Combat: what actually costs stamina

Every combat encounter revolves around stamina. Let it drain completely and Coen enters a Fatigued state, slowing his strikes and weakening them precisely when they matter most. What catches many players off guard is the amount of defensive options that are entirely free — as long as you take the trouble to aim them.

Pressing Block alone triggers Omniblock: it negates incoming damage from every angle but drains stamina for doing so. Combine Block with a direction on the stick and the guard becomes directional — spending no stamina whenever it connects.

That distinction alone should reshape your habits with the button. Reserve Omniblock for moments when the incoming strike is unreadable — it is a panic response. Make directional blocking your standard guard; it costs nothing.

Time the directional choice to the instant before impact and you score a perfect block, returning some stamina while leaving your attacker vulnerable. The ideal defensive result is not just free — it pays you back.

Equipment leans heavily on this interaction. Multiple stat lines exist purely for it: stamina gain from a perfect block, activation charge restoration from a perfect block, and a wider perfect block window. A defensive loadout is constructed around that single exchange.

Evade to the side or backward to escape harm. Evade toward the enemy and the blow lands regardless. The worthwhile technique is the perfect dodge: sidestep into an incoming horizontal strike — one arriving from the left or the right — at the final instant, and Coen ducks beneath it, spending no stamina while opening the enemy up for a counter.

The forgiving part is what happens when you miss. When the timing is correct but the direction is not, the dodge remains free. So going for a perfect dodge is nearly costless, and frequent attempts are how you internalize the timing windows.

Certain attacks can be neither blocked nor parried. The game signals them clearly: a red skull icon shows up immediately before the strike, and the enemy's target indicator shifts at the same moment. Dodging is the only defensive response available, so anyone who blocks on reflex absorbs each one.

Your attacks can come from four directions, and foes may block them. Their chance of blocking climbs the more often you strike from the same angle. Repeating a successful angle is what makes a fight grind to a halt.

Attacking without picking a direction produces an Omniattack, which picks a random direction on your behalf. That option is inferior to a deliberate choice — but superior to picking the identical direction eight times in a row.

You cannot pause mid-combat to drink from the inventory. Every consumable must already occupy a quickslot when the fight begins — and that includes blood vials.

Crafted consumables deserve the quickslot space. Food suffers reduced effects during combat while crafted items keep theirs, which means a handcrafted tonic contributes more in a fight than a meal whose numbers look better on paper.