Football Bros Controls and Playbook: Every Key and Every Play Card

Football Bros uses one action key and a direction, and most first games are lost because the player does not know which of the two the game is reading. Here is the input model, then the playbook.

The keys

Arrow keys or WASD move the bro you control. Space is the action key; G, X and Ctrl do the same thing if Space scrolls your page. What Space does depends on who has the ball. Before the snap it hikes (the game prints PRESS SPACE TO HIKE! over the line). While your quarterback holds the ball it throws. While any other bro of yours has the ball it dives, which is a short burst forward that ends the play when you land, so save it for the yard you need rather than pressing it in open field. On defense the same key dives at the carrier; a missed dive leaves your bro on the ground for a second, so wait until he is a step away.

Receiver selection is the part nobody explains. If you are pushing Up, the pass goes to the receiver nearer the top of the screen; pushing Down or standing still sends it to the bottom receiver. The ball is thrown to where the receiver will be, so you do not lead him. The scatter on a throw grows with distance and shrinks with the QB's accuracy bar, which is why a short Slant is safe with any team and a Wide Fly is a gamble with a red-bar quarterback. In 2 Players Same PC the left bro is on WASD with G and the right bro on the arrows with L.

Kicks put a power bar on screen and Space stops it. Stopping below about a fifth of the bar on a kickoff is an onside kick that your linemen chase. Kicker Leg only changes kicks longer than fifty yards, so it is the last stat to worry about. Esc pauses; Enter opens chat in online rooms.

The play cards

Every snap starts with four cards. The first is your team's special play — each of the 32 pro teams has one with a joke name, like KC BBQ Chicken. The others are drawn from the book: the runs are Run Middle, Run Bottom and Run Top; the passes are Out and Up, Wishbone, RPO Bottom, RPO Top, Slant, Double Cross, Double Fly, QB Draw, Fake Run, Power Pass, Wide Fly, WR Pick and Screen Bottom. On fourth down the last card becomes Punt, or Field Goal when you are in range or under twenty seconds are left. The lines on the card are the routes, so you know where to look before the snap. Slant and Screen Bottom are quick throws that beat a blitz; Double Fly and Wide Fly need two seconds of protection and pay off with forty yards against Man Coverage; QB Draw and Fake Run punish a defense that keeps calling Prevent.

On defense you pick from Mid Zone, Press Coverage, Double Blitz, Bottom Blitz, Top Blitz, Man Coverage, Prevent and Zone Blitz. The blitz cards send the linebacker early and are the only way to sack a scrambling quarterback; Prevent gives up the short pass and stops the long one, which is what you want when you lead late.

Unlocking more plays

After games the Choose an Upgrade screen offers new plays — Max Protect, Screen N Go, I Outs, WR Stack, WR Rub — and jersey logos. The plays go into your draw; the logos change nothing on the field.