Gameplay and Actions

Combat Mechanics referring to gameplay and actions the player and enemies undertake are documented here. These mechanics are typically manually executed by the player.


Roll
A move in which the player performs a dodge roll in the given direction. Rolls have invincibility frames on start-up that persist until the recovery, and cost stamina. The player's equip load determines which type of roll they perform. A "rollcatch" is when a player is hit during the recovery of their roll.

Sprint
Refers to when the player starts running. This increases the player's movement speed. Attacks performed while sprinting become running attacks.

Backstep
Performed by executing the roll input but without specifying a direction. The player performs a small backwards jump with brief iframes that persist until the recovery.

Spacing
Positioning in a way that allows an attack to be avoided without rolling.

Weapon Art (WA)
The action a weapon performs when pressing L2/LT or keyboard equivalent with a weapon that is either two handed, one handed with another weapon or one handed with a shields that have the Weapon Skill property. Typically consumes FP.

Backswing
When the target iframes an attack successfully, but is forced to get hit by the follow-up attack. This occurs when an attack has low enough recovery into another attack that rolling the first attack guarantees the target to get hit by the second because it connects before they can roll again.

Hardswap
Manually changing equipment via the equipment menu. Does not refer to difficulty or "hardness" of a swap.

Softswap
Changing equipment via toggling left or right on the D-Pad or keyboard equivalent to access equipment held in secondary or tertiary equipment slots. Does not refer to the difficulty or "softness" of a swap.

Parry
When performing an action with parry frames. A successful parry will occur if the parry frames of the users action collide with the active frames of the opponent's attack. Not all attacks are parriable. A successful parry will leave the opponent vulnerable to a Riposte. If the attack collides during the recovery frames of the parry animation, the user will experience a partial parry, where the parry was unsuccessful and the user takes some damage to Health and Stamina.

Backstab (BS)
When stood behind a target at close range and a light attack is input. If the target is not in iframes and in range, the player will perform a Backstab. This is a form of critical hit that does extra damage.

Riposte
When stood in front of a target that has been parried or guardbroken, a light attack input will perform a Riposte. This is a form of critical hit that does extra damage.

Panic Roll
Performing the roll input before there is an attack that needs to be rolled.

Frame Advantage
The difference in the time it takes for you to recover from your attack and the time it takes for your opponent to recover from hit stun or block stun. Can be represented as a positive or negative number to indicate who recovers first after the move is executed. Sometimes informally referred to as "priority".

True Combo
A sequence of attacks that cannot be rolled or blocked out of.

Pseudo Combo
A sequence of attacks that require the opponent to make a mistake, such as panic rolling, to connect.

Trading
When you and your opponent damage each other at the same time, you "trade" hits.

Trade Combo
Caused when after a trade, your attack possesses more hitstun than your opponent's attack and consequently allows you to recover faster and land a true combo follow-up attack.

Whiff
When an attack misses the opponent.

Whiff Punish
Punishing a missed attack from an opponent.

Knockdown/Pancake/Launch
Refers to moves that knock the opponent to the ground or into the air.

Wakeup
Getting up after being backstabbed, riposted or knocked down.


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