It be stabbin' time!

[eminent]

So here I was thinking today we could use a swordfighting tutorial on here. So I managed to get Skev to give me a hand for making these screenshots.

Strategy going In

Yes, this is something you should thing about as you're trying to get a hang of your sword. Are you going for a balance of strikes and sprinkles? Or more one way or the other? And once you start recieving attacks, how good are you at anticipating drop patterns from the sword attacking you? Yes, I'm only talking singular becuase team battles, I'll try to cover a bit later.

So choosing a sword is probably the most important thing about the puzzle.

Drop Patterns

Let's say you're a striker, and you're wanting a top end sword. By top end, I mean expensive. Well, look at the drop patterns for a minute. You want something with a decent distribution of color throughout the pattern. So you see a Skull Dagger drop and it looks something like this:



As you can see, the long concentrations of color mean when your strikes form into blocks, they'll create a chance for your opponent to get off large attacks in return if they're able to get breakers right. This sword would be best as a sprinkler, the sprinkles will be somewhat color concentrated because of how the bricks form, but rarely do people play with a balanced board, or stacked evenly all the way across. You drop about 3 rows of sprinkles on someone that falls unevenly, they've got an ugly mess that can take some time digging out of.

Now, a Falchion drop pattern:



This is more balanced as a stiker because of how the colors are distributed. With colors forming no fused breakers and the overlap, if it lands on an uneven board with a large sword or two, you've got an opponent wasting valuable time digging for small return attacks while giving you ammunition to build your next attack.

Those are a couple drop patterns, I won't go into all of them, just use those two as examples because they're the most common you'll see at the tables and tournaments.

Now you're looking at those screenshots and wondering "Ok, so that's how my opponents board will look?" Well, yes and no. We'll bring up the Skulldagger drop pattern again. Yes, I'll re-post the screenshot so you won't have to scroll up and down.



Now, as you're looking at this, you may be wondering what makes this a strong sprinkle sword. Well, it's all in how the game distributes your drop. Basically, only the bottom two rows are used for determining how sprinkles form. So you send one row of sprinkles, it'll copy the bottom. Two whole rows of sprinkles will send over the bottom two rows. Now when you get into three is when it get's interesting. It repeats that cycle. So for 3 rows of sprinkles, it might look something like this:

RGBBYR
RRGYRR
RGBBYR

And yes, you do get one color on the outside. However, if you're trying to win, it's not about controlling the outside, it's about boxing the person in the middle, preferably utilizing columns 2-5. So just isolating the middle, and you've got:

GBBY
RGYR
GBBY

Now that's a messy drop pattern to try to dig out of, especially if you're able to keep sending sprinkles down the middle like that. You'll still have to worry about the sides, but if you're able to mass sprinkle like that and toss in a couple small strikes, you'll be able to just bury your opponent.

Now, the Falchion drop pattern again:



One thing stands out, like colors are clumped together. However, this works great for strikers, because of how your strikes will form.

When your strikes change to playable pieces, they copy your drop pattern all the way up, and for swords exceeding the height of your drop pattern, the top 4 rows repeat. So, for example, you send a 2x6 and a 2x8, since they're both higher than the Falch's 4 row height, you'll essentially get the drop pattern repeating throught your strikes.

XXRY
BBRR
YYBB
YGGB
BGRY
BBRR

So you can see, you're opponent only thinks he's getting some help from your drop, but considering those will take two drops to form into playables, that get's nasty trying to clear out more than 4 rows because of all the colors shielding each other from fusing. Add onto the fact that people rarely play with an even board, and those strikes fall apart to different levels, you've got a player's worst nightmare. They spend a lot of time trying to dig out of that mess, sending you only a few blocks at a time, which will only add to your next attack.

So as you can see, picking the right sword to fit into your playstyle can make a big difference as far as giving you as much help as you can get. Keep in mind though, there is no "best sword". There's only the sword that fits how you want to play. The more expensive swords might offer a slightly better selection as far as exotic drops, however they're more specialized. Read Tedv's guide to get a really good idea on how swords are best used. Just keep in mind, some of the drop patterns have changed a bit, so it might be a little outdated, but the basic concept is still there.

The beginning

First thing to remember, swordfighting is all about skill. Every player in it recieves the exact same pieces in the exact same order. So it all comes down to how well you build with those pieces. Planning ahead can help you, and trying to figure how your opponent is playing can give you a good idea what to do first.

