Sam

Sam’s game plan revolves around his super; A good Sam player is always looking for opportunities to throw his super against a wall for A: Movement Speed, B: Instant pressure, C: Healing, D: Reload Speed, or ideally, multiple of the above. Balancing between using your knuckle busters to stay alive as long as possible, and using them to deal damage is something that every Sam has to consider. With Sam, it’s all about pressure. At the end of the day, it does not matter if you have bad endgame stats (although good ones are flexworthy), because if you won, if you know you created pressure, if you diverted attention from your teammates, and/or if you wasted enemy ammo, and that it all made the difference, then you did your part as a teammate.

Sam can very easily switch between passive and aggressive quickly. This can be used to surprise your opponent and be unpredictable with your aggression. An unexpected attack can create even more pressure than otherwise after all.

Sam is naturally a polarising brawler, meaning he’s got practically unlosable matchups, and also practically unwinnable matchups, so you have to choose your targets carefully. Even then, a surprise attack on an unsuspecting Surge is an interesting option to consider. Generally though, you want to steer clear of bad matchups. Intuition is key to playing Sam effectively.

Sam’s best game mode is, generally speaking, Gem Grab. Primarily because the gem grab maps often have layouts that favour his playstyle, where he can close the gap on the enemy gem carrier and create much needed pressure for his team. He’s also decent on a few maps in Brawl Ball and Heist. Brawl Ball because he’s fast and has high hp/burst damage, and Heist because he’s fast and can do a lot of damage to the safe over time on maps that do not favor long range brawlers. Especially in Brawl Ball, you must pick him later in the draft to avoid counters, but this applies to all maps/modes where he’s viable.

Sam has good synergy with most of the gears. Lots of builds can work.

Speed: Sam already has a means of getting a speed boost, so this gear can feel counterintuitive at times. He makes best use out of it on maps with a lot of bushes that allow him to be sneaky: Sam is one of the loudest brawlers (figuratively) in the game, so this can help him mix it up.

Health: Sam loves the health gear. A high hp brawler who’s game plan is to generate constant pressure throughout a game will always benefit from being able to regen faster and get back in. However, he does have his Hearty Recovery star power for that too, so it can feel unnecessary for some, but required for others.

Damage: Sam’s best gear. Unlike most brawlers, Sam can charge into battle at half hp quite comfortably with the aid of his star power and some common sense. He will find himself below half health a lot, and when that happens enemies gain confidence and begin to willingly close the gap to finish the job. This is where this gear can shine, gaining all that extra burst damage for an unexpected turnaround.

Vision: Sam’s worst gear by a mile. The only time you can maybe get value out of it is by hitting someone in a bush with your super at a distance. However, this is counterproductive as Sam wants to keep his knuckle busters somewhere he can pick them up safely, so throwing it out for bush scouting is generally a bad idea.

Shield: This gear is the most “average” gear on Sam. It brings his health from 10,800 to 11,700, which is rarely worth it for a gear slot; especially for a brawler like Sam, who’s rarely on full health anyway.

+1 Gadget: Depends on the matchup. If you’re facing a lot of long ranged brawlers that you’ll want to pull in with his 1st gadget, then this gear will be very useful, acting as an extra free kill. Otherwise, you might be better off going something else.

Sam, being one of the highest skill ceiling brawlers in the game, has a lot of potential for advanced manoeuvres and mechanics that can be implemented in some circumstances.

The biggest one for him is knowing the damage values of 4 things. This is very handy and will come up a lot in-game (numbers are p11); 1: His main attack (1,600 damage x2), 2: his super (2,800 damage) 3: his weak attack (when his knuckles are on the ground)(800 damage x2) and 4: a single-hit main attack (1,600 damage on the left side of the reticle). Knowing what hp values are susceptible to what combos of these 4 things is essential to maximising your burst damage. For example, any brawler with 6,000 hp or less can be killed extremely fast with a single-hit main attack, cancelled immediately into a super, into a weak attack (1,600 + 2,800 + (800x2) = 6,000). Feel free to do some maths for different hp thresholds yourself to get the best out of your arsenal.

