I go over various attacks with different weapons on a group of manhunters. I then show off some different enemy types and strategies for taking them out. I go over how to attack animals, lightly armored groups, and heavily armored groups.
AFAIK the weapon breakdown is as follows: Katanas do pure cute damage mostly, which is affacted by armour , they also cause the most bleeding outside of specialized weapons ( spiked clubs cause x2 bleed damage if i remember and katanas do x1.5) they also are the lightest and fastest weapons, discounting their heavier variants like the Topper and often have a attack bonus and bonus against humans and actually raise the value of enemy armour meaning. Sabers do mostly cut with some blunt damage, blunt damage is good because its less migitated by armour but a downside(or upside) is it causes stun damage, which is the non-red parts of the life bar showing damage (except if it s skeleton) which doesn't need bandaging and doesn't deteriorate over time, it just heals on its own. They also generally have defensive bonuses and specializations depending on the exact type of saber, some have armour penetration. Hackers do almost equal amounts of cut and blunt damage, so they are very versatile and they have bonuses against machines. In ealier builds of kenshi they also used to be the easiest weapon skill to level but that was years ago iirc. they are basically less strength reliant heavy weapons. most have armour penetration Heavy Weapons depend on the type which damage they favour, but generally they have a combination of cut and blunt like cleavers, they obviously do massive damage but because of their weight strength limits how fast they are, so they start out very weak because of the sheer amount of time it takes your guys to swing them, but end up among the strongest in the high skill tiers because of their reach and damage, especially in fights against large groups or large animals as they are all but guaranteed to cause the enemy to stagger for a long time after being hit. Blunt weapons do almost pure blunt damage who would have thought, and in addition to blunt protection being already a much lower value on most armours, they get a fair bit of armour pen aswell. They're good for getting bounties if you're afraid of the target bleeding out, except if you use some variants like the spiked club, which boost the highest bleed multiplier in the game, though its still limited by their lackluster cut damage. Still high blunt skill with a spiked club will cause even the most armoured enemies of the game to bleed considerably, potentially achieving a knockout long before you whittled down whatever different limbs you've been hitting. Polearms depend on variant, the staff does almost pure blunt damage, the polearm does some blunt and mostly cut and the naginata does almost pure cut, but they all have a huge indoor penalty and a huge outdoor attack skill buff because of their reach and have a bonus against animals, that makes the easy to use for low skill characters and they become quite formidable with high skill. Martial arts is not really a weapon but its easily the strongest in fights against few enemies when you have someone with high skill. its the most reliant on combat moves and requires you to train strength seperately to become really effective. martial arts starts out almost useless, with the only move avaiable being a bad punch that takes a long time to complete and does almost no damage, but the higher your skill gets the better the techniques get. without high toughness your will damage your arms when fighting armoures oponents unless you use martial arts bindings or the armoured ninja rags which specifically state the pad your hands. without training strength your do dogshit damage. and the plus (and minus) side it levels dodge and dex extremely fast. when you have around 30 martial arts, strength and dex you can expect your guy to dish out around 80 damage a hit and when you pursued martial arts your toughness is probably around 45 to 60 from all the time you got beaten up. the dodge is a huge negative in larger fights though, because the dodge animation takes so long that when you fight more that 5 enemies you'll be stuck in dodging for all the fight, you won't get hit, but you won't attack either, unless you download the mod that speed up the dodge animations for that reason, which i recommend you get together with the halved MA damage mod which actually strikes a really nice balance IMO. Crossbows are crossbows, they're really good and differenty crossbows are good for different things, the best crossbow to start with is the toothpick obviously, ironically one of the harder bows to hit with (requiring 90 crossbow skill to use to its full potential), but the fast firing rate means you'll level the crossbow skill faster. no downsides except having to buy and carry ammo, and hitting your friend at low levels. Toothpicks are for unarmoured enemies or spraying enemies before getting into melee range, rangers are allrounders, oldworld bows are highend alround crossbows, the springbat is for armoured enemies and eagle crosses are for sniping. the junkbow is just a worse toothpick so its only worth using if you have nothing else. If anyone still had questions i hope this helped you.
Martial arts depends on strength and toughness for damage and it's not even close to how good a falling sun blade is (heavy weapon, exotic blueprint from the skeleton shop east of black desert city). Strength affects blunt damage, not cutting damage. A weapon with ONLY cutting damage will do the same damage per hit with a 100 strength as it will a 1 strength. Dexterity affects cutting damage, not blunt damage. A weapon with ONLY blunt damage will do the same damage per hit with a 100 dexterity as it will a 1 dexterity. Strength and dexterity both affect weapon swing speed, so it's always useful to have both. All weapons except for cross bows and turrets do area of effect attacks. The weapons that will do the most damage have both cutting and blunt damage in fairly equal amounts. Martial arts uses strength and toughness, it's why it does so much damage compared to a katana (almost all cutting so mostly only dexterity for damage) or a club (almost all blunt damage so only uses strength).
