In order to get good at hack and slash games you must first research and practice when to dodge individual enemy attacks and study when is the right time to attack. Studying the priority of weapon upgrades is also an effective way at boosting your survival rate because they will either stun lock or more heavily damage all or some enemies. Using the right combos will do the same. Timing magic attacks will help when in need of avoiding attacks or defeating harder foes. Animation canceling is also essential as it boosts speed, dps, and in some games it boosts your range.
How to survive by dodging
Dodging enables the player to avoid all damage that would otherwise be suffered. Dodging involves timing and the direction in which someone will dodge unless you are playing a game like Bayonetta. Be sure to dodge opposite of the direction in which the enemy is attacking and, if possible, dodge to a point on the field where there are few to no enemies. Sometimes you will have no choice but to dodge right into a large enemy group and therein risk dodging an enemy attack just to be hit by another enemy attack during or after the dodge animation. You can also dodge out of the way from enemy attacks by moving to the side of the attacks and rarely in the direction of the attack.
Study enemy movements and attack patterns
To get good at dodging enemy attacks, and maintain the goal of retaining as much health as possible, it is a good idea to learn enemy attack movement animation and when, during the animation, is the right time to dodge. You can do this by looking up videos and reading blogs about each individual enemy in the hack and slash game you are playing.
Slow enemies are easier to dodge than fast enemies and 1 enemy is easier to dodge from than a group of enemies attacking you to prevent any hits upon your character from happening. An example of this concept would be an enemy who starts an attack slowly then dramatically increases attack speed after less than 2 seconds and lands a hit in less than half a second later after the slow stage of the attack is finished. A good idea is to stop attacking and dodge at a fraction of a second in which the enemy transitions from slow attacking to fast attacking. This increases damage per second and allows you to mutate risk of taking more damage by finishing enemies off sooner.
Weapons
Weapons come in large varieties in hack and slash games. To get better at these games it is important to know what every weapon does and what each upgrade, if there are any, provides. Knowing this you will be able to prioritize the upgrades you want first to become overpowered. Knowing what each weapon does allows to to combines weapon choices so that you may do things like charge at and enemy or pull them towards you.
Prioritizing weapons upgrades
To become overpowered do your research as to what weapon upgrades are most important to obtain first. If you feel as if you might be spiking the progression element of the game, then choose what you believe is fun. Later, sometime after or during the game, you can prioritize weapon upgrades again depending on the resources you have.
Prioritizing upgrades based on enemy encounters
Enemies come in all sorts of variations. There are memes with heavy health pools, enemies weak to certain status ailments like stuns, enemies immune to certain status ailments, fast enemies, strong enemies, ranged enemies, enemies that charge, enemies that teleport and etc. know which enemies you will be encounter as you progress through each level and know which weapons to use and upgrade based on those encounters. If you are fighting fast and ranged enemies who avoid getting into melee range, then choose a weapon that can counter this such as a weapon that pulls enemies towards you or allows you to charge at them.
Prioritizing upgrades based on strength
Some of the most fun found in hack and slash games come with upgrading and using the strongest weapon you can find the most. Without sacrificing speed too much, these weapons allow you to do the most damage and destroy enemies in a fraction of the time other weapons do. Prioritizing strength weapons means patience in waiting for the strongest weapon in the game, saving your experience points for it, then upgrading it fully so that you may have the most overpowered strength setup in the game.
Using the right weapons
Strong weapons
It is common for players to simply max out a strongest weapon in the game and only use that weapon because it deals the most damage and feels the most fun if its speed is not too slow or too fast.
Enemies weak to certain weapons
Enemies can be weak to certain weapons such as weapons that stagger. You can either experiment with different weapon abilities and combos, or you can look up enemy weaknesses online to find out what enemies are weak to what. A good example of an enemy who is weak against a certain hack and slash weapon would be the Siren in God of War 3 against the nemesis whip. The nemesis whip excels at keeping enemies in the air and is incredibly fast so agile enemies like sirens are less likely to escape it. You can also use the Nemesis Whip against heavier enemies like elite Minotaurs. The Nemesis whip has an unblockable launch attack that is quick and the whip also is excellent at keeping enemies in the air making it the perfect weapon to stun lock elite Minotaurs. Finding enemies weak to certain weapons allows richness in your gameplay and at the same time causes you to become overpowered.
