Welcome, mercenary. You’ve stepped onto the blood-soaked battlefields of Mordhau, a place where steel sings and skulls crack. ⚔️ I’ve spent more hours in this beautiful, brutal world than I care to admit. I’ve seen green recruits become living legends and cocky knights become fodder for the crows. Now, it’s your turn. Forget everything you think you know about sword fighting. This is your new bible. Read it, learn it, live it. Your life depends on it.
Your First Steps in Mordhau 👣
Before you even think about charging into a 64-player meat grinder, you need to learn how to walk. These first steps are the most important you’ll take in your Mordhau career. They are designed to build a solid foundation and, more importantly, keep you from quitting in frustration after being decapitated by a naked man with a frying pan for the tenth time.
- Complete the Tutorial. 📜 Do not skip it. This is your first command. The tutorial teaches you the absolute basics of movement and combat. More importantly, it gives you 2,500 gold. 💰 That’s a huge head start for building your first custom warrior later on.
- Use the Default Mercenaries. 👨🎤 The armory is tempting, I know. But hold off. The pre-made characters are your free trial for every playstyle in Mordhau. Use them to discover if you prefer a tanky knight, a nimble skirmisher, or a supportive spearman. This costs you nothing and teaches you everything.
- Duel Servers are Your True Training Ground. ⚔️ Frontline and Invasion are pure chaos. They are terrible places to learn the fine art of combat. Find a duel server in the server browser. Here, you will fight one-on-one. You will learn to parry, feint, and manage your spacing without a horse trampling you from behind.
- Loot the Battlefield. In your first few big matches, try spawning with no weapons. Just run onto the field and pick up whatever you find on the ground. This is a fantastic way to test-drive expensive weapons like the Zweihander or Halberd. You get a feel for their speed and range before you spend a single gold coin.
- Embrace Death and Laugh. 💀 You are going to die. A lot. You will be killed by things that seem unfair, impossible, and downright hilarious. This is a core part of the Mordhau experience. The sooner you learn to laugh at being killed by a lute-wielding maniac, the sooner you’ll start having fun and actually improving. 😂
The Core Principles of Mordhau Combat ⚖️
Every fight in Mordhau, from a back-alley knife fight to a full-blown siege, is governed by a few simple rules. These are the physics of our world. Health, stamina, and armor are the elements you must master before you can even dream of victory. Think of this as your pre-flight checklist before every engagement.
- Understand Your Health. ❤️ You have 100 health points. When it hits zero, you die. Simple enough. If you avoid sprinting or fighting for a few seconds, your health will begin to regenerate very slowly.
- Bandages are Life. ❤️🩹 That slow health regeneration won’t save you in a fight. Every warrior can carry a bandage. Use it to heal quickly. You can find more in supply chests scattered around the maps.
- Stamina is Your Real Life Bar. 🔋 Forget your health. Stamina is everything. You have 100 stamina. Nearly every action—swinging and missing, blocking, feinting, jumping—costs stamina. A duel is often won not by the person who lands the most hits, but by the one who runs out of stamina last.
- Aggression Restores Stamina. 💪 Here’s a secret: landing a successful hit on an enemy restores 10 of your stamina. This is why aggressive, successful fighters can keep swinging. Mordhau rewards calculated offense.
- Zero Stamina Means Disarmament. If you try to block an attack with zero stamina, you will be disarmed. Your weapon will fly out of your hands, leaving you helpless. Managing your stamina to avoid this fate is the single most critical skill in a duel.
- Know Your Armor Zones. 👕 Your body is split into three hit zones: Head, Torso, and Legs. Each can be equipped with armor from Tier 0 (naked) to Tier 3 (heavy). Getting hit in an unarmored leg hurts a lot more than hitting an armored chest.
- Armor vs. Speed. 🛡️ vs. 💨 Heavier armor drastically reduces the damage you take. It also makes you slower. Lighter armor makes you fast and nimble but you’ll die much more easily. It’s a trade-off you must constantly balance when creating a character.
- The Mighty Kick. 🦵 Your kick (F key) is one of your most powerful tools. A kick will interrupt an opponent who is holding their block, briefly stunning them. This guarantees you a free, quick hit.
- Kicking for Stamina. Kicking costs stamina if you miss. However, if you successfully kick an opponent who is blocking, you actually gain stamina. Use this to punish overly defensive players and win the stamina war.
