Gang Beastsis one of the lightest and most fun brawling games out there. There are nocharacter tiersor complex combos, most people who play it will never go any deeper with their offense than spamming attacks and occasionally getting some good lifts. What’s great aboutGang Beastsmovesis that style of playing is loads of fun and gives players a fair chance against each other regardless of how their skills match up.
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For those who wish to dive deeper,Gang Beasts’combat offers a lot of complex moves and tricks to give an advantage. Unlike mostspecial moves in fighting games, these started life as mere accidents in development like the consequences of the basic movement controls, but as the game evolved, the developers leaned into them to create some interesting opportunities.
Updated Jun 22, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: Despite its cartoony visuals and hilarious physics-based melee combat, Gang Beasts has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. Literally – though the game looks like a simple brawler, there’s much more going on under the surface that players can take advantage of to be good at Gang Beasts. Players who want to learn how to play Gang Beasts at their best, and how to win Gang Beasts matches amongst their friends, will find these 10 moves (and related maneuvers) are the best moves in the game to master first. Some are simple, like headbutts, but others, like methods to break out of a hold, are tricks that not all players will be able to pull off, giving you the advantage – with a bit of practice.
10Breaking Out Of A Hold
One of the most frustrating things inGang Beastsis being unable to escape an opponent who is dead-set on never letting go. It’s not necessarily a death sentence to get into an inescapable hold, though, and the game offers multiple effective ways to break out.
Sometimes the player is the one who doesn’t want to let go as their opponent might be trying to throw them off the side of the stage. In that case, many of these tactics still work effectively because of the extremely close range and ability to reposition oneself.
Spam The Jump Button
One of the easiest (and perhaps most intuitive) ways to break free of a neverending hold is to rapidly press the jump button. It’s not a guaranteed escape, and there’s noperfect way to do it, but leaning in different directions and continually pulling away should eventually force the opponent to let go, giving you a second to reposition and get the upper hand.
Headbutt Them
A great move to pull on close-range enemies, like those who are holding you close, is to headbutt them instead of punch. Different controllers have different inputs for the headbutt so be sure to learn which button this is in your setup to easily escape from a hold. Sometimes, this will knock out the enemy for a few seconds too, making it one of the most usefulGang Beastsspecial moves.
Get A Better Grip On Them
Sometimes the enemy just won’t let go, especially enemies that are trying to avoid being thrown off of a ledge. It’s frustrating to have a foe holding onto the player with just as strong a grip, but there are ways around this. Don’t take both hands off of the opponent, instead go one hand at a time to grab them by a part of their body that they can’t reach you back from, such as on their legs or lower torso.
9Mutually Assured Destruction
The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction is far from a new one - coined all the way back at the beginning of the Nuclear era, M.A.D. is both a defensive and an offensive concept in total war. InGang Beasts, a decent strategy against a much better player is to take them down with you. It will result in a tie, and there’s a chance that the next map might be more in your favor.
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Simply jump off the edge with a foe attached (or let go of the ledge), and you will both lose, then continue to the next map. While it’s not a great way to win a round, it’s a great way to demoralize and frustrate the opponent, and the best way to avoid an incoming loss.
8Throwing Players
Gang Beastsis far froma traditional fighting game, so throwing players over/off of something is essential to getting a win in stages like Ring or Grind. Having some momentum before going for a throw can be helpful, as it makes your target fly further with the right timing.
To pull this off, the person players wish to throw should be unconscious. This trick can be done on someone while they’re awake, but it’s more difficult as they can punch back. From there, simply hold both punch buttons to grab them, and use the lift/taunt button to lift them. After that, what you do with the opponent’s body is up to your discretion - but most players will find that simply dumping them over an edge (or into a grinder) does the trick.
7Dropkick
When going on the offense, it’s always good to have a plan. Charging in to spam punches over and over again can work just fine, but there are plenty of offensive maneuvers that can catch an opponent off guard even more effectively.
The easiest and most versatile is the dropkick. To do this, players simply have to jump and then kick while in the air and their opponent will get a foot to the face. This move has several variants, and it can even be performed while running, giving it a bit more oomph than if performed from a standstill.
6Flipkick
This is technically a dropkick variant, but it’s cool enough that it can stand alone. Why dropkick an opponent only once when it can be done several times in a row? This is the problem that the Flipkick resolves.
It can be a little unreliable and players need to get the rhythm of their button pressed right,but it’s worth it. Hold the kick button while repeatedly jumping and the character should do several backflips, kicking their opponent in the face as they rotate. It’s worth trying this out on an easy AI opponent, first, to get the timing down just right.
5Powerslide
Sliding is a fun mode of transportation — much more fun than walking. That’s whyGang Beastshas not just one, but two different slides. These are most effective on slippery surfaces like the sheets of ice in Buoy, but they can be used elsewhere too.
