How many levels has the arena mode in Hammerfight?

Question

I've reached level 20 and I can't beat the enemies, is the end near?

Answer

nope. The link is a spoiler, but rest assured you have a ways to go. And that's not even the end.

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In Hammerfight, how do you catch a weapon?

Question

I am currently stuck in the flail throwing part and I can only catch it randomly. Do I have to hold the left mouse and catch it? or do i have to click at the right moment or what?

Answer

You just have to hold the left button and let the solid part of the weapon touch you, not just the chain. You'll then catch and equip the weapon.

More generally, if you have a weapon selected, and hold your left click, you can catch items that touch you or your weapon. You can do this with weapon that you dropped, that enemy dropped, armor and throwing blades.

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Is there any way to play Hammerfight with a gamepad?

Question

Hammerfight, while being a great game, is also excellent at annihilating your wrist, as controlling the game is done by performing circular motions with the mouse almost constantly.

When I first got the game, I looked for a way to translate gamepad input to mouse input so that I could play the game without inflicting physical harm on myself. The results I came up with were far from satisfactory, however (I found some way to turn my PS3's controller input into mouse input, but it was very sluggish and simply wouldn't do at all).

This site didn't exist back then, so I ask you, has anyone managed to set up a gamepad to work with this game in a way that doesn't feel like you are sacrificing control for convenience?

Answer

Well, erm, I'm not exactly sure how to tell you this, but... Hammerfight supports gamepads out of the box.

I just booted it up with my wireless Xbox 360 gamepad plugged in, and it picked it up immediately. The only thing you have to do is disable multy-mouse in the settings.

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How can I prevent the Night Light ones from exploding?

Question

In Chapter 1, Part 3, Section 2 of Hammerfight I now get to face the "Night Lights"/"Light Ones", who have the poor habit of exploding, taking an awful lot of my health in the process. Obviously, I can't ignore them, or they'll just asplode Chief Sayadi instead.

How can I safely handle explosives in Hammerfight?

Answer

To kill the Night Lights, you should avoid hitting the abdomen at all cost. Aim for the head, and try to hit them with a slashing motion rather than hitting them straight, damaging the abdomen trough their head. You can kill them by hitting the abdomen without explosion if you are careful, but this is more difficult and dangerous.

For explosives in general, you should be gentle if you want to deflect them or send them back. Don't hit at full speed and straight on, rather try to make them rebound on you blade or catch them in a flail before flinging them away. Explosives can explode before the end of their time if hit too hard.

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How to read the Hammerfight end of level screen?

Question

I finally beat the first hard branch of the game. I unlocked a few titles ("BP THE WINDBAG"), a weapon suspiciously similar to, but not totally unlike what I already had, and this level summary.

So, uh, I earned 10 crosses, 0 fame, 115 points, a overall rating of blue ribbon (???) and 280 glory. Color me pretty confused.

How can I read this screen? What does each field mean? How is each meter important?

Answer

Keep in mind that most of what you see in the result screen is simply a summary of things that happen throughout the level (the action can get a little hectic though, so it's easy to miss the various prompts).

The section immediately under "RESULTS", where you have a bunch of crosses, is a summary of all the enemies you defeated. Crossed bones mean a dead beast/animal. There are other icons for defeating mechanical enemies (cogs, if I remember correctly) and subduing/killing a human enemy (a star and skull, respectively). The icons are actually identical to the kill prompts you get while playing:

The fame you earned is just that, how much fame you earned during the level. Fame can be earned by doing "impressive things" while playing the level, and I'm pretty sure getting fame is easier if you have a crowd watching you, like you do on some of the levels. When you do something impressive while playing, you should notice yellow/red smiley faces appear near your ship. The more/bigger the they are, the more impressive you were. Smashing hard into an enemy and shattering his armor is an example of something impressive you can do, and this will net you some yellow smileys. Red smileys represent you getting a bad reputation, such as when you kill an enemy who yielded.

Here's a shot of some serious glory gained for defeating an enemy:

And of a little less glory for simply hitting something hard (as indicated by the "Strong hit" icon just above it):

Next up, your "points scored" followed by a series of coins and tokens. This is simply a representation of the money you earned during the level (enemies hit usually drop coins. See the massive coin spill in the first of the glory screenshots, just under the smiley face. You have to run into them to pick them up, though).

The overall rating simply shows how well you did on the level, though unfortunately I have no idea what the thresholds for the ranks on any of the levels are. I can't even tell you how many ranks there are, or which token is better than the other.

Glory, I believe, can be considered the final score for the level (and eventually, the game). As far as I remember it adds up as you play.

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