How to "Git Gud" at Brawlhalla(by a Silver)

This Blog will guide any newcomers to learn how to play certain weapons, characters, and how to climb the ladder that I never climb: Ranked. I will be teaching the language spoken by the fans, strings, combos, strategies, and how to select mains (the character you play the most). My main objective here is to have any students become even better at this game than me. 

[neverplaysranked]

Special Items: The Best Ones

Special items are some of the most powerful items in the game. In fact, if you even see one of the items, you are less likely to see another one in the future. There are only 15 special items, and any of them has the potential to give you a winning run. The 15 items are as follows:

(The crossed out DLC symbol means that the way that the item functions was changed drastically in the Afterbirth DLC)

Although there are 15 special items in total, I’m going to be focusing on Brimstone for today.

Brimstone: Brimstone is an item that totally changes your attack. You no longer shoot tears, instead you spit out a powerful red beam that deals constant damage with unlimited range. However, your tears stat will still alter the charge rate of Brimstone. However, unlike other games, and even other items in this game, charging your attack does not raise the attack. Instead, you are not able to release the brimstone beam without fully charging it. So although it deals a major amount of damage, you are fully vulnerable while charging.

Brimstone Synergies: Brimstone is very powerful, and many items can combine with it to create super powerful synergies. The Common Cold and Dark Matter are two items that allow the beam to greatly increase the chance of applying a status effect to enemies. The Common Cold applies poison, dealing slow damage over time, and Dark Matter applies fear, which causes afflicted enemies to actively run away from you. Normally, it can be quite hard to have that special tear hit an enemy to apply the status effect, but with the constant damage output of the Brimstone beam, it’s a lot more likely for the effect to take, well, effect. Items like 20/20 allow you to shoot two brimstone beams, effectively doubling your damage. The items that give homing tears allow your brimstone beam to bend, hitting enemies that aren’t directly in front of you, allowing you to mow down any enemies in your path. However, although all of these synergies are very powerful, one of the most powerful synergies with Brimstone is Tammy’s head. Every room, you’re allowed to shoot 10 tears in a circle. However, if you have Brimstone, your “tears” is the beam, and moving slightly can wipe an entire room of enemies. Therefore, you can clear entire floors in under a minute. Assume you also have flight, and you don’t even need to stop moving, just constantly go to the next room while activating Tammy’s Head.

Brimstone is very powerful, and if you see it in a run, take it. As long as you play the rest of your cards well, and you don’t act stupid and cocky, you should be able to defeat whatever boss you’ve been stuck on. Many items will combine with Brimstone, making your run very powerful, and hopefully getting you one step closer to Isaac’s final journey. Good luck, and have fun!

[neverplaysranked]

All Hail Lord Vraxx!

Lord Vraxx is a character that, to be totally honest, I forgot about for a long time. However, when he came on rotation this week, I decided I should try him out. If I wasn’t trying to learn how to play more blaster characters, I probably wouldn’t have touched him for a long time. However, Lord Vraxx is quite fun to play, and I enjoy the victories he’s brought me. And therefore, I’d like to bestow some of his best aspects onto you.

Lance: As if lance wasn’t fun enough, Vraxx’s nsig links up perfectly after a slight. However, it doesn’t link up well after anything else. However, because you can make so many ground combos with lance, it shouldn’t be hard to end your combo with a slight. As for the ssig, the fastest link up is after a slight. You can use a ssig after a nlight or a dlight, but doing so gives your enemy an extra 4-6 frames to dodge the signature. If you are lower level, those extra frames may not mean any difference, but at the higher levels that could be very important. As for the dsig, you can either precede it with a nlight or a dlight. However, doing a nlight - chase dodge will allow you to shave off a whole three dodge frames. On the other hand, though, the nlight - chase dodge can be hard to master due to the appropriate timing of the next attack. Cancelling the chase dodge at just the right time can prove to be very difficult. However, once it is mastered, it gives quite the payoff.

