How to play guide for Exanima

Here you will find detailed information about the mechanics and strategy of Exanima. The target audience for this article are people who have played around with Exanima story mode and are looking to improve their gameplay and understanding of the mechanics. Please do not study this before getting to experience the joy of trying to figure these things out for yourself in game.

## Basic gameplay

### Exploring

Exploration is the primary gameplay loop of Exanima Story Mode. By exploring, you find better equipment and improve your odds of winning future encounters. Most of your time as a novice in story mode will be spent exploring the dungeon and learning its layout, while flailing around at the zombies. Exploration is also one of the greatest contributors to XP, which is what unlocks skills overtime as you play. Plenty of secrets and interesting items are hidden throughout the dungeon, which adds to re-playability and make the dungeon feel very lived in (and then abandoned). Doors, levers and most objects can be interacted with by holding onto them with the left mouse button. Usable objects can be interacted with by double clicking. Keys can be found to unlock certain doors. These are found either inside of a container or resting somewhere in the environment for the player to notice and drag into their inventory. Locked doors are unlocked by double clicking the correct key in your inventory and then clicking on the appropriate door so long as that door is within your character's reach. Light, or the lack thereof, is a key element in the gameplay of story mode. The torch you spawn with is the only working torch in game. Be careful not to lose it when a zombie knocks you out, fighting in the dark is near impossible and there are only 3 other secret objects hidden throughout story mode that produce light.

### Combat

Combat is activated by pressing tab, and will switch your character to a combat stance. When in combat your character will look towards your cursor and move in relation to it. Your movement keys will move you in relation to your cursors position, and all attacks will be aimed towards your cursor. Hold left mouse button to swing from the right. Quickly turn your mouse *to* the left and hold LMB to perform a swing *from* the left. Double click and hold to perform an overhead strike. Hold alt and LMB to perform a thrust, which is accurately directed towards your cursor. Your character will automatically attempt to block incoming attacks so long as you are not mid-swing. For this reason, it's best to keep your cursor on your target to keep your character facing in the right direction.

[Insert GIF of blocking an attack]

### Damage

Most games calculate damage based entirely on flat statistics and applies simply when you are in range and hit the hitbox of your target, I.E.

> (player str + player weapon damage - target dex - target armour)
>
>

In Exanima, damage is a calculation of speed, weight, angle, impact area of both the weapon and target, weapon stats and the stats of the specific piece of armour you hit (and any other layers in that spot). A faster swing will result in a harder hit that causes more damage. Correctly landing a blow with the head of your hammer will deal the crush damage on top of the impact damage. Hits to the head deal more damage than to the hand. Hitting the enemy with the flat slide of your sword will only do impact damage. Stabbing a chest plate will deal little damage; stabbing the exposed gaps in the chest plate will deal full damage as if your opponent was unarmoured.

### Health

Health is represented by the yellow bar at the bottom. When you get hit, you get dealt 2 different kinds of damage; Stamina damage and Health damage. Stamina damage regenerates exponentially when not in combat mode, meaning it is slow to refill at first but once you start healing stamina damage it comes back quickly. In arena mode, your fighters regenerate health damage overnight and will heal faster if you have a medic in your company. In story mode, health damage can only be healed through use of magic. Health potions can be found throughout the levels of story mode. There is only one per level and only 2 of the health potions heal your full health bar. There is currently enough to heal around 6 full health bars if you've explored the entire map. The more armoured you are, the less Health damage you will take from blows. For this reason, it is ill advised to pick every fight you can in story mode before layering up a little bit.

[Insert Health bar example]

## Controls

### Control Modes

There are two basic control schemes in Exanima that you switch between; Exploration mode and Combat mode. Each control scheme is unique and necessary for gameplay. You switch between these modes with Tab by default. Exploration mode allows you to open containers and manage your inventory, Combat mode allows you to attack and defend yourself. In either mode, you can move with your right mouse button. The distance your cursor is from the center of the screen determines how fast your character will move in that direction and holding shift allows your character to sprint in that direction. Your character will follow your cursor in a direct line regardless of any obstacles. Because everything (including movement and balance) is physics based, if you run over an obstacle too quickly or at a bad angle, your character can trip and fall.

