These 22 hidden game techniques will totally change the way you play

Your ranged units aren't always stutter stepping in StarCraft II or League of Legends

Moving and shooting is something we do in the FPS genre all the time - but in real-time strategy titles, ranged units seem to struggle with even the simplest multi-tasking. It's usually accepted that you'll have to either move or attack, never doing both simultaneously - that is, unless you've mastered the art of stutter stepping. This works for most every ranged unit in any RTS or MOBA, but it's extremely powerful in the hands of a StarCraft II Terran player, thanks to the great versatility of their tier one Marines.

Without going into too much detail, it essentially consists of moving, tapping H to hold position and attack whichever enemy is closest, then immediately giving another move order to cancel the remainder of the attack animation. The result: damage output coinciding with positional advantage and chasing potential, along with some hilarious-looking Marines that look like they're performing the Electric Slide with firearms. You'll need to practice this (preferably against the AI or on a custom map) to get the timing down, but once you do, your mass of Marines and Marauders will feel like a highly mobile killing machine.

You didn't maximize your drum scores in the original Rock Band

Rhythm games face something of a dilemma with expert-level players: at some point, when you've hit every available note perfectly and expended all your multiplier powers, there will be a point cap. But fanatical drummers found a way to break through this score ceiling. The first step to ultimate high scores in the original Rock Band was a technique called squeezing, likely named for the fact that it was like squeezing fresh points out of a song which was thought to have been sucked dry.

First off, you'll need to memorize the position of every note near a fill in an Expert Drums track (or just look them up online). Next, you'll have to activate your Overdrive fill by hitting the green symbol's note slightly early, then immediately play the note that would've been there had you not been about to activate your bonus. It sounds complicated, and it is, but this video may help elucidate the technique. Now try to imagine doing that for every single song, and you have a glimpse into the life of a top-level drummer circa 2008.

You never built your enemy's buildings in StarCraft: Brood War or Warcraft III

Asymmetrical RTS games, like Blizzard's Craft family, are notoriously difficult to balance. When abilities unique to a certain race get combined with units that wouldn't normally have access to them, things can spin out of control with a quickness. But you don't need to dabble in teamplay to create crazy, multi-race army compositions. All you need to do is play the Protoss in StarCraft: Brood War or the Undead in Warcraft 3, and the power of culturally diverse troops will be yours.

It all comes down to individual units: the Dark Archon in Brood War and the Banshee in Warcraft 3. Both of these casters have mind control abilities, which you'd normally use to commandeer high-powered enemy units. But try stealing the mind of a worker instead. This will let you build any of that faction's structures and associated units. Unless it's a mirror match of the same two races, then you're just showing off.