Guides and Tips (Punch Club 1)/Getting Started

The wiki article is about getting started at Punch Club, a sim/tycoon game where the player controls a fighter's choices and aims to develop the best fighter in the world. The player trains the fighter's stats, collects skill points, and develops a fighting style. The game requires managing time, money, health, mood, hunger, and energy. To progress in the game, players must win fights, which are held every three days. To do so, players must adapt their skills to their fighter's style, take advantage of their opponent's weaknesses, or negate their strengths. The article offers a walkthrough of the early game, including farming skill points, choosing a fighting style, and increasing stats.

Overview

Punch Club is a simulation and tycoon game that allows players to control a fighter's choices with the aim of developing them into the best fighter in the world. The game offers a variety of features to help players achieve this goal, including training the fighter's stats, collecting skill points, developing a fighting style, and competing in different fight leagues to progress the story. Winning fights allows players to advance the game, while losing fights offers an opportunity to prepare for the next fight.

Gameplay Elements

To train and collect effectively, players must manage several elements that impact their fighter's performance, including time, money, health, mood, hunger, and energy.

Time: Players must manage their fighter's time, which has no known limit but affects which areas of the fighter's development are improved. Fight leagues pop up every three days, so players must manage their time efficiently to improve their fighter's training, resting, fighting, and working to achieve optimal results.

Money: Initially, players may find money to be a hurdle, but as they progress, they have more financial freedom. Players can earn money by working jobs and winning fights, which can be used to purchase gym passes, sparring partners, potions, or home gym equipment. Later in the game, players use money in a mini-game system to develop their fighter's reputation.

Health: Fighting or eating spoiled food causes players to lose health, which can be restored through food and rest. If a player has low health, they will start their next fights with fewer hit points.

Mood: A fighter's mood affects their training's effectiveness, with full benefit received between 50% and 100% mood. If mood is below 50%, players will earn only half the points in training. Mood is lost by working and can be regained by watching TV, hanging out with Roy, and slowly regained during training. Fighting, whether winning or losing, restores a significant amount of mood. If a fighter's mood is below 50%, training may be a waste of time.

Hunger: Hunger prevents players from training or working, and players can stock their fridge or seek out free sources of food to address this issue.

Energy: Energy is similar to hunger, and players cannot train or work when it is depleted. Training and working gradually drain energy, but fighting does not. Energy can be regained for free by sleeping at home, while certain foods and drinks provide energy.

Fights: Players should choose skills wisely to excel in battle and adapt their skills to their fighter's style of fighting, take advantage of their opponent's weaknesses, or negate their strengths. Winning fights in various fight leagues allows players to progress, with the first league won significantly influencing how the game plays out.

Walkthrough of the Early Game

The start of the game is fairly straightforward. Players are prompted to follow the on-screen directions, which may include choosing whether or not to work, affecting the starting skills. Eventually, players are asked to go to work and given three options: fight, run, or surrender. Regardless of the chosen option, a fight ensues, leading to a loss. Interested players can check out the Fighting section for an overview.

The subsequent choice after the fight has a greater impact, as it grants the first Perk to the player. The options include:

I've always had a pretty great right hook - grants the "Strong Arms" perk, which presumably boosts all Punch-Type damage (basic punch, uppercut, high punch, etc). They used to call me "legs" at high school - grants the "Strong Legs" perk, which presumably increases all Kick-Type damage the player deals (basic kicks, low kicks, high kicks, etc). I may look skinny but I'm quick - grants the "Thin Guy" perk, which causes the player to take more damage from attacks but increases the chance to dodge often. The player is then instructed to meet Mick at his office and stop by the grocery store to meet Apu. Since money is hard to come by at the start of the game, it's recommended to walk rather than take the bus. Players might notice a mini-lesson on the city map screen, where it takes one unit of time to go to the grocery store and two units of time to go straight to Mick's office. On the other hand, it only takes one unit of time to go from the grocery store to Mick's office. Thus, it's more efficient to go to the grocery store first since both errands can be accomplished in the same amount of time. Efficiency is key in this game. It's also suggested to buy meat ($20) at the grocery store, as it saves $15.

Talking to Mick unlocks Silver's Gym, which hosts the fight league. Players can join the fight league, which occurs every three days, and gain numerous skill points. Before joining the fight league, players can spar with Silver and eventually lose. It's recommended to decline the offer to save time and resources while still progressing the story. Players should also note that Mick feeds them 40 food when they're broke and hungry, even if they have food in the fridge. However, Mick only feeds players three times, so it's wise to use it strategically. Visiting Mick's office can save players $20 if timed correctly.

Farming Skill Points

Farming skill points is an essential aspect of the game Punch Club, as it allows players to progress faster. There are several ways to farm skill points in the game, which are outlined below.

Hand Pad Training/Sparring Fight

Silver offers Hand Pad Training and Sparring Fight options for players to farm skill points. Each time a player chooses to participate, they need to pay $15 or $20, and they can earn 1-3 skill points. Players earn 1 point for a loss, 2 points for a Pads win, and 3 points for a Sparring win. The tasks can be performed once every 12-15 hours on the in-game clock. Pads is the best option at the start of the game since players never lose as long as they set an offensive skill. Sparring is recommended once the player has at least 10 points in stats and a couple of points in their fight style.