[Insert GIF of walking running then tripping]

#### Exploration mode

In Exanima story mode you open the game in Exploration mode. Your cursor is yellow in Exploration mode. Your character will not face the cursor but will turn their head to look generally towards the cursor. The movement keys (WASD by default) cause your character to move forward and backwards, and turn 90 degrees in each respective direction. This is colloquially known as "Tank controls" and are not generally useful. These can be helpful for getting your character unstuck or to get your character to path over a ledge. Use of the S key to back up while opening a door to avoid being in the way can also be highly useful.

[Insert GIF of opening a door using the S key to avoid being hit]

Double-clicking any container in Exploration mode will open that inventory. Your own inventory can be opened with use of the I key by default. Opening the inventory from combat mode will put you in exploration mode and abandon any attack/defense you are in the middle of performing. You can access NPCs inventories either by talking with them (T by default) or double clicking them in the game (this does not work on Derrin). You can click and drag objects to and from the environment and inventories. You can drag items onto your character's preview in the inventory to equip that item or onto your companion's preview for them to equip that item. Your inventory also allows you to equip a primary and secondary set of items to your hands, which can switched between by pressing R at any time.

Left clicking on an item will display its stats and left clicking on the stats window will pin it to the screen until you are too far away from the inventory or right click the window to close it. This is useful for comparing the stats between two items.

To use a non-combat item, double click that item (either in the inventory or in the environment) and your cursor will change to indicate that you are using an item. Click on any item within your character's range or within your inventory to use the first item on the second. I.E. To open a locked door, put the key in your inventory and walk up to the locked door. Double click the key in your inventory and then click the door. If the door remains locked you will hear a sound that ends with a low pitched clink. If the door successfully unlocked, the sound ends with a satisfying ca-click. You can drink health potions immediately without picking them up by double clicking the item in the environment while your character is within range, and then clicking on your character's preview in the inventory.

[Insert GIF of opening a locked door]

#### Combat mode

In Exanima Arena mode, you open the game in Combat mode, in story mode you start in Exploration mode. Your cursor is red in combat mode. Your character will always try to turn to face the cursor in combat mode. The movement keys (WASD by default) move your character relative to the cursor in combat mode. W and S will move you towards and away from the cursor respectively, and A and D move you clockwise and counter-clockwise around your cursor respectively. To get a feel for this, put your character in combat mode and hold down D. You'll notice your character makes a big circle around the cursor. Tapping W makes your character take a half-step forward and holding W will make a large lunge forward. These controls are how you will play with distance during combat. Combat is 50% timing 50% distance. Get very used to these controls as they are unintuitive from the start but very satisfying and useful once you are familiar.

[Insert GIF of combat movement]

Next get used to how moving your cursor moves your character. Stand still in combat mode and move your cursor from one side to the other and up and down. Notice how your character will follow the cursor with their shoulders for the first 20 degrees of movement or so. After those first 20 degrees, your character will start moving their hips to follow the cursor. Your character does not magically slide along the floor either, to follow with your hips, your character has to move their feet. When you are moving your feet, you are not stable and cannot swing or defend yourself properly.

Holding the attack button (left mouse button by default) in combat mode makes your character swing. When not swinging, your character will automatically defend themselves. If your character's shoulders are facing left (cursor just to the left of your target) and you swing, you will swing from your left to your right. If your character's shoulders are facing forward or to the right, you will swing from right to left. Double clicking LMB and holding will make your character perform an overhead swing. Holding alt while swinging makes your character thrust. Letting go of LMB mid swing will make your character abandon their swing. This is useful for both feigning your enemy, causing them to advance, and useful for abandoning an attack to defend yourself.

Because the combat and damage are physics calculations, the faster and longer your swing, the more damage dealt. To deal a heavy blow, begin swinging by clicking LMB, then make a short back-swinging motion with your cursor to cause your character's shoulders to wind up against the direction of the swing and then quickly move the cursor to the other side of the target causing your character to unwind their shoulders into the swing. You will make a large D shape or mushroom cap shape with your cursor for an ideal swing. Don't wind up too far or you'll cause your character to get off balance, don't swing your cursor too early either and negate your windup. Powerful swings complicate combat timing a lot so feel no shame in just using the standard swing while you're figuring out the timing of any given weapon. This is the timing portion of combat that you'll need to master for each individual weapon as they all have a different swinging pattern and effective range.

