Combat in The Technomancer is the core of the gameplay experience and is tailored around several different stances, each supported by Talents.
Combat Information
Combat in the Technomancer is in 3rd person and revolves around 3 primary combat stances which players can swap in and out of at will. The 3 styles feature their own unique set of Skills and are as follows:
- The Warrior stance makes use of the Warrior Skills and is based on mobility and damage using sweeping and effective blows against groups comprising several enemies.
- The Rogue Stance makes use of the Rogue Skills and requires agility, dodging and controlling the pace of combat with the nail-gun.
- The Guardian Stance makes use of the Guardian Skills and focuses on defence, blocking and parrying to inflict heavy damage in response to an attack.
Learning how to use each stance and in what situation is vital to success in battle. You may find that swapping stances often during a fight is useful in reacting to your opponent's behaviors.
Technomancer Skills can be combined to augment the combat styles. You may electrify your weapon to boost the damage, or create an electricity shield to boost your defense among others. You can assign these skills to shortcuts and use them on the fly during combat. Using technomancy consumes focus which is indicated by the blue hexagons in the top left of the hud and slowly regenerates. Using a Focus Injection speeds up this recovery.
The game features an active pause menu which allows you to use items and abilities from key binds, as well as choose which foe to lock on to or change targets.
Taking Damage and Death
Damage received from enemies depletes your red health bar in the top left of the hud. This will recover slowly outside of combat. You can speed up your health recovery by consuming a Health Injection.
Upon dying, you will resume the game from the point of your last save. There is no other penalty incurred by death.
Draining and Serum
Upon defeating a human enemy or creature, you may have the option to kill and drain them of their serum. Draining a human enemy will gain you Serum, but cost Karma. Serum is a currency on Mars as well as a Component used to make consumable Items like a Health Injection. Draining enemies does not make you lose Karma.
Stealth
Zachariah can sneak up on unaware foes to perform a stealth attack that deals extra damage by crouching and approaching from behind. An unaware enemy's health bar will appear yellow, and will turn to red once you have been exposed.
