Disarming trouble, part two

[retsa2b]

Went through the not inconsiderable trouble of belatedly working Swordsman up to where I could start disarming folks.

The good news is that it does work. Quite a step up from my 0% success rate with guns (I haven't made it far enough in the game to even have access to a charge gun, so that's right out).

Bad news? I read this was supposed to work after about two attempts. Reality? I'm happy if they drop their sword after 10 tries in a row.

So is this being dictated by other factors? It's not how damaged the enemy is. Is it my choice of sword? Is there some sword that makes disarming more likely? Is there an ability that improves success rate? Or equipment?

And I guess I may as well ask, just to save time: Am I ever going to find anything besides bundle swords? (I already know the gold guys should have something different. I mean from regular encounters.)

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

And I guess I may as well ask, just to save time: Am I ever going to find anything besides bundle swords? (I already know the gold guys should have something different. I mean from regular encounters.)

Enemies that aren't Golden Sneaks do sometimes drop weapons other than Bundle Blades but it's rare to put it mildly and I've never seen a drop that's remotely on par with a Firefly let alone a Juzu-maru in 130 hours.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by Velesianus:

Enemies that aren't Golden Sneaks do sometimes drop weapons other than Bundle Blades but it's rare to put it mildly and I've never seen a drop that's remotely on par with a Firefly let alone a Juzu-maru in 130 hours.

Thanks. And since we're on the topic... Do enemies wielding something besides a sword ever drop their weapon? I ask because it doesn't seem possible to do the special parry on anything but a katana (so like, not even the shorter blades enemies occasionally use), but I don't know if the same story applies to when I can finally start shooting weapons out of hands.

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

Do enemies wielding something besides a sword ever drop their weapon?

Not that I'm aware of, except when it's scripted.

Spears and guns always despawn when dropped and you can only pick up certain odachi's temporarily in battle unless they're flagged to drop as a battle reward (like the one at the end of Chapter 1).

Of course, some of the RNG rates in this game are almost Korean MMORPG levels of low, lol, so I could absolutely be wrong .

[JollyJa5on]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

So is this being dictated by other factors? It's not how damaged the enemy is. Is it my choice of sword? Is there some sword that makes disarming more likely? Is there an ability that improves success rate? Or equipment?

And I guess I may as well ask, just to save time: Am I ever going to find anything besides bundle swords? (I already know the gold guys should have something different. I mean from regular encounters.)

I think the game says that using a higher grade weapon, like purple and gold, gives you an increased chance of disarming. I've also noticed that it seems like timing has an effect as well. Do it too early and you'll likely just do a parry, do it closer to getting hit and you'll have a better chance of disarming. Later on you'll be able to upgrade perks and can disarm by doing a timed block.

Unfortunately most enemies only carry bundle blades and the rank and file mooks will never have anything special.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by JollyJa5on:

Unfortunately most enemies only carry bundle blades and the rank and file mooks will never have anything special.

Disarmed about 100 enemies now and have only gotten bundle blades. Makes me feel dumb for having bought a few of those.

Also disarmed one gold sneak. Who also had a bundle blade. I guess I assumed those guys always had something unique.

[Napalmburner]

Gold Sneaks usually have something unique like an elemental sword, sad you didn't get one
:(

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

I guess I assumed those guys always had something unique.

I've actually never figured out what triggers GS weapon advancement. There seems to be 3 stages.

They start with almost all of them carrying BB's or those long daggers (that you can't pickup) and then switch to about a 50/50 mix and then finally, almost all of them that spawn have one of the three main pre-B elemental swords.

From a little bit of experimenting, it doesn't seem to be story progression or a particular equipped gear quality so I assumed it was area rep related but I never went back to verify.

If anyone figures it out I'd really like to know.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by JollyJa5on:

I've also noticed that it seems like timing has an effect as well.

I definitely figured out the main thing I was missing. Or so it seems to me.

My original practice had been to stand in battle stance (holding RB) and hit B at the appropriate moment. But I determined that standing in no stance and then quickly pressing both buttons at the appropriate moment dramatically increases the odds. My average required parries went from about 40 to about 5.

[JollyJa5on]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

Also disarmed one gold sneak. Who also had a bundle blade. I guess I assumed those guys always had something unique.

Towards the middle of the game they almost always had elemental swords for me, except when they had spears. Their sword will have a colored mist effect and the scabbard will be the color of the element, red for fire, yellow for lightning ect.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by JollyJa5on:

Their sword will have a colored mist effect and the scabbard will be the color of the element, red for fire, yellow for lightning ect.

Well that definitely makes me feel better about the dozen or so sneaks I already killed off before I had any disarming capabilities. None of them have had anything like that so far.

[MisterPool]

Originally posted by Velesianus:

Originally posted by retsa2b:

I guess I assumed those guys always had something unique.

I've actually never figured out what triggers GS weapon advancement. There seems to be 3 stages.

They start with almost all of them carrying BB's or those long daggers (that you can't pickup) and then switch to about a 50/50 mix and then finally, almost all of them that spawn have one of the three main pre-B elemental swords.

From a little bit of experimenting, it doesn't seem to be story progression or a particular equipped gear quality so I assumed it was area rep related but I never went back to verify.

If anyone figures it out I'd really like to know.

Might be tied to blacksmith level. I didn't start seeing them until I started pushing those. Just a guess.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by JollyJa5on:

Finally think I've nailed this one. The #1 factor determining disarm success is the "quality" of your sword. Not how badass it is. Make the cheapest sword you can but use the super duper hammer to make it level 5, and it'll be way better at disarming than the highest-end sword in the game at level 1. Right beneath that is the weird thing I noted earlier: that using the disarm technique from no stance seems to increase your odds by 8x.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by Velesianus:

I've actually never figured out what triggers GS weapon advancement.

I can at least state with complete confidence that the trigger for "stage 2" is the plot advancement to the point where you start encountering trooper candidates. Before this advent, I killed about 20 sneaks and they were all using bundle swords. Immediately after, every sneak I've encountered has had an elemental sword (when they've had a sword at all). And I will also note that the spawn rate of the gold guys increased at least 10-fold. I just ran into three in a row, for example.