How To Improve At Quake Champions

Today during my stream I ran into a player who left because they felt useless. So I went on a bit of a rant explaining how to improve at Quake Champions as a new player. Hopefully this advice helps newer players out in the arena.
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[@nishantghorpade4820]

as a new quake player who joined in quake champions and kinda sorta broke the skill barrier at least to the point i can actually enjoy the game without getting steamrolled. i do agree that wepon usage weapon combos are one of the most important things you need to learn quake and its under discussed and suggested but i do think movement is also really important in this game, but people can kinda use sorlag or anarki initially who have easier playable movement without much practice and understanding, timing items, using abilities effectively etc can come later but is important for improving

[@xBioTV]

Oh definitely. I know it sounds like I'm undervaluing movement but really I think there's just progressive stages to learning. Sort of like "you need to walk before you can run." Good movement and decision making will never make up for just not hitting shots imo. With Quake it's definitely less so but I advocate more for what would let a new player have fun more so then what will make them "competitive" for lack of a better word.

[@ValenceFlux]

Duels are alright but to me Quake was about team play or deathmatch. I would say spend an hour playing Quake Live while some of the best players are still there and that can help you get better at QC just knowing the differences. Deathmatch ffa is no team pressure and no duel pressure just get into the chaos and get as many spleens as you can.

[@-.Yami.-]

EDIT::: I genuinely love this game and want it to have the events and player population it deserves. I've actually had this topic heavy on my mind as of lately. Yes, I'm sorry, it's long as fuck. I've spent a lot of time genuinely thinking/planning how to get and KEEP new players to create a bigger, more consistently active and loyal player base/community. I've combed thru all the frustrations of tons of new players, compared this to meta FPS games, and found what I believe to be the critical issues that cause new players to not come back. As you mentioned the guns and knowing their usefulness, when to use/not use which ones, what to do in whatever situations if youre caught with or without certain guns, etc. As a "COD/Apex/Halo then to Quake" Player myself, I've had to really focus on breaking myself of a specific habit those games create which is the "stand and fight" habit. You stand your ground knowing youre gonna win the battle, even if barely, you still passively go back to full health within seconds. So in those games you play by using this game sense of knowing if youre gonna win the battle or not and having the feeling that regardless how much damage you take, youre gonna be fine in a few seconds anyways. And the other most important aspect comes in, movement/movement speed. In those games everybody moves the same speed, based on sound you can 100% accurately tell where/how far enemies are and you do not have to worry if somebody gonna turn superman at any second, and if youre gonna have time to sit a sec an heal or if you have to keep going in a certain direction for a few seconds until you can 180 right back into gunfire. In Quake, every second quite literally counts. One second you hear nothing close to you, maybe even far away, and not even 2 seconds later you hear a boom across the map somewhere, and here comes Captain Clappin Cheeks flying thru your doorway at 800 UPS, something not a single other game has. And even more importantly, you have to quite literally choose your battles. You might spend 2 minutes running away dodging every sound and bullet you hear, slowly getting health, guns, ammo, hiding around like Metal Gear Solid Snake until you can finally go fight comfortably again. This is where movement comes in. Even if you don't have a super great idea of what guns to use and when/where, you will be far better off with a bunch of guns moving fast than you will moving slowly. I've spoken to atleast a couple dozen new players the last few months, and the average issue they've had is learning to get good with and combating other players movement speed/skills. Atleast if they had a solid grip on how to go fast, they can run away and stay alive while learning which guns do what. You would have a much more enjoyable time playing if you were atleast running away, staying alive, being proud of yourself for doing so. Rather than not staying alive because youre a snail AND you can't use the guns too. If you can atleast keep up your movement with the average player, you will have a much more enjoyable time because youd feel like youre learning and getting better. And while youre flying around the map, try your hand at the stuff you pick up. And to add to it, the ONLY THING that new players have that's familiar when they start the game are the guns. Sure the reticle is small but they aren't new to shooting guns at people. However, the movement is 100% COMPLETELY FOREIGN to any new player. Picking one gun at a time to play with/focus on using in game will easily teach you how to use them passively. BUT, you need to put ACTUAL effort into the movement. Which brings me to the end of my thought, movement tutorials. There NEEDS to be in game movement tutorials that teach you about how the movement works, how to physically do the strafe jumps, the fundamentals of nail/rocket jumps, and CPMA movements. ATLEAST WITH THAT, new players can play around with them in game while passively learning the guns.

[@frankreynolds6831]

To all new players as a new player. Expect to die 43,265 times before getting your first kill. Expect to get nothing but hit markers and maybe one kill for the first 2600 hours of playing. Then youll have fun.

