What is the content of this guide?
Mainly and primaly I'll write about the multiplayer matches, from general information to detailed stats and tricks.
Kabounce also has single player challenge maps where you can compete for better times. I will not cover them in detail here, but I really recommend doing them because they offer a great opportunity to practice your movement skills! They also have some extra lootballs if you like cosmetics... ;)
I will also not write much about achievements.

Who is this guide for?
I aimed the content and infos for players that are new to the game and those who have some experience at it but would like to learn more and get better.
There are several parts that cover basic information which won't be new for you after your first few matches, and there are parts which are (in my opinion) complicated or difficult at first and are of less importance until you get comfortable with the controls and other game mechanics. I tried to make the target audience in those sections clear.

Anyways, let's get to it!

This section explains the most important mechanics and facts about the match. These, along with the next part (abilities) make the backbone of the game.


In the match lobby

Snapshot from a match

Kabounce is a 4v4 pinball game where each player controls one ball in the arena. The teams' goal is to collect and score in points, eliminate opponents to steal theirs and try to avoid being eliminated.
The most important and easiest way to get points is to hit and capture bumpers on the field. Every bumper gives a fixed amount of points (between 10 and 100). You earn them if you capture the bumper, that means, if it was in a diffrent colour than your team's. Hitting a bumper that is already in your color gives 1/10 of its points value.
You can eliminate your opponents with the slam ability. First aim, then the pinball shoots up, moving in an arc before hitting the ground, destroying enemy pinballs and capturing bumpers with an explosion in a small radius. Upon a successful elimination you get 35% of the target's points. After being slammed, players need to wait a few seconds before entering the arena again.
Ideally, to maximise your score, you should spend match time on both gaining points from capturing bumpers and smashing opponents in a comfortable ratio. You might also need to use different playstyles to defeat certain opponents.
If you keep on hitting bumpers without breaks, you increase your combo. At certain combos your multiplier will raised by 0.1, starting from 1.0x and capping at 2.0x. This increases amount of points you get from bumpers and certain bonuses. Therefore it is adventageous to reserve your combo, because if you lose it, your multiplier is set back to 1x.
One match lasts 5 minutes, during it the gate will open three times for 30 seconds. You will have to score your points in these periods to secure them for your team. It is highly recommended to do so - carried points can be stolen by enemy players, so usually it's better not to risk them if you don't have to. If you get caught, you lose a bit more than a third of your points - while that's not all of them, it's still a significant amount of it (especially if you are holding a lot of them). Also don't leave the scoring for too late, because everything you carry after the match ends will be lost if you can't get in.



I noticed that many new players are not aware of the importance of the field control. At the end each teams' score will get a bonus based on it - the more bumpers you control the more your points increase! Quite exactely, it adds it to your score. So for example if your team scored 20k points and had 50% field control, your end score will be 30k. A high field control can turn the match, even from many thousand points of disadvantage! So go and try to capture as many bumpers in the last seconds as you can!

Field control is important! Winning a match from 6k points disadvantage.

There are different abilities you can use in a match to eliminate opponents, capture bumpers or move around quicker. These either need to be charged or have a cooldown. Currently there's only one charged ability, the slam, and two with cooldown, blink and shock. You can choose your loadout in the lobby before the match starts (or before your initial launch, if you backfilled).

The slam is the most important ability of all, it lets you eliminate enemies and steal their points. You can also use it to move quickly to a distant part of the arena or to escape from a dangerous situation. It needs to be charged; you can have 6 at most at a time and you need to hit 5 bumpers to get a charge. You start with 1-4, depending on how good was your launch.
Useful fact: the slam has a small internal cooldown of 0.18s, for balancing reasons, but it's so short it's barely noticable.



The blink lets you to quickly capture up to 5 bumpers that are close to you, and has a 10 seconds cooldown. You are also invulnerable while blinking, making it an excellent way to avoid a slam. Your pinball keeps its momentum, meaning you'll move with the same speed in the same direction after the blink is over as you did before. This lets you capture bumpers that are out of your way or reach, without having to break your movement flow. You can also use it to charge an extra slam, in case you ran out of them and really want to quickly eliminate someone. Over all, the blink is a great ability for defense and field control.



With the shock you can electrify up to 3 bumpers, which also captures them for your team. If a player hits a bumper shocked by an enemy, they get stunned and cannot move for a few seconds, making them extremely vulnerable. Shocking the right bumpers at the right time can let you slam your opponents with ease. The same goes for the other team, so be on guard if there are enemy players with the shock!
However, getting stunned doesn't necessarily mean you'll lose points, the enemies might be busy elsewhere or just simply cannot slam you in time. If that's the case, be quick and move on as soon as it's over to escape before they get to you. You can also decrease the duration of being shocked by spamming the jump button.

