Getting Ready for Combat Understanding the concepts of combat is key to a successful adventure. In Minecraft Frontiers, battles are won not only through skill but also through preparation. Take a minute to familiarise yourself with how combat works and how to come out ahead. Weapon Styles: Each weapon has a style. At release, there will be 4 unique styles: Short Sword, Long Sword, Zweihander and Dagger. This affects the damage, cooldown and reach of your weapon. Fancy a quick, adaptive playstyle that lets you outmaneuver a slow enemy? Dagger might be best. Are you facing a weak but deadly assassin? A zweihander might end the battle before it even begins. Finding the right style is all about personal preference, letting you overcome an encounter in a way that is most comfortable. We will be constantly adding new styles after launch, keeping combat fresh and exciting. Damage Types: Weapon styles are a luxury, while damage types are a necessity. Each weapon does a specific type of damage, excelling against a particular enemy type. We are launching with 6 damage types: Piercing, Blunt, Ice, Fire, Poison, Shadow. The first two (Piercing and Blunt) are relatively easy to obtain. The other four are advanced, late-game damage types. The majority of enemies have damage mitigation - that is protection against one or several damage types. A giant bull may have thick skin, giving it full piercing protection. In this case, fighting a bull with a piercing weapon is pointless - you will have to head back to town and procure a different damage type. The most important message to take away is this: Defeating an enemy while using the wrong weapon is impossible. There will be situations where you encounter enemies you simply cannot overcome using the equipment you have. That is fine - it is by design. Our game has a strong horizontal progression. This means your character doesn't get significantly stronger in terms of damage, it simply gets more damage types to defeat new enemies. The big advantage of this design is replayability. Visiting an older dungeon will still be as challenging as the first time around. Armour: Just as enemies have mitigation, you have the option of protecting yourself. There are 5 sets of armour at launch, each falling under the "common" quality. This means a full set absorbs 60% of the damage of a specific type. In future updates, you will be able to craft higher qualities, with higher protection rates. Enemies fall broadly into two categories: those "expecting armor" and "not expecting armor". The easier enemies are designed not expecting armour - meaning you can fight them without any protection. You deal 4 damage a hit, they deal 4 damage a hit. It is a fair fight. However, many of the enemies (in dungeons expecially) are designed with the expectation of an armour. You deal 4 damage a hit, they deal 10. This means wearing a suit of commor armour will put you on an equal level to the enemy. Fighting it without armour is nearly impossible. Takeaway message number two: If you are getting obliterated, get armour that has mitigation against the damage type of the enemy. In some instances, dungeons may have enemies of multiple damage types. You will need to bring different sets of armour and change accordingly. Shields: Blacksmiths are able to craft different types of shields. Holding a shield quickly drains stamina, but provides significant short-term mitigation against a damage type. This damage mitigation is in addition to your armour, meaning you can negate most of the damage by good shield management. Having a shield is crucial in two situations. If the enemy has a longer range - you will need to block the initial hits to get close enough. For difficult encounters - the most difficult enemies are instant death, even with a full set or correct armour. In these cases, you will need the additional protection of a shield. Enemy Tiers: The monsters and bandits you face are designed with different player numbers in mind. Some enemies are easily defeated alone, while others may require a group. You will not see what tier an enemy is, but the difficulty of the encounter will make it obvious. Tier 1 - Relatively easy, soloable content. You can kill several of these without healing yourself. Tier 2 - Challenging soloable content. The enemy is roughly equivalent to an average player in terms of power. Tier 3 - Balanced for a small group. You will need 2-3 players to defeat this miniboss. Tier 4 - Difficult, with group-based mechanics. You will need to approach it with perfect equipment and a coordinated group effort. Some of your members may likely die, so that the group may be victorious. Tier 5 - Encounters for large groups of players. They have very high health and very high damage. It is simply impossible to defeat some of these tiers alone, or with just one friend. Again, this is the intended design, so don't worry if an enemy is too tough for you. Takeaway message number three: If you have the right damage type and still can't defeat an enemy, bring friends.
