Leo
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The official...
It has been a while since this patch was released, and although there are still plenty of either inconsistent or uncertain things, I believe the new players should stand a chance in learning the game. I am proud to announce that R20 Dueling Guide with my work is actually happening, and this time, I'd really like to pay extra attention into busting as many myths as possible, ensuring that every piece of information in this guide is as true as can be, and for this, I need other experienced duelists that know a thing or two to come up with their feedback. Every suggestion will be taken into account and every potential fix or new content added by others will be credited to them. This is a community-wide project that needs to stay up-to-date regardless of possible updates in the future.
Please contact me on my discord in-case you have a question or you'd like to share potential improvements to the guide. leonss.
This guide focuses on ensuring that every new player has a chance to give this game a proper shot. It will contain everything from the ground-up, including introduction to the game, explanation of each HUD element all the way to the advanced dueling mechanics, such as masking and disarming.
The focus will be on the Yellow style, as it is generally the most used style, where you can apply every single mechanic in the game.
I'd also like to state that there are many "invisible" mechanics in the game, such as multiple ways to swing faster than regular swings (halfswings, countering), or there's Attack Chain Multiplier, which value you can't even see and yet it decides about most of the duel, as it increases your damage dealt and you should focus on obtaining it. All of these will be explained further in the guide.
1. New Player
1.1 Introduction to the game
1.2 HUD Elements
1.3 Binds
2. Padawan
2.1 Styles
2.2 Swingblock & Slapping
2.3 Combos
2.4 Perfect Block
2.5 Parry
2.6 Movement
3. Jedi Knight
3.1 Manual Block
3.2 Attack Chain Multiplier
3.3 Counters
3.4 Halfswings
3.5 Yawing
3.6 Masking
4. Adventurer
4.1 Damage Events/Modifiers
4.2 Blue style
4.3 Cyan style
4.4 Yellow style
4.5 Duals style
4.6 Staff style
4.7 Red style
4.8 Purple style
5. The End
For finding a specific category, you can perform "CTRL + F" and search for the exact name and category number, such as "2.5 Parry".
List of all possible mentions through-out the guide, to ensure understanding context better:
- Perfect Block, PB » green block after aiming towards the direction of the swing, negates bp damage
- Perfect Block Counter, PBC » fast first swing after pbing a hit, dealing more damage
- Combo » continuous chaining of swings
- Swingblock » holding block during attack animation, stops slaps and disarms
- Slapping » using class special 2 to knockdown your opponent, allows for punish before they getup
- Manual Block, MBlock, MB » holding both attack and block button with movement keys, resulting in specific blocking animations
- Attack Chain Multiplier, ACM » a value that decides how much more extra damage your swings will do
- Parry » sabers colliding at the same time, significantly decreases BP loss
- Counters » fast start of a first swing after being attacked
- Halfswings » faster single swings, need to be in swing count limit of styles
- Yawing » rotating camera to manipulate speed of swings
- Masks » intentionally causing confusing play to make your opponent unaware where to look for PB
- Bodyhit Counter » fast first swing after getting hit, deals normal damage
- First swing / neutral swing » the slowest swing that deals the most damage, before being overtaken by combo swings
- Combo swing » swing that comes after first swing, if the first swing landed combo swings result in 0.5x damage and their own ACM gain
- Interrupt » taking increased damage for not managing to swing in time
- MB Def, MB defense, Manual Block Defense » doing successful manual block but without matching PB zones
- Failed MB » doing manual block but failing to match the movement keys with the PB zone
- bodyhit » any swing that actually hit the opponent and caused BP damage (wasn't perfect blocked)
- return animation » the final stage of your swing animation, where it comes back to you
1. New Player
1.1 Introduction to the gameTODO
1.2 HUD Elements
TODO
1.3 Binds
First and foremost, you should make sure that you know the location of all binds necessary for dueling, I will also include binds I find "useful" on your journey in Duel Mode. For the sake of quick-access, I will tell you the console command that you need to enter in the console, which can be opened by either tilde or shift + tilde, depending which engine you're running MBII on. You can always find that out in the MBII Launcher settings.
