Combat
Fights are close, loud and decided by position. Everything else is a way to avoid one.
Lock-on, defence, finishing
A cinematic orbit camera locks to a target and switches by a flick of the stick. You can block, dodge-roll, and, with a shield, parry: strike inside the attacker’s glowing window and they stagger instead of you.
Hold the attack for a heavy swing: half again the damage, and it staggers whoever it hits (Elites shrug off part of it, Bosses all of it). Finish a weakened enemy with an execution and the camera frames the kill; sword and greatsword finishers have three variations each and never repeat back to back. Elite enemies enter a second, faster phase at half health. Bosses punish habit.
Enemies block, shield-bearers time their own parries, and some carry a Relief and cast the same spells you do. Wear armour and each piece turns aside its share of certain kinds of harm; a shield blunts two-handed blows.
Every weapon family has a signature technique on its own button, with a shared cooldown, and every armed family has a mastery perk to sharpen it. Enemies use the same techniques against you.
Each weapon has a secret
Flurry
Eight quick stabs. Quiet, cruel, close.
Sundering Thrust
A lunge that ignores part of an enemy’s armor.
Rending Cleave
Strikes up to three enemies and leaves them bleeding.
Executioner’s Arc
A wide frontal sweep.
Falling Ruin
Leap, and break the ground where you land.
Arrowstorm
Five waves of arrows fall on an aimed spot.
Savage Combination
A four-hit combination for when it comes to that.
Torch Sweep
A sweeping strike with a lit torch. Its burning effects are still in development.
Other techniques are learned from people in the world, such as the Thieves’ Gutter Cut, a dagger strike that leaves a wound that will not close.
One moment per fight
Beyond the technique, every weapon family carries a rare, charged ultimate on a long cooldown. They are the loudest thing your weapon can do.
- DaggerFinal Whisper
- SwordDuelist’s Verdict
- AxeReaver’s Fury
- GreataxeBonebreaker
- GreatswordGrave Procession
- BowThe Last Arrow
- TorchFuneral Pyre
- UnarmedDisarm
Weapon ultimates are in active development. Names and values may change.
Other ways through
Stealth
Crouch. Stay out of the light. A detection meter reads distance, light, your skill and the angle of view. Throw a stone. Pick a pocket. Pick a lock. Sleeping people stay asleep, until they do not.
Taming
A goat, a deer, a moose, a cow, a bear or even a Minotaur can be tamed. Tamed animals follow, fight, level and, within a window, can be revived.
Dirty tricks
Pocket sand, bear traps and rope snares. Not honourable. Very effective.
Co-op
The campaign supports up to four players. Host a game on your network, join by address, or share one PC with two-player split-screen; couch players can also join an online session. A PvP arena hub supports up to eight, in team matches from 1v1 to 4v4. More about the Arena.
Every player keeps their own saves, quests, karma and law record, and party members cannot damage each other. Join a hosted campaign with a new character or one you already have. Everyone who wounded an enemy earns its full experience; a fallen player respawns while the rest fight on; one skip ends a cutscene for the whole party. If the host leaves, the campaign is saved and everyone returns to the main menu.
Reliefs are shared ground: any player can cast through any ally’s Relief of the right tradition, one caster at a time, and spells never hurt your own side.
Online play currently covers LAN and direct-IP connections. Internet play through a service such as Steam has not been enabled yet.
Controller and keyboard
Every flow in the game is built for gamepad as well as mouse and keyboard, split-screen included.
- Lock on
- F · RB + right stick click
- Block
- Hold right mouse · LT
- Dodge roll
- Q · right stick click (while moving)
- Weapon technique
- G · Y
- Weapon ultimate
- LB + RB
- Cast spells 1–4
- 1–4 · RB + face button
- Relief Ultimate
- 5 · RB + LB
- Tame an animal
- Hold H · hold Y
The camera orbits close and zooms with the wheel, slides over your shoulder when you aim a bow, eases in at walls and doorways and holds steady on stairs.