How to Melee combat?

[Gisborne]

I'm getting wrecked worse than dark souls lol. blocking is too slow to react after an attack and i seem to just end up trading blows till i or them die, wasps are hard to hit even with my spear and dodge rolling uses all my stamina fast and mob just hots me after anyway...

[TamanduaGirl]

Well timed dodges really is the best. You just need to get used to the timing for each species. Also make sure to use a weapon type they are weak to.

[Gisborne]

Originally posted by TamanduaGirl:

Well timed dodges really is the best. You just need to get used to the timing for each species. Also make sure to use a weapon type they are weak to.

Seems clunky to carry every wep type and have them all on bars?

[Dread Arkive]

Keep each weapon type on bar, and swap out certain tools based on your needs instead (you don't need a hammer all the time for example). Valheim is the same way.

[Zarquon]

What armour do you have?
I just stand still and attack. dead enemies don't attack and all the rolling around just drags out the fight. make sure you are using the right weapon for their weaknesses.
When unlocked health potions are easy to make with all resources coming from poppies which are abundant. Take a potion before the fight.

[Wally]

most enemies you can just walk backwards and wait for them to miss their attack then strike.
with wasps you actually have to dodge their attacks

[Gisborne]

We can only craft armour at NPC?

[Cutter]

Press V prior to fighting to see what weapon type will do the most damage. Make sure your items are not broken.

[ShadowTani]

Originally posted by Gisborne:

We can only craft armour at NPC?

Yeah, the armors must be crafted by the NPC's, but you can access the codex to see what materials they need later if you didn't have the materials on the first visit.

[william_es]

So far, the strategy that seems to work the best for me is face tanking them. I don't block, I hardly ever dodge roll. Dodging uses up stamina you could be attacking with.

Use power attacks (right mouse button). When charging up the power attack, you can rotate in place with the mouse to aim the attack if the target is moving around. The increase in damage with power attacks is insane. You can do a power attack as soon as the stamina bar starts to recharge, even if it's nearly empty. You don't have to wait for any huge portion of stamina to recharge. Charge, boom, they're dead.

Get higher quality weapons. The more damage you do, the quicker they die, and the less times they get to hit you. Once you get up to flint weapons, you will wreck stuff. Flint spear demolishes flying insects and the sawyer beetles (kills the beetles in 2 power hits). Flint spear and flint sword are the two first things you should make.

As others have mentioned, sometimes you can just back up and they will miss you. Also great if you need a small break to use bandages or drink a healing potion.

Make a bow, and use it to initiate fights. You get a huge sneak attack bonus on unaware enemies. It's usually double normal arrow damage. It's a great opener.

[HunterKiller]

The first two weapons you make aren't going to be a flint spear or, sword. You have to use what the game provides until you unlock the upgrades, not before. You can't just start the game, run down and grab flint as if it's easily accessible.

[Morotstomten]

Wall of the text inc.

Never block, if you have multiple enemies on you they are likely gonna end up chaining their attacks, better to either run away if you cant tank and swing away if you can, i used to bliock a lot in the beginning thanks to having played grounded a lot and gotten very good at parrying in it.

Always dodge, except for a few enemies(damn greyflies) their attacks are telegraphed and easy to avoid, i usually try and dodge diagonally toward the enemy so that after the dodge im set up to attack its side.

Slow and steady wins the race, do not use heavy attacks unless its for the killing blow, the attack animations for them takes forever and you if you dont kill with it then 9 times out of 10 you will get hit before the animation is over and you can dodge again, usually the enemy only gives a window for 1 light attack, depending on the enemy you either do 1 light attack and dodge away or dodge into position then attack and possibly dodge away again afterwards, if you get too greedy you will get hit and poison effect seems to stack on you so you dont want too many of those at the same time before you get antidote/resistance potions.

Pace yourself, do not run out of stamina in combat, like most games you if drain you stamina you will have a cooldown on recovery, if you dip below ~20% its better to just move around and dodge attacks to rrecover stamina, oh and poison ticks will interrupt stamina regen for a moment so if you have poison on you do pay extra attention to the stamina bar so you dont dodge away it all away and get hit with yet another poison effect.
Quite often you can avoid enemy attacks simply by moving away from them at regular speed which helps to regen stamina faster and also give you time to heal.

Right tool for the job, Enemies have weaknesses and strengths, there is no one weapon thats best so bring at least a sword/axe(axe weapon, not the harvesting axe) a hammer/mace and bow + arrows for that first attack with extra damage or just to pull enemies that are close to each other, i guess you could bring a spear but i think they suck/are boring.

