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ARMS |OT| (’-‘)-------------

Unicorn

Member
Even if this was an objectively true tier list I'm always drawn to the underdog and part of the fun for me is doing my best with characters others may find weak or difficult. 🙃

Same. I was initially drawn to Helix because I love Voldo, Vega, and other unpredictable "weird" characters in fighting games, but I also like the wild card aspect.
 
Same. I was initially drawn to Helix because I love Voldo, Vega, and other unpredictable "weird" characters in fighting games, but I also like the wild card aspect.

This is also why I'm so strongly drawn to using the Guardian despite most of the time just absolutely failing with it overall, it keeps me from dodging effectively and it leaves me wide open in other cases. However the few times I've started to feel out the flow to using it it sort of feels subversive. Having it just float there blocking and then thrusting to give it that secondary punch from the side is satisfying when I can get it to land.

I've kinda given up on using it with B&B but I'm going to try it with other characters once I have it unlocked for them to see if another characters abilities work better with it.

Though as was pointed out on the last page, its strength may be more in the 2vs2 arena.
 

Jacobs

Member
How should I play the 3vs matches? I always lose because one player is just camping it out, and if I go for that player they gang up on me.
 

Unicorn

Member
They NEED to have 2-round matches in private lobbies (more options, in general). Ranked has it, so they know it's standard...
This is also why I'm so strongly drawn to using the Guardian despite most of the time just absolutely failing with it overall, it keeps me from dodging effectively and it leaves me wide open in other cases. However the few times I've started to feel out the flow to using it it sort of feels subversive. Having it just float there blocking and then thrusting to give it that secondary punch from the side is satisfying when I can get it to land.

I've kinda given up on using it with B&B but I'm going to try it with other characters once I have it unlocked for them to see if another characters abilities work better with it.

Though as was pointed out on the last page, its strength may be more in the 2vs2 arena.

I've been using Mummy today and I can totally see Shield being viable for him since he's pretty stationary.
 

Fumpster

Member
I had so much fun with this game during the testpunch, but now that I'm playing the final game I'm just not enjoying it much for some reason. It just kind of makes me feel frustrated. I feel like everything I do is unresponsive, even in single player mode when there isn't any lag. I don't think it's actually a problem with the mechanics of the game, but I do think the CPUs are demonstrating some crazy input reads here that make it so most of my moves are constantly missing. There's also not much to do beyond the two online modes, which is disappointing. I probably just suck, but I'm not really having fun trying to get better like most games.

I'm not doubting the legitimacy of the game, I think it's just me not digging it as much. I'll be following the competitive scene just because I dig the aesthetic and characters. I'm glad everyone's enjoying it so much though.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Just reposting this with a couple tweaks based on discussion I've seen. This is just a little something for people jumping in to follow who might be beginning at a similar level. For reference, I am someone who considered Grand Prix 4 to be very challenging but I am enjoying going back through it multiple times and improving.


  • Do the training found in "Versus"- select and stick with the first character you want to get good with.
  • When you get to the "Guard Breaking" Training mission, repeat it a few times to mess around with your character's movement and the three Arms options you'll start with- every charter has unique starting weapons.
  • Continue through the training until you reach Twintelle at the end. This Twintelle is showing you a taste of Grand Prix Level 4 and up difficulty. It's up to you if you want to spend some time trying to actually kill her a few times, if not just leave the training and head into Grand Prix. Do not worry if you can't kill her at all, it's not worth getting frustrated over.
  • (for a more traditional fighting game training dummy, use Versus fight mode, no timer, no items, infinite health, stationary com. Practice as much as you want here.)
  • Do Grand Prix 1 through 3. If you find 3 considerably difficult, repeat it instead of moving on to 4. 3 is also a good time to get very familiar with the Arms you have available. Essentially 1, 2,and 3 should feel pretty smooth and easy by the time you're ready for 4.
  • You can quit a GP at any time and save all your progress.
  • Throughout working your way through these, you can jump into Party Mode for arcadey unranked multiplayer and to earn coins. It's pretty loose and there are lots of gimmick fights/handicaps. Try it whenever you feel generally comfortable with your main.
  • Whenever you have a substantial number of coins, hit the Get Arms minigame from the home screen to unlock some random Arms for random characters. The 100 (medium) level seems to be the best bang for buck
  • Tackle GP4. Big difficulty spike here, especially the two final fights. This unlocks Ranked Matches.
  • Familiarize yourself with all the remaining Arms and consider which you might like to try for your main character so you know to swap them on as soon as you unlock them.
  • Jump right into Ranked if you're confident and just want to improve ASAP; keep doing Party Mode for fun/coins. GP 2/3 are also a decently quick, singleplayer source of coins.
  • Unless it felt super easy to you already, repeat GP4. This time focus on crafting your ideal Arms loadout you really want to get good with. Don't be afraid to abandon the run and restart to mess with your Arms. You do get some coins for every win.
  • Move on to the higher GPs, more Ranked games, conquer the world.
 

