonally back and upwards, letting her gain some height, but since she can only dive once per jump, you can only use this to gain a little bit of height, and the backwards momentum you get from this limits where you can land.
  • Pseudoregalia: The Sun Greaves allow Sybil to perform a kick in mid-air that serves as a wall jump should her kick connect with a wall, and can performed three times before touching the ground. Finding the Heliacal Power aspect adds an extra wall kick.

    Role-Playing Game 
  • In the first Mass Effect, several types of geth units (Ghosts, Hoppers, and Sappers) can do this.
  • Monster Girl Quest has the Demon Skull Beheading technique. The technique is originally used by monsters that can jump very high to perform a downward jump cut on an enemy's head. The protagonist, Luka, is a normal human, so he needs to do a jump-kick on a wall or other environments to make his jump high enough. That's to say, the move is totally unusable if Luka's fighting in a wide open area.
  • In Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], this is one of the Flowmotion actions you'll probably be using the most. It's also possible to scale a wall by repeatedly wall jumping up it, Mega Man X style.

    Sports Game 
  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater calls them Wall Plants where if you directly face the wall and ollie, you can jump against the wall and ride again for some momentum and a few extra points.

    Stealth-Based Game 
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • This is one of Altair's moves in Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles.
    • In Assassin's Creed II, (perhaps only after you get the jump-up-grab ability) you can run up a wall, then jump immediately to your left or right or backwards and grab onto something. It's kinda like an upside down "L".
    • The first game has this move as well, but only the run-up-wall-and-kick-off-backwards variant.
  • Sam Fisher can do this in the original Splinter Cell, either to perform a Goomba Stomp or, more often, as a run-up to a Split Jump. Later installments simplified the Split Jump into a single integrated manoeuvre.

    Third-Person Shooter 
  • In the Ghost in the Shell PS2 game, the major difference in play styles between the two characters is that Major Kusanagi can wall jump, up to twice, and Batou can't.
  • Used liberally in Double Action: Boogaloo as it's a send up of Heroic Bloodshed and Gun Fu series. You can jump off of walls... and other players. Players need to jump a lot in order to score "style points" and look badass.

    Wide-Open Sandbox 
  • [PROTOTYPE] features the Wall Latch ability that allows you to chain jumps upon contact with any wall, even the same one over and over again.
  • Saints Row IV features this as the main way to scale buildings... until you unlock Wall Sprint, that is.

Non-video game examples:

    Anime and Manga 
  • Captain Tsubasa:
    • Super Karate Goal Keeper Ken Wakashimazu has a triangle jump ability that he jump-kicks a goal post to launch himself further in the air.
    • Masao and Kazuo's Triangle Shot.
  • In the second episode of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Cures Black and White do this to climb back out of the elevator shaft that Pisard had trapped them inside.
  • In the film Kiki's Delivery Service, when Kiki's witch abilities start to fail her, she tries to propel herself into the air by kicking off a few buildings. She flies erratically with her "borrowed" broom, but she still musters enough courage to save Tombo after he falls out of a crashed dirigible.
  • In the supplementary manga set before Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Subaru performs one to catch a falling Teana after she accidentally throws the latter waaaay over the wall (and the surrounding rock-formations) during a wall-climbing exercise.
  • Ryoko Achakura attempts this in Haruhi-chan 10.
  • Nonomiya, the main character of Nononono, shows off her leg strength by casually Wall Jumping to catch a child's balloon.
  • Kekkaishi: Repeated battle tactic by the protaganists, helped by their abillity to create walls wherever they desire.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: In 2nd Gig, the Major is doing a training exercise with some rookies. She evades their surveillance by entering a public bathroom halfway up a skyscraper, opening its two-foot-by-two-foot window, and leaping between the skyscrapers to the roof.
  • Gunslinger Girl: Terrorists have seized a nuclear power plant and filled it with booby traps. Sandro realises they need to attack from an unexpected direction, so his cyborg Petra leaps up the outside of the reactor building (while it's snowing) using the rebar that's sticking out of the partially constructed building. Sandro can only think: "Damn it—what do you expect ME to do?"
  • Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia teaches himself to use One For All to climb by jumping between buildings in an alley. In the manga, he even compares it to Mega Man X. Tensei Ida/Ingenium is shown doing the same using the engines in his arms.

    Comic Books 
  • Ninjette and other ninjas from Empowered can do this.

    Films — Animated 
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Felix does one of these to avoid Calhoun's projectiles on his first trip into Hero's Duty.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature  
  • This is part of the urban mountaineering and parkour taught in the Guild of Assassins on the Discworld. Specifically, it is taught not so much to ascend, but as a means of slowing one's fall in a controlled descent, as mandated by the Emergency Drop.
  • It's revealed in Duumvirate that Sarah can do this between walls ten feet away.
  • The Cobras in Timothy Zahn's eponymous series are described training to use this method to descend between buildings, but it's implied that they can do it in the other direction as well.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Community: Abed performs a Matrix-style version during the episode Modern Warfare.
  • In the final episode of Season 2 of 24, Jack Bauer does this during the fight in the L.A. Coliseum with Peter Kingsley's goons.

    Manhwa 
  • In The Breaker, a martial artist attempts this to in order to run away from Chun Woo, who's out to kill him. Not that it works...

    Web Animation 
  • Battle for BFDI: When team A Better Name Than That found the emerald after digging deep down underground they grab it and all start to come back to the surface by jumping on their tunnel walls in Don't Dig Straight Down.
  • DSBT InsaniT: Killer does zig-zag wall jumps off the support beams of a roller coaster in order to place what are essentially energy versions of remote bombs so he can destroy a hunk of the roller coaster in combat.
  • T E T R I S ' D: The hero often bounds off of the sides of Tetris block towers in order to escape being crushed by the upcoming falling blocks.

    Webcomics 
  • In Hero Oh Hero, Burk does this to get at Logan when the latter starts flying.
  • Pacem of Lucid Spring uses it to get herself up and onto the bear attacking her.
  • Sleepless Domain: Chapter 19 opens with Undine and Heartful Punch on patrol in a narrow alleyway, when a small flying monster attacks them and promptly flees. Once Heartful Punch realizes what the monster just did to her, she leaps between the buildings and onto the city rooftops to give chase.

    Western Animation 
  • Kim Possible and Shego do it, both in the series itself and in some of the games based on the series.
  • In Teen Titans (2003), Robin does this, and his walls are falling rocks.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang wall jumps during the three-way fight "Chase". Azula demonstrated an even more impressive technique in "Day of The Black Sun: Eclipse" (which gets even more awesome once you remember she is not an airbender).
  • The title character of Jackie Chan Adventures.

    Real Life 
  • Australian Rules Football has the "speccy" (special) — where you literally Wall Jump off another player to catch the ball.
  • Cats, given their natural agility and speed, will do this when they feel the need. Or when they're chasing a laser pen.
  • The ringtail (resembles a cat but is actually a member of the raccoon family) can wall jump to climb canyon walls in the American Southwest.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Wall Kick

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Daigo Toake practices parkour by using two brick-based structure to hop from left to right and vice versa. He also does a wall jump.

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