Essential Mordhau Movement and Positioning 💃
A knight standing still is a dead knight. Your legs are just as important as your sword arm. Proper footwork can win you a fight before you even swing your weapon. It’s a dance, and the one with the better rhythm dictates the entire fight.
- Footwork is Your Best Defense. 🚶♂️ Often, the best way to avoid an attack is to simply walk out of its way. This is better than a parry because it costs you zero stamina.
- Bait the Miss. 🎣 Good movement isn’t just defensive; it’s offensive. By dancing just at the edge of their range, you can bait your opponent into swinging and missing. A missed swing costs them a huge amount of stamina, giving you a massive advantage.
- Backpedal to Breathe. 🌬️ Constantly walking backward (backpedaling) creates space. Use this space to let your stamina regenerate. It also forces your opponent to close the distance, often with predictable forward-moving attacks like stabs.
- Master Your Weapon’s Range. 📏 Every fight is a battle for positioning. You want to be close enough that the very tip of your weapon can hit them, but far enough away that their weapon can’t reach you.
- Use Third-Person View for Awareness. 🎥 You can switch between first and third-person by pressing the ‘P’ key. Third-person view gives you much better peripheral vision. This is almost essential for surviving the chaos of large battles like Frontline.
- Use First-Person View for Precision. 👀 In a one-on-one duel, first-person view is often superior. It allows you to more clearly see your opponent’s weapon and body, making it easier to read their feints and morphs.
- Use the Environment. 🧱 Never fight in an open field if you can help it. Put a wall to your back to prevent being surrounded. Fight on stairs to make it harder for enemies to hit your head.
- Ledges are Your Friend. 🧗 A single kick can send an enemy plummeting to their death. Always be aware of nearby ledges, cliffs, and pits. A well-timed kick is the ultimate environmental weapon.
Deception and Mind Games: Mastering Feints & Morphs 🧠
Now we get to the fun part: lying. 🤥 The core of Mordhau combat is not about who can swing the fastest, but who is the better deceiver. Feints and morphs are how you attack your opponent’s mind, forcing them to make mistakes that you can punish.
- The Feint is Your Bread and Butter. Press the ‘Q’ key during the windup of your attack to feint. This cancels the attack. The goal is to make your opponent think you are attacking, baiting them into a parry.
- Attack After a Baited Parry. 💥 When your opponent parries your feint, they are locked in a recovery animation for a split second. This is your window. Immediately launch a real attack to hit them while they are defenseless.
- Do Not Use Right-Click to Feint. ❌ You can feint by parrying during your own attack windup, but this is slow and obvious. Good players will see this “parry-feint” from a mile away and punish you for it. Use the ‘Q’ key.
- Morph to Confuse. 🔄 A morph is when you start one type of attack and change it into another. For example, start a stab (mouse wheel up), and then immediately left-click. Your character will begin the stabbing motion but then fluidly change it into a swing.
- Morphs Beat Chambers. Morphs are more advanced than feints. They are the perfect tool to defeat players who try to chamber your attacks. They expect a stab, but you deliver a swing.
- The Basic Combat Triangle. 🪨📄✂️ Understand this simple relationship: A normal Attack is beaten by a Parry. A Parry is beaten by a Feint. This is the fundamental rock-paper-scissors of every duel.
Advanced Mordhau Defense: Chambers and Ripostes 🛡️
So, your opponent is a master of deception, constantly feinting you out. How do you fight back? You learn to chamber. And once you’ve defended, you learn to riposte. This is how you turn a desperate defense into an overwhelming offense.
- Chamber to Counter-Attack. 🔄 To chamber, you must mirror your opponent’s attack. If they are swinging from your right, you must start a swing from your left at the exact moment you would normally parry. Your weapons will connect, blocking their attack and continuing your own.
- Chambering Kills Feints. ✅ This is the most important property of a chamber. If you attempt to chamber an attack, but your opponent feints it, your attack simply continues and hits them. This makes chambering the ultimate hard counter to players who spam feints.
- Stabs are Easiest to Chamber. 🎯 To chamber a stab, you don’t need to mirror any angle. You just need to time your own stab to connect with theirs. Practice chambering stabs first.
- The Full Combat Triangle. 🤯 Now we can complete the mind game. Chamber beats Feint. But a committed attack, especially a Morph, will beat a chamber attempt.
- Riposte for a Fast Counter. After you successfully parry an attack, immediately launch an attack of your own. This is a riposte. Ripostes are faster than normal attacks, allowing you to seize the initiative.
