Scorn is a very unconventional game in a number of ways. But, the most obvious way is that its combat isn’t very player-friendly. It’s slow and enemies are very spongy, as mentioned in our Scorn review. But, to help you out when you reach these sections of the game, we have a list of Scorn combat tips and a guide to how combat is meant to be played.
These four tips in this guide will take you through how you should approach combat, some strategies for fights, and why Scorn doesn’t always want you to fight everything. Sometimes, it’s best to just skip past the horrors you are seeing and move on to the next bit of the game.
So, if you are struggling, or just don’t want to have to deal with learning these Scorn combat tips yourself, read on below.
Scorn combat tips and guide
Here are some core tips to help you out in Scorn’s combat, so you aren’t slamming up against a wall trying to get through the sections:
Play cat-and-mouse
By far the best way to approach combat in Scorn is to play cat and mouse, especially when using your melee weapon, prodding thing (we don’t know the actual name). You only have two pumps in that weapon before you can recharge and the basic crawling enemies take five hits to kill.
So, when you come across them you want to hit them twice and then run away a bit. The enemy will follow up with an acid spit attack, but what you can do is just strafe to the side to avoid it. When your pumps in the gun have recharged, all you need to do is run back up as it is recovering from its spit and hit it two more times. Repeat these for the base enemies, and even the ones with wings, as it is key to having a much easier time.
Conserve your ammo
While you may be tempted to use all of your ammo on enemies when you get to a refill station, you really shouldn’t. While you should use your bullets for the large enemy on four legs in the latter half of the game and the flying ones as you get in the last few acts, for all the other enemies you want to choose the cat-and-mouse strategy.
The large three-shot shotgun is best for the four-legged enemies, while the smaller shotgun should be used when you are fighting against large groups of enemies. It can be used to clear out the weaker enemies fairly quickly, but want to be using your rechargeable pump melee weapon more.
Play slow
Combined with the above strategies, if you haven’t already gathered you want to play Scorn slowly. This isn’t a run-and-gun FPS. You want to slowly peer around corners and take shots at enemies. And, if you have to get up close it should only be when you are facing one or two enemies with the melee pump weapon.
If you are determined to fight then it really should be a thought-out process. There is no room for rushing due to the limited amount of health recharges that are in the game.
Run if you need to
Finally, if combat isn’t working out or you have way too many enemies in front of you, don’t be afraid to run past everything. You very rarely backtrack or explore previous areas in Scorn, so oftentimes you can run past enemies and forget about them as they won’t chase you.
You may take a hit or two, so only use this strategy if you have a decent amount of health left, otherwise, you should try and work your way through the groups of disgusting creatures strategically.
With these Scorn combat tips you should be able to make your way through the game without painfully bashing your head against the game’s less-than-friendly combat and gunplay. As with a lot of the game, Scorn doesn’t tell you any of this or how you should play, including how to heal and how to switch your weapons which we also have a guide on.