Zedark

Member
What is GAFs consensus on ARMS so far? I'm very mildly interested in the game and missed out on the test punch.
My thought: Highly addictive, great online, single player is better than it looks on paper because of a wide range of difficulty levels, and overall great fun because of the great gameplay. Great game, all in all.
 

drac96

Member
Prima posted their tier list for characters. A bit early, but interesting read nonetheless:

https://www.primagames.com/games/arms/tips/arms-tier-list-characters-and-arms-nintendo-switch

S-Tier
Ribbon Girl
Twintelle

A-Tier
Kid Cobra
Master Mummy
Min Min
Spring Man

B-Tier

Helix
Mechanica
Ninjara

C-Tier
Byte & Barq

They also have a ranking for the different ARMS.

Man, Ninjara and Helix in B? I'd move Ninjara up to S or at least A. Helix should probably be the top of A.

I will never dispute Ribbon Girl as S tier. I'm excited to see how people feel about this stuff in a few months.
 
They NEED to have 2-round matches in private lobbies (more options, in general). Ranked has it, so they know it's standard...


I've been using Mummy today and I can totally see Shield being viable for him since he's pretty stationary.

I haven't tried Mummy outside of the testpunch but I can see how the shield might work for him....or exacerbate the issues of being too wide open on the sides. I'll have to give it a fair shake soon.
 

Nico_D

Member
I must say, I rather enjoy those 1v1v1 matches. Devious.

Also, just beat GP lvl 3 with Ribbon Girl. Yay me. Progress! Which is funny because the first two times I tried going against Max, I thought he was impossible. Then I beat him - though 2-1 but still felt it wasn't that hard of a task.

Concentrating on my weak sides like blocking and getting those curving strikes hit. I block pretty rarely and although I don't see many blocking online either (except for Mummies, naturally), I would like to remember to do that more often, especially because of the counter a successful block gives you.

Now to the dreaded lvl 4.
 

ASIS

Member
I've not even used motion controls, I'm terrified to even try. I can't imagine playing a game like this with motion controls
I've been putting off traditional controls cause I don't know where I left my grip and I have no pro controller. Then I remembered handheld mode exists lol. All around I say movement is definitely better in traditional, but controlling the arms is much, much better on motion. Though you can get used to it. Personally I haven't given it a fair enough shake but I am for motion for now.
 

wildfire

Banned
Prima posted their tier list for characters. A bit early, but interesting read nonetheless:

https://www.primagames.com/games/arms/tips/arms-tier-list-characters-and-arms-nintendo-switch

They also have a ranking for the different ARMS.

Yeah the weapon rankings are
S-Tier

Sparky

A-Tier

Chilla
Coolerang
Cracker
Megaton
Megawatt
Popper
Ramram
Revolver
Seekie
Slapamander
Thunderbird
Toaster
Triblast

B-Tier

Boomerang
Chakram
Guardian
Homie
Hydra
Ice Dragon
Retorcher
Parasol
Phoenix
Slamamander
Tribolt

C-Tier

Blorb
Bubb
Buff
Dragon
Whammer


This is very flawed. I havn't played Arms yet but anyone with experience in games where you can select weapons and equipment in an arena should know that match up drastically changes based on terrain.

For instance, Whammer is listed as C-Tier but considering its movement profile and huge hurt box I would say if you use it in Ninjara's or Ribbon girl's stages and maintain a high ground positioning you will be at a huge advantage.
 

wildfire

Banned
Man, Ninjara and Helix in B? I'd move Ninjara up to S or at least A. Helix should probably be the top of A.

I will never dispute Ribbon Girl as S tier. I'm excited to see how people feel about this stuff in a few months.

They explain why Ninjara is so low. It's short and to the point. The entire article is worth a read.
 

Jacobs

Member
I must say, I rather enjoy those 1v1v1 matches. Devious.

Also, just beat GP lvl 3 with Ribbon Girl. Yay me. Progress! Which is funny because the first two times I tried going against Max, I thought he was impossible. Then I beat him - though 2-1 but still felt it wasn't that hard of a task.

Concentrating on my weak sides like blocking and getting those curving strikes hit. I block pretty rarely and although I don't see many blocking online either (except for Mummies, naturally), I would like to remember to do that more often, especially because of the counter a successful block gives you.

Now to the dreaded lvl 4.

So what is the strategy for 1v1v1. Everybody gangs up on me or someone wins from me by letting me fight with the other player.
 

correojon

Member
Fought a Ninjara with double chakrams who would just walk around doing nothing, waiting for me to attack and then teleporting and trying to grab me. The guy didn't throw a single punch in the whole match. It was really pathetic, the guy would just run away even when we both were at full health. In the end I tried to fight him properly and he ended up winning with a sliver of hp left :S
 

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
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finally beat the 1on100 mode with ribbon girl. I've to say that mode helped me improve a lot.
 
Just reposting this with a couple tweaks based on discussion I've seen. This is just a little something for people jumping in to follow who might be beginning at a similar level. For reference, I am someone who considered Grand Prix 4 to be very challenging but I am enjoying going back through it multiple times and improving.


