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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - tips on how to hone your combat abilities and defeat any foe

Your training begins, young padawan

Ollie Toms avatar
Guide by Ollie Toms Guides Editor
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Combat in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can be a little tricky to get to grips with, particularly if you're not coming from games of a similar ilk (Sekiro, anyone?). While you might be expecting to live out your Jedi power fantasy in this game, in reality even a Stormtrooper can end your journey in an instant if you're not careful.

Our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide is a primer for all those struggling to internalise all the different aspects of this punishing combat system. We'll go over Force Powers and lightsaber moves, blockable and unblockable attacks, difficulty levels, enemies, bosses, and much more.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide

If you're unfamiliar with the basic premise of Jedi: Fallen Order, this game is not at all like Star Wars Battlefront. You don't have access to multiple different weapons and classes; all you have access to as Jedi-in-hiding Cal Kestis is your master's old lightsaber, and of course the Force. Your connection to the Force starts off pretty rocky, but as time goes on you'll be able to learn more skills and abilities, and incorporate your expanded skillset into your fighting.

We'll first start off with an overview of the basic moves (attacking, blocking, dodging), before heading into more detail about your expanded skillset and the enemies you will encounter throughout your journey.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - Blockable and Unblockable attacks

Blockable and Unblockable attacks

No matter which of the many enemy types you'll come across throughout the Jedi: Fallen Order campaign, you will find that they all utilise one or both of the following move types: blockable and unblockable attacks.

Blockable attacks are fairly self-explanatory: they are attacks that you can block or deflect with your lightsaber. As you hold block, you will automatically defend against all incoming blockable attacks, whether melee or ranged. But each hit you take will deplete your stamina meter (shown above your Force Meter in the bottom-centre of your screen), and if it is fully depleted then you will stumble and become dazed, making you momentarily vulnerable.

With some practice and good timing, however, you can learn to parry/deflect attacks. If you time your block just as the enemy's attack lands, then you will perfectly parry their attack. Not only will this not deplete your stamina meter, but it will heavily damage the enemy's stamina - and in the case of many weaker enemies, it will open them up to a one-hit-kill follow-up attack.

So, with blockable attacks, you can either block, parry, or simply dodge them; but with unblockable attacks, your options are limited. You'll know when an enemy's attack is unblockable because the enemy will light up red just before the attack. These attacks, predictably, cannot be blocked or parried. Your only option is to dodge them, either by sidestepping, rolling, or simply moving out of range of the attack.

Many of the more difficult enemies will incorporate multiple attacks into one long combo, and they will sometimes switch unexpectedly from blockable to unblockable attacks - so you'll need to stay alert and keep an eye on your enemy at all times to see when they go for an unblockable attack.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - Force Powers

Force Powers & Lightsaber moves

As well as your standard moveset of attacking, blocking, parrying, and dodging, you also gain access to various Force Powers throughout the campaign, which can be extremely powerful when used correctly during your fights. To begin with, you only have access to Force Slow, which will drastically slow a single enemy and allow you to get one or two good hits in; but as time goes on you'll unlock more Force Powers to use. For full details on how to unlock them all, check out our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Force Powers guide.

All this ties into your skill tree, which gives you access to numerous skills which you can spend Skill Points to learn while meditating at Save Points. These skills are divided into three categories: Force, Lightsaber, and Survival. Using the Force skills, you'll be able to upgrade your standard Force Powers; for example, taking the skill Howling Push will upgrade your Force Push so you can send groups of smaller targets flying at once, and even knock down large targets such as Jotaz or Nydak.

But the largest portion of the skill tree is devoted to your Lightsaber moves, and this is where you can really start to expand your combat skillset. From the very beginning you'll gain access to the powerful Overhead Slash, which consumes some of your Force to deliver a slower but more damaging attack; and after that you can upgrade however you see fit, adding dash moves that close distance quickly, or powerful combos that can annihilate smaller enemies and daze larger ones. One of the very best pure Lightsaber skills in my opinion is the Leaping Slash, which allows you to chain together two Overhead Slashes in a row, which can cripple most enemies in terms of both health and stamina.