- Ripostes Grant Hyper-Armor. 💪 This is the secret to fighting more than one person (a “1vX”). When you are in a riposte animation, you have hyper-armor. This means your attack cannot be interrupted, even if another enemy hits you.
- Use Ripostes to Survive Groups. In a 1vX, your goal is to parry one enemy’s attack and immediately riposte into a different enemy. The hyper-armor will protect you from being stun-locked.
- Learn the CFTP. 🙏 The Chamber-Feint-to-Parry is a god-tier defensive move. You initiate a chamber, but if you see your opponent dragging their swing, you feint your chamber and then parry their delayed hit.
- Don’t Over-Chamber. 💸 Chambering costs significantly more stamina than parrying. Use it strategically to punish feints, not as your default defense.
The Art of the Blade: Swing Manipulation in Mordhau ⌛
You’ve mastered the basics. You can parry, you can feint, you can chamber. Now, you face an opponent who has mastered them too. How do you win? You learn to bend time itself. Swing manipulation—drags and accels—is the highest level of mechanical skill in Mordhau.
- Accelerate Your Attacks. 🚀 To perform an “accel,” you turn your camera into the direction of your swing. For a swing coming from the right, you whip your mouse to the left as the attack is released. This makes the hitbox connect sooner than they expect.
- Use Accels to Beat Parries. The goal of an accel is to land your hit before your opponent’s parry window even starts. It punishes players who react based on muscle memory.
- Drag Your Attacks. 🐌 To perform a “drag,” you do the opposite. You turn your camera away from the direction of your swing. For a swing from the right, you slowly pull your mouse to the right. This delays the hit, making it connect after their parry has ended.
- Use Drags to Punish Panic. Drags are devastating against players who panic-parry at the first sign of an attack. They block, see nothing, and then get hit.
- Enable “Tracers” in Settings. 📈 This is crucial for learning. Go to your game settings and turn on “Tracers.” This will create a visible line that follows your weapon’s path, giving you direct visual feedback.
- Respect the “Turn Cap.” 🧢 You cannot spin 360 degrees in the middle of a swing. The game limits your turn speed during an attack’s release phase.
- Combine Footwork with Swings. 👣 Physically walk into your accels to make them even faster. Backpedal during your drags to make them even slower and harder to judge.
The Armory: Crafting Your Perfect Mordhau Mercenary Armoury
A warrior is only as good as his gear. In Mordhau, building a mercenary is a strategic puzzle. You have 16 points to create a build. How you spend them on weapons, armor, and perks will define your role on the battlefield.
- Spend All 16 Points. 💯 There is no bonus for using fewer than 16 points. Maximize your build by spending every last one.
- Prioritize Level 2 Head Armor. 👑 A Level 2 helmet (2 points) is the most important piece of armor. It will prevent you from being one-shot-killed by the vast majority of weapons.
- Invest in Level 3 Torso Armor. 💪 A Level 3 chest piece (3 points) dramatically increases your survivability, often letting you take an extra hit.
- Sacrifice Leg Armor for Points. 🦵 If you need to save points, leg armor is the first thing to go. Very few weapons can one-shot you with a leg hit. Running 2/3/0 (Head/Torso/Legs) is a very common meta build.
- Use Blunt Weapons vs. Heavy Armor. 🔨 Maces and warhammers are designed to crush plate. Their damage is not reduced as much by heavy armor.
- Use Bladed Weapons vs. Light Armor. 🔪 Swords and axes excel at cutting through flesh and light armor. Use them to hunt down archers and skirmishers.
- Use Polearms for Reach. 🔱 Spears and halberds give you a massive range advantage. They are also the best weapons for dealing with cavalry.
- The Bloodlust Perk is King. 🩸 In large modes, the Bloodlust perk (5 points) is arguably the best. It instantly restores you to full health after a kill, allowing you to chain kills.
- The Dodge Perk for Skirmishers. 💨 The Dodge perk (4 points) gives you a quick, stamina-based backwards dash. This is essential for light armor builds.
- The Second Wind Perk for Duels. 🤺 In duels, the Second Wind perk (2 points) restores a small amount of stamina for every hit you land, helping you win the war of attrition.
- DLC Armor is Cosmetic Only. ✨ New cosmetic packs are constantly being added. They look fantastic, but offer zero statistical advantage. Fashion is the true endgame.
- Create Specialized Loadouts. 👷♂️ Don’t use one build for everything. Create a heavy armor “objective holder,” a light armor “flanker,” and a stamina-focused duelist.
