Othercide: Complete Blademaster Class Guide (Tips & Strategies)
Give and take is the model for any good RPG. Making waves on both Steam & Console, Othercide does a great job of balancing its playable characters, making sure their upsides are kept in check by their pitfalls. It is best for players to focus on how to work around those pitfalls rather than work with the upsides. Othercide starts with 3 base classes. Shieldbearer, Soulslinger, and Blademaster. Each complements the other and plays an important role on the battlefield.
Shieldbearers are tanks. They are meant to absorb attacks and delay enemies. Soulslingers take care of long-range engagements and focus on buffing and defending their teammates. Blademasters are the beating stick of the party and are meant to OTK enemies whenever possible. This guide will focus primarily on the Blademaster class. How can players best utilize her skills in combat? And what skills are best?
Each playable character in Othercide has four skills that can be unlocked and added to the player's arsenal. Those unlocks come at levels 2, 5, 10 & 15. Once players begin unlocking Remembrances that allow Daughters to be birthed at higher levels, they’ll be able to allocate those skills appropriately. Remember, once a skill is chosen it is stuck to that daughter in death and resurrection. Play around with each one, but players should make sure they commit their favorite skill to the daughter they’d revive. Ideally, players are revision daughter with the most traits. Traits are acquired through combat and are passive bonuses unique to each daughter.
At level two, the Blademaster unlocks Lightning Strike OR Immovable Stance. Reaction skills in Othercide will trump base attack skills almost every time. In this case, Immovable Stance will dish out massive amounts of damage when she is approached by an enemy. The enemy doesn’t even have to be targeting her. As long as it’s in her hitbox she’ll unleash on it. Remember, enemies have to move INTO the hitbox for Immovable Stance to trigger. They can’t already be standing next to the Blademaster. This will not interrupt an attack either, nor prevent it from happening. Paired with the Soulslinger’s Interrupting Shot or Shadow Round, the Blademaster will kill the encroaching enemy before she can be attacked. This is especially useful when engaging with multiple Scavenger enemies. These little guys travel in packs and often one after the other. The Immovable Stance will continue to trigger until the Blademaster’s next turn. She’ll be able to lure the Scavengers in and take them all out one after the other. While Lightning Strike is a viable option, the goal of Othercide is to avoid taking damage. That being said, Immovable Stance is a must.
At level 5, the Blademaster may choose between Side Step and Accepting Stance. Both are viable choices, however, Side Step proves more versatile where Accepting Stance is more situational. Side Step allows the Blademaster to jump to an empty tile in her range (which is quite large) for 15AP. It is a once-per-turn move but can be useful if moving naturally to a distant enemy will cost too much AP. Side Step is also helpful for escaping AoE attacks. For example, when fighting The Deacon, he’ll cast Mass, an AoE attack. If the Blademaster is in range, she can swing at him AND use Side Step to leap out of the way without going into burst. Side Step also allows the Blademaster to move while rooted which is absolutely game-breaking in certain situations. Accepting Stance only works if there is an enemy in front of the Blademaster. However, if she has Immovable Stance ready to go, there should never be something directly in front of her.
Level 10 sees the introduction of Ghost Strike and Menacing Strike. Again, reaction skills are the way to go when the decision isn’t clear. The combos are insane once the synergy is figured out. Sorry all you Ghost of Tsushima fans, Menacing Strike is the winner. This skill will deal additional damage to any enemy that is taking damage. It also costs 5% HP therefore can be activated at the end of the Blademaster’s turn without going into Burst. Paired with the Soulslinger’s Shadow Round/Interrupting Shot, as well as the Shieldbearer’s Saving Grace Skill, the Daughters should be able to OTK almost any enemy. This, of course, relies on keeping track of the timeline and knowing which Daughters will aggro which enemies. Spend some time in the Codex and learn enemy aggro. Most of the time, they will simply target the closest daughter. Players can position themselves accordingly to bait an attack.
Finally, at level 15, The Blademaster is granted Blade Tornado or Vengeful Stance. At this point, players should have a handful of reactionary combos ready to pop off at any second. Vengeful Stance is another one in that vein, however, is it really necessary now? Blade Tornado does massive AoE damage AND Teleports the Daughter to do the same attack in a different part of the arena. As stated before, the right combos will see the Daughters untouched while they lay waste to enemies. Therefore, players would be wise to choose Blade Tornado for maximum damage output at the cost of 35AP.
In the end, the best Blademasters are prepared to defend themselves while enemies move about the board. They rely on a skilled Soulslinger to cover their backside while buffing their initiative when they can. On the Blademaster’s turn, she should be able to easily move about the arena and deal massive amounts of damage, ideally killing any enemy she sets her focus on.
This is where players should consider allocating memories that buff the Blademaster’s attacks on a percentage base. She will want to kill anything she attacks as to not worry about taking damage while defending herself.
Othercide takes some getting used to. However, once players are able to understand how to use enemy aggro in tandem with their combos, the game becomes much more fluid. Daughters begin leaving battles with fun health, gaining traits, and valuable EXP along the way. It is important to keep track of a Daughter’s acquired traits and resurrect the ones with the most natural bonuses.
Othercide is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC