Welcome to this guide on using practice mode to improve your gameplay in Secret Ponchos, no matter your skill level.

"Wait, no matter my skill level?" you might be wondering, perhaps followed by "I can see how fighting the AI might help new players, but how does it help anybody else?" Another question you might be having might be "Why write a guide at all? Isn't practice mode pretty straight forward?"

Altough I will go into more detail in the relevant sections below, I will briefly answer these questions here. Yes I genuinely believe that practice mode can improve your gameplay in Secret Ponchos regardless of your skill level, as the AI might not be very clever, but it's dangerous enough to punish you when you make mistakes like getting too greedy or reckless. However to get the most out of the AI, limited as it is, you need to learn to use practice mode in a way that stimulates you to get more out of it. I myself will usually use practice mode in the way described below, and I am under the impression that I preform significatly worse if I skip warming up in such a way.

Now that these basics have been covered, I will turn to a brief description of what practice mode is, and what its most obvious uses are. I will also touch upon the other game modes that include AI in that section, to highlight the similarities and differences. If you already know all of that and just want to get to juicy bits of the guide, feel free to skip to the section after that, which will discuss the general rules of getting more out of Practice Mode.

Practice mode is one of three game modes that (can) involve AI in Secret Ponchos, the other two being Arcade Mode and Private Matches respectively.

Practice mode differentiates itself from the other two in several ways. The first way in which Practice Mode is unique is that you can choose whether to turn the AI on or off. The second way in which Practice Mode differentiates itself is that you can switch your outlaw pretty much on the fly. And finally practice mode is always the same gameplay wise, it is a free for all match against 3 AI opponents which will always be a Phantom Poncho, a Kid Red and a Deserter.

In case you were wondering what the other two modes consist off: Arcade Mode is a series of 1v1 duels versus the AI, with a flavour text at the end, should you win all the matches. Private matches are just what it sounds like - battles ranging from 1v1 to 3v3 as well as an 8 player free for all mode, which you can fill up with AI in addition to players you invite to join you.

It should be pretty obvious then that Practice Mode lends itself pretty well to learning characters you are unfamiliar with. You can select the outlaw quickly and then practice its moves with the AI turned off. Once you feel comfortable with the moves you can then turn the AI on and practice the moves against them.

This is all fine and dandy when you want to get familiar with an outlaw, or the game's mechanics in general, but it doesn't really aid you beyond that. Still practice mode has an additional functionality that is easily overlooked. It's a great place to have your "warming up", prior to hopping into public matches.

So with that in mind, I will dedicate the next section to giving a brief introduction to doing a warming up in practice mode, as well as discussing some general rules on how to use it.

So how do you get more out of practice mode than just familiarizing yourself with the game? The answer to this, as mentioned in the previous section, is the warming up.

The purpose of the warming up is twofold, first it lets you get into the game in an offline environment before jumping into online play, and secondly it lets you get an idea of your weaknesses and pitfalls on a given day.

"My weaknesses and pitfalls on a given day?" you may be wondering. And yes, your weaknesses and pitfalls on a given day. I don't know about you, but I know my preformance in games can vary drastically. One day I am in the zone, playing at the peak of my abilities and devestating opponents left and right, the next I may be absolute rubbish, failing to hit the broad side of a ranche at point blank range while exposing myself to the entire enemy team at the worst possible point in a match.

In order to find out how well you are playing, and what you need to watch out for, the warming up follows the following rules.

When you are in practice mode (with the AI on) you will focus on two goals:

1. Stay alive.
   
2. Get kills. - As in killing shots, not necessarily doing the most damage.

Now I think I might have just gotten half of the people who are serious about competitive play to facepalm with those rules, as telling people to pad their K/D is generally considered a horrible idea. However for a warming up in practice practice mode (and for practice mode only) there are good reasons for doing this, beyond the fact that most game modes in Secret Ponchos use kills and deaths as objectives.

By focussing on staying alive, you as a player, focus on avoiding uneccesary risks. Meanwhile kills provide you with a way to practice your accuracy, and using opertunities to their advantage, as well as providing an easy to track way of doing this.