- Learn Your Alternate Grips. 🔄 Many two-handed weapons can be gripped differently by pressing the ‘R’ key. Half-swording a Longsword shortens its range but gives it faster, armor-piercing stabs.
- Throw Your One-Handed Weapons. 🤯 If a weapon doesn’t have an alternate grip, pressing ‘R’ will throw it. A surprise axe to the face is a great finisher.
Here is a quick guide to common armor builds and their purpose:
| Armor Setup (Head/Torso/Legs) | Point Cost | Movement Speed | Key Survivability Breakpoints | Ideal For |
| 3/3/3 (Full Heavy) | 9 | Slowest 🐢 | Survives most 2-hit combos. | Frontline objective holders, new players. 🛡️ |
| 2/3/1 (Balanced Medium) | 6 | Medium 🏃♂️ | Survives all 1-hit headshots except Maul. | Versatile dueling, aggressive Frontline play. ⚔️ |
| 1/1/0 (Pure Speed) | 2 | Fastest 🚀 | Dies to almost any headshot. | Flanking, hit-and-run tactics, expert players. 💨 |
| 0/0/0 (Naked) | 0 | Fastest | Dies to a stiff breeze. 🌬️ | Meme builds, high-level players looking for a challenge. 😂 |
Battlefield Tactics for Every Mordhau Game Mode 🗺️
Being a good fighter is one thing. Being a good soldier is another. Each Mordhau game mode requires a different mindset. Learn your role, play for the team, and victory will follow.
- Play the Objective. 🎯 In Frontline and Invasion, your kill count does not matter as much as the objective. Pushing the payload or killing the commander is how you win.
- Invasion: Attackers Push. ➡️ As an attacker, your only job is to complete the objectives. You are on a timer. Be relentless.
- Invasion: Defenders Delay. ⏳ As a defender, you don’t need to wipe out the enemy team. You just need to stop them from completing the objective until the timer runs out.
- Skirmish: Stick Together. 🤝 Skirmish is a last-team-standing mode. The team that sticks together and focuses its fire wins. A lone wolf is a dead wolf.
- Horde: Farm Early. 💰 Horde mode is a co-op wave survival mode. The early waves are easy. Your goal is to get as many kills as possible to earn gold for better gear.
- Horde: Buy a Scythe. ⛏️ The Scythe is a cheap and incredibly effective weapon for early-game Horde. Its wide swings can cleave through multiple unarmored peasants.
- Demon Horde: Focus the Boss. 😈 The new Demon Horde mode adds special boss enemies. When a boss appears, your whole team needs to focus their fire on it.
- Cross-Play is Live. 🌐 Mordhau now features cross-play between PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. The battlefield is more populated than ever.
- Engineers are Heroes. 👷♂️ The Engineer class is one of the most important in objective modes. They can build defenses and place spawn points.
- A Good Spawn Banner Wins Games. 🚩 An engineer with a Spawn Banner can place a forward spawn for their team. This can be the single most impactful action that leads to victory.
Specialized Warfare: Unconventional Mordhau Tricks 🤪
The battlefield is more than just swords and shields. It’s a sandbox of medieval mayhem. Learning to use the specialized tools and quirky mechanics of Mordhau will elevate your game.
- Lighter Horses are Better. 🐎 Heavy horses look cool, but they are slow. Light and medium horses are much faster and more agile.
- Couch Your Lance. While on a horse and wielding a spear or lance, press ‘F’ to couch it. At high speed, this will instantly kill any enemy you run into.
- Build Defenses with the Toolbox. 🧱 The Engineer’s Toolbox can build spike walls, barricades, and ballistas. Use them to fortify objectives.
- Repair with the Smith Perk. 🔨 The Smith perk allows you to repair friendly structures much faster with a repair hammer.
- Master the Bear Trap. 🐻 Place these nasty surprises at the top of ladders, behind doors, or in tall grass. An enemy caught in one is a free kill.
- Use the Rat Perk. 🐀 This perk makes your footsteps quieter and allows you to walk over enemy bear traps without setting them off.
- Shields are a Double-Edged Sword. 🛡️ Shields allow you to hold your block indefinitely, but a single kick will break your block and leave you stunned.
- Wear a Shield on Your Back. If you are using a two-handed weapon, you can still pick up a shield. It will be placed on your back, protecting you from arrows from behind.
- Do Not Kill the Bards. 🙏 This is the most important rule of Mordhau etiquette. If you see a player peacefully playing a lute, leave them alone. 🎶
- Use Emotes and Voice Lines. 😂 Press ‘X’ for emotes and ‘C’ for voice lines. A well-timed laugh can get into an opponent’s head.
