FOOTSIES: Arcade Mode: How to Win, and the Lessons it Teaches

I’m making this guide because the other guides are linking to third party websites and stuff. I believe you can learn all the concepts involved in those guides by experiencing them firsthand in the Arcade Mode of this game.

Fighting games are Rock-Paper-Scissors, so nothing is ever 100% successful, it’s always a guessing game. The best way to succeed is to recognize patterns in your opponent’s play and counter them with the appropriate strategies. If your opponent is similarly skilled, they might recognize your adaptations and adapt back, and then you do the same, resulting in layers upon layers of mindgames.

Therefore, each section of this guide shows how to beat each CPU, and how they could adapt to beat your counterplay if they were humans. I hope this helps you to see how all these strategies fit together.

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To begin, please familiarize yourself with the various actions you can take in-game. Training has a tutorial that will teach you all of them, but here’s a refresher list:

Movement
Dash: press left or right twice

Normal Attacks
Kick: press attack while standing still
Knee: press attack while moving

Special/Held Attacks
Roundhouse: Hold attack for 1s then release while standing still
Uppercut: Hold attack for 1s then release while moving

There are a couple non-obvious things about Special attacks to note:
– You can hold attack before round start, so you don’t need to attack first in order to use a Held attack.
– You can dash and hold a button or release a button during the dash to “hide” it. like you can backdash and hold attack during the dash, then release attack afterward to do a roundhouse.

This guide will assume that you don’t use Uppercuts and Roundhouses “Raw”, only use Roundhouse after landing a Kick or Knee. It’s intended to teach actual FG fundamentals. Special Attacks have their place in real matches vs other players, but they aren’t needed to win arcade mode.

What is this CPU doing?
They stand still, and mash attack as fast as possible. They will randomly do either Knee or Kick and confirm into Roundhouse

When do you see this in actual FGs?
When your opponent is scared of you approaching and attacking, they will try to stop your approach by preemptively putting out an attack for you to walk into.

How do I counter it?
If your opponent is pressing attacks like this to stop you from reaching them, you want to Whiff Punish them. Walk up right outside the range of their longer range Kick. As soon as they attack with either attack, wait a tick and press your own standing kick which will connect with their outstretched foot, then confirm into Roundhouse. Ideally in real games you would react to their attack, but it’s not necessary here. You can practice Whiff Punishing in the game’s training mode.

What does my counterplay lose to?
If you sit back outside their range, it gives them an opportunity to start offense by walking into your range and attacking you, making you block or get hit by an attack instead of whiffing a button.

Whiff Punishing also loses to them walking back and putting out a knee where your kick won’t reach, which will cause you to whiff your Kick, and that will let them Whiff Punish your attempted Whiff Punish… I know this sounds complicated, but I’ll show you this strat a little later.

For such a simple enemy, there’s a lot to it, huh?

What is this CPU doing?
They will walk forward and attack you. Or, If you walk into their range they will attack you. They’re only named BLOCKER because they will block any attack you make if they’re able.

When do you see this in actual FGs?
This is probably the most common first thing you’ll see in fighting games. People want to hit you with attacks, so they will walk forward and do it. The main reason this CPU blocks is just to give you some practice stopping their approaches.

How do I counter it?
You are kinda like Spammer this time, stopping your opponent’s approach. The difference is, you aren’t randomly mashing. Press Kick to learn the range of your attack. Now that you know Kick’s range, you can just sit still and watch your opponent. As soon as Blocker walks in range of your Kick, Kick them. Blocker will block and be pushed back a bit.

After making them block 3 times, they will lose the ability to block. Next time they walk in range, press Kick to break their guard, and confirm it into Roundhouse.

What does my counterplay lose to?
Your opponent can act like they’re going to walk into range, then back out. If you react to the approach, you will whiff your Kick and they can Whiff Punish it, just like you did to Spammer earlier.

What is this CPU doing?
They will sometimes walk up and attack, sometimes whiff an attack outside your range, sometimes DP or Roundhouse

When do you see this in actual FGs?
This is a very common low to intermediate player strat. They will play a little footsies, but then they’ll bet their life on something silly like a DP or Roundhouse. They just can’t help themselves.