[@B.Love88]

I just started playing yesterday. I believe this is the first time I have actually played a quake game! I have been killing thjngs quite frequently. I am by no means killing it. I get stomped but there are moments where I do kill three people in a row! I think people can pick it up!

[@TIMMAH_16]

I have a family member who was 3rd in the world in quake 2 and I'm gonna try it out

[@TheSixteen60]

My big problem with Quake Champions is not the high skill level, but because I can almost never find matches in Quick Play. I checked all gamemodes, checked all NA data centers, and it still takes like 3 minutes to fully queue. Whereas I can easily get queued in like 10-30 seconds in Team Fortress 2. So I'm effectively limited to the Custom Game option and the BOTs are really challenging on Nightmare, real players are still obviously the big challenge.

[@_h4t3]

just play balls of steel sh00ter like CS 1.6, Quake 3 / Quakelive and not Q4 or QC :]

[@ImTheMan0fSteel]

Even HALO has this problem. Halo infinite has pretty intense skill gaps and doesn't play like other shooters. So many shooters now, are pick up and play. Your knowledge transfers, your skills transfer. Theres a totally different mindset and play style for games where consistent shots are more important that hitting one good one. And how player movement, is MOST of your aiming arguably. There needs to be ways to ease players into these kinds of games. Some wacky party modes, bots, tutorials, hell even a mini campaign would help people learn the guns and the movement. Halos campaigns teach a lot of the fundementals that tranfer to multippayer. Like the importance of popping shields before the headshot. I have experience with most shooters on the matket, and im good at them. But I struggled understanding this game.

[@the_bogeyman.]

I only play Halo infinite now, it took months but eventually I found a bunch of decent people willing to team up and teach in some sporadic training sessions, luckily they play on M&K as me, so I can take advices on settings. I never found anybody for Quake Champions, after my few friends got burned out with frustration years ago. Being in EU overcomplicates the research for active players in those 2 specific games. It's complicated to team up with US players for me, time zone difference is too much and the higher ping makes many players complain a lot.

[@malinkifox2011]

This is good feedback. We could make a video of weapon use and tips.

[@sep_vs_theworld]

this is insanely good info for new players. Quake in my opinion, is one of, if not the most satisfying FPS out Once you get used to it. But, so many people pick it up. play one match. get stomped, and go back to COD or other games like that. It does have a learning curve as not much else is like it, but once you get used to the weapon usage like you said, then movement and other fundamentals and it all just starts working together, Absolutely no other shooter feels as good.

[@Cyteless]

Good advice. For me, I've got a lot better thinking more about staying alive than getting kills: if I'm constantly looking for armour and health, even though I don't know the timings, I'm helping my survivability, and I'll encounter other players anyway because they're looking for the same items.

[@xBioTV]

Yea, there's definitely a method to the madness of AFPS games and its pretty much focusing on surviving first :P

[@PolajLive]

As a new player, and I mean like 10h, the only thing I do is die all the time. (in dm/team dm) Before I know where should I go or where to find health and weapons I am getting driveby laser beamed to 10hp instantly by a guy with full stack who is flying around the map 2x my speed. Its so frustrating because I can't "start" playing when I spawn, I have 10s to live, and maby I will target a guy who is low and get a kill. All matches I end up with 8 kills and 0.3 kd. I want to stick with the game and learn it, but all the advice and tips I find are good in theory, but in practise its like Im playing a different game.

[@SleepyRickyC92]

Yeah it's tough for newer players, especially if not a lot of new blood is coming in. When I started around 2018, I think there was an influx for newer players so I got wrecked, but not as frequently hard. My advice is maybe if you're just starting to learn strafe jump, just hop into an empty server using custom games and get a basic ability to strafe jump down. Then at least you have better chance of getting around the maps, which is important for getting to the health, armour, and weapons.

[@isaiah4466]

that's because of the terrible match making. Another thing that needs addressed is the fact that the game is going to do all the matchmaking for you so therefore they need to make sure they are matching people up in realistic terms to. It's hard to learn how to play as a new comer if you're playing against someone like rapha's level, you just simply can't play long enough to really learn anything. You need to play people that's better but it can go to far otherwise you don't learn anyway simply because you die to fast.

[@JohnStamos-pf7xq]

Gonna try QC and Quake Live soon, and try to find some kind of cheese to stay in longer before developing any kind of skill. Weight lifting routine for reflex xdxd

[@the_bogeyman.]

I played Quake champions 20ish hours with some friends, years ago, before they bourned out with frustration. We got destroyed almost every match and they quit playing. I wanted to play more but didn't find EU people to teamup in Quake champions unfortunatly and I didn't want to go ahead solo. I mostly play the latest Halo with other people now, that have enough knowledge of the game and that have the patience to teach in training sessions.

[@bitffald]

Right!

