What the dodge roll is
The dodge roll is the core movement in Enter the Gungeon. Perform it by pressing the dodge button (Right Click on keyboard and mouse, LB on a gamepad by default) while moving in a direction. You cannot change direction once the roll starts.
A roll lasts about 0.7 seconds. The first half is fully invulnerable — bullets and contact pass through you. The second half keeps moving but you are vulnerable to gunfire again. Reading that window is the whole skill: committing to a roll can put you in more danger than you started in if you mistime it.
What a roll actually does
- Dodges bullets. The first half grants i-frames through any projectile.
- Opens chests. Rolling into a chest opens it — this is how chests are opened, not by shooting them.
- Deals contact damage. Rolling into an enemy deals 3 damage and knocks them back (The Robot deals 4). During the invulnerable half you take no contact damage; during the second half you do.
- Kills weak enemies. Non-jammed Bullats, Shotgats and Grenats (3 HP or less) die to a roll in early chambers. Blobulins and Poisbulins die to rolls in any chamber.
- Puts out fire. Rolling reduces the fire status meter, eventually extinguishing it.
The reload myth
A common belief is that dodging reloads your gun. By itself it does not. The only source of that effect is the Easy Reload Bullets item, which loads a single bullet into the held gun’s magazine on each roll. Do not plan a run around free reloads you do not have.
Direction control
On keyboard and mouse you roll in the 8 cardinal directions only. On a gamepad the movement stick gives 360° control of the roll angle, which makes threading tight patterns far easier.