Stances

These are the stances available in the game:

### Light Stance

Light stance has a big slash range and it's the most popular stance to older players because it gives more of a challenge, it's feature is light stance launch which unlike balanced stance and heavy stance launch is unlocked at level 3 stance while bal and heavy launch are unlocked at level 5 stance. It has the best range and speed between the stances but has the lowest damage.

### Balanced Stance

Balanced stance is balanced between light and heavy amount of damage is lower than heavy but bigger than light and defense is the same as light stance. however, it has smaller slash range then light, so if you need more damage or more range switch stances.

### Heavy Stance

Heavy Stance does a big amount of damage, but in return, it makes you more open to the enemy, basically, your defense is weaker by 20%.

stance interaction is like rock-paper-scissors each stance has an advantage over one,but also a disadvantage when fighting the other stance(light<balanced<heavy). Differences between stances(except for slash animation)are: damage,defense and slash range(speed). There are two types of damage that depend on the stance.One is physical and the other is critical damage.

Physical DMG: ATK + Weapon DMG x stance multiplier

Critical DMG: 1.3 x Phys. DMG (+ critical damage obtained from items)

Table below gives you stat modifiers using which you can use calculate what your stats will be when you're in a certain stance,but it is only accurate if your stance mastery is 9. These calculations are already done and can be seen in Player screen>Stats(upper left corner).

 Balanced
 Heavy

# Light Stance

Light Stance
 Level
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

The **Light Stance** is a sword stance that relies on speed and agility to help the samurai gain the upper hand during a battle against heavier opponents.

Slash lengths are longer, and Samurai draw their sword quicker in this stance. The damage done per slash is greatly reduced. It gains a bonus against enemies using the Heavy Stance.

Each level of light stance increases the damage done per slash, but does not increase the range. Damage modifier for level 1 stance mastery is x0.5 and can be increased up to x0.9(level 9). Slash is unaffected by mastery and always remains at 1.4 SPEED.

## Skills

The light stance only requires level 3 to unlock the ability to launch enemies into the sky, where as the other stances require level 5.

At level 5, the light stance allows a Samurai to continue slashing in mid-air, increasing the effectiveness of air combos

## Strategy

The strengths of the light stance are quick, rapid strikes from a safe distance. The damage reduction requires a Samurai to attack repeatably and swiftly to defeat an opponent.

The light stance is effective for multihit combos. In combination with air strike, Launch can be an effective way to destroy an enemy with little retaliation, if one can keep the combo alive.

Additionally, the use of skills can be highly beneficial, as a strong strike in light stance can result in 88 damage, but most fully evolved chi skills can do 100+ damage, and element skills have the possibility to reach 300+

Winning a direct confrontation is usually difficult with light stance. The lack of damage requires a more skillful approach. Auto attack can rob the light stance of it's potential, unless a samurai can kill enemies with one of the stances' strikes.

## Build

The main build for light stance is HP and defense based. You will want these two stats as high as they can be to fight effectively.

The remaining stat points can be placed into speed for a skill based/elemental light build, or can be placed in attack, for a crit damage based light build.

Since light stance has such a low natural attack multiplier, attack is usually nothing to worry about unless you want a specific crit based build. Piercing is more important for damage dealt per slash, and critical damage can be more vital than attack damage, in some aspects. But, no stats are to be fully ignored and left out of gear, if at all possible.

# Balanced Stance

Balanced Stance
 Level
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

The **Balanced Stance** is a sword stance that has a good mix of speed and power and is usually employed by beginning samurai. Balance Stance gains bonuses against the Light Stance, but takes more damage from Heavy Stance.

Balanced between Light and Heavy Stance, this stance has medium slash distance and medium damage, and can handle most situations.

Every increase in Balanced Stance skill level improves both damage and slash length. Damage and speed modifiers are identical: x1(level 1)-> x1,2(level 9)

## Skills

Flip-Up ,unlocked at level 3, reduces the time it takes to recover from being knocked down while in Balanced stance, allowing quick retaliation.

Arrow Deflect is unlocked at level 4, and Launch is unlocked at level 5

## Strategy

The Balanced Stance lacks neither range nor power, allowing a multitude of ways to battle.

Defense based strategies can use this stance to attack from a fair distance away from the enemy while doing more damage then Light Stance. Critical builds are great for this type of strategy, but require an elusive gameplay strategy, and a fair amount of accuracy for landing critical hits.

Aggressive approaches can take advantage of Flip-Up to charge at enemies with less concern about arrows and launch attacks, which would knock Heavy Stance down for longer. This strategy is more reliant on speed than some others, as smokebomb recharge rate and rolls for evasion will need to be almost spammed.

Keep in mind that the Balanced Stance range is lower then Light Stance, and power is lower then Heavy Stance. If the situation requires more of either, switch stances.

# Heavy Stance

Heavy Stance
 Level
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

The **Heavy Stance** is a powerful sword stance that allows the samurai to put all his strength

into attacks, sacrificing speed and defense. This stance gains bonuses
against Balanced Stance enemies but reduces your defense by 20%.
Stance mastery doesn't affect the damage this stance inflicts and damage modifier remains at x1,4.
Slash range is increased and goes from x0,5(level 1)->x,09(level 9).
Experienced users of this stance will also be able to use a stab attack against
knocked down enemies,that does massive damage.

This stance is recommended for beginners as this stance is easy to use.
It is also useful for defeating bandit leaders or computer controlled player characters.

## Strategy

Heavy stance relies almost fully on attack. The higher attack you have, the higher your damage multiplier will be. Some players tend to forego defense in heavy stance, but this can be a fatal mistake. The the defense reduction, you will really want all the defense you can get to be competitive.

The speed stat has debatable uses for this stance, seeing as usually a few strikes will finish the job, you usually don't have time to wait for longer skills to cooldown anyway. However, in cases of fighting uphill against a proficient user of light stance, cooldown on smokebombs can make the difference in a match.

Heavy stance can give any player a "punchers chance" against another player, where as even an opponent you may have never been ale to defeat in a fight balanced vs balanced stance, the outcome can be drastically different in a heavy vs heavy match.

The Stab attack is a good way to parry kunais or arrows,if you learned the Deflect skill.

Dont forget that other players can dodge your stab trough the use of the Smoke Bomb skill.