@@skavies2351 Its been a while so i don't know if that is meant as an addition or a corrections of something i said, but you are right on everything except that martial arts still uses dexterity for animation speed, but thats the case for all weapons to a degree afaik.
@@knechtor5648 I'm starting to wonder if weapon skill is responsible for the attack animation speeds. We know that higher skill levels unlock different attack types and new animations. We also know that eventually the crappy noob swings are not done any more after a certain skill level. Finally, we know that the dodge animation never changes from skill 1 to skill 90, so I am doubting my knowledge that strength and dexterity affect weapon animation speeds and starting to come around to the idea it's simply a case of it only using higher skill attacks which are done with faster animations. It was an addition for damage types and a correction to your comment that martial arts is the best at anything but annoying the hell out of me with that stupid dodge loop.
To elaborate on the efficient use of Heavy Weapons, the effectiveness penalty scales with your Strength level against the weapons weight. To wield the Heavy Weapon with 0% combat speed penalty, you will need to have double that of the weapons weight. So if the weapon weights 25kg, you will need 50STR to wield with no penalty to combat speed. Any STR levels beyond 50 won't account for your combat speed, but will enhance the Blunt damage of the weapon. STR determines Blunt DMG and DEX determines Cutting DMG. Another thing to keep in mind is that while one is in combat, bodily harm will detriment ones combat stats all around. For example, if you have 50 STR and you're wielding a 25kg weapon with 0% combat speed penalty, all it takes is for literally a tiny smidgen amount of DMG to drop your char's STR below 50. Say you get hit in the chest and you take 30 DMG, roughly, you will lose about 10% of your overall STR level which leaves you with 45 STR and you won't be wielding that 25KG weapon optimally anymore. As a rule of thumb, make sure that the weapon you're wielding has a doubled weight value that's 15+ less of your overall STR level, otherwise the person wielding the weapon with 50STR will be put at a disadvantage as soon as they're hit. To also elaborate on Dexterity, the amount of experience you gain in this skill is determined by the Cut to Blunt damage ratio of the weapon that's being wielded and the weapons weight. The more higher the cut ratio, the more base DEX EXP you will gain. Ultimately, the Katana (& Ninja Blade) variants are the best weapon of choice when training DEX. What I didn't mention earlier when elaborating on STR is that DEX is also calculated into how efficiently one wields a weapon. The heavier the weapon is, the higher you'll need in DEX to wield it to it's full potential is also. STR determines the base speed at which you wield weapons, but DEX goes hand-in-hand with melee defense and determines your blocking capabilities. Typically, I'll run all of my squad members through DEX training with a Guardless Katana of a very low grade, as the lower the grade, the lighter the weapon. It's a good idea to have everybody train some DEX, even if you plan on making them a heavy weapon specialist. I don't give any of my guys a heavy weapon until they're 50+ Str as I typically kit them out in heavy armor. Full heavy armor + a solid heavy weapon will encumber them if they're sub 50 STR. Getting to 50 STR takes no time at all. I have so much more to say but I think it'll all fall on deaf ears. Meh.
Thanks for all the info Cuck, it's not wasted. I'd appreciate a few of your thoughts about armor, like what's the best combo for different weapon types whilst maintaining the aesthetic. Like unholy plate vs merc plate vs samurai armor. I read a lot about people using plated jackets, tested my main with it and with samurai armor, and samurai seems a lot more effective.
Falling Sun and high-level martial arts are the best. You can easily do like 300 damage with martial arts and the Falling Sun is the best weapon in the game when you have high strength with high AOE + damage.
Hackers are some of the most versatile weapons in the game. They're like smaller Heavies with armor penetration. Flesh cleavers in particular excel in dealing damage to humans, possibly surpassing katanas and sabers. The slight edge in Cut damage tends to pump dex, which is good for general combat survivability.
@@Orange01gaming My soldiers usually end up with either a cleaver or polearm. They can't hold a candle to a Falling Sun or Desert Sabre when it comes to specific threats, but the mix of armor penetration and reach/bonus damage vs animals does save on armory space. Also, don't discount crossbows. Kiting is an amazing strategy against slower bandits, and absolutely devastating when focus firing a tough target like Beak Things.
@@GuardianCitadel I was thinking on doing a whole separate video on crossbows and kiting, as well as more advanced combat tips(taunt, hold, passive etc). I once cleared out a whole ruin of bloodspiders by using a decent crossbow with just my speedy explorer. It does feel a bit cheap, but it is worth sharing with others forsure.
