Any guide on how/what the combo symbols mean?

[The_Pastmaster]

I'm usually not one for spectacle fighters, only played God of War years and years ago. I just don't get how to read some of the combos.

Okay, so I know what the fist and the foot means. The game told me. So 6 fists = Click Fist six times in a row. Easy. But then you have one like... 3 Foot, then a white square, and then another foot. The hell does that mean? I tried waiting, varying click speeds, but nothing seemed to work.

Then there's a target symbol, a white arrow pointing left and then a foot symbol... What?
Why does games like this (Well, God of War and Bayonetta at least.) not explain what all the combo symbols mean?

[Targren]

> 3 Foot, then a white square, and then another foot. The hell does that mean?

Kick->Kick->Kick->Pause->Kick

> Then there's a target symbol, a white arrow pointing left and then a foot symbol..

Lock-on + Move Away + Kick

You can enter practice mode in the loading screen to work them out.

[The_Pastmaster]

Originally posted by Targren:

> 3 Foot, then a white square, and then another foot. The hell does that mean?

Kick->Kick->Kick->Pause->Kick

> Then there's a target symbol, a white arrow pointing left and then a foot symbol..

Lock-on + Move Away + Kick

You can enter practice mode in the loading screen to work them out.

If I can get a loading screen to last more than half a second I would. :P I tried working them out on my own but it didn't work for the kick combo. I tried long pauses, short pauses, nothing to indicate that I made it. Use counter sits firmly at 0.

I really like they thing in the Techniques buying menu where you can try it first and it actually teaches how to do it.

[SethFrost]

Originally posted by The_Pastmaster:

If I can get a loading screen to last more than half a second I would. :P

If you press Tab while on the loading screen, you'll go into practice mode.

[The_Pastmaster]

Originally posted by Seth Light:

Originally posted by The_Pastmaster:

If I can get a loading screen to last more than half a second I would. :P

If you press Tab while on the loading screen, you'll go into practice mode.

I'll try next time I play. :) Thank you.

[Icarus Flight]

The pauses in the combos can be tricky until you get the timing, but usually the animation of Bayonetta's attack hints when to pause.
I think the easier weapons for practicing are the guns and the sword.

For pauses after a punch:
If you are using the sword, this one is pretty easy to get the combos with; after the slash, Bayonetta will stop the sword for a brief period of time, this is when you can use the next attack.
So, for the Punch-Pause-Punch combo, Bayonetta will start with a downward slash, pause a bit when the sword is leaning and that's the moment you perform the next punch (She should jump, launching a small enemy into the air with her if you performed it against any).
After that, you can try practicing the Punch-Punch-Pause-Punch combo, where it may be more easy to spot the difference when you do a pause. The first to attacks must be performed in quick succession, then wait for her to make her little pause and use the last punch at that moment.
The sword has a lot of combos with pauses in the middle, so you can try those. It can be tricky performing these combos if you hold the attack button, but I will talk about that a bit later.
If you use the guns, you can see Bayonetta spinning her guns after punching, that's the cue for the pause. It's kinda hard to describe it, but a little bit after she starts spinning them is when you must press the attack button again.

For pauses after a kick:
I think the easiest one is Kick-Kick-Pause-Punch. In the first two attacks, Bayonetta will attack with two kicks. The moment you should press the punch button should be around the time she lands the foot she used to kick and goes back to her normal pose.
If you are doing this one with the guns on her feet, you can also try holding the kick button both times (this will make her shoot) and see if you can perform the combo letting her shoot all she can after each kick (IIRC she shoots around 8 times). Since the pause is still when her foot goes to the floor, this shouldn't be that much harder (again, I'll be talking later about the importance of button holding).
You can see different animations in combos like Punch-Punch-Kick-Pause-Kick, where instead of performing a kick before the pause, she will stomp the ground. Beware that Punch-Punch-Kick-Kick(-Kick) without the pause will result in a different combo.
In this case, the last kick should also be performed when her foot is going back to the floor from her last kick.

When you are feeling comfortable with these, you can try holding the punch and kick buttons while you are performing the combo.Each weapon is different in this aspect, so it takes some practice until you get used (the sword for example has a charge attack when holding, so you must wait until Bayonetta does a little pause like normal after releasing the button).I would avoid the ice skates since their charge attack is trickier.

The last thing regarding combos is Dodge Offset. This is one of the main mechanics in the game, but has no tutorial and the only in-game info about it is kinda hidden on a book in the menu.
If you perform a Punch-Kick-Punch combo, it will end with a wicked weave, but if you evade while doing it, like Punch-Kick-Evade-Punch, the combo will restart after the evade and you won't get the wicked weave. Dodge Offset is a mechanic that let's you evade while performing the combo without breaking it.
The way to do that is holding the attack button while dodging, so in the example, you should be holding the kick button while you are evading and then use punch. An easy way to see this is using the guns, since Bayonetta will fire her guns while dodging if you are holding an attack button.
Besides dodging, this can also be done with a lot more techniques, like while taunting, or while using panther within or umbran spear.