Is your opponent sending some small attacks or no attacks at all? Well, if there aren't breakers or very many at the start, that's almost a guaranteed builder. A good strategy against a builder is send a couple small quick strikes. A 2x3 (2 bricks wide by 3 bricks high) or two is good, and if you can throw in a horizontal sword then even better for disrupting their breaks. This gives you a chance to either destroy a couple breakers in their chain, or bury something they're trying to use in an attack, as well as give you a couple turns at least before they can send an attack back at you.

Wait a minute. How long does it take for attacks to show up? This is something I hear (read?) quite a bit. And it's fairly basic. There used to be a rumor floating around that swords dropped based on the type of sword. Different swords had different drop rates, for example Cleavers cycled through incoming attacks slower so were able to soak up more damage. This is utter garbage, but has ensnared many a pirate (including your's truly) into believing it. The basic rule of thumb is this:

If you're against an opponent who doesn't touch the spacebar at all, it will take one drop for your attack to hit their board. If your opponent uses their spacebar non stop, it could take roughly 3-5 drops. The total time depends on client/server communication, but these are low-end average numbers. It could take a little longer without stalling, just depends.

Now, hold on. That doesn't seem fair does it? People who stall get the attacks quicker right? Wrong! The next time you're in a swordfight, count how long it takes for your starting piece to fall, then count how many straight spacebar drops you can place in that amount of time. 3-5 seems to be an even amount of time, depending on if you're holding the bar down, or just using it a little at a time. I explain the advantages of stalling in another post, so read ahead for that little nugget.

Anyway, using an opening with several small, quick attacks could get you a nasty tell or two, especially if you win, but it's perfectly acceptable and probably one of the best openings you can do instead of fighting for an insta and hoping you get yours off before they do. Remember, the object is win, not try to build the biggest chain you can. If they want to go for a Vegas2, tell them to go sail instead of swordfight.

Combos

Now there are plenty of guides around the forums that can explain how combos fall and how the game places strikes, so I won't go into that. If I can find one, I'll try to link it here.

Essentially, this is how things break down. Your first break, the pieces are halved,rounded down without factoring in the breaker. So you break 4 blocks with your first breaker, that sends two over. A double will double the initial amount, so on. So what happens if you Vegas on 6 blocks? Well, a Vegas is a 6 level chain, so you take the amount of the initial break, which is 3 blocks, and multiply that by 6, which gives you 18 blocks, or 3 rows of sprinkles on your opponents board.

The math with most strikes is easier. You take the longest dimension of a sword and multiply that. So you've got a 2x4 sword and you get a triple break on it. You've now sent a 2x12 sword to your opponent, or a sword almost the height of their board, since boards are only 13 rows high. A sword can be larger than 13 blocks tall, but not really worth it since it's maxed at showing 13 pieces tall. Now you build a horizontal strike instead, make it a 3x2. Well, a double on that one would get you a 6x2 horizontal sword, or a sword going from one side to the other on your opponents board. Anything larger than 6 blocks on a horizontal can turn your sword vertical with an equivalent number of blocks.

Now what does this all mean? A couple different things, Essentially anything larger than a Donkey with strikes increases the chance of wasted attacks, as well as any number of strikes over 3. By wasted, what happens is there isn't enough room for some of your attack. Since the board is only 6 columns wide, and the narrowest you can make a fused block is 2, you can only have a maximum of three swords land, in most cases. A couple examples:

Let's say you've got a red 2x4 under a yellow 2x2 with a couple green singles on top. You get your breakers stacked Yellow then Red and start your chain with a green. The Yellow will double, sending a 2x4 sword to your opponent, the Red tripled sending a 2x12. That's 4 columns covered. The game will assign where to send the strikes based on your opponents board. So let's say in column 1 and 2 (the far left) they've built mostly over on that side. Well, you're very likely to get the single sprinkle from your Green break fall over there, your Yellow 2x4 will fall in the middle and the last sword landing on the far right.

Basically what happens behind the scenes is as a strike goes over, it takes into account your opponents board and if there's anything that fell earlier on the same attack. They'll start looking in colum 2, then move on down until they're at the side of the board. They're looking for a clear place they can land completely. Since your opponent was building in columns 1 and 2, that leaves 3 and 4 open for the smaller strike and that forces the longer strike into 5 and 6 since strikes won't stack. If they're unable to find a place to clearly land on the board, then they'll disappear and won't get sent. Too many swords falling will cause some to disappear, or swords too wide or too tall could disappear. Strikes will avoid the center column at all costs.