Blasters: All of the blasters signature attacks are quite slow for Vraxx. Sadly, this also means that there are many dodge windows for the enemy to jump out of. Thankfully, blasters is a light combo weapon, meaning you don’t have to rely on signatures to help you dominate your enemy. Focus on using them to finish your enemy after decimating their health. For the nsig, the more reliable path to take is the nlight, but the slight is faster. The only issue with the slight is that you have to hit your enemy with the inside portion of the blast to propel them at a range where the nsig will hit. The ssig can be linked up after a slight or a dlight, however the dlight is much faster and makes it much more likely for the signature attack to land. The dsig is very similar, with the same link-ups and the same recommendation. The dlight allows for a faster link-up, meaning your attack is more reliable after the dlight. Therefore, that is the predecessor that I would recommend you use.

Lord Vraxx is very powerful. He’s so powerful, in fact, that tumblr thinks Vraxx is misspelled. (Okay, that was bad.) But in all seriousness, Vraxx has very good combos, very powerful and fun weapons to play, and overall, I have a good time defeating enemies with the alien overlord. I don’t know who I’ll cover next, maybe I’ll cover my old main, Queen Nai. She was my first real actual main, so bestowing her playstyle upon you guys will be like giving up a portion of me. And although I doubt many people will read this blog, I still need to teach any potential readers how to play any and all characters.

[neverplaysranked]

Diana

I didn’t exactly know who this post should be about, so I traveled back to through my half-mains. Last rotation, Diana was free, and she’s very powerful. She has blasters, which everybody is playing (thanks to Boomie saying they’re very good weapons), and bow, which has always been a big choice among tournament fighters. Her sigs are very powerful, but they don’t link up to her light attacks very well.

Bow: The bow’s nsig is a part of the most powerful “kill-switch” in the game. A kill-switch is a very powerful light attack combo that ends with a signature, with almost no dodge frames that allow your opponent to escape. The kill-switch is comprised of a slight, dlight, nsig. It may be short, but it can grind a lot of damage and even kill enemies in orange if used over an edge. The ssig is also very powerful, but can only really be linked up after a slight. The dsig is very satisfying to land, however it does not link up after many of the light attacks. The bow dsig only links up after a nlight gravity cancel, or a sair.

Blasters: I’m not sure if I’ve covered a blasters character in the past, but I’d like to make absolutely sure that everybody knows this important but not important fact: they’re called blasters, not guns. (But I’m gonna be totally honest with you, I mix them up all the time for efficiency’s sake.) Diana’s blaster nsig has few uses, although it is very powerful. It can be linked up after a nlight, or it can be gravity cancelled to help get an edgeguarder away from the edge. The ssig can only be used when properly timed after a dlight. It could also be used as an approach to keep enemies away from you. The dsig does not link up after any light attacks. It’s quite slow, and if you miss, quite easy to punish. I would use it as a front-on approach, giving your opponent less room to maneuver. It’s quite hard to manage, but you could also charge it over the edge or gravity cancel to have a quite effective edgeguarding signature.

Diana is a very fun character to play. Many of her sigs are quite powerful, and allow very good combos to be pulled off. Although not all of her signatures can be followed up by light attacks, her weapons themselves allow very good light attack combos that can easily raise up major damage in your enemies. In the next post, I’ll probably cover another character with blasters. They’re a lot of fun to play, and you could even call it a “blast.” (I’m sorry, I had to.) Keep playing for now, and I’ll see you next week.

[neverplaysranked]

Dusk (Including new weapon, Orb!)

A new character was released recently, with a brand new weapon to Brawlhalla. This weapon was the orb. Many of the light attacks are fairly basic, however, a new function has been added to the game: bouncing weapons. If the dair is used nearby a wall or the floor, the orb will bounce off the floor/wall, and continue a set distance in the reflected diagonal direction. Depending on how close you are to the boundary, the orb will continue further in the set direction. Dusk is a spear/orb character, and his spear sigs seem to be kind of close range.

Orb: The orb is a new weapon, however I will not be covering light combos. I will do what I’ve always done, and advise you on signature strings. The nsig works best when used directly after a slight, and if the opponent is still high on health, you can use it after a dlight. If your opponent is high on health, you can use the ssig after a nlight. If you chase after your opponent, you can nlight ssig at any damage. The most reliable attack to use before a ssig is the dlight. Keep some distance between you and your opponent, though. As for the dsig, it only really strings up after a slight with a little bit of hesitation before using the signature.