Sparing with Roy

Once unlocked, Roy will spar with the player once every 18 hours for as long as they have worked on his truck and spent time with him in between sparring sessions. This option is worth 2 skill points.

Testing Yourself with Tyler

After unlocking Tyler, players are required to win 5 fights to earn the Street Fighter achievement. After the fifth win, players cannot set up any additional fights via Tyler. However, if they surrender or lose a fight, they still earn 2 skill points, and it does not count towards the 5 win cap. This can be done once every 18 hours.

Going to the Bar with Roy

Going to the bar with Roy has multiple random outcomes. One outcome that occurs about 1/5th of the time results in 5 skill points. Roy will go to the bar with the player once every 12 hours.

When combined, these skill farming methods are worth 17.6 skill points per 36 hours (3 in-game days).

After earning skill points, players can unlock the "Tactics Learner," which allows them to decipher the Skills and Abilities by adding the numeric values to their descriptions. Skills come in several forms, including attack abilities, defense abilities, modifiers, ability slots, and perks. Perks and Traits passively benefit players in combat or training, ability slots allow players to equip more abilities for fights, and modifiers add bonuses to other attacks and defenses.

The Gym at Silver's Gym costs $10 to access. However, it is not important at the moment, and players do not have the resources to make use of it yet. Players can use the gym later to grind up their stats and unlock the Ultimate Fights. The gym offers several ways to train stats, one for each individual skill, a couple of ways to train stamina with strength or agility, and a couple of ways to train everything. It also offers the significant benefit of avoiding overtraining. Every type of exercise in the game becomes less effective if done back to back, and the timer on this overtraining appears to be 24-48 hours. Gaining stats too fast can backfire, especially strength, as it raises the energy costs of abilities.

Stats

In the game, there are three main stats: strength, agility, and stamina, each with its own set of effects on other stats. Strength affects damage and energy cost, while agility affects hit percentage and dodge bonus. Stamina, on the other hand, affects HP, fight energy recovery, and damage reduction. Based on these effects, it appears that stamina is the most important stat, with strength being fun for its damage capabilities and agility being popular due to its translation into fight success. The game suggests pairing certain stats together, such as strength with stamina, agility with stamina, or heavy stamina with strength, which is generally agreed upon as being beneficial.

To increase stats, the game offers training exercises that award mini points, which are not shown explicitly but are used to fill up the bar below the stats. Most exercises give mini points to multiple stats, with a few focused on just one stat. Stamina pairs well with either strength or agility, although agility and strength do not appear to come together without stamina. However, it is important to note that players lose stats at the end of every day, specifically 9 times the stat worth of mini points earned. The numerical value of mini points earned is shown at the end of each day, but the exact gains per exercise are unknown. Thus, it is recommended to focus on one stat at first but not let the other stats fall too far behind, with a general rule of thumb being to aim for a balance of 4-6 in each stat until the first fighting style is obtained. Overtraining at the start can lead to faster falls in stats, which is one of the reasons why it is not advisable to have more than 4 of any one stat early on.

Fighting Styles

In the game, there are three fighting styles: Way of the Bear, Way of the Tiger, and Way of the Turtle. Each style provides a minor bonus, a hidden passive effect, and unlocks a set of powerful skills beyond the basic ones. Additionally, a player's preferred style might be influenced by their choice of fighting style. Each style has at least two branches for skills, which can be combined to increase the variety of fighting techniques. If a player focuses on one branch, they can unlock it almost entirely by the end of the game.

To progress in the game, players should work on developing their skills in one of the two early jobs, as well as engaging in hand pad training and exercises at home. Construction is the first job available, offering a higher pay of $50, but it takes longer (6 hours) to complete and trains strength and stamina only slightly. On the other hand, the pizza delivery job pays less ($30) but takes less time (4 hours) and is conveniently located near the player's house. Players are advised not to eat the spiced pizza until they can defeat Silver in sparring. More detailed information on work can be found in the Game Mechanics section.

Fight Energy and Avoiding Overtraining

One of the early pitfalls to avoid is overtraining strength, as it increases the energy costs of a player's skills. If a player runs out of energy during a fight, they become vulnerable and can easily lose. To avoid this, players are advised to choose abilities with low energy modifiers, use the "skip attacks" ability, which can be effective in turning the tide of a fight, and build up stamina to recover faster. Additionally, some of the perks further in the skill trees offer significant benefits to fight energy, making them a worthwhile investment.

Players should aim to collect skill points, participate in fight leagues, and earn enough money to sustain themselves. They should also experiment with different fighting styles to discover their preferences. More information on these topics can be found in other sections. Players are advised not to carry over $150 on their character until they level up, as they may be jumped and forced to fight. Losing the fight results in losing half of the player's money. However, if the player has trained their agility enough, they may be able to run away. The Tips section provides additional information.