During the match you can see all the vital infos on the screen. Most of them are quite self-explanatory, but here's a short explanation of them:

• Top left corner: live leaderboard showing the three players currently holding the most amount of points. The in-game ping and fps are also shown here if you enabled them in the settings.
  
• Top middle: remaining match time with a clock-like countdown till the next gate opening or closing. Keep an eye on it to see when you'll have an opportunity to score in!
  
• In the middle, to the right from your pinball: your current combo with the according multiplier. Points you get from bumpers and bonuses will appear here as well.
  
• Bottom middle: the number of slam charges to the left and the cooldown of your secondary ability (blink or shock) to the right.
  
• Bottom right: your current points and the state of the match.
  
• Bottom left: quick chat. More about that in the "Other useful facts" section.

The in-game UI.

Here are a few methods and tips how to avoid getting eliminated.
First and most importantly, the best safety measurement you can do is to be on guard and watch your enemies. If you see one of them moving towards you, either on the ground or higher in the air, you can assume that they'll slam at you or shock your bumpers. By being ready for that you can react much faster, greatly increasing your chances to survive an attack. While it is possible that the enemy has no intention to eliminate you - it might be just coincidence that they're moving in your direction - it's better to play safe and expect the worst.


Under attack

So what can you do if you're targeted? When an enemy slams at you, you'll get both visual and audio warnings, giving you time to react. The area of the enemy's slam is marked on the ground, making it easier to see where they'll land. There are several methods you can choose from to try to avoid the attack:

• Blink. As a secondary ability, it is available only if you chose this at the start of the match and has 10 seconds cooldown. During its animation you are invulnerable, making it a great escape plan. Just make sure it's ready to use because it won't help you if it's on cooldown. Also prepare to move away as soon as it is over, because your attacker might want to slam at you again. Another thing - if you get too much used to use blink that it comes from reflex, be extra cautious when using shock - you might try to use it to avoid slam and then find out that you just exposed yourself to an attack in the worst moment... (nope, definitely didn't happen to me multiple times :P ).
  
• Slam out. Quick and usually safe. Ideally you have enough time to get far enough from the enemy's slam and you can continue capturing bumpers. Note that you might also collide with the opponent, resulting in a clash or an interrupt (more details on that in the offense section at the "What happens when two players slam at each other?" part). Also, make sure you have it charged.
  
• Dash away. This is a bit more difficult than the previous two methods and quite situational, but it lets you change direction rapidly, making it a good way to escape a sudden situation.
  
• Do nothing, just keep rolling/jumping/moving. This is the easiest, but the riskiest thing to do in my opinion, also it might not always be a viable alternative. It requires you to estimate the time of the slam and your movement correctly and quickly, and if you think you won't even be hit, you don't have to take any further measurements. The slam area might even not be on you, just very near; you can usually see that soon enough. It doesn't hurt tho to keep it safe and do something to evade - your estimations could be wrong.

Blink and slam are clearly the best options, but it's not always easy to decide which is better in a given situation. If there are multiple players slamming at you at the same time, blink can be useful as you can evade all attacks if timed well, while slamming might gets you caught in a clash and so in a vulnerable spot. On the other hand, slam can bring you out of the crowd immediately (while blink leaves you at the same place), and you can have up to 6 charges of it, so it's more likely to be ready.
Another thing that can happen when you're in a bumper cluster is that you slam right into a bumper. This triggers the explosion immediately, ending your slam and leaving you vulnerable and usually without enough time to slam again before your attacker eliminates you. In my experience it happens more often than we'd like it, making the slam better suited for escaping from an open area.
Over all, in my opinion the blink is safer, but the slam is more often available.


With a well timed blink you can evade even multiple attacks


Tried to escape with slam, but bumped straight into that tiny bumper. The remaining time weren't enough to slam again...

If you happen to carry a lot of points and you want to play safe, even a bit passively, try to stay in the air as much as you can. Getting eliminated high above the ground is much more unlikely, so hop from one platform to another to minimise the risk of being slammed. You might not collect that many points doing so, but at least you keep safe those that you already have.


Try to catch me here! :P

Be aware tho that being slammed mid-air is still possible. Not very likely, but possible. Either by slamming at a bumper you're close to, or by the trajectory of a lucky slam. The latter usually happens by pure (un)luck, because its area is much smaller than that of the explosion. Being the victim of such a mid-air slam can be really annoying - it comes out from nowhere and there's not much you can do to avoid it. On the other hand, doing this with an opponent feels really satisfying!