@@Orange01gaming I have a squad of 3 'rangers', I think would be the best way to put it. They're my thieves, scouts, and since I gave them crossbows early, they're kiters. The three of them alone took out both Band of Bones and Dust Bandit leader camps by themselves (which stopped their raids on my outpost), while still being my best-trained thieves for supplying research books and blueprints. Very self-sufficient roamers. Very rarely do they get into trouble they can't get out of. The only thing they can't seem to pull off effectively are slave rescues.
Pro-tip, equip the longest bigger sword and when you micro the character in a fight (like say 1 character at a time) manually control them to juke an attack from a enemy, then pull back a certain range and then pause and click on the enemy. At a certain distance your character will initiate a running attack and it should land the moment the enemy give chase and slowed down when they reach you. You do need the fastest movement speed to make use of this, so after their missed swing you run a good distance but stop before they give chase, and start swinging. Characters can 'block' or 'dodge' even if the swing hits though, but mods like extra attack-slots seems to turn these big swings into AoE.
This was a great tutorial, I have only been playing a week or so now, and still have lot to learn here, and it's always hard to pick out the best weapons, especially when the numbers are not really damage as skills play a much larger part, but it's nice to see them all in action in the hands of mostly capable users. I did kind of hope to see Martial Arts here. I have seen in the loading screen tips that you can learn to attacks and such as it levels, but I am not sure if it is worth leveling or if it's useless in any practical situation. I could see it being useful if you throw, trip or stagger people, even if the main goal is not damage, but could leave opponents open for other attacks from the party, but that's how it could work in my head and may not work at all like that in practice.
Oh man I totally forgot MA! It is good 1 on 1, but you can get locked in a infinite dodge loop when attacking larger groups. I'll include it in my advanced combat video, since it is very useful but only if used correctly.
MA at low lvls is the most worthless and the hardest skill in the game to level at higher lvls it’s beyond broken damage wise pretty much one shotting anything you can get a hit in on :) (the dodge loop that was stated above is a real problem martial artists in this game suck in mass combat but are great against 3-4 enemies especially if they are not using fast weapons)
martial arts are the single best weapon in the entire game in small scale fights where you can punch/kick enemies down in a single hit often killing them outright completely skipping downing them... however as stated martial arts suffers in larger fights because of how dodge works and you can get into a situation where your character is just endlessly dodging without being able to make an attack. Martial arts are however exceptionally good indoors... especially if your character is backed into a wall/corner... because then you still dodge backward but dont go anywhere so once the dodge is complete your still in range for an attack and can slaughter groups that way... but this only really works indoors.
Katana class have a higher attack speed vs sabers. Main reason they likely have so many % based nerfs. Some Katana attacks even include multiple swings, and the cool down between basic attacks is very low so you get more swings per minute. They're great for training Melee, Dexterity as well. I always train people with Katanas until they get enough dex, then switch them over to the weapon class I want them to expert in. Interesting enough Nodachis wreck humans, with very high cut damage multipliers which often make up for the -20% vs armor effect when combined with the +10% vs Humans with wide reach as well, when doing side swings, more than sabers. Though I'd say finding good Sabers is a lot easier, definitely for how many Meitou ones that are available, which means eventually you want a few really good saber troopers so you can maximize your army when you eventually get those weapons. I've not seen a Meitou Nodachi yet. Though I do have a female character using a Meitou Ninja Sword who can do 120 Damage to unarmored humans which = often 1 hit KOs.
Yeah I've seen that before about katanas being ideal for training, especially since you can give terrible quality weapons to your prisoners with masterwork armor and it makes the sessions go for much longer.
My favorite weapon to use was the heavy polearm. Its a spear with most of the bonuses and none of the draebacks and also lighter than the standard polearm just more top heavy
I'm aiming for having a broad line of defenders, guarding an equal number of crossbows. They need heavy armor, and a single biiig weapon. The Falling Sun is ideal because it draws damage from both Str and Dex. I don't know if specialized weapons would do better when facing specific foes, but I want all-round cleave damage.
@@Orange01gaming Having a line of giant blades _diving_ into enemy swarms is proving quite fun. Also, my crossbows have Short Cleavers. "Congrats. You made it across the field." /pulls out machete My doctrine of 'one hit, one limb' is proving very good with standard 1v1 combat settings.
Oron looked like he was doing pretty good with those sweeping attacks, but I think most of the enemies were doing first aid and not attacking him so they weren't attacking him.
Some say MA is best to take out cities, no one tried to take out cities with blunt weapons... So the questions is this, what weapon can take out most cities in Kenchi ?
Buy a building in the city. Fit it out as a fortress with rotating harpoons that can fire 6x100 dmg shots in a few seconds salvo. Then just defend the kill zone using mercenaries or disposable tanks.
