2XKO is out now on PC and consoles, and Season 1 is set to bring new players who haven’t touched the game before. It looks simple on the surface with no motion controls, but many, even pro players, have said that Riot’s fighting game has unparalleled depth.
If you’re new to 2XKO or fighting games in general, your goal shouldn’t be to learn everything here and now. That’s not how any of this works. What you need is to gain a base-level understanding of the game you’re playing and build a repeatable gameplan and good habits before you go on to conquer the ranks.
We have seven tips to help you out on your journey. This won’t be an in-depth character guide that teaches you all the neat gameplay tricks you can perform. Instead, we’ll try to guide you toward better learning habits.
Tip #1: Do all the tutorials
In 2XKO, Riot Games has implemented some very good and in-depth practice tools that are neatly located in the Learning Hub. After you do your first tutorial fight upon launching the game, go there and do the rest. The game teaches you movement, moves, and how to utilize the fuses.
After you’re done with that, do your combo trials and advanced lessons. Combo trials are there to give you sample combos that you can utilize until you’re able to optimize them yourself. Advanced lessons are the next step of the tutorial, where the game teaches you more about offense, defense, and overall gameplans.
Tip #2: Disable the Pulse combos
2XKO, like many modern fighting games, has its own autocombo system called Pulse Combo. Many will tell you that beginners should enable it to be able to immediately use combos with little downside. However, we advise you not to use them if you’re even a tiny bit serious about getting better at the game.
You see, modern controls and autocombo systems teach you bad habits and force you to learn the wrong way. You start mashing, autopiloting, and ignoring confirms. Eventually, you will reach a point where you’ll want to switch anyway, and the adaptation period will be rough. It’s better to play properly from the start, even if it’s a little bit more difficult in the beginning.
Tip #3: Pick one duo and commit for a while
Picking up a new fighting game is the most fun part until you get good at it. Free rein on characters, unburdened by their strengths, weaknesses, or any semblance of meta, just picking up someone you think is cool. And that’s exactly what you should do.
Don’t worry about who’s strong or weak; at the beginner level, none of that matters. Find two characters that you like visually, main in League, or just enjoy the gameplay of, and stick with them for a while. Fighting games reward persistence. The more you play as one (or, in this case, two) character, the more interactions you memorize, and every move eventually becomes second nature to you.
Worry about meta and extracting the most out of your pick when you get more experienced. For now, your goal is to learn, and doing it with consistent characters is the key.
Tip #4: Don’t tag just because you can
Tag fighters are a foreign concept for many a gamer, since their golden age has already passed. What you need to realize and memorize is that tagging is a resource just like any other. Tagging in your second character mindlessly is how you lose matches.
Use your second character only when it’s advantageous to do so: to extend a combo, to protect your low HP Point character from death, or when you can chain Specials.
Tip #5: Stop mashing on defense
Yes, it is very annoying to sit in the block against the hyperactive rushdown character. Yes, you want to play this game too. But no, just randomly swinging at them while they have you in the corner won’t give the turn back to you—the opponent will punish you, and you will lose.
Block, watch for the obvious gap, and take your turn with your fastest button or a safe option. Be patient, keep the low block. The opponent will also get frustrated by not being able to unlock you, and do something rash like a jumping overhead—and that’s precisely the time for you to punish them.
Tip #6: Learn bread and butter strings
When you’re just starting out, you can be quite easily impressed by someone’s combo that deals ¾ of the opponent’s healthbar. And, well, yes, knowing how to do it is very useful.
But as a beginner, you shouldn’t hyperfocus on trying to learn how to execute it. You’re wasting your time for several reasons. One, you simply don’t have built-up muscle memory to execute it on the fly as many FGC players have, and any moment you take to *think* about what you’re doing is the moment you drop the combo. Even if you do learn how to execute it, you’re still a newbie in every aspect of the game, and chances are you won’t even be able to force your opponent into the situations where you can combo them.
What you should learn instead are short strings and situations. What you need is a simple hit confirm off of your favorite normal button, a punish for unsafe moves or whiffs, and a consistent 3-hit string that leads into any special.
If you’re able to consistently cash out those, you’ll easily beat players who memorized touch-of-death combos without any knowledge of how to set them up.
Tip #7: Have fun
Yes, this is a legitimate tip. The simple truth of any fighting game is that you won’t get better unless you’re having fun with the character, the gameplay, the overall vibe. Try to focus on the elements of the game that make you happy. If you’re tired of beating up the dummy in the training mode, just stop. Forcing yourself to learn won’t do you any good, and you will grow to hate the character and the game.
Instead, go fight someone online, call a friend to play duos, or practice in a live environment against someone of your skill level. Most top pro players have sparring partners for a reason!
Fighting games are some of the most fascinating, deep, and rewarding genres in gaming, and 2XKO is no exception. Riot managed to make a game with a super low skill floor, but the skill ceiling is sky-high. So, what are you waiting for—go forth and learn!
