Introduction & Key Knowledge
Hello!(slight introduction to who I am, and why I'm writing this guide)
I'm fps. I started playing FPS Chess just after release, and I was very active in the community around then. I've left the community behind since then, but I wanted to share my knowledge about the game so I've decided to write this handy guide for y'all. Enjoy!
Key KnowledgeAs mentioned in the description, this guide only applies to the normal variants of the pieces. Shinies are not mentioned.
I don't suggest going outside anywhere in here. While it can be used to win some matchups more consistently, I don't believe it's in the spirit of the game to camp out there. Do feel free to go outside IRL I hear it's nice out there though I've never been out myself.
I also simply pretend the white vs black ping difference and the differences in tech between the two doesn't exist.
Basic Piece Info & Abiltities
UniversalAll pieces, from the pawn to the king have 100 HP. This health pool is represented by the cracks on the screen when you take damage. Your health slowly regenerates after you have not taken damage for several seconds.
Blocking is a mechanic some pieces (pawn, bishop, king) possess by holding the Block button (RMB by default). Your block has 50 HP. While you aren't blocking, your block HP will regenerate similar to health regeneration.
Wall climbing can be achieved by holding your Jump button while pressed against a wall. Wall climbing simply sets your velocity to a certain upwards value, meaning it can be used to instantly null any horizontal or vertical momentum. This is rarely useful, though.
PawnWeapon - Musket - Deals 15 hitscan damage per shot.
Movement Ability - Sprint - No cooldown - Move faster at the cost of not being able to block or shoot
Main Ability - Decoy - 7 second cooldown - Nearest NPC pawn to you becomes a Decoy, shooting at your opponent doing 5 damage per shot at a higher firerate than you, and without having the ability to headshot. The decoy has 50 HP.
KnightWeapon - Bow - Charge up a shot with LMB, at release to shoot an arrow that does at most 45 damage.
Movement Ability - Dash - 4 second cooldown - Dash, dealing 45 damage.
Main Ability - Homing Arrow - 8 second cooldown - Next arrow shot will be "homing", curving into your opponent when it gets close at the cost of not being able to headshot.
BishopWeapon - Blunderbuss - Fire a high-spread shotgun, dealing 3 damage per pellet with 21 pellets.
Movement Ability - Flight - No cooldown - Enter a mode of flight, where momentum is uncapped. Touching anything ends your dash.
Main Ability - Bomb - 4.5 second cooldown - Equip a bomb. Pressing LMB with the bomb out will cause you to throw it, dealing 50 damage to opponents and knocking them up. Hitting yourself with the bomb will give you the same upwards boost, while not dealing any self-damage.
RookWeapon - Sniper Rifle - Fires a single bullet that deals 50 damage with a high spread. Can scope in with your block button to gain full accuracy and the ability to headshot.
Movement Ability - Grappling hook - 8 second cooldown - Fires a grappling hook that will extend a certain distance, and if it hits anything you will be pulled directly there. Cooldown does not go off if hook is missed.
Main Ability - Wall - 5 second cooldown - Equips a wall. Upon pressing LMB, a wall will be placed that can be climbed and hid behind. The wall can be destroyed after taking 150 damage, or when another wall of the same color is placed.
QueenWeapon - Machine Gun - A machine gun with medium spread that deals 2 damage a shot, and fires 25 shots a second.
Movement Ability - Angelic Flight - 9 second cooldown - Enters a state of flight where the queen can hold her jump key to gain unlimited height.
Main Ability - Piece throw - 5 second cooldown - Initial press causes the nearest piece to be held by the queen. Second press will launch the piece in the direction the queen is facing. Deals exponential damage based on range, and can instakill at range.
KingWeapon - Sword - Swings dealing 40 damage to enemies in front of the king.
Movement Ability - Leap - 5 second cooldown - Upon initial press, enters a state of preparing to launch. When LMB is pressed, the King leaps to wherever he is looking. A circle expands from where the King lands, dealing 30 damage on contact with an enemy.
Main Ability - Pull - 8 second cooldown - Pulls enemies in that are inside the beam shown when the ability is pressed. Deals damage every frame based on the amount of time passed since the last frame (therefore, can deal more or less damage based on framerate. Generally deals about 40 damage, but by decreasing your framerate you can achieve 50 through normal means)
Piece Techniques & Bugs
Pawn
Sprint momentum retentionBy sprinting and then holding spacebar to bunnyhop, you can safely end your sprint while still being able to block and shoot.
Decoy behavior and manipulationDecoys will always travel the fastest horizontal path towards their opponent. They will also only fire in a straight line.
Block managementBy holding block and releasing temporarily to shoot, you can narrow down the window you are vulnerable to just when your gun is off cooldown. This can be abused against pieces like the Queen to tank an extra 50 damage and get more time to kill her.
Train momentum boostingAs much as it sounds crazy, being hit by the train while losing you half your health can be used to gain a good amount of momentum which can be retained by bunnyhopping. This is very situational, though when utilized properly is powerful.
Decoy opponent locatingBy using your Decoy, you can tell exactly which direction your opponent is judging by the direction your Decoy goes in.