How do I counter it?
The goal here is to play safe. If you give this kind of player rope they will eventually hang themselves. Walk back and they will eventually DP or Roundhouse you too close. When that happens, be ready with a Kick and Roundhouse confirm to punish them.

You can also whiff punish them or stuff their approach like the last 2 opponents, but it carries risk because if you’re too slow to punish they will DP you.

What does my counterplay lose to?
If they don’t do really unsafe stuff and just keep approaching with kicks and knees, you’ll never get a turn to attack because you’re waiting for a DP or Roundhouse punish. They could just keep walking up and attacking you until you die, like Blocker.

This might be your first real big roadblock. This is a difficult CPU to beat consistently.

What is this CPU doing?
They will walk back or forward to stay somewhere outside Kick range. As soon as you press an attack within a certain range, they’ll go for a Whiff Punish. If you walk too close they will also attack.

When do you see this in actual FGs?
Your opponents might start to whiff punish you if they get hit by you while trying to approach you a few times. Whiff Punishes tend to do a lot of damage, so be careful of always trying to check approaches.

How do I counter it?
There’s 2 main ways you can do this:

The first is to slowly walk them to the corner. They aren’t going to approach you, so when they give you space, take it and keep making them retreat until their back is to the wall. Now walk into and out of their range while they can’t control the spacing anymore, and they’ll try to Knee you. Whiff Punish their Knee with a Knee or Kick. This takes good reactions to do consistently.

The second is a little tricky to wrap your head around: You want to “Wish Punish” them. This means pressing a button right outside their range to make them whiff their whiff punish, then whiff punishing them without even reacting because you KNOW they will try to attack. Damn, that’s a weird concept, isn’t it?.
In this case, we walk back, press Knee, then press Kick. They will walk forward and try to whiff punish, but because they’re moving they ALSO get knee, which won’t hit our knee. Then we smack their Knee with our Kick. Here it is in full speed, then slowed down so you can see what’s happening:

Both of these strategies are pretty difficult to do right 100% of the time. Sometimes you’ll try to walk them to the corner patiently, and walk into their attack. Sometimes you don’t make enough space while trying to “Wish Punish” them and just get Whiff Punished. This fight is all about spacing, more than any before.

What does my counterplay lose to?
Trying to walk them to the corner loses to them mashing an attack as you walk toward them.
Trying to “Wish Punish” them loses to them not taking your bait. You’ll whiff a Knee, then whiff a Kick, and they’ll Whiff Punish the Kick.

What is this CPU doing?
They will move around and either Uppercut or Roundhouse you. If you try to do an attack when they’re not doing anything, they will Uppercut you. They might also use the SECRET TECHNIQUE which you will learn about later.

When do you see this in actual FGs?
This is the “special-only” type of player, who learned how to do special moves and thought to themselves “Why would I ever do a normal punch or kick when I can do COOL STUFF??”
It’s a very common (and very fun) low-level playstyle.

How do I counter it?
This is actually one of the easiest ones to beat, easier than ORDINARYGUY because this one takes way more risks. They will only do very punishable attacks against you. Walk back to the wall and let them approach. If they back off a ton, walk forward a touch, then walk back again. Eventually they will do Roundhouse or Uppercut, which you can punish with Kick into Roundhouse. Occasionally they might use the SECRET TECHNIQUE, but they can only do that once per 3-game match so just let them do it. Your goal is to risk nothing and let them risk everything.

What does my counterplay lose to?
Since you’re walking to the corner, you’d normally be losing the metagame of Footsies pretty hard if it weren’t for the fact that your opponent is 100% betting their life on every interaction. In most other FGs you can just crouch-block in order to block while not walking yourself to the corner though.

What is this CPU doing?
lol whatever they want

When do you see this in actual FGs?
Far Too Often

How do I counter it?
Don’t rematch them, and if they’re your friend then maybe send them money for an ethernet cord.
(for real, play safe and wait for them to make a mistake like ORDINARYGUY, except sometimes time will rewind and you’ll eat a DP or something instead.)

What does my counterplay lose to?
No matter how much you beg your favorite FG devs, they will refuse to add WiFi filters to matchmaking…

Congrats on learning how to play Footsies!