Splat Swords Guide: Parries, Weapons, Monsters and Giants
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Splat Swords is a free ragdoll sword fighting game in your browser. Chunky, wobbly fighters swing real weapons in arenas full of traps, a big enough swing sends someone flying into an exploding barrel or off a rope bridge, and every now and then a giant four storeys tall walks in. It looks silly, and it is, but the rules underneath are honest physics, and the bots are sharp. Every fighter, boss and giant is a detailed HD model with real hands wrapped round its weapon. This guide explains how a hit is decided, how to defend, what every weapon is good at, how the creatures fight and how to bring a giant down.
How a hit works
Every weapon in Splat Swords is a physical stick in your fighter’s hand. It only hurts while it is swinging, and only where it actually touches a body: the head, the torso or the upper arms and legs. Between two frames the game sweeps the blade from where it was to where it is, so even a very fast swing cannot pass through someone without touching them.
How much a hit does depends on how fast the blade is moving where it lands:
- A swing speeds up, peaks in the middle and slows at the end, so the middle of the arc hits hardest.
- The outer part of a blade moves faster than the part near your hand, so hits at the edge of your reach do more than hits up close.
- A blade that only brushes someone at the very start of a swing does nothing and keeps going.
- Head hits do about a third more, arms and legs a quarter less.
- A fighter lying on the floor takes half damage.
The last blow of every combo is a finisher: it hits harder and throws further. Heavy swings do roughly twice the damage of a slash, grow stronger the longer you charge them, and knock fighters off their feet. On Normal you take a little more than you deal; on Hardcore hits hurt a lot more, so defend.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Phone / tablet | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | W A S D or arrows | Analog stick (left) | Left stick or D-pad |
| Attack (hold = heavy) | J, Space or left mouse button | ATTACK | X |
| Dodge roll | K or Shift | DODGE | A |
| Block / parry | L or right mouse button | BLOCK | RB |
| Throw | I | THROW | Y |
| Pause | P or Esc | Pause button | Start |
Your swings and throws aim at the nearest enemy, or at the one you push the stick towards. On a computer the mouse pointer aims instead. Every key and button can be remapped in Options > Controls.
Defending
Block
Hold BLOCK to raise your guard. Any hit from the front is stopped, but it costs stamina: the harder the hit, the more it costs. If the bar runs out while you are blocking, your guard breaks and you stagger, wide open. Spiked maces and flails get a little damage through a guard, and blocking a giant’s club is hopeless.
Parry
Raise the guard just before a hit lands (inside about a sixth of a second) and you parry it. A parry costs no stamina and throws the attacker’s arms up for most of a second: a free hit, or time to charge a heavy. A thrown weapon that you parry flies straight back at whoever threw it. Watch the enemy’s wind-up, not their blade: every attack starts with the weapon drawn back, and it glints as it goes.
Clash and bat
When two swinging blades meet, they clash and both bounce off; a much heavier weapon smashes straight through. A swinging blade also bats thrown weapons away.
Dodge
The dodge roll is invulnerable for most of its length. It costs a quarter of your stamina, and you can roll out of the end of your own swing. Roll out of the red circles a giant’s stomp or a falling bomb or boulder paints on the floor.
Throwing
Everyone carries a sidearm with a few shots per fight: you start with throwing knives, and the Armory sells shuriken (six fast stars), throwing axes, javelins (a hit knocks them flat) and bombs (lobbed, they blow up a moment after landing). Thrown weapons land on the floor: walk over them to pick them up again, and pick up an enemy’s when your own run out. Crates break open into more.
You can also pick up the arena itself: stand next to a crate or an unlit barrel, face it and press Throw to lift it over your head with both hands (your weapon goes away while your hands are full), then press Throw again to hurl it. A crate smashes and spills its pickup, a barrel blows up where it lands. Carrying slows you down and you can’t attack or block, and a dodge or a hit makes you drop it. Enemies, bosses and giants do it too, so give a fighter standing next to a barrel some room.
Special moves
Learn them in the Armory’s MOVES tab; each one has three levels. They count in the Tournament and Free for All; on the leaderboards everyone has every move at level one.
- Dash strike: attack during a dodge roll for a lunging blow out of the roll. Level three is invulnerable as it goes.
- Whirlwind: hold BLOCK and press ATTACK. One to two full turns with the blade out, great against a crowd or a turtle.
- Ground slam: a fully charged heavy sends a shockwave along the floor; at level three it knocks everyone down.
- Throw volley: throw two or three at once.
Weapons
| Weapon | Reach | Speed | Power | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arming Sword | Medium | Medium | Medium | Slashes, a stab, a rising finisher, a spinning heavy |
| Pitchfork | Long | Medium | Low | Cheap and long; the heavy is a lunge |
| Twin Daggers | Very short | Very fast | Low | A blade in each hand, whirlwind heavy |
| Spear | Longest | Medium | Medium | Keep them at the tip |
| Frying Pan | Short | Medium | High | Widest parry window, comedy knockback |
| Giant Club | Long | Slow | High | Enormous knockback; the heavy is a home run |
| Battle Axe | Medium | Slow | High | The cleave cannot be interrupted |
| Spiked Mace | Short | Medium | High | Spikes go through guards |
| Twin Swords | Medium | Fast | Medium | Endless flurries |
| Flail | Medium | Slow | High | A ball on a swinging chain; hard to block |
| War Hammer | Medium | Very slow | Very high | The slam sends a shockwave |
| Katana | Medium | Fast | Medium | Long combo; the heavy dashes across the arena |
| Sledgehammer | Medium | Slow | High | Uppercuts that launch, a sky-high heavy |
| Trident | Very long | Medium | Medium | The skewer pins them to the floor |
| Scythe | Very long | Slow | High | Its hook pulls victims in |
| Greatsword | Very long | Slow | Very high | Wide sweeps, a crushing spin |
| Great Maul | Long | Slowest | Highest | The pound shakes the whole arena |
The creatures
Besides knights, farmers, chefs and duelists you meet ninjas and kunoichi (shuriken, dash strikes), vikings and shieldmaidens (throwing axes and javelins), samurai (the best parries in the game), barbarians, bog witches with bombs, and valkyries. Then the monsters:
- Goblins are small, fast and fragile, and throw knives or bombs. Do not let a bomber keep its distance.
