My Guide to No Force Dueling (version 1.05) by Adam Stanley Yu [Table of Contents] I. Legal disclaimer II. Introduction III. Terminology IV. Lightsaber moves V. Categories of no force duel players VI. Offensive tactics VII. Defensive tactics VIII. Conclusion IX. Version information X. Other stuff ------------------- I. LEGAL DISCLAIMER ------------------- This guide may not be copied or reproduced in any way without expressed consent from the author. This guide will not be used either directly or indirectly for profit. The writer of this guide will not take any responsibility for any actions or results directly or indirectly stemming from the use or misuse of this guide. All information provided herein are the opinions and observations of a Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast player. The author does not claim to be the best player on the net nor does he promote his ideas as the one and only way to play. Furthermore, the author is in no way affiliated with LucasArts or Raven Software. ---------------- II. INTRODUCTION ---------------- Welcome to my first FAQ/guide. I decided to write this because I was bored, and because I feel that this FAQ will benefit the newcomer and possibly the veteran of JKII. People who are reading this FAQ right now should already be familiar with standard JKII controls, such as knowing how to jump, changing stances, moving around etc. People who finish reading this should basically have a good idea of how to duel-no force. I repeat, you should have an IDEA of how to duel, you still need to actually practice a lot to become proficient. I also assume that the reader has the 1.04 patch installed. And yes, I do know that Jedi Academy is coming out soon. ---------------- III. TERMINOLOGY ---------------- Blue stance - The color of the bar in the lower right corner of the screen. The player holds the saber with the tip tilted to the right. I might also refer to this as light or fast stance. Yellow stance - The player holds the saber with the tip tilted to the left. Also known as medium stance. Red stance - The saber is held completely straight with the hilt around the chest. Also known as heavy stance. DFA - Death from above. The special move of the medium and heavy stances. DFB - Death from below. More commonly known as lunge. Note: Except for DFB, all other terminology is what is commonly heard online. I do not know where those terms originated from, but if anyone knows, please let me know. ------------------- IV. LIGHTSABER MOVES ------------------- Key: F - Forward L - Left R - Right B - Back FL - Diagonal movement, forward and left direction keys depressed FR - Diagonal movement, forward and right direction keys depressed BL - Diagonal movement, back and left direction keys depressed BR - Diagonal movement, back and right direction keys depressed J - Jump C - Crouch A - Attack key depressed * - tap the key [Specials] Lunge already moving: F => C*+A* Lunge stationary: C => F => A* Notes: Very fast move with little recovery time. Pierces through all defenses. Good move against people who jump in at you or always jump away. Yellow death from above (stationary): crosshair on target, F*+A*+J* Yellow death from above (moving): crosshair on target, F => A*+J* Yellow death from above (in air): J*=>A*=>before swing ends and crosshair on target F*+J* Notes: Either damages opponent close to death or kills them if hit cleanly. Use it mainly on people who are initiating attack or are staying rather close to you. Takes a while to actually connect. Long recovery time after move is initiated. Red death from above: A=>before swing ends F*+J* Notes: Hard to hit due to extreme delay and distance of move. Can be used to avoid fall damage if you can F*+J* a little bit above the ground. Longest recovery time once initiated. [Swing combos] Light stance - Unlimited chain ability. Hard to control due to the fast swings, but it is possible. All medium stance swing combos are possible in this stance. The F/B+A has longer range than the medium stance version. Medium stance - 4 to 5 swings max. All red stance combos are possible in this stance. R+A => L+A => R+A etc: Very fast swing speed. Can sideswing multiple times. Downside is the limited movement. BL+A => BR+A => BL+A etc: General good retreating swings. FR+A => BL+A => FR+A etc: Very fast swings, an alternative to sideswings. R+A => BL+A:￾@Very strange recoil with this swing. Fastest two swings in yellow stance. Red stance - 3 swings max, unless the server has ghoul2 collisions. In order to chain your swings together you need to hit the direction of the swing directly surrounding the current swing. For example: F*+A* => FR*+A* => R*+A* or F*+A* The first two swings can also be the same direction. FL+A: Fastest swing animation, although range is limited. FR+A => R+A => BR+A or FL+A => L+A => BL+A: The only two normal spin combos in red stance. R+A => R+A => FR+A: Longest range combo [Technical stuff] Concerning just single swing speeds, there is no slow down in movement, in relation to not swinging at all, if you are using blue or yellow. However, there is significant slow down while using red stance. This concerns only SINGLE swings, not combos. The following data was derived from experimenting on a set distance and seeing how long it would take to traverse that distance while swinging in a certain stance. It is data that is derived from simply swinging in one direction, which in a real duel, would probably never happen. All tests occured on the same flat surface. Use this information accordingly. 