What the Co-Op Zip actually does
The Co-Op Zip is not simply a speed boost. It creates a large horizontal position offset, allowing one player to be displaced across parts of a level, through solid collision and, in some routes, past entire boss phases.
The useful version of the glitch is strongly tied to Globox. His unusually large collision box produces far more displacement than Rayman, the Princesses or the Teensies.
How the setup works
- Player 1 jumps onto Player 2's head.
- Player 2, using Globox for the full-distance version, turns around while holding Up as Player 1 lands.
- If the timing is correct, Player 1 is displaced horizontally across the screen.
The game still tries to reconcile Player 1's position with Player 2. If Player 1 remains in the zip until Globox finishes turning, the character can be snapped straight back to Player 2.
Attacking during the displacement and jumping out during the escape window breaks that snapback, allowing the displaced player to remain beyond walls or other barriers.
Why Globox matters
Rayman can produce only a small displacement, while the Teensies and Princesses barely produce a useful zip at all. Globox's collision and animation geometry create the enormous offset that makes the technique relevant to speedrunning.
This is one of several examples where Globox's oversized model is not merely cosmetic. His hitboxes and collision behaviour create routing options that the other character archetypes cannot reproduce.
Discovery, rediscovery and reverse engineering
Original documentation
The glitch was first documented in 2016 by Mario Expert 1999. The upload was obscure and the underlying mechanics were not widely understood, so the technique effectively disappeared from community knowledge.
Accidental rediscovery in 2020
In March 2020, Alexander TGS and Aiden accidentally reproduced the effect while experimenting with ordinary co-op boosts on Level 15 Invaded. Aiden was meant to use Globox and hold Up, but turned at exactly the moment Alexander landed on him, sending Alexander through the wall.
The clip was shared with the Rayman Legends community, where speedrunner and tech-hunter DJTHED tested the character variations, worked out the snapback behaviour and established how to escape the zip consistently. DJTHED published a technical breakdown shortly afterwards.
Impact on speedrunning
The Co-Op Zip changed several competitive routes. It can bypass large sections of levels, produce extremely fast Dojo times and skip the third phase of the World 4 boss in Co-Op Any%.
Because the full-distance version depends on Globox, the technique also helped turn Globox from an optional character choice into the standard character for optimized Co-Op Any% routing.
The later Boost-Zip evolution
The basic zip is primarily a position change: once the displacement finishes, the player does not automatically keep a huge amount of forward velocity. In 2021, Alexander TGS combined the zip with a traditional co-op boost so the game could stack the teleport-like displacement with boost momentum.
The resulting Boost-Zip launches the player at extreme speed and became especially destructive in 250-metre challenge routes.