Knight
Dash comboingBy combining your homing arrow and dash in quick succession, you can deal a quite easy 90 damage to your opponent. Following it up with a quick low power shot can quickly end a fight with little counterplay from your opponent.
BishopThis is the longest section by FAR. Bishop strategy and tech is very hard to nail, and takes a lot of practice.
Mid-air flight momentum stackingBy flying upwards until low on momentum, then dipping back down as low as possible and flying upwards again, you can gain a small amount of speed. This can be repeated to gain significant amounts of speed, although it leaves you vulnerable. This is the easier, but less effective, method of gaining speed in flight.
Mid-air momentum redirectionBy pressing your flight key while moving fast midair while not in flight, you can instantly redirect all your momentum in the direction you're facing.
Flight wall grazingBy grazing a wall (WHILE NOT PRESSING JUMP AT ALL) mid-flight, you can keep the vast majority momentum you had when you hit the wall. The straighter the angle, the more speed kept.
Wallgraze abuse for speedWallgrazing directly upwards causes you to gain verticality while in your non-flight state, where there is much less downforce placed on you. By doing this, you can gain lots of vertical height without losing your momentum. Doing this and then redirecting while near the roof allows you to go down again, gaining even more speed, all while moving erratically and unpredictably. This is more difficult to pull off, but can grant you more speed in less time.
Wallgraze slope ridingBy wallgrazing with speed into a slope (such as the upper part of the indents at the bottom of the dresser, or the bottom part of the windowsill) you can ride off the slope to have great horizontal AND vertical speed while also being able to fire your gun or throw bombs in any direction.
Regeneration interruptingHitting any amount of pellets, even at range, resets the timer for your opponents regeneration. This allows you to stall out regeneration while waiting for your bomb to come off cooldown, allowing for ranged play as the Bishop.
DivebombingBy bombing your opponent while having lots of momentum in flight, you can easily deal immense damage without directly engaging and losing all your speed. This, combined with regen interrupting, can allow you to dominate opponents all while losing little speed.
Flight clippingBy jumping on some objects and quickly entering flight while facing directly down, you can clip through said objects. Importantly, this works on the dresser, allowing you to fall through it to confuse your opponents.
Rook
Wall shot cooldown resettingBy firing your gun, and quickly double pressing the Main Ability button, the cooldown on your gun can be reset, allowing you to fire several times faster.
Hipfire wall cooldown reset shot spam via direct modification of input config filesBy changing your keybinds in your FPS Chess config files to keys not normally able to be assigned ingame, you can easily hipfire spam your gun without a macro. To do this, type %localappdata%\FPSChess\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor into the File Explorer navigation bar and open the "Input" file in notepad. Then, paste these three lines in:
ActionMappings=(ActionName="Main Ability",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=MouseScrollDown)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="Main Ability",bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=MouseScrollUp)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="Fire",bShift=False,bCtrl=True,bAlt=False,bCmd=False,Key=Mouse2D)
It's important you do this while the game is closed, and remember to save your changes. Now, by holding left control, moving your mouse, and scrolling your scroll wheel all at once, you will be able to spam. This doesn't impact your normal keybinds at all, you'll still be able to use them.
Midair wall hoppingBy placing a wall below yourself midair, you can jump off of it to throw off opponents or set up a shot.
Queen
Piece hold launchingBy holding a piece underneath you while in flight, or occasionally on the ground, you can get a random unpredictable boost of momentum. This is queens only practical way to gain horizontal momentum, the unpractical way being to boost off the train.
Piece throw reboundingBy throwing a piece at a wall such to get around your opponents cover when you can't directly hit them, you can sometimes kill an opponent that you can't even see.
King
Pull bufferingBy quickly releasing your enemies from your pull and quickly again facing them, you can throw off their aim.
Instant pullingBy pulling as soon as you can when the round starts, you can nearly guarantee a win against some pieces that lack escape options to this tactic.
Specific Matchup Strategies
Pawn
Against PawnIt is important to ensure your opponents decoy is either useless or destroyed. 2 headshots will kill a decoy, assuming you're close enough to not be vulnerable to much falloff. It's also important to manage your blocks well. Typically buffering your block with your shots and taking the time your opponent uses to block to regenerate your block and break theirs quicker is a good strategy.
Against BishopGenerally you will lose this matchup. Ideally you want to get to a cheeky spot that's hard to reach as Bishop without crashing, and hope that you can get him to mess up. You can also counter his regeneration buffering by blocking his ranged shots.
Against KnightThe best strategy I've found for facing the Knight is to take him on close range, but with a vertical advantage. This allows you to avoid his dash, and typically giving you more options for cover. Just dive bombing a knight can also work, but you have to be confident in your aim to pull this off.
Against RookThe Rook is tough to beat due to his ease of escape. The best way I've found to handle him is to keep taking cover when he grapples, and forcing him to come to you. By doing this you can force a close-range fight. Other than that, you have a very low chance of being able to beat a Rook.
