Guide to Combat

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"Assistant (As Captain) robusted the Captain with a mechanical toolbox!"

Also known as Robust/Robusting, jargon for engaging in the combat system. It's an ironic description. The SS13 Combat System is pretty quirky and limiting.

Intents

Your intent specifies what you want to do when you click on another player/mob. You can switch between these by click on the segments of on your HUD, or by using CTRL+Q or CTRL+E.

• Help - The help intent is the default intent. You'll shake people or yourself awake if you have no items, or perform CPR on them if they're suffocating and both have no helmets or masks on. You'll still hit people with most items if you're holding one though. You also pass through other people when moving through them. Shortcut for Help intent is 1 on Hotkey mode.
• Disarm - A defensive intent. You'll attempt to disarm someone of their weapon or push them over for a very short while. This has a chance of failing, so repeated clicking may be necessary. People cannot run past you with this intent. Shortcut for Disarm intent is 2 on Hotkey mode.
• Grab - You'll grab someone passively at first, as shown by . Moving will be slowed if you try to drag them around, so for transport, pulling is much faster. Clicking on them again will grab them aggressively, shown by . This will allow you to put them on a table to make them lie down, it will also allow you to throw people around. After a short cool down, clicking again will grab them by the neck. After yet another cooldown, you can then click on the kill icon on your HUD once to start strangling them. The icon will start flashing, indicating you have started to strangle them. People whilst being strangled are fairly defenceless, so without outside intervention there's not much they can do. People cannot run past you with this intent. You can let go of someone at any time by using the drop button. Shortcut for Grab intent is 3 on Hotkey mode.
• Harm - This intent does NOT make you do more damage with melee weapons. If you have a baton (Ie, stun baton, telescoptic baton) however, you'll beat your target (causing damage) in addition to stunning them. With an empty hand you'll punch people for around 5 brute damage, and have a small chance to weaken people, which will stun them for quite a while. You'll also fire your weapons at point-blank, dealing much more damage. People cannot run past you with this intent. Shortcut for Harm intent is 4 on Hotkey mode.

Melee vs Ranged

• Throwing some items to the target will deal damage, but you need to pick up the weapon once you've thrown it. Some weapons will also stick to the target.
• Other ranged weapons such as firearms have a slight chance to miss, but you can fire at at a range in which melee users can't attack. But certain items and abilities can block or even deflect the projectile that is fired from a firearm.

Ranged - Energy vs Ballistic

• There are two kinds of firearms in this game, Energy weapons (Such as Laser Guns) that can deal Burn damage and Ballistic weapons (Such as the Riot Shotgun) that can deal brute damage. Choose the weapon needed for the current situation.
• Unlike Ballistic weapons, Energy weapons can penetrate through glass, making it effective against targets taking cover on glass.
• But most Energy weapons require a charger to charge the weapon's internal cell, which is not flexible at some situations. Some energy weapons have an internal self-recharging cell, allowing its cell to recharge after some time.
• Ballistic weapons on the other hand can be reloaded by inserting its respective clip/shell to the weapon, which is easy to perform and fast to reload, but they have different reloading styles.

Attacking

• Aim for the head. Knock outs when aiming for the head last longer.
• If they have a helmet, aim for the chest. If they have body armor too, aim for the legs or arms.
• Click repeatedly, but don't spam. Try to make your clicks precise, like firing a semi-automatic rifle.
• Any object is usually better than your fists. Fire extinguishers especially.
• Screwdrivers and forks have a special blinding attack when aiming for the eyes, but it doesn't work if their face is covered.
• Harm intent is probably your best bet, however making an opening move with disarm to get you a few seconds of free attacks will make the difference in an even matchup, and potentially end the combat early if you brought a strong weapon.

Defending

• Run away.
• If they're too close, disarm, then run away.
• If you can't run, aim for the head to get a knock out and then run away.
• If they give chase, throw objects at them. Some objects, such as metal rods or floor tiles do extra damage when thrown.
• Stun them, or otherwise attempt to disable them.
• While running, click doors that you can open to try to trick them, making them think you ran a different way.
• Hiding in lockers sometimes works. If they fell for the point above, just find a locker in a corner and most people miss it.
• Wear armor that is weak to the opponent's weapon. If they're using a gun, wear a bulletproof vest.

