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Swordfighting! One of the staples of both inn games and pillages. Skill in swordfighting can mean the difference between a lost and a won battle!
How to team
During a pillage or team swordfight, teaming makes a huge difference to the outcome of the fight. On the right hand side, there are dots next to your opponents: by clicking on those opponents or using the [ and ] keys you can change your target. The number of dots next to an opponent is the number of people teamed against that opponent.
The optimum against brigands is usually teams of 3. 4 or more on a bot makes them stall! 2 on a bot is also effective, but if you're solo against a bot, the bot can clear that damage far more easily (which sends strikes back onto your team!) and you'd be more effective teamed up with someone else.
So a good start with a sloop of 7 players, is 3-2-2!
How to stall
If your head has dots next to it, you're being attacked! Depending on how full your board is, you should stall when you're being attacked by 2 (fairly full board) or more (emptier board) opponents.
Stalling is effectively used when you're going to be knocked out of the fight, by absorbing as much damage as possible from your opponents as possible - so that your teammates can use the time and opportunity to kill them before they kill you.
Stalling is:
How to fight effectively
Clearing everything you see will keep you alive for longer, but is very ineffective - it does little damage to your opponents, and can quickly give those same opponents more ammunition with which to attack your own team.
To send significant damage to your opponent, you need two things - solidified blocks, and combos. Solidified blocks send swords. A 2x2 block sends the smallest sword you see, 4 tall and 1 wide. If you combo a double, and the 2x2 is broken second, you send two of those sword.
By doing a combo that ends up breaking a nice big block, you send a lot of damage - and even if it doesn't kill the opponent straight away, it fills them well up for your teammates to finish off(you remembered to team up, right?).
There's different ways to combo, but a good way to start understanding them is to find the first solidified block you can make bigger than 2x3 (in this example, yellow). Put a breaker of a different colour (red) on top of the yellow block, and when you get a yellow breaker, put it on top of the red breaker.
Now you're not waiting for a breaker - you're waiting for any red piece. Sweet!
So long as your setup isn't in danger of being covered or broken, you don't break that red. When a red block comes along paired with a different colour breaker (maybe... blue?), you put that piece upside down next to the red breaker. Now, when you get a blue block, you can break the blue breaker. The red block falls and breaks the red breaker, and the yellow breaker drops and breaks the solidified block. Hopefully you've also had the chance to add even more yellow to your construction, but even if not, you've just tripled - sending a fair volley to your opponent!
This is one of the simplest kinds of combo to make bigger. Unless the opponent's board is almost completely empty, a bingo or better on a solidified block will almost kill them. A donkey or better on a solidified block is an almost guaranteed instakill.
Practise! You'll notice your strikes adding significant amounts of damage to the opponent's board. Even if you've got a bunch of rubbish, a combo will send a whole stack of sprinkles instead of the few it would have sent if the breakers were used straight away.
Bonus tips
How to team
During a pillage or team swordfight, teaming makes a huge difference to the outcome of the fight. On the right hand side, there are dots next to your opponents: by clicking on those opponents or using the [ and ] keys you can change your target. The number of dots next to an opponent is the number of people teamed against that opponent.
The optimum against brigands is usually teams of 3. 4 or more on a bot makes them stall! 2 on a bot is also effective, but if you're solo against a bot, the bot can clear that damage far more easily (which sends strikes back onto your team!) and you'd be more effective teamed up with someone else.
So a good start with a sloop of 7 players, is 3-2-2!
How to stall
If your head has dots next to it, you're being attacked! Depending on how full your board is, you should stall when you're being attacked by 2 (fairly full board) or more (emptier board) opponents.
Stalling is effectively used when you're going to be knocked out of the fight, by absorbing as much damage as possible from your opponents as possible - so that your teammates can use the time and opportunity to kill them before they kill you.
Stalling is:
- not using the space bar!
- clearing as much as possible, not saving up breakers
- If you can leave a single space on top of a column, you can put a falling piece on top of that - and the second half of the piece disappears.
- No sprinkles can fall in the top 3 spaces in the drop column (4th column) - use this to your advantage.
How to fight effectively
Clearing everything you see will keep you alive for longer, but is very ineffective - it does little damage to your opponents, and can quickly give those same opponents more ammunition with which to attack your own team.
To send significant damage to your opponent, you need two things - solidified blocks, and combos. Solidified blocks send swords. A 2x2 block sends the smallest sword you see, 4 tall and 1 wide. If you combo a double, and the 2x2 is broken second, you send two of those sword.
By doing a combo that ends up breaking a nice big block, you send a lot of damage - and even if it doesn't kill the opponent straight away, it fills them well up for your teammates to finish off(you remembered to team up, right?).
There's different ways to combo, but a good way to start understanding them is to find the first solidified block you can make bigger than 2x3 (in this example, yellow). Put a breaker of a different colour (red) on top of the yellow block, and when you get a yellow breaker, put it on top of the red breaker.
Now you're not waiting for a breaker - you're waiting for any red piece. Sweet!
So long as your setup isn't in danger of being covered or broken, you don't break that red. When a red block comes along paired with a different colour breaker (maybe... blue?), you put that piece upside down next to the red breaker. Now, when you get a blue block, you can break the blue breaker. The red block falls and breaks the red breaker, and the yellow breaker drops and breaks the solidified block. Hopefully you've also had the chance to add even more yellow to your construction, but even if not, you've just tripled - sending a fair volley to your opponent!
This is one of the simplest kinds of combo to make bigger. Unless the opponent's board is almost completely empty, a bingo or better on a solidified block will almost kill them. A donkey or better on a solidified block is an almost guaranteed instakill.
Practise! You'll notice your strikes adding significant amounts of damage to the opponent's board. Even if you've got a bunch of rubbish, a combo will send a whole stack of sprinkles instead of the few it would have sent if the breakers were used straight away.
Bonus tips
- Bots don't have a swordfighting board like we do. Different weapons aren't effective against bots like they are against players! However, the AI still takes into account if different people are using the same weapon - so three sticks teamed on the same bot, will have relatively more trouble knocking it down than weapons with different colours
- It's possible to see which dot belongs to whom: the middle of the dot is the handle colour, and the outside of the dot is the hilt colour. A quick eye of your own team's weapons can show you who is soloing or not.
- Team onto the most damaged opponents if possible (especially when changing targets after a knockout)
- ...and remember to keep an eye on your teams as the battle progresses!