Spear: The spear neutral sig hits directly above and barely forward. You should probably use it after a slight, as your opponent will attempt to move left over your head. You can also use it to edgeguard, keeping your opponent away from the platform and simultaneously throwing them. The ssig is best used after a slight or a dlight gravity cancel. If you do the dlight gravity cancel trick, charge up the signature for a little bit in order to time your attack properly. The dsig, can also be used under the same circumstances as the ssig. However, you don’t need to charge up the dsig after the gravity cancel.

The new character Dusk seems like a lot of fun to play. In fact, I may not even wait until he becomes cheaper, I may just start raising gold and buy him as soon as possible. The new weapon has a lot of combo potential, and I’m very excited to tap into the magical power of the Orb. My only question is, how are they going to create more characters that can logically use the Orb, especially when Dusk created it on his own.

[neverplaysranked]

Rayman

This is being typed the day that Rayman was released as a playable character for Brawlhalla. However, it will be posted about a week after the patch takes place. The legendary hero from the glade of dreams is incredibly fun to play, and I look forward to earning enough gold to buy him as a character.

Gauntlets: The gauntlet nsig is quite odd. It hits directly up, and if charged, it hits a greater area above you. However, it doesn’t move you vertically, despite the obvious upward attack. It can be used after a slight, or after a recovery. The ssig is much more applicable. It hits similarly to the nsig, but instead of up, it hits to the side. You can use it after a slight gravity cancel, or a dlight, and depending on your enemy’s damage, a nlight chase dodge. The dsig is quite odd. It allows you to travel a chosen distance while charging, meaning that you can always chase your opponents down with it. You can use it directly after a nlight or a dlight, but a special precaution must be taken to use a slight. After the slight, you must hit your opponent with a nair, hit the ground fast, and then use the sig. It may not hit because it’s slow, but if your opponent falls for it, it hits hard and heavy.

Axe: The axe nsig, unlike the gauntlet nsig, actually moves you forward and up. It can be used to get off the side of a platform safely, as it grabs your enemy and keeps them from edgeguarding successfully. It can be used after a dlight or a dair (provided you land on the ground afterward). The ssig autoscans if you hit an enemy, so you can hold it down as long as you like. It is best used after a nlight or a sair. You can also use it after a slight or dlight, but only if you back dash after the setup attack. As for the dsig, it acts similarly to the dsig of the gauntlets, but it’s only a single harsh, downward strike. It can be used as an approach, or after any light attack, including the airs, except for the nair. Any other attack will allow your enemy to come to the ground, but the nair is a juggling attack, so it prevents your enemy from coming into range of the dsig.

Personally, I look forward to playing Rayman in the future. Sadly, I’m probably going to have no self control, and buy at least 1 skin for him. Hopefully I can wait until after I get some money to spend it. I don’t know who I’ll cover next week. Maybe I’ll cover one of the new Rayman crossover skins, Cassidy or Brynn. (Don’t worry, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll buy them.)

[neverplaysranked]

Hattori (No Sig Spamming tho)

Hattori is one of my Big Three Mains. I love playing her, but most of the time, everything is reflex. Luckily, I can slow everything down and figure out what’s going on. Here’s a little guide to keep you from Sig Spamming with Hattori.

Sword: Hattori’s nsig doesn’t link up directly after any attacks, making it quite hard to apply it to natural battle. However, a common theme with sword attacks include knocking your enemies off the edge of the platform after a combo. You can easily create powerful edgeguards with a well timed neutral signature. However, if you do this too much, your enemy will likely call you a “spammer” after the match ends. The ssig is very powerful, and much more prone to spamming. It can be used after a slight, which can allow you to keep your enemy on the battlefield to continue damaging them. You can also dlight, then dodge behind the person to continue the string in one direction. If you use a nlight, you can chase dodge to use the ssig in either direction. The dsig is quite different. The only apparent use I can see for it is to face the center of the platform, charge it, and use the downward bounce to help edgeguard. You can also cancel a chase dodge after a slight to have a dsig where you don’t spring backward. However, I highly recommend only using this signature as a means of knockout, and not as a casual damage dealer. 

