MORDHAU – Basic All-In-One Combat and Weapons Guide

Introduction to Mordhau Combat

This guide assumes you are using the default controls configuration.
Mordhau combat is daunting to a majority of those that experience it – especially when starting off. If you think medieval combat consists of swings, stabs and blocks only, you’d be wrong. Very wrong.

Mordhau presents combatants with swings, stabs, blocks, feints, kicks, ripostes, chambers, morphs, dragged swings (or ‘drags’) and accelerated swings (or ‘accels’). Chances are, if you’re new to Mordhau, you would have never heard of at least two of these different techniques – hence the existence of this guide.

This guide is not complete – it does not yet provide guidance regarding weapons. Additions will be made to this guide when I have time.

Swings, Stabs and Blocks

Swings, stabs and blocks, as you’d expect, are relatively basic. Left click to swing, scroll the mouse wheel forward to stab and right click to block – simple, right?

The direction of a swing – or even a stab, considering you can over-arm stab or under-arm stab – relies on the movement of your mouse. If you want to swing from right to the left, moving your mouse (or camera, if you like) to the right will accomplish just that. Similarly, if you want to swing from left to right, move your mouse to the left at the same time you left click.This logic also applies for swings from above to below and vice versa.

Blocking doesn’t rely on mouse movement but instead depends on your timing. Make sure you right click a split second before their weapon collides with your face!

Feints

A ‘feint’ is essentially a fancy word for a pretend swing or stab.

To feint, press the Q key – DON’T USE RIGHT CLICK TO FEINT. Every swing or stab as a specific window for feinting. For example, you can feint as soon as you left click or scroll, however you can’t feint just before your weapon hits them – once you’ve committed to the attack you cannot feint it. The window for feinting closes roughly half way into the attack animation (or just before your character makes a grunting noise).

Unfortunately, not everything can be feinted. Swings, stabs, kicks and morphs can be feinted, whereas blocks (obviously) and ripostes cannot be feinted.

Ripostes

A ‘riposte’ is the technical word to describe what is more commonly known as a ‘counter-attack’.

To riposte, left click to swing (or scroll to stab) at pretty much the same time you right click to block your opponent’s attack – this will block their attack and make you swing or stab immediately after. This swing or stab would be much faster than if you hadn’t riposted (i.e. blocked and then swung or stabbed).

Ripostes can be done in any direction, making them highly valuable in confusing your opponent and taking them by surprise. However, ripostes may also be quite unhelpful in certain situations due to the inability to feint a riposte. If you accidentally riposte because you are spam clicking, you may find that your opponent chambers or dodges your attack or even hits you before you hit them.

Stay aware of your attack timings and when it’s best to riposte!

Chambers

A ‘chamber’ is the clashing of weapons as a result of both combatants committing to the same attack at the same angle. A chamber blocks the attack and then strikes your opponent with the same attack.

To chamber a swing, you must swing your weapon at the same angle as your opponent’s swing – making sure you swing just before their sword hits you; leave it too late and you’ll get a sword in the face!

To chamber a stab, you must stab just before your opponent’s stab hits you – angle is obviously not important for a stab. Similar to a swing chamber, don’t stab too early or you’ll find their stab hits you before you hit them!

Remember: Chambers can be blocked and morphed (more on chamber morphs in ‘Morphs’)!

Morphs

A ‘morph’ is the switch from a swing to a stab or from a stab to a swing. A morph is similar to a feint, however it means you still hit your opponent (if the morph fools them, of course!).

To morph, simply stab in the middle of a swing or swing in the middle of a stab. As with feints, morphs have a window of opportunity – don’t leave a morph too late or it won’t let you morph!

The most effective form of morph is from a stab to a swing. This is all down to timing – a stab is much faster than a swing, meaning the fake stab will trick your opponent into blocking early and they will be vulnerable to your much slower swing. 

If you were to morph from swing to stab, your opponent can very easily block that stab as soon as they realise it was a morph because the swing wouldn’t have hit them before the stab.

It’s also possible to morph other techniques such as kicks and chambers. Kicks can be morphed into swings and chambers can be morphed into either a swing or a stab. If you chamber a stab, it’s extremely effective to morph that chamber by performing a swing in the middle of the weapons’ clash. 

Similarly, if you chamber a swing you can easily morph it into a stab – this is much more effective than morphing an ordinary swing to a stab because a chambered swing appears much faster than a regular swing to your opponent.

Dragged Attacks (Or ‘Drags’)

A dragged attack, known as a ‘drag‘ to Mordhau players, is exactly what it says on the tin. A swing or stab that is, well… dragged!

It’s almost impossible for me to describe in words how to drag a swing or stab apart from saying that it works by simply moving your camera. However, I can tell you how you can use them to their best effect in combat.

Drags are wonderful things – they make everything look terrifying to your opponent because it makes you undeniably unpredictable. Since drags are simply fancy camera movements, you can drag anything. You can feint a dragged swing; an extremely effective technique when wielding a two-handed weapon such as an Evening Star, and you can even drag morphs – completely throwing off your opponent’s timing and wits.

To understand how to drag takes practice, but you’ll know when you’ve gotten the hang of them when you trick your opponents into blocking almost every time you attempt it!

Accelerated Swings (Or ‘Accels’)

An accelerated swing, or ‘accel‘ to common Mordhau players, is the direct opposite to a drag – turn into your swing to speed it up!

An ‘accel’ is highly effective at throwing off your opponent’s timing. Speeding up your attack challenges your opponent’s reactions – if they’re too slow to block, they’ll get hit. However, ‘accels’ are ineffective against players with strong reaction times, since they will see it coming and block!

Similarly to drags, ‘accels’ take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll know when you’ve gotten the hang of it!

Created by RE

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