Flayl — Melee Combat Framework

⚔️

Melee Combat Framework

A complete guide to how melee combat works in Flayl — from directional swings to status effects, throw & recall, and everything in between.

📋

At a glance

Combat Flow

🎮

Input Direction

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⏳

Windup (Feint?)

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⚔️

Release

→

💥

Contact

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🛡️

Armor Check

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🦵

Limb Damage

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🩸

Status FX

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🔄

Recovery

🗡️

Section 1

Core Melee Combat

⏳

Windup

Weapon pulls back. Can feint cancel or redirect (costs stamina).

⚔️

Release

Weapon swings through the air. Damage happens here. Feint possible in early frames only.

🔄

Recovery

Follow-through after the strike. Briefly vulnerable.

🧭Directional Attacks — Five attack directions: Top, Top-Right, Right, Bottom-Right, and Bottom (Mordhau-style 240° system). Direction changes the arc and which body parts get hit.
💨Speed = Power — Faster weapon movement at contact = more damage. Tip of the blade hits hardest.
🎯Per-Limb Damage — Hits aren't generic. Strike the arm, the arm takes damage. Hit the leg, they limp.

🔨

Section 2

Weapon Types & Damage

🗡️

Slash

Cutting damage from swords, axes, and bladed weapons. Causes bleeding on deep cuts.

🔨

Blunt

Crushing damage from hammers, maces, and clubs. Causes bone fractures on heavy impacts.

🔱

Pierce

Stabbing damage from spears, rapiers, and thrusting weapons. Best at armor penetration.

⚙️Hybrid Weapons — Some weapons deal two types. An axe might do 70% slash + 30% blunt. Each type triggers its own status effects.
📏Weapon Segments — Hits near the tip deal more damage and impact than hits near the handle, simulating real leverage physics.

🛡️

Section 3

Armor Interaction

🔓

Penetration

Each weapon has an armor penetration value. If it exceeds the armor's defense, the strike punches clean through for full damage.

🫸

Blunt-Through

Even if armor fully blocks a strike, some damage bleeds through as blunt trauma. A mace against plate mail still hurts — you just don't get cut.

🧱

Material Matters

Chainmail is great against slashing but weak to piercing. Padded armor absorbs blunt force but cuts easily. Every combo reacts differently.

🦺

Coverage-Based

Armor only protects the limbs it covers. A chestplate doesn't help your exposed arms or legs.

🩸

Section 4

Status Effects

🔴 Derived (Automatic)

Happen naturally from damage type and severity. No setup needed.

🩸 Bleeding — from slash damage 🦴 Fracture — from heavy blunt impacts

🟢 Explicit (Designed)

Attached to weapons by designers. Applied on hit with configurable chance.

☠️ Poison — coated blade 🔥 Fire — enchanted weapon ⚡ Shock — elemental rune

📊Stack Limits — You can't infinitely stack bleeds. The system enforces maximum stacks for balance.
🐺Berserker Synergy — The Primal Fury perk doubles bleed effects from melee, rewarding aggressive playstyles.
🛡️Immunity & Combination — Some enemies are immune to certain effects. 3 light bleeds auto-combine into 1 heavy bleed.

🔬

Section 4b

Status Evolution & Tier Progression

Status effects aren't static — they evolve. Light wounds combine into severe injuries. The system tracks every bleed, fracture, and burn on every limb independently, escalating them when thresholds are met.

🔗 Tier Chains — How Effects Escalate

🩸 Bleed

Light Bleed → Heavy Bleed → Arterial Bleed

Caused by slash & pierce damage exceeding thresholds. Deeper cuts = worse bleeds.

🦴 Fracture

Fracture → Break

Caused by blunt & crushing impact force. Heavier weapons need less hits.

😣 Pain

Pain

Any damage above a flat threshold triggers pain. Duration scales with severity.

🧬 Combination Rules — Stacking Into Worse Injuries

🩸

Light Bleed ×1

🩸

Light Bleed ×2

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Light Bleed ×3

🩸💀

Heavy Bleed!

3 light bleeds on the same limb combine into 1 heavy bleed with 115% of the total remaining damage.

Rule	How It Works
Combination Threshold	When 3 instances of the same tier exist on one limb, they merge into the next tier up
Damage Conservation	The remaining damage-over-time from all consumed instances is summed and transferred to the new, higher-tier effect — plus a 15% bonus
Combination Cooldown	After a combination fires, there's a brief cooldown before another can occur on the same limb — prevents instant chain-escalation
Minimum Damage Floor	Trivial bleeds (nearly expired) won't combine — there's a minimum remaining damage requirement
Anti-Combination	Certain targets (bosses, immune states) can have a tag that prevents all status combination

🐺 Damage Scaling Example — Berserker's Primal Fury

🐺

DoubleBleed (Primal Fury)

Every melee hit that triggers a bleed applies stacks using the formula: 1 (base) + weapon bonus stacks + Primal Fury bonus. When Primal Fury is active, an extra stack is added per hit — only for Light bleeds.

