The core loop: four directions, one stick
Enemies attack from four directions — up, down, left and right — and your job is to match the incoming line. You steer both your swings and your guard with the movement stick, so walking and fighting share the same input.
Holding a generic block does work, but it drains a lot of stamina. Blocking in the correct direction is better, and blocking in the correct direction at the last possible moment is a perfect block: effectively a deflect that opens the enemy up.
By default an on-screen indicator shows which side an attack is coming from, with a flash on the relevant edge of the screen. You can turn the indicator off if you would rather read animations, which is a meaningful difficulty increase.
Why perfect blocks decide fights
Regular attacks, blocks and dodges all consume stamina. A perfect parry does not, and it can leave enemies staggered when timed correctly. In a system where movement and offence both draw from the same stamina pool, that difference compounds quickly.
Perfect blocking also cancels your own animations. You can be mid-combo, see an attack coming, block in the correct direction at the last instant, and the perfect block will come out regardless — which means you can commit to attacks far more aggressively than the system first suggests.
The Swordmastery tree stacks bonuses on top: restored stamina, faster ability charging, critical damage, damage boosts, and weakening effects on a perfect block. Perfect Riposte adds a follow-up attack in a specific direction, marked by a chevron, for a guaranteed critical hit.
Omni-block, omni-attack and unblockable attacks
If directional combat is not for you, Rebel Wolves ships an omnidirectional system that handles it automatically. Omni-block guards without you picking a direction, and omni-attack chooses swing lines for you. The cost is stamina — omni-block is significantly more expensive than a correctly aimed block.
The Swordmastery tree has an omni-block node in its top left that reduces that stamina penalty, cutting it roughly in half when fully invested. It is also a prerequisite for several strong perks, so a point there is rarely wasted even if you never rely on the assist.
One important exception: unblockable attacks exist and cannot be guarded at all, by either system. Those must be dodged.
Activation charges and active abilities
Perfect blocks generate activation charges, which are what your active abilities spend. Because charges cap, sitting on a full meter is wasted resource — the general advice is to use abilities close to on cooldown rather than saving them.
Abilities also grant invincibility frames during their animation. That makes them an interrupt as well as damage: you can be mid-combo, see an attack winding up, and cancel into an ability to shut it down. You can also use consumables during those animations, which turns them into a small healing window.
Sword arts and claw arts sit outside the activation-charge economy and run on their own cooldown, providing a sizeable damage boost. There is no reason to hold them.
Fighting as a human by day
Daytime Coen is a swordsman using medieval fencing stances and longswords. He can mix in hex magic — sacrificial spells cast with his own blood that damage him while providing powerful effects, such as igniting his blade, tangling enemies in thorny vines, or shielding himself.
The human form has no passive healing at all. Your health does not tick back up between fights, so potions, food and other consumables are load-bearing rather than optional. Witchcraft costing health on top of that makes resource management the real daytime difficulty.
General swordsman abilities round out the kit: crowd-clearing swings, distractions and heavy hits. Some abilities, such as the charge, carry across to the vampire form as well.
Fighting as a vampire by night
At night Coen can drop the sword for fast, razor-sharp claws, though you can still hold the weapon-swap button to draw steel if you prefer it. Night generally gives better attack speed and raw strength either way.
Vampiric abilities change the shape of a fight. Voracious Bite heals and buffs by grappling and feeding mid-combat, Shadowstep teleports you behind an enemy to confuse them and steal one or two free hits, and later unlocks include mind control and area effects.
Your health bar doubles as a hunger gauge at night, refilled by feeding on humans or, less efficiently, on animals. Blood drinking raises corruption, which gates access to progressively stronger vampiric perks — and refusing to feed while you roam means gradually losing your grip on the monstrous side.
Difficulty, level scaling and approach
There are four difficulty levels, and they can be changed to taste without affecting the 30-day calendar. Early combat is genuinely hard while Coen is weak and under-equipped.
There is no level scaling. Each region of the map is built around a specific power level, so you can out-level an area and clear it easily, or walk into a much harder region early for better rewards. Nothing stops you from exploring the most dangerous parts of the valley from the start.
Combat is not always the answer. Many situations can be talked through — gaining information at an outpost rather than fighting through its guards — and there is a crouch for light stealth, though the stealth systems are limited. You can also kill many NPCs outright, but story-critical characters cannot be harmed.
Known rough edges
Reviewers have consistently flagged the same issues. Lock-on can fight the directional system, and the camera does not always cooperate when several enemies surround you, which makes crowd fights messier than duels.
Early-game enemies can feel like damage sponges if you are under-prepared or wandering into higher-level areas, and enemy variety is thin in the opening hours. Both complaints ease once your build comes online.
The general consensus is that the system clicks once you commit to perfect blocking rather than trading hits — at which point the fusion of parry timing, ability interrupts and vampiric mobility is the game's strongest mechanical hook.
Still to be confirmed
- Exact stamina costs for directional blocks versus omni-block, and the precise scaling of the omni-block perk — to be confirmed.
- Whether animal blood raises corruption slowly or not at all — developer statements before launch were ambiguous. To be confirmed.
- The full list of unblockable attack types and which enemies use them — to be confirmed.