ARMS: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Choose Your Preferred Way of Playing

ARMS allows you to play with either motion controls or standard controls. Both options have their own pros and cons, but it’s important that you test them both out and see which you’re more comfortable with. In my experience, I’ve found that curving my punches has been a lot easier and more precise through motion controls, though the Joy-Cons do seem to have some difficulty reading some of my faster arm movements, which often results in me initiating a throw instead of two quick punches like I wanted.

While standard controls will make it easier for you to input commands, the button layout just didn’t feel as intuitive to me as the motion controls did. It also felt a little bit trickier to try to get my curved punches to go the exact direction I wanted them to. Still, be sure to test out both methods before deciding on your primary way to play.

Unlock New Arms Whenever You Can

There are ten characters available in ARMS, and each of them comes with a set of three default Arms. However, you can unlock even more weapon options for each character by earning coins. Coins are easily earned by simply playing through the game, whether it’s Grand Prix or some of the other online Party modes. You can then spend these coins to enter a mini game to unlock weapons for your favorite characters. Do note that you’ll receive a guaranteed Arm for whichever fighter you choose for the mini game, and you also stand a chance of unlocking other Arms for random characters in the roster as well.

Always pick the fighter you’re most invested in for the mini games. This will ensure that you always unlock new customization options for them, and this well help to diversify your play style as well. Ribbon Girl no longer has to be a flighty character who’s only great at throwing side punches; before long, you’ll be able to slap a Megaton or Dragon on her as well, making her a tanky powerhouse.

Play Grand Prix on Higher Difficulties

ARMS’ Grand Prix mode can be pretty rage-inducing on higher difficulties, especially if you’re just starting out in the game. However, increasing the difficulty also increases the number of coins you earn for each victory, plus an additional one for any perfect matches. This will allow you to build up your coin pool at a much faster rate, allowing you to play the mini game more frequently to unlock more customization options.

While the Party matches will also reward you with coins (whether you win or lose), the process will go by a lot quicker if you increase the difficulty level for Grand Prix instead. I recommend playing through Grand Prix at levels 1 or 2 if you’re still new at the game, and haven’t fully mastered the controls yet. If you’re looking to farm coins, level 4 is a good place to start. Any higher than that, and you’ll be faced with some seriously challenging AI behavior, and it’ll become too much of a grind at that point.

Learn Each Character’s Unique Ability

Play long enough, and every character in ARMS will eventually have access to every single customization option in the game. However, this doesn’t mean that they’ll all play the exact same way. Every character has a unique ability that can be used as an advantage over another character in a fight.

For instance, Spring Man’s gloves will always be charged when he falls below a certain amount of HP, Ninjara vanishes into thin air after every air dodge, Master Mummy can regain HP by blocking, and Min Min can perform a spinning kick after an air dodge to knock away attacks and grab attempts. Find a character whose unique ability really suits your play style, and then customize and build them around that specific ability. By learning a few characters inside and out, your performance in ARMS will drastically improve.

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Back to  Training Mode

If you click on the Versus option on the main menu, you’ll find Training mode at the bottom of the list. This lets you replay the game’s tutorial, as well as hone your skills for particular segments of the game. Whenever you want to learn a new fighter, simply head to Training mode and throw a few punches with them to get an idea of their speed and unique abilities.

I also recommend playing through the 100-1 mode to get used to your new character in a relatively low-stress environment. The enemies in this mode are fairly easy to handle, and it’s also a good way to get yourself accustomed to your new fighter.