How To: Use Basic and Advanced Combat Techniques

  • LAST UPDATED 4/22/2021

    If there are any combat techniques that I missed that you would like to share below, I only ask that you use the same easy to read format as I have here:

    Name of Combat Technique
    (B=basic technique; A=advanced technique; E=easy to do; H=hard to do; O=offensive technique; D=defensive technique)
    Description, using universal non-platform-specific terms (for example, saying "attack" instead of "RT" or "right-mouse click"); (#h=number of hits; #d=amount of damage dealt out of 100% health).
    Useful for: why would you use it?
    "Inspirational quote."


    Sword Slash
    (B)(E)(O)
    Press attack quickly up to 3x (1h=25d/2h=50d/3h=75d).
    Useful for: attacking and doing damage quickly in close-range; after 1st and 2nd hit, 3rd hit knocks back the opponent, even on block.
    "I'm going to cut you!"

    Evasive Jump
    (B)(E)(D)
    Jump in any direction.
    Useful for: confusing foes and manuevering around obstacles.
    "You can't catch me!"

    Defensive Block
    (B)(E)(D)
    Press and hold block.
    Useful for: blocking melee attacks from the front and setting up for advanced techniques.
    "You can't touch this!"

    Sword Charge
    (B)(E)(O)
    Press and hold attack (60d).
    Useful for: doing massive damage to a target; 2-second cool-down on a miss.
    "Incoming!"

    Sword Surf
    (A)(E)(D/O)
    Hold attack while standing in waist-deep water or upon ledges.
    Useful for: moving to/from shore; boarding enemy vessels; long-jumping off cliffs into water.
    "Smooth, like a skipping stone over water."

    Defensive Dodge
    (A)(H)(D)
    Block while moving in any direction, and jump.
    Useful for: getting out of the way or getting closer; jumping through an opponent's otherwise impassable space.
    "Over here! Over there! Ha ha ha!"

    Running Slash
    (A)(H)(O)
    Block while moving in any direction, and press attack (1h=25d/2h=50d/3h=75d).
    Useful for: getting around obstacles, an opponent's block, or for hitting multiple foes; can be chained into a 3-hit combo; increases speed and reach during the initial attack.
    "And step, and cut..."

    Extended Charge
    (A)(H)(O)
    Block while moving in any direction, hold attack, and then jump during beginning of lunge (1h=60d).
    Useful for: damaging opponent from above and crossing them up; requires good timing on jump; allows for additional movement during the hold portion of the charge; 2-second cool-down on a miss; additional options available during cool-down period (e.g., block and slash).
    "Aaagghhh!!!"

    Firearm Quickdraw
    (A)(H)(O)
    While blocking, switch weapons and press attack.
    Useful for: doing quick damage against an overly aggressive opponent; a pirate's riposte.
    "Gun..."

    Double Tap
    (A)(H)(O)
    With 2 firearms equipped, fire one, immediately switch to the other, and fire again (2h=100d).
    Useful for: doing massive damage relatively quickly from a distance; has a long recovery, so don't miss; useless against multiple pirates.
    "Bang, bang!"

    Blind Snipe
    (A)(E)(O)
    Attack with eye of reach without aiming in close-range (1h=70d).
    Useful for: doing massive damage up close with a long-range weapon; not very accurate.
    "Aiming? Please..."

    Blunder Blast
    (B)(E)(O)
    Fire the blunderbuss at point-blank range against an opponent (1h=100d).
    Useful for: instant kills and repelling boarders; weak at mid- to long-range.
    "Want to be holier than thou?"

    Bite This!
    (A)(H)(D)
    When a shark charges to bite you, block with your sword just as it chomps.
    Useful for: not getting eaten alive by hungry sharks; requires very precise timing; does not work against megalodons.
    "Not today!"

    Underwater Strafe
    (A)(E)(D)
    While underwater, swim sideways left or right, or down.
    Useful for: avoiding sharks and underwater pirates with guns.
    "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."

    Grog Toss
    (A)(H)(D/O)
    Drink 2 tankards of grog, hold a bucket, let loose, then throw it onto your foes.
    Useful for: blinding your opponents.
    "Eww, gross!"

    Speed Dig
    (A)(E)(D)
    While digging, double-tap cancel input during 3rd sound.
    Useful for: digging up treasure faster to save time or when enemies are near.
    "It's here - I know it!"

    Silent Repair
    (A)(E)(D)
    Hold attack and block at the same time while repairing the ship.
    Useful for: repairing the ship quietly when enemies are near; can be started late into repair by holding block; 1st hit still makes a sound.
    "Quiet!"