Welp that’s the main piece of tech out of the way, now onto more niche things...

Starting with uses for his 1st gadget (other than the obvious one of pulling in a long range brawler from afar). Near walls, his super is a mini-stun of sorts. If you engage near a wall, consider throwing your super at the wall closest to them, then pull them in and dish out one of your combos you learned (based on their hp value). See "Brawler Interactions" section for more on this.

Low DPS brawlers, such as Stu or Poco, can’t ever kill a Sam if he’s spamming heals against a wall. Even if you can’t close the gap, staying alive to maintain pressure is still a valid means of playing.

Always aim (preferably with the left side of your attack) when at a slightly further distance with Sam. Auto aiming near his max distance can very easily miss.

Sam can strafe to the left while attacking to make his shots narrower, making them much easier to do full damage with beyond point blank range. Useful for staying out of range of knockback gadgets like Emz/Gene.

Sometimes you’ll need to wallpeek. Best thing to do here is super the wall you wanna peak, collect while peeking, then attack. This little method keeps you quick on your feet, and allows you to stay flexible, and able to choose to go offensively or defensively from there.

Sam has a good combo on the Heist Safe if there’s a wall nearby. Assuming full ammo, you attack thrice, on the third attack, super the nearest wall while inside the safe to let the super do damage, then attack, super, collect, attack, repeat. Mix in two attacks whenever he has 2 ammo by the time you collect the knuckle busters.

And if you’re feeling extra fancy, it is worth analysing Sam’s damage values with the damage gear in consideration (the base damage multiplied by 1.15). For example, with damage gear, a single hit main attack (1,840) cancelled immediately into a super (3,220) deals 5,060 damage; enough to kill Bea in the blink of an eye.

Sam’s gadgets can be used to cancel a Frank super if you’re quick. Supering a wall he’s near during the super animation and immediately popping the gadget cancels the attack.

And if you’re even quicker, the gadget can save you from Buzz’s stun. Precise timing of the gadget allows you to cancel his super and begin attacking him while he’s vulnerable.

Gale can use his Twister gadget to deny you your knuckle busters. Be cautious you don’t let him get within range of them.

If your knuckles are on the ground, Cordelius’s super separates you from them (they stay in the main realm while you’re stuck in the Shadow Realm).

Sam’s knuckles are invisible to opponents when they sit in a bush. The enemy team cannot see you pick them up from a bush either.

Crow’s main attack (or Byron’s star power Malaise) denies some of the healing from Sam’s star power. Steer clear from the feathered fiend.

Sam’s star power (Hearty Recovery) can heal any missing health even while he has Gus’s shield, further increasing Gus’s super’s effectiveness.

Sam isn’t exactly a brawler that finds huge synergy with many brawlers in a unique way, but I’ll name a few niche “wombo combo” synergies he can have.

Tara has synergy with Sam, primarily her super with him. If Tara uses a super, and it’s gonna pull someone in, Sam can super the central point of her super. This deals damage to any that get pulled. Not only that, when the little explosion inside Tara’s super occurs, Sam can also use his gadget to pull them BACK in, leaving the opponent vulnerable for longer, and basically confirming a kill on anybody hit by Tara’s super. Gene has similar logic, but pulls the enemy directly to you.

Despite hard countering Sam, Otis can make a valuable teammate. Otis’s super can prevent enemies from attacking, allowing Sam to quickly go in on them and ramp up the pressure even more (being an assassin and all). This can either confirm a kill on an enemy that overextends, or force them very far back as they have to run away from Sam, creating pressure and gaining map control. You can apply this logic to any brawler with stuns/slows as well.

While Sam can create loads of pressure, he can also get low on health. This is usually the part where I talk about healers (all of which have incredible Sam synergy, by the way).

I'm also gonna mention Nita. Sam and Bruce go well together, as when Sam inevitably gets low on health deep in the enemy spawn, Bruce can act as a solid meatshield to buy Sam some time to fall back, heal up, and get straight back to it. Also consider other spawners like Mr. P or Eve who serve similar purposes.