Haxball Guide for Beginners

Haxball Guide for Beginners

Introduction

Before we start I think it's important to emphasise that this guide isn't intended to tell you how to play but rather just some general tips and ideas gathered by the community on how to improve. Ultimately you've gotta develop your own style based on how you want to play

Shout out to Sugar, The Doctor, Herna and socrates for helping!

Basics

• Gain full control of your movement. This will become natural after a bit of practice as you learn the physics behind the game. Pay close attention to your momentum and how slow it is to change direction which will be very important in defence. 
  
• Develop your ball-control. This can take a while playing in games as you will often be closed down very quickly and not get time to practice being in control of the ball. I would strongly recommend practising in a room by yourself where you can get much more time to hone your own skills. There are numerous examples below for training exercises which can be useful to develop your ball control. Playing 1v1 games at this stage could also be a great help too.
  
• Don't ball-chase. One of the most infuriating things that you find with new players which I'm sure most will agree with, is ball-chasing. In other words, remember you've got teammates - don't tackle them, but cover them or make runs into space, and expect passes.
  
• Work on your passing. Passing accuracy will improve the more you practice and you should try to keep improving the accuracy of your passes whilst making the passes quicker and quicker so that your opponent does not have time to get into their defensive shape. Fast accurate passing will beat skills and tricks.
  
• Pass back! Off the wall or direct, many GK's prefer backpasses from their forwards; I think it's an important part of keeping a flow to the game.
  
• Watch haxball recordings. Watching pros play is always recommended to improve. You can find thousands on sites such as http://haxrec.com and http://haxballtube.com, and in the Premierhax forum archives.
  
• Don't be dissuaded by bans! Just persevere! Don't lose interest in the game just because you got banned from SMB's pub room, you get those types a lot on haxball but there are just as many patient hosts about. Might be worth hosting your own pubs if it really bothers you, that's what I did when I started, because I got banned all over the show. And of course there are always Premierhax rooms.
  

Positions

General positioning for attack/defence whilst the ball is in the corner.

GK

Defending corners
Stay on the goal line and cover the near post. Be alert and anticipate any crosses and shots so you can move to intercept. Try to make any clearance quickly but safely. The longer you take to clear the ball the more pressure you will be put under by the opposition. But don't panic and make sure your clearance is safe and into space.

Attacking corners
As a new player wanting to play gk its common for players to stick yo their goal line. You can't afford to do this in haxball as the rest of the game then effectively becomes 2v3. Instead the gk also has a responsibility to push up and help his team in attack. A team with an active gk will always be stronger as they have an additional passing option with a back pass. You should try to anticipate the opponents clearances so you can win the ball back quickly and keep them pegged back in defence. Despite being the goalkeeper you are one of the primary playmakers in attack and so when you receive the ball from a back pass you must be looking for the runs of your outfield players. Mix up your passing from diagonal balls inside, inside passes back to the corner and passes around the outside to keep the ball and drag out opponents.

You must be careful rushing forward if an opponent is running in behind you - a common goal in 3v3 is caused when the gk gets dragged too far forward entering a spam battle whilst another opposition player runs in behind to get the open goal.

In open play
Remember that you are the last man and any mistake will cost a goal. Try to cover any passes through the middle and focus on trying to get the ball into the opposition half as much as possible. Be wary on the walls as if you rush in you could be beaten with a trick or if you enter a spam battle there is a good chance it could ricochet back into your own net. Try to maintain a safe distance where you can contribute to winning the ball back.

Outfield (Mid/Fwd)

Defending corners
If you are the player in the corner then try your best to block any cross from coming in and try to create an angle on the attacker to clear the ball away. He will most likely try to bounce the ball on the wall to give him space, make sure you don't rush in and try to anticipate his moves.

If you are the other defender you have to block one of the opponents passes either to the player in the middle or a back pass to the gk. Some teams prefer to play with the player in the centre marked whereas other teams want to be more aggressive and stop any back pass to the gk. Either are valid play styles but in both instances you have to predict the pass and be in the correct position to intercept. Be careful not to rush in wildly leaving big gaps behind you if you fail to make the interception. 

Attacking corners
If you are the attacker in the corner your two options are always to pass back or cross, creating an angle to cross is always difficult and will usually come down to who is more skilful in the corner battles, however you can always try and hold him off to create an angle for a back pass. You don't always need to force a cross in when attacking corners, if you feel you can't get the ball in the box, pass back to your keeper to keep possession. Trying to spam your way through opponents in the corner is very unlikely to result in anything other than the ball being cleared.

If you are the attacker in the centre you should be in the box waiting for the cross, and not to be too close to their goalkeeper so you have time and space when the ball comes in. Just because you are in this central position doesn't mean you have to shoot, look for the runs of your teammates to look for better opportunities or to keep possession.

In open play
Defensively you should always try to work in tandem with your teammate. Don't both rush and pressure the opposition gk as then a ball through the middle or around you will lead to a 2v1 situation. Whilst one player stays marking a pass to an opponent the other player can close the ball down along the line of the other passing option.

In attack it's all about how accurate and dangerous your passing is. Look to create space and get beyond the opponent's defences and remember to keep the ball moving. Slow and ponderous attacks are no danger. Try not to just kick the ball forward into the corner. If you're defending a lead this can waste some time for you but otherwise you want to focus on passing together.

