Brawlhalla - 5 Useful Tips to Know as a Beginner
Brawlhalla is a very fast-paced free form fighting game inspired by Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. franchise. And in the same vein as Nintendo’s game, the matches are often over in a couple of minutes, or perhaps even seconds if one player manages to dominate the other. For this reason, it’s fair to say that this is not a beginner-friendly game, but when you do manage to learn the ropes, it suddenly becomes one of the most rewarding experiences you can have with a videogame, period. Just take a look at these high-level plays courtesy of Youtube channel Haemo:
Admittedly, however, it’ll be a long time before you can achieve this level of gameplay, and the journey will probably be rife with hardships and crushing defeats. Nevertheless, losing can also leave you valuable lessons, as long as you pay attention. In this sense, we wanted to share a few beginner tips and tricks for Brawlhalla so that you can get started on the right path.
Practice the Fundamentals
The “Fundamentals” in fighting games refer to a series of concepts that players must learn before being able to advance to higher levels of gameplay. After all, you can’t build a skyscraper before you set its foundations. Similarly, you can’t learn to execute long strings of combos if you don’t even know how to move, control the arena, or don’t even know the proper spacing and reaches of your weapon.
One of the most important fundamentals, however, is the footsies, which is something that takes place mostly during the neutral game; that is, when neither player has landed a hit and they’re both trying to open up the enemy’s defenses to initiate a combo. Footsies consist of mostly moving and running around reacting to your enemy’s movements to avoid getting hit, while also trying to creep closer and landing a hit yourself. The first hit after a bout of footsies is often called a “confirm”, and depending on the type of attack, as well as the player’s skill level, these can open the receiving player up for additional attacks.
A good way to practice the fundamentals in Brawlhalla is simply by joining a training session against a bot, and set them to the hardest difficulty. It’ll suck at first, but you’ll quickly start to adjust to the movement and will be able to start dodging their attacks. Eventually, you’ll know how to counter and land your own blows.
Learn to Recover
Another vital aspect of Brawlhalla is the aerial game—not only for offensive purposes, but also for knowing how to recover after you’ve been blown out of the arena.
More often than not, you’ll find yourself stuck beneath the arena struggling to get back up, which can be quite stressful, particularly against a skilled enemy that’s chasing you and trying to block your recovery. It’s in moments like these where keeping your cool is more important than ever as mashing the jump and dodge buttons will only burn through your recovery options and will leave you completely open for further attacks.
Be smart about your recoveries; don’t mash buttons, and try to predict your enemy’s moves before you dodge. Learning about the different weapon types also helps in this regard as you’ll know what to expect from the enemy’s aerial game. Most importantly, consider aerial battles in Brawlhalla the same as ground fights—this game has so many recovery options that also double as offensive attacks, that you can have entire fights happen in the air under the arena.
Just don’t forget to breathe… which leads us to our next point.
Never Panic, and Always Keep Your Eyes on the Screen
One of the most crucial mistakes anyone can make in any fighting game, Brawlhalla included, is panicking as soon as the enemy starts pressuring. Losing your cool not only leads to a reduced ability to respond to the enemy’s actions, but it also takes your focus off the screen and into your controller as you desperately try to escape the enemy’s combo.
If you’re just starting out, losing is inevitable. Trust us when we say that you’ll be losing matches left and right for at least the first few hundred hours of Brawlhalla. Sure, you’ll win some, too, but as soon as you get high enough ELO and start getting matched with people who actually know what they’re doing, you’ll just get knocked back down in a yiffy.
However, losing also has its merits. Specifically, losing is a good teacher, and you can pick up quite a good deal of tips and tricks from your enemy after they defeat you. This is all rendered moot if you panic and take your eyes off the screen, however. In this sense, always keep your sight on the battle, even if the enemy has you locked in a combo. Odds are that, after a few losses, you’ll grow accustomed to the enemy’s strategy and will be able to avoid it, or even to find a good comeback for it, turning the matches slowly in your favor.
Just remember to never panic. Also, if you start to get tilted, then it’s time for a break; playing while tilted or angry is a one-way road to disappointment and further frustration.
Always Chase After Attacking
As we mentioned above, Brawlhalla is a very fast-paced and intense fighting game. In most cases, nothing good will ever come out of giving your opponent breathing room so that they can reset the field and go back to the neutral game. If you land a hit or a combo, make sure to continue chasing your enemy, regardless of if they’re in the air or under the arena. The more pressure you put on an enemy, the more likely they’ll be to make mistakes, at least in the low level matches.
One you’ve improved, you can start being more selective about whether or not to chase, as your enemies are less likely to make mistakes from being pressured excessively. The important thing is to always try to maintain stage control and to limit the enemy’s options by pressuring as much of the arena as you can.
Pick The Right Weapon for Your Playstyle
Last but not least, Brawlhalla has many different characters from which to choose from, all of which can wield two of the twelve weapons that are currently available in the game. And while every character has different stats that alter their properties in combat, the main determining factor of the playstyle will be the weapons they wield. This is especially true since, with the exception of the signatures moves that vary per character, the moveset of every weapon is virtually the same, regardless of the Legends that wields them.
Check out our weapons guide for Brawlhalla if you want a basic rundown of what each weapon in this game can do, and how they match up against each other.
These five basic tips should give you most of what you need in order to get started in Brawlhalla. Regardless, feel free to leave your own useful strategies in the comments below to help your fellow newbies out!