[@pavelivanov2999]

Rocket launcher is not straight forward. New players always try to hit direct rockets and obviously know nothing about rocket jumps. Ipersonally play almost exclusively duel and i tell all new players to start with casual modes and that is where you can learn the basics.

[@xBioTV]

Yea it sounded like I was oversimplifying rockets, when really I just meant compared to other weapons such as tribolt.

[@achilleasvourdas5517]

Id say rockets are pretty simple. They exist in a lot of fps and function similarly. You aim at the ground and are for close range or damage from high ground. Pretty much every other weapon is either more complex, or unintuitive compared to its equivalent in other games. Rail isnt like other 'snipers', as it isnt meant to kill someone in a powerful shot from far away, its for chunking their stack down and getting out. Lg feels like a close range gun, but its really best at mid range, and preventing close range rush downs, or catching and enemy in the air. Shotgun is the simplest gun in the game, as its exactly what you expect it to be, no matter the games youve played before. Nails are probably the least intuitive gun in the game, as the best use is movement, intentionally damaging yourself to deny light (???? ) and really long range spam. Also a decent area denial gun but realistically rockets and tribolt are better. xBio descibed the tribolt situation well Finally, machinegun has the problem of seeming like it should be a mainslayer, when really its much better at finishing people off. (also a pretty good long range chip weapon, but again, not the most intuitive). Gauntlet is gauntlet, not much to be said.

[@pavelivanov2999]

@@achilleasvourdas5517 How would you explain than that many new players try to hit only directs with rockets? One of the most popular shooters (CS) for example does not have rockets. Also for the rail, it is clearly like a sniper and it is used like one, not at close range. The fact that you dont kill with one shot does not change its use.

[@achilleasvourdas5517]

@@pavelivanov2999 Becasue some people havent played games where there are rockets. Most have though, and even the ones that havent can basically instantly fix the way tha they use them by being told a single sentence. People have either built up good habits with rockets, or no habits. Neihter of these is a huge issue. Most other guns have the problem that people have to unlean habits theyve made in other games in order to play quake well. Either that or its a gun with a much more complex usage than 'aim at feet close range'

[@theunrealtournamentchannel]

Good tips! I love everything about this game except the weapons and the lack of players. Which seems pretty common in arena shooters these days.

[@TheStrayHALOMAN]

I spent almost $4000 building a new pc because Quake Champions went from running great to running really bad on my old one between 2017-2022... Upgrading to a R9 7950x and RTX 3070 improved my gameplay alot since I was no longer held back by stutters and sudden low fps. Now I have locked 120fps on my 65 inch tv I play it on, as Ranger would say "Operation's running smooth as silk."

[@ValenceFlux]

Wow Quake used to be known for being able to customize settings to be competitive on lower hardware. I started playing through an asus k55vm 630m gpu and eventually through a 60hz LED TV a while. Now I have 165hz monitor with 4070ti which did make the game run better than my 2060s but in the end you need good routing connection and I only game online through vpn.

[@TheStrayHALOMAN]

@@ValenceFlux I play alot of older games like MechWarrior Living Legends for Crysis Wars and so I can't use a VPN since it causes desync. Games like Destiny 2 run fine with a VPN though.

[@ValenceFlux]

@@TheStrayHALOMAN My connection is worse without a vpn and when you are in a match and one player can tell everyone in that match what router hardware they have, you might decide to use vpn anyway.

[@TheStrayHALOMAN]

@@ValenceFlux Yeah that last part is why I have one, I have to turn it off sometimes though when I play games like Crysis Wars and Morrowind online because they are buggy with their netcode and things don't work right like areas not loading in Morrowind's case or falling through the map from desync in Crysis Wars.

[@hrb4259]

Nice video, why do you put Ukrainian flag ? You're Ukrainian ?)

[@W4ntedGaming]

tbh, why should i improve my skill in a dead game? D: tried to find a match a few days ago and i waited in lobby for 2 hours, then i quitted the game and uninstalled. Don't get me wrong, i like the game, i played all quake games before including Quake Champions when it had a playerbase and surely was good, but nowadays you simply can't play

[@TheGrowCave]

thought this game was dead..

[@jojokillerX9]

the game is pretty much dead tbh, it has a player base of 300 players on steam top. it's sad bcz the game for a new player like me

[@amars7941]

Sounds like you should make a few tutorials for all the new players. I hear a lot of complaining, time to use your "esoteric game knowledge" to help us out.

[@TheGrowCave]

id download if they have rocket arena

[@c4rnagEc4]

weapons are situational this is what you saying

[@justjordan8018]

I decided to open an Internet Caffee and start hosting local Tournaments with a 50$ win pool so .... never mind I will just go to sleep now.

[@NightmareCrab]

i thought he was gonna say how to fix the broken state of this shitty game lol