	Normal Player	Berserker (Primal Fury Active)
Stacks per slash hit	1 stack	2 stacks
Hits to trigger Heavy Bleed	3 hits (3 × Light → Heavy)	2 hits (2+2=4 stacks → 3 combine + 1 leftover)
After hit 1	🩸	🩸🩸
After hit 2	🩸🩸	🩸🩸🩸🩸 → 🩸💀 Heavy! + 🩸 leftover
After hit 3	🩸🩸🩸 → 🩸💀 Heavy!	Heavy + 🩸🩸🩸 → 🩸☠️ Arterial!
Damage output (Heavy Bleed)	115% of 3 Light Bleed DoTs combined	Same — but reached 1 hit faster
Time to Arterial Bleed	~6+ hits (3 for Heavy, 3 more Heavies to combine)	~3 hits (escalation happens almost automatically)

Weapons with bonus bleed stacks (e.g., a serrated blade with +1 BleedBonusStacks) stack additively with Primal Fury — producing 3 stacks per hit and instant Heavy Bleed on the first swing.

🦵Per-Limb Tracking — Every status is tracked independently on each limb. Bleeding on the left arm doesn't count toward the right leg's combination threshold.
⏱️Ticking Damage — Active bleeds and burns deal damage over time to their specific limb. When a limb's health reaches zero, it blacks out and overflow damage spills to the body core.
📈Escalation Spiral — As more limbs black out, damage overflow to the core increases — shortening time-to-kill. Focusing damage on one limb is strategically different from spreading it.
🛡️Immunity Windows — Some targets have temporary immunity to certain effects (e.g., bosses after a stagger recovery). The system checks immunity before applying any status.

🎯

Sections 5 & 6

Headshots & Execution Finishers

🎯

Headshot Multiplier

Land a melee strike on the head for bonus damage. Each weapon has its own headshot multiplier — a warhammer to the skull is devastating. Skill tree perks boost this further.

💀

Execution Finishers

When an enemy is downed, melee attacks deal amplified execution damage with distinct visual and audio cues. It should feel brutal and satisfying.

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Section 7

Charged Attacks

🤏

Hold Input

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⚡

Charge Builds

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🔋

Min → Max Power

→

💥

Release to Strike

Damage scales smoothly between minimum and maximum multiplier based on charge time. Fully charged swings hit significantly harder.

🎭

Section 7b

Feinting & Redirection

🎭

Feint Cancel

Cancel your swing during Windup or the first few frames of Release. Costs stamina. Use it to bait an opponent into blocking the wrong direction, then attack from another angle.

🔄

Mid-Swing Redirection

Change your attack direction during Windup or early Release without canceling. Shift from a top swing to a right slash to catch opponents off-guard. Same timing window as feinting.

⏱️Feint Window — The tolerance window is configurable per weapon and expandable via skill tree. Heavier weapons have a narrower window; daggers can feint later into the swing.
🔒Point of No Return — Once past the early Release window, the swing is fully committed. No cancels, no redirects — you're locked in until Recovery.

🏃

Section 8

Stamina System

⚔️

Swing Cost

Every attack costs stamina. Heavier weapons cost more.

🛡️

Block Drain

Blocking drains stamina. Getting hit while blocking drains even more.

💫

Stagger

Repeated hits build stagger. Once full, the target is stunned.

🫣

Attacker Punish

Hit a blocker? You pay stamina too. No mindless spam.

🛡️

Section 9

Blocking & Parrying

🛡️

Armed Block (Zones)

When a weapon is equipped, blocking uses a zone system: Front, Left, Right, Top, or Full Guard. The block zone must match the attack direction for full efficiency. Costs stamina on every impact.

👊

Unarmed Block (Angle)

Fist blocking uses angle-based mitigation. Effectiveness scales based on how close the attack is to your forward direction. Full effect within the block angle, fading to zero at wide angles.

✨

Perfect Block

Timing-based — blocks within a tight timing window count as perfect blocks. Stuns the attacker, costs no stamina, and opens them for a counter. High risk, high reward.

🔫

Section 10

Bullet & Throwable Deflection

🔫

Bullet Deflection

During the parry window of a swing, incoming bullets can be deflected. Costs stamina scaled by bullet energy. Armed mode only — requires a weapon.

