For Honor puts players in a medieval fantasy conflict between Knights, Samurai, and Vikings. To immerse them in the battles, the game introduced a new approach to melee combat. Its directional guard and attack systems remain largely unique and give players much more precision in their duels. The trade-off for this precision was an advanced, difficult-to-master combat system, which can cause struggles even for advanced players.
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Since its release in 2017, dedicated For Honor duelists have put in the work to familiarize themselves with the strange system. By so doing, they have uncovered a number of tips, tricks, fascinating features and secret moves hidden in the complex world of For Honor's unique Medieval-themed combat.
8 Players Can Accidentally Down Themselves With Their Own Feats
While other games like Mordhau have similar combat systems, For Honor separates itself with the inclusion of special abilities.The game allows the player to equip a series of perks and abilities, known as Feats, to each Hero. While many are passive buffs to the Hero's health or stamina, some are active abilities that can heal and provide buffs or attack enemies.
Some of these offensive feats, like the infamous Arrow Storm, are area-of-effect attacks that deal damage in a highlighted zone on the map. When one of these zones appears, enemies and friendlies alike should avoid it, as the arrows or fire about to be summoned there can be deadly to everybody. Even the player that activated the feat can be damaged and downed by the attack. Players surrounded by enemies can't be saved by a 'cheap' hail of arrows that kills everyone around them without damaging themselves at all.
7 Deal Massive Damage And Guarantee Executions With One Unique Move
For those who struggle to activate executions in time (or who are in desperate need of the health bonus that comes from them), Hitokiri has a perfect feat. A relatively new addition to For Honor, Hitokiri is in the Samurai faction (a popular faction and type of fighter in gaming generally) and falls in the tricky and tanky Heavy class of Hero. They have a unique feat known as Senbonzakura, and those that haven't tried it will probably be delighted by its effects.
When the feat is triggered, the player performs an unblockable attack that deals incredibly high damage. If the attack kills the opponent, it automatically launches into an execution. It's a great feat to throw back in the face of an enemy that has been taunting the player or successfully defending from most of their attacks. Just keep in mind that the player is vulnerable while performing the automatic execution, as with any other.
6 Accidentally Throw Friendly Minions Off Cliffs
For Honor populates its battles with AI warriors of each faction, who fight alongside each team's Heroes. They help with capturing objectives, but are of course no match for a Hero. Even the most inexperienced players can cut scores of them down quickly, especially with the arcs and ranges of some of the attacks of For Honor's cast.
Luckily, friendly minions are immune to these attacks, allowing players to swing more wildly. Unfortunately, these allies can still suffer knockback from friendly attacks. This means that if a player is attacking an enemy Hero near a cliff, any friendly grunts backing them up are in real danger of being flung into the abyss by a wide attack from their Hero. These warriors respawn at a rapid pace, though, so there isn't really much harm done.
5 Create A Very Effective Support Character With Potent Offense In The Gryphon Hero
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These feats alone make Gryphon an ideal support character, a rare option in For Honor that past players may not know they have. They can also make use of Gryphon's other unique feat, Stern Stare to lower targeted enemies' attack power. Gear perks can further enhance health gains. All this means a Gryphon on the player's team can change the entire match, weakening the enemy while rejuvenating allies.
4 Dodge Arrow Strike With Perfect Timing
Most area-of-effect attacks in For Honor require complete abandonment of the area to avoid damage. A player can dodge all they want in the area, but the nature of the attack means that they will still take damage. Unless the attack in question is Arrow Strike. Similar to the infamous Arrow Storm, this more concentrated feat can actually be dodged.
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With the right timing, a player can dodge within the feat's area and avoid damage. A correctly timed dodge will trigger invulnerability frames that cancel out any damage that the player might have suffered. This does take very precise timing, so the best strategy is still to avoid the area altogether.
3 Cancel Detrimental Effects With A Bite From The Shaman
The Shaman is a powerful Assassin Hero in the Viking faction with a penchant for the bleed effect. Titles like For Honor and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla don't tell the full story about Vikings, of course, but this Hero touches on their reputation as brutal warriors. When fighting a bleeding enemy, the Shaman enters a Blood Trance that heals her with every attack and unlocks special attacks. One of these attacks is the Wild Cat's Pounce, in which the Shaman leaps at her opponent, tackling them to the ground and biting them. This heals her and deals extra damage to the enemy. While this move is very powerful and helpful in battle, it has a downside some players might not be aware of.
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This bite also ends any effects the enemy is suffering, like poison or burning. This means that if an enemy is suffering these effects and then is bitten by the Shaman, they may actually end up suffering less damage in the long term, as the attack ends any timed damage on them.
2 Unleash The Devastating Power Of Ladders
There are few actions quite as dangerous as climbing a ladder in For Honor. The player has no defense and limited mobility and attack. Plus, their field of view is limited while climbing, making it difficult to see anyone waiting at the top of the ladder. This can be exploited by foes waiting above a ladder, but such sneaky strategies can be taken a step further.
Players can wait at the top of ladders for enemies to start climbing, then slide down to knock the foe off, causing huge damage and sometimes even killing them. It's so simple but almost impossible to defend against. Bold players can utilize this in a tag team strategy, with one player knocking the enemy off and the other leaping on the downed enemy from above, killing them with an aerial attack.
1 Punish Opponents For Grouping Together With Warmonger's Sneaky Corruption
Warmonger is a powerful new Vanguard in the Knight faction that comes with a pair of feats perfect for crowd-clearing. Corruption Blade is a unique feat that causes the next attack to inflict the target with the Corruption effect, while Corruption Blast casts the Corruption effect over an area. This effect deals damage to the opponent attacked and all those around them, so long as they remain in each other's vicinity.
Warmonger also has two other unique feats that allow her to gain health when attacking Corrupted enemies and deal extra damage to them. The Corruption effect is great in modes like Dominion, especially if the entire enemy team has crowded into a capture point to defend it. A creative mechanic that those who have fallen out of the For Honor loop might be unaware of.
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