ELEX 2 Combat Guide: Top 5 Tips for Conquering Your Enemies

by Mike Alexander / Game Guides, General Guides, Tips & Tricks / 02 Mar 2023

The massive, vibrant, and unforgiving world of Magalan awaits you in Elex 2, the latest open-world RPG from the creators of the Gothic and Risen series of games. Like its predecessor, Elex 2 has a ton of combat options, enough to fit just about anybody’s style of play. In this guide, I will share with you a few tips and things to know about Elex 2’s combat that will have you stomping out monsters and reclaiming Magalan in no time! Securely fasten your jetpack, and let’s get started!

Learn Your Attack Timings

In Elex II, you can largely get through early encounters by spamming either the quick or heavy attacks. But, as the game progresses, you will be faced with mobs of tougher enemies and creatures, which will require more nuance and strategy in how you attack. This means that you will need to know how long your different attack animations take to complete, as well as your enemies’.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed in combat, and getting locked into an animation that takes longer to complete than an enemy’s attack is an easy way to end up dead. Use your time with the easier enemies at the beginning of the game to learn your animations and that of your enemies, since several of the enemy types in Elex 2 use the same skeleton and share moves throughout the game. Having these timings in the back of your mind will help you to be more effective in combat in the long run.

Don’t Forget About The Kick

It might seem trivial, but your kick attack can be incredibly useful. It doesn’t do much damage on its own, but as a tool to open enemies up for massive damage, the kick is invaluable. The animation for the kick is almost instantaneous, so you don’t have to think too hard about when it’s appropriate to use it as you do with your main attacks. Use it all the time!

The most useful implementation of the kick attack is for disrupting enemy attacks. If you run up to an enemy who does ranged attacks, for example, it is almost always possible to stop them from firing their projectile with a swift kick. It is also possible to interrupt melee attackers with the kick if you attack while they are in their “wind up” for an attack.

Defend As Often As You Attack

In a game like Elex 2, you’re often going to be outnumbered or outclassed in many encounters. But, if your defensive skills are just as sharp as your offensive ones, you can sometimes make up for a power imbalance with skill and speed. Elex 2 provides a bounty of defensive options, including a dodge roll, block, parry, and step dodge.

Most of the time, you will probably default to your block, which is the easiest option, or the dodge roll for moves that are powerful enough to break your block. However, don’t overlook my personal favorite defensive maneuver: the parry. Parrying at the right time will negate enemy damage and follow up with a return attack before the enemy has a chance to react. For early enemies, and with the right weapons, parries can be an insta-kill. As for the step dodge, this move is a lot like the dodge roll in that it gets you out of the way of the attack, except that it covers less ground with the tradeoff of putting you in a better position to attack in a shorter amount of time. This is also very useful if used appropriately.

The Stamina System Is Important

All of your combat moves use stamina in Elex 2. The amount of stamina used with each move will vary based on which difficulty you selected, with higher difficulties using more stamina overall. If you go into a fight swinging wildly, you’ll run out of stamina very quickly and be defenseless against enemy attacks. You have to keep an eye on your stamina bar and know how much your different attacks and moves use to stay in the fight. It’s not all bad, though; the stamina system can be used to your advantage!

This is because every enemy in Elex 2 also has a stamina bar and abide by the same rules that you do. Many of your attacks will do stamina damage as well as physical damage, and when an enemy’s stamina bar hits zero, they will fall and be unable to get up until their stamina bar recharges. This usually only takes a few seconds, but it’s often enough time to get a few good combos in and maybe even finish them off. The only exception to this is enemies with an orange stamina bar, since their stamina recharges very quickly and they cannot be staggered.

Make Use Of Special Moves

In addition to your quick and heavy attacks, Elex 2 also gives you two special moves in the form of the backstab and execute. The backstab will be familiar to anyone who has played a Dark Souls game before: get behind the enemy and hold your right trigger for a special animation that does more damage than a typical attack. Unlike Dark Souls, you can do a backstab at any point in combat, but you have to be within range and be able to time it just right. The range on the backstab move in Elex 2 is deceptively short, so you have to be right up on an enemy to do it.

If that enemy is particularly mobile, you’ll have to time the attack for when they aren’t moving for a long enough period of time as well, as the backstab animation takes some time to complete. For the execute move, this can be done on enemies with yellow stamina bars who have been staggered or drained of stamina. When an enemy is on the ground, hold your right trigger again within range to do HUGE damage to them. Encounters with single enemies can often be ended quickly if you open up with a running heavy attack that knocks them on the ground, and then follow that up with an execute move.

These tips are the best advice I can give you for Elex 2, and I hope they help you traverse and explore the incredible world that Piranha Bytes has built for us. With these in mind, go out and conquer the enemies and creatures of Magalan, and have fun while doing it!!

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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