Spear: Spear’s nsig is kind of similar to the sword’s nsig. However, it also hits the grounded area in front of you. It can be easily linked after a slight or a dlight (you have to gravity cancel after the dlight), and can be followed up with carefully used aerial moves. The ssig is very easy to hit, easy to land after the same moves as the nsig. However, the difference is, you can hit the ssig after a nlight too. As for the dsig, it can be used after any attack, provided you chase dodge after your enemy. The only exception to this, however, is the dlight. It doesn’t work quite as well as the rest of the light attacks do.

I don’t really have much to say in this closing. Hattori’s a fun, fast character, that is best played super aggressively. Once you unlock her speed stance, you’ll be able to release a flurry of attacks upon your enemy. Next week, I’ll review Rayman. (He comes out four days after I’m writing this.) I’m very excited to see what BMG plans to do with this new character. Good luck in your battles, and have fun!

[neverplaysranked]

Asuri, Dunk Master

I may say this a lot, but Asuri, when played right, can be absolutely broken. I guess, really, if any character is played properly, they can be considered broken too.

Katars: Katars are a lot of fun to play. I don’t believe I’ve covered them before, but I also don’t see very much worth in going over one complicated combo. So instead, I’ll talk about how to effectively use Asuri’s sigs. Her nsig is very powerful. If used over an edge, you can easily dunk somebody in orange far enough that they can’t come back. It can be easily used after a nlight, as a quick, almost inescapable combo. The ssig isn’t quite as easy to pull off, but it’s very showy and interesting to watch. You should probably link it up after a slight, nlight, then Chase Dodge behind them and ssig in their direction. Unlike some ssigs, it’s totally possible to pass somebody when using the ssig. You can totally miss if you’re close enough to your enemy. As for the dsig, you could use it after a slight or after a dair, as they both put you in the perfect hitbox position. (Additionally, if you don’t want to use a bunch of sigs, try spamming ground pound near the edge. Sometimes, you don’t even have to jump in between. Be careful, though, as the ground pound hits fast and you may end up throwing yourself off the edge.

Sword: I’ve gone over sword’s light attacks in the past, so now let’s go over Asuri’s Signatures. Asuri’s nsig is also a good dunking attack. However, instead of using it over the edge, try using it to keep a recovering enemy at bay. The ssig is quite difficult to land. It’s a hold sig, meaning the longer you hold it the longer you travel. With most hold sigs, the moment you run into an enemy it captures them and unleashes the rest of the signature. However, with Asuri’s ssig, you have to time your release to hit your enemy. Since you can travel quite far with this sig, it’s very effective when used as a sudden charge. The dsig works the absolute best when used after a slight, or a dair.

Asuri is a very fun character to play, mainly because her weapons demand you play her aggressively. Once you start doing that, you can become a lot better at Asuri.

[neverplaysranked]

Onion (Orion) ((Black Knight))

Alright, I said I’d buy another Shovel Knight skin, and I was GOING to buy Nix, but I settled with Orion because I don’t own Nix as a character. So now I feel obligated to talk about his signatures.

Abyssal Excavator (Rocket Lance): I’ve already talked about combos for both rocket lance and spear, so in this post, I’ll focus on how to incorporate Onion’s signatures into combos. (Yes, I said Onion on purpose. Yes, I’m going to say Onion for the rest of this post on purpose.) For Onion’s nsig, your best bet is to use it directly after a slight. It’s so powerful, it can even take out an enemy that’s at medium orange. As for the ssig, It can be used after a slight or a dlight. It doesn’t take out an enemy quite as easily as a nsig, but it does put you at a good position to continue a combo. Considering the dsig, I can’t come up with many uses for it. Most of the time, I use it for edgeguarding, but I don’t even do that that often. (I’ll explain my edgeguarding strategies in another post.) Honestly, the reason I don’t use many signature moves for the lance is because I have so much fun playing just light attacks.

