Basic Mordhau Fencing Techniques

This guide contains the most easy and practical tricks & techniques used in Mordhau. Please consider leaving a like and adding this guide to favorites. Please report if you find any grammar mistakes in the text.

Techniques applicable for all kinds of weapons.

Deceiving chamber
This technique is very simple and anyone who wishes to call himself worthy of fighting on duel servers must know this.
When you chamber your opponent's attack, morph your attack into another type of attack at the very last frames of the animation. Many unexperienced foes will fall for this trick. Don't overuse it, for your enemies can start reading you. Works best when mixed with simple chambers.

Krumphau
This technique is more complex and is usually done by accident, though it's very powerful when fully mastered. When your opponent attacks you, strike his weapon so that your weapons do not chamber, but clash. This way, you will be able to do a very quick follow-up attack potentialy catching your enemy off-guard.

Evasion
If your enemy aims at your head or legs, consider crouching or jumping to avoid his attacks. Mind you, that this is very risky, but also very rewarding. It is recommended to train crouching & jumping with training swords first.

Tactical retreat
If you see your opponent trying to strike you with the very tip of his weapon, consider turning your back and running away, making his weapon hew the air. After your enemy missed, quickly turn your back again and hit him. Mind you, this is a powerful technique, but it requires great attention and good reaction.

Tactical jump
When close to your enemy, consider jumping. This will make your opponent unable to see your weapon for a moment, so you are likely to catch him off-guard with a jump attack. Mind you, this technique is risky and drains stamina very quickly, so don't overuse it.

Jump attack feint
When executing a jump attack (preferably a cut) feint your attack mid jump.
A lot of people won't expect you to feint your jump attack and will block, leaving themselves open for a strike.

Morph into feint
If you morph from one strike to another and then feint, your opponent is likely to parry, making himself vulnerable for your next attack.

Chamber into morph into feint
When you chamber your opponent's attack, morph your chamber and then feint it, expect a lot of people to swallow the bait.

Guaranteed throw
When your opponent's positioning is poor, consider increasing distance. Your enemy is likely to miss, making himself exposed for a weapon throw for a moment. Don't throw your weapon if it is your last one unless you are sure the throw will be lethal for your opponent.

Pattern destruction
When you exchange hits with your opponent and you're both successful at parrying each other's strikes, consider waiting a little before making an another riposte, this way you will make not a riposte, but a new assault. This can catch a less experienced foe off guard and mess up his timing. Works best when the new assault is started with a morph. Unlikely to work against aggressive foes.

Quick parry
When you strike and miss, quickly follow-up your attack with a combo and immediately morph it into a parry. This will drain a lot of stamina, but you will execute a parry after a miss. This technique can't be executed with weapons which can't combo.

Preferable attack spot
Before attacking, quickly analyze your opponent and try to find the least armored spot. If you see your opponent wearing a good helmet, a chainmail and mere pants, the preferable attack spot is going to be the legs. When using a crushing weapon like mace or warhammer, things are inverted and a little bit more complex. Make sure to check your weapon's advanced stats. Remember, some of the more experienced fighters will expose certain parts of their body in order to bait you into striking at certain spots, which will make it easier for them to dodge & punish.

Mental assault
Consider overusing battlecries and insults to annoy your foes, making them more likely to make a mistake potentially fatal. This technique may lead you to infamy.

Torsevasion
Leaning your torso back or to the side may help you evade a strike or dive under it. Leaning back helps evading strikes at a long distance, while leaning to the side can help against diagonal cuts.
Torsevasion is hard to execute and must be practiced with training swords.

Kick morph
A strike-into-kick morph is the least used one, and therefore the most unexpected one. Works best against foes with shields: you attack, the opponent hides behind their shield, you morph your attack into a kick and get a chance for a follow-up.

Chamber into morph into kick
If you chamber your opponents attack, morph your chamber and then morph it again into a kick, fighting those who use shields will now be a matter of seconds for you.

Defensive tactical jump
When you are sure your opponent is going to hit you and his hit is aimed either at head or at legs - jump. If the blow was aimed at the head, your opponent will strike you in the torso, delivering less damage. If the blow was aimed at the legs, the blow will miss.

Weapon change
If you have a fast secondary weapon like a dagger or a cleaver this technique is for you.
When attacking your opponent with your main weapon (preferably a cut), morph your attack into a weapon change. You change your main weapon to your fast weapon and quickly attack your shocked opponent. If the opponent decides to chamber your attack instead of blocking it, you are still likely to have time to block their chamber with your secondary weapon due to it being fast to unsheathe. Consider this more of a show off technique and don't overuse it against experienced foes.

Skulduggery
When your opponent misses a strike, pretend you are going to strike him and feint your attack.
More experienced fighters will usually execute quick parry technique and will therefore block your feinted strike and leave themselves exposed.

Kick into attack into feint
When you manage to kick your opponent, feint your following attack. A lot of players will fall for this bait and parry your feinted attack, leaving themselves exposed. Works best when mixed with regular follow-ups. Make sure your opponents don't start reading you and bait you into kicking in order to punish you.

Chamber into kick
At point blank range, you can morph your chamber into a kick in order to restore some stamina. You can continue with a follow-up or previous rechnique. Make sure your positioning is flawless and your opponent is not retreating, such kick has quite short range. Only effective against held block shield users.

Krumphau.

Techniques for swords capable of being used in mordhau grip.

Confusing morph
When striking your opponent, morph to mordhau grip at the last frames of the animation and quickly follow up with a fast thrust. This is hard to execute, but a lot of players fall for this trick, especially the ones incapable of good chambering.

Point blank beating
When very close to the opponent, consider abusing the fast mordhau grip thrust. Even if your opponent chambers it, you can chamber it back with great speed. Keep an eye on your stamina.

Fast combination
When you successfully hit your opponent with a mordhau strike, quickly continue your combo with a mordhau thrust, preferably to the face. Some of the less cautious foes will fall for this trick. This trick also works for axes capable of fast thrusts.

Advanced combination
When you successfully hit your opponent with a mordhau strike, quickly continue your combo with a mordhau thrust and feint it. Many foes will swallow the bait, giving you a chance to end them.
Watch your stamina.

Mordhau.

Techniques for unarmed combat.

Time gain
When disarmed, pretend you are going to hit your opponent with your fist and then feint. Since most people feel like the fight is over when their opponent is disarmed they are very likely to block the feinted attack, giving you an opportunity to punch them in their face, gaining time to pick up a weapon. Sometimes, such a punch can even be lethal.

Rotating evasion
Since fists have a very short range, sometimes it is enough to simply turn around, crouch and look downwards to make your opponent miss their strike.

Stamina management
When fighting unarmed, never hold your block. Only use your block to parry incoming strikes, don't use it like a shield. If you keep holding your block, your stamina won't regenerate and you will lose it.

Fencing to unarmed
After either chambering your opponents attack, landing a strike, morphing an attack or morphing a chamber, immediately drop your weapon and fight unarmed. This will surely surprise and scare your opponent. Still, this technique is mostly for show off purposes and is only to be utilized by masters of unarmed fighting. This technique is the calling card of a famous fighter named Stay In The Grave and his boxing club.

Wrestling.

Techniques for polearms capable of being used in long-range grip.

Long thrust
When your opponent is far, change to long-range grip and thrust your opponent. If done quickly, some foes are likely get caught off-guard. If your opponent blocked the thrust and started shortening the distance, make haste to return to the standard grip.

Warding highgrounds
Use long-range grip to protect highgrounds such as ledges or ladder points, your reach will help you keep your foes at bay. It is recommended to use overhead thrusts when warding either a ledge or a ladder point in order to not strike the floor.

Poleaxe fighting.

Techniques for those capable of dodging.

Sidestep
When your opponent executes a thrust, dodge to the side while executing a thrust yourself. This way, your opponent will miss and you will deliver your thrust right into the target. If your opponent's aim is good, you will just sidestep-chamber, losing nothing but a bit of stamina.

Dodging projectiles
You can use your ability to dodge to evade incoming projectiles like arrows, stones or javelins. Dodging arrows is the most tricky of all, since it requires good reaction and prediction skills.

Dodging drags
Sometimes, you can evade your opponent's drag by executing a sidedodge co-directional to the direction of his cut. This technique is quite situational and risky, it is to be practiced with training swords first.

Bouncy punish
When using a held block shield (kite shield, heater shield) in Riot Mode (held block) and receiving a kick, consider dodging backwards. This way, you will be able to punish your opponent for his follow-up or have easier time reading his feint and dealing with the follow-up. May not work against longer weapons.

Sidestep.

Techniques for throwable weapons.

Anti-coward
When your opponent is trying to run away, do not chase him to engage back in melee combat again, especially if he runs faster than you. Instead, use stones, spears, javelins or other throwable weapons to kill the opponent. This way, your opponent will either run back to you and resume combat or die of your projectiles.

Unexpected throw
When in melee combat, strike your opponent a few times so that he has little health, then increase distance, quickly change to your throwing weapon (preferably throwing knives due to them being faster to throw) and finish your opponent off with an unexpected throw.

Point blank shield throw
When blocking with targe or buckler, throw your shield immediately after the parry. This way, you will quickly throw your shield at your opponent at point blank range and very little people will be able to react to this. Remember, even though this throw is almost bound to be successful, you will still lose your shield, which will force you to parry with your one-handed weapon, draining more stamina.

Cut into feint into throw
When at distance, do a cut from top right and feint it, then immediately throw your weapon. Hasty and nervous opponents are likely to block your feinted cut, making your following throw guaranteed unless you miss the throw or they manage to dodge it.

Cut into throw
A slightly faster version of previous technique. Start with a cut from top right and morph it into a throw. Less experienced foes will often block your feinted cut, leaving themselves exposed for a following throw.

Throwing stuff.

Techniques for shield combat.

Strong stance
Some opponents will try to bypass your held shield by executing a mid-jump thrust. In order to counter that, never hold your shield too low and be ready to raise it in case your opponent jumps.

Blocking projectiles
When using a held block shield (kite shield, heater shield), use Riot Mode to defend against projectiles. Consider crouching for better leg protection if you don't mind slowing down.

Walking wall
Even better at blocking projectiles are pavises. One can carry it on his back and block incoming projectiles with it. It is also possible to block projectiles while carrying a pavise in hands. This way, you will be able to stay relatively safe from arrows with neither slowing yourself down nor restricting your vision too much. Remember, even though pavises are good at defending their users against projectiles, they are quite useless against melee weapons, so try not to engage in melee combat while carrying a pavise in hands.

Picard's shieldwall
One can use facepalm emotion in order to block incoming projectiles as if one was using a held block shield. The bigger the shield - the bigger the coverage surface, the better the efficiency. Using this technique with a buckler is inadequate due to its small size.

Weapon combination
Sometimes, parrying with a certain kind of weapon drains even more stamina than parrying with a shield. Dagger is a good example. What you should do is take a shield (buckler will do very well) and parry with your shield, saving more stamina.

Instrument of retreat
When you are disarmed in a way that all you have is but a shield, use your shield to parry the incoming attacks. This way, you will be able to survive until help arrives, try to pick up a weapon or try to escape.

Dueling shield & club combat.

Techniques for crossbows.

Cancelling reload
Whenever you start reloading your crossbow only to see that your enemy will get to you sooner than you will finish reloading, swap to another weapon to cancel reloading. This is a very simple technique, yet some folks don't know about it.

Unexpected shot
When in melee combat, strike your opponent a few times so that he has little health, then increase distance, quickly change to your crossbow and finish your opponent with an unexpected shot.

A man protecting his cow from wolves using a crossbow.

Outdated techniques.

Kick evasion (Outdated)
When holding block with your shield, move backwards. This way, it will be much harder for your opponent to kick you, especially if you have lighter armor and therefore move faster. They will often miss their kick and let you land a guaranteed strike.

Indefatigable shieldwall (Outdated)
When wielding a held block shield (kite shield, heater shield), do not bother using regular blocks.
Instead, use Riot Mode (held block) to block incoming attacks. This way, you will be safe from drags, accels and feints. Even though there is a certain delay before entering Riot Mode, you will still be able to block even accelerated attacks. Riot Mode has very strong stamina negation, therefore you will win all stamina wars if your opponents try to act aggressively. Remember, you should be walking backwards when using Riot Mode. Watch out for kicks.

Predict & punish (Outdated)
When in you're in Riot Mode and you see your opponent confidently approaching you - then know, he is probably about to kick you. When he shortens the distance to point blank range, release your shield and in doing so increase the speed of your retreat. If at this point your opponent tries to kick - he will miss, leaving himself open for a punish. Mind you, some foes will try to bait you into releasing your shield in order to land a stirke while you are recovering.

Feint into punish (Outdated)
A safer, easier to execute, less rewarding version of previous technique.
When you're in Riot Mode and you see your opponent miss his kick, release your shield as he misses, wind up an attack and feint it. Many will fall for this trick and leave themselves exposed.

Provocation (Outdated)
When you engage in combat with someone who is unfamiliar with you, raise your shield, crouch and stand still so that you look like a newbie who doesn't know about kick mechanincs. Chances are, your opponent will run up to you and try to kick you. If you see him about to do that, evade his kick using footwork and land your guaranteed strike at the opponent. This technique is easier to execute if you are capable of dodging.

Jousting.

My humble request to Mordhau devs.

Please, add pigface bascinet!

[Polymorphic Turtle]

wat

[Red iKnight ©]

Fk you, fk this guide and fk everyone who takes the combat in this game that seriously, i actually hate you people, you have to suck the fun out of everything.

[ZK empbed]

very wholesome

[SpiderPig]

this is clearly against sweaty COKEHAU norms where no tips or tricks are to be shared with new players. could be good game, too bad devs and admins are coke heads.

[The Randinator]

please get a job, if you cared this much about reality you would actually impact the world. Shame :/

[Plague]

if you just box in the game while also swinging you are instantly plat im lvl 46

[Mister Smilez]

I find your guide, though useful to some still not up to par with the greats. I challenge thee to combat to test your "guides" capabilities you flat-footed knave.

[Dog]

I flail like an idiot and do alright for myself because this game deserves that level of effort.

[Swadian Knight]

Too long, didn't read.
Plus 250 ping.

[Lord Of Spoon]

you missed the spooning tactic
its unbeatable hug their ass and over head with shovel