: Well, try to reduce the risk of dying by only doing it to clusters of ticks
: (bonus if baddies are clustered around also). The only real tip i can give
: you on not getting hurt is.. be running, and time the punch at the
: earliest possible second of impact, and immediately take off in the other
: direction afterwards.
Ah, yes, the tics in M2/oo and the lookers in M1 - pretty hard to punch without getting scorched or blasted. Well, keep in mind that there's a difference between fists-only and vidmastery. Vidmaster rules don't explicitly state that you can't use any weapons other than fists or that you even have to conserve ammo - you just have to be able to finish a level with only the ammo on hand. In other words, you are free to shoot tics with your magnum, provided you have enough bullets, and you can still be a vidmaster.
Now if you really do want to kill tics with fists only, the key is to be quick. Jump in, punch and immediately jump back. If you watch a vidmaster film of this (guess you can't do that on a PC, though), the player is almost already in the process of retreating when they throw the punch. It's a lot like fisting tanks, for that matter, but a lot safer. Each monster has a blast radius - if you can get outside the blast radius before they die, you're in the clear.