Sword Core

“

Empowers his melee and sword abilities, and gives access to new sword attacks. — Description

”

The Sword Core is a Titan Core Ability set to appear in Titanfall 2. It is used by the class Ronin.

The Sword Core empowers Ronin's melee and sword abilities for the next 12 seconds. While active, the Leadwall will be replaced with an empowered sword, which deals extremely high damage and has infinite uses while the core is active. This amped sword acts exactly like the normal Broadsword, except for the increased damage, though it also has a 5% longer cooldown between swings.

The effects of Sword Core include:

• The recharge speed of your titan's boosts will be increased massively increased. They are also instantly recharged.
• Sword Block's damage resistance increases from 70% to 85%.
• Arc Wave will gain increased damage, dealing 1,500 to Titans (compared to the normal 1,000), and deals enough damage to always kill an enemy Pilot.
• Ronin's melee attacks will deal 2,200 damage each (about triple its normal damage). For context, a Ronin or Northstar with full health have 7,500 health (10,000 health if the doomed state is accounted for).

Equipping the Highlander Kit will increase the duration of your Sword Core by 8 seconds anytime you get a Titan Kill. Using this in Frontier Defense will allow you to have a core for almost the whole round, as Titan kills are relatively easy to get.

Strategies

As tempting as it may be to dash in and slice like crazy, it is often better to be as patient as possible. Remember, using Sword Block while using Sword Core reduces damage by a whopping 85%, effectively making Ronin impossible to kill. As such, Sword Core is often best used to block a huge amount of damage, then only get in a couple swings while the opponent is reloading or their abilities are on cooldown. Of course, if they don't notice you, are running away, or are reloading, then it's best to unleash your inner weeb and go nuts. However, only getting in 2-3 swings per core is already more damage than most other titan cores can manage. Just remember that your life is probably more important than getting in an extra one or two swings.

While Doomed, Sword Core becomes a massively liability, as any titan can instantly kill you with a melee attack. As such, it may be better to make liberal use of Sword Block and run away, or just eject.

Due to a strange mechanic called melee pinning, if a Titan hits another Titan with their melee, the player who got hit first will have their melee attack be completely cancelled. While this can be beneficial for Ronin, it is often used by veteran players to constantly cancel Ronin's swings, which is made somewhat easy due to Ronin having a slightly longer melee attack animation than other Titans. To avoid this, move unpredictably and try to hit the enemy at random times, rather than at the swinging as fast as possible. Also, you can begin your swing right as the enemy titan hits the Ronin, as this will result in you being able to damage them while their swing is winding down.

Overcore is extremely effective while playing as Ronin, as it charges Sword Core faster. This means that they'll have more health when they activate Sword Core, allowing them to use it more effectively.

Sword Core takes a second or so to activate. This means that, if the Ronin is using Sword Block, the ability will be canceled until the Sword Core is activating. This makes activating Sword Core while taking damage very risky, so it can be better to activate it behind cover, mid Phase Dash, or while the enemy is reloading.

Bugs

Ronin's Sword during Sword Core is bugged, leading to the melee attack phasing right through the enemy, dealing no damage. This is caused by pressing or holding the melee button while a previous animation is playing. This includes Arc Wave, Sword Block, the animation that plays after starting Sword Core, or even other melee attacks. To avoid this bug, wait until after any previous animation finishes before pressing melee. This bug appears to happen more often when the user holds the melee button down, rather than spamming said button, but it can happen either way.

Trivia

• While active, the Ronin will have a signature yellow glow around itself visible even while phasing.
• You cannot Execute while using Sword Core. A Titan's Doomed health bar has 2,500 health, so be aware that hitting a freshly Doomed Titan during Sword Core cannot kill them.
• Knockback to Titans is normally calculated with damage dealt. So, if Ronin's Sword during Sword Core dealt the full knockback that 2,200 damage would normally deal, it would launch enemy Titans a hilariously far distance away from Ronin after each swing. Thus, Sword Core has a hidden mechanic that reduces its knockback by 80%, enough so that the Broadsword's knockback is equal to the normal melee knockback for every other Titan. Ronin's normal broadsword has 22% less knockback for the same reason.

References

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCJudXfWn0