Yea, so in case anyone missed it by the wording and phrasing of some things, and the whole lack of characters thing, this guide is just a SMIDGE outdated. But, DO NOT FEAR! AN UPDATE IS NEAR! Ok, maybe not near, but I'm working on it. I stopped playing For Honor for a while now, I played it really spotty up until Vortiger was announced, then I more or less stopped entirely, but recently, I've been getting back into it, and I gotta say, a LOT has changed. So, since I was reminded that this exists from a comment I got(and by the way, THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR KEEPING THIS ALIVE I LOVE YOU GUYS NO ♥♥♥♥ THO), I've decided to revisit the guide and begin updating this and helping you guys be the best neckbeard you can be. If you guys have any tips for me right off the bat, leave a comment, or add me and let me know! It'll help me pack this guide with information for everyone, whether or not they play our lovely axe man. Well, without further ado, leeeeeeet's get roiiiiiiiight into the (outdated) neeeeeeeeews!

Raider has a very distinctive move and skillset which help him diversify from the other characters, however, he still uses some basic combos.

Chop and Poke

Light Attack, Light Attack, Light Attack

This combo is less often used, but it is still useful. Against opponents with little skill, the first two lights will most likely land. Raider's Stunning Tap can be chained off of with this, as it is registered as a light attack. The second hit in this combo is best done from a different direction than the first hit, and the third light is best not used unless you are just clearing minions at B(Or C, I don't discredit The Shard).

Wild Swinging

Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack, Heavy Attack

Like the Chop and Poke, this combo is also not often used to its entirety. More often than not, you will find yourself not using this combo unless your opponent doesn't parry or is scared to by your mixups. The only time this combo is used to the end is when ganking someone, as you can combo 3 top heavies in for a decent bit of chip damage. A thing to note with the heavy attack is that it can be cancelled into a Stunning Tap within the first half of its animation. To do so, you can simply press light while the heavy attack is going through.

Winding Slashes

Heavy Attack, Light Attack, Heavy Attack

This is a good combo to do sometimes, generally after doing a few mixups and making them afraid to parry your heavies. You can use this to your advantage and chain this into Chop and Poke or more Stunning Taps.

Raider's Fury

Light Attack+Heavy Attack

This is one of Raider's best tools, considering it is an Unblockable attack. This means an enemy cannot simply block the attack, and rather needs to parry or dodge. What most people don't know about this is that despite its amazing arc of damage, you can dodge the attack by dashing towards it. Even if it is cancelled into a Stunning Tap, if timed right you will dodge all damage from it. You will also recover in time to counter guard break if the Raider feints into a guard break(this is not a soft feint, rather this is a hard one. Only the feint into Stunning Tap is a soft feint for Raider). The Raider's Fury can also be chained into any of his other chains, which will make it do almost twice as much damage as it would had you just done it out of the blue. This is an amazing out of stamina punish, as if you feint it, you can easily bait out parries which you can punish with a top heavy, then chain that into another Raider's Fury that you can either feint and effectively vortex the enemy, or you can let it rip and reap that sweet, sweet damage.

Stampede Charge

Sprint+Guard Break

Very similar to Warlord's Shield Charge, the Raider's Stampede Charge is a dodgeable sprinting guard break, in a sense. That being that if it connects, the Raider will pick up the target and run with them over his shoulder, effectively performing his forward throw without having to get the guard break to stick. This is useful for opening up on a gank, as it gives the target hyperarmor so they can eat damage and not be able to do anything about it, as their guard stances will be inactive during the throw until their standing back up afterwards, just like the Shugoki's Demon's Embrace. It is less effective in a 1v1 as the opponent will have more focus on you, which will in turn let them punish you with a guard break or heavy attack. However, it can be a good out of stamina punish, as it is almost a 50/50 because people like to dodge in prediction.

Reaping Charge

Sprint+Heavy Attack

This is Raider's sprinting attack opener, useful for dealing damage to running opponents. Can be used on turtles but more often then not it will be blocked, so its only real use if hitting people that try to run from your L E G E N D A R Y skill.

