DragonSword Awakening Combat Guide: 10 Essential Tips & Tricks for Beginners
DragonSword: Awakening surprised me far more than I expected. I originally assumed it would simply feel like another action RPG with flashy animations and familiar combo systems, but after spending time experimenting with different characters, swapping mechanics, and boss encounters, it became clear that Hound13 built something with much more depth.
The combat looks chaotic at first glance, yet underneath all the visual effects is a system that rewards planning instead of random button mashing. The better you understand how characters work together, the easier difficult fights become—even if your equipment isn’t perfect yet.
If you’re just starting your adventure, these are the biggest lessons that made the game much more enjoyable for me. They won’t instantly make you an expert, but they’ll help you avoid mistakes that many new players make during their first several hours.
1. Think of Your Party as One Character, Not Three
The biggest mindset change I had was realizing that DragonSword: Awakening isn’t designed around a single main character.
Unlike many RPGs where you simply swap when someone’s health gets low, this game constantly encourages switching between party members during combat. Every hero fills a different purpose, and battles become significantly smoother once you begin rotating through your entire lineup.
Instead of asking yourself:
“Which character is strongest?”
Ask:
“Which character should attack right now?”
That small change completely transforms the flow of combat.
2. Character Swapping Is Actually Your Strongest Attack
One mechanic that immediately stood out to me was the incredibly short swap cooldown.
When you switch characters, the previous one often remains on the battlefield long enough to finish their animation. At first I ignored this, but later I realized how much extra damage I was leaving behind.
A great strategy is to:
- Start a long animation skill.
- Swap immediately.
- Continue attacking with another hero.
- Stack multiple attacks at once.
It almost feels like controlling two fighters simultaneously.
Instead of interrupting your damage, swapping actually increases it.
3. Air Combos Are Much More Useful Than They Look
Many action RPGs include jumping simply because players expect it.
DragonSword: Awakening actually builds combat around aerial movement.
Enemies launched into the air become much easier to control, and many cannot retaliate while being juggled. Certain heroes also recover from attacks faster while airborne, opening the door for longer combo chains.
If you’ve been staying on the ground during every fight, you’re probably missing a large part of the combat system.
Try mixing:
- Jump attacks
- Air dashes
- Launch skills
- Mid-air finishers
The combat immediately starts feeling faster and more stylish.
4. Learn What Your Signal Skills Actually Do
One of the least explained systems for beginners is the Signal mechanic.
Unlike standard cooldown abilities, these attacks only become available after meeting specific combat conditions.
Sometimes you’ll trigger them by finishing a combo.
Other times another party member prepares the opportunity.
Because of this, character synergy becomes incredibly important.
Before building your team, spend a few minutes reading each character’s conditions. Finding heroes whose abilities naturally activate one another creates much smoother battles than simply choosing your favorite three characters.
5. Breaking Armor Should Always Be Your First Priority
Early on I made the classic mistake:
I kept unloading every powerful skill into a boss whose armor was still intact.
The result?
Huge-looking attacks that barely moved the health bar.
Most elite enemies have an armor gauge that dramatically reduces incoming damage.
Once that defense breaks, however, the fight changes instantly.
The enemy becomes vulnerable, staggered, and suddenly all of your strongest abilities begin dealing meaningful damage.
Whenever a difficult encounter starts, I now focus on armor before anything else.
Only after the enemy is exposed do I spend my strongest cooldowns.
Quick Combat Priorities
| Situation | Best Response |
|---|---|
| Enemy still has armor | Focus on break attacks |
| Armor is broken | Use Signal skills and burst damage |
| Small enemies | Launch them into the air |
| Boss encounter | Swap frequently between characters |
| Large groups | Avoid staying locked onto one target |
| Long skill animation | Swap immediately to another hero |
6. Equipment Matters More Than Grinding Levels
Coming from traditional RPGs, my first instinct was simply leveling up.
DragonSword quickly taught me that this isn’t the fastest way to become stronger.