The Way of The Robust

Many spacemen dismiss themselves as "unrobust" and "weak" And, by all means, that's true, for you're unrobust when you believe you're unrobust with no way to improve, the ambition and cunning to improve, is robustness in its own right, and this may just help you.

• You know what a fair fight is? The one in which you a 50% chance of being thrown off an external airlock. Avoid fair fights, Things that would be considered as "advantages" that would make a fight "unfair" -to your side or the opposing party- shall be discussed below.
• You know what's more robust than one space man? two space men, but hey, what's even stronger? well, another member, safety is always in numbers, if you don't defeat your enemy, revel as he isn't able to constrict all of you, drag each other when you've lost the battle, or gank your opponent to submission. By all means possible, get numbers, changelings working together, security officers patrolling together. all double their combat capabilities.
• ENLARGE your game screen, resize it to be bigger, you want your enemies sprites LARGE that you can click them easier, also, your monitor may be able to support virtual resolutions or something, which may also help.
• Click and do not get Clicked, Combat in one sentence, you get clicked? you lost. It's here it must be said, moving randomly, and moving quickly, are all very strong traits to have, AVOID Duffel bags at all costs, they carry a motion debuff that's extremely oppressing, Eat and stay full, if possible, utilize chemicals like Hydrocodone, which destroy motion penalties incurred from damage.
• Play more, Fight more. It's a truth, that as of the date this is being written, it's second-nature to call people on Medium RP-High RP servers "Unrobust" but, why? Well, pretty straight-forward: Not much fights happen. You just can't engage in fights daily... HERE. Did you try Light RP servers? Their fights are way more eventful, with little RP needed to engage a non round-ending fist/toolbox fight, I suggest playing on other servers anyways, as it enriches your SS13 Experience overall. the diversity in this game is too large to not be explored. REMEMBER: READ THE RULES OF SERVERS YOU PLAY IN. this isn't an invitation to grief other servers, grief is not tolerated anywhere, read server rules. Always.
• Ranged Fighting- Is generally actually LESS fatal than melee fighting, the reason is: accuracy, when in range, it's easier to flee when shot at with lethal fire, it's also easier to dodge Disabler shots, but shooting other spacemen is hard, so you'd say, but in a nutshell, you "can" get good at it, to a degree, if you follow some of these tips:

  * Lead your shots- If your opponent isn't static, ie, not moving, Do not shoot where he is, shoot in his general direction, UNLESS he just arrived to the point you're clicking him at, remember that projectile travelling time plays a factor, as a rule of thumb, unless very close to each other, your opponent can move one tile before being hit when you fire.
  * The Balance of Moving and shooting - Is hard to master, when you stay and shoot, you'll have more chances of hitting your opponent, but same goes for him, remember that if you both stay in front of each other counts as a type of Fair fighting, And you know from the first point that you shouldn't take part in this, but the question is: "I can't shoot while moving, but I'll get shot if I stay at one place, what do?" Well, you just take the gambit, you won't get better from being afraid of taking the risk anyways, and shooting and moving is a form of robustness, remember? and how would you acquire this without doing it a lot? Be bold.
  * Don't panic- A shot didn't land? Well, shooting another in the exact same second without changing your mouse cursor position? won't land either, Think of this: When would you be more likely to land the hit? When you've thought through your opponent's movement, When you shoot in the same moment, you're just more likely to miss, if you miss a shot, re-think the situation, and begin plotting another shot, Spraying and praying? doesn't work when the ammo in the game is generally constricting.
  * Shoot Vertical and Horizontal- Self  Explanatory, Diagonal hits don't always... hit, they require what I've said above, your opponent is moving, and you'll have to change where you're pointing, but when shooting horizontal, it's just better, I also suggest that, when you get on the same tile column or row, you immediately shoot, giving your opponent to time to dodge such shot, Very robust when used.

