Levelling Up – Build Your Own Bible

Welcome back to Levelling Up, the one stop shop to find some knowledge diamonds in amongst the rough journey to being a better player. This week we look at what it takes to build your own bible. And by that I mean your knowledge base and information about your characters and match-ups.

As I mentioned it’s not literally a bible, but many players do like to call it one. They swear by it and keep their deepest darkest secrets inside. It might hold all the information on a match-up or maybe some tricky situations to place the opponent in. It tends to be more predominant in games like Street Fighter 4 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 than Marvel but the idea behind it is still the same. To build a knowledge base of your characters and their capabilities.

The first place to start would be the forums. Places like Tekken Zaibatsu, Dust Loop and Shoryuken are great places to start. Here you can read up on your character and what is the best way to play them or even optimised combos that allow for the greatest damage output. You might even have something to contribute to them. But it’s recommended to study what other people have said first and see how that improves your game.

The forums can be especially daunting for new players, more often than not there is a beginners section but even that can seem scary. Everyone is at their own level and it’s hard just to jump straight in. Even the jargon and notations can be scary. In one game numbers might represent stick positions based on a number pad and another could use numbers for the buttons themselves. It’s all about learning and finding what’s best for you. Some sites, like Tekken Zaibatsu, even have a dictionary for jargon of sorts. It’s a great help for when you’re new to something and are presented with abbreviations such as “B!” and “CH”, which mean to bind and counter hit in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. After all many of the games you will be interested in have been around for years and many of the players have grown up with these games, so naturally there will be a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. It can just be a bit too easy to get lost.

Even something as simple as watching your favourite players fight will encourage you to explore the possibilities of your character.

After that you can also watch top players. Through watching them you can see a lot about your character’s movement and teams that might compliment them. By watching top players you can also see interesting incoming mix-ups and pressure that you might not see elsewhere. Especially for Marvel where the game is constantly evolving. Soon your own team will be able to kill with one hit or have an unblockable mix-up on entry, for Street Fighter you might see an unfamiliar cross-up that’s almost ambiguous and in TTT2 you might see some interesting team synergy, corner carry combos or even juggles that you’ve never seen or heard of.

Even the best players have sets of notes they swear by. Most recently Infiltration was seen checking his notes before almost every match in a team tournament as he bore a heavy saddle that carried his team to victory, almost single handedly. It was one of the most impressive tournaments you could ever watch. But it also showed that knowing your match-ups and information about your character isn’t something to get started with. It is something you need to be on top of all the time.

Every game evolves and you have to evolve with it. Knowing all the information at one point in the game will never be enough. There will be updates and there will be turnarounds in play styles. So it’s vital to practice what you preach. The best fighters aren’t theory fighters but those who put it into practice. So when you see something new or feel you can’t cope with certain strategies get a friend round and practice, or go to a local event. It’s the best way to get better. Take notes on what works, what is safe and what you need to do to keep a life lead.

So what are you waiting for? Hit the e-books and the wikis. Just don’t forget to level up.