Ill give some enemy specific fighting tips here.

Bees
try and sink the big one with arrows before it can get to you, thats the easiest, then either tank the drones and whack them down as fast as you can or dodge around while taking pot shots at them, but you are likely gonna get hit you so i find it better to use the stamina offensively and just use a bandage afterwards if i need to.

Wasp/Hornet
take a couple shots with bow first then swap to sword and move towards it and when it wiggles its ass to attack you take a quick swipe at it then dodge, for hornets you should have at least a flint sword or it will take forever, if you have poison mace thats also decent and if you are good at managing you stamina id use it over flint sword,

Sawyer Beetle/Green Beetle
though they are not similar in size they attack the same, bring a hammer/mace and move into it then when it attacks you dodge to its side and attack and if needed you dodge away afterwards then regen stamina and repeat.

Water Bug/Cockroach
when fighting a water bug bring a hammer/mace and when you got it aggroed you wanna be strafing backwards around it, they dont telegraph their Liu Kang Bicycle kick as much as other enemies attacks so do expect to get hit when first fighting them and bring bandages, cockroaches so far has been the most dangerous enemy ive dealt with and died to the most(i didnt get any better armor than the padded set until after i had heavy chitin for 3 pieces of bone armor which i got from them so 3 hits and i was done for) but they attack the same way as weater bugs, Liu Kang bicycle kick and you wanna be doing the same thing except pull one with bow first as they like to hang out in pairs, strafe to your side of choice while also moving backwards, when the attack comes dodge to the side and swipe it with hammer/mace then move backwards and strafe again or dodge if its already ready to attack after your sttack.

Wolfspider/Black Widow
they are kinda like ants in their attacks, they pounce you and poison you, the impact doesent do much damage even with only padded armor but the poison from black widow is quite potent from just one hit so unless you got resistance potion in effect or antidote you really wanna avoid their attacks, use sword/axe and move towards them, take a quick shot at it while it readies its attack then dodge away, they are a lot more agile than say ants though so you may end up having to chain dodge a little and spend extra time regenerating you stamina, they also do some battlecry pose with their front legs raised where you can get 1-2 free shots at it but i usually mistake it for an attack and dodge away.

Gecko(havent fought its big brother yet)
sword/axe/bow there is only one consistent tactic when fighting them and thats to go towards it and attack then quickly dodge away, rinse and repeat, once you get the hang of it you will avoid almost all atacks but it takes a little practice so bring bandages, alternatively use bow, move backwards and even with the drawn movement penalty you will avoid its attack(though sometimes the gecko glitches or something and move up in your face before attacking but thats very rare), just move backwards with the bow drawn and when it attacks you let go of the arrow, not before, if you release it while its moving in to attack you will stop moving and get hit by its attack.

Stag Beetle
it behaves a lot like sawyer and green beetle so you behave the same, only i would use chitin axe over poison mace if you have those, i dont know if i was unlucky or but i couldnt get it poisoned and the axe dealt almost as much raw damage at half the stamina cost.

Lubber
big grasshopper with lots of health and an attack that you can avoid easily, i dont know if it does a lot of damage cause i havent been hit by it yet, it tries to slam its head on you and you can easily get in a qucik attack before you dodge out of it, chitin axe, poison mace, flint sword in that roder depending on what you got available.

Dragonfly(forgot name of they weaker variant but the same advice anyway)
use a bow, they are bothersome to melee, they usually attack you from above your strike radius and their attack dash takes them so far away, easier to just shoot them down

Jumping Spider
.......seriously since i got my 3 bone armor piece + regal chest armor setup the closest ive come to dying was when i attacked 2 jumping spiders, when they started attacking back i just couldnt hit them with melee attacks anymore, there really is no point in fighting them unless you are in desperate need of spider heads so i wouldnt bother and you are in desperate need of spider heads, use bow and keep your distance, or lure it to a bull spider or wasp and let it do all the work.

other than the ants i didnt bother mentioning since you will get familiar with them quickly anway and the rhino beetle boss thats it for the enemies ive met(ive seen frogs but i havent fought them)

[AnExiledOne]

I'm assuming they'll add a parry system at some point, or at least a lock on

As of now the only creature that really gave me much trouble was the Sawyer Beetle. Your first piercing weapon will probably be the bow. Don't bother with the bow. If the enemy has slashing resistance, just use the Club until you can make a Spear. Carrying a Spear, Sword, and Hammer in your tool bar will still leave you with space for your harvesting gear and some potions/bandages

Leave food in your inventory, same with any resistance potions and the builder hammer. You'll get used to combat but it's a little weird at first