Stunning Tap

Dash Left, Right, or Forward, Light Attack

Ah yes, the infamous "Þú ert dauður!", among the more annoying attacks in the game. It can be soft feinted into effect from any heavy attack, even the Raider's Fury. Dealing a light's damage and a stun effect, this can help you get away with some cheeky things, like chaining it into Chop and Poke, Raider's Fury, another Stunning Tap, or even a guard break. A very useful tool in his aresenal, one you will find yourself using rather often.

In combat, a lot of things change depending on who you're fighting. However, against your average Joe, these are some things that you will probably be doing.


Depending on the character your opponent is playing, that will change your guard stance. Not saying you cannot switch off of this, but it would be a good idea to keep your neutral where their zone will come from. Some characters, like Lawbringer, Valk, and a few others have zones that take long enough to hit that you shouldn't need to worry about them, and rather focus on matching their guard until you're ready to attack.


A lot of people in the game tend to wait for the other to throw an attack first. As Raider, you can use this to your advantage. You can throw a few heavy feints, maybe even a Raider's Fury feint, to see how your opponent reacts. Then, you can see if you can sneak in lights. After that, mix them up to hell. Often times, they'll meet your Raider's Fury feint with a parry attempt, if they do, you can use that to your advantage and soft feint it into Stunning Tap the next time you do it(after your stamina regenerates of course). Once you do this you will have a steady flow of damage. Once they block a Stunning Tap, try letting the Raider's Fury fly. More often then not it will land because they will expect the feint and not react in time. If the opponent is aggressive on you however, then it would be a good idea to try and punish their aggressiveness. For instance, if a Lawbringer leads off with a shove, dodge to the side and into a Stunning Tap, same for a Warden with their Shoulder Bash.


The Raider has a very special thing in his skillset, that being that he has a Dashing Guard Break, which also doubles as a dashing counter guard break. This means that you are safer from getting guard broken mid-dash, but you are still vulterable in the few bit of the animation. Also to be noted, this does not work for backwards dashing or when you are out of stamina. Raider is only guaranteed a Raider's Fury off a guard break, and even yet he doesn't always get it. Assassin characters like the Shinobi are capable of parrying the attack and punishing you for punishing them. Instead, resort to trying to get damage from throwing people(Forward throw knee, wall collide heavies, etc.). However, even though they can, the timing is very split second so not all of them will be able to do so, but keep it in mind when fighting them.


Raider has a very good punish on openers like the Headbutt, Shove, and Shoulder Bash. That being his side dash Stunning Tap that he can chain off of. It is especially effective against the Shoulder Bash of the Warden because of the fact that unless it is feinted entirely or charged further, the Raider is almost guaranteed to hit the Stunning Tap upon dodging these attacks. Furthermore, he can punish light parries with heavy attacks. Some attacks he can get top heavies on if he moves quick enough, others he can only get a side heavy no matter how hard he tries. Heavy parries though are best punished with a guard break or light if you cannot reach them in time.


Now, you may be confused by this heading but hear me out. A lot of people use the animations to block subconsciously with the indicators. So, moving in ways that look weird can sometimes get the attacks to land. For instance, after a Stunning Tap, try switching to the other side than the side you were on in the first landed the Stunning Tap and try another one. This will make the Raider spin almost spin around and it looks confusing, even without the stun from the Stunning Tap itself.


Now this is when things get dirty. Real dirty. A lot like a Lawbringer tech with his Pony emote, the Raider can do something similar. With his default emote(y'know, the meme one? Yea, that one), it has a fast enough trigger time that with the Plasma effect from the new mythic outfits you can blind the opponent for a second, long enough to sneak in a light or even a guard break. However, this won't always work given you can turn off effects in the menu. Beware though, sometimes this can scare your enemy and make then throw an attack unintentionally, so act quick.

This section is going to be a WIP, as I ain't the best in all of these(mostly assassins and Shugo I struggle against). The rest of the classes though are pretty basic, unless they have an alternative playstyle. Anyways, we'll go in order, left to right, top to bottom.

