Blade and Sorcery is a hugely popular VR sandbox game that gives you complete freedom to fight enemies using a range of weapons and magic in whatever way you like. The combat is surprisingly deep and challenging, particularly when you start to take on more and better opponents. This article is going to share my best Blade and Sorcery tips so you can hone your combat skills and become a legendary fighter.
I’ve played Blade And Sorcery since shortly after it was released and put countless hours into the game. This article is a compilation of my best tips for playing Blade and Sorcery, as well as a lot of advice and tips from some highly skilled players.
Blade And Sorcery Tips
Before you even start fighting an opponent, take some time to explore and get used to the controls. Practice turning, moving, dodging, jumping, and ducking, and get comfortable with these before you have to deal with fighting an enemy at the same time. From the home environment or any of the settings, you can spawn a range of weapons to practice with, and get used to lifting, holding, and adjusting them.
It can take a bit of time to get used to using a combination of the controllers, and physical movement of your body to move within your play space, and you will need to make a conscious decision of how much of each to use, depending on the size of your playspace.
I would highly recommend turning on smooth motion and smooth turning in the input movements options menu as this will make your movement much more natural, and improve your ability to fight considerably.
You may also want to increase the turn speed above the default setting, as this will allow you to quickly turn to face opponents, without having to physically turn your body every time. Increasing the turn speed may cause you to feel less comfortable in VR, so you’ll need to experiment with what feels best for you.
Blocking Effectively In Blade And Sorcery
Blocking is one of the most important skills to master and should be the first thing you concentrate on. Enter one of the environments and start with the easiest opponents. I would highly recommend starting with a short sword and playing defensively, aiming to just block attacks without making any counterattacks.
Hold your sword well out in front of you in the vertical position and move it to the left, or right, or turn it horizontally and raise it to block attacks from each direction. Try to keep your sword well in front of you as this will create additional space between you and your opponent, giving you more time and space to react to incoming attacks.
If you take a little time, you will soon see that the enemies only have a small number of attacks, and you can learn to predict which is coming from how the animation starts. After a while, you should be able to block almost every attack that your enemy tries, and then you’ll be ready to start fighting back.
Movement
Once you can block most attacks, the next thing is to focus on movement. Rather than standing still, movement will make it much harder for your opponent to hit you and will make it much easier for you to identify and exploit your opponent’s weaknesses.
If you try to fight from a stationary position, you may be able to block most incoming attacks, but you will struggle to effectively hit your opponents. It’s always much harder to hit a moving target, so make it much more difficult for your opponent by moving decisively out of the way of attacks.
Practice forward and backward movement to move into and out of range of your opponent’s attacks. Stay out of range of your opponent’s attacks and only move briefly into range to make your own attacks.
Lateral movement is an even more important skill to master and is one of the best Blade And Sorcery tips for improving your success in combat. Dodging to the side as your opponent swings will often leave them wide open to a counterattack, as you get behind their weapon or shield and have free rein to aim a swing at a vulnerable part of your enemy. There’s nothing more satisfying than using an opponent’s attack against them as you dodge out of the way and come back with a devastating blow.
Tip For Attacking In Blade And Sorcery
Once you can block effectively and are using lateral and backward movement to avoid your opponent’s attacks, you can get down to the fun business of attacking. A shortsword is a great option for new players as it is incredibly versatile and easy to use. Although larger weapons are tempting, they do take a fair bit more practice to master, and it takes a while to get used to the simulated weight of the weapons, so smaller weapons are a good place to start.
Counterattacking is a really good attacking strategy, as you will be using your enemy’s attacks against them. Your enemies will be at their most vulnerable after trying to attack you, so try to bait your opponent into taking a big swing at you, while being ready to use movement and blocks to evade and be ready with a powerful counterattack of your own.
Aim for a vulnerable part of your opponent such as the head, neck, or arm. If you elect to block, move your sword actively into your opponent’s swing, but keep moving your sword through to push your opponent back, and then in the same movement, arc your sword around for a quick counterattack before your opponent has a chance to react.
The aim of counterattacking is that after each attack, your opponent will be very briefly out of position, leaving their weapon or shield in a position that leaves parts of their body vulnerable to attack. Timing is everything, so you will need to practice.
Regardless of whether you are blocking or dodging, followed by a counterattack, try to make the entire process as close to a fluid motion as possible, rather than thinking about the block first, then counterattacking.
Regardless of what weapon you are using, try to keep it held out well in front of your body to create space between you and your opponent. You can use your weapon to maintain distance and give you a bit more space to maneuver and swing your weapon properly to attack, while also giving you a little more room to dodge when your enemies attack.
Slow Swings
Blade And Sorcery is a physics-based combat game, so you can’t just wave your controllers around wildly and expect to win. The game takes account of the size and weight of your weapons, so you must act like you are using real weapons.