    Quick Stop
    (A)(E)(D)
    While running with the sword, quickly tap block.
    Useful for: stopping your forward momentum instantly.
    "Okay, so you can stop fast... Big deal."

    Tip-toe
    (B)(E)(O)
    Go barefoot; it's quieter.
    Useful for: sneaking up behind someone.
    "Oh, I'm sorry. Is that a sword in your back?"

    Ninja Boarding
    (A)(E)(O)
    Simply block or aim as you board an enemy ship's ladder to make a much quieter splash; alternatively, staying still in the water also works.
    Useful for: boarding inattentive enemy ships.
    "Dropped their anchor!"

    Cannon Boarding
    (A)(H)(O)
    Fire yourself from a cannon at an enemy ship and pray that you don't miss their deck.
    Useful for: an instant surprise attack.
    "I'm alive!!!"

    Blunder Boom
    (B)(E)(O)
    Switch to a blunderbomb, throw it near an enemy, and watch your opponent learn to fly in the opposite direction of your bomb.
    Useful for: knocking your enemy off of a ship, cliff, or just out of your way.
    "Pull!"

    Defensive/Offensive Interactable
    (A)(E)(D/O)
    Block with a sword or aim with a firearm as you use an interactable. If held as you stop using it, you will instantly block or aim.
    Useful for: blocking a sword an attacker is using in order to keep yourself alive, or for an immediate retaliatory shot at said individual.
    "Not so easy to stop me, eh!?"

    Defensive/Offensive Emote
    (A)(E)(D/O)
    Block with your sword or aim with your firearm as you start an emote; if held, you'll instantly block or aim as you cancel the emote.
    Useful for: defending yourself from an aggressive adversary or for creating a surprise attack on some foolish foes.
    "Let's hide in a barrel and then shoot them! It's the perfect plan!"

    Expedient Loot Swim
    (A)(H)(D)
    While swimming with loot, quickly drop it, sprint, and then pick it back up; rinse and repeat (must have reduce hold to interact accessibility setting enabled).
    Useful for: getting loot back to a ship or onto shore faster.
    " Drop, sprint, lift, 1, 2, 3; drop, sprint, lift, 1, 2, 3..."

    Faster Bail
    (A)(E)(D)
    While bailing, double tap cancel input quickly once the water leaves the bucket; also works when picking up water.
    Useful for: saving your ship from sinking
    "Stop putting holes in my ship!"

    Charge Cooldown Cancel
    (A)(E)(D)
    During a charge onboard a ship, interact with something close by mid-charge such as cannons or sails to cancel the subsequent cooldown.
    Useful for: recovering faster if you miss.
    "Hold on to your butts!"

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  • @galactic-geek excellent guide and one that'll come in handy to new pirates out there!

  • Thank you, @Sshteeve - if you have any knowledge of combat mechanics that I haven't listed, please, feel free to share!

  • Kudos on the guide fellow Pirate.

    I believe the "Extended Charge" has an additional mechanic in that if you land a hit with the attack you can continue moving unimpaired with zero cool down into the next attack of choice.
    Failing to land a hit will result in the "hold position" for 2 seconds (ish) same as a regular charge attack.

    In addition "Hits" with the Cutlass count on any surface for the combo so swinging at the floor/rock/tree/other solid inworld object on swings 1 and or 2 to close distance and still maintain the knockback from swing 3 is also pretty effective.
    This also assists the aforementioned extended charge attack.

  • I've updated the list with the following:
    Single/Double/Triple Slash (new)
    Blind Snipe (new)
    Extended Charge (updated)

    I also updated the thread title (from "Use Advanced Sword Techniques" to "Use Basic and Advanced Combat Techniques" to better reflect more gameplay elements.

    Special thanks to @Ixxolos

  • Added Blunder Blast and Bite This! combat techniques.

  • @galactic-geek thanks mate

  • Discovered and added the Grog Snipe advanced technique, courtesy of @Naytdogg. Also, I added an A or B next to each technique to indicate whether it is an advanced or basic technique, respectively - the difference lies in its difficulty, as well as how well known it is to the general public.

  • Added Grog Toss combat technique.

  • Added Evasive Jump technique, and damage values, if applicable.

  • Added Underwater Strafe combat technique, and added in E, H, D, and O values and reformatted their placement along with B and A values to make it easier to read at a glance. For the record, B and A refers to how well the SoT community at large knows about it and/or uses it, rather than the difficulty, which is what the E and H values are for.

  • Added inspirational quotes.

  • You can clip through enemy players if you use the Defensive Dodge towards them. You basically ignore their collision properties. Very useful technique to disorientate your opponent in close range combat.

