Thread: The Swordfighting Weapon Guide

This guide will hopefully teach you a bit about the different types of Swordfighting swords.

Thanks to YPPedia for the pictures and quotes.


Important Note: I use the term 'reversed' sword in this guide a few times. This is a term for any asymmetric sword with a blue, green or purple hilt. When a sword meets these conditions it's drop pattern becomes a mirror image of the original drop pattern, making it reversed. This can be especially useful in certain scenarios, and I'll (hopefully) go into further detail with this in a later guide.


Cutlass:


My Rating: 2/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Either One
1v1 or Team SF?: Either One
My Description: "The cutlass is generally not considered to be an excellent sword. The cutlass's minor sprinkles use the same awful pattern as the foil and the first four rows of the cutlass' strikes are nearly identical to the foil."

This isn't a very good sword in my opinion. It can create small strikes and sprinkles that in rapid succession can lead to a bury of your opponents build. Besides this it isn't very useful.

This is a good option for people who don't have a lot of money to spend.



Cleaver:


My Rating: 5/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Sprinkles
1v1 or Team SF?: Team SF
My Description: "Some consider it to be the best sword. Others consider it to be both overpriced and overrated."

This is a good sword for Team Swordfighting. It creates large sprinkles of a single colour (jewels) that when mixed with other sprinkles and strikes from other teammates can create a deadly attack. These jewels are ineffective in Solo Swordfighting, however, because they are easily broken and redirected by your opponent.

This is my favourite Sprinkle Sword.



Dadao:


My Rating: 4/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Strikes
1v1 or Team SF?: 1v1
My Description: *No quote from YPPedia available.*

This is a sword that was released quite recently, in June of 2010. It was made with an Eastern Theme in mind, and was released alongside the Katana and various other Eastern Themed furniture pieces and ships. The sword is built similarly to the Falchion, and is oriented around building big openers and strikes.

Overall a good sword.



Dirk:


My Rating: 2/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Rapid Sprinkles
1v1 or Team SF?: Either One
My Description: "While the dirk is an inexpensive sword, it is considered one of the weakest swords in the game. Those who wish to use a mostly-one-color sprinkle attack would be much better served by the more expensive reversed saber."

Not much to see here. This sword can be used either in Solo Swordfights or Team Swordfights. It's mainly used for single-coloured rapid sprinkle attacks, designed to overwhelm the enemy (although it's quite ineffective at this).

I would recommend this sword for someone who needs a cheap upgrade from the Stick/Foil.



Falchion:


My Rating: 5/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Strikes
1v1 or Team SF?: Either One
My Description: "The falchion (normal or reversed) is considered by many to be one of the top strike swords in the game. Players have found this sword to be useful in creating big strikes and finishing the game quickly."

Here is my favourite sword of all time. It was designed for big openers and strikes that can quickly finish your opponents. If you excel at building quick and powerful strikes you'll be sure to love this sword. I don't recommend this sword for beginners though as it has an awful light sprinkle pattern similar to that of a Foil.

I recommend this highly for insta openers/strike builders.



Katana:


My Rating: 3/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Rapid Strikes/Sprinkles
1v1 or Team SF?: Either One
My Description: *No description available from YPPedia*

I've never really used this sword a lot. I can't say that it's either good or bad - it's a matter of preference. I've found that it excels in rapidly building small strikes and sprinkles which is good for burying openers and large builds. This makes me believe that this sword would go well against a sword like the Falchion or Dadao.

Overall not too bad a sword. If you're looking for more power I'd go with a Saber as an improvement to the Katana.



Long Sword:


My Rating: 3/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Strikes
1v1 or Team SF?: Either One
My Description: "The long sword is most effective with large strikes. Some consider it to be an average sword; others consider it to be overpriced and ineffective."

While this sword is great for building large strikes, there is a major weakness in it. The sprinkles in column one and two are all the same colour. This makes strikebuilding with this sword much more difficult than with a Falchion or Dadao.

If you're looking for a less known alternative to the major large striking swords, this is a good sword for you.



Poniard:


My Rating: 4/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Either one.
1v1 or Team SF?: 1v1 ALWAYS.
My Description: "The poniard has a reputation as a mid-range sword in one-on-one PVP fights. The poniard can be extremely effective against inexperienced swordfighters or even good swordfighters who are not used to fighting against poniards."

This is a decent sword for 1v1's, especially because most intermediate Swordfighters tend to be used to playing against swords like the Falchion. The fact that columns three and four are monochrome is a serious weakness; expert swordfighters tend to do quite well when fighting against the poniard.

One way to exploit an opponent's poniard is to find out what color it uses for middle column and build a 2xN block on corresponding side of the playfield. E.g., when facing a red-red poniard, try to build red fused blocks in columns 1 and 2 and/or blue fused gems in columns 5 and 6. The sprinkles from a red-red poniard can assist you making those converting those 2xN blocks into a 3xN blocks.

I recommend this Sword to people fighting against beginners, or people fighting against Sprinkle-oriented Swords (e.g Skull Dagger).



Rapier:

My Rating: 4/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Rapid to Midsized Strikes and Sprinkles
1v1 or Team SF?: Either one, vs. NPPs.
My Description: "Since the rapier has a nearly even distribution of all four colors, some consider this to be the best sword in the game for defeating NPPs."

This is an all-around good sword. It has no major strong or weak points in it's drop pattern. It is known to be effective against NPPs, but this can't be confirmed because no one can know exactly how drop patterns work against NPPs. I recommend building double-sprinkles of mid size when working with this sword.

A good sword for fighting NPPs.



Saber:


My Rating: 4/5 (Reversed Saber 5/5)
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Either rapid sprinkles or midsize to large strikes, preferably the first strategy
1v1 or Team SF?: Team SF (preferably with the reversed saber, as the regular saber is known to be exponentially weaker)
My Description: I've got a few good quotes from YPPedia here.

