Ask HN: What are your best tips for quickly getting better at video games?

Alas, that was pretty much the whole story.

Improvement mostly comes down to practice and getting things like movement/mechanics into muscle memory. Then the question becomes how to make your practice efficient and realistic. Then isolate skills that will have the most impact on your gameplay and practice them. Proper decision making, strategy, and game sense must be studied from others, learned from experience, and learned from watching your own gameplay to be aware of common mistakes or bad habits. Someone else in the thread said this but when you make a mistake or fail you must blame it on your understanding of the game, become very critical of mistakes and ask yourself what you would do next time.

From scratch it would look something like this:

Start out by learning the basics of the game just by playing for a few hours. A few youtube videos on beginner tips and best practice and general wisdom can help. Some games have optimal settings you should generally be close to.

Use youtube or twitch.tv to watch other people playing. Depends on the game but typically I wouldn't recommend watching a professional since they are just in another realm. Watch a more regular player or just someone closer to your skill level, take notes about how they play and patterns/tricks/strategy/anything that you notice that worked out for them that you want to add to your gameplay.

Once you find something they do that you think will most likely improve your gameplay work on it. Sometimes these are one-off easy things to add to your skillset (like some simple knowledge) and sometimes they are more situational or that player has practiced it to get consistent.

For an example with FPS games, biggest thing would be to hit the range/practice mode and just shoot. Watch how a pro player practices and mimic it. Throw on a playlist you like and spend 10-30 minutes at least, more if you don't get bored of it or are really serious. Look up youtube videos on shooting/practicing tips from high level players. Making the practice as realistic as possible is also what matters so if there is a casual mode where you get many encounters with players to practice outside a competitive environment that is great too. All of these should be combined and if you say you spend an hour doing 15 minutes of each exercise you lay out for yourself you will see noticeable improvement.

Learning not to hesitate and having your shooting/aim and reaction time come down to muscle memory as much as possible is a high level thing you want to start developing asap. (assuming FPS games of course!)

Definitely takes some dedication but doable if you wanted it. Playing games at a high level is a great experience and very fun! Wish you luck.

First, watch some guides and be sure you have the basics down.

But after that, coaching is the best way to get better fast. Players rarely know what they're bad at, and a good coach will spot and correct your mistakes quickly.

> it's usually a sign of bad play to put one's self in a situation that requires raw-outskilling one's opponent.

Mechanical skills are good, but mechanical skills and good positioning are great. Most people only think about shooting in the shooter genre. Typically, when I win, my kills were as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. There are only a few good defensive positions in a given map. Once I hold one down, you have to outnumber me by at least 3 to 1 to kill me (Apex Legends) (or push me out with ordinances, but the same bad players never use them).

Also, there is no stronghold in a good map design. There is always a way for someone to come behind your back. That holds true for both you and your opponents. With your headphones, you only have to swerve left and right to “see” all around you. If you ever wonder how someone can react so fast.