Lies of P: Attack Type Guide

While Lies of P has a lot of great things going for it, the lack of clarity regarding some aspects of gameplay and some oddly phrased in-game descriptions could use some improvement. For example, the Attack Type stat that’s on every weapon blade in the game is so minimal in how it’s portrayed to the player that most don’t even really understand how it works. For example, a lot of players first thought this somehow either dictated what type of attacking animations their weapons would have or the only type of damage that weapon would deal. While both of these assumptions are on the right track, they’re not entirely correct.

As it turns out, this stat matters a lot, and once players understand it, the Attack Type stat can make the Weapon Assembly system of Lies of P a lot more streamlined. So, let’s go over exactly what this statistic means and how players can use it to determine the utility of their weapon of choice.

Updated November 1st, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Lies of P is, like most other soulslikes, a very mechanical complex game. Not only that but for those of you who like to fully understand all of the systems and mechanics a game offers, Lies of P is also pretty complicated in terms of stats. There are so many different stats to keep in mind in this game that stats like Attack Type or Damage Types are either entirely missed or entirely misunderstood. Knowing how these systems work and how to best utilize them can help a ton in your run of the game, so let’s go over what these are and how they work in-depth.

Attack Type Overview

While looking at the Attack Types of individual handles and blades is important, it truly matters most when you’re looking at the Attack Type of a weapon and blade ‘combined’. In Lies of P, there are three possible Damage Types (excluding Elemental damage, of course) and these are Pierce, Slash, and Blunt.

You’re meant to naturally figure this out in-game from the different types of ‘Liner’ equipment you’ll get that gives you different resistances to these three Damage Types. This is probably confusing for a lot of players, as why would the Attack Type only have Stab and Slash while the actual in-game Damage Types are Pierce, Slash, and Blunt? Well, to be frank, it is confusing.

In essence, the Attack Type stat informs you of (on average) what type of attack animations this combined weapon will have as well as the primary Damage Type it will output.

For example, a Rapier has a ‘=’ in Stab, meaning most of its attack animations will have the protagonist Pinocchio ‘stabbing’ in some way rather than slamming the weapon or swinging it around like a typical sword. This won’t be true 100 percent of the time, as a few weapons with the ‘=’ in Stab will still have slashing-type animations, but in general, it is a reliable pattern for you to be aware of and use to stick to your own preferred Combat Style.

Different Attack Type Icons

On the stats screen for a handle or combined Weapon, players will see the different Attack Types labeled with different icons. The funny thing is, there’s a large portion of Lies of P players that didn’t even know there were different icons besides the dash icon and the equals icon.

However, these icons dictate the amount of a certain damage type this weapon outputs (as well as the general animations its attacks have).

For the most part, you can just use these as a way of figuring out what type of swings your weapon will have without having to test it every time. But, they’re also a good way to determine if a blade or handle is being used to the absolute utmost. If a weapon has the downward facing arrows on an Attack Type, the blade isn’t going to be outputting the same amount of damage as it would be combined with a handle that has the equals or up arrow icon.

Good & Bad Combinations

Contrary to popular belief, there are technically ‘incorrect’ combinations with this game’s Weapon Assembly system. This might be a downer to hear, as that means the game sort of punishes you for making wacky or absurd combinations. However, you won’t really need to worry about this, as a poor combination only affects the damage output by a small margin. It won’t make the weapon unusable and it doesn’t ‘ruin’ the game if you go around swinging a Dagger with a giant wrench head for a blade.

An example of a ‘Bad Combination’ is putting something like the Wintry Rapier Blade on the Curved Greatsword Handle. The handle is meant for a blade that’s good at slashing, as said handle has an ‘=’ icon in Slash. So, putting a Rapier blade on there, which has an ‘=’ icon in Stab is going to mean the combined weapon will have very poor Slashing power.

However, contrasting these bad combinations are also ‘Great Combinations’ where a player’s weapon will be putting out the absolute maximum amount of damage possible. Typically these combinations aren’t possible until players acquire some of the late-game weapons, as most of the early-game combinations won’t add up to an up arrow icon in any category. This is all to say that the combination of a blade and handle can go both ways in terms of Attack and Damage types. A good pattern to keep in mind as you acquire weapons is:

Of course, this may not apply to every single combination you experiment with in Lies of P. But, as a general rule of thumb, it’ll help those of you who like to mess around with the Weapon Assemble system often.

Specific Damage Types Against Specific Enemy Types

Another side of Lies of P that many people don’t talk about is the fact that certain types of elemental damage do more against certain categories of enemies. It’s something that the game actually tries to incentivize with specific gear or weapons that can be found in certain areas. For example, you might realize that a lot of Acidic consumables, throwable items, or weapons with innate Acidic damage are found in areas that are primarily filled with Carcass-category enemies.

Another example is the Electric Coil Stick, a weapon bought from the Wandering Merchant on Elysion Boulevard, a neighborhood entirely infested with only Puppets.

For some reason, there’s not any in-game information that tells players whether certain Damage Types (Strike, Slash, Pierce) work better against certain enemies. However, following the same logic the game seems to be using, a lot of players have just innately used different Damage Types against different enemy types.

Elemental & Physical Weaknesses

If you’re like us and struggle with memorizing weapon triangles and Pokemon weaknesses, here’s a bit of internalized logic to help you remember what Damage and Element-type work best against which enemy types:

• Shock likely does more damage to Puppets as it ‘short circuits’ them & it also makes sense that Strike deals more damage to Puppets since it breaks them apart.
• The undead (Carcass) are usually falling apart and ‘soft’ which is why they’re typically weak to fire (and any slashing weapon) in most media. Plus, the Acid pools in Lies of P are flammable which is another clue of this relation.
• Humans are fragile creatures that can die from a simple stab to a vital organ or even a splash of Acid, so it would stand to reason they would also be weak to Acid and Piercing damage.

Again, as far as the Damage Type Weaknesses are concerned, this isn’t confirmed anywhere in-game but just seems to be a pattern some players have noticed. The Elemental Weaknesses, however, are absolutely confirmed, so at the very least players can take those as fact and use them to help out in overcoming specific bosses such as the King of Puppets.