@@Orange01gaming It's good up until heavy armor enemies. The ones in the video are taking 25 dmg per hit from the katana, which include 2x attacks and side cuts. The desert sabre is slightly slower at 30-35 dmg per hit. Both would be ineffective against high level samurai armor. As enemies scale higher, their toughness stat begins to noticeably decrease the damage taken and reduce the stun lock duration of hits. This is countered by increasing attack slots to "swarm" an enemy and constantly keep them on the defenisve or stunned. Light armor have cut efficiency of 50%, medium 60-65%. Against high level armors, their blunt resistance is far less and any weapon that does blunt damage is better than a purely cutting weapon.
@@Orange01gaming I practice with sharp and unsharpened katanas, cutting practice, iaijutsu, and shopped around for affordable pieces like the 9260 silicon spring steel alloy. A lot of the historical stuff in the comments here was amusing and interesting. Modern steel combined with Japanese katana edge design, makes for the best of both worlds. Still doesn't cut through tempered/hardened plate armor though, due to deflection. The thorough hardened modern katana spine and points are pretty much short spears though. The historical weapons were brittle due to the folding process used. A soft spine was needed to make the device work and to cushion the shock and vibrations. Only enough good steel was around for the edge, normally. Saved a lot of good metal. From 1-100, a user would have to be 85-97% in terms of bell curve statistics, to be able to cut leather and chain armor without snapping the edge or chipping it. They don't normally show that in anime or shows, but edge alignment and cutting technique uses Miyamoto Musashi's book of 5 rings methods. Legs as well as arms and back. If you want to go full kenshi, you can buy an unsharpened practice steel sword from kult of althena. And the destruction test videos of Cheness 9260 spring steel should be seen.
The problem is that after your squad has 30 people it becomes a big pain to re-equip them. But every time my party is wiped, the next time I attack the same place I equip like five characters before trying again. If I fail again, I change 5 more guys and so on.
Yeah, when I wrote my review for the game on Steam I praised the game a lot, but I gave many ideas on how to make things less complex. Some character of mine were having more than 30 queued orders. I would like to set a basic profession to a character, like "farmer" and/or "cook". More management than that should be optional. After playing for 90 hours I got tired from the eternal loop before I can finally get out of my base again to do stuff.
@@Orange01gaming this is my biggest complaint with this game. Navigating the UI is a total slog and just keeping things organized is a big time consumer especially as the crafting and equipment gets more complex and varied. Rimworld does the jobs system way better but rimworld is more focused on that aspect of gameplay overall than kenshi.
Crossbows are super good, but they can cause friendly fire. In my previous game I have a few people, but not in my lets play. I have a video on how to use them that I'll be releasing on the 8th.
Super useful early on. First weapon i bought. Used to run a 14 man squad with xbows only, was super effective till i got decent armor and weapons, but needed too much micromanagement. You need to spread everyone out, maybe use 1 or 2 dudes in block+taunt. I still keep 2 mw eagle xbows in an 8 man roaming team, for robot spiders and unforseen circumstances. Mostly avoid using them because i get aggroed often at x3 and do more dmg to my own team than the enemy does.
@@instinct922 A good hybrid is xbos+open side slot, allowing them to become martial artists when closely engaged. This allows you to use the Roman shield wall strategy of having your tankers be your initial range, and only kite back a few damaged guys to use them as extra range support dps/healers on passive or hold. Of course you can just put a good defensive side arm too and have them on block, and pull back another wave of your shield wall. Potential issue is generally tanks need heavy armor and crossbows use light to medium armor optimally. Mercenary plate may be a good compromise.
I'm new to this game. Every time I fight an enemy it's an endless loop of me winding up to attack, then I get hit and my attack gets interrupted. Then I wind up, and get it. wind up, get hit, wind up, get hit.. then I die before I land a single successful attack. What am I doing wrong? i probably just suck
No, that is part of the lower levels. Kenshi is a game of patience more than anything else. You will be comically weak, but eventually you will become unstoppable. Just don't get KOed around animals that eat you, cannibals, or skin bandits.
@@walterlippmann6292 There are some ways to "train" skills quickly but honestly just enjoy the journey. It will make your one punch man that more rewarding.
@@Orange01gaming Kenshi makes sounds every now and then and I have no idea what is triggering them or what they signify a lot of the time. I know the sound that it makes when you get to a new zone and that's about it. I mostly play the game while listening to and watching other things, like your video for example. Thanks.
@@Orange01gaming Beak Things are the bane of my Rangers (crossbow squad) I can spread out but beak things are the only enemy i've encountered that my rangers cant outrun. I can cheese it with manual attack animation dodging, but if i get a group of beak things then that isn't really viable and its likely that i'll lose half of my squad before 4-6 beak things go down.
@@fullelement4886 My main character is about lvl50-60 in all fields. He can solo 2 adult and 1 elder beak without taking a hit. I send him in alone with taunt, and rest just hang back or pelt them with bolts. Oh and sabre/polearm help a lot. If you are in lower levels, take a sabre with +8def, and put 1 dude on block and taunt.
