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For those who wish to dive deeper, Gang Beasts’ combat offers a lot of complex moves and tricks to give an advantage. Unlike most special moves in fighting games, these started life as mere accidents in development like the consequences of the basic movement controls, but as the game evolved, the developers leaned into them to create some interesting opportunities.

Updated September 17, 2021 by Erik Petrovich: While it’s not much of a competitive game at its core, Gang Beasts offers players a surprising number of ways to evade and outplay their opponents. There are a handful of basic Gang Beast moves in the game – Headbutting, Jumping, Punching, Grabbing, and Kicking to name a few – all of which can be combined with each other to create devastating combos. One of the most annoying things to deal with is opponents who just won’t let go, though. By using methods to escape their vice grip players can reposition themselves and create advantages. If all else fails, it’s better to force a tie than to accept defeat.

12 Breaking Out Of A Hold

One of the most frustrating things in Gang Beasts is being unable to escape an opponent who is dead-set on never letting go. It’s not necessarily a death sentence to get into an inescapable hold, though, and the game offers multiple effective ways to break out.

Sometimes the player is the one who doesn’t want to let go as their opponent might be trying to throw them off the side of the stage. In that case, many of these tactics still work effectively because of the extremely close range and ability to reposition oneself.

Spam The Jump Button

One of the easiest (and perhaps most intuitive) ways to break free of a neverending hold is to rapidly press the jump button. It’s not a guaranteed escape, and there’s no perfect way to do it, but leaning in different directions and continually pulling away should eventually force the opponent to let go, giving you a second to reposition and get the upper hand.

Headbutt Them

A great move to pull on close-range enemies, like those who are holding you close, is to headbutt them instead of punch. Different controllers have different inputs for the headbutt so be sure to learn which button this is in your setup to easily escape from a hold. Sometimes, this will knock out the enemy for a few seconds too, making it one of the most useful Gang Beasts special moves.

Get A Better Grip On Them

Sometimes the enemy just won’t let go, especially enemies that are trying to avoid being thrown off of a ledge. It’s frustrating to have a foe holding onto the player with just as strong a grip, but there are ways around this. Don’t take both hands off of the opponent, instead go one hand at a time to grab them by a part of their body that they can’t reach you back from, such as on their legs or lower torso.

11 Mutually Assured Destruction

Simply jump off the edge with a foe attached (or let go of the ledge)

The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction is far from a new one - coined all the way back at the beginning of the Nuclear era, M.A.D. is both a defensive and an offensive concept in total war. In Gang Beasts, a decent strategy against a much better player is to take them down with you. It will result in a tie, and there’s a chance that the next map might be more in your favor.

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While it’s not a great way to win a round, it’s a great way to demoralize the opponent and avoid an incoming loss for at least another match.

10 Throwing Players

Hold both Punch buttons to grab, then use the Taunt button to lift them and release the Punch buttons

Gang Beasts is far from a traditional fighting game, so throwing players over/off of something is essential to getting a win in stages like Ring or Grind.

To pull this off, the person players wish to throw should be unconscious. This trick can be done on someone while they’re awake, but it’s more difficult as they can punch back. From there, simply hold both punch buttons to grab them, use the lift/taunt button to lift them then dump them over whatever barrier/ledge as desired. Having some momentum can be helpful when releasing.

9 Dropkick

Jump up in the air and press the Kick button when close to the foe’s head (can also be done while running)

When going on the offense, it’s always good to have a plan. Charing in really to spam punches is all well and good, but there are plenty of offensive maneuvers to be pulled to catch an opponent off guard.

The easiest and most versatile is the dropkick. To do this, players simply have to jump and then kick while in the air and their opponent will get a foot to the face. This move has several variants, as it can be pulled off while running and can be held if players hold down the kick button.

8 Flipkick

Hold down the Kick button while rapidly pressing Jump

This is technically a dropkick variant, but it’s cool enough that it can stand alone. To put it simply why dropkick an opponent only once when it can be done several times in a row? This is the problem that the Flipkick resolves.

It can be a little unreliable and players need to get the rhythm of their button pressed right, but it’s worth it. Hold the kick button while repeatedly jumping and the character should do several backflips, kicking their opponent in the face as they rotate.

