[TsunamiZ]

What are the ways to perform instant kills?

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Instant kills rely on a die roll mechanism, so they happen automatically; the probability of having them occur increases by activating certains skills or using certain weapons.

[FoggyFishburne]

You can also spec the "Riposte" ability in the Swordsmanship talent tree. Recommended if you're playing on lower difficulties. It's a lot of fun to pull off Though be warned, I find it rather risky to do on higher difficulties and I'm not really sure if it works against all monsters and beasts.

[slimgrin]

FoggyFishburne said:

You can also spec the "Riposte" ability in the Swordsmanship talent tree. Recommended if you're playing on lower difficulties. It's a lot of fun to pull off Though be warned, I find it rather risky to do on higher difficulties and I'm not really sure if it works against all monsters and beasts. ›››

It only works on humans.

[FoggyFishburne]

slimgrin said:

It only works on humans. ›››

Ah damnit! Here I was, hoping to start another playthrough and just riposte everyone and everything to death!

Thanks for the clarification/confirmation mate.

[TsunamiZ]

is stunning them with aard then hitting them the only way to instant kill?

[TsunamiZ]

from playing arena, it seems aard sign has a chance to do a critical stun--after which you can hit the stunned enemy for an instant kill

[slimgrin]

FoggyFishburne said:

Ah damnit! Here I was, hoping to start another playthrough and just riposte everyone and everything to death!

Thanks for the clarification/confirmation mate. ›››

Yeah, it took me while to figure it out cause I was Riposting every damn thing that moved, then cursing the fact monsters just attacked me during the animation..then I realized monsters don't carry a weapon for Geralt to Riposte...

[dragonbird]

slimgrin said:

Yeah, it took me while to figure it out cause I was Riposting every damn thing that moved, then cursing the fact monsters just attacked me during the animation..then I realized monsters don't carry a weapon for Geralt to Riposte... ›››

Hmmm. Puzzled here. I learned to use riposte by fighting harpies.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

TsunamiZ said:

from playing arena, it seems aard sign has a chance to do a critical stun--after which you can hit the stunned enemy for an instant kill ›››

Oh I see what you mean OP, yeah that's one way to instant kill. I can't remember any other.

[slimgrin]

You can also get stun with the right weapon, usually a blunt one.

[slimgrin]

dragonbird said:

Hmmm. Puzzled here. I learned to use riposte by fighting harpies. ›››

Watch this vid. The riposte throws the opponent back and lets Geralt (Seltkirk) land the blow clean. My experience with monsters is the riposte does not throw them back to the same degree, so Geralt cannot always land a clean blow. I was going to test this in Arena, but it seems the latest patch broke the installer, and now I can't load the game at all. For some reason CDPR's patches are like poison to my PC.


http://www.youtube.c...h?v=szPbejqq4AE

[dragonbird]

slimgrin said:

Watch this vid. The riposte throws the opponent back and lets Geralt (Seltkirk) land the blow clean. My experience with monsters is the riposte does not throw them back to the same degree, so Geralt cannot always land a clean blow. I was going to test this in Arena, but it seems the latest patch broke the installer, and now I can't load the game at all. For some reason CDPR's patches are like poison to my PC.


http://www.youtube.c...h?v=szPbejqq4AE ›››

That's my own video. />
I suspect that there could be a difference in that you only get the insta-kill with humans, or that the effect is stronger. (And it definitely does NOT work against non-humanoid monsters such as endregas)

[slimgrin]

dragonbird said:

That's my own video. />
I suspect that there could be a difference in that you only get the insta-kill with humans, or that the effect is stronger. (And it definitely does NOT work against non-humanoid monsters such as endregas) ›››

...the odds. I forgot about Jaegercat.

[dragonbird]

slimgrin said:

...the odds. I forgot about Jaegercat. ›››

I was flattered
Anyway, you've got me intrigued about this now. If I get the chance, I'll load up the game later today and test it. I've got a good enough selection of savegames to find something that'll be usable.

[dragonbird]

Here you go - Riposte against Harpies



A couple of points though
- I would definitely NOT recommend this as a technique against multiple monsters. Note Geralt's health in these examples - those harpies would have been dead a lot faster if I'd just fought them normally.
- I don't know how many monsters this works with. Harpies could be the exception, as I couldn't get it to work on gargoyles. So slimgrin may be almost right.