Knockout City: tips and tricks for becoming a dodgeball champion

Knockout City is a new title from Velan Studios and Electronic Arts and a refreshing change of pace from the usual shooter and RPG games. It’s a fast-paced dodgeball action game where you can team up with a crew in squad-based matchups in a race to get ten points. The game is still fresh, but if you’re looking to improve, we’ve got some Knockout City tips and tricks for you to help you shorten the learning curve.

We will be taking a look at a few game settings that can improve your gameplay, provide a layout for all the default controls, and go into a few basic and advanced tricks you can use on the enemies to score a hit. If you’ve been playing for a while, you might know many of these, but hopefully, you can learn a thing or two in the process!

Knockout City Performance Mode or Quality Mode

Knockout City has two graphics settings: Performance Mode and Quality Mode. If you’re playing on a console like Nintendo Switch, try using Performance Mode to raise the FPS limit to 60. It requires a bit more bandwidth, so you’ll want a decent internet connection, but it makes a difference in gameplay. The result is less input lag, allowing you to react quicker to dodgeballs flying at your face.

Knockout City Controls

Here is a complete list of Knockout City controls:

Knockout City tips and tricks

Here are some tips and tricks, both basic and advanced, to help improve in Knockout City.

Passing

Passing the ball in Knockout City has a lot of benefits. First off, if your teammate is already holding a ball and you pass to them, you’ll immediately get the ball back with an overcharge. The overcharge adds some speed to the ball, so you can quickly throw it at a fast speed without wasting any time charging it up.

Passing is also a good way to fake out the enemies and confuse them. A lot of action is going on in Knockout City, so passing a ball to your teammate that’s a bit closer to the enemy might make them use their catch move, opening up an opportunity for your teammates to score a shot.

Dashing

Dashing is a move with many uses, including blocking, dodging out of the way, and knocking an opponent. You can dash in Knockout City by pressing left CTRL on PC, square on PlayStation, X on Xbox, or Y on Nintendo Switch.

Dash into an opponent to knock the ball loose (if they have one) and disorient them for a couple of seconds. If you do it near an edge, it’s possible to knock the enemy off the edge and score a free point. If you and your opponent dash into each other simultaneously, you’ll both get stunned for a brief period. The same goes for dashing into a wall, so aim accordingly. 

Most importantly, you can use the dash to block incoming dodgeballs. If you’re in a pinch, bust out a dash to deflect any incoming ball. You can also dash out of the way of incoming dodgeballs, but be careful because you’ll have a second of downtime where you’re vulnerable after the dash is over. 

Catching

Catching is an important skill to master in Knockout City. You can press right-click to catch on PC, L2 on PlayStation, LT on Xbox, and ZL on Nintendo Switch. A perfect catch gives you an overcharge stack, which speeds up the ball. You can have up to six of these, with the ball going increasingly faster with each stack. The stacks go away over time, so you’ll need to act quickly to take advantage of the speed.

Trick Shots

Tricks are a more advanced technique and something you’ll want to implement into your Knockout City playstyle. You have two trick shots: lob and curveballs. Both have their advantages and can throw your opponent off their game by switching up the timing. You can also use these to pass the ball to your teammates.

Here’s how to do a curveball in Knockout City:

• PC: E+Left-click
• PlayStation: Circle+R2
• Xbox: B+RT
• Switch: A+ZR 

A curveball is good if an opponent is behind a wall and you need to curve your shot to hit them. You can change the direction the ball curves by moving toward a specific side.

Here’s how to do a lob shot in Knockout City:

• PC: Q+Left-click
• PlayStation: Triangle+R2
• Xbox: Y+RT
• Switch: X+ZR 

A lob shot is good if someone is above you, and you need some extra height on the ball to reach them. 

Ball up

Turning yourself into a ball so your teammates can throw you can be incredibly useful in Knockout City. If you turn into a ball and let your teammate pick you up and full charge you, you turn into a bomb. The bomb is a one-hit KO with a pretty wide radius, so you can easily take out the whole team in one shot if they are clumped together.

It’s also a good idea to ball up if you and your teammates are having trouble finding dodgeballs. Not to mention, hitting someone with a player-ball is a one-hit knockout, which makes it perfect for racking up those easy points. One thing to note is that if an opponent catches you while you’re a ball, you’ll become disoriented and need to mash some buttons to get out.

Fakeout Throws

Finally, one of the most important tactics to use is the fakeout throw. Eventually, people will catch on to this, but be sure to take advantage of it while the game is new. You can use the fake throw button or do things like spin and flip to try and bait out a catch from your opponent.