'X' is an arbitrary unit of time, and '#' indicates there were spin swings. ******** travel speed ******** | F | B | R | L | FR | FL | BR | BL | Saber off | X | 1.3X | X | X | X | X | 1.3X | 1.3X | Light | X | 1.4X | 1.2X# | 1.2X# | 1.3X# | 1.2X# | 2X# | 2X# | Medium | X | 1.4X | X | X | X | X | 1.7X# | 1.6X | Heavy | 1.2X | 1.8X | 1.2X | 1.2X | 1.2X | 1.2X | 1.9X# | 1.8X | ******** swings per second (average) ******** | F | B | R | L | FR | FL | BR | BL | Light | 2.2 | 2.2 | 1.6# | 1.6# | 1.6# | 1.7# | 2# | 2# | Medium | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1# | 1.2 | Heavy | .6 | .6 | .6 | .6 | .6 | .8 | .5# | .6 | So what does all this stuff tell us? Well, some pretty obvious things. First, moving backwards is slower than moving forwards. Swinging backwards is even slower. Spinning slows you down as well. As for rate of swing of stances, heavy is the slowest, and light is the fastest. Note about all stances: It is possible to add upward movement, aka jump, or downward, aka crouch, to all combos. Just tap the jump or crouch key in between swings. It is also possible to move in other directions that are independent of your swings. Again, just hold down a direction in between your swings and then hit the necessary direction and attack button when the swing ends. Useful in red stance. Harder to do in yellow and blue due to faster swings, so practice! Also with all stances, you can delay your combo and thus upset the timing of your opponent just by letting a swing finish recovering, and then immediately depress the attack and direction of swing. With delays, it is possible to combo heavy stance without the immediate direction restriction. Keep in mind when you are switching stances that if you have the attack key depressed, you will continue to be in your previous stance that you were in. You must wait for the animation of your former stance swing to finish before you can depress the attack key in your new stance. Swinging in a different stance than what appears on the HUD will not affect damage values. --------------------------------------- V. CATEGORIES OF NO FORCE DUEL PLAYERS --------------------------------------- A) The total newbie This player never lets off the attack button and constantly swings at you, asks questions like, "How do I change my stance," or "How do I wall jump?" If you are playing a newbie, help them out within reason, since most likely people are waiting to play. Otherwise they should just go read the manual. Playing a newbie these days is quite interesting. They are usually unpredictable and you should not play down to them, as I have seen many veteran players lose to newbies, even if only once in a blue moon. Tactics: Just think of them as an equal and don't feel like you need to "go easy" on them. Useful tip for people who just want to win... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ B) The spammer Uses only one or two "special" moves, like lunge. Tactics: If they are a red DFA spammer, stay a little bit out of their range and then attack them when they land the special. Be sure not to run over the area where the saber is in the ground as it can still inflict damage. Use a side swipe and try not to hit the saber as it can still be deflected. This kind of spammer is not seen very often these days, as this move is hard to land on a player. If they are using lunge, lunge them back and try not to miss. This kind of spammer is more likely than the other two. Be weary of using red stance too much against lungers as the attack recovery can leave you open to counter attack. Yellow DFA spammers are also pretty rare these days. Wait for them to DFA and then DFA them back, red or yellow works. You can also lunge through the yellow DFA if they miss, but make sure you lunge before reaching their saber so you don't get interrupted into a deflect animation. It is also possible to do a yellow DFA after jumping in the air, so if someone is jumping around a lot swinging in yellow, stay alert. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C) The one stance specialist Will mainly use one stance, whether it be blue, yellow or red. This player should not be confused with the spammer as it can be expected that they know how to use that one stance extremely well. Will primarily use side swings with either jump-ins or ground. Tactics: If using blue, will most likely strike when you are recovering from a swing or rush you to disrupt the direction of your swing. Keep in mind that blue users can trade damage with you very quickly if you are using yellow to swing at them. If they are using yellow, they will also be prone to swing once to draw you in. Try to swing when they are recovering from a combo. Or do an opposite swing. For example if they do a sideswing to the right, sideswing to the left. Red stance users main drawback is the slow speed of the swings. You can usually hit them twice within one swing without getting hit if you time it right. That's if you are not using red stance. Whenever your opponent is sideswinging, do not attempt to do a heavy overhead if you are not extremely close. The longer range of the sideswing will damage before you do damage to them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ D) The croucher Loves to crouch and swing at your feet, in any stance. More common with blue and yellow stance. Tactics: Get just within range of their attack and try to disrupt their swinging with swings of your own. Remember when they are crouching, they can't move around as much. Try not to use downward slashes against these types since the swing has less range than the crouching types, not to mention that the croucher is protected because of how the sabers strike each other. Lunge if they get abusive of the crouch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ E) The frog Jumps all over the place as an attempt to confuse you either to hide their stance or to attack quickly and jump back out. Tactics: Time your swings to hit them where they land. Or try to meet them in the air, difficult to do. Use lunge to puncture them wherever they land. Heavy F/B+A swings work well if timed. Try to pay attention to what stance they are using, more likely than not it will be red stance. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ F) The turtle Never makes the first move to attack you. Always waits for you to attack as to leave you open. These guys are never in range when you are on the offensive. Sometimes they taunt you to attack them by "dancing" in place. Feel free to do the same. Tactics: Best advice I can give you is to trick them with your delays. Or crouch and do crazy swings in blue, to show you are going to stay put. Lunge in place to draw them in, or any appropriate special. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ G) The bull Might seem like a spammer as this person seems to never stop attacking. Good aggressors will step back slightly after recovering from a combo so that when they swing again they do not interrupt their own swing animations. Tactics: Try to scare them off with a lunge. Otherwise, try crouch tactics. Play a little bit more defensive than usual to frustrate them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ H) The tumbleweed Attacks you once or twice and then rolls away in an attempt to avoid taking damage from your counter attack. Tactics: Watch where they roll, since most of the time they will always roll in the same direction. If you can pinpoint where they will roll, meet them there and swing. If you can get good at aiming the red DFA, use it to smack them where they roll to. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I) The guy who likes to walk Walks around most of the entire fight, except when they decide to attack you starts to charge at you. This is done to surprise you, and since most people that play don't walk too much, it can be very annoying. Tactics: Charge them and use your superior speed to attack and pull out. After a while, they will probably stop walking. Use crouch to add insult to injury. Jump in combos work rather well since they are limited in movement. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: More likely than not, your opponent will be a combination of any of these character types. It might be smarter to adapt directly to an opponent than have a style that supposedly works well against all players. ------------------------ VI. OFFENSIVE TACTICS ------------------------ When playing offensive, there are a few things to keep in mind. Try to not spin in a certain stance too much. Learn to control your combos so you don't spin. Spin combos when you are attacking take too long and give too much time for your opponent to react. Only use spin combos if you are far enough away to not be counter-attacked. Light stance - Try to hit the opponents saber and not the actual opponent if they are using medium or blue. This way your saber will most likely be deflected into them. A little risky using this stance since it's hard to control. Better to mix it up with other stances. Good confuser to throw in between stances. Medium stance - Being the most well balanced stance of the three. This is ideal for going offensive. Use deflects to your advantage as it is possible to combo off of the deflects. Jump occasionally to make them move their mouse ;p. Heavy stance - Use your incredible range to your advantage and pummel away at your opponent or their lightsaber. The R+A swing has awesome range so it is a good opener. The F+A or B+A does massive damage and does even more if you walk when you swing. ------------------------- VII. DEFENSIVE TACTICS ------------------------- Some more things to think about. You move slower backward in all stances whether you are running or swinging backward. So if you need to get out of the way, try to jump or roll away. Also, keeping your saber in neutral, not swinging, is a good defense against most normal swings. Most of the time if you are just facing the player the saber will protect you for a good amount of time. Light stance - Lunge is a good move to interrupt your opponents timing. Overuse of this move seems to be generally frowned upon. Swing sideways a lot in blue. Medium stance - Again, side swings have lots of range. If you are moving backward, utilize the BR/BL direction swings. Swing in the air when you jump back if they are jumping after you. Heavy stance - Perfect jumping swing combos and you'll be able to cover yourself in the air fairly well. Stick with side swings to keep your opponent away. --------------------- VIII. Conclusion --------------------- Well, you've reached the end of this short guide. I highly recommend experimenting with swings and combos on your own. Also play a lot of different people. You'll learn something new whenever you play, well hopefully. ------------------------ IX. Version information ------------------------ Jul 10 2003 - Version 1.05 - Added technical data of stances, format changes Jul 09 2003 - Version 1.03 - Format changes, small additions to categories Jul 06 2003 - Version 1.02 - More format changes, minor additions to categories Jul 04 2003 - Version 1.01 - Added more swing combos, changed format Jun 30 2003 - Version 1.0 - First edition of no force duel FAQ ----------------------- X. Other stuff ----------------------- Special thanks to: -LucasArts and Raven Software for releasing a great game. -George Lucas for his great films and creating such a diverse world. -The no force duelers who have continued to play this game. -AZ House of Hoes server, where I really started to get into the game, and all the former players who use to reside there. May they rest in peace. Contact me at LF412@hotmail.com with any suggestions, comments, questions, or whatever, but please put GAMEFAQ in the subject of the email. Any contributions to this FAQ will be credited in the next revision. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2003 Adam Stanley Yu