Dark Shovel Blade: The spear has a lot of signatures that are fun to use. The nsig, for example, is easily used in the God-spear combo, as a replacement to the second dlight. You can also use it over the edge to easily dunk anybody straight to oblivion. Additionally, if you do use it over the edge, it can be used to counter a wall-hugger, as the attack actually extends lower than the floor. The ssig is similar to Koji’s dsig, but you can impact an enemy at any point in the warp. It’s very useful for a quick knockout. Same with the dsig. The dsig should be used to keep close hitting enemies away from you, and as an easy potential knockout.

I’m going to clear something up right now. I’m NOT buying any more shovel knight skins. I’ve spent enough money as it is. Next time, I’ll cover the Cat woman herself, Asuri.

[neverplaysranked]

Sir Roland (King Knight)

Sir Roland was never really a favorite character for me, until the shovel knight skins came out. Sir Roland was given a crossover skin for King Knight, meaning he got new weapon skins, a special lock-in animation, a custom name (whenever there’s a knockout, it says King Knight instead of Sir Roland), and honestly? He seemed the best fit for me out of the five. I love playing sword, and rocket lance is incredibly fun. So yeah, I paid real money to buy King Knight. And now I’d like to share his glory with you.

Sword: Sword is a very fast-paced weapon. You should keep your enemy in a constant state of stun or use some reads to keep them from escaping your combos. The best way to handle light attacks with sword is to constantly get behind your enemy and keep them disoriented. A new piece of slang is going to be bestowed upon you today; it’s called a hard read. Basically, a hard read is when you charge up a sig while facing away from your enemy, in the hope they will attempt to act like a sword player. When they run to try to get “behind” you, you fall right into your charged sig. Be very careful of both players who use hard reads AND enemies who don’t fall into the trap of your hard reads.

Sword Sigs: The neutral sig doesn’t seem to be totally useful, except for maybe an edgeguard where you knocked your enemy high into the air. You could also charge it after going over the edge of the platform, in order to keep an enemy from returning to the battlefield. Sir Roland’s ssig is very slow, but it traps enemies that get caught in the first half of it. It is best used when directly in front of an enemy, in order to reduce the risk of retaliation. It can also be used as an edgeguarding tool by using a midair gravity cancel. Now, the down signature is the one I use most often. Not only is it just as fast as the nsig, but it also hits areas in front of you. Therefore, it can easily replace the ssig as a faster alternative. It even hits areas that the nsig cannot reach, for example a square area slightly taller than the characters in front of you. Personally, it’s my go-to sig. I use it sparingly to avoid comments from enemies like “spammer lol”.

Rocket Lance: Goodness, this weapon is fun. It has a very powerful charged recovery, which is different from all other weapons. However, as you charge the recovery, you are completely and totally vulnerable to all attacks. To rub salt on the wound, if your charging or recovering phases of your recovery are interrupted by an attack, you will lose your recovery. So the same play style as sword applies: keep your enemy on the ropes, and they won’t be able to touch you. A common simple combo that works very well for me is slight jump dair, which can be repeated with slight variations. For example, after the dair, you could slight, dlight, with which you can repeat your combo again. Once you get your opponent to dark orange damage, you can use a nsig instead of a jump dair. You can also end the combo at any time by using the variation slight, dlight, and ssig. If you want to use the dsig, I suggest cutting the dlight, and replacing it with a dsig. You can also use a nlight chase dodge to start this combo.

Considering I covered the best and most applicable uses of the rocket lance’s signature attacks in the normal paragraph, I feel as though I don’t need to elaborate on it. As you can see, King Knight is best used as a fast paced attacker, with weapons that make it easy to keep your enemies on the ropes. Maybe I’ll buy another knight, just to see how they look. And if I do, I’ll make sure to cover it next.

[neverplaysranked]

Mirage (Continued)

In the previous post I mentioned I'd do a continuation of Mirage. I'd like to make it known that Mirage is not my main, I just started getting lazy with my posts, and I'd like to up my production quality. So here's an in-depth on Mirage's sigs.

