Offering Fall Guys tips — ways to survive the latest online party game that has us hooked — might sound crazy. The game looks and feels like it works beyond reason, with an army of up to 60 multi-colored Fall Guys running a race, jumping over each other and trying to steal each other's tails.
But after a long week of grinding away at Fall Guys (once the servers started working right), we've found some lessons to impart to help you win more Kudos and earn some more skins and colorways.
All of our best advice, though, starts with trying to breathe and think mid-game. Yes, Fall Guys' fast-paced vibe might propel you to push forward as fast as possible, but you can be smarter than that.
Here are our top 9 Fall Guys tips and tricks, which should give you everything you need to stop getting eliminated and start winning.
Learn by falling and failing
Don't let a series of frequent failures stop you from enjoying Fall Guys. When I first got the game, I got eliminated early and often. The chaos of all of the Fall Guys running through cramped corridors and across thin beams is not going to work for most people on their first run-throughs. Once I stopped demanding perfection from my Fall Guy, I started passing levels and advancing. To quote Adventure time: "Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something."
Slow down sometimes
The desire to place first, as well as Fall Guys' hypnotic colors and speedy soundtrack might make you think you need to plow full steam ahead. But that's going to get you into a lot of trouble. In the See Saw level, for example, you're going to need to backtrack a bit, as lanes can get overcrowded with Fall Guys, and that giant mass of players can make one side of a see-saw impossible to run across, no matter how fast you think you're going. By going backwards, and moving to the other lane, you (and some other Fall Guys and Fall Gals) can rebalance the scales and clear a path. Similarly, in Hit Parade (swinging wrecking balls) and The Whirlygig (giant fans), you've got to figure out when to run through treacherous territory, and when to wait for the giant object overhead to pass.
Get a wide point of view
That right joystick (on consoles) and mouse (on PC) is your best friend in Fall Guys, as you're going to need to stay aware of what's going on around your Fall Guy. Not only is this important for race levels, so you can see how other people are failing and falling, but it's essential in Perfect Match. In this Survival Mode challenge, you have to keep your eyes on all the platforms around you, as each is tied to a specific fruit (but only show that fruit for small moments), and if you rotate your camera to see more of the platforms, you can have a better idea of where to go. Even if your short term memory is shot, this could prove helpful for seeing where other players are running, as one of my Fall Guys comrades can't remember the squares at all, and instead follows the pack (successfully).
Know when to play defense
Fall Guys' Team Modes levels are often the hardest, but you can help your team win by knowing when you don't need to add more points. Yes, games like Egg Scramble and Hoarders may push you to grab all the eggs or keep trying to steal the giant flying balls from other teams' sectors, but that may change near the end of the game. If your team is doing well, with a lead that feels strong, know that you're still not out of the woods yet. Instead, take this moment to stop the other teams from poaching eggs and balls from your corner of the field of play. If you've got less people on defense, and a big lead, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a raid. This is also true for Fall Ball (aka Rocket League with Fall Guys), where you don't want to leave an open goal at the end of the game.
Let other people make mistakes for you
Plenty of Fall Guys levels take advantage of what you don't know yet, whether that's because you're a new player or because of its hidden tricks up its sleeves. The most tricky of them all is Door Dash, a race filled with doors that you need to barrel through, even though some won't actually break when you run through them. So, rather than risk your luck to random chance each and every time, stay close to the pack — but not at the front. Everyone else will do the work for you, hitting fake and real doors, so you can then do your best to scramble through the functional exits. Watching and learning is also the most important thing you can do when you fall into a level you're unfamiliar with — this also applies to Tip Toe's series of false floors.
Pattern recognition is key
Gate Crash is one of the levels where I have the hardest time progressing, because (for some reason) I have a hard time picking the right gates. Throughout the level, you're trying to run through a series of lowering and closing gates, and each has its own cadence for opening and closing. If you treat subsequent gate rows as if they'll run by the same pattern, you're going to find yourself stuck. And if you do hit a gate that doesn't lower when you want to, don't run to another gate immediately. Wait for that gate to lower, or else you're going to put yourself in a loop of the rising gates that lose the race.
Learn the difference between Jump and Dive
At first, as I aimlessly jumped around I didn't even realize diving was an option. But with Dive (Square on PS4 and Ctrl on PC), you get another way to move through the air. As its name suggests, Dive will propel you forwards, not just upward. This is key for performing a running jump forward, which you'll want for moving from platform to platform. Hitting dive mid-jump, though, is key for Fall Ball, as it's a major tool for pushing the ball away from your goal or towards the opposition's. Diving can also help you escape tail thieves in Team Tail Tag, but it does open you up to any opponents near your landing spot.
Know when to stay still
As I played Jump Club, a Survival Mode challenge, I was shocked by how many people were making the game harder by running away from the spinning beams that seek to knock you off. Instead, I found more success by staying in relatively the same position, and waiting to jump over the spinning bar. Staying super-still, didn't work either, as the angles would sometimes make it hard to see when to jump. So my advice for Jump Mode and Block Party is to stick to a part of the map, and strategically move to jump or adjust your point of view. Moving fast will only likely set you into a collision course with other Fall Guys, screwing up your chance of survival. That being said, do the exact opposite when you're playing Roll Out, as you're dodging more obstacles on that level.
Work as a team
Do you have a crew of Fall Guys? Well, it's time to get in formation to thrive as a team, as you can party up with up to three other players before you enter the arena. No matter whether you use voice chat on your console or in Discord, being able to warn each other about situations is increasingly important towards the ends of the game. In Hex-A-Gone, a final challenge map that has tiers of disappearing floors, you even have a benefit to falling through to the bottom level. That way you can tell your fellow Fall Guys and Fall Gals where to position themselves — towards the inner core or the outer ring — based on where other players are eliminating panels.
Next: You can read about how I fell in love with Fall Guys recently again.