- Psychological Warfare. 🧠 You can pick up almost anything. Find a rock. Find horse dung. Throw it at your enemy. It is deeply insulting and can tilt them.
- Firebombs for Area Denial. 🔥 Firebombs are less about kills and more about controlling space. Throw one on an objective to force enemies off it.
- The Fireproof Perk is a Lifesaver. If you are tired of dying to random firebombs, the Fireproof perk will drastically reduce the damage you take.
- Use Smoke Bombs for Cover. 💨 A well-placed smoke bomb can cover your team’s advance or hide your retreat.
- You Can Climb Ledges. 🧗 Many walls that look impassable can actually be climbed. Look for ledges to find clever flanking routes.
- Kick Open Doors. 🚪 Kicking a closed door will swing it open violently, stunning anyone standing directly behind it.
- The Partisan is a Versatile Spear. 🔱 This newer weapon is a shorter spear that is excellent in close quarters. Its alternate mode allows you to throw it.
- Peasant Weapons Can Be Thrown. 🧑🌾 Recent updates have allowed many peasant-class weapons like the Pitchfork and Sickle to be thrown.
- Jump-Kicking is Real. 🤸♂️ Yes, you can jump and kick at the same time. It has a slightly longer range and looks incredibly disrespectful. Master it.
- Crouch to Dodge Swings. A well-timed crouch can cause a horizontal swing aimed at your head to sail harmlessly over you.
- Look Up to Protect Your Head. ⬆️ When an enemy is right in your face, looking straight up can sometimes move your head’s hitbox just enough to make their overhead swing miss.
- The Waterfall Drag. 🌊 This is an advanced drag. With a long weapon, you start an overhead swing on one side, and through extreme mouse dragging, make the tip “waterfall” over their block and hit them on their other side.
Mastering Mordhau: Your Next Steps 🎓
You have the knowledge. You have the tools. But knowledge is useless without practice. Mastery in Mordhau is a long road, paved with your own corpses. Here’s how to walk it.
- Practice with Bots. 🤖 Start a local match with one bot. This lets you focus on your mechanics without pressure.
- Use the Console for Training. 💻 In a local match, open the console (~). Type
slowmo 0.5to practice in slow motion. - Infinite Practice Mode. ♾️ In that same console, type
ToggleDamageandToggleStamina. This makes you invincible and gives you infinite stamina. - Ask for a Mentor. 👨🏫 The Mordhau community, especially on duel servers, is full of veterans. Most are willing to help a new player who asks for tips.
- Record Your Gameplay. 🎥 Record your fights, especially the ones you lose. Watch them back. You will see your bad habits clearly.
- Read the Patch Notes. 📝 The developers are still updating Mordhau. Stay informed about the state of the game.
- Manage Your Tilt. 😠 You will get frustrated. When you feel yourself getting angry, take a break. A tilted player is a predictable player.
- Customize Your Keybinds. ⌨️ Many high-level players prefer to bind specific attacks to keys. This can make your attacks more consistent.
- Study Weapon Stats. 📈 Use a community resource like the website mordstats.com to see detailed breakdowns of every weapon. Knowledge is power.
- Learn to Retreat. 🏃♂️ There is no shame in running from a fight you cannot win. Staying alive is always better than dying for nothing.
- Help Your Teammates. 🤝 This is the golden rule. If you see a teammate in a 1v1, make it a 2v1. The fastest way to win is with overwhelming numbers.
- Watch for Team Damage. ❤️🩹 Your blade does not distinguish between friend and foe. The Friendly perk is a great investment to reduce team damage.
- Understand the Stamina Game. 🔋 Remember that blunt weapons drain more stamina from an opponent when they block. Use this against shield users.
- Use the Stun Perk. ✨ This perk, when paired with a blunt weapon, can briefly disorient an opponent on headshots.
- The Scavenger Build. 🥳 A fun build is to take the Scavenger perk, full heavy armor, and Bloodlust. Survive the initial clash and then pick up a powerful weapon from a fallen enemy.
- Have Fun. 😂 At the end of the day, Mordhau is a game. Create ridiculous-looking mercenaries. Be the bard who plays terrible music in a siege. Charge into battle with a frying pan and a dream. The chaos is the point. Enjoy it. Now get out there and earn some gold.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Mordhau belong to the developer Triternion.
Find the game here! Mordhau: Multiplayer medieval melee game – Mordhau.com
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