The foundations of LEGO: Legacy of the Dark Knight's combat systems will feel familiar to fans of the Arkham series, but with the classic LEGO charm. To master this unique combat system, and truly become the Dark Knight Gotham City needs, you need to understand the relationship between your standard moves and your Focus meter, and why building Focus quickly should always be your main goal in combat.
Table of contents
The Freeflow Combat System Basics
Before you can start putting your attention on the Focus meter, you must acquaint yourself with the basic controls.
- Attack: Square / X
- Counter: Triangle / Y / X (Watch for the on-screen warnings!)
- Dodge: Circle / B / A (Essential for avoiding gunfire or other attacks that cannot be countered)
- Gadgets: R2 / RT / ZR
- Jump: Cross / A / B
One core quirk of the Freeflow combat system is that by pressing a direction together with any button, you will perform the chosen action on the nearest enemy. This is very important to master to manage crowds effectively.
What is Focus?
As you attack enemies, you build Focus, as indicated by the circular bar around your character icon in the lower-left corner of the screen. Once this meter is full, you can perform a Takedown by pressing R1 / RB / R.
- Takedowns defeat regular enemies instantly in a single, often hilarious hit.
- On bigger enemies, takedowns deal massive damage, significantly shortening the fight.
The Importance of Focus
While basic thugs are generally easy to handle, Gotham’s streets in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight are filled with advanced enemy types that make combat a headache if you don't have a Takedown ready:
- Shielded Enemies: These block all frontal attacks. You must dodge behind them to damage them.
- Armed Enemies: Thugs with guns can shoot from a distance, breaking your combo.
- Sword-Wielders: These enemies unleash quick, rotating cut attacks in a straight line that can't be countered, only dodged.
Building Focus quickly lets you defeat these threats before they disrupt your combat flow or deal serious damage. In Dark Knight difficulty, you have limited lives, so avoiding damage is particularly important.
How to Build Focus Fast
The fastest way to fill your Focus bar is to unleash a Flurry of Attacks on a stunned enemy. You can do so easily with the following strategy.
- With Batman, fire three consecutive Batarangs at an enemy (or fewer once you purchase the Carbon Fiber Tips Waynetech upgrade)
- Once the enemy is dazed, attack them repeatedly by mashing the button.
- You will unleash a rapid series of strikes that fills your Focus meter significantly faster than standard punches. Just be ready to Counter any nearby enemies who try to interrupt your flurry.
Mastering this Stun-to-Flurry loop ensures you often have a Takedown ready to go when a Shield or Sword enemy joins the fray.
This concludes our guide. For more help, visit our LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Complete Walkthrough & Guide.
Guides based on a completed playthrough on PC at Dark Knight difficulty. Screenshots captured from the same version.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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