Ouch.

While airtime is the safest, the most dangerous part of the arena is the gate. Not without reason. Slamming opponents there can yield in a high reward and so players like to keep that area under pressure when the gate is open. Be extra careful when you're goint to score in and move as fast as possible. The less time spent there the lower the risk. Best to wait till the blink's cooldown is over and you have at least 2-3 slam charges, so you have multiple options to defend yourself if attacked there. You could also wait till your enemies score in - if you go during the few seconds they are in the tube, you're quite safe, they can't do anything until they roll out from there. However, they can (and probably will) slam right as they can - so be quick and use your chance!


Dashing into the gate to escape the danger with better chances

Say pal, nice points you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to them...

Now it's time to talk about you slamming others. The basics are easy, really: just aim and slam! However, this alone doesn't guarantee the success, as your target will most likely try to avoid getting slammed. To make their job harder, try to predict where they'll be in the time you would finish your slam and aim there. If you see someone capturing the same bumpers over and over, take andvantage of it and surprise them next time they go there.


Aiming at the place where the enemy pinball is moving to

You can also expect your target to blink, so prepare with a second slam if they do so. Can't hurt to try it. Or can it?
In any case, I do recommend having many charges before you get into action, not only you might need multiple slams to successfully eliminate your target but also you could need one or two to escape if the situation gets hot.

There is a leaderboard in the left upper corner, it shows the players with the three highes points in the arena. Check it regularly to have some overview on which team has more (to-be-scored-in) points and form your strategies accordingly. You might want to put some pressure on the richest enemy - those points would be much better scored in by your team, right? ;)

Apart from the normal view there is a targeting view, which keeps your camera on one enemy and highlights them, letting you focus on them. It can be useful if you want to slam one specific enemy. You can switch between the view modes with R and change target with F by default on keyboard.


Targeting view

What happens if two players slam at each other?
When two players' slam trajectories meet, there are two possible outcomes: they either clash or one counters the other's slam.
If you clash with someone, neither your nor their slam will be finished; instead, you collide in the air for a second, then get pushed away from each other. This happens when the two slams are in a draw. Fun fact: a clash increases the combo, so it's good for those who don't want to lose it. Also note that you are still vulnerable in that phase and while unlikely, not impossible to get slammed by a third player.
If your slam would actually eliminate someone who is also slamming, then you counter their slam, stealing 5% of their points. You will finish your slam as usual, eliminate other opponents in the area and capture bumpers. Their slam will be lost and their movement broken; but they don't get eliminated. The same works vice versa when someone would slam you while you're slamming, you get interrupted and lose a few points. Note that countering or getting interrupted does not increase the combo.
Another important note here is that you can not get eliminated by a slam attack that interrupted yours.

Clashing while being targeted by another enemy too. Rip.

Surviving a slam that interrupted me

If you want to play more aggressively, or really need more points because the enemy team is about to win, it is a good idea to eliminate them right before they get into the gate. If that succeeds, not only they won't be able to secure their points, but you'll get a lot at once, which you can quickly score in. For your team of course! Just make sure that you're the one standing last. This tactic is the most useful if you don't carry too many points - low risk, high reward! However, consider it twice if you have a lot of points on you - the risk might not worth it.

The shock is a secondary (cooldown) ability that can replace the blink. Its main purpose is to hinder enemies and stun them for an easy (or at least easier) slam. It's easy to recognise a shocked bumper: it gets an electrified appearance and you can hear its sound when nearby. Those shocked by the enemy team also have the ability's icon above them.



The shock has a 15 seconds cooldown. Important difference to the blink is that this cooldown starts again if you get eliminated - even if it was ready! Meaning you'll have to wait 15 second after launching in every case before you can use it.
Each time an opponent gets electrified by hitting a bumper that you shocked, you get a notification so you can react immediately, along with 100 bonus points. If you're going for an elimination, it is recommended to stay somewhat near to your bumpers, so you'll have enough time to aim on the player and slam them. If they are slow and you're fast enough, you might even do a second slam before they can escape if the first one missed, tho the time is not always enough for that, especially if you have a long way to get there. So remember which bumpers you shocked and stay alert for trapped enemies!


Once they're shocked, if you aim well, your opponent has no chance to escape.

