Credit to: Grab Games

Hey there, young blood! It’s me, not Doug Johnson. He’s busy training another fighter in VR and I’m here as a sub to fill in. Here are different tips and tricks to help Knockout League boxers get the most out of their training in Reflex Alley.

This VR arcade boxer is compatible with Oculus, Vive, PSVR, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets and won’t rely on buttons to do all the work. It’s all up to you, your determination, coordination, reflexes, and training.

Get those gloves up and ready to start jabbing, dodging, and blocking in Reflex Alley.

Training In Reflex Alley

Doug’s gym may be set in a virtual cartoon world but his years of boxing experience and training has helped dedicated Knockout League players like Juan Espinosa make weight, lose 15 pounds, and become a stronger and leaner fighter. Step outside to Reflex Alley, or the alleyway behind Doug’s gym where he’s got 3 projectile tubes set up that shoot balloons, 10-pound medicine balls, and dumbells at your head for you to punch, block, and dodge away from.

We All Have To Start Somewhere

He’s Doug Johnson, the best cartoon VR boxing trainer! Credit to: Grab Games

There are 4 training modes or levels of challenge in Reflex Alley. Doug’s a pretty understanding guy and knows a boxer’s gotta start somewhere — even if that means Easy mode. I recommend Easy as a starting point, even if you’re a seasoned fighter.

We can each learn a thing or two, right? Of course!

When Easy mode stops making you break a sweat, try out Medium, Hard, and gasp, Stamina mode if you’re really up for a challenge. Don’t think about it too hard but some heavy hitting boxer has climbed the leaderboards at over 166K in Stamina. Talk about competition.

“Who can even do that?” you ask. You can! With practice!

Get Your Arms And Legs Moving, Kid

Reflex Alley ain’t nothin’ to mess with! Slap on that heart rate monitor or smartwatch and get to training. But first, let’s discuss the arm mechanics. They’re simple in explanation but a challenge in action and execution. You’ll see.

  1. Your left glove is blue and your right glove is red. Match your punches, hooks, uppercuts, and combos to the red and blue balloons that will be heading towards you.
  2. To block, you’ll need to put two gloves up quickly to avoid getting smashed by an orange, white, and black 10-pound medicine ball.
  3. To dodge, you’ll have to use your lower body reflexes to quickly deep squat if you’re standing with two feet under you or lunge if you’ve got one foot in front of the other in what’s known as a boxer’s power stance.
  4. Before you begin, remember that the longer you can accurately combo punch with the correct glove, the higher your score will climb on the leaderboard.

Tip: The dumbbells are surprisingly super realistic looking. Every time it headed for my head I instinctually yelped a little. Okay, I actually flinched, yelled, and ducked. Effective for dodging and making my gluteus maximus sore, yes. A little uncomfortable for a newbie, also yes.

What To Focus On

Here comes a dumbbell! Duck! Credit to: Grab Games

Doug Johnson is a seasoned ex-pro boxer with the perfect blend of sarcasm, motivation, and justified annoyance to keep you light on your toes and heavy in the gloves. While Doug’s commentary is priceless, there are more pressing matters to get to!

  1. There’s going to be a lot going on at the beginning. If you have to just stand there and watch objects fly at your face, do it if it’ll help you see what to expect during your next go around. I did this and feel no shame for doing it, it actually helped me prepare for what was ahead.
  2. DJ’s training isn’t for the weak-willed. His reflex machine will throw streams of single and mixed combo balloons to throw punches at and will try to fake you out by launching medicine balls and those pesky dumbbells right after each other so they get shot at you in quick succession.
  3. The harder the mode, the faster they launch and the quicker you’ll have to punch, throw your gloves up to block, and then quickly squat or side lunge to dodge.
  4. If you get hit by a dumbbell you’ll start seeing stars. Get hit enough times and you’ll see a lot of them.
  5. If you’re in Easy through Hard mode, you’ll be up against a 2-minute countdown to get your best and most accurate punch-block-dodge combos.
  6. Once the clock ends you’ll get to check out your score. Instead of focusing on how many missed punches, blocks, and dodges you got, try to see it as how many opportunities you won’t forget to take next time. Improvement takes practice.
  7. In Stamina mode, you’ll want to avoid getting hit or missing punches because this will eat away at the clock and leave you with a weak score.
  8. Wear your fitness tracker to see how many calories you burned and then compare it against the calorie burn on the scoreboard to see if they match up.

Tip: Be aware of your controllers. You can run the risk of them clashing as you punch or put your gloves up.

Make Moves!

Training in Reflex Alley is going to leave you feeling defeated, accomplished, and all sorts of emotions. Keeping your gloves up is going to be your best defense against dumbbells and blocking medicine balls, and will keep your punches steady. Staying light on your feet and quick to duck and dodge is your best bet for escaping a blow to the head.

  1. Watch for triple balloons, they’ll come launching out at you in a straight line, horizontally, and vertically.
  2. For the straight line, you’ll want to jab and punch.
  3. For the horizontal balloons, you’ll want to left or right hook.
  4. For the vertical balloons, you’ll want to uppercut.
  5. When you see a dumbbell flying at you, don’t yelp and stand there like I initially did, squat, lunge — do something!
  6. This is going to take some practice, but as you squat or lunge immediately look up and see where the next launch will take place or which items you’ll need to attack or dodge away from.
  7. Balloons sometimes pop if you do unimpressive sweeping motions. I found this out and wanted to get lazy, but I didn’t! I pulled through and didn’t lower the bar for my punches. I went full beast mode even though I missed some and landed others.

Pro Tip: Punch with powerful and deliberate movements for maximum immersion, coordination, and conditioning. Tighten abdominal muscles as you lunge or squat to strengthen the core and to stabilize the back muscles. Don’t arch your back or it will hurt later. Wear a weighted vest to add resistance and to build muscle. Muscle is the best weight you can gain, it helps you burn fat!

More Knockout League Tips

If you’d like to find out more gameplay tips, read Knockout League: 20 Tips and Tricks To Get Golden Gloves and More.