Knockback

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Knockback is a position changing and damaging mechanism at the same time.

What is Knockback

Knockback is a mechanism that pushes the target by one block. There are three kinds of knockback in game: player's  Knockback x% trait,  PISORF, and monster's  Knockback trait. PISORF is largely the same with player's knockback. Monster's knockback will be described later, and only very few monsters have this trait. Knockback will push the target directly backward if it is possible, and will take damage if the tile behind the target was a wall or a monster.

Having just a small percentage of knockback differs hugely from not having it at all, because at least it can push monsters around.

How to get Knockback

Beginners will find  PISORF glyph lying around. This is the only method to use knockback for beginners, but they will also find many other items, abilities or boons to have knockback trait as they unlock the contents.

A  Bear Mace can be prepared after the player unlocks the Blacksmith. It is also found in a blacksmith secret subdungeon, hiding in walls. Bear mace adds  Knockback 25% to the player.

 Binlor Ironshield's boon,  Stone Fist, adds Knockback 50% to the player.

Finally,  Half-Dragon starts with Knockback 20%, and each 100 conversion points gives additional 20% to him.

How to use Knockback

Knockback can be used to break walls. Sometimes a player prepares  Bear Mace only to find a secret subdungeon, although the player does not plan to use it as additional damage. This item is also worth to prepare in some maze-like dungeons although there is no secret sub. Advanced players can use knockback to break some walls and leave some accessible blackspaces for later on.

Knockback is also very useful to use as a damaging method. It best works when the character can obtain a lot of base damage such as being an  Orc, or having a large chunk of walls around the target monster.

When the tile behind the target monster is

• A wall: the wall is destroyed, the target takes its place, and it is dealt Knockback% of your base damage as physical damage.
• A monster: first entity (cue ball) are dealt 80% of Knockback% of your base damage as physical damage, and the second will take exact same damage as a typeless damage.
• Empty: the target is moved to the empty tile.
• Indestructible tile(water/lava) or map edge: no effect

But, in checking the  Specialist badge, the knockback damage is considered as a typeless damage. This is a trace that knockback had been typeless damage, but turned into a physical attack.  PISORF works exactly the same with knockback 60% although it is used without a normal attack. But in checking the Specialist badge, it is considered as a physical damage unlike the knockback trait.

Positioning

Positioning is very important to leverage the knockback.

General Positioning

These are exmples of some awful maps to push monsters. You cannot push monsters into walls, and it implies the damage output is not very good, and you cannot earn piety under  Binlor Ironshield. Grey tile means a wall.

The one above is relatively better than the one below. A line is still a good chunk if you can catch the end of the line, and usually this layout have some fork in the hallways which means there is an end.  WEYTWUT can be used to position an enemy at the end of a line, then you can erase the line by pushing the monster. But in some cases, especially if some tiles are water or lava, you must carry  ENDISWAL to do something about it.

This one is the worst map layout. You must carry  ENDISWAL to push monsters into walls, and even then it's not efficient at all. For just damaging purpose, you'd better to find a monster to knockback the target into. Unfortunately you will frequently face this layout because using knockback will naturally lead to it.

In this situation where black tiles implies a map edge, you cannot set up a good knockback chain without the help of  ENDISWAL.

Generally,  ENDISWAL is nearly a must if you want to push your target into walls effectively.

One Target Monster

When you are going to use your knockback and/or  PISORF as a damage source, you need a large chunk of walls around the target and a monster at the end of the chunck. Since pushing target into a monter damages it by only 80%, Empty-Wall-Wall-Wall-Wall chain does the same damage with Monster-Monster-Monster-Monster-Monster. Keep this in mind and carefully position your knockback chain to do the largest damage.

The best chain can be pulled out by pushing the target into walls as long as possible, then pushing the target into a monster after the chunk is gone. For example, Wall-Wall-Wal-Wall-Wall-Empty-Wall-Wall-Wall-Monster-Monster-Monster-... is a very nice knockback chain.

Usually, you need to push the target into an empty tile at least once. If you have both knockback and PISORF, It is best to use PISORF at that timing if your knockback% is more than 60%. Usually the character will have knockback via  Stone Fist or  Bear Mace which is 50% and 25% respectively, so PISORF is better at moving the target into an empty tile. But if you are  Half-Dragon or have some greater knockback%, you'd better use your normal attack to push the monster. This will maximize the damage output.

Carefully plan your chain, and break some walls before the fight via  ENDISWAL to make some empty tile to position yourself. Using  PISORF or  Knockback to move your target or secondary monster (which will be used to push your target into) next to the wall chunk. Building a chunk with  IMAWAL by yourself is one possible method, but  Binlor Ironshield hates when you do it.

Two Target Monsters

When you have two monsters to kill, since knockback can attack two targets at once, you can effectively kill both by  Knockback and  PISORF. It works even better when two targets are not equal. When you use your knockback trait, the additional knockback damage is very small compared to your normal attack.

Various Interactions

Other Interactions

Sorcerer The Avatar RBS: applies to both PISORF and knockback.

Additional Tricks

Checking what lies behind the target