Unlike other games where multiple players are thrown together into the same game for co-op to pool firepower, Hammerwatch's co-op doesn't necessarily get easier with more players!
The main reason is that all players share lives (and health with HP Pool turned on!). There are many ways in which players can help each other out and ways in which players can royally screw each other up, so pay attention! By far, the greatest cause of deaths in co-op is sheer carelessness and impatience.
If you see any other frequent acts of stupidity in a dungeon that bear being called out, add yours. After all, don't you want to at least get past that first boss in co-op?
1: THERE IS NO FRAG COUNTER OR SCORE. IT'S NOT ABOUT GETTING FRAGS. STOP TRYING TO BE THE TOP FRAGMASTER. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO BE A FRAGMASTER WITHOUT THE 'R'.Repeat after me: Your top priority in Hammerwatch co-op is
preserving your HP and LIVES!2: Don't play co-op thinking that you can just heal up every wound by eating up every scrap of food in sight.Mistakes happen. Even the best dodgers get hit from time to time. The food is there to patch up those mistakes but it's in short supply. All it takes is one Warlock with an identity crisis thinking he's a paladin to put the whole team into starvation.
3: Leave tasks that are difficult for you for others to deal with.No, it's not shirking responsibility. Remember your top priority:
co-op is about preserving your HP and LIVES!If you're a paladin with a stock shield, you do NOT go in trying to duke it out with a horde spreadfire maggots. You're just donating YOUR TEAM'S lives to the enemies. Do that in solo, not co-op.
If you don't know how to dance with a tower flower and you're not a ranger, then let a ranger handle it from afar and FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO or let someone who DOES know how to deal with tower flowers.
If you're frustrated that you can't fight tower-flowers without getting spiked a bazillion times, then play solo and PRACTICE.
3a: Read the situation. If you're in a situation where you cannot fight an enemy without taking damage, then get out of that situation. Leave it for someone who can, or dodge and lure the enemy into a situation that is favourable for you and your team.
4: LEARN HOW TO AND WHEN TO KITE THE ENEMY.Kiting is good for getting the most out of every sword swing, every fireball, every chainbolt and arrow. It's about efficiency.
Kiting means running around, drawing aggro so that they chase after you, then running around the mob to get them into a tight mass so they can be easily dispatch with the ranger's penetrating arrows, dashed through with the paladin's special, hit with a warlock's chainbolt or simply blown to ashen bits by a wizard's fireballs and fire breath.
4a: Kiting works when you have a single player who is good at dodging in a fairly wide space to manoeuvre.
4b: However, if multiple people try to kite, there's a danger that two or more people will get sandwiched between the mobs they were kiting.
4c: If you see some guy kiting a mass of enemies, DON'T INTERFERE. Stay back. Don't pull aggro. Instead, wait by the entrance to the room.
4d: If YOU'RE the guy doing the kiting, then DON'T kite more enemies than you can handle. This means that a warlock's chainbolt can only strike a certain number of enemies before fizzling, and his stock mana pool is only good for about 3 blasts before he's swinging away with his beany little poison dagger. However, having the rest of the team wait by the entrance to the room means that you can bail towards them and let them help you eradicate the rest of the mob.
4e: Kiting is also good for drawing enemies from one area that is disadvantageous to fight in (such as an area with a Tower Flower) into another area that IS advantageous to fight in (a choke point).
5: Draw fire AWAY from other players, not TOWARDS THEM!Nothing sucks more than when four imbeciles decide to play ring-around-the-rosy with a mob of maggots and the maggots start shooting slime in every direction, turning a game of Hammerwatch into Touhou. Whenever enemies shoot at you, those shots (if you dodge them) will keep on going whichever way they were fired. If you have friends behind you while you're drawing fire, you are a LOUSY FRIEND. Enemies will always go after the CLOSEST player to them. Thus, if you are planning on drawing aggro from ranged foes, make sure you draw fire either to the sides or away from your friends. Conversely, if you see some idiot running in haphazard circles around a mob of ranged enemies, don't get drawn into his idiotic fray.
In addition, Maggots (and other enemies that sport a missile attack)
will only chase after players when they are not in firing range or have a clear line of sight. If you're trying to get them to bunch up or trying to draw them away to an easier location, get out of their range and/or sight!
6: Don't duke it out. Seriously.If you're trading hits with enemies, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. Nearly all damage in Hammerwatch is avoidable if you just dodge away before the enemy can swing at you. Remember to preserve your health and lives! There's nothing worse than seeing a Warlock performing his best impression of a Paladin. Even Paladins cannot block enemy melee attacks and certain projectile attacks. If you try to spam the attack button in the hopes that the enemy's health gives out before he can take a swing at your own, then you are guaranteed to lose some of those gambits, and guaranteed to lose some of your health. I guess I said that damage was avoidable, BUT NOT IF YOU'RE AN IDIOT.
For example, tough fuzzy beetles, spreadfire maggots and tower flowers are enemies that you will probably have to joust with. They don't go down quickly or easily and it may just take several passes (especially with the last two). Trying to rush their demise hastens your own.
7: Hammerwatch is a castle full of traps. Treat it as such.Be wary of all strange buttons, floor tiles, sigils, areas with bloodstains and holes in the wall or floor. If you must experiment, be prepared to run the hell out of there.
I can't count the number of times some idiot got themselves bombed to smithereens the first time they encountered a bombination lock.
Don't be caught staring at your map (or your navel) when entering a new area. I've seen wizards dash in to pick up loot from crates that I broke open just to die to a crate-bomb within 10 seconds of starting the game.
Don't stop moving when entering a new area, even to perform combat. Kite things back to known areas and fight them there. You never know when some Tower Flower is going to stab you because you decided to rush up to an enemy generator and duke it out.
When in doubt, let someone ELSE go first.
If everyone is observant, thoughtful and patient,
then your team will be rewarded with a generous surplus of lives,
plenty of food to eat, treasures to plunder and monsters to battle.
