Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout released yesterday on PC and PlayStation 4. Thanks to Twitch hype and inclusion in August’s game with PS Plus, Fall Guys landed with a splash — such a big splash, in fact, that server issues persisted throughout much of yesterday, preventing eager players from testing out this hotly-anticipated party game.
It’s by and large possible to play now. Given the buzz, you might find yourself tempted to dip your toes in. Here are some tips to help you get started.
At its core, Fall Guys is a physics-based platformer structured as a battle royale. Each match starts with up to 60 players, who play as amorphous, pastel-coloured blobs called “Fall Guys.” Fittingly, these Fall Guys are prone to tripping. Matches are broken up into five rounds of mini-games. At the end of each round, a number of players are culled from the match, while those who win, or “qualify,” move on to the next. The fifth and final round whittles the player list down to one triumphant victor. It’s an absolute blast, and arguably the most wholesome battle royale game in video game history (well, for the first few rounds).
Most of the roughly two dozen mini-games in Fall Guys are straightforward footraces. Others are more complex: You’re required to memorise the correct pathway through an obstacle course, or have to play a game of tag against your fellow Fall Guys. Sometimes, you have to engage in all-out war over a pile of eggs. No matter what, each round only lasts a minute or two. And at the end of each match, you’ll earn Kudos and Fame, two types of in-game currency that you can spend toward cosmetic equipment for your Fall Guy. The more rounds you survive, the more you earn.
To that end, here’s how to win at — or, at the very least, “qualify” in — some of the toughest Fall Guys mini-games.
See Saw
Like many mini-games in Fall Guys, See Saw is a footrace. Unlike many footraces in Fall Guys, it’s not an obstacle course. Instead, you have to sprint along a series of perpendicular see-saws. It’d be easy to balance were you just one Fall Guy. When you’re alongside up to 59 others, though, it’s a different story.
The trick is to run along the white line — the fulcrum, for those who passed Physics with at least a C-minus — in the centre of every see-saw. By standing on the tip of a see-saw, you can get a nice height boost, but you’re also very likely to tip the thing and slide right into the slime, instantly teleporting you back to your previous checkpoint. By running along the fulcrum, you lose out on the advantage of a higher jumping point, but you won’t suffer the setback of a restart.
In See Saw, as in most Fall Guys mini-games, you don’t need to chase the glory of first place. You just need to “qualify.”
Gate Crash
Gate Crash is another footrace. The course is bisected, in various points, by a wall of doors. Leap into the correct door, and you’ll press on unabated. Hit the wrong one, and you’ll fall back, stunned, for a precious few seconds.
Instead of trying to determine which doors are correct, hover around the middle of the pack. Wait for those in the lead to test the waters, then bravely follow them to a safe 15th place.
Slime Climb
Of all the footraces in Fall Guys, Slime Climb is easily the most punishing. The concept is simple: Zigzag your way up a winding mountain path while dodging obstacles. At one point, giant bars protrude and retract from the mountainside. Another section requires you to run through slime while dodging rotating pillars, which can knock you to your doom. If you fall too many times, you’ll get eliminated.
Since it’s a race, it’s tempting to sprint through all of these sections. Instead, practice patience, slow down a bit, and wait until the obstacles show a clear path forward. Remember: During the first four rounds of a Fall Guys match, your goal isn’t to land on a shiny podium. It’s to finish with aggressively average placement.
Fruit Chute
Fruit Chute is another footrace. You have to run up a downward escalator while kaiju-sized fruit is shot at you from cannons. If you run up the centre, as many do, your chances at qualifying are slim to none.
On each side, you’ll see three triangular blocks. They’re small, but they offer some surprisingly helpful cover from the fruit. Better yet, if and when you’re bowled over by a giant strawberry, the triangles will stop you from rolling all the way back to the starting line.
Hex-A-Gone
In Hex-A-Gone, you start off on a floor made up of hexagonal tiles. If you stand on a tile for more than a split-second, you’ll fall to the next level. Keep falling through levels, and you’ll eventually end up in a pit of slime, eliminated.
The instinct is to last as long as possible on each level, so this advice might sound counterintuitive: Let yourself freefall. Drop all the way down to the bottom platform.
Chances are, you’ll be the only down there, giving you free rein over the space for a minute or so. Use that time to run across as many tiles as you can, creating massive chasms in the platform. When your opponents finally make it to the bottom level, they’ll have far fewer surfaces to land on, and will often just plunge directly into the slime.
Jump Club
Jump Club is perhaps the most Mario Party-esque mini-game in Fall Guys. You and your fellow Fall Guys stand on a circular platform. At foot level, a green bar rotates around the circle. At eye level, a red bar does the same. Since Fall Guys aren’t that tall, you really only need to dodge the green bar.
Most players stand still and jump over the green bar as it approaches them. Some run away from it and try to time their jumps with the bar, which is inadvisable, since doing so requires a longer leap. I’ve actually found the most success by running against the grain, toward the green bar. This requires a shorter jump, and you won’t run the risk of getting caught off-guard by unassumingly standing in one spot.
Perfect Match
Perfect Match is the only mini-game I’ve played where zero people have been eliminated at the end of the round. It’s also the only one where I’ve seen six people fall into the slime at once. This advice goes out to those six people.
Rounds of Perfect Match features 16 tiles, each with a fruit on it. Over the course of 10 seconds, you’re shown brief flashes of which fruits are painted on which tiles. Once the timer’s up, the game shows you the “safe” fruit. You have to run to that tile. Stand on the wrong one and you’ll fall to your slimy demise.
In the first round, there are just two fruit types. In the second, it expands to four. The final round features five fruits. Once you have those numbers memorized, it’s a lot easier to map out potential safe tiles. Instead of paying attention to all 16 tiles at once, you know you’ll never need to look at more than a handful.
Fall Mountain
Fall Mountain, which only shows up during the fifth and final round, is another footrace through an obstacle course. It’s pretty straightforward. Just run up the mountain, and don’t run into stuff. There’s just one key thing to remember: If you’re leading the pack, sweet victory within your grasp, don’t forget to grab the crown at the end. Otherwise, you’ll end up like this:
in there!https://t.co/BP1yaUrLgo pic.twitter.com/WbKPcv4h5B
— Ian Walker (@iantothemax) August 5, 2020
Losing to Ian? Ouch!
Egg Scramble, Hoopsie Daisy, and other team-based mini-games
Sorry, there’s no way to help you here. Team games are unpredictable fracas of superficial camaraderie. You live and die by your teammates’ skill and intuition — or utter lack thereof. If you end up in a team game, just consider yourself already out. It’s the only way to protect yourself from disappointment.
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