Two-handed swords and axes need wide, sweeping swings that are much slower than when using smaller weapons. Use your entire arms to swing the larger weapons, rather than just flicking your wrists. You will need to consciously and deliberately slow down your swings when you use these weapons.
Look at how differently the weapons react when you swing them at a realistic speed, rather than as fast as you can move your controller, which doesn’t have anywhere near the inertia of a heavy weapon.
One of the best Blade And Sorcery tips I can give you is to slow your swing speed down. Practice using different sizes of weapons and adjust your swing to see how the weapons react. You will be surprised by how much more power your attacks have, which will make fighting your opponents a much more satisfying experience.
Focus On The Weak Parts
For most attacks, you should always prioritize the head and neck, as these have the greatest chance of ending the fight quickly, but the legs and weapon arm are also vulnerable. Hitting the arms or legs is also a great strategy to disable your opponent, causing them to react to the injury, and open them up to a further, more devastating attack.
Much of the skill of fighting in Blade and Sorcery is to use movement, misdirection, and combination attacks to open your opponent up to an attack on a vulnerable part of the body. Creating openings in this way will always be more effective than using brute force alone.
Use Your Environment
You don’t always have to fight in an open space, and using your environment can turn the tide of battle, particularly when fighting a group of enemies.
Many buildings and walls are climbable, and you can use the grip buttons on your controllers to hold onto and pull yourself up to gain a height advantage. Jumping down on an unsuspecting enemy below, or climbing up a wall to escape a crowd of enemies who pose too much of a challenge is a great way to put the odds in your favor.
You can also use scenery to prevent enemies from getting close to you. Running behind an obstruction such as a wall or structure is a good way to regroup or to split enemies up to take them on one at a time. Equally, it can help maintain distance to allow you to use ranged attacks without the enemy closing the distance between you.
It’s also a lot of fun to use any items that you find in your vicinity as weapons. Feel free to throw objects at your enemies to distract or injure them and help to move the odds in your favor.
Jumping Is An Underused Skill
Whilst many enemies can defend reasonably well against attacks from in front of them, they really struggle when a sword or dagger is swung from above. Take a running jump at your opponent and aim a swing or stab at their head. More often than not, you will score a kill, and even when your aim is off, enemies struggle to inflict damage on you when you are coming at them from this angle.
Equally, when things are really going badly, you can actually jump over your enemy as a way to escape briefly. I’ve used this plenty of times when I have a bow and the enemy has closed the distance to me, or I run out of arrows, and I can jump over them, run away to increase my range, and think about my next move.
Slow Motion
Slow motion is a powerful tool that you can use in Blade And Sorcery to get out of tight spots and take on enemies when the odds are stacked against you. However, it’s best to only use slow motion when you need to, rather than just because you can.
If you’re taking on a group of enemies where you think you may be in trouble, try to get a few hits in and see what damage you can do before using slow-motion, as there’s nothing worse than running out just at the moment that you need it most. Even when you know you need to use it, turn it on just at the moment your opponent attacks so you can successfully dodge or block, and then execute an effective counter.
Using Bows In Blade And Sorcery
You may have used bows in other VR games such as Skyrim VR and other VR RPGs, and the mechanics are quite similar in Blade and Sorcery. If you are right-handed, hold the bow in your left hand and draw the arrow back with your right hand. Try to get in the habit of adjusting your vertical aim by moving your right hand up and down and adjusting the horizontal aim by moving your left hand left or right.
Don’t forget to move backward when using the bow to open up more distance between you and your opponents. This is particularly important when facing a number of opponents. Your key advantage when using the bow is your ability to attack from distance. Don’t let your opponents get too close as you will become incredibly vulnerable.
Although it’s generally best to aim for the head or neck with your arrows, if an enemy is well defended, it is often best to aim an arrow at their leg first and follow this up with a shot to the head as they leave themselves exposed.
Enable Hold Grip
When throwing weapons and objects, your aim is significantly impacted by your timing when you let go of the object during your swing. Go into the Input Options menu and enable Hold Grip for weapons, spells, bodies, and objects. This means that you will drop what you are holding when you release the grip buttons on your controllers, rather than pressing the grip button to pick something up and pressing it again to drop it.
Having to hold the grip buttons when you hold something increases the level of immersion and allows you to let go of a weapon naturally as you throw, greatly improving your accuracy. Disabling this option will create a slight delay as you press the grip button to release what you are holding, resulting in considerable inconsistency when you are throwing objects.
Hold Grip also allows you to quickly and naturally change your hand positions on your weapons. You can adjust your grip on weapons and adjust their orientation much more easily than if you use Toggle Grip, which requires you to press the grip button to grab something and press it again to let go.
