Metal gear rising : nice knife mod guide

This guide aims to help anyone willing to try the nice knife mod [www.nexusmods.com] made by Lakitouille.
I will be using the default control settings and the XBOX 360 buttons for the notations. This guide will showcase everything that you need just so you know what to expect. If possible, feel free to post any suggestions that I might need to share here.

An installation guide can be found inside the rar file that you will download, there you will find a text file that instructs you on how to install it, it should not be a hard task.
Uninstalling it however is not given in the said resources but should be easy to perform :
Simply remove the files you added because they do not replace any core files given by the game, then just for security measures head to steam, right click the game's name on the library > proprieties > and look for the verify game files.

About the mod and the moveset

About the mod :

To put it simply, the mod simulates how the game would be played if Raiden had no access to his sword(s). Basically you will experience the entire game as if you were playing the second segment of the fight against Armstrong.

punching is done by the X button on the xbox controller, while Y performs kicks.

To sum up the situation : You lose more than half of your moveset, upgrading the sword won't affect your damage output and you will always deal single digit values. Riposting has a weaker hitbox as the majority of the enemies will miss it unless and only if they are in a very tight corner.

The mod does not restrict you from doing the following mechanics :
Ninja kills
blade mode
parries and riposting.

However you gain the following moves which replace some moves that you lost:

Note : The damage numbers given in this section are based on the damage done to enemies with a defence modifier of x1.0 on the hard mode difficulty. The numbers are a lower bound of the damage stats, that means : Those stats cannot go lower than the given numbers regardless of the defence stats of a given enemy.



1- A taunt : Raiden will use Sam's taunt animation, this comes with a remote attack that slashes the nearest (or targeted ) enemy and deals a 0.8 points of damage. Since the mod restricts your techniques, this new move is something that you can opt for if you want to damage enemies from a distance. Another bonus propriety is that you gain "super armor", this means any attack that you receive while you taunt won't stagger you and you gain extra defences on the top.

The taunt can be performed by pushing : Backwards > forward > X

2- A press attack : Could not find a proper name for it so I will stick to the given title as it is the first thing I thought of after playing fighting games for more than 15 years. Uses Sam's grab animation from when he loses his sword in R-6's second phase without the slamming part, instead, Raiden does an aura like attack. He dashes for a duration that depends on how long you held the X button. The Aura attack has a very wide hitbox and does multiple hits on impact.
A very situational technique, great for attacking enemies behind walls. I would not recommend using it each time as it has substantially bad startup, recovery frames, has no invulnerability and cannot be cancelled into any other attack, putting you in a pick your poison situation.

It can be performed by holding X on a neutral position.



These 2 techniques need to be purchased and are not given away from the gecko.


This mod is for people who want extra challenge, I highly recommend that you would have at least finished the game once, just so that you may know the enemy behaviour and how to deal with their various attacks. A must try for the masochistic.

Final note : At the last segment against Armstrong, your damage output will increase, this is because the mod bases your combat on the HF blade that you start with. When the game switches your weapon and locks you to the murasama, your damage and hitbox gets better.

About the run

using the mod the game is 100% functional, all the bosses and enemies are killable and nothing is broken.
The time that it would take you to finish a casual run should range from 5 to 7 hours on a hard mode setting, provided you know what you are doing and you end up avoiding my mistakes (which I listed at the end of the guide ) it could take you less.

Getting the dodge ability is a must, even for a vanilla run because aside from the parries, dodging is your best defensive option.
For extra aesthetics, you might want to cosplay as grey fox and live up with his quote : "Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon".

The longest recorded combo I could have had +60 hits against an enforced cyborg, after being launched in the air I kept hitting with light attacks, I could do more though.


As you progress through the game (on hard mode), the combat gets harder and harder as either the game sends you a fat cyborg with a swarm of annoying enemies, or send you tanky enemies at once.

Positioning yourself is super important; know how to aggro your enemies and know which enemies to aggro. Prioritizing weaker enemies is usually the best idea and if you find yourself stuck, the way to go, if you can of course, is to stack enemies and aggro them in a way that they can't go through a wall and use the dash/slam attack (Hold X) that the mod adds to your move list.

Combat flow :

As already discussed, your damage output will be extremely low. Your best damaging combos are the Y spam loops as they deal aprox. +0,8% per hit and a 3 hit combo would net you about 2,4% of damage. These are however slower than the punch loops so you might not opt for them all the time depending on the enemy, but if you have the evasive skill purchased, you can cancel the 3rd kick into a roll and then start kicking again.
A better option would be air X spam loops, of course you would not use it against every enemy, mainly anyone with a big hurtbox will be an ideal choice.

Most minor enemies will be staggered and fall to your Y grounded hits starting from the launcher hit and it's a good option to initiate your combat with. It has great recovery frames and coupling it with your punches' quick startup frames, this makes for a good choice for 1v1 combat.
it goes


A good way to reach your enemies would be by either kick diving ( Jump + forward > Y ) or the ground slide (dash +forward > Y ), these are your best tools to approach enemies. You may also target enemies with R1 and press X on neutral once to quickly dash into an enemy without hitting them, this move has a very small window of I-frames if you want to give some edge to your combat.

Summary : This mod changes a lot in regards to how the game is being played, depending on the enemies, your average gameplay would be to stack most of them in a corner then lead one of them and fight it till it dies and then loop it until they all die.

Know your enemy

Throughout the game, only the cyborgs and geckos can be instantly killed using blade mode, if you want to opt for a pure hand to hand combat, then go for it!

Cyborgs : The weakest type of enemies after geckos. Their health is relatively low and can instantly die to blade mode. They take on many forms but they are easy to recognize. they gain a new move after R-03 where they may grab you when there are 2 or more of them.

Geckos : these little freaks will be a bit more problematic due to your limited move-set and your bad hitbox, you may want to get rid of them as fast as possible. Spamming the slide attack does help against them but it does not kill them.

Custom cyborgs : These are an upgraded version of the cyborg enemies, they cannot die to blade mode. They are more tankier and a single parry is not enough, on average they attack continuously and if you attempt to riposte, they will try to backlash and attack back, so what you want to do is to keep parrying until you trigger an execution kill prompt Y+A.

Heavy armor cyborgs : I would highly recommend against sliding against these guys or kick diving (Jump + forward > Y ) as they will block it and opt for an unblockable hammer smash right after you do so.
They usually don't spawn alone, and if they spawn with extra enemies on hard mode or higher, if you priorities the latter will make the game spawn an extra big enemy. These cyborgs are not common and spawn only in few segments, the strategy is to simply chain attacks on their rears until they die.
If you manage to cut their arms, they vanish and despawn after failing to kill you.

Fenrirs : Fenrirs are the dogs that are modelled after blade wolf and share most of its attacks. Sadly and because of how small the riposte hitbox, the only way to guaranty a riposte is to corner them. Otherwise, they are not hard to deal with unlike the hammer dudes and they can be easily staggered.

Helicopters : Only three spawn in the game, 1 of which is optional. Unarmed air combat is awkward against them so I had to relay on using rockets; shame on me. What you can do is to kick dive them into X-air chains until they die.

Mastiffs : your first encounter with the gorillas will be in the sewers. Unarmed combat changes nothing much due to their armor preventing all forms of staggering. Parrying their attacks is fun and readable. They almost never spawn alone so you might want to play with them in a 1 v 1 fashion.

Vodomjerka : Encountered only once in the sewers. They spam flamethrower attacks like crazy. if you can parry and riposte their spinning attack, that's an instant win.

Mini UGs : Fun to brawl with. Sometimes hard to riposte due to the hitbox. What I usually do is I bait them until triggering their charge attack, which if parried, will lead you to a QTE where you spam the Y to stun them and score a kill.

Raptors : Your second worst enemy. Bipedal looking gears with questionable hurtbox that only a corner may aid you to riposte them. You first meet them in the sewers in a tight space which does not help. They are tanky and possess an EMP AOE attack that stuns. Air combat works against them but not all the time, Patience is your only friend.

Sliders : Easy to kill, annoying to fight. Kick dive then chain air attacks or blade mode instantly. They never spawn alone and they usually join with tanky enemies to annoy you so you might want to prioritize them.

The bosses

R-0 :

Nothing changes against the UG fight, because the entire gimmick is to parry its attacks which instantly prompt you into a QTE that deals great damage and allows you to progress through the fight in a swift manner.

In the second fight however, other than parrying, chaining air attacks to the head ,thanks to its hurtbox, is much better than grounded combat.

R-1 :

Blade wolf's fight is crippled with the fact that your riposting can't reach him most of the time, so chaining attacks is the best option as it staggers him for a good amount of time throughout the fight.

Mistral fights with geckos and you already know what that means. Modded or not, the fight does not change.

R-2 :

Grad because it has a big hurtbox, chain air attacks for a safer fight.

R-3 :

monsoon In vanilla gameplay, I could riposte him while he smoked my area in many instances, a modded run hindered this. aside from that, nothing major changed. Moving on!

R-4 :

Sundowner is the most fun fight here and the mod does not change anything in regards to how the combat goes.

R-6 :

Sam The mod changes a lot of things here.This fight is annoying most of your good damaging attacks are a bad option as their recovery frames are very bad when Sam has the better frame advantage. In his second phase, his dash attack leaves you a very small window to safely attack and your only good option is the X chain attack. Try to avoid blocking his attacks unless you can guarantee a riposte because he recovers faster than you.

R-7

Metal Gear EXCELSUS : No special notes for this guy. Everything is normal.

Armstrong His first phase is slow mainly because of your low damage output, you have to bring his hp to about 95%. Note that your attacks have bad recovery frames, making it hard for you to deal with his AOE nuke that he deals sometimes after blocking your punches, which may most of the time touch you in case you want for a damageless run.


the mod defaults itself to the HF blade for the entire game except for this last phase. The forced murasama swap affects your weapon's damage output and extends the hitbox. The fight itself is the same as in the vanilla game. What changes is that after you lose your weapon due to the QTE with the boss, you lose the extra moves that the mod offers and your hitbox and damage get reduced, this is because the mod depends on a weapon to be based on.

My attempts and what you can learn from my mistakes

Full run (former world record)

Disclaimer I did not play the game since 2013 and this attempt was the first thing I did after installing the game recently. It could be better, It was fun though.


Generally this run is not perfect, you can see that I spent way too much time with resetting some fights over and over. Vanilla or not, greed is something Hack and slash players fall into, especially when playing in settings that cripple the gameplay.

Seeing how your damage is low makes you want to rush things up and that's how the AI wants you to behave, especially when you take heals for granted.
Take your time in Zandatsu executions as they are mandatory against many enemies. I failed most of these just because I was hasty. Against everyone you have enough frames to react and adjust the angle of your slash.

Use your area quite well, use the walls and pits to play with the AI's movements. Notice how I spent way too long brainlessly dealing with the enemies at the end of R-04's elevator until I noticed that there was a wall that I could use to deliver free damage. Of course it is not the only solution however.

I would lastly add that if you end up being in a situation where you repeat a strategies over and over, you might want to adjust your decisions and strategies, unlike games like DMC and bayonetta where you can toy with the AI at ease, the AI in this game is hard to deal with. A cheap example would be in bayonetta, you may lock your camera unto an enemy and corner in it in an area where the other existing enemies are unseen but in your proximity, those said enemies won't think about attacking you. In short don't expect major changes against the AI in between repeated iterations.

Provided you know what you are doing of course, this run could cost you about 5 hours. The main keys are : safety, enemy spacing and your decision making in regards to which technique and which move you would want to use.

S ranking and Miscellaneous

For the perfectionists, for those who want to 100% a save file under the condition of using the mod, every collectible can be obtained. This includes VR missions, civilians, life expansions, titles and everything.


Note : All the following statements are based on the hard mode difficulty with the HF blade, the murasama blade makes each fight a walk in the park with its hitbox and damage.

S ranking

To S rank a segment, you need to obtain a high score in the fights within the said segment. The score depends on :

-The time you took to finish a fight.
-Combos counter
-Number of successful Zandatus
-Number of enemies killed


You don't have to fulfill the combos and time constraints at the same time, still, S ranking every single segment is impossible even after boosting it with the no damage bonuses. The mod hinders your combat and by the time needed to finish fights as well as the combos condition, the latter which depends on which enemy you encounter making the challenge harder and interesting.

You can S rank every single segment in the game! but :

Sam is the only enemy that will be problematic, after more than 100 attempts I have finally found out the strategy to S rank him : because of how low your damage is, the time it would take for you to finish the fight (Hard mode, HF blade) will be high.

Riposte only if his attacks are ripostable, if not dodge using X+A and continue chaining attacks until you net about +70 hits, and of course you'd have to finish the fight safe and sound without any damage taken. chain some extra attacks in between your transition from the first to the second phase within the blade mode QTE in case you are about to hit 70 hits.
Sam becomes a harder fight starting from his 3rd phase as he starts to evade even more and more of your attacks, your attack hitboxes won't help so it would be best to chain the combos in the first phase.

Otherwise, if you find yourself in a position where you'd want to increase the combo counter but the enemies are far apart, the new taunting technique does a ranged low damage slash to your enemies so you might want to use it.
when enemies do attacks that have high hitstun frames, I usually dodge them with X+A instead of blocking them, because blocking won't allow you to recover fast enough to punch after their attack.

But, what about the VR missions ?

All of them are beatable with no exception, but you cannot guaranty a gold medal in all the ones requiring you to fight, sadly only the missions that have a running and sneaking challenges are excluded from this issue as I could for obvious reasons get the gold medal in them.

Final words

First I would like to thank the maker of the mod for giving us this opportunity. I would love it if the maker gets the chance to extend the riposte hitbox a bit, otherwise everything is functional as expected and the new additions were a nice cake.

I hope that this mod will make at least a niche out of this challenge run and I hope this guide would be super helpful, as of 06/05/2022 I do plan to add more helpful information so this guide is still on a WIP phase.

06/05/2022 : guide created.
07/05/2022 : mistakes proofed and extra information added.
10/05/2022 : more mistakes corrected with the first parts of the guide having their text optimized.
12/05/2022 : Did some cleaning, more text has been optimized and I added some updates.
15/05/2022 Will the upgrades ever end ? Because I wrote lots of things and gave the guide a bit of fixing. Sorry if you came early and found some misinformation.

If you have any suggestions or comments to put, I would gladly welcome them!
Thanks for reading.

[ViridescentMalachite]

I don't have one of the files that the mod is asking for (⊙_⊙;)

[moneydollars]

shut up

[CharlesBaa_]

I wanted this exact mod since 2013 and never knew one actually existed, thanks for the guide!