When choosing an area to shock, consider how many enemies are around, are the bumpers frequently visited or hard to avoid? Choosing some in the middle of the arena is usually a better idea than some abandoned ones at the edge - it's likely that more enemies will go near them and possibly get trapped. It's even better if you shock a group of bumpers with an opponent bouncing between them - you might get them off-guard or they could get bumped straight into your shock! Just make sure to be in a hard-to-slam position or at least not chased; the shocking animation stuns you for a second and while it's not too long, it leaves you vulnerable and a prepared opponent could use this chance to slam you.
You can also shock bumpers without the intention of slamming anyone. This can be a viable option if you would like to focus on somewhere else or just simply don't want to guard those few bumpers that long. A shocked bumper is way less likely to be captured by an enemy - hitting it is risky, so they'll think twice before getting near to it. Electrifying some bumpers with high value or at key positions can restrict your opponents' movement options greatly, especially if there are multiple shockers on your team who are coordinating their actions. Trapped pinballs also likely to lose their combo, so players going for a high multiplier will be even more cautious.
Another advantage of shocked bumpers for your area control is that they cannot be captured by blinking (so enemies can rely only on slam for that). Furthermore, if a player would try to do that, their blink will be cancelled immediately as they would reach the shocked bumper, meaning their ability won't hit any further ones (not even those that are not electrified).


Most bumpers in the middle shocked by the enemy team

Additionally, you can use shock to just capture some bumpers that are hard to reach or out of the way. Or to save your combo if you can't reach a bumper in time. In the latter case it might be even more efficient than blink, as shocking immediately updates your combo, while a blink needs a little time to reach the first bumper. Anyways, I think it's usually a waste to use the shock for this purpose, especially with its long cooldown - but in certain situations it can come handy.
Fun fact: shocking someone increases your combo too, just like hitting a bumper.

You should note that there is a way to counter the shock: if you capture bumpers shocked by an enemy with the aoe of your slam, the bumpers will lose their electrified state. So if you see some in good slam range, use the opportunity and make the arena safer for your team! But make sure to aim well, because if your slam hits one of those bumpers before it would explode, you get electrified instead and your slam gets lost - not what you'd like to happen, right?


"Disarming" some bumpers shocked by an enemy

In this section I'll explain the most important movement abilities and techniques that let you control your pinball on high level and capture bumpers quickly or ones that you cannot reach easily.
If you wonder why I left this section for so late, despite movement being the most important part of Kabounce, the reason is simply that its basics are trivial. You roll, steer and jump. Then there's spinning, which is a core element of the game, but the mechanics after that are mostly for players who are already familiar with the basics and want to know even more.
So if you're new to Kabounce, I highly recommend reading the part about spinning in the next section, the rest might be less important for you yet, in my opinion.
Also, just in case you haven't done it, it's really useful to do the trainings, both the basic and advanced ones, to learn how to use the different movement techniques. Additionally, doing the challenges is a great training (and a lot of fun), I can really recommend them!

To master movement techniques and control over your pinball, you'll need to learn not only the abilites of your pinball but also the physics of Kabounce. The latter is mostly about hitting bumpers and other actions/reactions between your ball and the environment. In general, bumpers will bounce you back, giving you a small speed boost. The direction depends on the angle from which you hit the bumper. This lets you bounce in a group of bumpers quickly, significantly increasing your combo and charging slams. The best and easiest way to capture a cluster is getting inside and hitting an inner bumper or the inner side of one. You can get into by either rolling through a gap between bumpers, jumping of slamming in. This will let you capture way more than by hitting single bumpers.



The other most important thing is about hoops and airtime. Unlike bumpers, you can't hit these (technically), but go through them. By doing so they amplify your speed in the direction you are moving - even vertically! This means that if you jump right before a hoop, you'll get significantly higher. Use this to gain a nice height advantage to capture hard-to-reach bumpers or to prepare an assault on enemies.
The same physics apply to gates too and any other "bumpers" that have no actual hitbox.
You can find some boosters on most maps, these speed you up when you roll over them (as their name also suggests). Combining those with hoops' boost can give you a pretty nice push high in the air, making them a perfect place to start your airtime.


With a well timed jump this booster and hoop will launch the pinball really high.

Airtime
I already mentioned that being in the air is in general much safer than on the ground. If you carry a lot of points but there's still some time till the gate opens, or the enemy team tries to slam you a lot, it can be useful to stay high for a bit. By hopping from platform to platform you can remain in the air as long as you wish. Using the spin and well timed jumps you can get to bumpers and hoops that are far or even high above you. If that weren't enough, you can also use blink or slam to reach even further - tho the latter most likely brings you back to the surface, so plan accordingly.
In my opinion, to learn all these techniques and get better control over your pinball, the best training is just to play the game! ;) Alternatively, you can use freeplay mode on each map to experiment with and practice new movements (more about custom matches and freeplay in the "Other useful facts" section).