Equipment upgrades have a much larger impact than gaining a few extra character levels.
Whenever progression starts slowing down, it’s usually worth farming better weapons or armor rather than endlessly defeating normal enemies for experience.
Good gear improves:
- Damage
- Defense
- Armor breaking
- Overall combat efficiency
The difference between average equipment and upgraded gear is noticeable almost immediately.
7. Don’t Stay Locked Onto Every Enemy
I actually appreciate that Hound13 added a lock-on system because it helps tremendously during boss fights.
Against agile enemies, keeping the camera focused makes dodging much easier.
But during larger battles, I found myself fighting the camera more than the monsters.
Locking onto one distant target sometimes causes abilities to miss the surrounding enemies entirely.
My approach eventually became simple:
Use lock-on for bosses.
Turn it off when clearing groups.
The combat instantly feels much more natural.
8. Take Advantage of Boss Grab Opportunities
Some larger enemies allow characters to latch onto specific weak points.
The first few times this happened, I simply watched the animation play.
Later I realized I could continue attacking.
While one character remains attached to the boss, another can freely continue dealing damage from the ground.
It feels surprisingly satisfying because the fight never slows down.
Instead of waiting for an animation to finish, you’re constantly contributing damage from multiple angles.
It’s one of those mechanics that’s easy to overlook until you intentionally experiment with it.
9. Your Tag-In Attacks Are Part of Your Combo
Every character enters battle with their own tag-in strike.
These aren’t just flashy transitions.
They’re designed to keep your combo alive.
If enemies are airborne, swapping at the right moment often keeps them suspended instead of letting them recover.
Once I started viewing swaps as combo extensions rather than character changes, my battles became much smoother.
Instead of:
Attack → Wait → Attack
The flow becomes:
Attack → Swap → Launch → Continue → Swap Again
The combat system rewards momentum more than patience.
10. Experiment With Different Team Compositions
This might be my favorite piece of advice.
It’s extremely tempting to find one character whose moveset feels amazing and ignore everyone else.
I did exactly that during my first few hours.
Eventually I realized I was making every difficult encounter harder than necessary.
DragonSword: Awakening clearly encourages balanced teams.
A strong party usually includes:
- Someone who destroys armor quickly.
- Someone who applies elemental effects.
- Someone who excels at burst damage.
- Someone with excellent mobility.
You don’t necessarily need the strongest individual hero.
You need three characters that make each other stronger.
That’s a very different philosophy from most action RPGs, and it’s one of the reasons the combat stays interesting even after dozens of hours.
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Common Beginner Mistakes
The mistakes I see most often include:
- Ignoring armor gauges and wondering why enemies refuse to die.
- Never swapping characters, effectively losing a huge portion of available damage.
- Saving every powerful ability instead of using them during stagger windows.
- Over-investing into one hero while leaving the rest of the party underdeveloped.
- Forgetting aerial combat, making fights much slower than necessary.
- Treating every encounter the same, instead of adjusting strategies for bosses and regular enemies.
Avoiding just a few of these habits makes progression feel dramatically smoother.
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Final Thoughts
What impressed me most about DragonSword: Awakening isn’t simply how flashy the combat looks—it’s how much freedom it gives players once the mechanics start clicking together.
At first, battles can feel overwhelming because there are so many systems happening simultaneously: aerial movement, armor breaks, Signal abilities, character swaps, elemental interactions, and combo extensions. But after spending some time experimenting instead of rushing through encounters, everything begins to connect naturally.
Rather than rewarding repetitive button presses, the game constantly encourages smart decisions. Every swap has purpose, every stagger window matters, and every team composition changes the rhythm of combat.
If there’s one piece of advice I’d give any new player, it’s this: don’t rush to find a “main” character. Spend time learning how different heroes complement one another. DragonSword: Awakening truly shines when your entire party works together as one seamless fighting machine.
Once that clicks, the combat becomes one of the most satisfying parts of the entire experience, and every difficult boss starts feeling less like a wall and more like a puzzle waiting to be solved.
