Experienced players: advanced combat tips? Share / pool them here.

[ncstaunton]

I've been deliberately dying in order to experiment with the Shield after getting it. The mechanics are not quite clear so anyone else's experimentation is welcome.

1. Shield active slam appears to sometimes interrupt certain Knight attacks. I think it breaks the charge move but not 100%. I think at other times it has been able to parry the Punch. Again not certain. Any clarification from players?

2. Axe/Sickle zombies can throw their axes faster than you can hold shift to Escape. TWO 9mm bullets in the arm will make them lower their arm as well as knockback... and a third bullet appears to make them drop the weapon.

3. Maid zombies always infect from a single bite... meaning they 1-shot kill anybody. Therefore it's a good idea to always walk around with the Magnum ready? They appear so quickly that they are almost always at very close range when combat begins.

4. I know back in 2020 the Shake-Off mechanic had some RNG as a developer said. Now I believe they said on release it would be stamina-based. Not clear how this works? It looks to me that Grapple takes more effort the more times you do it, so only the first one is "free". Not sure.

5. Spider boss: Do you cut the web with knife? Does Magnum do knockback when it's about to bite? Should I be switching weapon mid combat to get knockback? Should I always have the shield before doing this fight? Does shield work against this boss? Active parry? Not clear.

[D-Lan]

I know if you shoot zombies in the leg they go prone.

5. at certain points, point blank shots with the shotgun stunned it and made it fall down for a little bit.
The shield worked for me during certain attacks, mainly biting/swings.

[Qwarky]

A shotgun blast close up is enough to kill maid zombies, so no need to have magnum ready. I usually walked around with the shield once I had it, it's excellent for so many encounters, and most zombies won't be able to grab you and you just keep bashing them and pushing them away.

The maids I do try to shoot quickly as they can sometimes skitter away and escape.