Slash Shot (SS): sword and shotgun in one motion

The Slash Shot (SS) is the bridge between sword and gun: you slash, switch to the shotgun mid-animation, and the shot fires — all inside a single jump. Done well, your opponent takes the slash and the shot almost together.

It is the technique that defines the duel meta, and the base of nearly everything that follows (Half Step, Flash Step, RSS).

The sequence

Why the jump is mandatory

It is not decoration. It is mechanics:

• On the ground, a slash blocks weapon switching until the whole animation finishes — strike and recovery. There is no switch cancel. The only ground cancel is the block, and that is the Butterfly.
• In the air, the slash uses a different state that does not block switching. It goes through immediately.

That is why anyone trying a Slash Shot standing still never gets it: it is not bad timing, it is impossible.

One detail almost nobody documents: the game only counts a slash as “aerial” if you are rising or high enough. There is a band of height — airborne but already falling — where the click is simply discarded. That is the real explanation for “sometimes the SS doesn’t come out”. Start the sequence on the way up.

Why the shot fires on its own

Here is the mistake that eats the most beginner shots: trying to time a second click.

While the shotgun is being drawn, the game refuses to fire. If you click during that window, the click is swallowed. But the firing routine runs every frame and only asks whether the button is held — so if you hold it, the shot fires by itself on the first frame it is allowed.

Don’t try to time the shot. Hold attack and let the game fire it.

One caveat about “holding”: you must press after you are already in the air. The click has a buffer of roughly 0.4s — if you were already holding the button before jumping, the buffer expires and the slash never comes out. The right order is: jump, then press and don’t release.

Holding attack is safe in the air. On the ground, holding charges a Massive Strike and locks you in place — so release the button on landing if you still have the sword out.

Timing

• Fast: jump → dash → slash → switch. Practically glued together. Anyone “waiting to see” is doing it wrong.
• Waiting: only the shot, and that wait is not yours — it is the game’s.
• Switch back to the sword the instant you touch the ground. It is the most actionable timing tip about SS in existence, and it rarely appears in guides.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Trying it on the ground	Space is mandatory and comes first
Hitting the weapon key during the dash	Dash → slash → switch, always in that order. The input isn’t lost, but you lose the cancel
Double-clicking quickly	The second click lands in the draw window and gets swallowed. Hold
Starting while already falling	The click is discarded. Fire the sequence on the way up
Always dashing forward	Predictable, and you fly straight past the enemy. Use sides and diagonals
Switching with Q/E or the wheel	Use direct slots (1/2/3). Cyclic switching is locked during the draw
Forgetting to switch back to the sword	You lose the fast dash and the slash that cancels it
Slashing head-on into a blocker	You freeze. Slash while backing away, use a flip, or just shoot
Chaining with the same shotgun	Fire delay is per weapon and doesn’t reset on switch. Alternate 2 ↔ 3

And an honest warning: your aim will get worse when you start integrating the SS. Everyone goes through it. The way out is not correcting with the mouse mid-animation — it is learning to align the dash with the target, so the gun comes out already pointed.

How to train

1. Set your binds first. Changing them later costs weeks of muscle memory.
2. Pure dash in all four directions, then jump dash.
3. Light Step (jump → dash → slash → dash). This is the key drill: it is the SS cancel isolated, without the shot. If Light Step comes out clean, SS comes easy.
4. Butterfly, which teaches aerial slash timing in a context where mistakes are cheap.
5. SS against a wall, hundreds of reps. Diagnostic: if there is an audible gap between slash and shot, you are clicking twice instead of holding.
6. SS on a stationary target. Classic error here: dashing too far and having the slash miss entirely.
7. Reload Shot, then RSS (which is SS with a reload at the end).
8. Half Step, adding a second dash after the switch — and varying when you do that dash, which is what makes you unpredictable.

Expect your execution to drop by half in your first real matches. That is normal and it passes.

If it feels broken, it’s probably not you

There are consistent reports of inputs not registering since the relaunch — including players saying “SS and BF feel delayed by a second or two”. The sequence has not changed. Check the status page and the settings guide.

What comes next

The direct complement to SS is the Reload Shot: it unlocks weapon switching earlier and is what allows two shots in a single jump.

The community video guide demonstrates the Slash Shot in slow motion. For the full technique map, see K-Style from zero.