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Midnight Fight Express is Humble Games' latest Beat-'em-Up title that features unique twists to keep things feeling fresh, challenging, and rewarding with each new mission. Whether you're brawling sewer-dwelling gangs while wearing a knight's suit or outrunning a helicopter while atop a speeding train, there's always a wrench thrown into the mix to keep you on your toes.
While you have lots to see and do in Midnight Fight Express, some encounters can be brutally difficult, especially if you are playing on some of the more challenging difficulties and have hardly any abilities to work with, especially in the early goings. Luckily, there are several ways to make things much more manageable from the jump, allowing you to overcome the hurdles in front of you with gruesome style.
Updated September 15, 2022: We've added a video to this article that breaks down our top Midnight Fight Express beginner tips for you.
Use Focus Constantly
During the game's tutorial section, you will be introduced to the 'Focus' system, which allows you to scan the room to gain crucial information on things such as enemy health, weapons, and even item locations. While it can be easy to forget about this mechanic, you should always use it as it can help you dramatically, especially if you're looking for a specific item or weapon.
Furthermore, in most missions, you will need to rely heavily on using explosive propane tanks to take down specific enemies or might need to use ranged weapons to comfortably engage in combat with your opponent, which makes Focus shine the brightest. Additionally, some challenges will have you exit the level with a unique item or rack up kills with a specific weapon that may be hidden throughout the mission. Focus will highlight these objects for you, making it much less of a hassle to comb through the chaos to find them yourself.
Train Your Skills In The Playground
Getting stomped by a particular group of enemies or unlocked a Skill you don't quite understand how it works? Luckily for you, there's a mode where you can practice making quick work of specific enemies and hone your learned Skills, which is the game's Playground mode.
The Playground will allow you to spawn in enemy types, fit them with weapons and shields, and also give you the ability to choose your weapon, enabling you to find unique and clever ways to overcome scenarios that gave you hardships. You will also have access to every Skill you've unlocked, making this the best way to test out cool combos and tricks.
You can also test Skills out in the Playground by selecting a Skill in the 'Skills and Upgrades' menu in the Hideout and selecting the 'Test in Playground' option at the bottom. This will take you to a simulated scenario where you must use the Skill to complete a small challenge.
Best Early Skills
While choosing the Skills that fit your playstyle is crucial, there are some that we consider a must-have in the game's early goings. Whether you're the king of Parrying or the best bruiser of them all, we highly urge you to get the following Skills as soon as possible as they will dramatically help you in the first handful of missions and beyond.
- Combos: This allows you to chain light and heavy attacks together for devastating combos.
- Long Range Attacks: Grants you the ability to lunge from one enemy to another, covering a great distance to extend your combo chain and stay moving.
- Parry And Counter: Allow you to follow a successful Parry up with a counter-attack.
- Chain Finisher: Perform a Finisher after landing two light attacks, allowing you to dispatch smaller units efficiently.
- Elemental Finisher: Automatically triggers a Finisher on an opponent you have pinned against the wall with strikes.
- Grab Enemy: Enables the ability to grab your opponent, allowing you to get in several uncontested jabs when you have them held.
After you pick these abilities up, you should have a decent grasp on what each Skill Tree offers, allowing you to select which path you want or feels fits your playstyle. We didn't include the Rope or Secondary Gun Skills here, as those become available later in your playthrough!
Movement Is Crucial
If we were to impose any rule onto you, it would be to move no matter what. Rolling, Sprinting, using the Long Range Attack Skill, etc., will keep you alive and should be a core part of your game plan. There should never be a moment where you aren't doing something. Whether making a move to get to an object or weapon or trying to make your opponent waste their ammunition, you must make the most out of your surprising amount of movement options.
When things start escalating, they REALLY start pouring in the enemy variety, forcing you to make split-second decisions, which could be a moment too late if you're idly standing by waiting for an opportunity to strike. Setting your own rhythm, using the Focus feature to slow time and scan your surroundings, and Rolling through attacks and to devastating objects will net you the best results in most situations.
Don't Sweat The Small Stuff
It can be tempting to go out of your way to complete Challenges, obtain every Gold Tooth, or find a mission's NPC, but you should know that these only unlock cosmetics and a fun Cheat you can use in already-cleared areas, making them have no impact on your first playthrough of the game. Furthermore, some Challenges cannot be completed unless you have a specific Skill unlocked which comes much further down the line.
Another crucial detail to add is you only obtain Skill Points for clearing a mission once. There are 40 Missions and 40 Skills and Upgrades, meaning the only way you can get every Skill is to clear every mission, so you should save the Challenges for your end-game content, as that's when you will be able to complete all of them and achieve S Ranks much more easily.
Throw And Kick Your Way To Victory
One other mechanic you are introduced to very early in your journey is the ability to throw objects at your opponent, with heavy objects being thrown automatically whenever you interact with them. However, in the Fighter Skill Tree, there's a Skill called 'Kick Big Items,' which does exactly as it sounds, enabling you to kick the bigger items rather than throw them, allowing you to weave them into your attack strings to further your combos.
Kicking and throwing heavy objects at your opponents will buy you precious time to close the gap and land devastating attacks on them, potentially allowing you to take their weapon, land a Finisher, or much more. We suggest using Focus to map out each heavy object in the area, then use them to your advantage when things get hairy. Lastly, flammable objects are particularly useful, as they will explode on impact, decimating anyone it touches, and can be an excellent way to dispose of groups of enemies.
It's Okay To Change The Difficulty
Finally, if things just aren't clicking for you and you are stuck on a mission or section, don't be afraid to mess around with the difficulty settings. That's what they're there for, and there are many excellent options you can tinker around with to make the experience tuned to your liking. And, if you prefer playing on the more challenging difficulties, you can always return to it after becoming more comfortable with the game and having more Skills available. Here's how to adjust your difficulty in the game:
- Return to Hideout > Main Menu > Settings > Game > Difficulty
Once here, you can cycle through every difficulty and see what each of them makes adjustments to and by how much. Furthermore, you can also choose 'Custom' and manually adjust things such as your Starting Health, Enemy Aggression, Focus Meter, and much more to make things fit your playstyle!