How to Increase Kill Power

Important takeaways

• Keep your Kill Power maxed out by dodging hits and getting into a rhythm of dodging enemy attacks.
• Use a variety of weapons and abilities to maintain high Kill Power and keep combos interesting.
• Activate environmental traps in later layers to damage monsters and collect Shards easily.

Welcome to Layers of the Abyss, it's a tough descent into Kill Knight and you're going to need every little bit of help you can get. There are plenty of monsters ahead and the game doesn't take it easy on you.

There are a handful of mechanics to take on board, but once you get rolling it's easy to let muscle memory take over as you focus on keeping your Kill Power at max. Doing so will give you a tasty damage and speed boost that is borderline as the layers continue. So to help you keep your bar full, here are ten tips to increase your Kill Power in Kill Knight.

10 Don't get hit

It sounds pretty basic, but it's arguably the best tip for keeping your Kill Power maxed out. Every little smack or stray attack that clips you will dent your Kill Power bar. Take too many and it removes it completely, forcing you to start building it back up.

Stretching is mandatory as there are some generous I-frames. However, the number of dashes you get is tied to the equipment you are wearing. Since you need to be aggressive to keep your Kill Power fully charged, running in for a few smacks and then backing out when their attack animation plays works every time.

There is normally a two second delay before an attack arrives. You'll see a monster pause, target you, and then swing or shoot. Once you get that one-two-three rhythm down, it becomes easy to avoid everything.

9 Don't stop shooting

Even if you have an ammo bar that runs down when you shoot, the reserve pool is infinite so we encourage you to be trigger happy. You are constantly swarmed by hordes of monsters and there is a delay on your melee swing. So if you don't hold down the trigger, you will be overwhelmed.

Hitting the swarm with a barrage of bullets will keep the kill count up, which in turn stops your Kill Power from dropping. Additionally, different weapons have unique abilities and reloading your primary gun allows the activation of two powerful trigger moves that are very handy and also unique to certain melee weapons. So throw accuracy worries to the wind and get the gun away.

8 Become a Parry God

This is a tip that you don't have to worry about often as it involves flashing enemies and these tend not to appear until the later layers. On your first run, you'll only encounter a handful on the first two layers. But learning to parry is very worthwhile.

When you see flashing enemies, it is highly recommended that you move into their path and parry them with a well-timed sword swing. Doing so will activate the pulse counter, and continuing to hold the melee attack button will trigger Hyper Mode. It's basically like Witch Time from Bayonetta, because reality slows down and you can run around doing big damage.

7 Burst That Wrath

You really, really should get Wrath in this game. Getting off your Heavy Weapons Wrath ability not only allows you to heal, but depending on what you're using, it can create a few vital seconds of respite.

Each weapon has a unique rage ability, with some being more useful than others. But it is easy to trigger it. Only collect red Wrath Shards after kills. Good Wrath Burst weapons to get comfortable with are Ruinshot and Rectifire. One is a shotgun that fires a large exploding boulder, the other fires target shots in a wide fan in front of you.

6 Mix together

While you can just spam an attack over and over again if you want, mixing everything into your arsenal is actively encouraged. Dumping everything you have from Sword Bursts, Heavy Weapons fire and Wrath Bursts is the best way to keep your Kill Power high.

Think of it as the Devil May Cry Style Meter, keeping these combos interesting and varied not only fills up the Kill Power bar faster, it allows you to land more kills faster over time. Also, since everything spawns in the exact same location in each run, you can line up attacks like Wrath Bursts in advance for maximum effectiveness.

5 Get triggered

If you're not actively utilizing your Trigger moves, you're playing at a serious disadvantage. There are two active triggers called Sword Trigger and Heavy Ammo Trigger, and it is mandatory that you remember to use them as often as you can.

Especially Sword Trigger as it is a powerful sword attack that can keep your Kill Power up. Also, the type and effectiveness depends on the sword used. The other absorbs all heavy ammo in the arena. It sounds more complicated than it is. But you just need to press the sword or absorb button at the right time during your gun's active reload bar. So blast them until they are dry, look at the bar and select a button.

Experiment with Sword Trigger combinations to find one that works for you. For example, the Swiftshade sword does a spin attack for its Sword Trigger that blocks projectiles, deals damage, and harvests heavy ammo.

4 Adjust your charge

To skip our last tip, actively adjusting your charge is encouraged. While you can run with the starting setup all the way to the end, stacking the tire slightly will make for a smoother ride.

Certain memories and equipment increase your killing power. While others can be used to create a building as a resource dump. For example, combine Swiftshade with something that increases Heavy Ammo yield. So each spin during the Sword Trigger will allow you to harvest extra ammo. Then you can just dump your secondary weapon, dump your primary, Sword Trigger for ammo, rinse and repeat.

3 Flock of small crowds

If you want to pour lots of blood juice into your Kill Power bar, start practicing your foraging skills. While it may seem like the swarm of monsters is endless, there is a limit to how many can enter each wave.

Once you've run through a layer enough times, you'll start to see what kind of creatures appear at a certain interval. If it's the basic melee and ranged units, then start gathering them into a big clump and then fire a Wrath Burst right on top of them. It will create a large splat of Shards that once absorbed should spike your Kill Power bar to the brim.

2 Don't forget to vacuum

There's already a lot on screen that you need to deal with in Kill Knight, but soaking up Shards will have to be second nature if you want to maintain your Kill Power. Let alone just survive the next wave of creatures.

You might feel like you need to hoard them to save up for Wrath Burst heals at a bad moment, but don't. Unplug your Wrath and go back to vacuuming as you can't get any more Shards until then. You have to constantly dish out maximum damage to get more kills and keep that Kill Power at max. The less you kill, the faster it drops.

1 Use environmental traps

This only applies to the later layers, but sometimes you'll come across traps that you can activate. They will hurt you, but they will also drop a lot of damage on monsters. Plus, if you get it right, you can lure in a big chunk for some easy Shards after they're killed.

Most traps will be triggered when you step on or near them, but you can also trigger them with a stray gun shot. So it's a bit of a double-edged sword if you're not careful. They reset, and they can be very useful in clearing out the swarm somewhat.