NARAKA: BLADEPOINT: Complete Guide

A practical guide to NARAKA: BLADEPOINT's melee-first battle royale: the combat triangle, movement, weapons, heroes, Souljades, and how to climb ranked without dying to the first third-party.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Season 6.0 "Sandforge" launch (September 3, 2026 update) and the September 16, 2026 update. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Learn the combat triangle before anything else. Horizontal attacks, Focus (charged) attacks, and Counters beat each other in a loop. Every fight in the game is built on reading which one your opponent is about to throw.
Blue glow means Focus attack, so Counter it. A charged attack that glows blue is the cue to press your counter/parry. Countering a Focus attack disarms or staggers the attacker and opens a big punish window.
Don't counter-spam. Horizontal attacks beat Counters, so a player who fishes for parries all day just gets hit.
The grappling hook is movement, not only an attack. Use it to cross gaps, get out of bad fights, and gain height. Movement wins more fights than combos do early on.
Pick one hero and one melee weapon and stay with them. Katana or Longsword is a good first melee pick. Add a ranged weapon (bow, repeating crossbow, or musket) for finishing and pressure.
Loot fast, then armor up. Armor rarity matters a lot. Grab armor, Soul Jades, and repair/healing items before taking any fight.
Always keep an Armor repair item and heals on you. A fight you win on low armor and no heals often turns into losing to the next team.
Avoid third-parties. Most solo deaths come from walking into a fight that's already going. Wait on the edge and clean up.
Do the tutorials and Training Grounds. The official beginner path teaches movement, counters, and item use. The Training Grounds are the best place to practice parry timing without pressure.

The Combat Triangle

Attack type	How it looks	Beats	Loses to
Horizontal attack	Fast sweeping light attacks	Counter (hits through a parry attempt)	Focus attack
Focus (charged) attack	Wind-up with a blue glow	Horizontal attacks (armored wind-up)	Counter
Counter / parry	Short defensive stance	Focus attacks (disarm/stagger)	Horizontal attacks

What that means in a real fight:

Against an aggressive horizontal spammer: charge a Focus attack. It absorbs their light hits and punishes.
Against someone who keeps charging: counter on the blue flash.
Against someone who keeps countering: throw horizontal strings or a quick feint, then punish the whiffed counter.
Feints: most weapons can cancel a charge. Charge, cancel, bait the counter, then hit. This is the most important intermediate skill.

Rage and Ultimates

Taking and dealing damage builds Rage. At full Rage you can go into a stronger state with more damage and more resistance, and some weapons unlock special moves in it. Popping Rage mid-fight to trade favorably or to escape with the extra toughness is a common play. The new Martial Artist Duel·Competition mode (added September 16, 2026) starts every hero at 100% Rage, so it's a good place to practice Rage timing.

Movement

Tool	Use it for
Grappling hook	Crossing gaps, pulling toward walls and trees, starting grapple attacks, escaping
Wall run / parkour	Climbing buildings and cliffs quickly
Dodge / dash	Getting out of combos, closing distance (costs stamina)
Air attacks	Hitting from a jump or grapple, usually after a gap-closer
Kite flying (at start)	Pick your drop spot carefully and use updrafts to glide further

Stamina is the resource you're managing all fight. Dodging, sprinting, and climbing all use it, and if you run out mid-fight you get combo'd. Keep a buffer.

Water combat changed a lot on September 16, 2026. Diving weapon attacks no longer use Momentum, how far you move is no longer affected by Momentum, Ascend no longer launches you into the air, and diving attacks now share standardized strike patterns. If you learned water fights in an earlier season, retest them.

Weapons

NARAKA has many melee and ranged weapons. The table below covers the common core picks. Balance changes often, so treat it as a starting point, not a tier list.

Weapon	Style	Why pick it
Katana	Fast, mobile, strong combos	Great all-rounder and a good first melee weapon
Longsword	Long reach, strong charged attacks, some ranged pokes	Forgiving spacing and good for learning neutral
Greatsword	Slow, heavy, big armor-shredding hits	Punishes whiffed counters hard and good in chaotic fights
Dagger	Fastest weapon, lowest damage per hit, highest DPS when combos land fully	High skill ceiling, strong if you confirm grabs and stuns
Spear	Reach and sweeping strings	Controls space, good in team fights
Bow / Repeating Crossbow / Musket / Cannon	Ranged	Finishing kills, forcing heals, zoning during rotations

Tips:

Carry one melee and one ranged weapon. Ranged poke forces opponents to heal or burn armor before the melee fight starts.
Weapon rarity matters. Upgrade weapon rarity at Tier stations or by picking up better copies during the match.
Learn two or three of your weapon's combos properly, including how to cancel its charge into a feint.

Heroes

Each hero has a skill (short cooldown) and an ultimate, plus talents you can change on the hero's page. Some long-standing, reliable picks:

Hero	Strength	Good for
Matari	Stealth: invisibility on her ultimate and a teleport dash on her skill	Solo ambushes, repositioning, escaping
Viper Ning	Aggressive melee pressure, strong ultimate engage	Players who like initiating fights
Tianhai	Tanky frontliner with a giant-form ultimate	Trios, holding objectives
Temulch	Mobility and control	Setting up combos for a team
Kurumi	Healing and shielding support	Trios, keeping teammates alive
Yueshan	Durable bruiser with strong armor pressure	Beginners who need to survive mistakes

Newest hero (Season 6.0): Anassa Nangong, a thread-and-needle themed hero, arrived with the Sandforge season. The September 16 update shortened the stagger she takes from non-Charge attacks and improved chained dodges on her threads. The September 3 update notes also list balance changes to Ye Xiu (slower Ultimate spear startup, and he can now Counter during his Ultimate), Akos Hu (Roar: Blast no longer goes through walls, and its cooldown rose to 27 seconds), and Inor Wan (dodge priority on Bolt Dash adjusted).

