diff --git a/api.php b/api.php
index 376756f..fa87a4c 100644
--- a/api.php
+++ b/api.php
@@ -39,6 +39,21 @@ if(!array_key_exists("action", $query)||gettype($query["action"])!="string") {
 $action=$query["action"];
 $action=explode(",", $action);
 
+
+//check if requested to show the help info before parsing game param
+
+if($action[0]=="help") {
+    echo "notice: use comma(',') to split args\n";
+    echo "all available commands:\n";
+    echo "    user-panel: display a interactive content for user\n";
+    echo "    team-info: show your team info as json\n";
+    echo "    challenge-list: list all challenges as json which are defined internally\n";
+    echo "    attachment-dl <cid or alias>: download attachment for challenge <cid>, or interact with it\n";
+    echo "    external-flag <cid or alias>: used for dispatching flags for external containers that cannot be changed easily\n";
+    exit;
+}
+
+
 if(!array_key_exists("game", $query)||gettype($query["game"])!="string"||strlen($query["game"])<=0) {
     gen_error_400("key \"game\" not found or is empty, or has an invalid type.");
     exit;
@@ -106,20 +121,6 @@ if($action[0]=="attachment-dl") {
 }
 
 
-//show the help info if no action matches
-
-if($action[0]=="help") {
-    echo "notice: use comma(',') to split args\n";
-    echo "all available commands:\n";
-    echo "    user-panel: display a interactive content for user\n";
-    echo "    team-info: show your team info as json\n";
-    echo "    challenge-list: list all challenges as json which are defined internally\n";
-    echo "    attachment-dl <cid>: download attachment for challenge <cid>, or interact with it\n";
-    echo "    external-flag <cid>: used for dispatching flags for external containers that cannot be changed easily\n";
-    exit;
-}
-
-
 
 gen_error_400("unknown action '".$action[0]."'. use 'help' to view help");
 exit;