You know what you want. This guide will teach you all I know of melee combat in this game and the main principles so you can win fights. There's a TLDR at the end of each section that summarizes its main points. Unarmed combat follows the same principles but won't be talked about. This guide assumes you know what each stat does and that each weapon has their own stat requirements, and that armor and weapons degrade and break in combat.

This section covers the basics of attacking and defending. This is still worth reading even if you've done the prologue tutorial because it doesn't explain it very well.


The combat star has four directions to attack from. Overhead strikes from UP, stabs from DOWN, and slashes from either the LEFT or RIGHT. The direction you're attacking from is indicated by a red arrow. Available directions you can attack from are in gold, unavailable directions are greyed or dimmed out if they appear.


Some weapons don't have all four directions like heavy weapons(axes + maces) and polearms. Heavy weapons don't have a Down attack direction, while polearms don't have an Up attack direction.


Press TAB to enable hard lock-on(indicated by the circle inside the combat star) if you don't want to lose focus on an enemy due to mouse movements which is essential for combos. You'll have to use the mousewheel to change opponents and press(or hold) SHIFT to remove the hard lock-on to freely look around.


(The stamina bar is the long thin bar on the bottom. The amount of stamina you currently have is in gold(highlighted in the picture), the gray part is the amount of stamina you can refill. Your health is the red bar, your enemy's health is the purple bar to the left of it.)
To attack you use the Left Mouse Button. You need stamina to attack and each attack you make uses stamina. Once you've made an attack your stamina regeneration is temporarily halted and you'll have to wait a little bit before it starts to regenerate so avoid spamming attacks.

To defend you use the Right Mouse Button. You don't have to change your direction when blocking as it's automatic, but enemies can still hit you if you hold it down, usually from a slash into a stab. If you get hit and you were holding down block you'll have to release it and press it again to defend. When you're blocking your stamina regeneration is slower and if you block an attack you'll lose stamina. Your stamina regeneration is halted once you block an attack and you'll have to wait a little bit before it starts to regenerate. Blocks happen whenever you hold block and a parry isn't available.

Parrying, or as it's known in the game as a Perfect Block, is only available when a green shield appears and done by pressing defend at that moment. If successful, the shield glows and you don't lose any stamina or stop stamina regen and will restart stamina regen if it was stopped. You can follow up a parry with a riposte by attacking immediately after(pressing LMB).


If you parry too early, you'll see a red broken shield and you'll get hit. If you defend too late, you'll get hit. You'll only see this if you fail to parry an enemy's riposte. A failed block doesn't give you any such feedback. Breathe and be patient when fighting and only parry when you see a green shield appear. An enemy's chance to parry is higher on the side they're holding their weapon, so attack from a side that their weapon isn't is unless you want to.


After parrying, a pair of crossed blue swords appears shortly after and you have the option to make a riposte to attack immediately after. A successful riposte makes the swords glow. Making a riposte uses stamina and you can't change the direction of the attack when you use it, which is locked to the direction that your parry brought it to. RIpostes are not unblockable or unparryable, so an enemy can parry and follow up with their own riposte. You don't have to riposte and there are advantages not to such as stamina management. The biggest trap is to always riposte and enter into a parry-riposte war because you can easily fail and end up with no stamina and getting hit for more damage, either by the enemy you were parrying-and-riposting or another enemy. It's often better to not riposte and just attack normally after a parry.

If you get hit, then whether you receive damage or not is dependent on your armor and stamina. If you have good armor, then you can block most of the damage that you would have received. But if you have no stamina you will get hurt. Getting hit when you have no stamina causes you to receive more damage so manage your stamina. If you get hurt too much, not only will your stamina cap be reduced to your current hp, but you'll bleed and start to lose health as well as receive an injury penalty. You can die from bleed damage. Everything that applies to the player during combat applies to NPCs.