Against QueenThe queen is very vulnerable when she is off cooldown of her flight, as you can slip in and kill her while she has low maneuverability. You want to keep close to her, or behind cover if you're far away, as to avoid her piece throw. Hope and pray you get an opportunity to get close, and try to set yourself up for such. She has low damage due to her spread, so a midrange fight where you aren't losing damage to falloff but you are far enough away to cause your enemy to miss most shots.
Against KingThis is very hard to win due to his combo off the start of the match. If you want to beat him, you need to hit several headshots in quick succession before he can kill you. Should he doesn't combo you off the bat, you can try to pepper him to death due to his inability to do damage from range.
Knight
Against PawnPawn is very vulnerable at range, so attempting to shoot at him from long range is an easy way to secure a victory. Getting said long range is the hard part, though. If you get rushed by a pawn, make sure to use all your cooldowns to the best effect. Other than that, you simply just have to be able to hit those arrows.
Against KnightThis matchup is just who has better mechanical skill. If you're slightly worse, you can still win via better cooldown management (e.g. punishing the enemies dash by firing a homing arrow, which they can no longer dodge)
Against BishopDash is your best friend against a Bishop. Save it to dodge his bombs or dives, and wait for him to make a mistake.
Against RookThis matchup is very similar to Pawn v Rook. Refer to that.
Against QueenTry to prioritize your horizontal distance from the queen, keeping far enough away to not be vulnerable to her main attack. You can dodge her piece throws with Dash.
Against KingCountering the kings abilities with your own is a great way to beat him.
Bishop
Against PawnGet speed as soon as you can and combine divebombing with regen interrupting to win for free.
Against KnightSame as against pawn
Against BishopJust ♥♥♥♥ around and try to not make any mistakes. Punish your enemy for making any.
Against RookTry to move more erratically, and make it difficult for the Rook to hit you. Keep track of where he is at all times.
Against QueenSame as against Rook, although to dodge piece throws instead of shots
Against KingDon't let him get close, and make sure to fly away as soon as the round starts to avoid dying off the beat.
Rook
Against PawnGet away from him early and try to kill him from distant angles. If you're forced into a close range fight, you can abuse hipspam to somewhat reliably secure the win.
Against KnightUse your better mobility to your advantage to keep range and try to get a quick win. Be careful to not wall yourself off, as he can fire a homing arrow around your wall while you're defenseless.
Against RookBe better.
Against BishopTry to keep high ground, as he naturally will have less momentum at higher altitudes. This also makes it harder for him to divebomb you.
Against QueenQueen is quite easy to beat due to her lack of horizontal movement options. As long as your aim is decent, two quick bodyshots can kill her before she can do much.
Against KingKing is quite easy to beat as you can easily predict where his large head hitbox will be if he dives you, and if he doesn't you can simply kill him from a distance.
Queen
Against PawnGetting good vertical height and trying to hit piece throws while simultaneously peppering the pawn can lead to victories usually. Your mid-long range damage is much higher.
Against KnightYou may have to crutch on piece throws from range here, as any range where you can effectively use your gun for anything other than pausing regen is more advantageous for the Knight than you.
Against RookHere you may want to get quick distance followed by a quick piece throw in an attempt to kill the rook before he gets a chance to attack you at all. You can rebound a piece throw if he ends up hiding behind his wall.
Against BishopUsing your levitation to stay in the air for extended periods of time can lead to the bishop having a hard time hitting you with bombs. You may not be able to easily damage him but with a lucky piece throw you have a chance of winning.
Against QueenIn this matchup you have a choice to not use your piece throw, and bank on being able to pepper down your enemy from range before they can kill you with their own piece throw. If you're confident in your projectile abilities you can still go for piece throws.
Against KingIf you get instantly pulled, try to fly away by using your levitation as soon as he swings for the first time (it gives you an initial upwards boost, which does nothing if used while being pulled). Once you do that, it's simple to just use range to your advantage.
King
Against PawnInstant pulling and diving both have high chances of leading to a win. If you make a mistake, you can block while waiting for your leap to go off cooldown to escape.
Against KnightBaiting the Knights dash, appropriately using your block, and forcing close range fights are the 3 keys to beating a Knight. However, being too predictable can lead to you getting owned, so change up your strategy often.
Against BishopPulling a Bishop while he's out of flight can reset his momentum, however while he's in flight you can't change his momentum with your pull.
Against RookLeaping onto him as soon as he grapples forces a close range fight, which is your only chance of winning.
Against QueenPulling her in when her flight is off cooldown is a sure way to kill her, as her close range DPS is still low compared to yours.
Against KingThis matchup often ends in a tie, but timing your swings to be slightly earlier than your opponents can lead to you barely winning. Additionally, hitting a leap circle or a full pull means you only need to swing twice to win, as compared to thrice from your enemy.
Final Notes
Thanks for reading my guide! I hope it's helped some of you out. If you have any inquiries about the game or this guide, feel free to add me on discord @fpschess (yeah surprise, i have that tag) or simply leave them in the comments on this guide. I likely forgot some things or made some errors in here, so please do help correct me.
Have fun!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3208126550
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