There comes a time in every game when small mistakes don’t always blur the line between have and have-not. I’ve been gaming for a long time, and I can tell you from experience that there are dangers we gamers tend to ignore.

Rushing is one of those basic things we gamers should never do, and we know this. Finishing a game is just as important as getting to the endgame or the final level.

However, sometimes we gamers get so convinced that we can take the endgame because we’re so O.P. (overpowered) that speeding through to the end will have no consequences—or so we think.

There have even been times when I knew I was so close to the end that I didn’t want to focus so much on finishing the game at a set pace.

You can start thinking that because the end is right there, you can just run to the finish line and it won’t make a difference. This isn’t a habit I’ve developed, but I have gotten to points where reaching the end meant staying up all night to finish, even if that meant rushing through that final level.

Yeah, there’s excitement about starting that next game, and there’s excitement about reaching the end of the game you’re currently playing so you can finally move on. However, this can change how you would normally play because the enjoyment, seemingly, has run its course.

At that point, the game just needs to end, and many gamers can start thinking that way simply because they’re so close. Rushing can become dangerous when we start making mistakes we wouldn’t make in a thousand years or fail to master abilities that require us to take our time.

I come before you to warn you of the dangers of rushing the endgame and why you definitely shouldn’t do it. And I’ll tell you something: there’s far more benefit to not rushing than there ever will be to rushing.

Knowing the Boss Doesn’t Mean You’re Ready for the It –

Seeing as how it’s been more than a couple of years since I played the game, I got to a point where I was playing through Metroid Dread, and even though I had my notes, I reached Raven Beak and had a lot of trouble trying to take him down—i.e., I tried to rush the battle with him.

I was sloppy and made it easy for him to kill me continuously. I was trying to get to the end of the battle and rushing based on what I “thought” I remembered from eons ago. It did me no good, if I’m being honest, and I learned quickly that patience is definitely a virtue.

One thing about a boss is that if you’re in the battle long enough, you’ll start to see certain cues and timings to the attacks they use. For example, after Raven Beak does his aerial stomp slam, nine times out of ten, he’ll fire his Hyper Beam. So after you missile his opening, get away or find a way to not be near him when he fires his Hyper Beam because the damage dealt can be moderate, teetering on significant.

Once I stopped rushing and learned when to counter Raven Beak’s attacks, I felt a sense of oneness returning that wasn’t there when I thought I could rush through the battle. Knowing a boss’s attack pattern doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to win the fight. Clearly, I was wrong to think otherwise.

If you really want to show the boss what’s up, don’t rush or try to rush through the battle because the consequences are far more reaching than one might think—like spending an hour or longer trying to kill a boss that should’ve been dead with ease. With Raven Beak, you can get him to Phase 2 easily. All you have to do is block, evade, and counter. That’s it.

Naturally, I complicated this.

You Make More Mistakes Rushing –

Decision-making, along with logic, tends to go out the window once you start believing that the game should’ve been beaten on your timetable instead of taking the time to do it right. From experience, it’s one of those things I did when I fought Raven Beak. I figured that I had retained enough knowledge from my battle with him thousands of years ago—figuratively speaking—that I didn’t need to put in the extra time to relearn certain cues for attacks that were avoidable. This can easily blur the lines between patience and knowledge.

Sometimes—or rather, most times, depending on where you are in a game—it’s easy to recover from one failed attempt, but becoming more aggressive doesn’t exactly make subsequent attempts successful. Impatience sets in, and then you go from, “Why is this muther so hard?” to, “I’m just going to keep running into the wall until I finally break through and the boss finally gives up!”

More times than not, you break before the boss does because rushing makes recovery difficult.

An obsession with finishing the game and/or rushing the endgame can cause you to throw out everything you learned. You feel like you don’t need everything, especially when you think you can rush through and the boss will do nothing to surprise you. This gives you that false sense of security that rushing the battle to its conclusion won’t have a negative impact on you or the game in general.

I can also tell you from experience that overconfidence can and will blur the line between what you should and shouldn’t do during the battle. I remember when I was trying to get Raven Beak to the final part of the game where Samus gets the Hyper Beam. I thought I was home free.

Let’s just say I was not.

Endgame is Just That, Not A Chore List –

Simply put, seeing the finish line can often open the door to optional exploration, upgrades, and even preparation. But it is seeing that finish line that can also make everything potentially extra feel completely pointless. All of that exploration is something that should’ve been done on the way to the endgame, or at the very least along the path toward it.

The problem is that justifying a backtrack for one thing can easily turn into three things. That Power Bomb addition might be good, but getting that Missile Tank isn’t. It’ll give you two additional missiles, but in the grand scheme of things, you’re wasting time. When you’re preparing for the endgame, you’re revisiting certain areas to get things that are necessary so you can survive what’s ahead. Chasing 100% and grinding, on the other hand, can become strictly going back through levels to fill in parts of the map or gaining some levels just so you can feel ready—which you never truly are.

When you’re thinking about getting to that next game because you feel like you’ve had enough of the current one, it’s no longer simply a matter of rushing. It’s now become something so apparent that rushing to the end is the only thing you think about, and you’re prepared to do so at any cost.

And that is exactly why the game you’re playing still deserves your full attention, because that next game isn’t going anywhere.

Think about this: What if you get to that next game and do the same thing?

What then?

Where is the line drawn?

And if there is one, why aren’t you drawing it?

Conclusion –

To wrap up, I can definitely say that Raven Beak taught me what it means to exercise timed precision during battle instead of skipping my homework, because the consequences can be humbling. Sometimes, knowledge from experience can be enough to show you that no matter how many times you’ve beaten a boss, don’t rush! Familiarity plays its part, but distance from a game can turn that familiar ground into forbidden territory.

Keep in mind that slowing down will help you remember what to counter and when. In terms of Raven Beak, you can counter his attack combo by using the Screw Attack and Flash Shift to get away from him. Jump once, then Flash Shift; don’t jump twice. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have the battle licked, only to end up taking longer to kill a boss than you otherwise would’ve had you not rushed.

The main thing to remember is that beating a game is not a sprint.

Slow and steady wins every time.

Continue the Adventure –

Want to stay focused when a game starts testing your patience? Check out my Benable list for gaming essentials that can help you stay comfortable, organized, and prepared during difficult bosses, long gaming sessions, and those final stretches before the credits roll.

https://benable.com/RoddyMcG/gaming-essentials-that-help-me-stay-focused-during-tough-games