General Guide

1. To-Do-List
2. The Basics
3. Modes
4. Stats
5. Playstyles
6. Ball Control

To-Do-List:
• Add sections; Mindgames, Section for each mode, clothing section,
fishing and gathering section, quest section, single player section and more.
• Add pictures
• Add videos
• Format better


What this guide is about:
One day when I was venturing through the FT forum I found out that the same questions were asked every single day. So I started wondering why there weren’t some place where every question could be answered. So I started working on this guide.
This guide will contain as much information, tactics and tips & tricks that my head can fit.
Keep in mind that this is version 1.0, and it’still nowhere near finished.
Look at the to-do list for what’s going to be added, and you're also free to request something to be added.

The Controls:
Arrow keys to move
S to Stroke
A to Lob
Spacebar to skillshot (Only with certain rackets)

Modes
There are six different play modes in FT, and in this section I will just give a quick summary of them, but I’ll go further in depth later in the guide.

Basic Singles:
Basic singles is a mode you either hate or love.
Either way, it’s the mode the most of us plays until we get out of the rookie channel.
Basic Singles is just as it sounds, its 1 versus 1 tennis.
Look at section 7.1 for more in-depth information about this mode.

Basic Doubles:
Basic Doubles is a mode very few people hate, and it’s definitively the most played mode in FT, maybe only challenged by Guardian Mode.
Basic Doubles is also just as it sounds, its normal tennis 2 versus 2.
Take a look at section 7.2 for more in-depth information about this mode

Battle Singles:
Battle mode singles is basically the same as basic singles, only this time you have a hp bar! What’s the HP bar for? Well obviously it’s for your opponent to lower, and for you to keep up while lowering your opponents HP bar.
How is that done you ask?

Well, first of all, for every point you score you do a certain amount of damage based on your WIL stat and your opponents STA stat.
Second, there’s now items popping up all over the court from time to time which can also be used to deal damage to your opponent.

Battle Doubles:
Not much needed to be said here, it’s just the above, but instead it’s with two players on each side of the court.
Oh, and this is the most popular battle mode, but good clothing and stats are almost required to do any good at higher levels and in tournaments.

Battlemon Basic & Battle:
Battlemons are pets that you can use to play tennis with you.
Basically you can buy an npc controlled partner which you play either basic or singles with.
For more information about these modes and tips on tricks on this, please visit UserJM’s thread here:

Guardian Mode:
Guardian mode is the quickest way to level in FT, and also the quickest way to earn money.
In Guardian Mode you create a team of 4, and you play battle mode against a boss varying in difficulty depending on which map you choose.

Life Woods is the most played map, as it’s the easiest map that still gives you more experience than basic mode.

Stats
The stats in Fantasy Tennis are probably what create the most confusion out of all the things in game.
There are no clear guides onto what you should stat, which makes most new players make the mistake of statting a little on everything.
Well fear not, I will now explain all the stats and I will also give you some tips on how to stat your character according to your needs.


Explanation of each stat:

Wisdom/WIL:
In basic mode, the more WIL you have the more your ball curves.
Beware, that strength will somewhat lessen the curve of your ball as a sacrifice to speed, but it’s not so significant that you shouldn’t add strength if you want a ballcurve.

In battle mode WIL determines how much ball damage you do. By that I mean how much damage you do when you score a point.

Stamina/STA:
This is a confusing stat. Most new players don’t know what this one is about, or at least I didn’t when I started.

In basic mode this stat is somewhat useless, although not quite.
It makes the delay after you receive a smash smaller, so it’s a little useful for frontplayers.

In battle mode however, it’s a very useful stat.
The more STA you have, the less damage you receive.
This makes you able to stay front and be a “damage tank” so that your partner takes the least damage possible.

Dexterity/DEX
Another confusing stat. Many believe that this stat increases moving speed, but in fact that doesn’t matter at all once you have shoes with the Movement 5 stat.

What it does do though is to make you more nimble, by that I mean that you can move around more easily, if that makes any sense.

In battle mode, this will make the amount of certain items greater which in turn means more damage.
Here’s a list of how many you can send out of a certain item based on DEX:


Souls:
10-29 DEX ~ 1 soul.
30-39 DEX ~ 2 souls.
40-49 DEX ~ 3 souls.
50-59 DEX ~ 4 souls.
60 DEX ~ 5 souls.

Meteors:
30-39 DEX ~ 1+ meteor
40-49 DEX ~ 2+ meteors
50-59 DEX ~ 3+ meteors
60 DEX ~ +4 meteors

Strength/STR:
This is probably the easiest stat to understand.
In basic mode, the more strength you have the higher ballspeed.