But wait.... strikes avoid the center column, number 4, at all costs?! So how do I get an Insta on someone?
Simple. You want to build two fused blocks, one a 2xN and the other a 3xN. Only two strikes sent in the combo is best to keep the chance of a wasted strike down. Screenshot time:



As you look at this screenshot, you see that it looks kind of complicated. And at first, it is. I've set this up as a generic insta set up. It takes a lot of practice and a bit of luck and cooperation from your opponent to not screw up, but it is possible to get one off under fire.

Now this will be a Bingo. The Yellow starting the combo, the blue falling, which those singles produce a mind boggling 4 blocks. Now is where it gets interesting. The Green block is a 2x3, the Yellow a 3x3. What this means is when the Green lands, it will turn into a 2x9 with a good chance of landing either in any two colums together but leave column 4 alone. This one happens to land in columns 2,3. Now since strikes can't land on top of each other, this forces the 3x3, which has turned into a 3x12 because of the Bingo, into columns 4,5,6 as the only clear columns on the opponents board. Which means a couple rows on the bottom for your opponent, and there almost always will be, and you've won.



See? Looks nice and pretty doesn't it?

The one key thing to remember, is this comes with practice, so if at first you don't succeed, keep on trying. Eventually you'll get the hang of it.

*Edit* Expanded on drop pattern explanations.
*Edit 2* Added estimated drop times. It sucks, I've got my mind thinking about all this now and it won't stop.

[eminent]

Now, if you're still reading... Congrats!

Moving on.

Playing defensive

This is essential to learn as you play, whether as a team brawl or just solo. Playing defensive means not only digging, but knowing when to stall, when to try to for combos and when to break them, and using breakers wisely.

Digging

This is used to refer to having a mostly full board and using breakers to dig your way down to have some playing room. This is mostly left up to the piece generator. Sometimes you'll be left with mostly Yellow and get every other breaker except Yellow. That's not a fault of your attempt at digging, that's just bad luck. I've had that happen, but then I've also had every breaker fall that I needed to clear my board and give me a chance to fight back into it.

There are a couple keys to digging. Recognizing drop patterns and building to anticipate. I'm not saying have every possible sword and color combination drop pattern memorized, that's almost impossible. But try to watch how your opponent's attack form into bricks for you, and build accordingly. Keep a couple different ways open to help you keep clearing stuff. If you can connect a majority of colors, and have a couple ways of clearing it, you give yourself a chance to get more room on your board and a chance to maybe send an attack their way and disrupt them long enough to get back on your feet a bit and get more stuff cleared.

Stalling

Best used in melees during Sea battles, especially with damage on your side. My basic rule of thumb is stall if you're being teamed on by 3 or more, even if no damage. What this allows you to do is soak up more attacks that could instead go towards perhaps finishing off an ally, while also keeping you alive for longer, thus increasing the chances of your opponents keep sending attacks at you instead of your team.

If you're damaged, 3 lines or more, then stall if you're being teamed on by any number of people. This is the same reasoning as above.

When should you stop? Keep an eye on your picture at the top. If you see the dots clear off you, make a couple small breaks, start using your spacebar a bit to get those attacks cleared off you so you can start adding to the fray. With no damage, I'd say start stalling after about 5 or 6 drops, if they're still on you. If half damage or over, start after only 2 or 3 drops. And reverse it to stop stalling. 2 or 3 drops after the team breaks up on you with no damage, 5 or 6 drops on half + damage.

Like I said, my own personal feelings, but I'd say try it out a bit to see how you feel.

Combo'ing defensively

This means still trying to create combos, but you're also using the same strategy as digging, but a little earlier. Whereas digging, you start once you're screen gets roughly 2/3rd's full, if not a little sooner, this can start once you get your opponents initial attack.

Let's say he sends over a fairly large attack, and a couple turns later still nothing. That means he's a large builder, and that's all he goes for. So you incorporate a quick striker mentality, but using his drop pattern. You set up doubles with an occasional triple, using whatever he sends you as ammunition. Some people call this a "Countering strategy". This is a good strategy to try to learn and get good at because it allows you to stay defensive and make smaller sprinkles and strikes, but you can also flip it and go on the offensive relatively quickly with the right fall of breakers.

What you're trying to achieve here is quick, rapid attacks, swords with some sprinkles almost every attack, to keep your opponent off balance. With so much small stuff falling, you keep burying his large attacks, and force him to play outside of his comfort zone. And this allows you to keep your board relatively empty, so if he can get off a couple attacks, not only can you absorb them easier, but since you're already building with his drop pattern, you increase the chance of sending back a large attack, potentially an insta or even filling most of his board.

