Holy War X combat

The basics

• M1 strings. Light attacks chain into a finisher. M1s can be cancelled into a skill.
• Active abilities. Every weapon class and combat style has one, used to close distance. Only shortswords can use theirs to extend a combo; testing showed that letting every class do it produced infinite combos.
• Weapon skills. One to four per weapon, by rarity. Many behave differently in the air than on the ground: some continue a combo, some slam the target down, some reset it.
• The plunge. The downward attack moves you forward, so it has to be aimed, and it only breaks block when started from real height.
• Movement. Omnidirectional movement for players and for race modes, and a slow dramatic walk on right Alt.

Launches and evading

The aerial launch throws an opponent upward so you can follow. It spends about a third of a bar the developer calls your reservoir. Evading out of a combo spends all of it. The bar refills fastest by landing hits, which is meant to reward pressing the attack:

Even though the game is true stun and has parries … it's not really a true stun game, and won't allow those long draining infinite combos.

Launches can also be started with magic. NPCs cannot evade, so long combos work on them in a way they will not on players.

Block, parry, block break

• Block stops most attacks but wears down: fast multi-hit moves drain it.
• Parry is on M2. Heavy attacks and many block breakers can be parried, which hands you the counterattack.
• Block breakers go through a guard. Some moves only become one when held, so a long wind-up is the warning.
• Unblockable moves exist too; the answer to those is a dash through or away.

Lock-on works on NPCs only, to keep player fights about aim. A slider in settings turns screen shake down.

Combo counter and criticals

A counter with a small timer tracks your hits in a fight. At 60 hits, a rank the Movie calls Dragon Star, the last hit of every M1 string becomes a critical. Some moves change at that rank as well: ones that normally bounce off a guard start breaking it.

Combat styles

Fist fighters pick a combat style, and styles evolve: the Movie gives karate growing into a kung fu style as one example, and a rogue style growing into an Oni style as another. Gauntlets are the weapon for this build and upgrade to six stars like any other.

Styles used to be spun. On 28 April 2026 the developer wrote that they were removed from the spin wheel “to ensure you get them via game progress”, adding “yes less profit gain for us”.

Fighting NPCs

NPCs do not run set combos. Since 2024 they “use every single ability within their arsenal and determine which is the best one to use at that given time”. They come in three difficulties plus a rare very hard one, each meant to teach a mechanic. Grouped mobs will not all rush you unless you hit several at once; in May 2026 the developer repeated that being ganged up on happens “only if you go out of your way” to pull multiple creatures.

Bosses follow different rules: they do not get stunned, they stagger. Bosses.

Destruction and cities

Trees and buildings break, by weight, under ultimates and race modes. Inside taverns and houses you can smash barrels and tables or pick them up and throw them.

Cities are policed. An early 2023 video showed a wanted level with three stars: guards at one, heavier guards at two, and at three the Storm Guards, who drop from the sky and keep coming. You could pay an NPC to clear it. That is from before the 2023 rework; what survives for certain is that guards exist, that Holy Knights can arrest players, and the developer's advice from November 2022: “do not try fighting in cities”. Guilds and the prison.