Name’s Seamark. You can call me ‘Sir’. Nura said those Academy lubbers would pay me if I agreed to teach you how to fight, so here we are. Don’t make me repeat myself.

Let’s start with your cutlass. Every pirate owns one. Some are more expensive than others but that’s just showing off, it don’t make ’em any stronger.

If you go in swinging, you’ll attack with a short combo of three quick slashes – left, right, left. It’s fast, but it’s an attack that’s easy to block or dodge. If one of your blows does miss, the combo is broken and you may not recover from your swing in time to block a counterattack. Land the whole combo, though, and you’ll do some solid damage while knocking your opponent back.

If you ready an attack until the tip of your cutlass is facing forward, you’ll perform a heavy lunge. This does a lot of damage if it connects, but miss your target and you’ll be left out of breath, unable to move or switch weapons for a couple of seconds. All the same, risk-taking fighters say it’s worth it because the heavy lunge can’t be blocked.

If you jump just before you start to lunge, you’ll leap forward a long way when you attack. Good for closing the distance or crossing wide gaps, but it can take practice to get the timing right. Don’t try it in high places until you get the hang of it.

You can also block incoming cutlass strikes with your own blade. Blocking an attack combo pushes you and your opponent apart, giving you a little space to rethink and re-engage. You can move around while blocking, and if you jump you can dodge in any direction.

That’s it.