General information | Combat How to fight in For Honor?

The combat in For Honor may look rather easy – only two basic types of attack or a low number of combos only confirms this belief. But it is far from truth – thanks to the Guard Break, different stances and the ability to connect almost all of the attacks gives a player many maneuvers to use. In this chapter you can get general information about the combat – out of lock and lock-on variants, available stances and their impact on the game play, health and stamina.

• Out of Lock combat vs. lock mode
• Stances
• Health points
• Stamina

Out of Lock combat vs. lock mode

Out of Lock combat allows better mobility.

You can fight in two ways – by using Out of Lock combat or by locking the camera on an enemy. By using the first form you get a better mobility, you can attack in any direction and also during sprint which can be helpful when you chase an enemy. This type of combat is also useful when fighting with "cannon fodder", AI controlled soldiers that can be found in Dominion mode. However, it has a one fatal flaw – you can't use any of the three stances that allows you to block attacks.

Lock Mode combat, although less dynamic, is used during the duels with other players. In this mode you can use one of the three stances (left, up and right) which allows you to attack from different directions but also (and mainly) block enemy's attacks. Additionally, you can use most of the Feats and combination attacks of a given character – only some of them require you to be in Out of Lock mode.

The choice between the two combat types depends obviously on the situation you are in. Out of Lock mode is only useful in Dominion mode where you have to fight with AI controlled soldiers. Lock Mode is a necessity when it comes to fighting with other players – without it, you can't block enemy's attacks and use your own so that an enemy can't block them.

Stances

The stances can only be used in Lock Mode.

Stances are something that you absolutely can't forget while playing For Honor. They allow you to set your character and their weapon in one of the three battle stances – left, up and right. Each one of them gives you the access to different attacks but also allows you to attack from a desired direction.

A stance also gives you the ability to block and parry attacks. For example, when an enemy uses and overhead attack, the only thing you have to do is to use the up stance to automatically block their attack. Of course, you can parry enemy's attacks. If you want to do this you must use the same stance as the enemy during their attack and use heavy attack right before that attack reaches your character. Most of the characters (excluding The Warden) can only parry heavy attacks.

Health points

Health points start to regenerate after a few seconds when a fight is finished.

Health points are one of the most important gameplay mechanics. Just like in any other game, they indicate the health condition of your character. When the bar is depleted your character falls to the ground. You can wait for someone from your team to revive you or to respawn in the starting point of your team.

However, health points can be regenerated. Here are some ways to do it:

• Killing enemy soldiers/heroes when your character has a particular feat;
• Using your character's healing abilities;
• Standing close to checkpoints A or C (only in Dominion mode) that are captured by your team;
• Using an execution on an enemy hero;
• Automatic regeneration – when you don't fight with anybody, after a few seconds your health will start to go back.

Stamina

Stamina is presented by a small green line under the health points bar. Stamina is used for attacks, blocks, dodging enemy's attacks during the duels or sprinting. A hero also loses it when an enemy parries their attack. Stamina is one of the most important mechanics when it comes to fights – having it completely depleted means that:

• Your attacks becomes much slower and easy to parry/dodge by an enemy.
• You can't combine attacks in combos – you can only use single, very slow attacks.
• You can't use you character's feats.
• You can't use sprint.
• You won't be able to use feints (canceling heavy attacks – more about it in the chapter dedicated to different attacks).
• When your attacks are parried by an enemy or you were thrown, your character will fall to the ground.