Capturing bumpers and hoops in the air

Spinning
Spin is a great ability, the most important movement method in Kabounce, making it a really fast-paced game. With it you can move across the map really quick in a controlled way. Jump and spin to achieve high speed! Not only you'll be a lot harder target if you're faster, but you'll be able to collect more points and less likely to lose your combo. Spinning while jumping also lets you change directions each time you hit the ground, as you can set the direction of your spin. The same goes if you hit a wall; with a well directed spin you can "climb" up on it! Furthermore, if you hit a bumper, the speed boost will be even stronger! With that you can jump even further and higher in the air. With some practice you'll turn the spin into the greatest movement tool!
A lesser known fact is that you can "double spin". If you hold the spin button (shift on keyboard by default) long enough, the pinball will start spinning faster, increasing the boost you get when hitting the surface (or a bumper) even more. You usually need to double jump for it if you were on the ground, but falling from high places works too. There are both visual and audio differences when you reach this state. The disadvantage of the double spin is that you can change its direction slower and you cannot steer your pinball in the air (instead, it'll follow its origial arc), leaving less room for error or correction.


Visual difference between the simple (left) and double spin (right)

Dashing
Dash is like "taking a step aside", it'll immediately give you a push in the direction you choose, then restores your previous momentum. Dash has a small, 2 seconds internal cooldown. However, if you hit a bumper/booster with it or fly through hoop, the cooldown is immediately reset and you'll keep the momentum you gained from it. The same happens if you blink or shock during the dash, so combining these abilites can give you a huge freedom over your movement! This reset also means that you can use it to capture hoops or bumpers quickly even if other abilities aren't charged and you can rely only on this alone. You can also use it to get to bumpers that you would miss otherways. As a result, it's a great way to save your combo in a tight situation. Or if you slowed down for some reason, you can use it to give your pinball a push; and if you go through a hoop or hit a bumper with it, you'll even keep that speed! While it definitely requires some time and practice to master it, it's really worth to learn and use the dash.

There's two ways you can set the direction of your dashing: either where the camera is looking, or manually with the movement buttons (WASD on keyboard). You can change it in the gameplay settings. I recommend trying both of them; the first can be quicker to execute, but it can be complicated if you would need to turn the camera for it; the latter however lets you dash to the side or backwards fast and reliably. It is bound to the E button by default, but earlier it was the left ctrl and in my opinion that's better, because that doesn't require the other fingers to release the WASD buttons, leaving more room for movement. But that's just my personal taste; also I don't know how its keybind works on consoles.


Dashing to a bumper I missed

Poweslide and slingshot
Note: here I explain the uses of these abilities, but if you need to know how to execute them exactly, please do the in-game tutorial, as that explains it a lot better than I could with only text and a few pictures.
While these are not that important techniques as the previous ones, they can come very handy in some cases.
Powerslide is a drift with which you can change your movement direction quickly while reserving most of your speed. It's like doing a sharp turn. Using it might not make you as fast as the jump/spin combo, but you start turning immediately and don't have to wait till hitting the ground. It is useful to get to bumpers on the ground in the exact angle you want. Best use it when you already have a high speed but the space is limited or you want to change your movement immediately.


Doing a sharp turn with powerslide

Slingshot is practically a jump while powersliding, using your previous momentum for a much quicker and/or higher jump than usual. It is a bit more chaotic and difficult to handle, but just as useful in certain situations. With it you can shoot out with a huge speed, great for quickly escaping danger or getting close to bumpers. A vertical slingshot even lets you to jump up high from the ground, tho I personally don't use it that often in matches, as it takes a bit long to execute and it not only puts you at risk but also can make you lose your combo if you miss the bumper you aimed at.


Using slingshot to return to the bumpers

This section is about some general techniques and tricks to help you accumulate as many points as possible while not focusing on eliminating other players. It's aimed more at players with some experience, because the better you can control your pinball the faster you can get points, move across the arena and react in a sudden situations.

Long story short: keep your combo, don't die and capture as many bumpers as you can.



The best and most effective way to get more points is your combo, or more precisely, your multiplier, which increases with that. A 15 combo already gives you a nice, 1.5x multiplier (50% more points from every bumper), at 50 combo it'll be 2.0x, giving you double points. This is the maximum multiplier, it won't increase further, no matter how high combo you accumulate.
The difficult part is to keep it - you need to hit a bumper or similar in approximately 3 seconds to update it and to not lose it. Depending on how much you want to focus on the combo, you should plan in advance which bumpers will you hit next, which clusters you'll go to and so on. Also be prepared to use your plan B, you can easily lose combo if someone attacks you or you just miss a bumper, so leave some room for a mistake. In an emergency blinking is usually the best option, as you'll almost immediately hit a bumper with it, but you need to be in range (you can't blink without some bumpers nearby!) and it must not be on cooldown. Second best is to use slam; it's not that quick but it still can bring you to a bumper in time, although you also need to aim it. Alternatively (and in some cases it's the best) you can dash, especially if you simply missed a bumper.
I'd also recommend to avoid frequently visited areas, the less often you get close to enemies the less likely they'll decide to attack you (of course unless you're the player shown on leaderboard with the most amount of points). Jumping on platforms above the ground is especially adviceable, they are usually safe and on most maps there are many hoops or other valuable bumper-platforms in the air to be captured.

