In this method you run off the far end of the bridge from either the right corner of the lower deck, or the bridge support, and bounce off the ledge then a rock near the Warthog. Suitable only for PAL.

Full description

You have two possible run-off spots here but I'll deal with what may be the best one first. Go to the far end of the lower deck and run off the right corner - just like in the tree and rock method except on the other side. Hit the ledge at the back just the right distance along, and bounce off towards the rock which is just to the left of the Warthog - the 'hog rock' as I'm calling it. You can crouch at the ledge if you want to take some of your speed off, but maybe you won't want to. You should crouch as you hit the rock though.

As for where to hit the rock, you tend to be coming in from a rather high angle and your best chance of success may be to hit it on the back left or right, in which case you may want to rotate yourself as you come in so you stay facing the rock. It would be nice if you could come in at a more shallow angle to hit the front left or front right of the rock, but that seems extremely hard.

Your rock will have been randomly chosen from among five designs at the last loading point, and your chance of survival will depend on which rock you've got. One of the two tall ones seemed the clear favourite to me; I had little to no success with the others.

An alternative run-off spot is the bridge support stuck into the wall, which was recommended for the hog method, (in which you end up bouncing off the hog). When I originally tried this, I felt that it was harder to target the rock, so I favoured the deck. After further experience however, in which I had a very hard time surviving from the deck, I'm not so sure which run-off spot is best. An advantage of the bridge support is that you probably stand significantly more chance of being able to land by hitting the front left or right side of the rock.

Although this method has obvious similarities with the hog method, the target objects are qualitatively different, my advice about the run-off spot is different, and it's far harder to survive. So I've treated it as a separate method.

I'll just mention that it's actually possible to instead get cushioned by the smaller rock just beyond the hog rock. That happened to me once by accident when I overshot my target. Going for the small rock on purpose could be considered a variation of the method, but the chances of survival would be remote even with the friendliest rock, so it's barely worth considering.

Checkpoint advice

To make things as easy as possible for repeat attempts, get a delayed checkpoint once you're at your run-off spot. If you're using the bridge support, see my more detailed advice given for the hog method.

Difficulty and system differences

First the situation for PAL. Regardless of which run-off spot you use, this method seems much harder than the one where you get cushioned by the nearby hog, and you're likely to be in for a lot of frustration. I find the targeting harder, and impact survival more fickle. Things also depend on which rock you've got, and with four of the five possible designs I had little or no success. There are two tall ones which look quite similar. One of those is seen in BCM11 at 3:28 and was the rock I had most success with.

As for NTSC and PC, the game will probably kill you before you reach the ledge, even if you use the bridge support for your run-off spot. And even if you somehow managed to bounce off the ledge ok, I suspect you'd be killed before reaching the rock.

History and links

The origin of this method is unclear to me. I found it for myself after succeeding in getting cushioned by the hog, but anyone exploring that possibility would probably have tried their luck with the rock too, and since the hog method maybe goes as far back as 2002, the same could well be true of this rock method.

In March 2009, 3rd Person showed a movie of a successful descent from the bridge support, made while he only had three health bars left. He makes a perfect landing off the side of the rock. That's the earliest I've seen the method mentioned or shown.

You can see the method demonstrated near the end of BCM11 (starting around 3:21), a movie advertised in the HBO forum here. There are four painful landings using the upper deck as the run-off point, then a better landing from the bridge support.

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