AEW: Fight Forever is an intentional throwback to the wrestling games of old, with gameplay that’s reminiscent of titles like WWF No Mercy and WWE Day of Reckoning, so if you didn’t grow up playing those older games, you might struggle finding your rhythm when playing Fight Forever. Meanwhile, you might also struggle with the Road To The Elite mode, as there’s options and choices that could lead players down the wrong path.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of “Elite” beginner’s tips for AEW: Fight Forever that should help you on your journey to capturing the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
Matches Can End Pretty Quickly
Perhaps the first and biggest lesson to learn about AEW: Fight Forever is that matches can seemingly end in the blink of an eye. Building up your momentum to unleash your signatures and finishers is generally the name of the game, and with just a few good moves, you can absolutely pin anybody on the roster.
Generally speaking, one signature or finisher (along with the damage you inflict to earn that much momentum) tends to be enough to lay anybody out on the canvas for that all important three count. Because of this, most matches only tend to last around two to three minutes, so you need to remember that in most scenarios in AEW: Fight Forever, it’s not a marathon, it is a sprint.
Layer Grapples Into Strike Combos
There are three main ways of attacking within AEW: Fight Forever, and those are high strikes (Square/X), low strikes (Triangle/Y) and grapples (X/A). Each attack can be countered with either a strike or grapple reversal, which is found on either L1 and R1/the bumpers, so it helps to be unpredictable with your offense. Throwing out the same high strike combo is just going to lead to ruin, especially against human opponents.
Something that AEW: Fight Forever doesn’t make clear to the player is that you can actually layer grapples into your strike combos, allowing you to mix your offense more seamlessly. If you’re trying to land grapple attacks but you’re struggling, try hitting your opponent with a strike first to soften them up, before grappling them and hitting your suplexes and submissions.
Momentum Swings
Like most wrestling games, momentum is key to success in AEW: Fight Forever, with successful strikes and taunts leading to more momentum coming your way. Unlike WWE 2K23 though, where you keep any momentum you’ve earned, momentum in AEW: Fight Forever feels more like a tug of war system. The more damage you inflict, the less momentum the opponent will have.
This is why matches can be over pretty quickly in AEW: Fight Forever, because if some starts building up a head of steam, you need to put an end to it quickly before they hit their finisher and end the match there and then. Try giving the opponent the run-around or focus on reversing their attacks in order to gain the upper hand and swing momentum back in your favour.
Hit The Finish
Actually hitting your finisher in AEW: Fight Forever is also just a little bit more complicated than in other wrestling games. Instead of filling your momentum bar, hitting a signature and being given a finisher stock like in WWE 2K23, you actually need to enter the Special state in order to use your finishers.
Once you’ve filled your momentum bar, you’ll enter the Signature state, which as you’d expect, allows players to use their signature moves. You can use your signatures infinitely for as long as you’re in the mode, but if you want to access your finishers, you need to taunt while in the Signature state. This will activate the Special state, giving you about 20-30 seconds to hit your finisher. However, you’re vulnerable while taunting, and can lose the Signature state if you get hit, so make sure to hit the taunt when your opponent is down.
How Road To Elite Works
Functioning as AEW: Fight Forever’s Career Mode, Road To The Elite is designed to offer a year in the life of an AEW competitor. Players pick from either one of the members of the AEW roster, or their own created character, and compete across a year of AEW programming. That year is actually split into 16 turns, spread across four blocks, with each block being given its own storyline and events.
On your turn, you can perform up to four actions, which include working out to earn skill points, dining in a restaurant to recover energy, competing in a training match on AEW Dark or AEW Rampage, or “going out”, a selection of choices like sightseeing, hosting meet and greets or playing minigames with The Young Bucks for cash and skill points. After you’ve completed four actions, you’ll move on to Dynamite for that week, before repeating that process again.
It’s worth noting that only created wrestlers can spend skill points in this mode, so if you’re planning on playing as a regular roster member instead, don’t bother too much with trying to earn skill points.
Get The Wins
Something that AEW: Fight Forever does with its career mode that might come as a culture shock to someone more accustomed to career modes in modern wrestling games is that there are no guaranteed wins. If you lose a match, the storyline will still continue, which can have an effect on future storylines, along with your ability to earn skill points.
While getting a win in your first matches might be a bit tricky as a created wrestler, because you won’t have the stats to compete with the members of the AEW roster, winning is still paramount as it governs how many skill points you can play with. Use any tricks you can find in order to win, but if the worst case scenario happens, just quit the game before you return to the Road To Elite menu, and you’ll be able to give it another go.
Using Your Buffs
Something that AEW: Fight Forever introduces you to properly in Road To Elite is momentum buffs, purchasable skills that allow you to turn the momentum tides if certain events are triggered. These buffs can be for events like landing the first attack, giving you a headstart in the opening of a match, or for performing certain moves like springboard attacks or top-rope dives.
These momentum buffs are what’s going to help you win more often than not in the Road To The Elite mode, so it’s worth focusing on purchasing some in order to improve your momentum gains. Chain a few of those buffs together throughout the match, and you should soon have enough momentum to hit your signature/finisher and get the win.
Only Workout On High Energy
As mentioned above, something you can do on your turn in Road To The Elite is go for a workout, with three different levels of workout to choose from. These options go from low energy cost to high energy cost, yielding more skill points for the more intense workouts. Naturally, you’d want to go for the most intense workout as much as possible, but doing so can lead to a higher chance of injury. Those can be expensive and costly to remove, so you’ll want to avoid those completely.
There is a way you can completely avoid injury while working out though, and that’s by initiating the workout on the maximum energy level of 100. When doing so, the injury chance percentage will stay at 0%, allowing you to pick the most intense workout with no real trade-off. Sure, it costs more energy, but the increased skill points are worth it. Plus, if you have enough Career Cash, you can purchase energy boosts from the shop, letting you hit the intense workouts multiple times in a week.
Upgrade What Works For You
Knowing what to upgrade in AEW: Fight Forever’s Road To The Elite mode can be a bit overwhelming, as there’s lots of stat increase, perks and passive skills to choose from, so it’s worth narrowing down what you’re choosing to focus on then go from there. If you’re planning on playing a big wrestler who doesn’t engage in much aerial offense, there’s no point upgrading your springboard or diving damage, for instance.
Something else to keep in mind is how expensive it is to have multiple finishers and signatures. You can have up to five for each kind of move, which in turn unlocks another set of upgrades for that specific finisher and signature slot. Unless you feel like giving your created wrestler a signature/finishing move for every single situation in the game, it might be better to just stick with one signature and one finisher, but make them as strong as possible.
Work Rampage Every Possible Week
As you progress throughout the Road To The Elite career mode, you’ll unlock the ability to compete on AEW Dark and Rampage, an action that you can take once per week. Once you’ve unlocked the ability, you should take on a Rampage match every possible week, as it’s the most lucrative way to earn both Career Cash and skill points for a relatively low energy cost.
The further you are into the campaign too, the more rewards you’ll earn from competing on Rampage, making it more and more essential to bolster your win record every chance you get. While working out might seem more beneficial early on in the career mode, the cash you can gain alongside the skill points makes working an extra match each week worth doing.
READ MORE: AEW: Fight Forever (PS5) REVIEW – Close The Forbidden Door
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