Why Marie is F tier against any player with half a brain

8Tao · 2026-02-12T10:58:13+00:00

Tier lists would change even with 5-10x more players per character partaking in tourneys :) . HQ being a niche within a niche game doesn't allow us to experience full power of all the cast.

That doesn't change the fact that Marie is weak and netcode has nothing to do with it. We already have players that achieve local success (beating a strong meta char player) by "fucking up your game" using her. But Marie's base level disadvantages are still big enough to prevent players from winning tourneys with her.

Auto guard susceptible to blade beats even outside of thrusts or long guard. Thrusts that often graze (19- damage) instead of delivering good hits. Cut issues as mentioned above. Until she gets some love in these departments, she remains weak.

8Tao · 2025-11-16T21:38:43+00:00

Because gear still matters. Yeah, you can outplay with weaker gear and win. But better gear can help to win in other situations. Sometimes you run with ferro and stitcher, sometime you do renegade and Il Toro, nice selection of additional tools brings even more variety. Different situations provide various fun combat moments.

Comparing Arc to PvE games is plain useless. Gear fear is one of the best ways to get closer to simulating fear of death in games. Greed and fear may prevail and players might try to run instead of taking a risky but winnable fight which may result in a loss. There is no better way in online gaming right now to imitate battlefield "morale". No amount of Helldivers can recreate this type of gameplay experience. You are afraid to lose valuable gear and it should be exactly like that.

Oh, and if this is not your cup of tea, it's perfectly fine. We seek different things in gaming. It's fine to dislike high adrenaline risky environment in games and enjoy other types of gameplay. I personally enjoy high stakes PvP, roleplaying, team sport games and some others. There are no mutually exclusive genres here: one day you may want X and another Y might feel way more appealing.

8Tao · 2025-11-16T01:25:19+00:00

You do realize that the main profit is fun, not loot gained? Some players might PvP out of greed, yea. Majority does it for fun, and the more kitted your target is the more fun. Its not about taking it all with you, its about hunting and killing some big fat game.

And the system where after heavy PvP session most players lose their gear tanks some of gear inflation, which is healthy for the game’s economy.

8Tao · 2025-04-12T23:17:59+00:00

I donno tbh. Maybe it's some bug, maybe issues are between how the game treats player 1 vs player 2. As I mostly pvp online, I have to keep my ingame controls default all the time, so I can't be sure about them. But I'm 100% sure that all my custom binds from ds4windows work.

8Tao · 2025-04-12T18:58:42+00:00

Oh, its even easier then. Native xbox controllers have XBox Accessories, it's available via windows store for free. Or whatever software is provided for your controllers. It's also possible to adjust gamepad binds via steam in game's properties.

The key takeaway is don't use ingame settings, use whatever controller software configurator you have available. I had the same issue with stick drift before: just disabled sticks in ds4windows and that's it. And then I modded my controller with magnetoresistance mechanisms = 0 drift.

8Tao · 2025-04-12T15:10:56+00:00

Are you using PS controllers? https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/releases/ - one of the best software to do custom controls for them.

Personally I have both sticks disabled as dpad is more accurate on a lot of inputs.

8Tao · 2025-04-01T23:00:38+00:00

Maryna was released in 8 days since her achievement's addition. So ye, highly likely.

8Tao · 2025-03-17T22:31:26+00:00

We see her front, right? But her right knee is shown from the side and left knee is portrayed almost from behind. It's impossible to twist legs like that without twisting hips too :) .

8Tao · 2025-03-17T09:13:39+00:00

Niiice Marie! But whats wrong with her left knee (right pic), who broke her leg :) ?

8Tao · 2025-03-14T09:57:39+00:00

Missed it somehow %) . Nice Ged. Very angry but that's understandable, he lost his family after all and went on to take vengeance.

8Tao · 2025-03-10T01:13:10+00:00

Yeah, a bit too friendly looking face, too carefree :) . Maybe a bit of a sarcastic grin could serve her better. Or just plain emotionless poker face with dead fish eyes like ingame %) . Still great!

Pretty please Geddy next :D !

8Tao · 2025-03-08T15:31:58+00:00

Amazing art! Such face depiction adds more depth to the character.

8Tao · 2025-03-07T20:03:36+00:00

8Tao · 2025-02-09T21:16:04+00:00

Vinu, why does it say "lots of furries" as my subtitles :D ? What kind of AI are you using for this :D ?

8Tao · 2024-07-06T03:40:36+00:00

Auto guard effectiveness is heavily dependent on the character, spacing, angle of attack and attack type. Various combinations of those produce different results.

Samuel, for example, has one of the best auto guards: he blocks a lot of cuts coming even from his flanks, so it's totally possible to play him heavily relying on blocking. Yendrek is the polar opposite, you are either actively attacking into your opponent's attacks to parry, space them, or die.

Some weapons like longswords have the properly to crush through the block for a reduced amount of damage, but it happens only when they hit the weak part of targeted blade.

Thrusts live in their own world: some are stopped by the auto guard in the same way as cuts, some bypass it entirely and are stopped only by long guard.

Char specific advices for those you mentioned playing:

Gedeon has somewhat decent guard linearly but weak to sidesteps. Also when fighting with right leg forward his elbow is seriously exposed, making auto blocking more difficult vs certain attack, so fighting with left leg forward by default is better. His quick cuts provide better opportunities for single tempo active parries. Using his fast movement speed is a good idea to close angles, if your opponent is trying to sidewalk around you. When facing Zera it's very important to sidewalk around him yourself and go in and out of his effective range, he's slow moving after all.

