Friday Night Funkin' took the internet by storm when it was first released on Newgrounds. The unique art style, animations, and music brought the website back into the public eye. For many people, it was one of the first rhythm games they had played since going to arcades as kids or playing Guitar Hero in their living room.
However, it proved to be extremely difficult for many new players. The combination of fast note sequences and bright, colorful imagery were hard to process. People took to Reddit, asking seasoned Friday Night Funkin' veterans for their best advice. They did not disappoint. Here are some top tips you can learn from.
10 You Can Use Arrow Keys And WASD
One of the most underrated ways to improve at Friday Night Funkin' is to play two-handed. What most people don't know is that you can use both the arrow keys and WASD to play. You can even use them at the same time.
Many players recommend using the left and right arrow keys and the W and S keys at the same time, or up, down, A, and D. You are welcome to pick which configuration works best for you. Using both at once makes your hands feel less cramped when playing and makes it much easier to play fast combos.
9 Change Your Keys to FGHJ
Another way to help finger fatigue when playing is to change your keys to any sort of configuration similar to the F, G, H, and J keys. That way, you'll hit buttons in the same positions that are depicted on screen instead of remembering which arrow is which.
You can change it to any keys, just make sure they're four next to each other. For instance, you could do H, J, K, and L, or Y, U, I, and O. Pick whichever orientation suits you best. It may be difficult to adjust to this playing style, but it could be worth it in the long run.
8 Pay Attention to the Entire Sequence
A common mistake beginner Friday Night Funkin' players make is to only focus on the notes as they hit the arrows on your side of the screen. One of the best things to do, though, is pay full attention to the sequence before it's even your turn.
Most of the time, Friday Night Funkin' songs are a call-and-response model, meaning that the enemy will usually sing your notes before you do. If you pay attention to what they sing first, you'll have an idea of how your sequence will sound.
7 Start on Easy Mode
This may sound like a given, but it's definitely a good idea to start your funky journey on Easy mode. Friday Night Funkin' has three different game modes: Easy, Normal, and Hard.
If Normal difficulty is proving to be challenging, it's a good idea to take it down a notch and ace the Easy mode first. Leave the Hard mode until you feel confident enough in the week's songs to do well, or else poor Boyfriend will suffer a hit to his ego.
6 Listen to the Music
Rhythm games are based almost entirely on music. Even though the genre has only recently been brought back into the limelight, the music from many of them is still well-renowned.
If you learn the music before or during your journey, it can help you have a general idea of what's coming when you play. Listening to the music can help you remember sequences, especially when it repeats most of the sequences twice. Not to mention that the music in Friday Night Funkin' is indeed funky, so it's a fun listen.
5 Use FreePlay to Practice Individual Songs
In the game, there are two game modes: Story Mode and FreePlay. Story Mode is divided into Weeks, each one featuring one main opponent. Each Week has three songs that get progressively harder as you go.
With FreePlay, however, you can pick and choose individual songs to practice. For instance, if you're great at the songs Ugh and Guns from Week 7, but you still stumble over that one passage in Stress, you can just practice that one song.
4 Focus on the Main Game Before Playing Mods
There is an amazingly talented modding community built around Friday Night Funkin'. Players and game developers alike have created some stunning mods for the game, but some can go beyond the hardest difficulty level in the main game.
For this reason, it's best to practice playing the main game before trying mods, but once you are more confident it's worth it to check out the talent found in the modding community.
3 Don't Button Smash
When a lot of notes come at once, it's easy to get overwhelmed and smash every button as fast as you can and try not to die. This is definitely not the best course of action.
Make sure to keep your cool and try to process just one or two of the buttons instead of all four. Button smashing will just bring Boyfriend closer to losing the rap battle. If the sequences are still too fast to process, try Easy mode if you aren't already on it.
2 Change the Scroll Pattern
Since the game still isn't fully developed, it gets new updates every once in a while. In one of the most recent ones, a new way to play the game was added - downward scrolling.
Previously, the only way to view the notes was an upward scrolling pattern. Now you can play with the notes scrolling towards the bottom of the screen. For some players, this has proved immensely useful, so if you find the notes to be disorienting or confusing, try switching up the scrolling pattern.
1 Practice
The biggest piece of advice is simply to practice. While this may seem obvious, it can be frustrating to not be good at the game on your first try, and it may be tempting to give up and say the game just isn't for you.
The best thing to do is spend time practicing the songs that give you the most issues and perfect your playing. Friday Night Funkin' is a very accessible game, available for free, so it's worth trying to succeed so you can play a fun, well-made game and enjoy it.