7 Powerslide

Get a running start, then hold the Headbutt or Kick buttons, depending on if you want to slide head-first or not

Sliding is a fun mode of transportation — much more fun than walking. That’s why Gang Beasts has not just one, but two different slides. These are most effective on slippery surfaces like the sheets of ice in Buoy, but they can be used elsewhere too.

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To do it, build up some momentum and then hold the kick or headbutt button. Holding kick will make the character slide on their back, holding headbutt will make them slide on their front. While it looks cool is enough, it can also be used offensively as a slide tackle in the right context.

6 Tope Suicida

Get to a high spot, jump off, and headbutt right as you make contact with the foe

The community refers to this move as a “Body Slam”, but that’s not what a real Body Slam. To perform a Tope Suicida players jump onto their opponent from somewhere high. However, making it do damage is a little more complex.

One of the more effective Gang Beast tips to make this more powerful is to use the headbutt while diving. This will cause the player to land on their opponent with an incredible impact, potentially knocking them out straight away. This is a dangerous move though and has the potential to knock out the user, not to mention the risk of missing.

5 Dirt Feeder

Grab the opponent’s legs with both Punch buttons, lift them above the head, then drop them for a Knockout

The Dirt Feeder isn’t exactly the most hard-hitting of moves, but if players want to rub their opponent’s face in the dirt, this will do in a pinch.

Pulling this off can be a bit tricky, as players have to grab their opponent by the legs. If their opponent’s costume has a tail to grab, this helps. Once grabbed, lift them up so they’re hanging upside down and simply let go of the lift button. This will slam their face into the ground and potentially KO them.

4 Climb Leap

Spend some time learning to climb in Gang Beasts and escape from zealous foes by going vertical

This is a movement technique that makes what is normally a rather arduous process quite easy. Climbing can be a bit of a bother sometimes. It’s certainly possible, but newer players can often have trouble coordinating where they need to lift their limbs and let go of the surface to climb up it.

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The Climb Leap makes this process far easier and infinitely quicker. Grab onto a wall with both hands and repeatedly jump up the wall by double-tapping the jump button. One of the best Gang Beasts tipsis to practice this move in a private match first, as it’s a precise trick to pull off, but it could save your life (plus, it looks rather funny).

3 Flying Headbutt

Get a running start, hold down the Jump button, and quickly press the Headbutt button when close

There are many ways to pull off headbutts in this game, and it’s one of the most iconic Gang Beasts’ special moves. It is by far the game’s strongest default attack but does come with the risk of a self-KO if done poorly. The Flying Headbutt is a move that almost guarantees a self-KO, but it’s really fun and extremely satisfying to nail.

The way to do it is very simple — run, leap, headbutt. Holding down the headbutt button is usually best as the character will flop forward as they do so. Colliding with basically anything other than the opponent will be sure to cause a self-KO, but it’s worth it for the few times it hits.

2 Resting KO

Go into Ragdoll mode by holding down Duck, Kick, and Jump at the same time. Then, press Punch when the opponent comes to check on your body

Like a tiger waiting to pounce, the best attacks are the ones the opponent never sees coming. This is a multi-stage attack with an incredible payoff if it works. It can be a little unreliable as it depends on how the character moves, but it’s devastating when it works.

First, players must “play dead.” This can be done by holding down the duck, kick & jump buttons at once. It will appear as the character is KO’ed, except for some slight twitching and causes the character to coil up like a spring. While holding all three buttons, when someone comes close, punch. The result of this will be anything from an OHKO punch to a glitchy flail that sends both characters flying off of the map. Either way, it’s one of the better Gang Beasts combos to learn and take out enemies unawares.

1 OHKO Headbutt

Hold the opponent’s shoulders with both Punch buttons, then headbutt them square in their head for a guaranteed long-lasting K. O.

The quickest way to win a fight, but very tricky to pull off as it requires precise grab work. This is the kind of grabbing that will be very difficult to pull off in the heat of battle, but players who focus might be able to unleash this most powerful Gang Beast combos.

To nail this headbutt, players must grab each of their opponent’s shoulders. This is far trickier than it sounds as the characters in Gang Beasts have small shoulders and getting the arms into the right place is no easy task. However, once that is done, it’s just a matter of a headbutt and down they go. This is a sure-fire way to put down even the most irritating of opponents.

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