TLDR:

• There are four directions to attack from. Up, Down, Left, Right
  
• Axes and Maces can't attack from the Down direction
  
• Polearms can't attack from the Up direction
  
• Press TAB to lock-on to enemies and mousewheel to change target
  
• Press SHIFT to turn-off lock-on and freely look around
  
• Attack using LMB
  
• Defend using RMB
  
• Stamina regeneration is paused once you make an attack or block a hit and restarts shortly after not doing either
  
• Parries are available when a green shield appears, press defend at that moment
  
• Parries don't take stamina and restart stamina regeneration
  
• Failing to parry shows a red shield
  
• Ripostes are available after a successful parry and blue swords appear, press attack at that moment to riposte
  
• Ripostes use stamina
  
• You don't have to riposte, avoid parry-riposte wars
  
• You can't change the direction of a riposte, it's locked to whatever direction the parry before brought it to
  
• Damage received can be reduced with good armor
  
• You take damage if you have no stamina and receive more damage than usual
  
• Bleed damage is real, avoid getting hurt too much

If you get too close to an enemy you'll enter into a clinch. You have to react quickly or the enemy will try to hit you first to break out. All you have to do is press attack on an available direction or press F to push them when the option appears. There are a few things to note.

When you enter into a clinch your stamina regeneration will automatically restart if it was stopped.
Attacking during a clinch costs stamina.
Clinch attacks are like regular attacks and can be parried and riposted.
Clinch attacks do not guarantee a hit. Sometimes an enemy will parry it and might do a riposte. If so then there is only one round of parry-and-riposte.
If you don't parry an enemy's clinch attack, usually another attack will follow through which you can parry and riposte.
Pushes don't count as a regular attack. You will use no stamina and it can't be parried.
Pushes are available if either side doesn't try to break out for a few seconds.

The number of available attack directions in a clinch depends on the weapon. It's either 2, 1, or 0. You will always enter into a clinch from the left attack direction. All left-side attacks will do a bash with the weapon and use blunt damage. All right-side attacks will use the edge of the weapon and use slash damage.


Two-handed swords or one-handed swords without a shield have two directions: Left and Right. Notice that the Up and Down attack directions are greyed out. Attacking from the Left will do a quick bash. If you decide to attack from the Right it will take some time for your sword to move to the right, so you have to attack again and quickly once it does.


Maces and Axes have only one direction: the Left.


If you fight with a shield you have only one direction: the Left. Be it a sword and shield, axe and shield, or mace and shield


Polearms have no directions that they can attack from as indicated by all directions being greyed, even the current direction(in red) is greyed a bit. You can only push by pressing F when the option appears. You can still parry and riposte an enemy's clinch-attack with polearms despite having no attack directions.

TLDR:

• Clinches happen when you get too close to an enemy
  
• Swords or swords-without-shields have two attack directions — the Left and Right
  
• Maces, axes and weapons paired with a shield have only one attack direction — the Keft
  
• Polearms have no attack directions and you can only push
  
• Break out of a clinch by attacking in an available direction or push with F when the option appears
  
• Attacks during clinches are like regular attacks and cost stamina and can be parried and riposted but only once
  
• Clinches will always put your attack direction on the Left
  
• Clinch attacks from the Left will bash the enemy and use blunt damage
  
• Clinch attacks from the Right will slash the enemy and use slash damage
  
• Moving from the Left to Right attack direction will take time and you will have to press attack once it's on the right
  
• If stamina regeneration was stopped prior to clinching, it will restart when you enter a clinch

Masterstrikes are powerful unblockable attacks that you can learn from either Tomcat in the Nomad Camp in the Trosky region or Dry Devil in the Kuttenberg region.

Masterstrikes can only be done with swords. In order to do so you must MOVE your sword to the opposite side of an enemy's attack, and then ATTACK instead of parry when the green shield appears. If the enemy attacks from the Left(their right), you must attack from the Right(their left); if they attack from the Right(their left), you must attack from the Left(their right); if they attack Up then you must attack Down, and vice versa. It takes time to move your weapon to another direction and the enemy can sort of feint so it's not always possible to move the sword in time for a masterstrike. The window to masterstrike is small and you need to be in the correct position nearly on the dot to do so, otherwise it doesn't work and you'll get hit.

Masterstrikes use stamina as it's an attack, but will restart stamina regeneration immediately after. With the level 8 sword perk Showtime you'll instantly regain stamina with a masterstrike which can be handy when fighting more aggressively.