In battle mode you will do more damage per item based on your STR stat.



AtomSmasher has created a chart that shows how much damage you do at certain stat levels in battle.
The chart can be viewed here: viewtopic.php?f=276&t=55876

Basic Builds:

STR/WIL – My balls are faster than lightning. (harharhar)
A common doubles build, and it concentrates on getting the highest strength possible. This is also very, very useful for singles.

In this build you only add STR and WIL with a focus on STR.


WIL/STR – Slides Galore
A common backplayer build.
In this build you also only concentrate on STR and WIL, but this build is more concentrated on WIL.

STR/DEX – The Hybrid
This is not as common as the two above for basic, but it’s still used, I use it for example.
It’s also common for frontplayers, as the nimbleness is more noticeable at front.
This is for the ones who wants to play both basic and battle.
Basically you use clothes and a little statting to achieve 60 dex, and the rest you add into STR.


Playstyles
There are several different doubles play styles in FT.
Front, Back and sides are the most commonly used ones.
There are also those who switch hit, by that I mean that the players switch between front and back depending who’s positioned best for being front or back.

Front:
The frontplayer is the goalgetter, he’s basically the one who scores the most points.
In battlemode the frontplayer will most likely be statted STA/WIL.
This makes him take low damage from items and do most ball damage, which is useful to the one trying to score the most points. The stats of a basic frontplayer vary, but STR/DEX and STR/WIL is most common.

Back:
A backplayers job is to cover his front, make sure that each ball that passes the front is safely sent back up the court. The backplayer is also a strategist, and should at all times try to set up balls for his frontplayer to score from.

A good example of this is when there is a front on both sides of the net, and the backplayer uses a shot called a long slice.
The longslice is a special shot because it’s smashable at the net even though it’s not a lob.
The problem is, if there’s a front on both sides of the net, the second one front smashes that slice, the other one can counter it by quickly shooting it back, and due to a small delay that occurs when you smash, the front is unable to get the ball back.

There are many suitable builds for backplayers. If you want to play both basic and battle, I recommend a STR/DEX build. Even though DEX doesn’t actually make you faster, it does make you more nimble, which is always useful and at the same time you can do a solid dose of damage in battle, especially with souls.

If you only want to play basic you should stick to the classic STR/WIL or WIL/STR build

Sides:
Sides is what most players start out playing. Basically, sides is built up around this simple idea: Cover your own side, and wait for your opponents to make a mistake.
This might work out if you’re really good, but in my opinion it’s a boring play style.

I have no specific stat options for this play style, as there are too many varieties.
In basic you’re most likely to see a STR/WIL or WIL/STR build though, and very few people play sides in battle.

Switch Hitting/Universal:
This is a combination of all the play styles you’ve seen so far, basically the players adjust to what happens in game, so if one player is front, and the opponents cross, the frontplayer might pull back and cover middle, while the other player moves up and plays front instead.

If used correctly this play style may be very deadly.
If you’ve ever played against Saferxde and Cucala you know what I mean.

Ball control:
Now it’s time to get into actually playing the game.
This section will sum up every kind of shot possible, how to do them and when they’re useful.

Stroke:
Normal stroke: You do this shot by just pressing S without pressing forward or backwards.
There’s really not a lot to say about this shot, but it’s best to use in a defensive situation where you don’t want the ball returned instantly.

Forward stroke: This shot is done by holding the forward arrow key while pressing S.
There’s really not a lot to say about this shot either, it’s just a stroke that has a little higher speed. Used in situations when you either doesn’t want your opponent to have as much charge time, or you don’t want them to reach it.

Slow Stroke: This shot can only be done before the ball hits the ground. If it hits the ground it will be a slice. To do this shot you hold backwards while pressing S.
This is the true saving shot, it can save you from many hard situations.
Say for example someone smashes against you and you know that your opponent is going to score if he can volley that ball. So instead of just returning it normally you return it with a slow shot. This will make the volley that he returns be slower too, and so you will be able to reach the return.

Lob
Normal lob:
This shot is done by simply pressing “A” without holding any other buttons.
This is often a very good saving shot. If you’re playing against someone who’s playing front/back it will right in the middle of them and no one will be able to smash the ball.

Forward lob:
This shot is done by holding forward while pressing “A”
If your opponent is running forward you can use this to lob over your opponent and therefore score. Be wary though as this shot is easily smashed, and sooner or later you will be scored on if you over use it.