Buttons are generally bound using this method in console:
Buttons are generally bound using this method in console:
bind x y, where x is the key and y is the thing you want it to perform, for example bind 1 say lol, which now assigns the button "1" to send a "lol" message in the chat. You are free to set your binds using the in-game controls menu.- Saber Throw, Class Special 1
- As suggested, this controls the bind that you will use for either throwing out your saber or pulling it back after being disarmed. I'd recommend not setting this to a mouse thumb button, so that chances of accidentally throwing your lightsaber mid-duel are next to zero.
+button10
- Slap, Class Special 2
- This bind controls the default slap melee move that Jedi and Sith can perform.
+button11
- Use
- Important function that is being used in all gamemodes, in terms of dueling, this allows you to perform a "hop", basically a smaller jump.
+use
- Reload
- In dueling, this can be used to stop your current swing mid-air. Whetever it'd be feinting purposes, or simply swinging into air, it is a button that you will definitely end up using from time to time.
+button14
- Class Settings
- In class settings, you set up your build, where you assign points to various things such as Saber Defense, Force Push, or you may change your model/hilt.
ui_opensiegemenu ingame_playerforce(properly done like this:bind _ "ui_opensiegemenu ingame_playerforce")
- Movement
- Forward:
+forward - Left:
+moveleft - Right:
+moveright - Back:
+back - Jump:
+moveup - Crouch:
+movedown
Lastly, these saber out knockdown melee moves that require more keys to be pressed at the same time.
- Sweepkick
- Slap + Use + Crouch
- Sidekick
- Use + Movement key + Slap
- Flying Kick
- Forward + Use + Slap
For changing your name, or setting up a bind to change your name, you may use this:
bind _ set name __ (replace first _ with the key, last _ with the name)For changing your maxfps to a custom value, you can use
com_maxfps _ (replace last _ with your numeric value)2. Padawan
2.1 StylesThis game allows you to choose between 7 lightsaber styles (colors) that you may use to your advantage. They can either be offensive, defensive or balanced. You may take as much as up to 5 styles at the same time in the case of single saber hilt, or take duals & one extra style / staff & one extra style.
Light Styles:
- Blue
- Defense Rating: 55
- Offense Rating: 6
- Swing Count: 3
- Cyan
- Defense Rating: 47
- Offense Rating: 8
- Swing Count: 3
Medium Styles
- Yellow
- Defense Rating: 50
- Offense Rating: 10
- Swing Count: 4
- Duals
- Defense Rating: 49
- Offense Rating: 8
- Swing Count: 3, more every 4 ACM
- Staff
- Defense Rating: 53
- Offense Rating: 9
- Swing Count: 4
Strong Styles
- Red
- Defense Rating: 48
- Offense Rating: 12
- Swing Count: 3
- Purple
- Defense Rating: 48
- Offense Rating: 11
- Swing Count: 3
- Defensive Styles [0.25 ACM per partial ACM gain]
- Blue
- Staff
- Balanced Styles [0.50 ACM per partial ACMgain]
- Yellow
- Cyan
- Purple
- Duals
- Offensive Styles [0.66 ACM per partial ACMgain]
- Red
The defense rating and offense rating points can be used to calculate the outcoming/incoming damage using this:
BP drain = 100 * (Offense Rating of attacker's style) / (Defense Rating of defender's style)We can calculate that 100 * 10 / 50 equals 20, which is the full damage of a first swing on Yellow vs. Yellow
2.2 Swingblock & Slapping
A swingblock is any swing during which the user holds the blocking button. It's probably one of the most important mechanics in the game and it is the only reliable counter against mechanics such as;
- Knockdown melee moves with saber out
- Slap
- Flying Kick
- Sweepkick
- Sidekick
- Manual Block
Attack, hold your block button, and in the case of combos or chaining swings, let go of your block button for a while to perform another attack. This will allow you to repeatedly chain swings using swingblock, but notice that there is a time window where you'll stop holding block. This window can be abused by your opponent by performing the already-mentioned knockdown melee move, generally slap.
