Stabbing Animation Weapons while mounted.

Walrusst · 2026-06-29T20:16:02Z

Disclaimer:

So, I know that some players are immediately going to argue there has been no stabbing animation "weapons" in the game outside of a single overpowered newyears event. I'm going to discount that since the fencing sword is in the combat tab, I have to explain to new players its worse than a spear as they see an alchemy engine combat tab item and assume it will be better as its something that commonly gets built by new timers as its resources are something you already have when you make your spear and while you may argue that new timers won't have an alchemy engine, I regret to inform you this is a game you don't always play alone so if someone makes the mistake of revealing to a new player that they have options the new player will get killed when their weapon stops stunlocking basic enemies assuming they found an upgrade.....

They'll experiment with their options simple as. So it may be the worst weapon, but as something that is in a combat filter its a weapon.

With that out of the way....

Why would we want this?
Simple, it makes it so a lot of bizzare mounted combat options become viable and makes it so the beefalo grind of ornery or go home has alternatives. Imagine using a pudgy beefalo to combat a major sanity aura and stabbing from a mount, there is depth and legitimate level of decision making from allowing this interaction where you can use something other than ranged weapons and override a beefalos animation.

It also makes more content overall possible in the game since justifying a weapons use means more weapons can exist like this. This mechanic only gets better as the game grows, and it adds texture to characters like wigfird whose beefalo perks are both strange and counter intuitive to what the character is about. You can use your character perks by fighting for the beef instead of it fighting for you, and items like the battle saddle can be re-balanced as helping wigfrid get the most from these items. (Say, the stabbing weapons attack speed penalties go away with the battle saddle.)

Simply put, if you like decision making, texture, nuance in your game.... This adds possibility with minimal power creep. Plus having substitutions for the basic beefalo attack adds another element to the game, you don't need a fully tamed beefalo to get power scaling or a combat benefit here! A beefalo thats tamed enough could be used with a stabbing weapon can scale prior to it reaching its final form (Ignoring the fact that there currently is only one stabbing weapon that's strong enough to justify using over the beefalo's base attack from a cheat event, obviously if a weapon class has a use you'd expect more than one option thats as bad as using an axe or your fist.)

This last parts difficult to fully express how big it is. Like, you have a reason to use beefalo with less than a full commitment, you could train one for three days and treat it like a consumable sometimes in situations where it makes sense if A: This worked, and B: there was content supporting it. You can kinda do this for really easy encounters like ancient guardian but this could give this sort of disposable temporary pet attitude value that lasts further out into the game and also makes the 20 day retraining period when a beefalo dies more enjoyable. Having content that makes this downgrade more bearable with progress and resources poured into it is valuable for the game experience as a whole here. Think of all the saved server rollbacks you people do for beefs if there was thought put into this experience.

What limitations should this have?
It goes without saying that something like this is a powerful option, mobility survivability and firepower beefalo have all three. Not being stuck with an ornery beefalo which carries extra inconveniences with its reluctance to let you mount without paying the fees takes away from the downsides.

Simply put, the attack speed of these weapons isn't great and any incentives we add to make it good to use these on foot like a mildly extended weapon range on the level of being less than a whip shouldn't work when on a beefalo, any buff to make it worth using on foot would be overkill if we had beefalo speed. The attack speed penalties are something the player is presented with as a tax on using a more maneuverable or high utility beefalo here.

This means a non-wigfrid player should feel pushed to try and use stronger and higher tier weapons than they normally would use here, once again, assuming the game doesn't close with there only being one option available.

The Koalefant in the room, Woby.
While not literally a Koalefant, Woby does present an issue here that Woby is simply really strong. No other mount lets you use personal armor and comes with teleport across the room dodge moves that leave you moving at 13 tiles a second afterwards. Still, the most skilled players in the game have proclaimed they want to play a melee Walter where you use your slingshot as a status effect causing utility, and I have a solution for them.
Simply put, it works, but the penalties are stacked in a way that makes it so people who wanted this level of skill expression HAVE to put their money where their mouth is and be as good as they say.

They can have their melee Walter but they need to play it perfectly. To compensate for Wobies literal dodge moves and unmatched speed, Woby reacts to each melee attack like you took 1 damage because of her cowardice, with this fear from melee attacking being hard capped at 6 fear out of the 8 you need to get bucked off. This means that even in cases where you can pummel an enemy more than a few times without retaliation, a substantial enemy can put you in a far more dangerous state to compensate for the immense allowances given to you here. You can't armor enough to resist a buck if you get too greedy.

So this experience is tailored pretty considerably to the sort of extreme skill expression that critics of Walter who want a melee Walter asked for. They can have their skill expression. Stabbing weapons have historically been very durable so you can also save the grind for resources that defines Walters progression since ammo is 3x-6x more expensive that clubbing enemies with a spear gives, or closer to 9x more expensive than using a fencing sword or any acceptably good late game melee weapon that doesn't exist yet would bring.
Being fast, stylish and aggressive is something you earn here, as this is what the players who wanted this playstyle and complained asked for, and its not like using magic ammo occasionally for helpful status effects or extra damage taken debuffs can't play into this.

You may still complain "Why hasn't ranged walter gotten these guardrails," but like, the grind, the willingness to sit around and stare and pile resources has always been here. We have darts, we have gunpowder, we can tame an unstoppable wall of pigmen. Webber, winowna and wurt are here. Resource exchange gameplay is part of the core of this game. Here you are cutting out this resource exchange and putting your skills forward.

Closing out.

Obviously, the fencing sword alone isn't good enough to make this mechanic meaningful, or necessitate even half of the guard rails I've mentioned. In other threads I've mentioned buffs here but that might not be necessary if there just was more content around this concept, and if year of the clockwork knight is any indication klei is willing to have more stabbing weapons and tested properties of what could define them as a class of weapons and not a trivia item for rotating fences thats....
In the combat tab for some reason?

This is just a commentary of something I'd view as a missed opportunity if we didn't test it.

Edited 19 hours ago by Walrusst
Cleaning up one claim. Fixing the middle and most important parts of the argument.

Well-met · 2026-06-30T02:29:22Z

My opinion is I think klei regrets making mounting because it's a huge amount of additional work and checks and they clearly haven't been willing to expand on it despite the ton of room for new opportunities and improvements

In other words adding a brand new mechanic to this isn't happening

Wendigail · 2026-06-30T08:08:36Z

I previously made a mod called Lance and Horns, which allows players to perform thrust attacks and charge forward with a lance while mounted.

I think this is a brilliant idea. Given how long a lance is, why shouldn’t it be usable properly from mountback?

Or just imagine: regular characters can only perform basic attacks with the lance, but Wigfrid who has unlocked the corresponding skill tree can thrust with her lance alongside the beefalo’s horn attacks, and also unleash lightning charge attacks using her exclusive Elding Spear.