[Insert GIF of strong swing]

Just like in real life, you want to step with your swings. The added momentum of your body walking into the swing will add damage, and as well you do not want to be in range of your enemy's weapon unless you are entering range to deal damage yourself. This is the distance portion of combat that you'll have to master.

The simplest way to close distance safely is to wait for your enemy to swing and step directly towards them. You'll want to time your swing to land mid step for most damage. This is easiest to practice in Story mode in the first level against the slow and dumb zombies. They don't try to defend themselves and only swing at you. So long as you're managing your distance correctly, none of these guys should be able to hit you. They will probably wreck you while you're figuring this out and that's OK.

Some more advanced distancing techniques use the side-to-side step to close or make very small amounts of distance. Side-stepping a swing usually puts you at the perfect distance to land a blow so side-stepping and overhead striking or swinging into your enemy's attack is a viable technique with the right timing and weapon.

Your character will never look up or down with your cursor and that's because the game is calculating the position of your cursor on a fixed Z axis (up and down axis), roughly around your hips. This means that if you are holding your cursor at your enemies heads from any perspective other than directly top-down, you are actually aiming slightly to the side of your enemy. This is totally fine for a swing because you actually want some follow-through. To target the enemy directly for a stab, put your cursor around their abdomen, hold alt and LMB. The height of where you stab your enemy is based entirely on the physics going on during the stab and not based on cursor input.

[Insert GIF of accurate stab vs stabbing at head]

The one way you can lower your swing is by crouching. This works both prior to the swing and mid swing, but your character has much worse balance while crouching. Don't crouch around too long or you'll probably fall over. To punish shield users, swing at them and crouch mid-step. This will cause your weapon to dip down and slip right under that annoying shield, brutalizing their left leg.

[Insert GIF of crouch slashing a sheild user's leg]

The over-head swing is powerful and quick but leaves you open. These are great for responding to a swing with because you will land your hit before they can defend themselves if timed correctly. Feign an overhead by double clicking LMB to put your arms in the upwards position to then shortly follow with another overhead strike. Your character will hold their arms up for a moment after feigning an overhead strike so this is kind of just a way to enter that stance. Repeatedly feign overhead strikes to hold the position longer. This gives you very quick response on the attack and if well placed will end the fight. If timed incorrectly, you're leaving yourself open, this technique is all about distance.

[Insert brutal overhead strike GIF]

### Attack Damage

Being in range and connecting an attack with an enemy isn't enough to deal damage in Exanima. Damage is calculated based on momentum, attack angle, impact spot of the weapon, impact area on the target, and the armour covering that specific spot. A slow attack will do less damage, and hitting the enemy with the wrong side of your weapon will only do impact damage. The strongest attacks involve swinging your shoulders with the attack. By turning your cursor in the direction of your swing as you perform it, your character will turn their entire body in that direction and accelerate the swing, dealing much more damage than usual. A single well performed blow can win a fight, especially one to the head.

Hitting a plated enemy with a slash weapon will negate the slash damage, only dealing impact damage. So impact, crush, and pierce damage are ideal for well armoured enemies, but you can still knock an enemy in plate armour out using a sword. Stabbing an enemy in their exposed face will deal full damage as if they weren't wearing any armour at all, even if they are wearing multiple layers of head protection. Getting hit in your hand while wearing only leather gloves is only slightly better than getting hit in your hands with no gloves at all.

Your priority in Exanima story mode should be to cover yourself up as quickly as possible before engaging in too much combat, unless you're a veteran. If not, you'll take a lot of red damage from the early game zombies.

### Defending

Blocking is automatic in Exanima, when not performing an attack your character will attempt to defend and parry. You can let go of an attack at any point to quickly defend yourself instead. Even if you do not perform a successful parry you will still be less vulnerable. Parries and blocks are, like attacks, affected by physics. Encumbrance effects how quickly your character moves, swings, and how well balanced they are. Heavy armour will slow you down some amount, regardless of encumbrance. Shields are excellent at fending off attacks if you have learned the Endure skill, however shields also come with their own weight and and encumbrance stat that will slow your actions.

Movement is also an important tool when defending yourself. Good footwork can allow you to dodge a blow or at least reduce the damage it deals. By clinching up on an enemy with a long weapon, you can avoid the dangerous part of their weapon and let the haft hit you for reduced impact damage. Proper footwork can mean life or death in certain situations, especially against enemies with weapons longer than yours and against enemies that are faster than you.

