Control Refill Stations
Occasionally throughout the match, a recharge station appears in the arena, allowing fighters to refill their health or recharge their super meter. Controlling these points will secure you a win much more easily but if not controlled, they can lead to some heartbreakingly epic comebacks from your opponent. Keep your nemesis at bay by anticipating his need to refill. Stun him with a charged punch and then toss him far away with a well-timed grab. Throwing your opponent out of the recharge area leaves you the most time to soak it up for yourself.
Take Advantage Of Stages
Many of the arenas in Arms offer their own little twist and knowing how to adapt and best use the environment to your advantage is key to dominating a fight. The floor to Ribbon Girl’s electronic-pop inspired stage is constantly changing shape and elevations, keeping you on your toes and opening up lots of strategic possibilities, especially if you’ve got a great set of Arms tailored to bend around corners. Spring Man’s stage is surrounded by a trampoline border so use that to your advantage to get some much needed height and rain down pain from high above. Kid Cobras skate park inspired level gives fighters the chance to fight atop Snakeboards. It seems weird at first, but use them, they offer higher ground, faster movement and you can still pull off all the same jumps and dashes. Each stage offers some form of advantageous ground, so keep an eye out for it.
Never Stop Moving
Outside of rare instances of available downtime, you should never stop moving. If you’re not constantly on the move, dashing and jumping around to get an angle on your enemy, then you’re doing it wrong and you’ll realize that the moment you face a high-level player and they pummel you from across the stage. Mix up your movement with unpredictable combos of jabs and hooks that defy logic. ARMS can be a surprisingly fast brawler when you know how to best use the mechanics. You’ll want to keep your opponent on their toes at all times by keeping them guessing and wasting punches.
For more on ARMS, check out our impressions of the Global Test Punch right here, and if you’ve been playing ARMS yourself, let us know what you think of it and leave some more tips for newcomers in the comments below.