Scythe: Mirage's Nsig doesn't exactly hit anybody that's right in front of her, unless you're on top of your enemy. It can easily be linked up after a neutral light, however it's quite unreliable and avoidable. I suggest using a nlight, jump, dair, and attempt to land on your enemy to use a nsig. Her ssig, in my experience, can’t be linked up after anything except a forward hitting dlight. (Dlights with scythe can hit forward or backward, depending on the direction you’re holding. Slights are similar, where in can hit hard and far if you hold down side, but if you let go, it’ll knock your enemy slightly to the air in front of you.) You also could use a held slight before the ssig for a finishing combo. Mirage’s dsig is pretty useful for rushing, and as long as you can chase your enemy down, you can hit them with a devastating dsig.

Spear: Mirage’s Nsig is quite hard to master. It’s quite odd, it moves very slow, and it feels like a side sig. However, after almost any light attack, you can follow it up with the nsig. (If you use a dlight, do a gravity cancel nsig. It hits a lot faster, giving your opponents less time to dodge. I personally use the ssig to dunk people off the edge as they are coming back to the platform. It keeps them away, even if you have to sacrifice the advantage of not letting them touch the wall. You could use it after a nlight, but don’t move forward after the light attack, or you’ll miss your opponent. The dsig for spear is almost identical to the dsig for scythe, and all the strategies are the same.

And so you have Mirage, full and complete. My apologies if my quality has been lacking; I’ll start to bring it up. I think I’ll mainly do my posts like this, as they end up being more character specific than weapon specific. In the next post, I’ll cover Sir Roland, because he’s really cool and I just bought the King Knight shovel knight crossover skin and I want to use it as much as possible.

[neverplaysranked]

Mirage

Mirage is a very fun character to play, and I don't believe I can fully cover her in one post. I'll give basic combos now, and elaborate further on her signatures in the next post. Spear: Spear, like bow, has one basic combo that can only be improved upon. It consists of slight, dlight, a jump to reposition yourself, and a sair. Add a nlight at the beginning to deal some extra damage, and instead of instantly jumping, use a GC dlight. However, if you use the second dlight, your jump will no longer properly reposition you to use a sair. Instead, try using a nair. The nair will either place your enemy above or to the side of you. If it places them above, use a recovery. If they go to the side, now you can use your sair to potentially knock them out. The total written version of this would look like this: nlight, CD (chase dodge. More on that in a bit.), slight, dlight, GC, dlight, nair, recovery/sair. Scythe: Start out a quick damage dealing combo using nlight, jump, dair, slight, ssig. The slight can be replaced with a sair, in case you are still airborne. Even on one edge of a platform, this combo will likely knock an enemy off the other end. Ground pounds and dairs both prove very effective at protecting areas below you. If the enemy is to the right of you, use a sair. Sadly, as of now, I don’t have any more advice on how to play Scythe, so I must leave this category here. Sorry that there has been no progress, but I haven't been able to create any combos that actually work. My apologies if there's a lack of formatting for this post, it was scripted elsewhere then typed on my phone. (Not even the app, I'm using chrome right now.) The next post will hopefully give Mirage the respect that the Sand-Woman deserves.

[neverplaysranked]

Wu Shang (Broken)

Wu Shang is actually broken. At least, his gauntlets are. His side sig is naturally a 2 parter, and if it lands, it becomes a 3 PART SIG. It’s not like he takes much skill, but here, take some combos anyway.

Spear: Spear, like bow, has one basic combo that can only be improved upon. It consists of slight, dlight, a jump to reposition yourself, and a sair. Add a nlight at the beginning to deal some extra damage, and instead of instantly jumping, use a GC dlight. However, if you use the second dlight, your jump will no longer properly reposition you to use a sair. Instead, try using a nair. The nair will either place your enemy above or to the side of you. If it places them above, use a recovery. If they go to the side, now you can use your sair to potentially knock them out. The total written version of this would look like this: nlight, CD (chase dodge. More on that in a bit.), slight, dlight, GC, dlight, nair, recovery/sair.

