Hello!

Disclaimer: very long post.

I'm not very good, but I've got a few tips I can share. I am open to both questions and corrections, please leave either as a reply to this thread. Feel free to post more tips. The button presses given are for controller, and not M/KB.

1) Counter attacks are king. They should always be your first priority. The animation to hit an enemy is longer than the animation to counter. So if you hit instead of counter, the enemy will very likely hit you, and cancel your combo multiplier. Counter attacks will also interrupt whatever you are doing, this includes beatdowns. Free flow focus gives you more flexibility, letting you hit enemies instead of countering. Even in FFF mode, I would insist on using counters anyway, as you are not guaranteed to land a hit before countering. New game plus (or simply playing on a higher difficulty) will not show the prompt (the blue lightning bolts) for counter attacks. You can actually counter before the prompt shows.

2) Instant KOs are queen. Y+B is your most powerful tool. You can use it when you build your combo meter enough (it will turn yellow; red in Asylum IIRC). Upgrades lower the combo requirements. It one-shots every enemy except titans and bosses. It's similar to the execution in Gears of War. Your enemies (except for titans) will wait until the takedown animation is finished before attacking you. It also works on heavies (the armoured thugs). If you are going for score, save it for other problematic enemies (like medics and shock thugs) - and deal with the heavies via stun + beatdown.

3) Disarm and destroy. Disables firearms from gun crate and dropped weapons (including stun sticks). Only available in City onward. Also destroys shields.

4) Knife takedown. Another instant KO, but it takes some practice. The knife/broken bottle wielders will swipe 3x, sword wielding martial artists swipe 4x (they also swing faster). It's back + Y, back + Y, and then press and hold both on the final swing. While doing this, the group you are fighting will patiently wait for the animation to finish. This is the best way to deal with the blade wielding brutes in Knight.

5) Use the beatdown on the final thug while doing challenges. It's also a good idea to use it in the campaign for XP, but it's not as important there IMO. Your multiplier will increase rapidly.

6) Unlike the instant takedowns, enemies will try to hit you during a beatdown.

7) Arkham Knight has enemies that are electrified. Use weapons (found on the ground), REC, and quickfire batclaw to deal with the electricity. Taking out medics also helps.

8) In the Iceberg Lounge challenge map (Arkham Knight), something special will happen when you reach 1 million points.

9) While using the batmobile in Knight, there are two ways to control turns. One is by pressing X while turning (this will cause you to drift), the second way is by entering battle mode, turning, and then returning to vehicle mode. Use this method if you feel like you need to re-orient yourself. Entering/exiting battle mode takes more time than drifting, but less time than recovering from crashing/falling.

10) Your progress with Riddler trophies/riddles carries over to new game +. Asylum is the only title without NG+.

11) Combo moves cancel free flow focus. If you are doing a challenge and are going for score, it might be a good idea to remain in FFF, as the enemies become easier to deal with. This ensures you are not hit and get to keep your multiplier.

Countering is important, but you don't want to overrely on it. If you're getting surrounded, you can (assuming you're not on Hard in Asylum or NG+ in any of the others) counter whatever hits come your way, but you'll be counterattacking for the next 5 minutes. In that case, redirect over the enemies' heads until you made some distance and then start attacking again. Especially after you've gained the critical hits upgrade (which should always be your first priority since critical hits count as two hits in the combo counter, giving your more score/experience and allowing you to use specials more often), you want to be attacking as much as possible. This move is tricky, but worth it. It counts as two hits on the combo meter, instantly takes down any enemy who tries to stab you and gives you a whopping 100 multiplier in combat challenges. It's tricky to do on the ninja's though, but still works. Actually, the move you want to use at the end of a fight is an ultra stun (3 consecutive stuns) followed by a ground takedown. (you might need to do a quick dodge-jump in between to give the thug time to properly fall to the ground or the takedown might miss) Part of the score in both the normal game and challenge rooms is variation, you get bonuses for cramming as many different moves and gadgets into your combo as possible and beatdowns are very easy to sneak in since you can counter incoming enemies while in the middle of it and proceed with the beatdown afterwards. Ground takedowns, on the other hand, WILL get you hit if there's more than one unstunned enemy around you, so the end of the fight is pretty much the only safe time to pull one off. It also has a higher score multiplier than a beatdown finisher. Since you also get score for variety, you do want to use one of each of the special moves in one combo whenever possible. Same goes for gadgets, except they don't need to be part of the same combo to get you the score bonus at the end of the round. Also, the batswarm is the exception if there's lots of enemies around since it hits lots of enemies and you get points for every single enemy it stuns.

I appreciate the additional tips and corrections. I'm looking forward to trying the ultra stun finisher in the challenge maps. Thanks.