For full details on the best skills to prioritise upgrading throughout your campaign, be sure to read our in-depth Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order skill tree guide.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - enemies and bosses

Enemies and bosses in Jedi: Fallen Order

By my count, there are 33 regular enemies and 11 boss enemies that you can encounter throughout your travels in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Each enemy will display different behaviours and attack patterns which it is important to try and learn if you want to defeat them without sustaining too much damage.

Many smaller enemies are particularly vulnerable to parries. Almost all Stormtroopers, for example, can be instantly killed after parrying them; however, more powerful Empire foes such as Commanders and Purge Troopers cannot be defeated so easily. When encountering a new enemy type for the first time, it's often a good idea to display caution and restraint; start on the defensive so you can learn what they do, so that you're better prepared for when you meet them later on.

Bosses are generally far more challenging to defeat than regular enemies, and you'll know them by the large boss health bar that appears at the top of the screen whenever you encounter one. Some boss fights are required to complete if you want to progress through the campaign, while others are optional and must be sought out on their respective planets. For full details on the various bosses, their locations, and how to defeat each of them, look no further than our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order bosses guide.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - Stim Canister Upgrades

Come back when you're stronger

This of course depends entirely on how stubborn a player you are in these sorts of games, but Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is definitely a game that gives you every opportunity to turn away from a challenging encounter, and return later once you're more powerful.

How do you become more powerful? Probably the main method is by gaining more XP and Skill Points so you can learn more skills, as mentioned above. But that's not the only thing you can do to become more powerful: scattered across the various regions of Jedi: Fallen Order are numerous collectibles which will directly increase your power in some way. Collecting three Life Essences will permanently increase your maximum Health, while collecting three Force Essences will do the same to your Force.

Arguably the most useful tool if you're struggling, however, is to go off in search of Stim Canister upgrades for BD-1. These Stim Canisters are how you heal during fights, but you only have a limited number of them (two, to start off with). But by following our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Stim locations guide, you'll waste no time in upping this number all the way up to 10, giving you plenty of heals to fall back on during a difficult encounter.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide - Grandmaster

Choosing the right difficulty level for you

The final thing to bear in mind is that you can change the difficulty level of your playthrough at any time (except during combat). These difficulty levels don't change the amount of damage you deal to enemies, but they drastically alter the damage enemies deal you, as well as each enemy's overall aggressiveness.

Setting the difficulty level to Story Mode, for example, will result in many enemies having periods of downtime where they just do nothing, allowing you to whale away at them. On Grandmaster difficulty, however, there is no such downtime, and a single blunder or mistimed dodge will often result in your immediate death.

Here's what I'd recommend for players wondering which difficulty level to pick:

  • If you're a veteran of Sekiro and/or Soulslikes, then you should probably start with either Jedi Master or (if you're patient and like a good challenge) Grandmaster difficulty level.
  • If you're unfamiliar with this kind of combat in games, then you should probably begin on Jedi Knight and push it up to Jedi Master if you want a bit more of a challenge.
  • If you don't play many games or you're just in it for the story, then Story Mode is your best bet.

As a Sekiro veteran I played through the game on Jedi Master for my first playthrough, before switching it up to Grandmaster for my second playthrough. What I noticed is that even on Jedi Master, if you're not careful you can quickly die to groups of enemies or to single stronger foes. The leap from Jedi Master to Grandmaster is not actually as large as the leap from Jedi Knight to Jedi Master. But again, the key thing to remember is that you can change the difficulty at any time throughout the campaign, and the most important thing is to play at the level which is most fun for you.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order combat guide

And that's everything we've got for now for combat in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - but we've got plenty more to talk about when it comes to Fallen Order! Check out one of the articles below for in-depth explanations, tips, and walkthroughs for other aspects of this expansive Star Wars experience.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order bosses:

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