Spiral Knights Heavy Sword Tips and Techniques

Spiral Knights Heavy Sword Tips and Techniques by Tenlki

Hello.

I’ve used solely heavy swords for a while now and thought I’d go spread some tricks that I came across along the way. Some of these are probably familiar for people who’ve used them for a while, but some (like the triple slash!) I’ve just found personally, and I’m loving it :D

Some things can be confusing, so here’s a quick vocab list:
Slash1 : Your first slash (quicker, low knockback)
Slash2 : Your “second slash” (spins around, high knockback/range, has greater range than slash1.
Shield-cancel : Some animations can be interrupted – you can usually find these frames by holding shield. Cancel animation with shield –> shield-cancel.

Tactics

Use your range! – You can slash about 1.25-1.5 blocks ahead of you (depending on whether you’re using slash 1 or slash 2)! Use it to your advantage, especially if you’re using the Troika line, which is slow and easy to interrupt (if you get hit). Now, what makes heavy swords any good in terms of DPS (damage per second) is their wide swing – If you want to make the best of your weapon, learn to shield push enemies together and slash them at the same time!

Use your second slash wisely! – Your slash2 is pretty good (wide range around you, high knockback), but it’s also really vulnerable. You can use your slash2 to interrupt some monsters’ attacks if you time it correctly – hitting a gunpuppy during its charge-up period will stop it from attacking. You can save yourself and your teammates health by using it carefully! At the same time, if you miss, its ending lag is very long and keeps you vulnerable.

Tricks

Shield-cancelling animations – If you hold shield during your slash1, you can cancel part of the end of the slash animation. This is really useful for when you’re trying to get a slash in while moving, or if you’re surrounded by things. For example, you can slash1-tap shield – walk – repeat.

Delayed 2nd slash A – If you hold [attack] after slash1, you can go straight into your slash2 just by releasing [attack]. It’s similar to shield-cancelling in that it cancels some of your ending lag, except it puts you into your charge animation.

Delayed 2nd slash B (Moving) – During the charge period, you can walk about 1-1.5 squares worth of space before releasing. This is nice for chasing something you hit with the tip of your sword, or retreating so you can counter attack a second row of enemies. Note that you can walk faster while charging than you can while shielding, so it can be pretty useful. One situation you might want to do this in is if a Kat is in front of you – you can slash it as it flies across you, turn around (taking a step towards it) and go into slash2, interrupting it from doing whatever attack it was trying to do. In most cases, you wouldn’t be able to reach it with just a regular slash1-slash2 combo.

A fun trick you can do is spin around during the charge, so it looks like you do a 720 before slashing :D

Triple first-slash combo – [Slash1]-[tap shield to cancel the animation]-[Hold slash]-[release].
This is kind of a more optimized version of the shield-cancel slash. It puts together the shield-cancelled slash and the “delayed 2nd slash” tricks. I’m not sure of the mechanic exactly, but for some reason, instead of a slash2 coming out of the delayed attack, it out as a slash1 instead. It’s really nice for killing mineral crystals, and also super-safe while strafing around lumbers, since you can shield cancel any of the slashes (where doing a full 2nd-hit will put you in extreme ending lag). Just be careful because the first slash doesn’t have the power to stop / interrupt all enemy attacks.

Charging without slashing – Hold [shield]. While shielding, hold [attack]. When you release shield, you will start charging. If you don’t start charging immediately, just tap shield again. This is nice because you don’t waste time doing a slash and you can move (while shielding). Very, very useful.
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Specific sword trips/tricks!

Troika Line
– Learn the range of the charge attack! In Spiral Court, for example, you can hit Kats across the gap ;D
– Khorovod – The extra rocks each do a bunch of damage + chance to stun. If you want to make use of the charge attack for damage, use it by slightly ‘missing’ an enemy, or just going into an enemy against a wall. Ice also helps you for this.

Sealed Sword line
– Avenger/Faust: You can cancel the charge attack very early after releasing by holding shield or even slashing. If you cancel it with shield, you can even run right behind your projectiles!
– Faust Line: The slash2 from the Faust line has a chance of cursing enemies. You don’t need to use charge attack to curse things.