Note that theoretically you could keep and increase your combo during the whole game, maximising the number of bumpers you can capture and the points you get from them. But as it's lost when you're in the gate, this strategy means you can't score in your points during the match... which is a very, very risky strategy. For most players and most cases, I do not recommend to do this, as it's high risk for a low reward, especially if there are some good players at the enemy team who'll start hunting after you. Even bots put a lot harder pressure on you once you get around 3000-4000 points.


Putting this picture right after the "Score your points" warning is surely a good idea.
Anyways, if you're good and lucky enough, you can accumulate 300-400 combos with a ton of points.

Point sources
There are some other sources to get points besides bumpers. Here's a full list of ways you can collect points during the match:

• Bumpers. They give 10-100 points upon capture and 1-10 otherways, which is then increased by your multiplier.
  
• First capture: you get 20 bonus points for each bumper hit that was uncaptured (white) before.
  
• Slamming opponents. Upon a successfull elimination you get 35% of their points and 250 bonus points (300 if it's a revenge kill. Sweet, sweet revenge, right?).
  
• High combo. You get an increasing amount of bonus for reaching a high combo: 10 points for 20 ("good") combo, 50 for 50 ("great") combo, 100 for 100 ("awesome"), 250 for 150 ("amazing") combo and finally 500 bonus points for 200 ("ridiculous") combo. There's no more bonus for getting any higher.
  
• Countering an opponent's slam. It gives you 50 bonus plus steals 5% of their points.
  
• Clash: 100 bonus points.
  
• Shocking someone: 100 bonus points, even if they don't get eliminated.
  
• Assist: An additional 100 points if a teammate eliminates an opponent you shocked.

Obviously, the most points are from bumpers and combat, but there are some nice other ways as well to get some extra to it. Also note that the 250 elimination bonus is independent from the opponent's points - you get it even if they carried nothing! It means that four eliminations give you 1000 points bonus apart from what you can steal. Not bad, right?

Here I'll write about some miscellaneous things that aren't too important, but good to know and who knows, might come handy for you. Here you can find info about the actual gameplay and some general stuff.

Experience and leveling up
For each match you play you get some experience points to level up. You won't need much xp for the first few levels, but this amount will increase each time until it caps at 60k xp. From that on, in my experience, it takes around 8-10 matches (roughly an hour) to get to the next level.
You can increase the xp you get by having higher stats in the match. Here's a list on how your xp is calculated:

• 5000 xp for a finished match, if you were there from the beginning.
  
• Team score: a bit more than 1/100 of the whole team's score (I'm not sure about the exact ratio).
  
• Own score: the points scored in, divided by 100 (example: you score 12k points, you get 120 xp)
  
• Slams: 100 xp for each elimination.
  
• Getting a highlight: 125 xp.
  
• Victory: 250 xp.

In addition, being part of a group will grant you 25% bonus to all those xp.
As you can see, the main focus is on the participation (5k xp is guaranteed... not bad, right?), the bonuses for victory and others are quite small compared to that. I personally really like that, this way even the defeated team gets a significant amount of experience for playing. But they are still high enough to instinct playing well, in a good match with a high number of eliminations and score you can get even 7k or more xp.
You can also get xp for playing custom matches, tho it's 25% lower there.
Furthermore, completing challenge maps and getting faster times also gives a nice amount. There are xp rewards for some of the achievements too.



Cosmetics
You get new items from lootballs and you can equip them in the Garage submenu. There are different types: Base pinballs (your main outfit), modification (painting of the pinball), trail, topper, blinker (glasses and such), specials and MVP-music (the latter plays when you are highlighted as the most valuable pinball). These all serve to customise your pinball and give you a unique outfit, they have no affect on the gameplay.
You'll get lootballs from leveling up, for some achievements and you can also find some in the challenge maps. Each lootball gives one random item of random rarity (ones that are found on maps have set rarity, which you can see on their colour). If you get a duplicate, it will be automatically converted into scrap, with which you can unlock new items.


You can equip your items and preview locked ones in the Garage.

