【SILENT HILL f】Weapon Handling Basics

This article explains the basics of Weapon Handling.

We go over the characteristics of each weapon, recommended choices, and how to keep using your favorite weapons effectively,

so use this guide to assist you throughout your playthrough.

Types of Weapons

Steel Pipe / Baseball Bat / Crowbar

Light Attack

Performs up to a three-hit combo. Since the recovery time is relatively long, recklessly swinging at enemies can leave you open to Counterattacks.

Heavy Attack

A single charged downward strike. The recovery time is quite large, but if you time it as the enemy gets up from a Stagger, you can land it again and sometimes secure consecutive Staggers.

You can also preemptively start the attack before an approaching enemy enters range to catch them as they move in. I don’t particularly recommend this, but it can be effective in slow-paced 1v1 situations.

Focus Attack

You quickly step in and swing with full force.

Because it comes out fast and closes the distance instantly, landing the attack is relatively safe.

If enemies are clustered together, it can even hit multiple targets.

Broken Baseball Bat

The Baseball Bat is the only weapon that breaks once its durability runs out.

Once broken, its sharpened end changes the attack animations to match those of a Kitchen Knife.

Sickle / Kitchen Knife

Light Attack

Fast consecutive strikes with very little opening. They make breaking the cocoons of Tumor Woman particularly easy.

Sickle: Its damage is respectable, but compared to Steel Pipe–type weapons, the Sickle tends to break a bit more easily.

Kitchen Knife: The strongest option in this category, but it breaks quickly.

Heavy Attack

Sickle: Another series of consecutive attacks.

Kitchen Knife: A single, forceful thrust.

Focus Attack

The Sickle delivers a single powerful swing, while the Kitchen Knife switches to a reverse grip and delivers a committed stab. Its reach is slightly shorter, but the power remains impressive.

Sledgehammer / Axe

These weapons are treated as a slightly special category in the game, distinguished as Heavy Weapons.

Light Attack

You can continuously swing them horizontally as long as you have Stamina, but since the initial start-up has a large opening, you shouldn’t rely on it too much.

Heavy Attack

A single downward strike. The motion is similar to the Steel Pipe and other weapons, but this one likely deals higher damage.

Guard

While in Focus, you can guard against frontal attacks. You cannot block grapple-type moves, but you can negate most attacks from both regular enemies and bosses. However, doing so consumes weapon durability.

While guarding, you cannot move, attack, or change direction. The only action available is a Focus Attack.

You will still take damage from attacks coming from behind, so if an enemy circles around you, you’ll need to release Guard and face them again.

Focus Attack

A simple motion where you thrust the handle forward.

It looks plain and can feel awkward to use at first, but once you get used to it, it becomes surprisingly reliable.

After all, as long as you’re in Focus, you can block almost any frontal attack, clearly see Counter opportunities, and if you’re in a full Focus state, you can interrupt enemy movements with a Focus Attack. It’s far from a weak weapon.

Hidden Weapons

Sacred Sword

Guide → How to Obtain Sacred Sword and Its Uses

PP-8001

Guide → How to Obtain PP-8001 and Its Stats

How to Maintain Weapons for Long-Term Use

All weapons lose durability the more you use them, and eventually they will break and be lost.

In particular, powerful weapons like the Kitchen Knife break very quickly, and you can only obtain about three to four of them throughout the game. If you want to keep using your favorite weapon for as long as possible, you’ll need to be mindful of durability management.

Use Tool Kit

You can restore the durability of your equipped weapon by using Tool Kit.

Tool Bags are consumable items, and unless you thoroughly explore each stage, you’ll find that they’re not as plentiful as you might expect.

Our walkthrough charts include Tool Kit locations on the maps, so feel free to use them as a reference.

Avoid Unnecessary Fights

It’s fine to stick with one weapon for a long time, but if you constantly engage in battles, you’ll end up burning through your Tool Kit. This is especially true for the Kitchen Knife.

So, avoid fighting enemies you don’t need to defeat. Not only does this preserve your weapon’s durability, it also helps you save recovery items that might otherwise be used up due to unexpected damage.

Use Omamori

【Spider】Location: Ebisugaoka

Reduces durability loss when attacking.

Related Guide → Ameda-Shirakawa Walkthrough

Equipping the Omamori above slows down weapon durability loss.

This means fewer Tool Kits used overall — and 【Crab】 in particular is ridiculous. With it equipped, you’ll barely ever need Tool Kits, maybe once or twice per run.

Since it activates simply by being in Focus, you don’t need to be at Max Focus. Even Heavy Weapons are treated as Focused while guarding, meaning they take no durability damage during that time.

Related Guides

Here are my other SILENT HILL f guides. Feel free to check out anything that catches your eye.