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To do it, build up some momentum and then hold the kick or headbutt button. Holding kick will make the character slide on their back, and will come into contact with an opponent with their feet first. Holding headbutt will instead make players slide on their front, head-first, giving the potential for more power. While it looks cool is enough, it can also be used offensively as a slide tackle in the right context.
4Dirt Feeder
The Dirt Feeder isn’t exactly the most hard-hitting of moves, but if players want to rub their opponent’s face in the dirt, this will do in a pinch. With this move, players are able to pick up and manipulate opponents without hardly a chance of retaliation. It’s almost like a piledriver in this way, but it’s a hardGang Beasttrick to get right.
Pulling this off can be a bit tricky, as players have to grab their opponent by the legs, preferably from behind to prevent being grabbed or headbutted back. If an opponent’s costume has a tail to grab, this helps. Once grabbed, lift them up so they’re hanging upside down and simply let go of the lift button. This will slam their face into the ground and potentially KO them.
3Climb Leap
This is a movement technique that makes what is normally a rather arduous process quite easy. Climbing can be a bit of a bother sometimes. It’s certainly possible, but newer players can often have trouble coordinating where they need to lift their limbs and let go of the surface to climb up it.
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The Climb Leap makes this process far easier and infinitely quicker. Grab onto a wall with both hands and repeatedly jump up the wall by double-tapping the jump button. One of the bestGang Beaststipsis to practice this move in a private match first, because though it’s hard to do, it could save your life (plus,it looksrather funny). Spend some time learning to climb inGang Beastsand escape from zealous foes by going vertical like Toby Maguire in the firstSpider-Manmovie.
2Resting KO
Like a tiger waiting to pounce, the best attacks are the ones the opponent never sees coming. This is a multi-stage attack with an incredible payoff if it works. It can be a little unreliable as it depends on how the character moves, but it’s devastating when it works. With thisGang Beaststrick, players go into ragdoll mode, appearing all but dead, but ready to strike.
First, players must “play dead.” This can be done by holding down the duck, kick & jump buttons at once. It will appear as if the character is KO’ed, except for some slight twitching which causes the character to coil up like a spring. While holding all three buttons, when someone comes close, punch. The result of this will be anything from an OHKO punch to a glitchy flail that sends both characters flying off of the map. Either way, it’s one of the betterGang Beastscombos to learn and take out enemies unawares.
1Special Headbutt Moves
One of the best ways to be good atGang Beastsis to become familiar with the many headbutt tricks in the game. Players wondering how to playgang Beastseffectively will find that headbutts do more damage, more reliably than other types of attacks, though there is the chance to also inflict harm to oneself.
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Though it’s probably good advice to avoid jumping into things head-first in real life, inGang Beastsmoves like this are essential for knocking out opponents quickly. The risk factor is high, so be sure to practice the one-hit-KO headbutt, the flying headbutt, and the Tope Suicida mixed with a last-minute headbutt before theseGang Beastsmoves out on skilled friends.
OHKO Headbutt
The quickest way to win a fight, but very tricky to pull off as it requires precise grab work. This is the kind of grabbing that will be very difficult to pull off in the heat of battle, but players who focus might be able to unleash this one of the most powerfulGang Beastcombos.
To nail this headbutt, players must grab each of their opponent’s shoulders, from either the rear or front, but preferably the rear as there’s less chance of being attacked back. This is far trickier than it sounds as the characters inGang Beastshave small shoulders and getting the arms into the right place is no easy task.
However, once that is done, it’s just a matter of a headbutt and down they go. This is a surefire way to put down eventhe most irritating of opponents.
Flying Headbutt
There are many ways to pull off headbutts in this game, and it’s one of the most iconicGang Beasts’special moves. It is by far the game’s strongest default attack but does come with the risk of a self-KO if done poorly. The Flying Headbutt is a move that almost guarantees a self-KO, but it’s really fun and extremely satisfying in the rare event it actually works.
The way to do it is very simple — run, leap, and headbutt while in mid-air. Holding down the headbutt button is usually best as the character will flop forward as they do so. Colliding with basically anything other than the opponent will be sure to cause a self-KO, but it’s worth it for the few times it hits.
Tope Suicida
Though technically not a headbutt move, the Tope Suicida can be mixed with a headbutt for more power, but it has to be timed right. The community also refers to this move as a “Body Slam”, but that’s not whata real Body Slam. To perform a Tope Suicida players jump onto their opponent from somewhere high. However, making it do damage is a little more complex.
One of the more effectiveGang Beasttips to make this more powerful is to use the headbutt while diving. This will cause the player to land on their opponent with an incredible impact, potentially knocking them out straight away. This is a dangerous move though and has the potential to knock out the user, not to mention the risk of missing.