-- insert 1 gif with mouse overlay combo where I'll be slapped in the window --
Pay caution to your movement, as while you're in air, you will still be able to get slapped, even while blocking. This can apply to either straight out jumps, hops or simply walking on a slope object.
Slaps
In the case of Jedi and Sith, slaps are class specials that will knock down the opponent were he hit by one while not blocking. This can be used to gain advantage in a duel, by allowing you to punish your opponent with severe BP damage and ACM gain. Once knocked down, the ability to perfect block is lost. Each knockdown melee move has a cooldown that may differ depending if you have a saber out or not, as these may behave differently.- With saber out:
- All forms of knockdown have a cooldown of 5 seconds
- With melee:
- Gunbash/Slap: 1.5 seconds
- Sweepkick: 3.5 seconds
- Flying Kick: 3 seconds
- Sidekick: None
- Fast getup
- Resulted in pressing space right after being slapped. This getup is significantly faster compared to others, but at the cost of being unable to block attacks. The only really proper case to use this is if you know the opponent's swing will not catch you in time.
- Roll
- Rolling is resulted in pressing diagonal A or D keys after being slapped. Your character will roll away from your opponent and then perform a safe getup. Your opponent might have a harder time punishing you, as he has to chase you and not miss his swing. The rolling will not attempt any counter knockdown compared to forward and back getups.
- Forward getup
- Resulted in pressing W after being slapped. Generally used to try and knockdown the opponent back in-case they're not blocking. Easier to punish with swing damage compared to rolling or fast getup.
- Back getup
- Resulted in pressing S after being slapped. Functions the same as forward getup, but you may delay the knockdown effect by manipulating the direction before the end of the animation. In terms of punishing, this is on par with forward getup.
How you'll decide to punish the slapped opponent is entirely up to you. You may either combo to perform quick stable damage, or you might try to gain ACM by using single swings / halfswings. Punishing a player deals the same amount of damage as if he was standing still (1.0x), for the most part, unfortunate bug may appear where damage results in 0.5x, which also changes the ACM gain to partial, instead of the default first swing gain.
However, slapping blindly might not be the best case. The cooldown is long enough for you to waste potential of possible comeback or quicker end to a duel. Don't forget that while you're in the animation, you're also not able to PB.
Some commonly adapted timings are to slap after you're done attacking, or after the opponent lands its first hit of combo. But these are just general examples, you don't have to necessarily follow them.
-- insert some gif --
2.3 Combos
A combo is a mechanic where your goal is chaining swings one after another. This can be done with no knowledge about other mechanics, as the only 2 things truly necessary are to simply attack and use your movement to direct the swings. The first swing of your combo will deal the most damage, while the rest will deal half of the first swing damage.
You may increase the effectiveness of your combo by using mechanics such as Swingblock, Yawing, Masks ... and even movement, each one of these things will change the way your combo behaves and how your opponent might react to it.
Your combo must be structured by swings that "skip" the surrounding directions of your swing. That means if you were to perform W swing first, you can not react with WA or WD swing right after. This applies to all swings, in the case of SA or SD swing, it applies to only A or D. Each style in the game has a specific amount of swings it can chain to form a combo, which is:
- Light Styles:
- Blue: 3
- Cyan: 3
- Medium Styles:
- Yellow: 4
- Duals: 3, but the limit increases by the more Attack Chain Multiplier you have
- Staff: 4
- Heavy Styles:
- Red: 3
- Purple: 3
- Light Styles:
- Blue: 0.75 ACM on first swing, then 0.25 ACM for chained combo swings
- Cyan: 0.75 ACM on first swing, then 0.50 ACM for chained combo swings
- Medium Styles:
- Yellow: 1 ACM on first swing, then 0.50 ACM for chained combo swings
- Duals: 1 ACM on first swing, then 0.50 ACM for chained combo swings
- Staff: 1 ACM on first swing, then 0.25 ACM for chained combo swings
- Heavy Styles:
- Red: 1 ACM on first swing, then 0.66 ACM for chained combo swings
- Purple: 1 ACM on first swing, then 0.50 ACM for chained combo swings
2.4 Perfect Block
A perfect block, in short rather known as PB, occurs when you're aiming at the right zone of an incoming swing. The zones in question are invisible shapes that surround your opponent's body, where if you look at the direction the swing is coming from, you have a chance of perfect blocking it.