💣

Throwable Deflection

During parry, in-flight throwables within a cone in front of you are batted away. Up to 3 throwables per parry. Each costs stamina.

🪞

Perfect Parry Return

Nail the parry timing and throwables get reflected back at the sender at 1.5× speed. Normal deflects redirect at 1× speed.

🪃

Section 11

Throw & Recall

Section 11a — Throw (Universal)

🤾

Throw Weapon

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💨

In Flight

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💥

Impact Damage

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📍

Stick / Pickup

🎯Throw Your Weapon — Any weapon with throwing enabled can be hurled at enemies. Deals impact damage on hit. Available to all players — no skill tree unlock required.
📦Recovery Modes — After impact, the weapon becomes a ground pickup (walk over to retrieve), self-destructs on a timer, or is destroyed immediately — configured per weapon.
🔢Active Limit — Maximum 3 thrown weapons in flight per player at once.

Section 11b — Recall (Skill Tree Unlock)

🧲

Recall Activated

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🔮

Homing Return

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⚡

Return Damage

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🤚

Catch

🔒Skill Tree Gated — Recall is not available by default. Players must unlock it through specific skill tree archetypes. Without the unlock, thrown weapons can only be recovered by walking to them.
🔮Occultist / Hex Appeal — Primary recall archetype. "Spectral Recall" — supernaturally pull your weapon back. Thematically fits the curse-wielding, otherworldly Occultist fantasy.
🎯Bullseye / Precision Return — Secondary recall archetype. Marksman-precision throw & catch. The weapon returns with surgical accuracy.
🧲How It Works — The recalled weapon uses homing guidance to track your hand with a configurable turn rate. Enemies in the return path take damage (default 50% of throw damage). Range-limited and stamina-costed.
⚙️Dual Gate — Both the player and the weapon must support recall. A glass bottle that shatters on impact can't be recalled, no matter how magical the wielder. The weapon's bCanBeRecalled flag controls physical capability; the skill tree controls the player's ability.

Section 11c — Scavenger Recall (Higher-Tier Hex Appeal)

🌀

Recall Any Weapon

A higher-tier Hex Appeal node. Recall any thrown or dropped weapon in range — not just your own. Enemy weapons, teammate weapons, battlefield debris. If you have a free inventory slot, it's yours.

🎒

Inventory Requirement

Scavenged weapons go to your inventory. If your inventory is full, the weapon drops at your feet as a pickup instead. You must have room to claim someone else's gear.

Section 11d — Throw & Recall Attributes

🌳Skill Tree Scaling — Throw speed, throw damage, throw stamina cost, recall speed, recall damage, recall stamina cost, and recall range are all modifiable via skill tree attributes (7 total). A fully invested throw build is a viable combat playstyle.

🌳

Section 12

Skill Tree Attributes

17+ attributes that modify every aspect of melee combat. All configurable through the skill tree system.

Damage Multiplier

Overall melee damage

Attack Speed

Swing speed

Headshot Bonus

Extra head damage

Stagger Power

Stagger buildup per hit

Stamina Cost

Swing stamina drain

Block Efficiency

Block stamina drain

Hit Range

Weapon reach

Swing Cooldown

Time between swings

Throw Velocity

Throw speed

Throw Damage

Thrown weapon damage

Recall Speed

Return flight speed

Recall Damage

Return path damage

Recall Range

Max recall distance

Deflection Cost

Bullet deflect stamina

Feint Window

Cancel timing leniency

Throw Stamina Cost

Throw stamina drain

Recall Stamina Cost

Recall stamina drain

👊

Section 13

Unarmed Combat

🤜

Fist Fighting

Auto-switches when weapon is unequipped.

⚡

Fast & Short

Shorter reach, less damage, but faster swings.

🔨

Blunt Only

Punches deal pure blunt damage.

🛡️

Unarmed Block

Angle-based blocking and shoulder checks. No bullet or throwable deflection.

🚶

Section 14

Movement During Combat

🏋️Swing Slowdown — Movement speed is reduced while swinging. Heavy weapons slow you more than light ones.
🛡️Block Slowdown — Holding a block also reduces movement speed — you're bracing, not sprinting.
⚙️Per-Weapon Tuning — Each weapon has its own movement penalty. A dagger barely slows you; a greatsword roots you.

🌐

Section 15

Network & Multiplayer

⚡

Instant Feedback

Your client predicts hits locally so combat feels responsive, even with latency.

🏛️

Server Authority

The server independently verifies every hit. Disagreements are corrected gracefully.

🔒

Anti-Cheat

All damage is server-validated. What the server says, goes. No client-side manipulation.

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