8 Arms Essential Tips and Tricks

IGN has the tips and tricks, strategies, and secrets you need to succeed in Arms for Nintendo Switch.

The “waggling” era from the Wii may have put many off from trying out motion controls in games, and while you can turn these off in Arms – we reccomend giving it a shot first.

You don’t need to actually throw huge punches in real life, so try using subtle gestures to expertly spin or angle attacks, shift and dodge, and even fight in midair. Having a good mastery of subtle gesture inputs can free you up to worry about bigger things that you’d normally have to account for without motion controls being active.

For all its playful and colorful looks, Arms is a fighting game, and in fighting games, you can rarely afford to stand still. You should always be moving, strafing, and changing your angles of attack to keep your opponent guessing.

If you are on a stage that provides changes in movement – or have a character that has special abilities that influence how mobile they are, be sure to take advantage of these so you can become all the more unpredictable in your attacks.

When choosing a character and your preferred arms loadout – take a good look at the weight class of your weapons. As a rule, heavier weapons will overpower lighter ones if they clash – meaning a fighter with big strong weapons can easily knock aside weaker attacks and power through to damage the weaker opponent.

If you do want to go with lighter weapons – never go for straight up attacks, unless you’re planning to feint and move to the side. Heavier weapons means they’ll take longer to hit you, giving faster opponents time to move around them and attack from another angle.

This isn’t Wii Sports – just going in and mindlessly throwing punches won’t earn you many victories. Arms is all about action and reaction. Punches are precious in this game – as throwing to many leave you wide open.

Attack when you have a strategy in mind, and compliment it with your arms types and character abilities. For example, throw out weak fast punches with a light arms to bait out a counter attack, then dash around to follow up with a stronger attack from the side. You can also use elemental attacks to compliment each other – like freezing an opponent with one arm to follow up with a heavy direct attack.

Punching alone won’t win the day. You need to know the order of operations here – much like rock, paper, scissors:

• Punches beat Throws
• Throws overpower Blocking
• Blocking stops Punches

If you see your opponent favoring any of the three sides, capitalize on this by hitting them where they are weakest.

While any character can equip any of the Arms you’ll find, every fighter is unique in what their special ability is. This can often be the key to victory if you use it well and combine it with the stage or your arms loadout.

If your character has great dodging abilities, combine it with fast striking weapons to rush past an opponents defenses. If your opponent likes to send strong slow attacks your way, characters like Spring Man and Min Min can counter these with their deflecting abilities.

Almost as important as the fighter and Arms are the stages you play on. Many of these stages have interesting mechanics which are sometimes hidden. You can often use these mechanics to your advantage to throw your opponent off, get the high ground, or surprise them if they aren’t familiar with using the environment to their advantage.

Attacking at random can only get you so far. Even the mightiest of Arms can only deal standard damage when you punch regularly. In order to unleash the true power of Arms, you’ll need to mindful of how and when to charge up your punches. Things like landing from a jump, or after performing a dodge will power up your next attack – so use them strategically to counter your opponent at the best possible time.