Short lob:
This shot is done by holding backwards while pressing “A”
This is probably one of the most dangerous shots you can do in FT.
For the opponent it presents very many options for returning it.
It’s a very slow shot so it gives the opportunity to do a fully charged shot and it can also be smashed in a very hard angle to catch.
The only real use for this shot is as a “longslice” substitute.
If your opponent smashes this and your partner is at the net it’s possible to return the ball and score easily because of smash delay. More information about this can be found in the “longslice” section.

Slice:
Normal slice: A slice is done by holding backwards while holding “S” the ball will have to have hit the ground before doing this shot or it will just be a slow stroke.
This shot can be used if your opponent is far back and they might not be able to catch it.
This shot has the same limitations as the short lob though, and it can easily be fully charged upon return and therefore it’s dangerous.

Long slice: Ah. Everyone’s favourite shot. This shot is done by pressing not two, but three buttons in one sequence! It’s a tricky shot to master, and it is done by holding backwards while pressing “S” but while your pressing “S” you should immediately switch to holding forward. It’s quite tricky, and here’s the right key combination:
(v + S + ^)

A little trick I use is that I press v+S and then I immediately slide my finger up to the up arrow and press. To get the timing just right requires practice, and most people can only do it if they charge, although some can use it without any charge at all, and that’s when it’s truly effective.

This shot, despite popular beliefs is a double-edged sword.
It can give your opponent a scoring opportunity just as much as it can help you score.
The true power of this shot is that your opponent can smash it at the net, and they can volley it if they’re a little bit behind the net.

But before we get into the actual point of that I need to tell you about something called smash delay. When you have smashed a ball you will not be able to hit another ball because of a small delay that happens when you smash. This is what we abuse with the longslice.

If there’s a front on the other side of the net, one of you go up to the net and the other does a longslice. The opponent will often smash the ball, and when he does the other front immediately returns the ball, and because of the smash delay the opponent will not be able to return the shot, and there’s a big chance you will score unless your opponent has a good backplayer.

If you absolutely have to smash the long slice you should always hold back when smashing.
This makes the return much slower and it’s easier for your back player to catch it.

If you’re really synced with your back player, the front usually ignores the longslices and lets them pass to their back player.

Smash:
Ah, the smash! This one will not be done in sections, as it’s easier to just put it all under one.
The smash is the greatest weapon in FT if you can utilize it properly.
The smash creates pressure, and your opponent might continue lobbing, while you can just continue smashing until they make a mistake and you score.

Something that’s very powerful is if you’re in sync with your partner, and you cross the smashes instead of hitting them straight. Your partner should always move to where the ball will most likely be returned. People often slide if they’re cross smashed on, and therefore it often creates scoring opportunities.

For the backplayers: Smash EVERYTHING.
Smash all balls that you can reach, unless your opponent is at the net and ready to crosslob once you smash it.

The Volley:
The volley can be done multiple ways.
You can do it when there’s a smash circle, and you stand a little bit outside of that circle.
You can do it when your all the way up at the net and you can do it if you’re around the middle when someone longslices.

A volley is faster than a normal shot, and bounces quicker, so you need to be faster when you catch it.

There are basically three variations of volleys you can do:

Normal volley: Just press S while in a volley position.

Forward Volley: Hold forward while pressing S in a volley position.
This will move quicker and will be harder for your opponent to catch.

Backwards Volley: Hold backwards while pressing S in a volley position.
If your opponent is far back, this can be used to let the ball bounce twice, and therefore your opponent can’t reach the ball.

Charge shots:
Ah, the charge shot.
These can be very, very powerful if used correctly.
A charge shot is used by holding either S for a charged stroke or A for a charged lob.
If done correctly the shot will be more precise and more powerful, and you can recognize it by the red colour behind the ball.

In this section I will tell you about different charge shot combinations.

Charged cross stroke:
This is done by standing midcourt and up, and fully charging a cross stroke by holding
(-> or <- + S)

Remember the double edged swords I talked about earlier?
This is one of them. This can be very useful for scoring for both sides.
If you’re the one doing it, you can score because the ball goes so far up the court at such a sharp angle. But there’s one easy to do trick that can hinder this.
If the opponent front goes to the middle at the net they can easily disrupt the shot and also score. This requires some insight, and one of the players who does this the most is “Hataku”
If you ever play with him you’ll notice it.

Charged quarter court cross stroke:
The half cross is a difficult shot to pull off.
Basically you need to press (--> - ↑ + S)
If done correctly you will do a quarter court cross.

This is useful for making your opponent slide, and also for tricking your opponent if they think you’re going to full cross.

Charged cross lob:
This shot is done the same way as the cross stroke, but instead you hold “A”
This will result in a very fast lob that goes across the entire court.

This can either result in your opponent not reaching it, and a point or they can smash it back, and have their own opportunity for scoring.