For hero choice, pick the one whose skill covers your biggest weakness. If you keep dying in chases, take a mobility or stealth hero. If you keep losing trades, take a tanky one.

Souljades and Looting

Souljades are passive modifiers you pick up during a match. They change how weapons and skills work, for example better counter windows, stronger charged attacks, or healing on hit.

Season 6.0 added seven new Souljades: Pyreheart, Venom Tempering, Primal Starfall, Ice Ring Break, Thunder Rove, Star-Shattering Force, and Polesword·Blistering Edge.
Souljade Recast was overhauled in Season 6.0: a Spirit Essence meter now guarantees a Flux Shard at 120 essence, a new Souljade Essence Recast uses Jade Essence Crystals, and standard recasts no longer produce rare attributes. Dropped Souljades also roll randomized values now. Check the new recast screen before you spend.
Prioritize weapon-specific Souljades for your main melee weapon. Generic stat jades are filler.

Loot order at drop:

Any melee weapon (so you're not defenseless)
Armor
Healing items and armor repair
Better weapon rarity and Souljades
Ranged weapon plus ammo

Modes

Mode	Notes
Solo / Duo / Trio Battle Royale	The core mode. Ranked is available in these queues.
The Evolution	As of Season 6.0, the map is randomly chosen between Wanchu and Perdoria.
Showdown / Doom	Hero-focused variants. Doom mode added a Random Stage, and stage unlocks now follow your Showdown Level. On September 16, the Savagery potential was raised from 6.5%/13%/19.5%/26%/32.5% to 8%/16%/24%/32%/40%.
Martial Artist Duel·Competition	New on September 16, 2026. Best of five, every hero starts at 100% Rage, first to 3 wins. You pick different heroes and weapons each round.
Fairyland Penglai	Social hub with mini-activities such as Air Dunk and Gold Rush during events
Training Grounds	Practice combos, counters, and weapons

Current Season and Events (September 2026)

Paramount Season ended September 3, 2026 (00:00 UTC).
Showdown Season 6.0: Sandforge is live, with Anassa Nangong, the new boss Herald Elder Vasshani, and redesigned Season Journey Quests.
Events running September 17 to October 8, 2026 include Dueling! 0924 (earn Chaser's Cards), Race to Gold (quests for Gold Medal cosmetics), and an Asian Games crossover where you collect emblems from Lootable Containers. Mooncake Mania runs September 24 to October 18.
Do the season journey dailies. They're the most efficient free source of seasonal currency and cosmetics.

Ranked Tips

Placement matters as much as kills. A top-5 finish with few kills often beats dying early after a couple of kills.
Play the edge of the circle in solos. Rotate early, find high ground, and let teams in the middle fight each other.
Heal before you push. Never start a fight below full armor if you have a choice.
Disengage with the grappling hook when a second team shows up. Surviving is a win.
In trios, stick together. Most trio wipes happen because players get split up across rooftops and picked off one at a time.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Spamming counter. Good players read it and hit you with horizontal attacks.
Always charging Focus attacks. They're slow, and anyone watching for the blue glow will counter you.
Running out of stamina mid-fight. Save enough for a dodge.
Fighting on low-rarity armor when you could spend 30 more seconds looting.
Chasing a kill across the map. The chase leaves you out of position and exposed to third-parties.
Ignoring ranged weapons. Even a basic bow forces enemies to heal and gives you information.
Keeping old water-combat habits after the September 16, 2026 diving changes.

Advanced Tips

Charge-cancel feints are the core of high-level melee. Charge, cancel on their counter, then punish.
Grapple attacks at odd angles are harder to counter than attacks straight from the front.
Track enemy Rage. Don't commit to a long trade when their Rage is nearly full.
Knock someone down, then reposition instead of greedily finishing when a third team is nearby.
Use terrain height. Air attacks from above are hard to punish.
Tune talents per queue. Solo and trio want different setups, for example more self-sustain in solos and more team utility in trios.

FAQ

Is NARAKA: BLADEPOINT free to play? Yes. It went free-to-play in 2023. Heroes and cosmetics can be unlocked through play and seasonal progression, and cosmetics are also sold in the store.

What's the best weapon for beginners? Katana or Longsword. Katana is fast and mobile. Longsword has forgiving reach and strong charged attacks.

How do I counter a Focus attack? Watch for the blue glow and press counter/parry as the charge comes out. A successful counter disarms or staggers the attacker.

Who is the newest hero? Anassa Nangong, added with Season 6.0 "Sandforge" in September 2026.

What changed with water combat? As of September 16, 2026, diving attacks no longer use Momentum, movement isn't affected by Momentum, Ascend no longer launches you, and diving attack strike patterns are standardized.

When does the current season end? Season end dates are posted in the official news. Check the NARAKA website for the Sandforge end date.

How do I stop losing to third-parties? Heal immediately after a fight, fight near cover or an escape route, and use the grappling hook to leave when a second team arrives.