PB results in negating opponent's swing damage and his ACM gain, while at the same time draining 0.25ACM off them, letting you freely regenerate your BP.
Were you to counter swing right after, your swing will receive a neat buff of 1.15x damage.
There's 7 common PB zones, each for one possible swing direction, and then there's also 6 zones, which we call magic zones/overlaps, that have the ability of perfect blocking more swings at the same time, generally located in the gaps between common PB zones.
PB on return works differently. "On return" indicates the end of your swing animation, where you're allowed to block, but it may come at a price, being:
- If you've landed a hit on opponent and he swings back right at you during your return animation:
- Opponent doesn't have 4 or more ACM. Your PB will negate all damage. (no damage taken)
- Opponent has 4 or up to 8 ACM. Your PB will negate only half of damage. (0.5x damage taken)
- Opponent has 9 or more ACM. Your PB will negate only quarter of the damage. (0.75x damage taken)
- If you haven't landed a hit, you're in return animation and at the same time you were hit by opponent:
- You will receive normal 1.0x damage bodyhit, as you can not perfect block in such state.
-- insert 3 crosshair images --
One way to make your life easier and getting to know the PB zones is enabling the Perfect Block Indicator, either through a console command or ingame settings.
pbindicator 1Settings -> Other -> Crosshair Options 2 -> Perfect Block Indicator: On
2.5 Parry
A parry happens, when a swing of yours and at the same time swing of opponent's clash at the same time. That means, none of them will truly land a hit on the other person, but instead, the swings will hit each other. This results in significant decrease of damage taken, being 10% of base bodyhit damage. (In Yellow vs. Yellow case, that would mean 2 BP).
Because of this, there is no winner in such a situation. No ACM gain or drain will happen as well. There are several ways to initiate a parry, but first, let's ask the question. Why would we want to initiate a parry in the first place?
- Significant reduction of incoming damage
- No ACM gain for the opponent (or you)
- If done properly, can be played around it
- In the case of opponent missing first swing, or in the case of you perfect blocking opponent's first swing, the parry could end in your favour
- Dodging opponent's swing, while starting your own swing to then interfere with opponent's combo
- Countering into opponent's combo from a distance
- Simply attacking at the same time at reasonable distance. You'll need decent reading skills at this point, if you plan to use it intentionally.
- Running while opponent isn't running
- Crouching while opponent isn't crouching
Perfect Parry
Indicated by blue crosshair flash, perfect parry is when opposite swings match during a parry. That can be, for example, mutual D swing, or for example WA swing from your opponent and SD swing from you. Perfect parries result in 0BP damage taken, while also generating 0.25 ACM per parry. -- random gif of perfect parry with cyan style --2.6 Movement
todo
3. Jedi Knight
3.1 Manual Block
A manual block is holding both your attack and block buttons at the same time, while also inputting movement keys. This results in various animations, such as this: -- insert MB animations gif with description of key used -- Together with the proper animation response, you will also need a perfect timing to execute this. Usually, you'll want to begin your MB animation just as the opponent's swing is about to hit you. That may result in various things, depending on the quality of your manual block. Each of these animations serve for specific swings. That means, you can not successfully manual block, say SD swing, while manual blocking with SD movement keys. -- insert gif with MB animations against opponent doing the swing -- The point of these is to allow for a more deadly defensive approach, such as disarming your opponent or counter swinging back with increased damage on the swing. Let's describe each thing that you may see while performing manual block.- Failed MB
- A failed MB occurs when you're inputting movement keys, holding both attack and block buttons at the right timing, but failing to input the correct movement keys. Failed MB thus punishes you for failing manual block, with the same amount of damage as you'd receive were you not PBing the swing.
- MB Defense
- MB Defense is rather unorthodox method of decreasing the incoming damage. By default, on success, you will be hit for 0.5x damage instead of 1.0x. This can be done by generally succeeding in manual block, but while not looking at the PB zone. It will not disarm the opponent. It does not build or drain any partial acm for either you or the attacker, and the follow-up bodyhit will still result in 1.0x damage and the normal ACM gain from a neutral swing.
