Controls

Dodge and Block use up stamina, and so does every swing. How stamina works is under Health, stamina and dodging. Dodging also puts out fire. Throw sends what you are holding flying, and Throwing has the rest. Interact picks things up, and heavy weapons slow you down while you hold them. What a swing can do besides damage is under What a hit can do.

Press Execute next to an opponent who is down and you finish them off. The Executions section lists them all.

Playing the Lion, you can also pose for the crowd. Kill an opponent while the crowd is wild and the Execute button reads Pose for 3 seconds. Press it to strike a pose, and you can only do that once for each opponent. What a pose gives you depends on the Lion’s level. At level I it gives your allies a damage and speed boost, at level II the crowd throws coins and at level III it throws weapons. Every beast also poses by itself when a level ends, except on the last day.

You can change every arena control on this page in the settings. The Controls screen has a list for the keyboard and one for the gamepad. Pick a control, then press the key or button you want instead. The menu controls at the end of the page cannot be changed. The game saves your changes and loads them again the next time you play.

Up to four players can play on one machine, tied together by the chain. A second player joins in the lobby by pressing any button on their own controller or on the keyboard. That controller or keyboard then belongs to them, and one can never be shared by two players. If a player’s controller is lost, they drop out of the lobby. During a fight the game pauses instead.