Gauntlets: Gauntlets have essentially one useful combo without GC’s. It goes slight, nair, sair, nlight, repeat. If an enemy is launched off the platform at any point in time, chase after them and hit them with a dair. After the dair, keep them from coming back by using a ground pound. You can hit them with multiple ground pounds, however make sure you leave a jump or a dodge to get back to the platform. If you use a recovery to get back to the platform, be careful not to catch them in the recovery, lest you accidentally save your enemy from death. A short combo that could be added to other things is dlight, slight, GC, dlight, sair. If you mess up the timing on the GC, not to worry! Keep attacking as you were, and your dair will most likely hit the enemy. 

As you can see, Wu Shang is very simple to play. As long as you have your combos down easy, you’ll be perfectly fine. There isn’t too much you can say about an absolutely broken character, so if this is your main, sucks for you.

[neverplaysranked]

Mordex (Ugh)

Mordex is a character I didn’t plan on covering for a while, considering I just don’t know how to play scythe well. However, I managed to learn some basic play for Scythe that I feel is good enough to share.

Scythe: Start out a quick damage dealing combo using nlight, jump, dair, slight, ssig. The slight can be replaced with a sair, in case you are still airborne. Even on one edge of a platform, this combo will likely knock an enemy off the other end. Ground pounds and dairs both prove very effective at protecting areas below you. If the enemy is to the right of you, use a sair. Sadly, as of now, I don’t have any more advice on how to play Scythe, so I must leave this category here.

Gauntlets: Gauntlets have essentially one useful combo without GC’s. It goes slight, nair, sair, nlight, repeat. If an enemy is launched off the platform at any point in time, chase after them and hit them with a dair. After the dair, keep them from coming back by using a ground pound. You can hit them with multiple ground pounds, however make sure you leave a jump or a dodge to get back to the platform. If you use a recovery to get back to the platform, be careful not to catch them in the recovery, lest you accidentally save your enemy from death. A short combo that could be added to other things is dlight, slight, GC, dlight, sair. If you mess up the timing on the GC, not to worry! Keep attacking as you were, and your dair will most likely hit the enemy.

Mordex can be quite easy to play, as long as you only play gauntlets. Although playing scythe may require a bit more skill, if you get used to it (like I can’t), you may find Mordex quite easy to play. I don’t quite know who the next reviewed character will be yet, but please be sure to read their review when the next post comes out.

[neverplaysranked]

Bödvar: A simple Guide

The Character that is essentially the title character, Bödvar, is generally considered the most balanced character in the game. His two weapons are Sword and Hammer, and therefore I will be analyzing combos and such for these two weapons.

Sword: Sword is a very aggressive weapon. In order to succeed in playing it, you must always stay on the aggressive side. Bödvar’s sword is very good for edgeguarding: the dsig proves to be very effective. A very good damage-dealing combo is as follows: slight, nlight, CD toward them, and halfway through, cancel the CD with a slight. Repeat until there is no more platform. Keep in mind your opponent’s damage, as it may require you to chase dodge more often in order to avoid losing your opponent in the string. If you would like to add a bit more style to this string, try starting it with a dlight instead of a nlight. In fact, by randomly using and mixing up the three light attacks, you can quickly bring an enemy to orange, leaving an opening for a finishing attack.

Hammer: Hammer can be played both aggressively and defensively, however playing aggressively yields better results. A foolproof combo that deals a good amount of damage is a sair, dlight, nsig. It can bring an enemy to yellow, and it’s fairly easy to execute. Alternatively, you can replace the nsig with a ssig, or follow the nsig up with a ssig. There aren’t many combos to learn, as hammer is a read based weapon, but juggling is an important function. Juggling with a grapple hammer is based mainly on dairing and recovering. There are many ways to start a juggle, including just dairing, but my personal favorite is to dlight, jump, dair. If your opponent has no damage, it may be a little difficult to maneuver yourself to a position where you can catch them in your dair, but once you do, you should be able to successfully start juggling them.

Due to the request of a reader, my next post will highlight the Scythe/Gauntlet character Mordex. I’m always looking to improve, and learning how to play scythe, my weakest weapon, is definitely one way to do it.

