Slitterhead guide: Five body-swapping tricks to overcome the challenges of action-horror combat

Slitterhead is far from your typical third-person action game. You are legion. Playing a Hyoki, a disembodied spirit, you can turn practically any human you encounter into a playable character by possessing them with a click of a button.
 
As you’d expect from a game from the creator of Gravity Rush (and before that, Silent Hill), it’s a one-of-a-kind experimental gameplay experience with a lot going on.

This guide will help you understand how to become a makeshift army of one, use your fearsome Rarity vessels to their full potential, and turn masses of hapless civilians into effective pawns.
 
Your actions may deliver many innocents into the maw of the formidable Slitterheads—grotesque insectoid monsters who devour their victims’ brains and crawl into their corpses—but it’s a price worth paying to extend your afterlife and rid the city of Kowlong of its infestation.
 

Don’t get too attached to any body

To succeed in Slitterhead, there’s one instinct that comes naturally that you need to abolish: Just because you’re momentarily in someone’s shoes doesn’t mean you should care about them.

In your fight against the insectoid Slitterheads, you’ll take command of Rarities, exceptional fighters uncovered throughout the game with a special affinity for your spectral manipulation. They’re the exception. They’re special. Everyone else? Completely expendable.

Regular civilians, the city’s everyday folk, are all hurled into combat against their will. These bystanders serve as controllable characters, but also as your shields, decoys, and, above all, a valuable source of the pulsing blood that fuels your Rarity’s powers and replenishes your health—both drawn from the same gauge.

Low on health? Just shred up those bystanders and use their blood to rejuvenate yourself. Or vacate your current body for the safety of another. Even a Rarity can’t fight alone; you must suppress any residual sympathy you might feel for your hosts and see them as resources, like the parasite you are.

When you take control of a civilian, they enjoy a temporary stat buff and extended attack combos. And more importantly, Slitterheads continue to attack your previous host, at least until they notice you’ve switched to a new body. When not under your control, Rarities will evade most incoming blows. Civilians will often die in this precarious situation, but at least they’re easily replaced. 

As well as emotional attachment, you must limit the duration of your ethereal attachment too. Never linger in a host’s body longer than necessary. You’re rewarded for switching to a new host, so spirit away and switch often. 
 

Understand that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak

Encounters with so many playable characters in the mix can feel overwhelming. Just remember that you are the one under threat, not the people. You'll want to be detached from these human tools, adopting a calculating mindset akin to an RTS player. 

So get used to switching to Possession Mode to pause the action, surveying the fight from an elevated vantage point, and warping to the most useful host for the given situation. 

This could involve choosing a civilian directly behind aggressive Slitterheads for some cheap attacks from the rear. Or retreating to a safe distance to use the War Cry skill to lure them away from an overwhelmed Rarity. Or even drawing out a person from hiding in the corner to revive a crowd of dying civilians.

And it’s important to revive your units, a.k.a fallen civilians, when you’re running low: They’re your escape plan. Even if their often short-lived resurrection is doomed to get in the way of your next attack or fall victim to the slashing whip of a Slitterhead’s razor-sharp tongue, their liberally flowing blood is sure to help you out.
 

Search for rare talents

Once you’ve got your bearings, you’ll quickly unlock several Rarities whose impressive stats and distinct powers set them apart from the pack. When you choose a Rarity to take into a mission as your primary character, you’re also selecting from multiple gameplay styles. Meet some of your options, see what they offer, and learn how to maximize their effectiveness.

Julee: The first Rarity you save from an unwanted lobotomy is a close-range attacker, her fingernails lengthened into Sonic Claws. Her healing abilities and Empower passive upgrade skill, enhancing all possessed civilians’ health and damage output, make her a flexible role player for both all-out attacks and more attritional strategies.

Anita: Her somersaulting Blood Halberd combos look impressive but are prone to overcommitting into long, risky animation cycles. Her main value lies in her ability to control civilians: spawning them with Devil’s Scent produces plenty of potential hosts, and following up with Mind Hack turns them into a vicious mob against your enemies.

Alex: A doctor turned bike-riding vigilante, his Blood Blade has an impressive range that can even hit enemies after they back-dodge. Gravity Well is an effective method to hold enemies in place (particularly leaving them vulnerable to the Time Bomb move he enables). Upgrade his Blood Weapon and Gravity Well to cluster groups in one place for easy mob control.

Edo: The homeless brawler is a high-risk, high-reward choice for those confident in deflection and dodging to compensate for his low health. His Blood Fist punches have short wind-ups and limited range, reducing the risk of being caught mid-attack. Health upgrades early on are essential to improve his durability, along with the Hyper Deflection skill that makes up for his limited effectiveness against hordes by deflecting multiple blows at once.

Blake: An army man, Blake is the best pick for ranged combat. His Bloody Shot skill turns his health into machine gun bullets, and you can hold the right trigger for an effective way to stagger Slitterheads and keep them at bay while dealing major damage. For unwary mobs, try using the Bloody Mine to lay the perfect explosive landmine trap.
 

Find the perfect Companion

Now that you’re getting the hang of your favorite Rarity, it’s time to find them the perfect Companion—a secondary Rarity who joins in for each mission’s biggest fights (slightly tardy, you’ll have to buy time before they catch up to reinforce you). Pay close attention to their synergies and playstyles for a lethal combination. 

As always, balance is key. While the carnage that Blake and Alex could wreak may tempt you, remember their abilities’ drastic Blood Power consumption makes them a high-wire duo whose explosive potential will often leave them vulnerably low on health.

If the game’s encounters prove a challenge, selecting Anita as a Rarity accompanied by Alex as a Companion was the dependable early- to mid-game combo that let me rack up enough Skill Tokens to upgrade the rest of the crew. My favorite move was using Anita’s Devil’s Scent into Mind Hack to create an angry horde, an ideal setup for Alex’s Gravity Well to trap Slitterheads with a furious gang of civilians out to tear them to pieces. Meanwhile, Anita’s Poison Needle projectiles gave me ranged options from a safe distance while I waited out the cooldown to repeat the trick.

Julee and Edo are another reliable option; Julee’s Revive All skill provides the healing that Edo needs for his all-out aggro approach. Two close combat characters nevertheless perform capably when Julee’s wide-sweeping attacks can take out weaker enemies, leaving the high-value targets for Edo’s fists (after activating Burning Edge for a powerful damage multiplier, of course).
 

Guard with care

You can almost ignore guarding for the opening hours of gameplay. Early game enemies, the worm-like Slitterheads, and, post-transformation, many-legged Mantis Slitterheads can be easily staggered by total offense paired with dodge-rolls. It works until it doesn’t. Mastering guard and parry timing will prove key to vanquishing your enemies and preserving the feeble civilians under your control, especially at higher difficulties.

Attacking drops your guard, leaving you vulnerable to counterattacks, so trading combos becomes increasingly reckless as the game progresses. Blocking beats locking in that third hit with your Blood Weapon when you’re otherwise left open to a dangerous multi-hit sequence by even regular enemies. 

Meanwhile, parrying takes on the utmost importance. The skill can be hard to master thanks to the exact timing needed to deflect attacks with a flick of the right analog stick, but it’s one worth persisting with even if it demands some practice in training missions. Blood Time’s slow-motion, generous counter-attack window after chaining successful parries is a reward worth the time investment, especially when you get to show off your skills in a boss fight.

Kowlong’s neon-bathed streets may be full of dangers and tentacled monsters, but these tips will help you make it through unscathed, although it won’t make much difference to the countless deceased civilians you exploited in the process!

Slitterhead is out now on the Epic Games Store.