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After getting absolutely beaten down by enemies for more than four hours during the quest The Firebrand, I feel like I’ve finally started to get the hang of the combat.
So, for now, I want to put what I’ve learned into writing and leave myself some notes.
- Stick to the Block → One Attack → Block Loop
- Enemies Only Attack One at a Time
- Don’t Mash the Attack Button
- Directional Attacks Aren’t That Important
- Use Stuns Before Going on the Offensive
- Make Use of Quick Slots
- Use Your Claws at Night
- Wear Medium or Heavy Armor Even Without Proficiency
- Understand the Combat System
- The Blood of Dawnwalker Guides
Stick to the Block → One Attack → Block Loop
Enemy attacks in this game hit extremely hard.
This is especially noticeable when you try to brute-force encounters that the game normally allows you to avoid by spending time. In situations like these, you may end up fighting several enemies in a row who can take off around 80% of your HP with a single hit.
Since taking even one attack can leave you critically wounded, focus first and foremost on blocking reliably, landing a single counterattack, and immediately returning to defense.
Don’t rush. Just keep chipping away at the enemy steadily.
However, I do not recommend using omnidirectional blocking.
The recovery after blocking is fairly long, so when you try to maintain a block → counterattack → block rhythm, enemies can often interrupt you right as your counterattack begins.
Enemies Only Attack One at a Time
As far as I can tell, enemies in The Blood of Dawnwalker do not attack simultaneously.
Even during group fights, enemies seem to take turns attacking you one after another.
Because of this, being surrounded by multiple enemies is actually not as dangerous as it looks.
(The bigger problem is simply that it takes a long time to kill everyone, so your own concentration may start to give out.)
Don’t Mash the Attack Button
In this game, enemies barely stagger when you hit them.
Because of this, if you mash the attack button and try to keep attacking continuously, you will often eat the enemy’s counterattack head-on.
Attack one strike at a time.
Directional Attacks Aren’t That Important
I mentioned above why button-mashing is disadvantageous, but that also means directional attacks become relatively less important.
If your basic approach is to land one hit and then immediately return to defense, the enemy’s guard direction will usually reset before your next attack anyway.
By simply not spending mental resources thinking about which direction to attack from, you can focus more attention on correctly reading the direction you need to block.
Use Stuns Before Going on the Offensive
The one situation where you can safely unleash repeated attacks is when the enemy is stunned.
Coen starts the game with Dirty Trick, an ability that can stun enemies.
Stunned enemies cannot counterattack, giving you a chance to go all-out.
If you want to deal as much damage as possible, set the enemy up with a stun first, then unload your attacks.
Make Use of Quick Slots
Active abilities and healing items can be assigned to quick slots.
This not only allows you to use abilities and healing items immediately, but more importantly, healing items that are not assigned to a quick slot cannot be used during combat at all.
So if you want to heal during combat, making proper use of your quick slots is essential.
On a PlayStation controller, you can switch combat quick slots with the X button, so make sure you remember that as well.
Use Your Claws at Night
Especially during the early game, your claws will often have higher attack power than your sword.
On top of their damage, claw attacks are also extremely fast, making it much easier to return to a defensive stance before the enemy can counterattack.
Wear Medium or Heavy Armor Even Without Proficiency
If you equip medium or heavy armor without learning Second Skin I or Second Skin II, the game displays a message saying that you are not proficient with that type of armor.
Apparently, this applies a penalty to your stats.
…Apparently.
In actual play, though, I can barely notice any penalty at all.
Honestly, I’m starting to think you can just ignore the warning and wear the armor anyway.
Understand the Combat System
I’ve summarized the mechanics you need to understand in order to make combat more efficient on the page below.
Refer to it whenever you need more detailed information.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Combat Mechanics Explained – Kaburanai Games
