The Slayer Hammer is a secondary melee weapon which introduces an alternative style of melee combat, one where speed, aggressivity, and dodging become central instead of the slower and more methodical approach with the cudgel. This is because unlike the slow cudgel, whose attacks must be carefully and tactically performed, the hammer is instead extremely quick and inflicts damage in mere moments after a mouse click.
This style of combat comes with both pros and cons. The player can now quickly inflict damage, however the hammer does very poor amounts of damage compared to the cudgel. Some enemies may take a long time to be killed by the hammer alone, and this is why a mixed approach sometimes is a better option. The cudgel will almost all of the time be the go-to weapon, but due to the wide variety of enemies, sometimes the hammer may be preferable. Enemies who make long reaching and powerful attacks are better fought with the cudgel, while fast and quick enemies can be dealt with the hammer.
To fight well with the hammer essentially involves constant dodging. Unlike the cudgel, attacks CANNOT be blocked by the Slayer Hammer, so the only way of protecting yourself is to quite literally sprint and strafe away from the enemy as quickly as you can after performing an attack. This may require some trial and error and makes it very difficult to come out of any battle unscathed.
Another feature which makes the Slayer Hammer a good alternative to the cudgel is how it ignores stamina. Attacking and blocking with the Cudgel consumes many points of stamina (pretty quickly as well if you aren’t being careful) but the hammer instead consumes no stamina whatsoever. This also makes the Slayer Hammer the player’s last resort when all stamina has been depleted, forcing you to use the hammer if all else fails. When stamina reaches below 10 attacks with the hammer will be much slower however, adding an extra level of challenge.
Since the Slayer Hammer can be wielded in one hand this allows for dual wielding with additional weapons. In the demo there will be only Stakes, but i plan on adding shields later on.
IRON STAKE
Previously the Iron Stake was going to be an inventory item, but when i decided to introduce the hammer i thought an actual physical weapon would be a lot cooler. The iron stake can both be used as a one time execution method and as a constant melee weapon. By pressing the right mouse button the player can perform quick stabs like a knife, stabs which are even faster than the hammer itself (but these stabs do very very minimal damage on their own).
By pressing the middle mouse button you can hammer the stake into an enemy and deal MASSIVE amounts of damage. In many cases, especially early on with weak enemies, this attack will simply be an instakill as it does such huge amounts of damage. But if the enemy has any remaining health, then the stake will paralyze them for a certain amount of time and leave a large gaping wound. After some time the enemy will become aggressive once more, though in a more weakened state. Hammering the stake will of course make you lose this stake, and since stakes are fairly rare items it is best that this attack is saved for necessary situations.
If you want to know more about the stakes and where you can find them you should probably read DEVLOG #2 though some of the information there is probably outdated now. But i’m too lazy to rewrite all the stuff there over here whatever go read it and pretend the old stuff is the new stuff ok? Is that ok with you? Yeah? Thats greatblavlblablalb201i2092e0o9