Using Two-Handed Weapons
Although it’s tempting to hold some of the smaller two-handed weapons with one hand, this is generally not a great idea due to the physics-based gameplay. As the weapons are assigned a real weight in the game, you will not have enough strength to lift and swing a two-handed weapon hard and effectively. It is generally a better option to opt for a smaller weapon, or just use your existing weapon as intended.
This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and there are some people who have mastered the art of effectively using two-handed weapons with one hand, but I’ve never found it to be a great option.
Using Shields In Blade And Sorcery
Shields will greatly improve your defensive capabilities, but you need to use one effectively for it to give you an advantage. Hold your shield well out in front of you and don’t hide behind it too much. You should always keep your opponent’s head or feet in view, as it is essential to know where your opponent is and what they are doing at all times.
You may need to obscure your vision while actively blocking, but try to regain the visibility of your opponent as quickly as possible.
In addition to defensive attributes, a shield can be a great offensive weapon. After blocking with your shield, feel free to try a shield bash to injure or knock your opponent back. You can get surprising power behind a swing with your shield, but even if it doesn’t do too much damage, it may open your opponent up to a follow-up attack with your weapon.
When fighting opponents with shields, it can be harder to hit your opponent, so you will need to change your tactics. Low attacks to the legs are often a good option as they are relatively undefended by the shield. Preceding this with a higher attack is likely to cause your opponent to raise their shield to defend, leaving them vulnerable to a lower attack.
Whilst attacks to the legs aren’t often fatal, they usually break an opponent’s defense as they react to the wound, allowing you to follow up with an attack to a much vulnerable part.
Use Magic Sparingly
Magic in Blade and Sorcery is quite overpowered, but you have a limited supply of mana. For this reason, you are best to use your spells sparingly. Fireballs in particular are really powerful, so are great to use when you’re in trouble. Whilst it is loads of fun to use magic, it’s best to save it for when you really need it.
Spell Aiming
Fireball spells take a while to get the hang of but learning to aim them after you release them is hugely satisfying and really effective. Hold a fireball in your hand, move your hand forward, and release it in the direction you want the fireball to go. After release, you can direct the trajectory of the fireball by moving your hands.
This gives you enormous control over the destination of your spell, allowing you to hit targets even when the fireball releases well off target. It does take a while to master the art of steering fireballs with a good degree of accuracy, but it’s a fantastic skill to learn.
Adapt Your Fighting Style Depending On Your Weapon
Adapting your combat style depending on you and your opponent’s weapons is really important in Blade And Sorcery. If you are using a short sword or dagger, while your opponent is using a two-handed weapon, you know that their weakness is going to be the speed of their attacks and their vulnerability to close-range attacks. Make use of your speed advantage to either strike first and get in close to your opponent, or counterattack after they try a big attack.
Similarly, when you are using a large two-handed weapon, do whatever you can to keep your opponent at range. You will often be able to make attacks from a position of safety, well out of their range, but if you let them get too close, you will struggle to react fast enough to protect yourself with your large, heavy weapon.
Take note of whether your weapon is better for piercing, slashing, or crushing your enemies. Weapons like daggers and the rapier are lethal for piercing your enemies but relatively ineffective at slashing. Most two-handed swords are best used for slashing attacks where possible.
Many weapons also have more utility than you may think. You can use the hilt of swords to bash your enemies at close range, you can adjust your grip on spears to attack with both ends, and you can shorten your grip on axes to use them as something closer to a fist weapon, using them with a punching action.
General Blade And Sorcery Tips
If you’re struggling to get hits on your enemy’s vulnerable parts, it’s often a good idea to do a combination attack with low and high strikes. I like to aim for the legs below the knees to draw my enemy’s arms down in defense and follow this up with a quick swing to their exposed head.
Using the reverse tactic also works well. Even if your enemy blocks a shot to the head, this will draw their weapon or shield up higher to defend, leaving their lower body and legs exposed.
Aiming to hit the weapon arm is another good tactic. Enemies tend to be fairly proficient at protecting their body and head, but targeting the weapon arm is a good way of opening them up. Swinging from the side at the forearm will often cause them to recoil their arm or stagger, leaving them open to another attack at a more vulnerable area. You can also sometimes move in and try to disarm them.
Remember to use both of your arms when playing Blade And Sorcery. It’s easy to forget to make use of both your arms when using a one-handed weapon. If you have a spare hand, use it after an opening attack to grab their weapon hand, punch your enemy in the face, or grab their body to move it into an easier position to attack.
One of the best Blade And Sorcery tips is simply to practice as much as possible. It can sometimes get a bit frustrating when you are struggling to pull off a specific attack, or when you fail to block an attack. However, as with all skill-based activities, every failure leads to learning and you will progressively get better as you spend more time fighting enemies.