- Orcs are broad and tough and swing spiked maces.
- Skeletons are brittle but quick; the reaper swings a scythe that pulls you in.
- Stone golems punch like boulders and shrug off light blows. Stay out of reach and punish the slam.
- Demons poke with tridents and dash at you.
- Fire elementals whirl flaming flails.
The Bestiary in the menu lists all 37 opponents and giants and shows each one going through its moves, a good way to learn a new enemy before you meet it.
Every creature splashes its own colour when hit and pops apart into cartoon pieces when it is knocked out for good. If you prefer, SPLATTER: PAINT in Options turns all of it into bright paint without the bursting.
Giants
A giant’s head is far out of reach, and its tree-trunk club sweeps a huge arc. Here is how to fell one:
- Go for the legs. Targets on the giant’s legs show where to hit. Every hit on a shin, an ankle or a knee fills that leg’s meter: a small bar under the target, and the two thin bars under its health. Heavy hits fill it faster. Stick to one leg. Spears, pitchforks and tridents aim at a bare shin by themselves, which makes them great giant weapons.
- Watch the plates. Metal thigh plates, knee guards and greaves sit right on the giant’s legs and make blows bounce off with an ARMORED! sign. More of them appear in each new phase (the notches on the health bar), so find the bare spot.
- Topple it. A full meter brings the giant crashing down. While it lies there, run to the head (HEAD X3 shows above it, and a ring counts down until it gets up): head hits are critical and do three times the damage, and the body takes double.
- Respect its moves. A red ! flashes before every big attack. A rising foot means a stomp: roll out of the red circle. A giant bending low is reaching to grab you: if it catches you, mash ATTACK to break free before it throws you. A giant lifting a boulder, a crate or a barrel will throw it at where you are going to be: keep moving. When it roars, it has entered a new phase and gets faster and nastier.
Your first two giant fights show these steps as big hints on screen (HIT ITS LEGS!, DODGE THE STOMP!, IT FALLS: HIT THE HEAD!), so you can learn as you go.
The Giant Gauntlet runs you through seven giant fights, including a pair of twin giants and the Titan, then round again, harder. The number of giants you fell goes on its own leaderboard.
The arenas
- Stone Ring, Pillar Hall, The Pitch: the classics. Pillars block blades, a football bonks.
- Barrel Yard: red barrels explode half a second after a hit and set each other off.
- Cliff Meadow and Storm Peak: open edges; on the peak the wind gusts east or west, so lean into it near an edge.
- Rope Bridge: planks crack under heavy blows, blasts and time. A plank about to go shakes and shows a red crack: step off.
- Frozen Lake: slippery ice, long slides and icy water.
- Trap Temple: spike tiles that glow before they shoot up, a spinning blade you can roll under and a swinging log that sends people flying.
- Volcano Rim and Lava Throne: lava along the open edge; on the rim, lava geysers bubble, then erupt.
Crates break into a health potion, rage (harder, faster hits for a few seconds), a shield bubble or ammo.
The Tournament
Every run is generated anew: four regions to a cup, four stages in each, with a fork at every fight. The red ELITE road has sharper bots and pays more. Each region ends with a boss (sometimes a giant), each cup with a final boss, and the game picks the bosses you have met least, so over a few tournaments you see them all. The difficulty climbs steadily whatever the map. Your run is saved: pick CONTINUE on the title screen to come back to it. NEW GAME next to it asks first, then starts you over with no coins, weapons, upgrades or heroes; your records and star skins stay. On Hardcore you have one extra life for the whole tournament: lose twice and it starts over from the Bronze Cup with a new map. Winning a cup restores the extra life.
Free for All
You and three bots, everyone for themselves, on one of ten arenas picked at random for every match: Stone Ring, Pillar Hall, The Pitch, Cliff Meadow, Barrel Yard, Rope Bridge, Frozen Lake, Trap Temple, Volcano Rim or Storm Peak. Stay out of the middle early on and let the bots wear each other down. If you are knocked out while two or more are still standing, the fight goes on and you can watch it to the end, or tap or press any key to skip to the results.
Heroes and skins
The Armory’s HEROES tab sells new looks for coins: the Dame Knight, the Shieldmaiden, a Barbarian, the Ranger, a Samurai, a Goblin Hero and a Skeleton Knight. Signed-in players can unlock skins with stars in Rewards, among them the Valkyrie, the Kunoichi, the Ronin and the Berserker. Looks never change the game.
Quick tips
- Fight at the edge of your reach: the tip hits hardest.
- Watch the wind-up, not the blade. Parry the glint.
- After a parry, charge a heavy: the attacker cannot stop it.
- Keep a quarter of your stamina for a roll.
- Throw from range, then pick your knives back up.
- Never stand on a glowing tile, a cracking plank or a bubbling vent.
- Against a giant, stick to one leg, then sprint for the head.
Want more? Try the football in Pixel Pitch or the brick battles of Brick Tanks.