There is no tab-targeting. Your mouse movement decides the direction of your swing, and your timing decides whether you parry. Sloppy fighters lose.
Swing direction
| Mouse | Swing |
|---|---|
| Up / scroll down | Overhead strike |
| Down / scroll up | Thrust |
| Left or right | Side slash |
- You can hold a swing for up to 4 seconds, at 3 stamina per second.
- Press RMB to feint.
- A shield bash with MMB requires Blade 60.
- Without a combat stance (R) you take ×1.5 damage.
Timing
| Phase | Duration |
|---|---|
| Wind-up | 0.42 s × modifiers (two-handed ×1.2) |
| Active | 0.12–0.34 s |
| Recovery | 0.40 s |
A swing costs 6 stamina + 3 per kilo of weapon weight. Damage scales with quality (×0.8–1.2) and skill (×(0.8 + 0.004 × skill)).
Body zones
| Zone | Damage |
|---|---|
| Head | ×1.25 |
| Torso | ×1.0 |
| Arms | ×0.45 |
| Legs | ×0.5 and slows |
Wounds include bleeding, broken bones and stuns.
Parrying
The parry window is 0.55 seconds, and the direction has to be right.
| Parry | Window | Damage taken |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect | Within 0.2 s | 0% |
| Good | Within 0.4 s | 15% |
| Weak | Rest of the window | 40% |
Shields
- A block lets 12% of the hit through and costs 55% of the raw hit in stamina.
- A shield you are carrying gives a passive 20%.
- If your stamina runs out, your guard breaks: you take 80% and stagger.
Blunt and sharp
- Blunt damage only hits Soft HP.
- Sharp damage hits Soft HP, plus 60% of that as Hard HP.
- Soft HP at zero: knocked out for 25 seconds. Hard HP at zero: death.
- A coup de grâce (a sharp strike on an unconscious body) deals ×2 to Hard HP.
Combos and special attacks
There are 11 combos: Crown Breaker, Door Knocker, Whirlwind, Ribbons, Found the Gap, Pinned, Avalanche, Cleaver, Headsman, Bonecrack and Hamstring. A combo ends in a Power Strike (×1.5).
On top of that there are 17 special attacks unlocked through skills, such as Counter punch, Riposte, Shield riposte and Half-sword thrust.
Not built yet: mounted combat, Drill formations, ranged abilities, taunts and the Trickmove.