Backstabbing seems broken

[Ghost of Razgriz]

It's just so random. Directions say to be behind the enemy and weak attack. I figure the enemy can't be in an animation themselves, so I wait till they complete an action, yet it doesn't matter if I'm directly behind, off to the side, face between their butt cheeks or three miles off, backstab only works when it wants to work.

[Tregarde]

Backstab works, it just has a very small area where you need to stand. It took me a little practice, but once I got it down I can succeed at it almost every time.

Basically, you need to be just slightly to the right of center - so your left arm is right behind the target, and close but not touching.

Find an enemy you can easily sneak up behind and practice it. Pretty soon you'll be giving them a surprise up the bum on a regular basis!

[Lashane The Simp of Mimi]

it's easier to do than counter because mobility is plentiful on CV. the quick dodge is actually on par with 2B's dodge from N:A in terms of how good it is. for a soulsborne/dd game that's op in it's own way.

[SkacikPL]

It's wonky but it has certain level of reliability to it. With quick mobility it can be "learned" but yes - it's not intuitive. The spot is nearly never the back of enemy you see. Think more of it as a capsule and it rotates only when enemy actually moves or rotates to face you but any rotation done as part of animations doesn't count.


Their idle animations can also make them not stand in line with the back of the capsule which is also misleading. Usually aligning yourself a bit to the right or left off the center of their back is the spot that works.

[Yiaz]

also, try to not pressing any direction while doing it, just press the weak attack.

[FauxFurry]

Try not to think of it as a back stab so much as it is attacking a weak spot which is located somewhere behind the opponent yet off to the side, be it under and arm or the right butt cheek.

[it's a gabe]

In other words, it's broken. Or better yet, it was implemented in such a way that it feels broken. This is particularly noticeable on thinner enemies. The window to get a backstab on them is ridiculously small in the heat of combat, even if they're not targetting you.

Backstab works best as a surprise attack, which is reinforced by that gift which dampens your footsteps. In combat, try parrying. It can be quite difficult, especially with enemies who wield heavy weapons cuz some of their starting attacks are much faster than others. Or you could do it like me and try to backstab them so much that they end up dying from so many hits 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Species1571]

A visual indicator when you are in the correct position would be very helpful.

[Mentat]

Just aim you left hand to the mob's right butt, it worked for me for most of the time.

[Hikari Yami]

Step 1 - Wait for opponent to stop moving.
Step 2 - Make sure you are near one of their buttcheeks.
Step 3 - Make sure you are not moving when you click the attack button.
Step 4 - Violate me harder daddy.

Backstabbing is Easy.

[SQUIGLONKER99]

Backstabbing and drain-attack activations of all types are ridiculously overpowered honestly. And initiating a backstab is really simple.

Few tips for activating them - most of them are honestly interchangeable with techniques from Dark Souls in this respect:
- Recognize the difference between the enemy's "visual" back, and their "actual" back. What I mean by this is that an enemy might be aiming an attack in a specific direction (i.e. their left hand forward, right hand behind them, standing sideways). What you'd want to aim for in this situation isn't the enemy's anatomical back, because that's actually their game object's side. instead you'd be going for their right-hand.
- Time attacks. You can't activate a backstab from combo-hits. Usually when I'm going for a backstab drain I'm spacing out my attacks to hit about twice every second or so, long enough to return to neutral stance after each hit.

Enemies sometimes can resist backstab attempts if they're in the middle of an attack. I've also had times where I've seen my character 'prepare' the backstab animation but not actually start it, in which case I just keep mashing the attack button and it eventually works once the enemy's in a valid position.

So it does feel broken/hidden/difficult to grasp, but honestly if it were any easier to use it, the game would be stupidly easy - already as is, it's granting you I-frames as its animation plays out (while your ally beats up other enemies), increased Ichor, Ichor restoration, stuns the attacked enemy, gives you an opportunity to escape... As is, I already feel like I'm horrendously exploiting the game when I use it, to the point I had to toggle off the drain-attack cutscenes simply because I was doing backstabs so often that I felt like I was wasting more time watching these things.