### Encumbrance

Encumbrance is a stat calculated using the current items equipped and your skill levels in Maneuvering in Armour. Encumbrance is not effected by non-equipped items in your inventory, however your inventory does have an unknown weight limit. Encumbrance is highly detrimental and slows your characters movements and reaction time down by a lot. Some players get used to playing with high encumbrance and used to the slow timing, but that is ill-advised. Higher encumbrance means you recover from blows slower and are easier to knock over. A fast but weak enemy will pummel you into the ground no matter how much plate armour you have on if you're over-encumbered.

Because Exanima is primarily a physics game, even when un-encumbered, heavy armour slows your character down. A character with 0 encumbrance stat with full plate armour will run slower, react slower, and be less balanced than a character wearing no armour with 0 encumbrance.

[Insert GIF of encumbered running]

## Strategy

### Exanima Story Mode Strategy

* **Avoid whatever fights you can early game!**
	+ The zombies are often neutral mobs who will walk right by you and bounce right off of you so long as you don't approach them in combat stance. Combat stance gives neutral mobs Anxiety (yellow mind state) and will cause them to attack you preemptively. It's usually pretty obvious which zombies are aggressive by default because they will come straight at you.
	+ Red damage is very serious in this game, and you're going to take a lot of it without good armour. Healing salves are very sparse and are currently the only way to deal with red damage early game. If you're really good and use the healing items as efficiently as possible, over all 10 current levels you could probably afford to take about 6 health bars of red damage before running out of healing items.
	+ Don't go fighting anyone you can avoid until you've got a jacket and something better than your torch to beat the zombies with.
* Keys don't need to travel floors
	+ There are currently no keys in Story mode that function on any floor other than the one you find them on. At the end of each level empty out your keys to help with clutter. Leave them somewhere you can see them if you decide to return to this floor to explore more later
* Derrin has no concerns with beaming you straight in the head
	+ Derrin is a useful companion if you know how to use him. He's not very smart and not good at fighting and he tells you as much. If you don't watch where Derrin is, at some point during combat you'll find yourself knocked unconscious or dead by friendly fire.
	+ Best strategy with Derrin is to pull aggro and then flank your enemy. Derrin won't attack until you do or until you are hit which gives you a moment to set up your attack pattern. You want to approach from a different side than Derrin to avoid friendly fire.
	+ Your compassion will kill you. Low on health but Derrin is dying? Save yourself. Derrin is much more likely to immediately lose all that health again as he is to help you in any useful way.
	+ Give Derrin your hand-me-downs. It's easier than trying to manage two whole inventories, just let Derrin be your recycling bin.
	+ Don't give him a shield, he'll die right away. He has no skills in shield use and until you learn a couple shield skills they are a detriment. Give him something with reach like a bill and let him slice up your foes from behind.
* You're not supposed to fight Sir
	+ There is a trap hole you can lead Sir to to clear out Level 4, but he's also pretty easy to avoid.
	+ Sir will walk around killing the Skeletons on the map so if you just avoid him he will help deal with the Skeletons
* The dungeon is not a maze
	+ While it may feel maze-like because of the long hallways and identical doors, the story mode is not a maze and most of the levels have basically one linear path to the end with some loops and shortcuts. Most advanced players have a route memorized to go from chest to chest and room to room through each level looting every chest for it's XP and potential goodies.
	+ The starting area on Level 1 is actually not very large. You are locked into a straight hallway that loops in on itself at the end until you find the key to progress. It feels very confusing and is very disorienting at first but you will find yourself very quickly learning the layout of the floors once you get over the anxiety of the combat system.

### Exanima Arena Mode Strategy

* **Don't fight using your manager!**
	+ If your manager dies, you lose your save. The first character you create when starting arena is not a character you want to put into any fights at all. Immediately create some new fighters to start leveling up
* If you are shaky at the game still, frays are the way to go. Let the enemies all beat each other up real good before getting in on the action to give yourself a health advantage.
* Eliminations can be difficult because every enemy you face has full health. In this mode, your opponent has the health advantage.
* The Beast is gonna kill (and I mean kill, not KO) you and your companions when you first try. Look more into how to survive one of those fights before jumping into it with any characters you've invested heavily into.
* To win the prize during a tournament you have to win at least 3 rounds and it can't be a tie.
* To win a season you have to win all 4 tournaments