Training Exercises

Overall Training Video

• This video contains lots of different exercises which are useful when training, even for the best players it is good practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwESpwsmhE (You can find the no goal map here: http://haxmaps.com/map/5267)
  

Movement/Ball Control

• Practice movement by going around the posts in an infinity sign motion, like so: http://haxrec.com/98804
  
• Try to move with the ball by pushing it forwards and circling it at the same time without giving a gap between the ball and you, like shown: http://haxrec.com/98791
  
• Practice wall bounces from opposite walls in turn, like shown: http://haxrec.com/98793
  (As you press kick move away from the wall to do a normal wall bounce)
  
• Find another player and practice your passing on a map with no goals. Passing is all about timing - by kicking early before the ball reaches you then you can do ‘soft kicks’ on purpose to pass to someone nearby in a controlled manner. 
  
• Practice passing using this map made by ogre: http://haxmaps.com/map/5290 - try to hit each of the balls on the map in the quickest time possible including the one’s on the wall. (Think my record was about 17 seconds if that gives you a target to aim for )
  
• Practice scoring from any angle and any position on the pitch.
  

Skills/Tricks

• Rocket Shot - (Double kick quickly on the wall at an angle): http://haxrec.com/98796 http://haxrec.com/98803 http://haxrec.com/98801
  
• Lifts - (Double kick whilst moving away from the wall whilst straight): http://haxrec.com/100069
  
• Practice wall bounces, rocket shots and lifts in the corners to develop your corner skills for a match.
  

Miscellaneous Tips

• When you are new and have learned the basics then play some 1v1 games to help improve your defence.
  
• Block opponents if you can create easier passes for your teammates or to get inside of opponents in attack.
  
• Save recordings of your games and watch them back. Focus on different aspects of your game you want to improve and work on them. Learn from your mistakes so you don't keep repeating them.
  
• Similarly watch recordings of league games from the best players. Don't just try to copy them but learn what they do well and use it to improve yourself.
  
• Try to play on a wired connection if you can. A lot of people will suffer with ping spikes when playing on wireless.
  
• Test each browser to find which works best for you. There were problems a while ago with pepperflash on Chrome but for some it is still the best browser. Maxthon and Opera work the best for me.
  

Please post below if you have any more tips!

rocket in big: http://www.haxball.com/replay/12.swf?token=hax&wmode_direct=yes&replayurl=http://ehaxball.com/replay/a7ff1ba9f44a5696070a9c1612247127.hbr

zzz

Need to hand a copy to all my team.

Maybe u shud too twigg

Wow thanks guys, this is going to be so useful for me. I've printed a copy off and will read it every night before bed.

Joking aside(I'm not really joking), this is very nicely written. Well done guys, you did a great job. Hopefully this will help a lot of people new to the game in the future.


And whoever negged that post is a nobhead of the highest order.

Ghost wrote:Wow thanks guys, this is going to be so useful for me. I've printed a copy off and will read it every night before bed.

Joking aside(I'm not really joking), this is very nicely written. Well done guys, you did a great job. Hopefully this will help a lot of people new to the game in the future.


And whoever negged that post is a nobhead of the highest order.

Lets try to drown it out with upvotes (:

Thanks to all that helped - hopefully there is at least a few useful things in here.

No one will ever beat my time on ogre's passing map snm

Before we start I think it's important to emphasise that this guide isn't intended to tell you how to play but rather just some general tips and ideas gathered by the community on how to improve.

thats a really important point, but in the middle -positions- part its what youve actually done, but i guess its okay done here, to give the players a general overview in a world full of chaos. What you can especially critizise there is that less than 1/3 of the position-play is about open play - the rest about corners. If a new generation of Haxball-players also thinks 2/3 about corners and 1/3 of open play we will have really boring haxball soon :-) but of course, to decide what to do in open play is much harder and much more than a basic.

Don't ball-chase

tbh its better when beginners do that than if they do nothing and dont attack other players - but i guess people will understand the point.^^

But all in all its well done
Maybe another tip: If people have Windows 7 and the aero-overlay activated, you will see flash delayed, even if its only very small, so you will feel like a tank on the pitch, compared to having it deactivated. I dont know if other people experienced the same, but many players i talked to said that.

While this is well written and would probably be useful for a new player, I think the lack of diagrams is what lets it down slightly. Like some of the phrasing of the tips here are under the assumption that a player is able to know how to execute a backpass off the wall for example.

Could you maybe knock up some of the diagrams you think are missing? If you send them to Twigg I'm sure he'd be happy to add them - would be nice to keep improving this with ideas that people have.

socrates wrote:

No one will ever beat my time on ogre's passing map snm

OP got 17s - my best was 2.17

On topic it's not bad at all - hats off to those of you who put in the time. What i got when i started was basically sit on the ball in the corner & wait for us to come help you - and that's about where i still am today

TT wrote:

socrates wrote:

No one will ever beat my time on ogre's passing map snm

OP got 17s - my best was 2.17

On topic it's not bad at all - hats off to those of you who put in the time. What i got when i started was basically sit on the ball in the corner & wait for us to come help you - and that's about where i still am today

You got that map for me?
And is that your dog btw? Mine is the same breed(?)!

Hop wrote:

TT wrote:

socrates wrote:

No one will ever beat my time on ogre's passing map snm

OP got 17s - my best was 2.17

On topic it's not bad at all - hats off to those of you who put in the time. What i got when i started was basically sit on the ball in the corner & wait for us to come help you - and that's about where i still am today

You got that map for me?
And is that your dog btw? Mine is the same breed(?)!

http://haxmaps.com/map/5290

Hop wrote:
And is that your dog btw? Mine is the same breed(?)!

Yes that's my Molly - you have an Airedale too??

TT wrote:

Hop wrote:
And is that your dog btw? Mine is the same breed(?)!

Yes that's my Molly - you have an Airedale too??

Mines a Fox Terrier long hair, close enough. Great picture of him/her!

Great guide! In the tricks section I would add the skill where you glide up with the ball. Although it is quite difficult to get the timing right sometimes.