Team

We all know the basic teaming rules. No more than 2 or 3 on a bot unless you can't help it. What I hear is some people don't understand why. The best reason is bots tend to stall when 4 or more hop on them, so even the best swordfighters won't be able to get them to fall any faster with more on them. You also increase the chance of waste.

Earlier I talked about waste. Well, with more people on them, you're increasing what's on their board and so increasing the chance of strikes not having a place to land, so they disappear. So a good balance to this is limiting the number of people on them, thus limiting the chance of wasted attacks.

Against bots, specific drop patterns don't mean as much as color distribution in it. Since they don't get the exact pattern, the game assigns them a number of blocks equivalent to the volume you send their way, with the number of colors roughly matching the number of colors in your drop. So a sword without much distribution, either only a couple different colors or groups too many like-colors together, is just giving them ammunition to send back to you. They don't get breakers per say, rather the game figures how much would be broken by a certain color breaker, and calculates that based on the bot's sword pattern, and sends you the attack. If you have a sword that lumps colors together, you're giving the bots a good chance of sending back large attacks against you or your teammates.

Keeping your attacks against a bot you're teamed against limited will help out the rest of your team by keeping their waste down to a minimum.

Ghosting

Ah, sometimes it's good to be a ghost. Know why? You scare the bots to death, literally.

Let's say you're not being attacked, and you get a beauty of an insta built, and you're ready to set it off. You look, you're teamed properly, the bot has half of a screen full already. You realize that there's a good chance this beauty of an insta will get wasted, or at least the important part, the sword falling in the 4th column. So what do you do? Become a ghost.

Ghosting is essentially scanning your opponents for someone not getting attacked but still has a little bit built on their board and unleashing a particularly devastating attack against them, which should in most cases result in either insta death or a blocked off board and death is a move or two later for them. You switch to the opponent, set off the combo, maybe make a couple smaller attacks to ensure they're out, then team back up. Takes a little bit of practice, and doing it too much in one battle can cause them to gang up on you to either get you down, or to get your slow down your play. But it's worth it to be able to knock out a couple more bots and potentially make the brawl that much quicker.

[eminent]

Closing tips, suggestions, comments

For reading everything I appreciate it. As you can see, there's a lot more to swordfighting than just blocks and breakers, and I haven't gone over everything. These are just some of the highlights that I hope you can apply to help improve your comfort and knowledge of one of the most important puzzles in the game.

Remember:

1) There is no such thing as "the best sword in the game". There are only swords that complement your playstyle to improve your chances of winning.

2) Insta's aren't everything. Some of the best players in the game are able to adapt and change strategies mid game, instead of being locked into a certain way of playing. Yes, insta's are impressive, but if you don't know how to play any other way, you'll find you'll lose more than you win.

3) Start with small combos and build up to larger ones. And practice, practice, practice. And when you're done practicing, play some more.

4) I'm not guaranteeing anything with this guide. I'm not a car salesman. All I can say is this is some of the stuff I've learned while playing from reading other guides and practice. I won't promise you you'll make Ult or win a familiar, but I do hope that this helps you figure out things a little easier.

5) Playing as part of a team in team battles is more important than trying to get rid of everyone on the other team by yourself. Sometimes it may mean stalling almost all the battle without attacking, or it could be keeping combos smaller to get the opponents out faster. A good teammate will put a win as a team above trying to showboat.

Once again, thank you for reading this three page novel. I appreciate it, I really do.

Other guides

Guides I used information from, feel free to read through them.

yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Black_Death_Sword_and_Sprinkle_Placement_Guide

Tedv's guide:
forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=5091

Robertdonald's guide:
forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=7069

[Garibaldi]

This is a very informative and very complete guide. You seldom see a sword fighting guide that shows a combo being built with the results on the opponets board.

Thanks M and thanks Skev for being the guinea pig.

[Skevington]

Great guide Em. You've helped me understand a couple concepts about Sword Battles that were escaping me before.

It's a shame that we can't see what your attacks looked like a couple turns after you brutally stabbed your kind-hearted subject in the screen shots. Might help explain drop color patterns, which I'm still a little fuzzy on.

And I'd buy a car from you.

[eminent]

I'll go back and try to explain drop patterns and how they fall onto your opponents board. Thanks Skev, I knew I was missing something.