Feure's Knife Combat Guide for Battlefield 2142

Firstly let me open by saying that although this guide is for Battlefield 2142, you will find many of the tactics and actions explained are relevant to knife combat on other games in the Battlefield series.

Battlefield 2142 is a game where it is essential that you have at least a basic understanding of the mechanics of knife combat due to the fact that there are so many associated awards and benefits that can be obtained. I have written this guide primarily with knife only servers in mind but the content below will also aid you in developing good methods of assaulting more heavily armed targets with a knife.

Let me begin by telling you that accuracy is everything. The large majority of knife attacks fail because the target is not central to the attackers screen. The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to actually imagine you have a crosshair in the centre of your screen and only to attack when the target is within this crosshair. You will find immediately that the accuracy of your strikes has increased. Although this seems like a basic and seemingly obvious thing to do, many people do not think to centre their target as many other popular first person shooters such as counterstrike rely on a different knife system where the range of the weapon is a horizontal arc in front of the player rather than a single striking point.

Timing is the next most important aspect to knife combat and is often overlooked. You should bear in mind that the actual attack is not unleashed at the same time as you click your mouse, and takes place about a third of the second afterwards. (Which allows for some excellent tactical manoeuvers which I will explain later in the guide) You should aim for the attack to be landed when you are about the length of a Mitchell Anti-Vehicle rifle away from your enemy. (Arms length) When attacking an immobile, prone or crouched target, so long as you are in reasonably close proximity you can pretty much forget about timing and put all your concentration into accuracy and centring the target on your screen.

Finally before moving on to tactical manoeuvers I'll remind you that the Way you Move in reaction to the enemy's movement is very important. If a foe is running at you at full speed is it really in your best interests to run directly at them? Or would you be better off taking a lower crouching stance and using your weapon to quickly attack his lower body as he retargets himslelf? If a target remains still in the same position waiting for you to move forward is it really in your best interests to dive towards them, or are you just playing into their hands?

I will now discuss more advanced actions which will allow you to surprise and outflank your opponents. Using several of these tactics combined I have on many occasions been able to take out seemingly large groups of between three and six enemies alone.

The first action I will explain is quite possibly my favourite and most useful for confronting a directly charging target. In a sense this is an exploitation of the fact the actual damage from an attack occurs fractionally after the command for the attack. As you will know if you have played the game any amount of time, it is impossible to use any kind of weapon or device while sprinting, however if timed correctly it is possible to continue sprinting whilst attacking with the knife. This requires you to whilst sprinting release the sprint key for a fractional amount of time, click the left mouse button and resume sprinting in single smooth action which should happen so quickly the sprint movement is uninterrupted. Doing this will allow you to assault targets at a much greater speed than anticipated distorting their timing and allowing you to attack before they know what's hit them. This tactic can also be used from a stationary position by simply attacking and immediately engaging into a sprint.

This next action is one that I personally do not often use but many of my fellow players insist that it is extremely effective. When engaging a target in a head-on head attack quickly before striking, crouch and aim upwards towards your opponent's chest. Usually if performed correctly the opponents attack will miss and go just over your head.