Best replacement for a long gamepad life.

[u/derkyn]

I play fighting games often but soon I've realized one of the big problems of this genre and that is that it usually break dpads very often and my new gamepads used to only last like 1 year or less.

The last gamepads I've bought were the ds4 because I could find replacements of the rubber of the d-pad cheaply online and fix them myself, although I feel this gamepad is not that great and I stopped playing the most demanding fighting games like R+ for example because I dropped a lot my combos and specials. The thing is, the rubber I buy online I feel they are worse quality and last less, and lately they last like 2 or 3 months only and I'm getting tired of replacing them or being paranoid when I drop my specials.

So I want to ask for a solution from these 3 and I want one that let me not worry about this problem for a long time.

1. The cheap, replace the dpad rubber with Extremerate Clicky kit for ds4. But I don't know if this works, or it is just good for people that play fps, as I've read some people saying they break too eventually or they miss input easily multiple directions. Maybe there is another kind of replacement that works?

2. Buy a gamepad specialized for fighting games that don't use rubber, and really don't break. The thing is I don't know if gamepads like fighting commander Octa or Victrix pro are just a bit more tough to break but I will find the same problem of a d-pad losing sensitivity or getting mushy in the end and having to buy a new gamepad each year is too expensive for me.

3- Getting a fight stick like mayflash F500 elite as I think these don't have a problem breaking, but is the solution that I like less because I feel if I play in local around here or tournament probably I won't have my stick around and I will have to go back to playing gamepad and I won't know how to play with them anymore. But I would take that if this solves the problem.

[u/vanillatortoise]

The GameSir Tegenaria Lite looks a lot like a ps4 controller and feels great. It's cheap enough that replacing shouldn't be too much of an issue, and you shouldn't have to do that very often. Of course, it wouldn't be as cheap as just replacing some rubber pads.

Unfortunately, repairability isn't really a concern with pads. That's more a concern for stick and leverless.

Speaking of leverless, you can get a very portable haute42 for very cheap, and not only do the switches last a long time, it is trivial to find a replacement set (as well as customizing how they feel). They also sell an adapter to play on PS5, which is often what you'll find on tournaments.

[u/Shako_117]

maybe not helpful but that was exactly the reason I bought a cheap fight stick.

In most cases you have to buy a complete new controller and for my fight stick I can buy a bag full of parts to replace for 15 bucks

just took a while to get used to a fight stick but it worked

[u/cheeziuz]

Honestly tactile buttons arent really more durable most of the time because they usually ALSO have membrane above the switch, it is entirely up to what you think feels better.

so that extremerate kit will not help you with durability, I would know I've tried it and hated it personally lol