Warden: These guys love their top lights, zones, and Shoulder Bashes. Keep your guard to your left to prevent the zone from coming out, and block the top lights. When he Shoulder Bashes, punish with the Stunning Tap and go from there, keep pressure on him. Be sure to wathc your stamina because caught without it and the 50/50 Shoulder Bash is coming in hard and fast. Keep him in check with the occasional light and only go for the side light parries as his feint game is pretty good. If they like to use the Crushing Counterstrike, you can get cheeky and bait out a light to parry with a feinted top heavy. If you don't have the timing on the light right, try predicting the light parry and catch it that way.

Raider: Ah yes, the lovely mirror match. Expect some lights from him trying to keep you in check, and parry them in you can, as you can punish with a top heavy of your own. Mixups are dangerous as he can counter you into a mixup of his own, which is where you have to be careful sometimes as to when you dig out on them. You can try and keep lights going to keep them in check but they'll likely be thinking the same.

Kensei: Keep distance, and bait his top light attack. Parry into top heavy, then mixup to hell. Taste of your own medicine, you feint-loving bastard.

Conqueror: Like the Warden, you can get Stunning Taps off of a dodge on their Shield Bash. If they still throw their light afterwards, dodge the Shield Bash then parry the light, punish with a heavy. Makes a turtle out of them real quick. Then it's a whole brain game with your Raider's Fury.

Warlord: Mix this boy up. He likes to parry punish, and more often than not will let his heavies fly. Punish the overconfident bastard and give him a taste of his own medicine with your Stampede Charge.

Shugoki: As of now, I don't really have anything for this guy. He's almost always a turtle who abuses their hyperarmor. I would say guard break through his hyper armor and mix him up as much as you can while he has it gone. Other than that, you could wait out his lights and parry punish them, but that's about it. Annoying bastards, these guys.

Peacekeeper: Keep distance and bait out her dash attacks. If she doesn't do these, I would say try and rely on Stunning Tap and guard breaks.

Berzerker: Same thing as the Peacekeeper, except he's a lot more annoying cuz he's Kensei 6.0 with feints. Good luck with these little sh*ts.

Orochi: As with the other assassins, try and bait out their dash attacks. Keep your guard on top, and occasionally check your left to show you're aware of their zone attack.

Lawbringer: He is really just shove and top light. Punish the shove with Stunning Tap and mix up from there, and for the first few times if your hit with the shove, you can Stunning Tap them and effectively dodge AND punish their "guaranteed" light attack.

Valkyrie: I don't see her too much, but when I do, it's generally parrying the second light in her chains and Stunning Tap punish on her shield charges. On her sweep, if dodged, you can get a guard break and zone/charge her into a wall.

Nobushi: Check that Hidden Stance kick, dodge it and see if she still throw the bleed stab. If she does, parry it, top heavy punish all the way. If she doesn't, the next time she kicks, punish with a Stunning Tap. Wait for her lights, parry punish those, and mix her up.

Centurion: These guys just love their jabs. If you just block the heavy they will often lead with, you can dodge the jab and punish with a guard break. Other than that, they cannot feint their heavy unless charged. Bait parries from them to get parries of your own, then punish them. If they stop biting on heavies, try your Raider's Fury. That often will get them.

Shinobi: This slippery little d*ck will just love to do his dashes, expecially his new quadruple dash tech. Figure out what they do with their dashes by just reading it as they do one. Afterwards, if they do the quadruple dashes, you can do a guardbreak and pull them out of them, effectively giving you a free guardbreak. Note however that he can parry your zone out of a guardbreak, so do not do it unless you're sure they won't parry it. Also, they may try and mix it up after you read a quadruple dash and just do a double dash, but that is to be expected, you'll rarely be flawless. Dodge their kicks and punish with Stunning Tap mixups, they'll die before you know it.

Well, in the end Raider is a VERY strong class, especially after the buff of Season 2. If you guys have any thought on this, counter suggestions to my matchup tips, things to add on to my matchup tips, more combos, or just feel like commenting, feel free to let me know down below. In the mean time, if you wanna play against me, my Uplay is ItsTheSpycrab and I do accept most all my Steam and Uplay friend requests. If you found this helpful, please feel free to upvote this and help out those people who want to play Raider but just don't quite know how yet. Happy hunting, my neckbeard bretherin!