Kingdom Come: Deliverance – Advanced Combat Guide | Clinches, Perfect Blocks, Master Strikes & More

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Combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance can be overwhelming, even after plenty of practice in the early game. There are lots of advanced combat maneuvers that simply aren’t very well explained, so we’re going to break down all those important features and show you how to win in life-or-death duels.

There’s a real complexity to Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s sword fights, and that’s due to the implementation of HEMA — historical European martial arts. Instead of swinging your sword wildly, you’ll be able to select the direction of your swing. Blocking and parrying are important tools in your arsenal.

Here, we’re going to break down the lesser-known combat skills. Clinches, perfect blocks, master strikes, and combos — we’ll break down and explain all of these techniques.

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Advanced Combat Guide | Clinches, Perfect Blocks, Master Strikes & More

While we’re calling this an advanced ‘combat’ guide, it’s really an advanced defensive mechanics guide. Defensive mechanics are quite a bit different — it’s all about blocking, timing your block, and how you move to initiate clinches. Depending on your defensive stature, you can also initiate combo attacks. That’s very rare, so we’ll try to explain how to land more than one strike in a battle.

Perfect Block & Riposte

Before detailing how to get a Perfect Block, you’ll first need to know about blocks in general. Blocking, unlike weapon combat, does not take into account weapon-polarity, or direction of swing. Blocking will absorb a hit from anyone standing in front of you at the cost of stamina.

A green shield icon appears during an enemy’s attack on your HUD. This indicates when you need to block to earn a Perfect Block. The green shield icon appears as your opponent swings his sword, but before it makes contact. Raise your shield during the swing (rather than holding it up and waiting for an attack) and before the attack lands.

Successfully scoring a Perfect Block will slow-down time, and give you priority on your next attack. This is called a Riposte — essentially, you’ll have one free attack on your opponent. Your opponent can block, but only if they can properly time a Perfect Block or a Master Strike.

Master Strike

Master Strikes are trickier than Perfect Blocks to perform. Instead of blocking or knocking away your opponent’s weapon, a Master Strike initiates an animation that immediately attacks your opponent — often hitting the opponent multiple times in the head with the sword’s pommel.

To initiate a Master Strike, you’ll have to block just before the green shield icon appears. This is during the moments when your opponent draws his shoulder back and prepares a swing, or during the first few frames of the swing. You have to be very quick, and watch the shoulder of your opponent to properly time it. Master Strikes are not random.

A Master Strike is a quick, unavoidable Riposte. You’ll counter-attack and there’s nothing your opponent can do. As an added bonus, if you’re slightly too late on your Master Strike attempt, you’ll often get a Perfect Block.

 

Clinch

Clinch is another mechanic that isn’t very well explained. To initiate a clinch, simply walk into your opponent. When two sword-drawn characters get too close, they’ll struggle, sword-to-sword. As soon as this happens, you must press an attack button as quickly as possible. That’s how you win clinches.

Different attack buttons have different effects in a clinch. The chances of winning are dependent on three factors; how fast you press an attack button, the perks you’ve unlocked, and your strength. Unlock ‘Clinch Master‘ early to more easily win clinch duels.

Combo Attack

So, why explain clinches? Clinch duels can lead to combo attacks. A combo attack is multiple sword swings that actually land on your opponent. This is extremely rare — usually you can only manage one hit at a time, never two or three.

To get at least two hits, try entering a clinch then using a special attack to push your opponent off. This will stun them temporarily (if you win the clinch) and leave them completely open to attack. If your opponent is stuck between you and a wall or fence, your chances of landing a combo attack improve. For whatever reason, using a clinch special attack will leave your opponent completely vulnerable — they’ll only try to back away.

That’s all the advanced combat techniques we’ve got so far. Have your own battle strategies? Sound off in the comments!