The system
🧭 Four directions, not five
The first game’s five-point star became four directions in all, three cuts and the stab. Simpler to read, and the combos that chain them are back: a full combo is Fancy Fighting.
🛡️ Perfect block and master strike
Block at the moment of impact for a perfect block; with the right skill, a perfect block becomes a master strike that answers with a hit. Tomcat teaches it in Trosky; Zavish in Kuttenberg tests it (Master of Masters is three duels).
💨 Stamina is the fight
Every swing, block and dodge spends stamina; empty, you take full damage and cannot act. Armour weight, wounds, hunger and drunkenness all lower it. Win by making them spend theirs.
🧵 Armour in layers
Padding, mail and plate stack. Blunt weapons go through plate; stabs go through mail gaps; cuts need bare skin. Weapon of Choice wants a kill with every weapon type, and it is also how you learn which does what.
🏹 Ranged
Bows, crossbows and, new, firearms. Bohemian Sniper is a crossbow headshot at range; High Noon is shooting a gunman with a gun; Original Gunslinger is walking around with four loaded hand cannons like a lunatic.
🐺 Groups
Two on one is the real difficulty. Back to a wall, target the unarmoured one, and use the dog: Mutt pulls attention.
The weapon skills
| Skill | Covers | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Swords | Short swords, longswords, sabres | Fast, precise; the master strike’s home |
| Heavy Weapons | Maces, axes, hammers | Blunt goes through plate; slow |
| Polearms | Spears, halberds | Reach; the soldier’s weapon, and now carried |
| Unarmed | Fists, wrestling | Henry the Bruiser is the brawling title |
| Marksmanship | Bows, crossbows, firearms | Canny Shooter is the archery contest, perfect |
| Warfare | Everything | The general combat skill that grows with all of the above |
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 17 September 2026 against Fextralife’s skills page (the six combat skills), PowerPyx’s trophy list for the combat trophies named here, and Warhorse’s own descriptions of the four-direction system; the tactics are the guides’, not from a playthrough. Re-checked on 1 October 2026 against EliteGuias, Vandal and Eurogamer.es. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.