Enemies can masterstrike you too. To avoid this don't attack in the opposite direction of an enemy's attack. Either attack the side where they're holding their sword or the sides that don't have a weapon, except the opposite side of their sword. Not all opponents know how to masterstrike and those that do are usually skilled and high-levelled. If they aren't using a sword then you can feel free to attack in whatever direction you please.

If you're having trouble telling which direction an enemy is attacking from then look at their main hand. If it's on the right-side of their body then it's a Right attack; if it's on the left side then it's a Left attack; if they're holding it up high by their head then it's an Up attack; if they're holding it very low then it's a Down attack.

TLDR:

• Masterstrikes are unblockable attacks
  
• Masterstrikes can only be learned from Tomcat
  
• Masterstrikes can only be done with a sword
  
• To perform a master strike, put your sword on the opposite side of the enemy's attack, and then attack instead of parry when the green shield appears
  
• Masterstrikes uses stamina as it's an attack, but stamina regen restarts afterward
  
• With the level 8 sword perk Showtime you instantly regain some stamina when you masterstrike
  
• Enemies can masterstrike you if they're skilled enough, avoid by attacking from any side that isn't opposite their weapon if you know they can masterstrike

Combos are special attacks that require you to successfully chain attacks quickly in a sequence. These attacks are good for fighting in a flow to land multiple hits to wear down the enemy and generally more effective than spamming, especially taking in consideration the perks that buff them. Combos can only be learnt from combat teachers. You'll have to find them and most of them are only available from doing quests.

Combos can only be done if the enemy does not parry any of your attacks, which the game does not explain. If they block, then it's fine. It's hard to tell at times whether the enemy did a block or a parry so the most reliable way is to watch the combat star.

A combo is possible when one of the possible attack directions you can make a combo with lights up from gold to white. Enemies can combo you as well so avoid getting hit and parry instead of block as much as possible. Since most combos have a sequence of 3 strikes, if you get hit once then it's very easy for the enemy to strike you once more and then get a combo with their next attack.


Some combos require you to attack from a direction that does not naturally follow your weapon's attack, so you will have to move your attack direction as the white arrow appears to the correct direction and attack when it is in position in time. You have to be quick otherwise it will not count for the combo or you'll just attack from the wrong direction. For audiovisual indications, you should move your attack direction when you hit your enemy and attack. Watch the above demo to see what it looks like in practice. This can be hard to do, and occasionally I hit the wrong side when trying to a combo.

With certain perks combos are more powerful and usually either regenerates some stamina, buffs your stats, or nerfs the enemy that got comboed. Besides whittling down the enemy's stamina and allowing you to focus an attack on a particular part of the body, these bonuses make it worthwhile to use as opposed to spamming random attacks.

There are a lot of combos so it can be hard to remember. Use whatever method you want to remember them or just watch the combat star for available attack directions as indicated by a white arrow.

It's worth noting that although the combo attack animation is unblockable and cannot be parried, they are not uninterruptible. I've noticed this occasionally happen when fighting highly-skilled longswordsmen who attack you from the Down direction during your animation. Though this doesn't happen during the demonstration video, I suggest that you don't do a combo on enemies when their weapon is in the Down attack direction and instead attack either their Left or Right sides to move it out of the way as it's very risky and can lead to an enemy stabbing your head dealing massive damage.

TLDR:

• Combos are special attacks that require a sequence of attacks to land that aren't parried
  
• Combos are taught only by combat teachers, most of them are unlocked by quests
  
• You can make a combo if one of the possible attack directions light up from gold to white
  
• Most combos are a sequence of 3 strikes
  
• Move your attack direction to match the combos when the white arrow appears and attack when it is in position
  
• There are perks that buff combos by either regenerating stamina, buffing your stats, or nerfing the affected enemy
  
• Combos are not uninterruptible
  
• Avoid doing combos on enemies who have their weapon in the Down attack direction, instead attack one of their sides to move it out of the way for a combo

Feinting is when you quickly change your attack direction to another direction and attack. Feinting makes it harder for the enemy to parry your attacks and should be used. You must not attack too quickly before the attack direction changes, otherwise you won't feint and instead do a normal attack. Feinting doesn't seem to use any more stamina than a regular attack. You can choose to hold down the attack button and feint that way, but charging an attack uses stamina. However, there's a rare issue that I've found when doing that where your feint attacks from the wrong direction and just misses them.

TLDR:

• Feinting is when you quickly change your attack direction and attack
  
• Feinting makes it harder for the enemy to defend and parry your attack
  
• Don't attack too early when feinting. Make sure the attack direction has changed
  
• Feinting doesn't use more stamina than a regular attack
  
• You can feint by holding down the attack button as well

Dodging, or as it's called in game as Evading, is when you either dodge an enemy's attack by moving to either the left or right or backwards. This is done by pressing both the movement key(A,D,S) and the Jump key(SPACE). This costs stamina and should be executed either before an enemy starts their attack or at the time you would do a parry. Dodges done during the moment for a perfect block is called a perfect dodge and will nerf the enemy whose attack you've dodged. You can still get hit if you dodge too early or too late, and the enemy will teleport forward to hit you. Dodging also restarts stamina regeneration after the animation ends.
Dodges are useful for setting up attacks, but I find it more useful for creating space by backpedalling by dodging backwards. The level 12 agility perk Totentanz buffs perfect dodges by giving you a 15% attack bonus for 5 seconds. There is also the level 10 Warfare perk River which buffs dodges by granting you +3 Warfare skill and increasing stamina regeneration by 15% for 10 seconds. The most reliable way I've found to execute a dodge is to first be holding the direction you want to dodge to, and then quickly tap the jump key.

TLDR:

• Dodges can be done either to the left or right, or backwards
  
• To dodge, press a movement key(A,D,S) and the jump key(SPACE)
  
• To reliably execute a dodge, hold down the movement key and then quickly press the jump key
  
• Dodging during the timeframe for a parry will nerf the enemy you've dodged
  
• Dodges restart stamina regeneration at the end of the animation
  
• Dodging is useful for setting up attacks
  
• Level 12 Agility perk Totentanz buffs your attack by 15% for 5 seconds if you dodge during the parry window
  
• Level 10 Warfare perk River buffs dodges by increasing your Warfare skill by 3 and increasing your stamina regeneration by 15% for 10 seconds

Now that you know the basic principles of combat, it's time to learn advanced ideas. This section covers attack direction.

Attack direction is one of the most important principles of combat which is easy to neglect or fail to notice. Whenever you attack or defend you will often move your weapon to another side and change the attack direction and it's important to pay attention to this. If you don't you may put yourself in a position that an enemy can masterstrike you or just fail to do a combo.
The demo above shows a case where the player attacks Up, parries an attack from their Left, which moves their weapon to the Left, and then ripostes from the Left causing them to be punished with a masterstrike.


Attacks from Up and Right move your weapon to the Left.
Attacks from Left and Down move your weapon to the Right, with the exception that Down attacks with polearms keep it Down.
The above diagram shows this behavior. To make it easier to remember, Up attacks come from the Right, while Down attacks come from the left.

(Player POV of an enemy's attack direction)


Parrying attacks coming from the Left will move your weapon to the Left.
Parrying attacks coming from the Right will move your weapon Up, except polearms will go Down because they don't have an Up attack direction.
Parrying attacks coming from Up or Down will move your weapon to the Right.
It doesn't matter which direction you parry from, it will move it to the correct side. An easy way to remember this behavior is that you defend the side you're defending. For Right parries you step to the right and let the weapon glide down your weapon as you raise it Up. For Up and Down parries you step to the left and push their attack to the side and move to the Right attack direction.

(Player POV of an enemy's parry direction)

Because of the natural movement of weapons during combat, you should not be spamming(if at all) attacks starting from the Up or Down without changing directions because it's easy to follow up your parries with ripostes and end up getting masterstriked. This, however, isn't a big issue if you're using a heavy weapon and activated the level 16 heavy weapons perk Concussing Blow with a combo which prevents the affected enemy from masterstriking. If you're using a sword and want an easy way to bait a masterstrike, then if an enemy has their weapon on the right(their left) then attack that side. If they parry and riposte, your sword will be on the left and ready for a masterstrike. If they have a sword and block but don't attack, then you shouldn't attack from the left because they can just masterstrike you.