Just two notes here, two facts that I saw beginners often don't know. First, there are some mods that can be equipped only on certain pinballs. Tire-type, pinballs with fur, hollow pinballs, and the beach volleyball have unique mods that don't appear when a different base pinball is selected. This is the cause when sometimes the text "new" appeares in the garage but you can't find what is that. Second, you have 6 slots to make a pinball loadout and the "active" one is the one you'll play with in the match. To use to a different outfit, you need to "select" it. (Side note: it's currently not possible to change outfits without exiting to the main menu. I hope the devs will add this feature in the future!)

Custom matches
You can play custom matches (when it comes to achievements and such, these aren't considered to be online matches) alone with bots or with your friends. This lets you to practice on certain maps and you don't have to worry about random players joining.
In addition, you can set the number of players for each team to anything between 0 and 4 or change bots' difficulty to easy, normal or hard. You can also choose to be alone against 0 enemies - in this case you'll enter the freeplay mode, with unlimited time for you to explore and learn the map.
(Note: Kabounce is available on PS4 and twitch too, and while there's cross-platform playing, you cannot invite others from other platform into a group. Yet.)



Useful settings options
Here are some of the most useful settings that many players I talked to weren't aware of.
In gameplay/server regions you can select the servers you'd like to join, these are EU, US and Asia currently. You can also set it to auto, which then might assign you to a lobby with more players but worse ping, depending on your timezone and current playercount.
Under camera behaviour you can set the smart cam on, off or manual. It might be just my taste, but the smart camera movement was really confusing, but on manual it feels really natural. You could try all the options in a custom match to see which one is the best for you.
You can also change the camera height, angle and distance - you can adjust them for a better view.

Challenges
Kabounce has special maps for singleplayer mode, the challenges. Unlike in multiplayer, you don't need to collect points, but to race against the clock on different tracks. You can try to beat times of other players which can be found on the leaderboard or just practice different abilites and movement techniques. (Note: different platforms have separate leaderboards as of now, which means PS4 and twitch players won't appear on the steam leaderboards and vice versa.)
You can get a bronze, silver, gold, purple (dev) or blue star for completing a challenge, depending on your time. The purple star is quite difficult to get, especially on more complex maps, and requires precise and well-timed use of jumps, spins and usually dashes. The player is awarded with blue star for being 1st on the global leaderboard. In some cases you'll have multiple possible routes where you need to find the one that you can do the quickest. Most of the maps also have checkpoints, you'll need to touch these to get a valid run.
All the challenges have a separate, more difficult version, called gauntlet maps. These contain lasers that destroy your pinball if you touch them, moving objects to hinder your way and sometimes less platforms for you to jump on. Gauntlet challenges have their own leaderboards and goal times for earning stars.
While there's no direct connection between the challenges and multiplayer matches, playing and practicing on one mode can make you better on the other. These parkour maps are a great way to improve your movement and plaforming skills and practice abilities.
You can also play these challenges with your friends if you join a group together with them or on split screen. In versus mode you can race against each other, in co-op you'll contol the same ball, changing player at each checkpoint.
You can find several lootballs across all the maps, collect them to get some new equippables (or more scrap from duplicates). These lootballs usually have a fixed rarity. Some of them are also time limited, meaning you'll need to be very fast to get them. It's important to note that you'll need to reach the finish line to get the lootball you collected in a run - if you die or fall down (or just simply restart), you'll need to collect it again. It doesn't matter how long you take the reach the goal, as long as you finish the challenge.
There are also three (as of July 2019) bosses hidden in some of the default maps. Find them to unlock their maps and beat them in a race to get them as new pinballs!


A default challenge map


A gauntlet challenge map. Lasers and pinballs, what could go wrong?

Quick chat
The game offers a quick chat option for communication between players. There are some predefined texts you can send like "Good game", "xy stole my points" or "BAM!". While it's not vital, it can be useful to inform your teammates about certain situations or ask for help if you don't use voice chat. You can navigate in it by going up, down, right or left, for each message you'll need to push two buttons. I recommend checking (and adjusting if you'd like) the keybinds for it.
Unfortunately, if you're playing on keyboard, there is no easy or comfortable way to use the quickchat. Since both hands are occupied, you'll need to release either the WASD buttons or the mouse to send a message, restricting your movements and leaving you more vulnerable for a short time. This is one (although not very significant) area where a controller is clearly better. However, you can still chat relatively safely while you're in the launching or scoring tube, during blinking or if you're in a hard to reach place.
Here's the list of the messages you can send. Note that you can cancel it by "going back" and that some messages change if you're viewing an enemy player, either by targeting view or because they eliminated you.

