The Swordfighter is Unicorn Overlord’s speedy, crit-focused melee class, a high-initiative duelist who dodges attacks, lands devastating critical hits, and excels at cutting down evasive enemies.
Once promoted to Swordmaster, the class gains dual-wielding capability and even deadlier offensive tools.
If you want a glass cannon that strikes first and hits hard, this is your class.
Strengths
Swordfighters have the highest initiative among infantry classes, meaning they act before most enemies in combat.
This speed advantage lets them eliminate threats before they get a chance to swing.
Their critical rate is exceptional.
Combined with skills like Keen Edge that carry truestrike (guaranteed hit), Swordfighters are the premier counter to evasive enemies like Thieves and flying units.
Where other classes whiff against high-evasion targets, Swordfighters land clean crits.
The Parry passive lets them deflect melee physickal attacks, giving them surprising durability against physical damage despite their low defense stats. It’s not perfect (Parry doesn’t work against ranged attacks) but it makes them much harder to kill in close combat than their stats suggest.
After promotion, Swordmasters can equip two swords.
This opens up interesting build options, including equipping a magick-damage sword to bypass high physickal defense enemies like Hoplites.
Their leader effect, Greater Garrison, increases HP and stamina recovery when garrisoned, which is useful for keeping your army moving on longer maps.
Weaknesses
Low physickal and magick defense makes the Swordfighter extremely fragile against anything that bypasses Parry.
Ranged attacks from Hunters and Arbalists are a serious problem since Parry only works against melee strikes.
Enemies with truestrike or high accuracy will also shred Swordfighters.
Hunters in particular are a hard counter, their high accuracy negates evasion, and their ranged attacks ignore Parry entirely.
Swordfighters also struggle against heavily armored targets like Hoplites.
Their physical damage just bounces off high-defense enemies unless you equip a magick-damage weapon after promotion.
Key Skills and How to Use Them
Keen Edge is the starting active skill with truestrike and high crit potential. It’s your go-to for reliably hitting evasive targets.
Follow-Up Slash (level 10) attacks after an ally acts, effectively giving you extra damage on top of your normal turn. Fantastic for increasing total unit damage output.
Triple Counter (level 20, Swordmaster only) allows the Swordmaster to counterattack up to three times when hit. Combined with Parry, this turns incoming melee attacks into opportunities for massive counter damage.
Parry is the defining passive, it deflects incoming melee physickal attacks. Keep this equipped at all times.
Dual Wield (Swordmaster passive) enables equipping two swords, which doubles your equipment options and can let you stack effects or mix physical and magickal damage.
Promotion to Swordmaster
Promotion is a big power spike.
Dual-wielding opens up flexible builds, Triple Counter turns defense into offense, and the stat increases to attack, initiative, and crit rate make the Swordmaster a premium damage dealer.
This is a worthwhile mid-priority promotion, especially if you’re running Melisandre or Aramis in your main army.
The dual-wielding option alone justifies promotion because of the build versatility it provides.
Best Team Compositions and Tactics
Swordfighter + Fighter/Vanguard is excellent. The Fighter absorbs ranged attacks that would otherwise destroy the Swordfighter, while Parry handles melee threats. Together they cover each other’s weaknesses.
Swordfighter + Soldier/Sergeant benefits from Keen Call guaranteeing crits on the Swordfighter’s already crit-heavy attacks, and Active Gift feeding AP for more Follow-Up Slashes.
Swordfighter + Cleric provides healing to keep the fragile Swordfighter in the fight. The Swordfighter protects the Cleric from Thief-type enemies with truestrike.
Position Swordfighters in the front row to take advantage of Parry against melee enemies, or the back row when facing ranged-heavy compositions.
Characters Who Use This Class
Melisandre joins during “The Blade of House Meillet” in Cornia. She’s a missable recruit, you need to agree to meet her and deploy Alain in the battle. She’s one of the best DPS characters in the game with outstanding attack and crit stats.
Aramis joins during “The General in Black” after sparing Berengaria. He’s another missable character tied to a recruitment chain. His crit potential is top tier.
Leah is a recruitable Swordfighter who provides a third option for this class.
Generic Swordfighter mercenaries are also available at forts.
Final Thoughts
The Swordfighter/Swordmaster is a pure offensive powerhouse with built-in survivability through Parry.
It’s the best answer to evasive enemies, one of the hardest-hitting physical damage dealers, and after promotion, one of the most flexible classes thanks to dual wielding.
Just keep them away from Hunters and you’ll have a unit that cuts through most enemies with terrifying speed.
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Featured image for this article is from the official Unicorn Overlord website and used under Fair Use.