Combat and Shouting in Polylithic

Polylithic combat is third-person and honest about your place on the food chain. 1.0 added a dedicated shout, new spear, blade, and javelin animations, faster javelins, clubs, a wooden axe, a mallet line, obsidian toys, and a Mammoth boss that is not the same as poking a peaceful herd animal. It also added a mean bison that the studio described, with scientific precision, as able to kick you in the nuts. This page is how not to donate a save to that sentence.

If you still lack a bed, stop. Getting started first. Combat without a save is a trailer for the refund button. If you came here for animal-by-animal prey tables, stay close to how to hunt and use this page for the verbs: shout, lock-on, stamina, weapons.

Shouting is a weapon with manners

1.0 added shouting. It costs stamina and deals a small amount of damage. The patch note joke is that nothing says diplomacy like yelling. Hold the dedicated yell to scare wildlife, wake tribe members, and cause problems. It is not a mammoth deleter. It is a spacing tool. Empty your stamina bar on a theatrical scream and you will not have a roll when the sabertooth arrives.

Orders and animations now share a cleaner menu. 1.0 merged the old F and G clusters so you are not hunting two radials during a pull. Crouch or aim and conversations end after a short delay, which is how you stop chatting while a boar lines up. Emotes around the campfire are for the other night, the one without a raid.

Polylithic gameplay trailer with developer commentary

Weapons, stamina, and why arrows beat pride

Clubs combo now, and that combo was specifically fixed. Wooden axes and mallets are tools that also hit. Obsidian exists in campaign in greater amounts after 1.0. Javelins fly faster. Weapon attacks were balanced to cost less stamina and to deal more sensible damage against animals. None of that makes a melee bison plan smart.

Lock on to a nearby animal. Dodge. Use cliffs when the studio itself told players to try bows, javelins, or axes from high ground against mammoths. Recover thrown rocks and spent projectiles; the world lets you pick them up. A missing javelin is stalk you already paid for. The weapons page names the kit. How to craft gets it into your hands. This page tells you not to throw the last spear into fog.

Controller users got a 1.0.0.25 fix so attack direction can change mid-swing. If your pad still feels glued, retune look speed before you blame the bison. Friendly fire no longer creates aggro the way it used to, which is how a co-op arrow through a friend stops becoming a second raid.

Bosses, mean bison, and sabertooths

The new Mammoth boss is a 1.0 encounter, not the old “peaceful until poked” herd dummy. Treat it like a planned hunt with spare people, spare food, and a hut save. Carcasses that will not harvest are still a launch-week report; save, relog, then check how to complete the story if the tick is the real goal.

Sabertooth replaced Smilodon labeling, gained health, and learned better idles. Bears move with improved animations and 1.0.0.25 reduced how many of them wander the campaign. That is not the same as safe. Boars still charge straight. Wolves still pair up. The new bison is a different personality from the old group-agro lesson, and both will ruin an underfed hunter.

Assistants, pets, and the escort lie

You can take up to two assistants. Companions do not count toward that cap. Assistants and companions now attack what you attack or what attacks you. Heel, Hunt, Idle, and Follow are real commands. Followers on escort still forget how to be useful in launch reviews. Park people, start the pull yourself, and let them act like guards instead of bodyguards. More on that disappointment lives in villagers and taming.

Enemy humans are not wildlife. They wear random clothes, sit in encampments, and will not respect your kite circle. Scout with enemy tribes before you shout a greeting.

Win the fight you chose. Leave the fight that stacked three species on one hill. Eat after, because hunger and body will invoice the sprint you just spent.