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features an entirely female cast of ungulates, which Lauren Faust brilliantly designs. Lauren is the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and has worked on other popular cartoons, such as Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, The Powerpuff Girls, and much more. So, naturally, many will gravitate to how gorgeous and unique this indie fighting game is.
However, it is still a fighting game, which can be daunting for most people unfamiliar or new to the genre. But the good news here is that Them's Fightin' Herds has an excellent onboarding process and community, along with several modes that allow you to hone your skills and have fun without having to constantly throw yourself against a wall by grinding out the online play.
Utilize Your Pushblock
Pushblocking is a crucial feature in Them's Fightin' Herds that newcomers largely overlook, and adding it to your game plan can help you tremendously. A Pushblock is when you press two attack buttons while blocking, pushing your opponent backward when they attack, giving you much-needed space to escape from the corner.
Utilizing your Pushblock can also make your opponent whiff their attack, allowing you to follow up with your own attacks and punish the more overly aggressive players. Furthermore, you may not always want to use a Pushblock to escape long attack strings, but if you don't know when you're safe or find it hard to find your opening, this will be a lifesaver.
Tech Recovery
Tech Recovery, also known as Technical Recovery, is a mechanic in Them's Fightin' Herds - amongst many other fighting games - that allow you to quickly rise whenever knocked down. However, in this game, you can Tech Recover in mid-air, allowing you🔜 to get right back into the action, whether on the ground or airborne.
To Tech Recover in Them's Fightin' Herds, you simply have to hold down an attack button while holding a direction on your pad, stick, or whatever you prefer. If there's a gap in your opponent's combo or attack string, you will automatically Tech Recover (if you're holding down the inputs), putting you back in control of your character. While it's almost always beneficial to Tech Recover, it may be risky in some situations, but that's on a case-by-case basis and is something you will naturally learn when to implement the more you play.
Blocking Tips
If you're familiar with other fighting games, this tip will likely be of no use to you, but if you're new to the genre, you should know how to block in most situations. In most cases, you should block via the down/back command rather than just holding the back button while standing. The reason is, blocking with down/back prevents you from getting hit by mid and low attacks, leaving you only having to worry about jump-ins or overheads.
You can react much quicker and more consistently against overheads instead of lows, allowing you to stand up and block them, then resume your crouch blocking. Furthermore, if your opponent goes for an overhead or jump-in, you are typically safe after blocking them or might be able to react with a quick jab to interrupt them and go on offense yourself. But the most important thing is that by blocking low, you are safe from most of your opponent's attacks, allowing you to react more efficiently when the situation calls for it.
Use Training Mode
Training Mode will be the ultimate method in any fighting game to get your bearing, test things out, and improve your execution, and Them's Fightin' Herds is no different. While to some, spending hours in Training Mode can be tedious and feel like a chore. Some will love the ability to tighten up their gameplay without the stress of getting bodied online.
There are a plethora of options at your disposal in this game's Training Mode, allowing you to see things such as hitboxes on attacks, monitor the attack data, and even set your opponent to react to your attacks in specific situations so you can flesh out your attack routes and options. However,ꦐ like most fighting games, this can - and likely will - take lots of time to set up, execute, and learn, which will turn away some players. Luckily, there are more options for you to learn your character of choice!
Play The Story
Not all fighting games have a Story Mode, and when they do, they are often underwhelming or lack the kind of content you'd expect from one. Fortunately, Them's Fightin' Herds has a rather unique, charming, and fun Story Mode, complete with boss encounters 𓂃and an interesting-enough plot to carry you ওthrough it.
Will the Story Mode of Them's Fightin' Herds blow you away? No. But it will help you understand your character a bit more, which is always one of the main benefits of having this mode in a fighting game in the first place. Despite fighting AI, you can learn a substantial amount about your character of choice by playing the story and can try executing basic combos or attack strings that might open you up to trying to lab them in Training Mode.
Take A Crack At Combo Trials
Speaking of combos, let's go over Combo Trials, as they often get a bad wrap in the FGC (Fighting Game Community). Yes, some Combo Trials are unhinged in a way that you would have to dedicate your entire life to complete them, but most aren't that bad and are entirely doable. In Them's Fightin' Herds, you can access Combo Trials by entering Training Mode, opening the menu, and selecting Combo Training. Once here, you will see a long list of combos for your chosen🌠 character.
Combos found within the Combo Trials menu will be broken up into three parts, Beginner, Intermediate, and Master. We recommend tackling every Beginner and Intermediate Combo Trial for your character, as they will teach you basic, optimal combos that you can execute in-game with little to no setup. This will give you tremendous perspective on the possibilities of your character and may even lead you to try your own routes or add your own twists to them. You can try tackling the Master Combo Trials, but 🙈they are pretty challenging, so be warned before diving into them!
Play Online
Lastly, if you want to see yourself gradually improve at any fighting game, going online is one of the best ways to grow and learn the game. While this is an intimidating step for any newcomer to the genre, it's ultimately not as bad as you think. If you go into each match with the mindset of learning instead of wanting to𓂃 dominate your opponent, you will almost always walk away with valuable and crucial information that you can use in✨ your subsequent matches.
While we recommend at least playing the Story Mode, going through the Tutorial, or labbing a bit in Training Mode first, throwing yourself straight into the deep end is also a viable option for some players. The information you can receive from playing online sets is invaluable and more than worth the beatdowns in the early goings. If you are okay with the idea of losing but slowly learning the systems and mechanics, then, by all means, jump straight into the online mode and watch yourself gr𒐪ow over time!