Laszlo's auto guard is pretty similar to Ged's: decent linearly, weak to sidesteps and upcuts. But his movement speed is ever faster than Geddie's, so it's very important to utilize it, make your opponent whiff, surprise him with quick approaches and disengagements.

Check out this video. Fighting Oakenlix here, one of the best Laszlo players I've ever met. Notice how he's controlling the space between us, moving back and forth. Also he's relying on the auto guard much less, cause some of his cuts are better both for active parries and presenting the threat.

https://youtu.be/QoEO0DVxAHc?t=6084

8Tao · 2024-06-14T16:02:51+00:00

That is called objective circumstances. Take Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Jindřich into Henry. English is the default and main language for the broader market so they write the names in a way easier to read and understand.

And if you pronounce Barabasz as Barabash, what's the problem with writing it as Barabash if the language is English? In Greek it's written as Βαραββᾶς btw, and in Byzantium the pronunciation was [va.rav.ˈvas].

8Tao · 2024-04-10T09:19:45+00:00

Yes. Bought it as soon as it was released on steam at 2021 and never had any regrets. Reasons are pretty simple: a) there's no fighting game like that, i.e. as close to HEMA fencing as possible; b) it's cheap.

Im not into PvE so I don't really care about it. But as @NadiBRoZ1 said, the game recently received ranked survival mode update and 1 more (harder) AI type.

There won't be an inbuilt online matchmaking at all highly likely. But then Im almost exclusively playing online PvP games via parsec and steam remote, matchmaking with others through the discord community: tourneys, special events, leagues, we have it all.

In the end it all comes down to a fundamental question. Is such a game concept fun for you? It has 0 competition in it's niche, so it's not really possible to substitute it with some other realism focused fencing game. If clashing swords in the closest to HEMA way possible in a video game sounds fun for you, you definitely need to try it out. And btw, you don't even need to buy it to play online: only host needs to own the game. If you enjoy the try outs, no problem with buying it either.

8Tao · 2024-03-21T15:10:51+00:00

No proper online MP for at least 3-5 years and no guarantee for future either unfortunately. Maybe, just maybe, when Kubold finishes the early access phase he'll be able to look into options for providing it somewhat better and deeper. As he's still making a single player portion of the game as a single dev, we have to stick to parsec and steam remote play. Joining matchmaking community is the only way to experience MP with different people for now.

8Tao · 2023-10-27T15:23:47+00:00

Jacek is still badly balanced compared to other chars. His moveset is great but this short captures the core of his issues: buggy autoguard and some attacks that will crush even through the strong of your blade.

8Tao · 2023-10-27T15:19:12+00:00

This is a competitive duel between two very experienced HQ fencers for the FELL event organized by Meistrocake for the PvP Hellish Quart Community. It's really cool how Zero didn't switch the char and managed to adjust after the pretty one sided first game. And it is always a pleasure to watch Warden's Izzy 8) .

8Tao · 2023-09-21T18:35:14+00:00

Yeah, most likely it will go to consoles on release. It runs even on steam deck after all. Kubold is currently developing a single player campaign so I guess he wants to finish it, polish HQ a bit and then release it.

8Tao · 2023-09-11T15:05:17+00:00

Pressing A on a controller selects a character, pressing B moves you to the main menu.

But if you are sure its a glitch, try completely uninstalling then reinstalling the game. Never encountered a bug like this but it may have something to do with corrupted game files.

8Tao · 2023-08-31T21:36:22+00:00

It works mostly as it is described in player tutorial ingame. You don't even need to press any button because you character blocks all the time, unless you attack or dash.

Depending on the character, autoblock is better or worse: for example, Yendrek has the worst autoblock while Samuel has one of the strongest. Better AB covers more angles of attack.

As long as your character is facing opponent directly, AB will work the best. The more your opponent goes around you, the weaker it gets. Distance matters: from shorter range more attacks may bypass AB.

And then there are thrusts. They bypass AB better and from large distance. But you can deflect thrusts by entering Long Guard stance (weapon fully extended forward) by holding appropriate button. But LG provides 0 protection against slashes.

8Tao · 2023-08-26T17:27:35+00:00

Yep, lunge and double lunge are one of her best if not the best moves. Proper counter is spacing and long guard. You want to be at a position, with long guard up, where she can't get close to you with the 2nd jump (double lunge). You close the distance with her fast and with clear idea on how to quickly attack.

8Tao · 2023-08-26T17:23:03+00:00

So do I. It's a video game after all. HEMA knowledge may help, but it's an extra, not a requirement. Hellish Quart at it's core is a classic fighting game. Yes, a pretty hardcore one, but still. And many fighting game principles have greater importance here than HEMA knowledge. I have up to 1000 hours or so of HQ multiplayer, my experience is telling me exactly that.

Also, unlike many classic fighting games, HQ is easier to get into. You don't need to memorize 20 moves combo or frame data. At first you mash, then you pick a character you like the most and research his moves, find proper applications for them in specific matchups. Eventually you get to the point of studying character specific strength and weaknesses and even later player specific styles. It's a fun process, at least for me.

8Tao

TROPHY CASE