[neverplaysranked]

Gravity Cancels and Strings/Combos

A very important function of Brawlhalla are Gravity Cancels (written GC). They are an important part of both strings and cancellations. They can allow you to use ground based attacks in the air, at the cost of a dodge. They are quite difficult to master at first, but once you do master them, they can be quite useful. The only way to master is to practice it; there’s no real trick. A GC can be executed by spot-dodging (dodging while pressing no directional keys) and immediately using a grounded attack. DO NOT IMMEDIATELY JUMP. It will render the spot-dodge leading up to the GC useless. GC’s can also be used to taunt, as taunts can only be executed on the ground. Now that you know how to execute a gravity cancel, strings and combos are the next part of your training. Two of the best weapons to learn strings with are the bow and the spear. Luckily, Kaya uses both of those weapons, and therefore is a great character to start learning strings. Enter training mode and choose one of the two following weapons:

Bow: If executed properly, a simple bow combo with Kaya can turn into a 0-death (meaning a combo that takes your enemy from 0 damage to their death). Grab a bow and execute this combo: slight, dlight, nlight. Now, depending on your enemy, a different course of action may take place. This is where reads come in, where you must read your opponent’s movements. Try to guess where they will end up, and nair there. It should launch your opponent high into the air. Time for another read. Try to find out where your opponent will most likely land and prepare a ssig for them. Time your ssig so that your opponent does not touch the ground. Your ssig will launch them off the platform, and you don’t exactly want them to come back (unless you’re teasing them, in which case, I don’t think you really need this guide). In order to keep them off the ledge, throw your weapon at them. If it hits, it should stun them enough so that you can run after them and ground pound them without a weapon. If they keep attempting to get back up, continue ground pounding them until they either don’t have enough jumps to get back up, or you knock them straight off the stage. If this combo is too difficult, just settle for the slight, dlight, nlight.

Spear: Spear, like bow, has one basic combo that can only be improved upon. It consists of slight, dlight, a jump to reposition yourself, and a sair. Add a nlight at the beginning to deal some extra damage, and instead of instantly jumping, use a GC dlight. However, if you use the second dlight, your jump will no longer properly reposition you to use a sair. Instead, try using a nair. The nair will either place your enemy above or to the side of you. If it places them above, use a recovery. If they go to the side, now you can use your sair to potentially knock them out. The total written version of this would look like this: nlight, CD (chase dodge. More on that in a bit.), slight, dlight, GC, dlight, nair, recovery/sair.

Chase Dodges: A chase dodge is a dodge executed directly after executing an attack. It covers a higher distance than a regular dodge, and can be cancelled at any time by using an attack. However, it can also be cancelled by executing another chase dodge, which will send you even further. This can be used directly after attacks, in order to make sure the enemy has no time to recover. Alternatively, it can be used to boost yourself up after chasing somebody off the platform (or turning the tables when somebody chases you off the platform.)

In the next post, we will be discussing how to play a simple character. We will be discussing their weapons, and sigs.

[neverplaysranked]

Basic Button Mechanics

I’m assuming you’ve never touched the game Brawlhalla before. Considering that, I must teach you some of the basic functions of the game, including the lingo and attacks. (There are three basic control presets, but they are alterable. Check the settings to see if you would like to change any of the controls.) Every weapon, including unarmed, has a set light attack move set. The three directions are neutral (n), side (s), and down (d). These three directions also have aerial counterparts, so make sure to test them in training. You may see me write these as nlight, which would mean neutral light attack, or nair, which would be neutral air light. Substitute other directions to understand what I am saying. Additionally to light attacks, each character also possesses Signature attacks (written nsig, ssig, dsig). These attacks are heavy and can be used to knock enemies off the platform, gaining you points. However, they can only be used on the ground. If you attempt to use a signature attack in the air, you will only use a recovery (written recovery). If you hold down while attempting to use a sig, you will execute a ground pound (gp), which is very useful for knocking enemies off of a ledge. In further lessons, I will teach you how to use ground-based attacks in the air, and how to use a special type of dodge to your advantage.