"The reversed saber (the first sword color is blue, green or purple) can be a deadly but doubled-edged sword."

"The main strength of the saber is considered disruption. If a saber user sends many repeated small attacks, the two-color sprinkle pattern is helpful because the opponent will have a hard time sending attacks of any color except that of the saber's sprinkles."

"The saber can also be a very effective team swordfighting weapon. Teammates using complementary colors can attack with patterns that are very difficult to clear."

This sword is immensely difficult to wield for a novice. It's drop pattern and many techniques makes it hard to learn and hard to use for everyone but practiced Swordfighters. If you've been Swordfighting for awhile and the Falchion just isn't cutting it the Reversed Saber might be for you. I'm going to go over two Saber techniques that have been known to work well both for the saber and against it.

The first technique is called "disruption." With the two-colour sprinkle pattern, a saber can send multiple small attacks that are very difficult to clear. The opponent will have a hard time sending attacks back to you that aren't the same colour as the colours you're building against them. This is also known as shielding.

The next technique is called "the fall-down effect," and it is used against the Saber. This is the effect of the opponent stacking pieces on top of the two-coloured sprinkles, and then breaking the sprinkles underneath. For example, if a saber sends a sheet of blue and green sprinkles, the opponent has little to do with the yellow and red pieces he receives. The pieces must be placed over the sprinkles, and when the sprinkle attacks are broken, the pieces on top tend to fall more unevenly than they were originally.

Now onto team Swordfighting with the Saber. Teammates using complementary colors can attack with patterns that are very difficult to clear. While this can be said of any sword, the effect is much more pronounced with the saber since each pattern of sword is generally only weak to one colored breaker, whereas most swords are weak to two or more. Teaming attackers become weak to one or two breakers rather than four. This tactic was first employed with success by Jacktheblack's team, Saber Dance, during OCL Team Brawl Season 5.

This sword is not recommended for novices. The longer you allow your opponent to remain in the game, the more chances he or she will have to get the breaker needed to undo your attacks.



Scimitar:


My Rating: 3/5 (when used defensively, 5/5)
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Rapid strikes (similar to the Falchion, I'll go into detail with this later)
1v1 or Team SF?: 1v1
My Description: "The scimitar, like the falchion, is a strike sword. Unlike the falchion, however, which excels in offence, the scimitar is a defensive sword. The practical difference is hard to grasp at first, but becomes prevalent at higher levels of swordfighting."

This is a tricky sword to learn, but you'll be rewarded once you've done it. The major difference between this sword and the Falchion is the fact that this sword must be used defensively in order for it to reach it's full potential.

The difference lies in what you should send: a falchion should send very large strikes to try to cripple the opponent instantly; a scimitar should send small strikes very quickly, in order to disrupt the opponent. The defensive power of the scimitar becomes apparent after the first attack: the falchion, on the whole, is probably a harder sword to counter than the scimitar. However, the scimitar is very hard to counter using another strike attack, as the aftermath of a scimitar attack must be sprinkled to be cleared. Thus, if a scimitar and a falchion trade small strikes, the scimitar quickly gains the advantage, because it can send repeated strikes, using the falchion's sprinkles as fuel, while the falchion user must clear much of the scimitar's attacks before it can build a strike of his own.

Definitely the best defensive sword and one of the best against a Falchion.



Short Sword:


My Rating: 3.5/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Sprinkles or strikes, mostly sprinkles.
1v1 or Team SF?: 1v1
My Description: "A similar attack pattern to the foil, but can give a nasty sprinkle. Can be very deadly when in the right hands."

This is a nice, cheap upgrade from the Foil. While this sword will never be the best in any category (there are better strikers, sprinklers and cheaper swords in general) it's still probably the best all-around weapon for people who like to save PoE.

A good all-around sword with decent strikes and decent sprinkles.



Skull Dagger:


My Rating: 4.5/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Deadly sprinkles, but it can do some good rapid combos too
1v1 or Team SF?: Team SF
My Description: "It is often considered one of the more powerful swords, and due to this and its easily identifiable appearance, it is often called to be teamed on during team swordfights, along with the cleaver."

The skull dagger excels in jamming the middle of the board with large sprinkle attacks. However, the skull's strike attacks are much weaker.

A good sword for quick sprinkles, designed to overwhelm the opponent both in 1v1's and team Swordfights.



Stiletto:


My Rating: 4/5
Strikes or Sprinkles?: Horizontal strikes
1v1 or Team SF?: Team SF, preferably
My Description: "The stiletto is considered to be a very effective sword for its low cost by some players."

The stiletto's main strength is the ability to leave a jumble of all four colors in the center two columns. However, the stiletto's monochromatic edges make it very difficult to prevent human opponents from clearing out an edge with a single breaker. The only way the stiletto can place a second color into column 1 or 6 is via a horizontal strike. The stiletto fares far better in multiplayer brawls when it is paired with a sword that doesn't need horizontal strikes to introduce new colors into columns 1 and 6.
The stiletto does have an advantage with horizontal strikes--every horizontal strike will have a top row of only one color, creating a shield. This shield can cover other blocks and make breaking blocks below it difficult until the shield is broken. Horizontal attacks that are three colors tall also have a jumble of all four colors on the bottom row, making them even more potent. These horizontal strikes are especially devastating to those attempting to create combos as not only are smaller chains connecting jewels and breakers removed, the shields further slow down the creation of combos and instakills. As a consequence, the stiletto makes an excellent defensive sword though it's vertical offensive strikes are relatively weak in comparison to other swords.

A good sword for people who know how to shield and build horizontally.




~Navi

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