Combat Basics
Combat Basics
Swordai uses a 6-directional combat system with an overhead "up" attack, a stab "down" attack, and two slashing attacks on each side ("up right", "down right" and "up left", "down left"). With the default control scheme, you can initiate any of these attacks by holding down the left mouse button and dragging in the given direction to start charging the attack and then releasing the mouse button to swing. Holding the right mouse button down and dragging in a direction will block in that direction and releasing the right mouse button will stop blocking.
To block an incoming attack you must mirror your opponents attack direction, so an "up left" block will block a "up right" slash, a "down" block will block a stab and so on.
Attack Charge
Once an attack enters the windup phase it begins charging and the player will see a charge meter begin to fill up under their cursor. Attacks which have been charged for longer do more damage, because damage scales with the square of the charge. Normal attacks start at zero percent charge, combo attacks start 25% charged, and ripostes start fully charged. Fully charging an attack takes one second. When the charge meter fills to 100% it you can continue charging the attack for an additional second and it will stay fully charged. After that it will decharge down to zero percent over the course of the next second.
Note that you cannot release a swing until the windup animation completes and attacks charge during the windup animation so even if you start an attack and immediately release the left mouse button to trigger a swing it will not have zero charge as it will charge to about 20% as the windup animation plays.
Attack Phases
An attack goes through the following phases.
- Direction input
- During this time the user specifies the direction they wish to attack from, when using the default controls this happens in a single frame, when using key binds or drag click this phase is skipped.
- Early Windup
- During this phase the attack immediately starts charging and the windup animation is played. Even if the player tries to start swinging during that phase, the windup animation phase will be completed before the next phase starts. The player can block, feint, kick, use offhand abilities, etc. during this phase and the attack will be immediately canceled.
- Late windup
- During this phase, the attack continues to gain charge and the player will hold their weapon at the end of the windup animation. The player can stay in this phase as long as they wish or release the attack at any time. This phase is skipped if the player attempts to release their attack during the early windup phase. The player can block, feint, kick, use offhand abilities, etc. during this phase and the attack will be immediately canceled.
- Initial Release
- When the player releases an attack and exits the Windup the swing animation starts. During this phase the players weapon cannot deal damage and the attack can still be canceled. This phase automatically ends when the swing animation reaches a certain point (depending on the swing this is after roughly 100ms).
- Early release
- At this point the players attack is committed and cannot be canceled but the sword does not yet deal damage. However the attack is blockable.
- Late Release
- The sword is activated and can deal damage or be blocked if it hits an opposing player or their weapon.
- Combo Window
- If a players weapon hits a valid target, or if the attack is blocked, the players cursor will turn to a plus for a quarter second and they have the opportunity to input another action (eg. block, attack, dodge, kick, etc). If they attack that attack will be a combo attack and start 25% charged. If any combo action is taken all of the following phases are skipped.
- Hit Recovery
- After the combo window ends there is a brief recovery period where the player's cursor is hidden and he cannot take any actions (aside from basic movement like running / sprinting / jumping).
- Miss Recovery
- If the players weapon does not hit a valid target, instead of going into the Combo Window phase they go into the Miss Recovery phase. During this time, the player's cursor is hidden and he cannot take any actions (aside from basic movement like running / sprinting / jumping). This recovery period is significantly longer than the Hit Recovery phase.
- Idle
- At the end of a swing the player returns to the idle state.
Blocking
You can block in any of the 6 directions by holding RMB down and dragging in that direction. Releasing RMB will immediately end the block. Blocking has a flat stamina cost when you initiate the block and an additional stamina drain while you hold the block. To successfully block an attack you must be blocking in a direction that counters the incoming attack direction ( see below) and your sword must also intersect the path of your opponents sword. When you successfully block an attack you will hear a metal on metal clang and a sword icon will appear in your reticle indicating that you can now riposte. Your opponents attack will immediately end when their sword hits your sword, if you are blocking in the correct direction and you will see them "recoil" as their sword bounces off yours.
Successfully blocking an attack completely negates its damage.
Block vs Attack Directions
To block an attack you must match your opponents attack direction vertically and mirror it horizontally.
- To block an up attack (overhead), block up
- To block a down attack (stab), block down
- To block an up left swing, block up right
- To block a down left swing, block down right
- To block an up right swing, block up left
- To block a down right swing, block down left
Partial Blocks
If your opponent swings and hits your body without hitting your sword, but you were blocking in the correct direction at the time you were hit you will get a "partial block" which has a different sound effect (more of a thunk). This can happen if your opponent manages to hit you in the back or from the opposite side of your block, if you are very late with your block (such that the animation hasn't played enough to get your sword in position) or if you are looking around such that your sword is out of position (eg. you are blocking down but looking up in the sky and your opponent stabs your leg).
Partial blocks reduce the damage taken by half but do not allow you to riposte.
Riposting
Immediately after blocking an attack your cursor will have a sword icon indicating that you can riposte. You are able to riposte for approximately 1.5 seconds after a successful block. When the riposte indicator is shown any attack that you initiate be a riposte will start fully charged. Once you exit the windup phase of a riposte attack you will get a riposte damage reduction buff that reduces all incoming melee damage by 50% until your swing ends.
Feinting, blocking, kicking, etc do not end your riposte window, so for example, you can block an attack, start a riposte, feint and if you start another attack within 1.5 seconds of the block it will still be a riposte. Usually, this gives you enough time to block, feint twice, and then swing.
Feinting
You can feint to cancel an attack that you have started so long as you do so before the late swing phase. Feinting resets your attack charge meter to zero.
Comboing
When an attack or kick makes contact with an enemy your cursor will briefly (for 250ms) turn into a plus indicating that you can perform a combo action. You can combo any action off of an attack or kick, so long as you do not swing and miss, handle hit, or get blocked (you can combo off of partial blocks). To take a combo action, immediately input another attack while your cursor is still a +. If you initiate an attack during the combo window it will be a combo attack and will start 25% charged.
Damage Calculations
Damage in Swordai is based on a combination of your attack charge, the point in the swing animation that you hit your opponent, the body part of your opponent that you hit, the part of the sword you hit them with, and both you and your opponents damage and armor stats. With base stats that maximum possible damage from a single swing is 50.
Attack charge factors into damage quadratically so a fully charged attack will do 4x the damage of a half-charged attack. Generally, hitting your opponent with roughly the midpoint of the attack animation will do maximum damage, but it varies swing to swing and takes practice to get a feel for the sweet spot of each swing. Head shots deal 25% bonus damage.
Being staggered increases incoming damage by 20. For more details see the video below:
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