Overview
Hi. I’m one of the designer and sole artist of KS:V. So you bought this game and start to regret it, because you suddenly realize you really suck at it. Our goal was to make a game that’s easy to learn but hard to master. We severely messed up the first part, and we are deeply sorry for it. That’s why I’m writing this guide, to give you a few tips about the game’s moves, how to effectively combine them together, and therefore lose your friends even faster! Maybe one day we’ll have an in game tutorial, but that would mean working more (imagine that!)
How to play
Your best friend. If you are new to the game, I recommend you always bump at first. Bump on the ground, bump while jumping, bump while dashing even, bump in the toilet. It is much easier to touch the ball while bumping than with your tiny, feeble squid body. It just helps you controlling the ball a lot. Please note that you need the ball to be in front of you in order to bump it (not above your head), it’s really like playing volleyball but with tentacles.
You can even get the ball to bounce underneath you IF you got the timing right (I sure don’t)
Its primary use is to get from point A to point B faster, it’s essential to cross the terrain in a pinch. But you can only perform it on the ground. One of the most common scenario you may find yourself in is when the ball is behind you and is too low to get to in time. Just wait for it to almost touch the ground and then suddenly dash to hit it horizontally, and get it to bounce off the wall.
Yes, the AI does it very well.
The smash is your bread and butter. It’s in the name of the game after all. Its angle and force depends on your position relative to the ball. That means the higher you are relative to the ball, the meanest the spike. More often than not you want to be as high as possible, but sometimes you want to perform a weak-ass smash to get the ball above the net.
What often occurs once someone attempts a smash is the opponent countering it with another smash. You suddenly got yourself a close quarters combat at the net, each player frantically spamming his smash button to get the ball across. One important thing to do in this scenario is to monitor the altitude of the ball, because you might want to switch to a bump in case the ball gets too low. You’ll smash in the net otherwise.
Smash into counter smash into bump.
You think you know how to serve the ball, right? You just… hit it. But did you know you can also serve with a smash?
It’s so much cooler. Just put yourself left (or right) to the ball, jump, and while your squid is descending in the air, hit smash. Same thing with a regular smash, the angle of the attack depends of your position relative to the ball, you have to get the timing right. Beware, nothing prevents a player to directly counter your service with a smash!
You can also serve with a bump of course.
Here comes the interesting part, probably the best part. Because it’s the best move, the coolest move. It allows you to get to heights you can’t reach with a regular jump, and therefore perform the sharpest spikes. Look at that angle of attack :
Beautiful isn’t it ? To perform it, just jump on your wall. The squid will angle itself against it, ready to propel his body horizontally. Jump again, and voilà! Follow this up by a smash, a bump, or nothing at all, it also works.
You can also pull off some amazing counters with the technique, but it is a risky move. Just picture this: you are waiting, glued to your wall, ready for an epic counter, coming from above. You’re not a squishy squid anymore, but a fierce bird of prey!… but then your opponent reads you like a book, and angles the ball lower:
You’re screwed.
The game describes the solo mode as a good way to train your moves against a friendly machine who will gently give you the ball back in a nice bell curve, and even mess up from time to time.
That’s a lie. The AI is brutal. The AI is ferocious. The AI is ruthless. This mechanic squid does not care about your feelings, and if you are not properly prepared, it will crush them with all its might.
But fret not, it is not unbeatable. I put it back to its place from time to time, just for good measure.
With enough practice and proper understanding of its patterns, you too can beat it!
First thing you need to understand about solo mode is you’re entering a battle of endurance. The machine can pull off the most insane saves and makes very few mistakes. That means you must be ready to engage in long, drawn-out exchanges, while making even fewer mistakes. Be patient, maybe even pause the game from time to time. Your feeble human mind can easily get tired, whereas the superior mecha-squid brain does not.
“But it’s too strong!”, I hear you say, “my reflexes can’t compete against those beautiful, incredible, rapid firing computer neurons, its use of the dash is completely out of my human understanding!” Don’t worry. You have one move in your arsenal the AI can’t do. One trick you can take advantage of, that the AI can’t, and maybe you already noticed it. Thanks to our programmer, who was too lazy to learn it to the AI, it cannot wall jump! That’s right, it can’t make use of the most powerful move in the game! So learn it. Practice it. Get the timing right. You are Rocky climbing the stairs, you are Naruto learning rasengan, you can do it!
And pray the programmer never stops being lazy
