Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Combat Tips To Help You Fight Like A Pro

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is finally out on Nintendo Switch and has much tougher battles than what you might have faced in the free eShop demo. To help you with some of the challenges that lie ahead, we've laid out some useful combat tips to elevate your skills.

We've also found some exciting tech that will be extra useful for those who want to get deep into the intricacies of combat. So this will also be a guide containing some advanced tips from our resident Breath of the Wild expert Max Blumenthal, who has a knack for finding new combat tech, and has already pioneered a few Age of Calamity tricks!

If you have any more tips, post them in the comments below. We're always looking for cool combat techniques to use in Hyrule Warriors, so don't hesitate to call them out. Otherwise, read our full Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity review.

Use Stasis Correctly

If you're throwing out Stasis willy-nilly and using its auto-animation, you've got to change your ways. While using Stasis to counter a Stasis-weak attack is a good and natural application of the ability, the most powerful part of Stasis is its potential to extend weak point duration and stun enemies for longer. You can capitalize on this by dashing after performing Stasis, allowing you to then freely do another action. While some weak points last a while for you to beat down an opponent, others last for only a second or two, which isn't enough time to crack it. So use Stasis to extend that time.

This technique is crucial to extending combos, gaining more supermove meter, and restricting an enemy's ability to fight back. Unfortunately, not every character can attack during Stasis--Daruk, for example, is unable to follow up with an attack. However, for characters who can, this technique is incredibly powerful. It can even be strung into enemy weak points you trigger with Sheikah Slate abilities, allowing you to force your way through an opponent's weak point at any time.

As a rule, you'll want to be hitting enemies after triggering this technique as much as possible to maximize your damage output, building towards that inevitable weak point smash. It comes in handy, especially against more formidable enemies who tend to be very tanky in harder difficulties. So do not underestimate this technique in a pinch!

How To Best Use Elemental Rods

Elemental Rods are essential to mastering Age of Calamity's combat. These powerful magical weapons easily create weak points at any time if you're having trouble creating an opening yourself, but the type of weak point and size of the blast depends on several things.

For one, it's important to note that attacking elemental-based enemies with wands of the same element do no damage, so don't hit an ice enemy with an Ice Rod.

Second, hitting enemies using an element it's weak against (fire against ice, ice against fire, lightning against enemies soaked in water) automatically triggers a critical weak point. This powerful weak point attack creates a longer-lasting and more fragileweak point gauge.

Lastly, the power and size of the Elemental Rod blast will depend on the terrain you hit. You can see this when hovering your fire rod over grass as opposed to dirt. Using fire on grassy areas, lightning on metal or water, and ice on water will increase the blast range and force a critical weak point on enemies caught in the blast, even to those not ordinarily weak to them. So be sure to always pay attention to your surroundings and take advantage of the terrain you're on!

Rely On Magnesis Cancel For A Quick Dodge Or Attack Cancel

Most characters aren't able to use Magnesis if nothing metallic is around. And if there are metallic items around, you'll perform a regular Magnesis attack, which is pretty underwhelming for most characters. So, you might be thinking: "Well, that's weak, so what's the point?"

But in actuality, Magnesis is arguably one of the more powerful techniques in the game because you can use it to cancel almost any action you do. It also gives you complete invincibility without using resources.

You can perform a Magnesis Cancel by pressing the R and B buttons when there are no metallic items within range. If a regular dodge isn't quick enough to get you out of harm's way, you can use Magnesis Cancel to more quickly dodge attacks or cancel out longer attack animations.

You'll want to keep in mind that the effectiveness of Magnesis Cancel varies from character to character, as some, like Zelda, are unable to do this technique at all. In contrast, others like Impa can spam it quickly over and over. But when the situation is right, Magnesis Cancel can be very clutch. Some attacks, such as a Guardian's lasers, have a blast hitbox that's hard to dodge and can't be parried with other characters, so keep this in your repertoire when up against deadly foes!

Impa is Broken (So Use Her!)

Usually, we're not particularly eager to promote easy wins, but it's hard to ignore when a character like Impa is 100% SSS tier on the tier list. She can perform near-endless combos on single enemies and crowds while stunning everyone around her. Her meter-gain is also incredibly fast when fighting against groups, which allows you to perform your special quite often.

In the future, it's possible that other characters may have hidden potential that will place them as high on the tier list as Impa, but she's currently pretty dominant. And with abilities unlocked in the endgame, she becomes even more of an absolute monster. If you're having a hard time with this game, you can lean on this Sheikah pain train to carry you through a rough mission.

Menu Slowdown Can Help Practice Parrying or Dodging

This technique can help in a pinch if you're having a rough time parrying or dodging. By alternating the Sheikah Slate and Elemental Rod menus, you can put yourself in a perpetual state of slowdown, giving you a much more accurate window to dodge and parry attacks. Some enemy attacks have strange animations that are challenging to time a parry or dodge against, so if you need a second to watch for the counter-attack tell, you can use this little trick to help nail the timing.

Other Assorted Tips

As coined by Max, the Urbosa Float Cancel is a secret combat trick that can be executed while airborne and attacking. By tapping your ZR charge, your attack count will be reset, allowing you to continue attacking in the air. This flying Urbosa trick will continue to headshot most enemies while being out of their range and still doing damage. It's possible to get hit by high attacks, but this technique typically dodges most ground attacks while continually dishing out damage from above.

Max has also found a unique technique for Revali, which he's named Rune Sliding. By doing your C4 combo (Y-button x4 + X-button) in the air and timing a Sheikah Slate ability perfectly, you can slide along the ground at breakneck speeds. Depending on your rune of choice, some slides last longer than others, but whichever one you choose, the utility changes with your swift movement, and during the length of the animation, you are entirely invincible. This technique can be handy for approaching pesky ranged enemies or running away from a fight.

If you need a visual aid to better understand how these techniques are performed, watch the video version of this guide, which is embedded above.