Guides & Editorial
Get to grips with the ebb and flow of combat , from blocks and parries to brutal Beta abilities, in Shift Up's stylish sci-fi action-adventure.
Combat is a core part of your adventure through the devastated future Earth of Stellar Blade. The ruined civilization is overrun with a huge variety of Naytiba, including a range of extremely dangerous Alpha Naytiba.
You’ll need to leverage your full range of combat abilities, both offensive and defensive, combining skills and combos to overcome your enemies and reclaim Earth.
You’ll unlock more options as you go and these will build your arsenal as you progress.
Attacks and combos
Though they're less powerful than some of your other abilities, your primary forms of attack are unlimited and reliable.
Eve’s primary weapon is her trusty sword, Blood Edge, and it's used in several basic attacks. Light attacks can be deployed using the Square button; heavy attacks using the Triangle button. While each has its own combo that can be unleashed by repeatedly pressing the button, more elaborate attack sequences can be executed using combinations of the two.
You’ll have eight of these primary combos at the outset, grouped into two sets: ‘Incursion’ and ‘Onslaught’. Each of these has slightly different timings and lengths, some include defensive measures – like mid-combo back steps – while others include more aggressive distance-covering dashes that allow you to bear down on a foe even as it tries to flee.
Experiment with each of these to get a feeling for the timings and the uses.
Holding the Triangle button unleashes an aggressive forward dash known as a ‘Rush’. This attack has a short cooldown between uses but is excellent for covering distance and aggressively punishing enemies.
You can upgrade the Rush attack in your skills menu by spending SP (Skill Points) to increase the length and power of the attack and even add additional follow-up blows to brutalize the enemy.
Early in the game, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock special attacks that can deliver brutal ‘execution’ blows to unaware adversaries. This can be done by quietly approaching them from behind or diving onto them from above and pressing Triangle to initiate the attack.
These can be a great way to get an opening advantage against a group of adversaries, particularly if you target the most dangerous enemy in the group, or to dispatch an enemy silently without drawing the attention of other enemies.
Dodging and parries
If you don't learn to stay out of harm's way, you'll soon fail in your mission to overcome the Naytiba. Strong offense is nothing without a strong defense.
The most immediate form of defense in Eve’s arsenal is the block. Raise your weapon and take a defensive stance during combat by holding L1. Though this won’t block all incoming damage it will significantly reduce the impact of any incoming front-on attack.
If you trigger your block stance just as an enemy’s blow is about to land, you'll parry the attack. This ‘perfect block’ maneuver is much riskier to deploy, but if your timing is right it will negate all incoming damage and even has the potential to knock your enemy off balance.
In some circumstances (if you’re up against a number of enemies, for example), it might make more sense to get out of harm’s way, rather than attempting to block or parry a flurry of attacks. Tapping the Circle button will allow Eve to quickly dodge away, evading incoming blows.
One disadvantage to dodging is that it can often leave you outside of striking distance of your enemies, meaning you won’t be able to quickly riposte with attacks of your own. However, by dodging at the very last second, you’ll trigger a Perfect Dodge.
Perfect Dodges allow you to pass through enemy blows that would have normally hit, completely avoiding damage and allowing you to stick close to your enemy and land hits of your own between their attacks.
Beta and Blink
Truly excelling in combat means mixing basic offense and defense with additional attacks and abilities that fully exploit enemy weaknesses.
Executing Perfect Blocks on enemy attacks knocks the enemy off-balance, repeatedly deflecting their attacks back at them forces them into a staggered state. When this occurs hold the triangle button to activate a ‘Retribution’ attack.
These devastating attacks deal huge damage and often kill an enemy outright. For tougher enemies, especially those with shields, using their offensive force against them will keep you from harm (as Perfect Blocks nullify all incoming damage) and open them up for brutal retribution attacks.
Some enemies can deploy dangerous Fatal Attacks – including large area-of-effect or grabbing attacks. These attacks cannot be blocked: if you want to avoid damage or even death, you’ll need to dodge away, or deploy a ‘Blink’.
A Blink is a special type of teleport dodge that can only be deployed against Fatal Attacks and can be triggered by leaning the left thumbstick toward the enemy and pressing the circle button just as the fatal attack is about to unleash.
This special ability teleports you directly behind the foe, avoiding incoming damage and allowing you to follow up with a brutal counter-offensive.
Alongside your regular melee attacks, you also have a range of special attacks known as ‘Beta Skills'. These attacks draw on a limited supply of Beta energy that you’ll build up during combat and are unleashed by holding L1 and pressing any corresponding face button (Square, Circle, Cross, and Triangle).
These abilities require differing amounts of Beta energy to perform but have some unique applications, such as unblockable thrusting strikes or wide slashes perfect for crowd control. You’ll unlock more of these abilities and upgrade existing ones as you progress through the game. Pick those that best suit your play style and use them alongside regular combos, blocks and parries to devastate your enemies.
How to beat Stellar Blade
Combine all of the above with these top tips and you'll be in great shape to take on the deadly Naytiba threat.
Buy Stellar Blade on PlayStation Store
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