• Up, up: Thank you
  
• Up, left: Good luck, have fun everyone, or Well played xy
  
• Up, right: Good game
  
• Up, down: cancel
  
• Right, up: Wrong way
  
• Right, right: BAM!
  
• Right, down: @$%&!
  
• Right, left: cancel
  
• Left, up: Nice one!, or Nice one, xy!
  
• Left, left: Great move!
  
• Left, down: Amazing!
  
• Left, right: cancel
  
• Down, left: Don't let them score, or Don't let xy score
  
• Down, down: Score your points, or xy stole my points
  
• Down, right: Assist me!, or Help me eliminate xy
  
• Down, up: cancel

Quick chat overlay in the game

Scoreboard
You can bring up a detailed scoreboard during the match. It shows infos about players of both teams: how many points they already scored in, how many eliminations they got, how many bumpers they captured and their selected secondary ability (and the primary ability too, but there's only one such currently, so that won't tell you anything you didn't know). Players that are currently eliminated and are not in the arena are darkened out a bit. The default keybind is TAB (on keyboard) and it appeares on the bottom of your screen.
This scoreboard can provide you with useful additional information, you can see who's the best scoring player on the enemy team or who has the most eliminations, so you'll know who you need to watch out for.
However, consider carefully when to take a look at it; it can distract your attention and you might not react in time if you get attacked. So usually it's best if you bring it up when you're in a tube or high above the ground.


The scoreboard

Aiming blink and shock
Usually when you use your secondary ability, you just click and it captures/shocks a few bumpers you're looking at. However, you can also aim to determine which bumpers you want to capture/shock. You can do this by pressing, but not releasing the RMB (works similarily on consoles I believe). This will mark the targeted bumpers with small, white arrows. Move your pinball and/or camera to adjust it. Blink usually targets the neares ones in front or maybe around you, while shock seems to aim for ones that are in the direction you're looking at, but not right next to you.
If you changed your mind, you can also cancel by clicking LMB before releasing the right one, saving your ability for a future use.
This targeting is helpful if you want to go for sure to get the exact bumpers/hoops you want, but make sure you don't expose yourself to danger. Aiming at the right ones can take a bit of time, and since Kabounce is a very fast game, a lot of things can happen in that.


The white arrows mark the bumpers that will be shocked.

Dash autocorrect
A minor, but handy feature is that dash "autocorrects" to a bumper if there's one nearby. The change of the degree isn't too big, I suspect it's around 30° max, but it's enough to catch a bumper you would miss otherways. It's useful for accumulating a nice combo, as it lets you to get to a bumper without having to time your dash with millisecond accuracy.

AFK
Not unrelated to the next part, be aware that the game removes players who remain inactive for 30 seconds (with an additional 10 seconds warning). So don't do that. If you need to grab some drink, do that between matches. Also, those that leave matches often will receive an xp penalty.

Infinite loops
Fun fact: there are some places in certain maps where you can bump between bumpers forever without having to interact at all. These are often called infinite loops. Their great advantage is that they can let you build up a nice high combo with low effort. You are still vulnerable to enemy slams there, so be on guard and don't go afk if you don't want to risk your points and combo.

In this infinite loop on Iwa Garden you can get insane combos if noone disturbs you. However, as far as I know there is no guaranteed way to get into the perfect angle for it, so it depends on luck.

Theoretically, you couldn't stay in an infinite loop for longer than 40 seconds, however, there are two ways to bypass that timeout. The first is blink, but in some cases that breaks the loop. The other is quite funny: switching between targeting and normal view (by pressing R on keyboard by default). Note however, that devs said that switching view reseting the afk-timer is unintended and so it might be removed in the future.

Kabounce is a game, and as such, people should have fun playing it. We are all different, everyone has their own preferences, personality and learning speed. I don't want to force my playstyle on anyone, I don't want to tell you how you are supposed to play and noone should do so.
My goal with this guide is rather to share infos and tips to help you be better in the game, achieve your goals easier and with that to have more fun. I'd like to give advice, not instructions. Because there isn't "the good way" to play the game, only ways that are more affective and efficient regarding certain aspects.
Maybe the only thing you should do is to play the game and enjoy it. And since it's a multiplayer game, try to do so in a way that others enjoy it too. ;)

Thanks for reading my guide, I hope you found it useful! If you have a question or a remark, or I made some mistakes, feel free to write a comment!

Special thanks to Blu', who helped me by lectoring, corrected mistakes, suggested improvements and new ideas for my guide.

Good luck and have fun bouncing!

It's just a note for you and myself to know what's new.

2019
24th July: Added secondary ability aim, dash autocorrect and scoreboard to the section "Other useful in-game stuff".