  • Do the training found in "Versus"- select and stick with the first character you want to get good with.
  • When you get to the "Guard Breaking" Training mission, repeat it a few times to mess around with your character's movement and the three Arms options you'll start with- every charter has unique starting weapons.
  • Continue through the training until you reach Twintelle at the end. This Twintelle is showing you a taste of Grand Prix Level 4 and up difficulty. It's up to you if you want to spend some time trying to actually kill her a few times, if not just leave the training and head into Grand Prix. Do not worry if you can't kill her at all, it's not worth getting frustrated over.
  • (for a more traditional fighting game training dummy, use Versus fight mode, no timer, no items, infinite health, stationary com. Practice as much as you want here.)
  • Do Grand Prix 1 through 3. If you find 3 considerably difficult, repeat it instead of moving on to 4. 3 is also a good time to get very familiar with the Arms you have available. Essentially 1, 2,and 3 should feel pretty smooth and easy by the time you're ready for 4.
  • You can quit a GP at any time and save all your progress.
  • Throughout working your way through these, you can jump into Party Mode for arcadey unranked multiplayer and to earn coins. It's pretty loose and there are lots of gimmick fights/handicaps. Try it whenever you feel generally comfortable with your main.
  • Whenever you have a substantial number of coins, hit the Get Arms minigame from the home screen to unlock some random Arms for random characters. The 100 (medium) level seems to be the best bang for buck
  • Tackle GP4. Big difficulty spike here, especially the two final fights. This unlocks Ranked Matches.
  • Familiarize yourself with all the remaining Arms and consider which you might like to try for your main character so you know to swap them on as soon as you unlock them.
  • Jump right into Ranked if you're confident and just want to improve ASAP; keep doing Party Mode for fun/coins. GP 2/3 are also a decently quick, singleplayer source of coins.
  • Unless it felt super easy to you already, repeat GP4. This time focus on crafting your ideal Arms loadout you really want to get good with. Don't be afraid to abandon the run and restart to mess with your Arms. You do get some coins for every win.
  • Move on to the higher GPs, more Ranked games, conquer the world.

I believe 200 coins for the long arms getter is the best, 25-40 ARMS in one run easy
 

F31 Leopard

Member
This game just came out and people are already so good. I jump online and I'm getting owned left and right lol. I'm having super fun though. I wasn't feeling the game at first and doubting my purchase but after playing a bit I really like it.
 
Yeah the weapon rankings are



This is very flawed. I havn't played Arms yet but anyone with experience in games where you can select weapons and equipment in an arena should know that match up drastically changes based on terrain.

For instance, Whammer is listed as C-Tier but considering its movement profile and huge hurt box I would say if you use it in Ninjara's or Ribbon girl's stages and maintain a high ground positioning you will be at a huge advantage.

This very much. Every character also changes what ARMS you'll use I would say. Furthermore Sparkies are the slowest boxing glove so while I understand why it's highly ranked it's not that strong. Terrain, your enemy, and their arms all drastically change the viability of the arms at play.
 

Pastry

Banned
Level 6 ranked I'm seeing almost exclusively ninjara as opponents. It's not necessarily a problem but it's just super obnoxious. I hope they really work on character balance for the sequel, just not enough to incentive using some of the different characters.
 

EulaCapra

Member
Ugh. They should add a Motion Controls-only online Party Mode.

And also add in an option to map character movement to the control sticks.
 

Nico_D

Member
So what is the strategy for 1v1v1.

What I do is I stay out of it in the beginning watching each player that they are not getting too close (if the map allows it - extremely hard on Ribbon Stage) and when they attack each other, I run in and hit the winner of their fight and then back out again.
 
Does anyone know what the limit is to the amount of currency you can keep in reserve? I'm currently clearing as much of GP as I can with the default arms before I obtain any more, and it would be useful to know in advance if your money caps out at 999 or something, so I know whether I should dump my coins sooner than I originally planned.
 
Is anyone else having crashes? I just experienced my second full lock up and I'm starting to worry it's the Switch and not the game. D:

I didn't experience a full lock up at all in BotW tho, and all three of my roommates saw at least one. Seeing two in two days on Arms is a little alarming.
 
Level 6 ranked I'm seeing almost exclusively ninjara as opponents. It's not necessarily a problem but it's just super obnoxious. I hope they really work on character balance for the sequel, just not enough to incentive using some of the different characters.

I've seen plenty of variety throughout ranked, heck I main Helix, and I'm ranked level 10. I would say it's bad luck, and that the characters are all quite balanced.
 
Not sure if this is known a I only started using normal controls today, but I just held back (down) while punching the thunderbird and it went up in an arc towards the opponent.
 
Having fun with the full game. Trying to adjust to the motion controls but it's pretty tough! I want to use the pro controller I think but I don't want to miss any moves ! Cool game!
 
Lol at prima games listing Helix as defensive when he's the only character that can punch first without ever having to worry about counter punches which allows for insane aggression
 

DjRalford

Member
I've beaten GP4, and faired well online so far but I never feel in complete control of the punches, it's proving annoying as I end up reverting to playing on the defensive going with counters and grabs.
 

Durden77

Member
I seem to be having trouble with people that take to the air often, and I'm kinda having a hard time of understanding the benefits of being on the ground. Any anti air tips and stuff? Or is this not that type of game and you should just be jumping constantly?
 
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