Clinches and combos have their own attack directions behaviors. Clinch attacks are simple: Left attacks bring it to the Right, while attacks from the Right stay on the Right. However, combos are not simple and there are different behaviors for each combo. I won't list them because there's too much so you'll have to pay attention and figure it out.

Though getting hit(not parried or blocked) doesn't move your attack direction, attack direction does change when masterstriking or getting masterstriked depending on the weapon you're using and theirs. There's a table at the end of this guide with all the behaviors. If you don't want to remember them all, then just watch which side the weapon ends up at.

Choosing when and where to attack is extremely important. Attacking when you have low stamina is a very bad idea, especially when you're facing multiple opponents, and, as such, you should be conserving stamina for at least two more attacks. This goes the other way, if you've hit them hard and they have low stamina, then you should press the attack and strike them. The direction you attack from is very important because of parries and masterstrikes. If you attack from the side an enemy has their weapon then the chances for them to parry it increases, and if you attack from the opposite direction of a skilled swordsman then you can get masterstriked. It's a good idea to be always attacking an undefended side that can't masterstrike you. Feinting is also great to increase the odds that they won't parry your attacks so you can land a hit to start a combo. To feint all you have to quickly switch to another attack direction and attack. In the combos demo, feinting was used multiple times even on the side of their weapon because the parrying chance is still reduced. The demo also demonstrates attack direction and you should watch it if you haven't already. It is still not recommended to attack from the side of an enemy's sword that can masterstrike you.

TLDR:

• Attacking and parrying moves your attack direction
  
• Attacking Up moves your weapon to the Left
  
• Attacking Down moves your weapon to the Right except if it's a polearm then it stays Down
  
• Parrying attacks coming from the Left moves your weapon to the Left
  
• Parrying attacks coming from the Right moves your weapon Up, or Down if it's a polearm
  
• Parrying attacks coming from Up or Down moves your weapon to the Right
  
• Watch what side your weapon ends up at as that will be the starting direction of your next attack
  
• Combos have their own behaviors for the attack direction they end up at
  
• Masterstrikes and getting masterstriked changes your attack direction
  
• Avoid attacking the side the enemy has their weapon on because that side increases their parry chance
  
• Use feints to reduce the chance of a parry to setup a combo. Quickly switch to another attack direction and attack
  
• An easy masterstrike can be baited by attacking the enemy's weapon if it's on the Right and they parry and riposte because your prior Right attack sets you up by moving your sword to the Left

To master combat you need to know how to fight multiple opponents, know when to masterstrike, and what combos you should use.

When you fight multiple opponents they will attempt to pincer you by flanking you and moving outside of your vision. If you don't pay attention and just attack, combo, or masterstrike carelessly, they will hit you and then you'll get ganked to death. You will want to keep repositioning yourself so that the enemy isn't on your flanks and has to move again, and strike only when it is safe and with the fewest and quickest of attacks. Dodging is excellent for creating space and avoiding attacks in combat. Dodges are more useful for making space rather than attacking in multicombat. If there are archers, either run up and kill them first or move in a way that blocks their shots such as using their allies as cover. That being said, avoid getting into parry-riposte fights because you'll just give time for the enemy to flank and hit you. I also recommend avoiding clinches when fighting multiple opponents because they're usually very slow and allow the enemy to get close for an attack just so you can maybe land a hit that does less damage than a regular attack.

Combos are hard to pull off safely when you face multiple opponents because of how many attacks you need and how slow many combos are. Combos lock yourself into place, often with a long animation, giving the enemy time to flank and hit you immediately after you're done. It is a good idea to pay attention to which combos are fast and use them, but you should be relying on making one or two quick attacks instead of combos. Just as a side note, some combos do have a finisher animation but you don't need to worry about them as they're about as fast as their normal animation with the exception of the four-hit longsword combo Rossen, which you shouldn't be using in multicombat anyways. Finally, to a lesser extent, you'll also want to consider being selective of what combos you use because they will strike different areas of the body which will be affected by the armor that is there.