• Know your weapons- straight forward, do you know the conditions in which a pepper spray downs your opponent? if not or if you're incorrect, you just don't use the pepper spray, you don't know how many shots are in a certain type of Energy gun? You try it before you use it, how quickly does an Advanced Energy Gun take to refill? you'd do well to know before using it... just saying... how much does a chainsaw deal in damage? Etc. etc. that examples are endless as weapons are, just know what you're using and this is a net edge if your opponent doesn't know his weapon.
• Stealth: 100- Crazy Idea: don't throw your grenades, activate it, put it in a spare box in your backpack (or Satchel if you're taking this section seriously) then drop the box, will most of the time get people who didn't see it before, nice, right? Well, that's how SS13 combat works, getting the jump on someone IS winning, Sleepy pens are one thing that can down anyone who's not an IPC, if your opponent is moving towards you and disarming you, move back and drop a slippery item, that's why clowns are robust, you just don't expect them to down you THIS easily, remember this: If your opponent doesn't know he's your opponent... he's going down easily, undercover cops have HUGE potential.
• Fight or Flight, let both be available, minimize the chances of you losing, but even more important, minimize the chances of losing AND not being able to leave, fights in places where you don't have access to? no. Fighting with a vampire who can stun you from a distance AND negate a stun immediately WITHOUT any numerical advantage? Hell no.
• Cycle intents- Very robust if you get this going, in hotkey mode you have buttons for intents, the numbers (not the numpad, though) from 1-4 correspond to intents, cycle between them and remember this

  * Help intent is a must when a group, you don't want to push your mates away, do you?
  * Disarm intent is very robust, provided you have melee combat experience, seldom would anyone survive this, the greatest of officers got disarmed by assistants.
  * Grab intent... very peculiar, but there is one thing, you can get an instant aggressive grab in hotkey mode if you're fast enough to click your opponent and press the activation key (Either Z or Y) from here, you have good options, clicking a table applies a horrendous stun, Very good, tabling is generally regarded as one of the more robust unarmed moves that exist. OR you could throw them at another opponent, or literally anyone, this applies a short stun to both, enough to flee the battle, but also enough to take what they were holding in their hands, or generally having a second to think, look at the surroundings, and remember, most thing you can hold, deal more damage higher than your hand does.
  * Harm intent... Only useful when you've downed your enemy and have no weapon, Harmbatoning, but if doesn't increase damage dealt, it does block enemies paths, but then I'd suggest you take disarm intent instead, and then put your weapon (Quick Equip, E in hotkey mode) to put your weapon anywhere possible, and then engage in a "Fair" fight in disarm intent, down your opponent, they get your weapon back on and deal some damage.

• Stun first- Winners aren't the ones who dealt the most damage, nor are they the ones who took the least damage, if you're cuffed and someone is grabbing you, you're as good as dead, cuffing someone is almost always better than hitting them (Exceptions when your weapon STUNS while it hits, or has very high damage it drops people down from pain, like a chainsaw, and double-bladed energy sword, and the notorious .357 revolvers, Crippling them in the first shot, critting and dropping them on the second, and the third is just mercy at that point) But you get the point, your opponent is easier to beat down when he's ... down, you know what's better by this correct logic? Preventing your opponent from getting up or putting a fight. Cuffs? A godsend, just make sure your stun is long enough before cuffing the opponent, you know stun times of things.... right?
• Knowing the time- A very little detail, but very good, like the aforementioned point, do you know the time your opponent will be down in? the wiki lacks info on stun times (At the moment) So, the only way is by trial and error, a hard way with plenty of fallibilities. but.. it works.

- HOTKEY MODE IS A MUST, enable it by pressing the " Tab " Key, and look the guides to control, as they're crucial, knowing what to do is one thing, and doing it is entirely another thing, mainly speed is the factor here, and Hotkey mode helps with this.

• The Ethics of Robustness- There is a moral code That's unknown by us lesser beings, but it's believed robust entities have a certain code

  * AFK players are the same as SSD players, maybe server rules don't always agree on this, but attacking someone who's AFK... is an evil act, and robust beings, are cunning, but by no means dishonorable.
  * Kill only when needed, but then don't prevent cloning, allowing lesser beings to play is just in itself.
  * Not all of the moral code is known, but mortals are free to ponder what may it contain. 

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Expect to be the one to die.