Using oppertunities to get kills, even kill steals from the AI, can be translated into other roles during online matches, such as getting damage in, or providing crowd control by seperating players from their team, both of which are nearly impossible to track, or do, in case of crowd control, against the AI.

So how many kills should you get for each death? And what characters should you do your warming up with? This will depend on your skill level as a player, and as a result I will discuss this in the relevant sections below.

The categories of players as listed below should be considered guidelines, if you feel that you are capable of more, or that the warming up as described below is too challenging, you can always consider trying one of the other warming ups. E.g. if you're a a beginning player, but the beginner warming up below is way too easy to achieve, you could try your hand at the warming up for intermediate, or even expert players.

I advice against giving up on a challening warming up too quickly however, as you will improve a lot more if you can figure out what is going wrong with your warming up.

Who qualifies as a beginner?: Anybody who hasn't gotten a character to the Outlaw Rank yet.

So you're new to the game. You might have done the tutorial, and perhaps you have even played around a bit with the rest of the game. What should you be focussing on for your warming up? And what outlaw should you use?

Let me answer the second question first: play whatever outlaw you feel comfortable playing. If you don't really have a character you are comfortable with, Kid Red, Killer or Deserter are probably decent choices, depending on how you enjoy playing.

When first starting out, I recommend you get a feel for the game first. Try to just get a few kills against the AI, and get a feel for managing your ammo and stamina. Free for all can be hectic, but once you figure out what's going on you will also be able to do so in online matches.

Once you feel comfortable with the game, and are able to consistently get a few kills, try aiming towards getting at least three streaks of three or more kills, each, before calling your "warming up" finnished.

You'll know when you've gotten three kills as the game will announce that you've gotten a killing spree. Once you reach five kills you will get "vicious" and at ten kills you'll get an "Untouchable".

On a side note, should you have a hard time getting a feel for the game because of how hectic free for all can be, the aformentioned Arcade Mode and Private Matches could be a good way to get to learn the game in a more organized 1v1 or team environment.

Who qualifies as intermediate?: Anybody who has gotten their first character at Outlaw rank or above.

You've gotten some experience with the game, and the AI probably no longer poses much of a challenge to you at this point. So how can you use practice mode in such a situation? And what outlaw do you use for this?

At the intermediate level you should try to go for a streak of at least three Untouchables (killing sprees of ten or more enemies) or better. Keep in mind that the game does not award any spree bonusses beyond untouchable however, so if you want to know just how many you can kill before you die you'll need to count your kills manually after getting an untouchable.

Outlaw wise you should do your warming up with whatever outlaw you are planning on playing the most after your warming up. If it happens to be one you are not so good with, you get a bit of extra practice. If you happen to be playing an outlaw that night that you already know quite well you can test your skills with him a bit better.

Who qualifies as an Expert?: Anybody who has at least one drifter, and 2 additional outlaws at Outlaw level or above.

Much like with Intermediate players, the AI shouldn't pose too much of a problem for you at this point, so the main function the AI has for your warming up is to punish any greed or recklessness on your end.

During a warming up at this level you should get an Untouchable spree and at least twenty additional kills on top of that without dying. As the game doesn't track any kills beyond untouchable, you are going to have to manually keep track of any kills you do after the untouchable.

Should you lose count, or if you are ever unsure about your tally assume the last number you are certain of is the correct number to count from. It's better to get a few more kills in during your warming up than it is to call it quits early.

If you feel like continuing to see how many kills you can get before getting killed, feel free to. It can even help you figure out how long it will take for you to start slacking and become reckless.

But what outlaw should you use for this excersize then? Usually I consider gunman to be a solid choice for an expert level warming up. He's not bad by any strech of the imagination, but his lack of stuns, as well his marking attack, mean that you need to manage your stamina, ammo and accuracy well while playing him.

Any outlaws you feel you are subpar with are a great choice as well, as these will force you to pay additional attention to the game in order to prevent yourself from dying before you get your thirty kills.

That brings us to the end of this guide on how to use Practice Mode in Secret Ponchos at any skill level. I hope the methods of doing a warming up in Secret Ponchos as described in this guide are as useful to you as they are to me.

If you have any suggestions or additions I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.