Using the right combos
Using the right combos is essential to getting good at hack and slash video games. If you use the right combos for each enemy your damage per second may significantly increase. There are strong combos and staggering combos. These are the most common op combo moves found in hack and slash games. Strong combos will take away huge chunks of hp from the enemy and likely to be not too fast or too slow as to impact performance in a way where the player will take damage. Staggering combos will cause enemy attacks and movement to be interrupted by a stagger animation making them unable to do any movement or attack.
Strong combos
The objective of using strong combos is to deal large amounts of damage to enemies so that they will be defeated quickly. Strong combos can be ranged or melee range. Research which combos are most overpowered for your game including strong combos. An example of this is in Bayonetta punch punch kick combo which summons a foot from another realm to hit the enemy from melee range if not using animation canceling skills.
Staggering combos
Staggering combos are essential for getting good at hack and slash games. They completely immobilize and practically stun enemies. A good example of this is the leg sweep in Bayonetta. Using the leg sweep combo allows you to trip multiple enemies in a circle around you making them fall. In the time it takes for them to get up you can start your next strong combo and deal damage to one of the enemies. This strategy allows you to prevent taking damage from all three enemies while, at the same time, attacking a single enemy with heavy damage.
Animation canceling to increase speed, dps, and range
Animation canceling is the act of cancelling an animation before the animation was originally intended to end. It works to increase speed, dps, and in some games range like in Bayonetta. For an example I will explain how it works in Bayonetta. When a player cancels an attack animation by dodging the combo you are on is still registered by the game to perform the next attack in that combo with a certain timeframe around a second or two. The player’s range is then increased as the player uses short ranged melee attacks like punches out of range of the targeted enemy. Then the player dodges and quickly uses the next attack in that combo which can be a ranged kick attack.
Dps and Speed
Animation canceling helps raise dps because your are allowed to attack faster with your successive combos. With a higher dps this way you can take out foes that you need to destroy much faster and without taking as much damage.
Using Magic Attacks At The Right Time
Aoe
Aoe, area of effect, is when you use a certain area for an attack an whichever enemies are in that are when you attack will take damage. It is excellent at increasing dps the more enemies that are in the area of effect. When using magic attacks be with an aoe, be sure to pul or push and move enemies into that area of effect so that when you use your area of effect magic attack you do the most damage. I can tell you from personal experience that this is one of the most fun mechanics i have ever found in video games in general. Using aoe attacks will feel as if you are defeating like 2-4 even more enemies at once for more of the time it takes to kill one, but still raises your dps considerably so it makes up for that.
Finishing Off Enemies
You can also use magic to finish off enemies when you are in need to. Magic attacks are commonly more powerful than melee attacks. Using a magic attack two or three times in a row can easily take out a massive chunk of enemy hp. This is why magic attack are excellent at finishing off enemies who would otherwise kill yiu if you were at low health or would otherwise take good chunks of your health if you don’t finish them off quickly. It’s as simple as measuring how many magic attack you can do, measuring how much damage they will all do together, then comparing that damage to how much health any enemy has left in their health pool.
Using Against Strong Enemies
Strong foes with a large health pool are excellent to use strong magic attacks against because they will not die unlike other weak foes which are not only a great joy to test your dps but to protect yourself against otherwise dangerous attacks when they are defeated. When other enemies die to your magic attacks there is a chance your dps can drop significantly if their health is too low and your attack does not do the full extent of its damage because the attack has destroyed the target with less damage needed.
Conclusion
In order to get good at hack and slash games education about the game’s mechanics, both for the player and enemies, is a must. The road to being overpowered and getting good at these types of games is paved with excelling at mental agility. It is very fun to become and be overpowered when the road ends. Defeating enemies that used to be difficult and overwhelming groups of enemies with your new tactical genius will prove to be some of the best experiences you will have with video games in general.