One of my favorite things about Naraka: Bladepoint is the nimble and responsive movement. I feel like I’m in control of an agile warrior capable of incredible acrobatic feats. And that’s without making use of the mechanics that make your character move faster, grapple further, and avoid enemy attacks. In this Naraka: Bladepoint movement guide, I’ll share some tips that will help you move like a weapon master.
The trick to speeding up your actions in Naraka: Bladepoint is to make use of animation canceling. If you haven’t seen my guide for beginners, I talk about how to use animation canceling to heal and repair weapons faster. All it entails is crouching, jumping, or dashing once your action completes, but before the animation ends.
The Naraka: Bladepoint slide-hop
The first technique you should learn is the slide-hop. This movement-enhancing trick makes use of the speed increase from the beginning of a slide, but cancels it with a small hop before you slow down. It’s an easy way to traverse the map faster than if you were just sprinting.
The trick to the slide-hop is to make sure you don’t jump too high. The longer you hold the jump button, the higher your elevation will be when propelling into the air. You need to tap it as lightly as you can to cancel the slide, but not lose speed with a full jump. As soon as your feet touch the ground again after the hop, hit slide again. You can continue to repeat this cycle as long as you like. The slide-hop hugs the ground well, so you can make use of it when going up and down slopes too.
Here’s an example of the slide-hop in action.
A faster way to run
The next way to increase your movement speed is with a focus strike followed by a dodge to cancel it. Vertical strikes usually work better than horizontal ones. If you begin to charge a focus strike while sprinting, your character will lunge forward a few paces. Pressing and holding dodge before the focus strike stops your momentum will cause your character to dash out of the animation and resume sprinting. You need to make sure you hit dodge before the strike slows you down.
The button cycle for this one can be a little awkward. Make sure you’re not holding sprint when you begin the focus strike. That way you just need to press and hold dodge to cancel the animation and break into a sprint again. You also need to ensure that you don’t release your attack button until after you press dodge again.
This is the animation timing you’re aiming for.
You can also use this trick to close the gap with enemies rapidly. If you manage to get in range of your foe, you can let the focus strike play out to attack them. Lastly, you can use this movement technique to rapidly change direction. It does use up energy, so you need to space it out to prevent yourself running out.
Run for your life
Your grappling hook is your best tool for moving swiftly. This is probably the simplest trick in this Naraka: Bladepoint guide, but it will help your increase your movement speed considerably as you’re fleeing enemies or trying to stay in the zone. When you complete a grapple, you’ll stick to whatever surface you attached to — the ground, a tree, a wall, a rooftop, it doesn’t matter. Attaching to a surface slows you down.
Instead, as you get close to the object your grapple is attached to, press your horizontal attack to detach the grapple and perform an air attack. This air attack will retain your momentum beyond where the grapple would have stopped you. So, not only do you travel further, but you keep your speed too. Just make sure you don’t use a vertical strike to perform this maneuver because it will send you straight down towards the ground.
Using horizontal attack to travel further and faster with the grappling hook.
Live to fight another day
In Naraka: Bladepoint it can be tough to escape an enemy who has the upper hand on you. One trick that could save your life is a focus strike from a vertical surface. This is probably the most difficult technique I’ve suggested in the Naraka: Bladepoint movement guide. It’s tough to pull off reliably. You need to begin climbing to attach yourself to any vertical surface. A wall, a tree, a cliff. Anything will do. Then you hold down your horizontal attack until you get the blue outline that indicates a focus strike. Look in the direction you want to dash and release your attack button.
This will send you speeding off in your chosen direction. Plus, enemies cannot interrupt it because it’s a focus strike, so you won’t get stopped by a grappling hook as you so often do when trying to flee with your grappling hook. This technique can also be used to close the distance to enemies.
Here’s what the dash looks like. It’s simple but tough to pull off under pressure.
The charge-up does take a bit longer than preferred. It’s likely that you will take some damage while trying to dash away using this technique, so don’t attempt it as a last resort. Use it early to give yourself space to heal and consider your options.
Another simple trick you can use to buy yourself a few extra seconds is to attack as you’re climbing a tree or cliff. This will propel you up the vertical surface and put a little more distance between you and your enemies. Using this and then the focus strike to dash away works well as a combination.
Never stop, never stopping
The last movement tip I have for you is a simple one that will help you get your heals off more consistently while under pressure. While using a healing or armor item, repeatedly press your crouch button and move in different directions. Anyone looking to finish you off with a ranged weapon will have a very hard time hitting you. This is usually going to help you after you’ve just finished a battle with one enemy, and another is looking to capitalize.
You can pick up Naraka: Bladepoint for PC through Steam.