- Disarm
- Disarming is one of the most dopamine filled mechanics out here, possible only against insufficient swingblock swing or just a swing with no swingblock at all. You'll need to succeed at both the manual block and at PB, with the right timing. The disarm timing is rather tight, but generally you'll need to press all the correct keys necessary right before the swing is about to hit you. The opponent will then get disarmed for the least amount of 3 seconds before being able to pull his swing back.
- Stagger
- In this case, stagger here applies only to Staff style. Stagger occurs on correctly done manual block, including the PB zone, but only against proper swingblock swings. The duration is increased by the more ACM you will have after reaching ACM 4.
3.2 Attack Chain Multiplier
- Less than 4 ACM
- 1.05x damage increase for every 1 ACM. (max 1.15x)
- 4 to 16 (max) ACM
- Damage is then separated by the type of style you're using, being;
- Light (Blue, Cyan) -> 1.08x damage increase every 1 ACM
- Medium (Yellow, Duals, Staff) -> 1.10x damage increase every 1 ACM
- Heavy (Red, Purple) -> 1.12x damage increase every 1 ACM
- Fast Styles:
- 0.75 ACM gain on neutral / first swing that resulted in bodyhit
- 0.25 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Blue style.
- 0.50 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Cyan style.
- Medium Styles:
- 1 ACM gain on neutral / first swing that resulted in bodyhit
- 0.50 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Yellow and Duals styles.
- 0.25 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Staff style.
- Heavy Styles:
- 1 ACM gain on neutral / first swing that resulted in bodyhit
- 0.66 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Red style
- 0.50 ACM gain on each combo swing bodyhit using Purple style
3.3 Counters
Interrupt
An interrupt is both a visual and sound effect that happens when your swing has been cancelled by opponent's swing. This results in you taking increased damage, and being stolen your turn of attacking. The increased damage in question is 1.2x. There are 2 different counters:- Bodyhit Counter
- A normal sped-up swing with default damage and ACM gain.
- PB Counter
- Sped-up swing that can only happen after PBing. Results in 1.15x outgoing damage and normal ACM gain.
3.4 Halfswings
A halfswing is a single swing with much faster speed, while at the same time doing the same damage or ACM gain as a single swing would. Halfswings are part of style's swing chaining count limit. That means, if a style has 3 swing count limit, you'll be able to only do 2 halfswings. Halfswings are possible to do on correct timing after already landing a swing. They can be initiated either from single swing, or from a combo (that does not reach the swing count limit). They serve well for full control over the ACM gain and opponent's ACM drain. As mentioned in the ACM category, the only swing that will cause opponent to lose ACM is a first swing // neutral swing, or a halfswing. That means you'll be much better off using halfswings to drain opponent's ACM than you would be with a combo. To train your usage of halfswings, try giving the reload button a shot. Perform single swing in air, reload, try performing another swing. You'll notice the difference if the swing is of the same speed or faster. Another valuable asset to your cause may be a training dummy, located on some maps or servers. Always located in a map mb2_duel_training. -- insert gif of comparing single swings and halfswings --
3.5 Yawing
- Advantages of "fast" yawing
- A form of masking, your swing is harder to read and thus harder to perfect block
- Due to the speed, opponent has to constantly keep up with the pressure
- Disadvantages of "fast" yawing
- In early stages, you'll get sided and a lot. The chance of that will slowly decrease over-time as you'll be gaining more experience and precision
- The damage debuff that is applied to you for being "too fast". This can result in as much as 30% damage decrease
- Advantages of "slow" yawing
- Catching opponent off-guard, this may result in interrupting the opponent, especially if they're impatient
- Disadvantages of "slow" yawing
- Taking too long could punish you instead of the opponent. That may be by getting interrupted by opponent before your swing has a chance to hit him
- If done in the wrong timing, your turn could easily be stolen by the faster opponent
- The potential risk of getting sided, same as with fast yawing
3.6 Masking
TODO
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