  • @holdonroldan I figured this out for myself not too long ago, but thanks for the reminder; I'll add it in the move's description. 😉

    Removed Grog Snipe as further testing seems to indicate it's not an actual technique.

  • Removed 1-second cool-down footnote on Defensive Dodge, as further testing proved that I was simply holding block for too long; there is no cool-down period for this technique at all, allowing for immediate follow-up jumps, attacks, and so on (which makes it even better!).

    Special thanks to @Remarka6le for inadvertantly pointing this out to me in another thread. 😅

    @Deckhands & @Boatswain If any of you see any mistakes in my guide regarding the game's mechanics, please let me know! The last thing I want to do is put out erroneous information. 😥

  • Added utility techniques Speed Dig and Silent Repair as they can be useful during combat situations.

  • @galactic-geek a dit dans How To: Use Basic and Advanced Combat Techniques :

    Added utility techniques Speed Dig and Silent Repair as they can be useful during combat situations.

    Thanks for sharing! It's becoming ridiculous all the loopholes and exploits, I didn't know about the silent repair.

  • Thanks yr scurvy dog

  • @jetorchidee97 I'm glad that you and @owen-aka-lizard both found my guide useful. 😊

    As for the loopholes and exploits, I'm starting to wonder if some were actually intentional by design.

  • @galactic-geek said in How To: Use Basic and Advanced Combat Techniques:

    @jetorchidee97 I'm glad that you and @owen-aka-lizard both found my guide useful. 😊

    As for the loopholes and exploits, I'm starting to wonder if some were actually intentional by design.

    I'm pretty sure those two aren't. The silent repair one is because the user is stuck in the offer animation, so the hammering animation with the sound effects can't play. The quicker dig is because of the way the "put away" mechanic works - it doesn't care what you are currently doing, which allows you to quit the digging animation early.

    Both of those should probably be fixed. Neither of them are particularly malicious, and the silent repair is probably more harmful since it removes audio queues that are pretty important in some situations.

  • @d3adst1ck I think they should actually keep both, but fix the animations for both exploits (simply speed up the dig animation rather than skip it and simply use the regular or a new animation for the repair) - they're relatively harmless and offer "advanced" mechanics that are useful for those players who are savvy enough to experiment and explore (like with the now-accepted sword surfing). In any case, we're veering off-topic. 😅

    Start a new thread about it, if you would like, and see what the community thinks. 😋

  • @galactic-geek They're probably low priority since they don't really cause any problems. I imagine there are lots of animation glitches that Rare would like to fix but aren't going to, at least for awhile. I'm fine with them staying as is, but the repair one should at least still play the sounds.

  • @d3adst1ck I'd be okay if it still had sound, but was much quieter. 😏

  • @galactic-geek a dit dans How To: Use Basic and Advanced Combat Techniques :

    @d3adst1ck I'd be okay if it still had sound, but was much quieter. 😏

    That's quite a good idea. Maybe a bit slower, it would give you the choice : quick and loud or slow and silent?

  • Added Quick Stop manuever - mostly useless, but who knows?

  • As of February 6th, a lot of the combat mechanics will be changing, and not necessarily all for the better, I'm afraid - be sure to stay tuned here for more details as the changes come!

  • How about the tactic that involves climbing into a cannon and launching yourself at an enemy player

  • @woukie For the purposes of this guide, I have been hesitant to add ship-based tactics, as there is so much to cover in that particular area, I think it would need a whole additional guide unto itself.

  • Due to the recent combat changes to both the sword and firearms, certain techniques seem to no longer work. Fixing the double-gun exploit, IMO, was fine, but not at the expense of the other perfectly balanced combat techniques that I have now also struck out. I have not removed them completely, as I am appealing to Rare to fix it so that we can still use the balanced techniques. Until then, keep your fingers crossed.

  • Removed double-tap as I figured it's not really very effective anymore.

    Re-worded a few other techniques to update them along with the changing tides.

  • While using a combination of quick stop and defensive dodge, I recently discovered that if you sprint, block-jump forward, and attack, you get a quick mix-up technique. I've used this in arena a few times, really effective.

  • Finally got around to updating my guide today. Be sure to check out the new additions! 😁

    Added the following:
    Tip-Toe
    Ninja Boarding
    Blunder Boom
    Cannon Boarding

  • Added the following:
    Defensive/Offensive Boarding
    Defensive/Offensive Emote
    Expedient Loot Swim

    Enjoy! 😁

  • Added:
    Faster Bail
    Charge Cooldown Cancel

    You're welcome! 😁

  • It’s a shame that most players don’t bother to actually sword fight and just use the blunderbuss since, you know, it’s the blunderbuss.

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