Ghostrunner‘s combat sections are seriously tough. The enemies aren’t much of a threat one-on-one, but when you’ve got a whole room of them to deal with, things get a lot trickier. This Ghostrunner guide focuses on the basics of combat. The enemies are going to be the death of you with a large amount of frequency, but you’ll be able to get them in the end as long as you learn how to deal with the situation at hand.
Most of the time, Jack’s offense is going to mostly focus on slashing his foes with his sword. All of the enemies kill you in a single hit, but you do the same to them. When you hit them, you’ll cut through them like paper, no matter how threatening they may be. Enemies come in several varieties, but they can be divided into shooty ones and stabby ones. It’s very easy to get shot in the face in Ghostrunner, but most enemy projectiles are surprisingly easy to dodge. If you move to the side after an enemy fires, their shot will completely miss you. Therefore, as long as you keep an eye on what they’re doing, it’s not too hard to not get shot.
But there will often be multiple enemies shooting at you in an area. The best way to survive in Ghostrunner is very obvious: don’t stop moving. But don’t run directly at enemies, as that’ll be like shooting a cyberninja in a cyberbarrel. If you’re not wall-running, try and always run at an angle, as that’ll make it significantly harder for enemies to hit you. Of course, you’ll want to make sure there aren’t any enemies standing directly at that angle to begin with, or you’ll still get shot.
On the wall guide
Wall-running is even better than running at an angle. When you’re wall-running in Ghostrunner, even the enemies with rapid-fire weapons will have trouble hitting you. It’s also very helpful to dash to the side, regardless of what you’re avoiding. You can’t slow down time with your dash while on the ground, but holding the button down and making sure to use slowmo as you’re landing from a wall jump is a much better choice than jumping straight at your enemies. Depending on your angle, you can use the side movement slowmo to land right beside your foe and slice them in half.
Ghostrunner also lets Jack deflect shots. The timing is honestly pretty tricky, but once you figure it out you don’t even necessarily need to dodge single shots, as deflecting them works just as well. One thing that’s massively helpful is the skill that allows Jack to send deflected shots back at his foes. You can also do this with Jack’s second ability, which hits enemies with a force blast, but using it that way is a bit of a waste of your special, as doing it with the sword is much cheaper, especially since fitting the skill into the not-Tetris grid isn’t particularly demanding.
Abilities in Ghostrunner are absolutely not necessary at any point, but they can make a very large difference, especially if you’re having a certain amount of trouble with a specific challenge. The game is very much based around trying things ’til you get them right, so there’s not much general stuff left to say. Other than always prioritize shield generators. Enemy shield generators come in the form of orbs that you need to destroy. Don’t bother with most enemies until you’ve destroyed these, as connected enemies will remain invulnerable until you do.
