Combat assist
Help with facing, choosing and striking your enemy: Standard on a phone by default, Full for the most help, and anyone can choose either.
Options → Combat and aiming → Combat assist helps you fight without perfect aim. Standard is on by default on a phone and Off on a PC; Full adds more help against creatures and other foes who are not players. Anyone can choose any of the three.
Standard
| When | Combat assist |
|---|---|
| You swing a melee weapon | You turn to face the enemy within reach during the wind-up, before the blow lands. If nothing hostile is selected, the nearest enemy in front of you is selected first. |
| You give the swing no direction | A tap on Attack, or the controller's trigger with the right stick at rest: the swing goes the way most likely to land, a wide slash, or a thrust when you stand behind your enemy. A flick, or a push of the stick, still picks the swing yourself. With fists, a lone sword or a spear every direction is a move of its own, so there your last swing is kept. |
| You use a harmful power | It goes to the enemy you locked on to or selected, even when the crosshair crosses someone else. With nobody chosen and nobody under the crosshair, it goes to the nearest enemy in front of you within its range, who is then selected. |
| You tap Target with nothing under the crosshair | The nearest enemy in front of you is selected; tap again for the next one, and so on round them all. |
| You tap Face on a phone, or hold Target | You lock on to your selected target, or to the nearest enemy in front of you: you keep facing it and your view follows it up and down until you tap Face (or hold Target) again. Drag up or down to aim higher or lower. Face is lit and gold brackets mark your target while the lock holds. Tap another enemy to move the lock to it; the lock lets go when its target dies or vanishes, is more than 30 metres away or is out of sight for two seconds. |
It never picks another player for you: it only picks enemies whose names are red. Once you select a player yourself, it faces them like any target.
Full
| When | Combat assist |
|---|---|
| A creature or a foe who is not a player swings at you | Your guard goes up a moment after the blow begins, about as quick as a quick hand, and comes down when the blow is over. It never rises while your own blow is out or held, or while you cast. |
| You aim a bow, a throw or a spell at one | When one is close to your crosshair your aim is drawn gently onto it, ahead of it as it moves, so the shot meets it. Locked on to one, your aim leads it too. |
How fast you turn
Options → Touch controls sets how fast a drag turns your view, sideways and up and down, and the Quick swipe boost: how much further a quick swipe turns than a slow drag.
Options → Combat and aiming → Mouse look speed sets how fast the mouse turns your view. With a controller, the Controller section sets the camera's speed and the Turn speed-up: holding the camera stick all the way to one side turns faster after a moment.