The Best Shadow Fight Arena Tips and Tricks for Beginners
Fighting games are a bit of a niche genre in the industry, and even more so when it comes to the mobile platform. Despite their relative sparsity, however, most of these titles often offer some of the best skill-based gameplay, alongside other execution-intensive genres like shooters and MOBAs. Even though they may not be as common as their counterparts, fighting games still offer tons of excitement for those who look to jump in and learn the ropes, and Shadow Fight Arena is no exception to this statement.
Released as the fourth entry in the popular Shadow Fight series, one of the most prevalent fight game franchises in the mobile platform, Arena offers tons of improvements over its predecessors, including a large roster of playable characters, each with their own unique passives and moves, as well as a variety of game modes to keep things exciting every time you launch the game. This is not to say that a typical fighting game needs several game modes, considering that most of the fun comes from the different engagements you have playing either against the PC or against other players online.
With that being said, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to playing Shadow Fight Arena, and if you’re just getting started, you might run into a few snags here and there when trying to win your battles. Luckily, this is where this guide comes in as we’ll be sharing a few useful tips and tricks to get you started on the right foot and help to defeat all your opponents.
Read Up On Your Character Before Fighting
When you first start playing, you’ll have access to only three playable characters, Kate, Shang, and Ling. And though you’ll start unlocking new characters soon after starting the game, it’s important to stay on top of what each of them can do since, aside from having different attacks and skills, every one of these heroes can have different passives that give them a vastly different playstyle.
Sure, while it’s possible to win a few battles by mashing buttons, especially in the beginning where no one really knows what they’re doing, you’ll need to learn the specifics of every character soon enough, both for learning how to use them, as well as how to counter them.
For instance, Shang offers slow attacks with long range that can make him trickier to use than the other two. However, his main strength is the speed at which he can accumulate shadow energy. With every attack he lands, Shang gathers a larger amount of shadow energy, which he can then use to power his stronger moves. In this sense, while you can defeat foes by poking them with your long-reach moves, you’ll have a much easier time by using your shadow form attacks proactively.
On the other hand, characters like Kate are not so much about using shadow energy moves, but about draining the shadow energy from their opponents to prevent them from using their strongest attacks. And just like Kate and Shang, the other characters in Shadow Fight Arena each have their own strengths, weaknesses, and styles. Read up on all of them before entering the field to get a better grasp on how they work. Alternatively, check out our top 5 characters in Shadow Fight Arena if you simply want to find the strongest heroes in this fighting game.
Learn the Fundamentals
Even though Shadow Fight Arena is a bit more “stiff” than other fighting games, to the point where it can feel a bit turn-based due to the delay of executing moves, this game plays completely in real time, and you’ll quickly get used to the rhythm of every battle. However, just like with every other fighting game, there are a few fundamentals you must learn in order to improve your chances of winning every fight.
These fundamentals apply to every single character, and consist mostly of “footsies”, which is a term used to define the act of maintaining proper spacing with your opponent by moving across the arena and reacting to your enemy’s actions. The end result of this back-and-forth is to wait until your enemy exposes himself, either by making them whiff an attack or simply by catching them off-guard, and then landing a blow to chip away at their HP.
The first attack after you win a bout of footsies is often called a “confirm”, and usually opens up your enemy to further attacks of pressure. The point of a “confirm” is that every move has a degree of “hitstun” that prevents your enemy from reacting after being hit, which means that you have a very brief period where you can unleash another attack for more free damage. Taking proper advantage of hitstun after a confirm is the basis of every combo in modern fighting games, and it requires proper reactions and skills to adequately follow up when you manage to strike your opponent.
The single most important thing you can do in any fighting game, at least in the beginning, is to play several practice matches in order to get used to the flow and speed of the matches, and also to practice your fundamentals. Shadow Fight Arena is no different in this regard.
Focus on Your Favorite Fighters
We don’t want to get too much into this aspect because it’s very subjective. However, there are some characters in fighting games that, due to their kits and skill sets, can be much easier to play than others, achieving good results with less effort than others. This could be enough to make some players drop their favorites and learn to play with these overpowered characters just to remain competitive. Regardless, one of the most important parts about having fun in these games is actually choosing the characters that appeal to you the most, and learning how to kick butt with them despite what the meta says.
In that sense, one of the best tips we can give you in Shadow Fight Arena is to choose one character and stick with them until you thoroughly learn everything about them. Even if your opponents could be playing with overpowered characters, you can still outmatch them with your superior skills, especially if they’re scrubs that rely on button mashing.
Even though you can unlock powerful characters and upgrade the one in your roster, you can still outplay every single opponent simply by mastering the fundamentals and learning to predict them and react accordingly. In the end, practice always makes perfect.
