A Beginner’s Guide to Excelling in Tekken 8

New to the world of Tekken, but curious on where to start with Tekken 8? Like I said in my review, it’s pretty daunting walking into this game with little experience with the series. Even if you’re decent at fighting games, this title is definitely a unique beast that will take some time to figure out. While I’ve still got a lot to learn, I do have eight tips to help you get a foothold in this complex game.

Start with Arcade Quest

Play through Arcade Quest at least a little bit. The Arcade Quest is a playful mode where you’ll battle different CPU players across a variety of themed arcades. It’s different from the regular Story Mode that throws you right into a deadly clash between some long-standing characters. This is much lighter fare where you’ll have a few rounds against foes that won’t go too hard on you.

While it’s good that you have this so you can practice on an opponent that won’t blow you up if you show a moment’s weakness, this is mainly important because this is where the tutorials lie in Tekken 8. You’ll learn some basic things about your Heat meter (a powerful move that puts you in a higher damage output state once per round) and Rage Arts (a powerful move you can use at low health), as well as your countering Power Crush moves. It’ll even offer you some tips for whichever character you selected to get you started on some basic combos. It goes easy on you and gives you an explanation of the more basic skills to get you started.

As an added bonus, you get Fight Money for anything you do in this mode, which you can use to customize in-game avatars, your play screen, and most importantly, your character. It’s always nice to feel like you’re making some progress, even if it’s just so you can dress Jin up in a silly outfit.

Get to know the Tekken 8 characters with Character Episodes

If you want a quick introduction to each character without making a lot of changes in Arcade Mode, I found that Character Episodes were a nice excuse to try out each of the characters for a short time in Tekken 8. You play a few matches (at a difficulty level of your choosing) to get a feel for each person, as well as get some of their story. I find that personality can be just as integral as moves and look for a character – Paul kinda grew on me when I realized what a goofball he was when I initially wasn’t very impressed. So, hearing the stories helped get me interested in the characters, and all while I could try them out briefly in a few matches.

Watch your most impressive moves

While you’re doing this, I recommend turning Special Style – a style which allows you to mash buttons to do cool combos – on and off every few fights. While you can do neat combos with it, they’re fairly specific, so they’ll only serve you for so long if you intend to improve and try fighting folks online. It’s worth trying it out to get an idea which moves you can string together to make combos, though, and to also see if you like what the characters can do. Then, I recommend playing around with the characters’ basic moves, as the basic kicks and punches do some of the most important work in winning matches in Tekken 8. You’re going to want to see your basics and combos in action before you settle on a character. And you SHOULD only settle on one of two, as each of them have a lot of moves you’ll likely need to know to do well.

While playing the characters, you should also try their Heat Smash (a strong strike that you can do while in Heat Mode) as well as their Rage Art. Not only are these good for tanking through some of the nasty stuff your opponent is doing (both shield you from a hit when activated, although you can’t just pull them out while you’re being combo-ed) and are another core part of the character’s personality. A cool super is another part of why I love a character, so it’s worth taking the time to see if you like these moves. Plus you’ll just want to know how to use the moves to turn a match around. They’re easy to execute as they only require a button press, so you’ll want to put these in your arsenal fast.

Check your main techniques in Practice 8 in Tekken 8

That becomes immediately apparent when you look at a character’s move list in the Practice Mode in Tekken 8, which you should hit up next. It’s not the time to practice doing Korean backdashes or perfecting massive combos, though. You’re just here to look through the move list, taking a peek at your main techniques. These will show you a lot of useful moves that will be good to get started with, as well as an explanation of what they do. These greatly streamline the character, although it’s likely best to only really work on a handful of these. You just want to try out some things that feel good, that will let you poke at your enemy, and that can be used to clobber someone when they swing at you and miss.

I recommend activating Display While Training for the first move in the list and then just steadily going through all of the Main Techniques. You can watch demos and try them out one at a time, and by the end of it, you’ll likely have a feel for what the character does or wants to do. You can dabble with All Techniques if you like, but that will get overwhelming fast. At most, you can likely only learn a move or two at a time, so don’t feel any need to rush this. The mind can only work so much into your rotation. This will be a slow journey, so don’t try to hurry it along too much. Just build your knowledge piece by piece.

Play dress up

Once you have a character you like and some knowledge of how they work, I recommend taking some time in Character Customization. I really like playing with goofy-looking characters, so I find customizing my character really gives me a sense of attachment to the character. Plus, it’s here where you can dump some Fight Money into buying fun or cool customization options in Tekken 8. When you’re losing matches, it can feel nice to still earn money to play around with, so this can give you a little morale boost if you have some bad losing streaks.

Adjust your mindset

Speaking of that, if you go online, accept that you will lose. A lot. You’re learning the game. The best attitude I’ve found that helps this is to look at each fight as a series of interactions, and asking myself if I won or lost at the interaction instead of the match. If they took a big silly swing and missed, did I hit them back? That’s an interaction I won. Did I pick the correct move to hit the other player at a distance where they didn’t hit me back? Did I just block something that would have seen me eat a huge combo? It’s all learning, and you’re learning a ton of nuanced stuff, here. Try to give yourself credit for these small victories. If you build up enough of them, the match wins will come on their own.

Watch (and participate in) your Tekken 8 Replays

If you’re not sure where you went wrong in an interaction, go to your Replays and check out the tips that Tekken 8 has to offer. The game offers some advice on what you could have done better, or other things you could have tried. Also, you can just hop into a Replay and take over for your character at any point. If you got smacked for making a mistake, resume the replay from that point and see if you could have done something differently. You can learn a ton from watching your replays (I love making the same mistake several times), and being able to dive right into them again to see what would have worked better is a massive help.

Engage with the Tekken community

These steps should give you a good place to start out if you want to start getting to know Tekken 8, but like any fighter, the real knowledge and excitement is going to come from the community. Be sure to check out the Reddit for Tekken, Discord channels, or see what players are doing on YouTube. Find out where people are talking about the game or characters you like and see what they’re doing. A lot of skilled players will do things that may be beyond you, but you can usually see a few moves that go well together that you can add to your game plan. Plus, it’s always inspiring to see other players do amazing things with your character.

With that, you should have a good starting point to begin your journey with Tekken 8! Good luck, and I’ll see you in the ring! And I’ll be looking RIDICULOUS. Count on it.

Tekken 8 is available now on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC.