Melee

Defense

Defending in Holdfast is straightforward. You can block in 4 directions; up, down, left, and right. You can block using muskets, swords, and boarding pikes. Other weapons such as the knife are unable to block.

Up and down block:

The Up and down block are going to be your most used block directions due to the prevalence of muskets.

To perform a block, move your mouse in the direction you want to block. I.e. if the incoming attack is a downward attack, you will have to move your mouse downwards then hold the right mouse button to block it. Even if a down attack is aimed at your head, only a down block will block it. The crosshair is a useful indicator of which direction you'll block in.

Blocks happen near-instantaneously and have a very slight grace period after letting go of the right mouse button.

When practicing block directions instead of moving your mouse the "expected" amount of distance for an up or down block you should exaggerate the movement. This helps you reliably block in your intended direction when you are actively moving and rotating while engaging in melee.

As you become more familiar with blocking you will become better accustomed to the required amount of movement to perform a block.

Left and right block:

These blocks should only be utilized against a sword, and have no use otherwise.

Everything from paragraph 2 from "Up and down block" is true for left and right blocking, except that you need to move your mouse leftwards to perform a left block, and rightwards to perform a right block.

Offense

Offense is quite similar to the mechanics discussed for defense, but with a differences.

Up attack:

Similar to an up-block, this attack can be performed by moving your mouse up then pressing the left mouse button. Pressing and then letting go of the left mouse button results in you attacking right away while holding the left mouse button will cause you to hold your attack.

Down attack:

Similar to an down-block, this attack can be performed by moving your mouse down then pressing the left mouse button. Pressing and then letting go of the left mouse button results in you attacking right away while holding the left mouse button will cause you to hold your attack.

Left and Right attack:

These attacks can only be performed by swords, and can be performed by moving your mouse left/right(left for a left attack, right for a right attack). These have no difference between each other except for their swing direction. (This section may be expanded upon additional testing)

Misc.:

As a rule of thumb: Whenever your opponent starts attacking try to distance yourself away from your opponent, while also continuously facing said opponent. Reverse is true for attacking.

Additional notes:

Attacks have 2 phases: A windup, during which you cannot hit, and a "thrust" phase, during which your character will thrust his weapon, and can hit opponents. Attack also have a very small "linger" phase, where the bayonet isn't being thrusted anymore, however, it can still hit opponents.

There is a built in sensitivity lock for all attacks, however, by blocking and then attacking(pressing right mouse button->pressing left mouse button->letting go of right mouse button) we can bypass this lock. We will exploit this in the spinning section of the advanced part.

Dragging your attack too much(moving it around, spinning) will cause you to deal less damage.

While attacking your movement speed is slightly slower than when not attacking. On a basic level this shouldn't affect you too much, but if you're chasing someone only attack when you're sure to hit

Damage mechanics:

Attacks actually can deal different damage depending on where you hit and how you hit. We will quickly go over them here.(Note: We're talking about line infantry vs line infantry combat, which is the general competitive format)

Action Hits to kill

Upper body hit+no drag= 1

Upper body hit+drag = 2

Lower body hit+no drag= 2

Lower body hit+drag = 2

As you can see, hitting the upper body deals more damage than hitting the lower body, and dragging decreases the damage you can do. There isn't a lot more to talk about this, and so this section ends.