Combat | Salt and Sanctuary Wiki

Combat is a major gameplay component in Salt and Sanctuary. By using equipment and upgrading stats, players can engage enemies and NPCs in a combat sequence and obtain materials, equipment, and salt as a reward.

Movement and Actions

The Controls page has the button layout of the game. However there's more to it than meets the eye. Players will want to consider tailoring their builds to allow for sufficient armor whilst also balancing Equipment Load so they are not overencumbered or extremely slow. The key stats that determine your movement are Endurance and Will. The former will increase your equipment load, whilst the latter will buff your Stamina, allowing you to perform more actions before becoming exhausted.

Player movement is also affected by enemy stagger, and can be further modified by obtaining Brands, which give special effects such as the ability to double-jump.

Starter Tips

• If you have a shield, use it constantly. If not, learn how to roll like a champ.
• Spend your salt on leveling up as soon as you have enough, so you minimize the amount of salt that can be lost.
• Practice the "perfect parry" timing with weaker enemies. It is really useful when you are good at it. You can even parry without a shield.
• You can sometimes force a weaker enemy out of their block animation by attacking them repeatedly, causing them to stagger and become vulnerable. Just be very careful: if they drop the block and start an attack of their own, be ready with your own block, parry, or roll. Against stronger shield-using enemies, you might have to wait and parry their attack.
• Don't panic when getting beat up by a boss. Keep your healing potion ready, maybe save grenades to use on them, and roll between attacks.
• Learn their pattern, then you'll know good timing when to strike. Don't button mash because they can hurt you a lot quicker than you can hurt them.
• Be careful about mid-air heavy strikes against birds, etc. Your jump is cut short and you can fall to your death. Although, with some weapons, the heavy strike will hit enemies above you, even through platforms. Just don't do it when jumping from one platform to another.
• Normal (non-heavy) strikes are usually faster in mid-air (strangely enough), though they are also usually weaker. Good to keep in mind if you're using a slower weapon and keep getting hit out of your attack.
• Lure enemies into booby traps.
• Sell off gear you don't need so you can buy salt from the merchant (more salt, more level).
• Use up your healing potions before you start using prayers to heal because it lowers your max stamina. (The secondary consumable item from each creed will renew that)
• When surrounded, roll to the side of the group immediately, before you get gang beat. (Don't jump!)
• Keep your shield up until an enemy has finished their combo. Don't try to parry until their last strike.
• You can hit poison blobs off of the trees. If you kill them before they jump you, then you get a salt reward.
• You can keep your shield up while jumping; (eg: if an arrow is headed towards you).
• Buy items that give a temporary buff for those difficult fights. Equip them on your quick slots (purse icon) to be ready. You might even be able to get freely replenishing buff items from your creed...
• Unequip items that you don't need in the middle of a fight (from your quick slots), so you don't have to cycle through a long list to the items you do need. (but do after the fight).
• Be aware of your weapon range. The spears, reapers and poleaxes are very useful to hit enemies before they can even see you are there. Start with a heavy attack when being aggressive. Bows are even better and can hit offscreen enemies, though on the other hand they're somewhat weak damage-wise.
• Charms have to be equipped onto the charm slot to work. You will see them on your weapon. Same thing with rings.
• Save up red shards (use them last); use the full potions instead because they are free and are replenished at the sanctuary. You can even sell your shards.
• Try to spend your gold, because if you're rich, the cleric will take a lot of gold when you die (corrupt bastard).
• Upgrading gear is very useful. Just make sure you intend on keeping the gear (weapon, armor, etc.) for a while; upgrade costs can add up quick.
• If you're walking extremely slowly, unequip an armor item from your body. You're too heavy. You can still carry it in your inventory, but you need endurance upgrades (the horse icon in the skill tree) to properly wear it. Also remember that weapons have weight too.
• If an enemy is winding up to strike you, then your first attack should not be a heavy, because they can hit you faster.
• Don't spend upgrade points on unnecessary things, like the ability to use weapons you won't be using anyway. (But also, many weapons can end up having unexpected stat needs: for example many swords scale partly off of dexterity as well as strength.)
• Falling is an automatic death. Hold upwards to catch those ledges. Also, you can look farther away, using the right joystick.
• Divide and conquer. Approach dangerous mobs, when they see you, retreat, fighting them one on one, instead of all of them at once.