Masterstrikes, as powerful as they are, have slow or fast animations depending on the weapon and whether it is a killing blow or not. Longswords have the slowest of masterstrike animations, while one-handed swords have the quickest. This changes depending if the masterstrike kills the opponent as well. Longswords have slow masterstrike kills in all directions. One-handed sword masterstrike kills are quick in all directions and you can sort of get away with using them, but it's still very risky. This changes if you use a shield, where Left and Right masterstrike kills stay fast, but Up and Down masterstrike kills are slow, with Down being slightly faster than Up. You'll have to make a judgement call on whether to use a masterstrike on a enemy near death because it could put you in a position that allows your enemies to hit you. With the perk Showtime you'll also have to make a call to use masterstrikes to regain stamina at the cost of getting hit which may be worthwhile if you have very low stamina and good armor, otherwise you may just lose all your health.

This demo shows off a 1v6 with a longsword, demonstrating what I've discussed. I try to keep track of the enemies position by keeping them in view with dodges and avoid attacking the enemy when they're surrounding me, trying to attack those on the edges. Several mistakes were made and the demo shows off how the slow animation of longsword masterstrikes can get you into situations where you get hit. I tend to feint and only do one attack, but get poor results with Down attacks on shielded opponents who keep blocking them. No combos were used, and near the end my masterstrikes failed to activate, highlighting the inherent risk of masterstrikes. This also demonstrates the danger players can face as even with nearly the best armor and perks you can still receive massive damage.

TLDR:

• When fighting multiple opponents they will try to flank you and move outside of your vision in an attempt to hit you, pay attention to them and reposition yourself so they have to move around to try flank you again
  
• Use dodges to create space by backpedalling (S + SPACE key)
  
• Avoid clinches in multicombat because they're usually slow
  
• Fast attack animations are king. Avoid combos or getting into parry-riposte wars as they allow the enemy to flank and hit you. Use one-or-two quick attacks
  
• Masterstrikes have different animation speeds when it kills the enemy. If you're using a one-handed sword without a shield then it doesn't matter as it's always fast. If you're using a longsword then avoid killing someone with a masterstrike unless there's a good reason. If you're using a sword and shield then avoid using Up and Down masterstrike kills

If you want to make fights easier then use potions. If you want to make fights trivial use a bow with Dollmaker or Bane poison applied to arrows.

Dollmaker poison — Enemies hit by a weapon with this poison applied cannot run, allowing you run circles around them so you can pick and choose your fights. Stronger versions weaken the enemy's stats and apply a small amount of poison damage to them. More useful for bows rather than melee so you can switch to a better arrow or Bane-poisoned arrow.

Bane poison — Enemies hit by a weapon with this poison applied cannot run and quickly lose their health and die. Stronger versions kill them faster and you just have to wait out an enemy to die. You get less arrows tipping them with Bane than you do with Dollmaker, and weapons poisoned with Bane tend to lose its effects quickly causing you to need to reapply it more frequently.

Aqua Vitalis — You lose less health and bleed slower. Useful for making mistakes less punishing.

Artemisa — Increases strength and reduces stamina cost to attack and defend. Useful for making more attacks or defending.

Buck's Blood — Increases stamina and stamina regeneration. Useful for making more attacks and defending.

Painkiller brew — Reduces the effects of injuries and the maximum stamina cap reduction with less hp. Useful for keeping stamina high even when you have low health.

Embrocation — Increases agility slightly and reduces stamina cost for sprinting. Second least useful of all combat potions.

Marigold Decotion — It heals you. Stronger versions heal up to 60 over a minute, not counting perks.

Saviour Schnapps — Normal and stronger versions heals you for a little bit of health and gives you a small buff to strength, vitality, and agility. Least useful of all combat potions because the bonuses are so little and lasts for 3-8 minutes as well as creating saves which lag the game. Only included if you really want to minmax stats and the above aren't enough to reach the cap of 30.

TLDR:

• Apply Dollmaker or Bane to your weapon to win fights easily by poisoning the enemy
  
• Use Aqua Vitalis to reduce damage taken
  
• Use Artemisa and Buck's Blood to reduce stamina cost for attacking and defending and to increase stamina cap and stamina regen rate
  
• Use Painkiller brew to reduce stamina penalties due to low hp and reduce the effect of injuries
  
• Use Marigold Decotions to heal
  
• Apply Dollmaker or Bane to your arrows and shoot your enemies to death at your own leisure if you don't want to melee

Getting Masterstriked:

Masterstriking Others: