Hey hey, I've had my Azeron 10 days and I have some things to say, and some suggestions to give
First and foremost, if you're thinking of buying an Azeron Cyborg 2, you should read my entire post to decide for yourself if you want to make the time investment to use the device.
=-=I recommend you go for the Azeron Cyborg 2, and not the Compact 2 for one simple reason-- I have no reason. Do what you want at the end of the day, I just really like how lifting a finger up like half an inch lets me hit an extra button that I won't ever misclick vs having to lift my finger up and over a bunch of other buttons to hit 1 button on a tower. But, if you think the compact makes more sense, go for it. (I might end up buying a compact 2 just for funsies to support Azeron as a company tbh.)
=-=I recommend you either buy the stand from Azeron, or you buy the 3d printed alternative from Etsy. The Azeron Stand is not as customizable as the Cyborg 2, which is a huge letdown considering the price of the stand, but the one on Etsy is practically fully modular.
=-=Do yourself a favor and get the Elite Joysticks to pair with the Hall Effect joystick on the Cyborg 2. The xbox-style thumbsticks fit xbox kontrol freeks, and the domed thumbstick *can* fit a PS4/PS5 Kontrol Freek, but you're gonna have to tuck the rubber into the kontrol freek claws. I recommend putting a grippy universal slip-over, or kontrol freek on the thumbsticks.
=-=If you need replacements parts for the thumbsticks themselves, "ExtremeRate Xbox Elite V2 Thumbsticks" on Amazon are compatible. I have 2 seperate models, for Elite v1 and Elite v2, Elite V1 does *NOT* fit. The joysticks used on the Cyborg 2 Elite Thumbsticks are the Elite v2 Thumbsticks.
=-=I can not stress this enough. This is a device that you are buying for comfort. This device is expensive. I recommend you make the device in the builder, exactly how you want it. If you can afford $350ish USD + Shipping, then go forth and deck it out. Make it your own. Personalize it. This thing may be 3D printed, but it is definitely built to last. If one of the Premade ones fit your bill for exactly what you want, or only a minor change (like, you want all black, but green buttons. The premade offers too much green for you.) you can adjust this in the builder and see if the extra price is still within your budget. If not, you have to ask yourself, "Is me saving $30-$50 USD worth it just to get the premade model?" If the answer is yes, then get the premade. If the answer is "I don't know, but if I'm spending this much money I want it how I want it" consider using Klarna to finance it, and break up the payment across 2 or 3 Paychecks, and just get the one you want. I kind of regret getting the green Premade one, because the Galaxy purple in review videos looks pretty cool. I think my Compact 2 purchase will be *exactly* how I want it, then in a few months, maybe I'll buy another Cyborg 2 just to have one specifically how I want it, and I'll give my green one to my friend. Who knows.
=======Go to the Azeron Youtube Channel. Watch their guides on how to set up the Azeron. How to use the Software. Go watch other Youtube Review videos, see how they adjust it. DO NOT SUPER GLUE YOUR JOINTS TOGETHER................................................ unless you have it perfect for comfort and you haven't adjusted the joints in 6+months, then feel free to super glue the joints if you want to. But like, unless you *need* to, please don't. This is a expensive 'af device.=======
-==-The Azeron is made for comfort, 100%. The thing that puts people off, is how intimidating it looks to use. So, how do you get around that? Convince yourself that the cyborg 2 is a gimmick device for a new game, for example, say you haven't played Doom the Dark Ages yet, make using the Azeron Cyborg 2 the primary input throughout your entire playthrough of a new game. This way, you don't need to think about muscle memory. You can just focus on learning the new controls. I don't see alot of people suggesting this for some reason, but it 100% helped me get adjusted to it in about 3 days. (The game I ended up playing was Expedition 33.) Throughout the playthrough of your desired game, make micro-adjustments to your Cybrog 2 as you're playing the game. Try to get it perfect for your hand throughout your playthrough. Expect it to take 10+ hours in total of just adjusting it with little tweaks here and there over the course of 1 week. (10 hours sounds like alot, but 7 days you'll hit around 10 hours.) Please, please, please avoid MMORPG's like WoW/SWTOR or any game that has 90 skill slots on-screen, for atleast 2 weeks.
-=--=-If you play alot of MMORPG's like WoW or SWTOR, consider making your keybinds to be as close to what they are in WoW on a regular keyboard, like "1 to "=", F1 to F12, and numpad. Try to change all keybindings in-game to somewhat match your MMO games. While you should avoid actively playing an MMO as the first experience with the Cyborg 2 in my opinion, that doesn't mean you can't launch it to set up the buttons/keybinds how you want them for an MMO first. Before you commit to going this route though, read the 4th point regarding the Azeron Software and Keybinds.
-==-After you successfully learn the controls in 1 game, and after you've spent ~10 hours in total perfecting the art of angling, moving, sliding, and adjusting your Cyborg 2 throughout your first playthrough of your new game, now you want to launch an Online PVE game, like POE2 for ARPG, Destiny 2 for FPS MMORPG, or Lords of the Fallen for RPG. (These are just examples, any online PVE game that you can go at your own pace at, that you have extensive hours in, play that game.) Keep your keybindings the same from your new game as any button prompts that appear on screen will be easier for you to hit now that you're familar to them. You will still catch yourself thinking about which key to press. My recommendation is to adjust the in-game bindings to fit the Azeron, and do *NOT* adjust the bindings per game in the Azeron Software *UNLESS THE GAME DOES NOT OFFER REBINDING OF KEYS*. There is one exception to this which I'll get to later, but it is important that the first few weeks (in my opinion) that you keep the keybindings the same, and you play games with alot of different keybinds. You want every game to feel familiar, so when a letter pops up on the screen, you already built up somewhat of a muscle memory for where that letter is on the Cyborg 2.
-==-Stay in WASD mode 24/7. In many games I've tested it in many a games with the analog/360 option, it unfortunately switches between xbox prompts and keyboard prompts in many a games. There are a few games where this feature will work correctly and won't swap between button prompts like it's trying to give you a seisure, but, just avoid the headache is my advice. The default should be WASD movement on the joystick, which is 8 way direction movement. It still makes sense for alot of games, and feels very similar to regular joysticks. Just remember, using Analog/360 as an option should only be there as a "Hey cool this is available in this game" sort of thing. There's no issues turning it on once per game just to see if it works, but don't expect it to be your default.
First and foremost, if you're thinking of buying an Azeron Cyborg 2, you should read my entire post to decide for yourself if you want to make the time investment to use the device.
=-=I recommend you go for the Azeron Cyborg 2, and not the Compact 2 for one simple reason-- I have no reason. Do what you want at the end of the day, I just really like how lifting a finger up like half an inch lets me hit an extra button that I won't ever misclick vs having to lift my finger up and over a bunch of other buttons to hit 1 button on a tower. But, if you think the compact makes more sense, go for it. (I might end up buying a compact 2 just for funsies to support Azeron as a company tbh.)
=-=I recommend you either buy the stand from Azeron, or you buy the 3d printed alternative from Etsy. The Azeron Stand is not as customizable as the Cyborg 2, which is a huge letdown considering the price of the stand, but the one on Etsy is practically fully modular.
=-=Do yourself a favor and get the Elite Joysticks to pair with the Hall Effect joystick on the Cyborg 2. The xbox-style thumbsticks fit xbox kontrol freeks, and the domed thumbstick *can* fit a PS4/PS5 Kontrol Freek, but you're gonna have to tuck the rubber into the kontrol freek claws. I recommend putting a grippy universal slip-over, or kontrol freek on the thumbsticks.
=-=If you need replacements parts for the thumbsticks themselves, "ExtremeRate Xbox Elite V2 Thumbsticks" on Amazon are compatible. I have 2 seperate models, for Elite v1 and Elite v2, Elite V1 does *NOT* fit. The joysticks used on the Cyborg 2 Elite Thumbsticks are the Elite v2 Thumbsticks.
=-=I can not stress this enough. This is a device that you are buying for comfort. This device is expensive. I recommend you make the device in the builder, exactly how you want it. If you can afford $350ish USD + Shipping, then go forth and deck it out. Make it your own. Personalize it. This thing may be 3D printed, but it is definitely built to last. If one of the Premade ones fit your bill for exactly what you want, or only a minor change (like, you want all black, but green buttons. The premade offers too much green for you.) you can adjust this in the builder and see if the extra price is still within your budget. If not, you have to ask yourself, "Is me saving $30-$50 USD worth it just to get the premade model?" If the answer is yes, then get the premade. If the answer is "I don't know, but if I'm spending this much money I want it how I want it" consider using Klarna to finance it, and break up the payment across 2 or 3 Paychecks, and just get the one you want. I kind of regret getting the green Premade one, because the Galaxy purple in review videos looks pretty cool. I think my Compact 2 purchase will be *exactly* how I want it, then in a few months, maybe I'll buy another Cyborg 2 just to have one specifically how I want it, and I'll give my green one to my friend. Who knows.
=======Go to the Azeron Youtube Channel. Watch their guides on how to set up the Azeron. How to use the Software. Go watch other Youtube Review videos, see how they adjust it. DO NOT SUPER GLUE YOUR JOINTS TOGETHER................................................ unless you have it perfect for comfort and you haven't adjusted the joints in 6+months, then feel free to super glue the joints if you want to. But like, unless you *need* to, please don't. This is a expensive 'af device.=======
-==-The Azeron is made for comfort, 100%. The thing that puts people off, is how intimidating it looks to use. So, how do you get around that? Convince yourself that the cyborg 2 is a gimmick device for a new game, for example, say you haven't played Doom the Dark Ages yet, make using the Azeron Cyborg 2 the primary input throughout your entire playthrough of a new game. This way, you don't need to think about muscle memory. You can just focus on learning the new controls. I don't see alot of people suggesting this for some reason, but it 100% helped me get adjusted to it in about 3 days. (The game I ended up playing was Expedition 33.) Throughout the playthrough of your desired game, make micro-adjustments to your Cybrog 2 as you're playing the game. Try to get it perfect for your hand throughout your playthrough. Expect it to take 10+ hours in total of just adjusting it with little tweaks here and there over the course of 1 week. (10 hours sounds like alot, but 7 days you'll hit around 10 hours.) Please, please, please avoid MMORPG's like WoW/SWTOR or any game that has 90 skill slots on-screen, for atleast 2 weeks.
-=--=-If you play alot of MMORPG's like WoW or SWTOR, consider making your keybinds to be as close to what they are in WoW on a regular keyboard, like "1 to "=", F1 to F12, and numpad. Try to change all keybindings in-game to somewhat match your MMO games. While you should avoid actively playing an MMO as the first experience with the Cyborg 2 in my opinion, that doesn't mean you can't launch it to set up the buttons/keybinds how you want them for an MMO first. Before you commit to going this route though, read the 4th point regarding the Azeron Software and Keybinds.
-==-After you successfully learn the controls in 1 game, and after you've spent ~10 hours in total perfecting the art of angling, moving, sliding, and adjusting your Cyborg 2 throughout your first playthrough of your new game, now you want to launch an Online PVE game, like POE2 for ARPG, Destiny 2 for FPS MMORPG, or Lords of the Fallen for RPG. (These are just examples, any online PVE game that you can go at your own pace at, that you have extensive hours in, play that game.) Keep your keybindings the same from your new game as any button prompts that appear on screen will be easier for you to hit now that you're familar to them. You will still catch yourself thinking about which key to press. My recommendation is to adjust the in-game bindings to fit the Azeron, and do *NOT* adjust the bindings per game in the Azeron Software *UNLESS THE GAME DOES NOT OFFER REBINDING OF KEYS*. There is one exception to this which I'll get to later, but it is important that the first few weeks (in my opinion) that you keep the keybindings the same, and you play games with alot of different keybinds. You want every game to feel familiar, so when a letter pops up on the screen, you already built up somewhat of a muscle memory for where that letter is on the Cyborg 2.
-==-Stay in WASD mode 24/7. In many games I've tested it in many a games with the analog/360 option, it unfortunately switches between xbox prompts and keyboard prompts in many a games. There are a few games where this feature will work correctly and won't swap between button prompts like it's trying to give you a seisure, but, just avoid the headache is my advice. The default should be WASD movement on the joystick, which is 8 way direction movement. It still makes sense for alot of games, and feels very similar to regular joysticks. Just remember, using Analog/360 as an option should only be there as a "Hey cool this is available in this game" sort of thing. There's no issues turning it on once per game just to see if it works, but don't expect it to be your default.
