Skills
Perk Level
Total Points
Kickboxing
V
5
Jogger
V
10
Exterminator
V
15
Quick Reflexes
V
20
Hunter
V
25
Toughness
IV
29
Stealth
I
30
Prestige
Perk Level
Total Points
Medic/Looter
V
35
NOTE - USING A KICK BUILD RECOMMENDS LEARNING TECHNIQUE
If you do end up using a kick build, it is absolutely key to learn kick technique to utilize it to its full extend in terms of damage and attack speed. Not using kick tech will hamper your build especially in the late game. Therefore a couple of Kick tech abilities will be stated below.
Kick Tech
Explanation
The 180
Sharing this basic technique with melee, Kicks too can do a 180 either by holding the kick button (LMB or Alt) and turning the camera, or tapping the button and pressing S. The goal of this technique is to create more distance from targets. While you don’t have to do this versus single zombies, it can be useful to gain distance from groups.
Kickloading
A technique discovered by SpencerWS88 - Kickloading is a perfect technique to at to the arsenal of any hybrid builds incorporating the kick. When a boss or zombies are a little bit too close you can kick them and directly after the kick press the reload button. This will allow you to kick while reloading during the kick animation.
The I-Kick
This is a combination using kick in combination with the dodge ability from Quick Reflexes. You kick and during the kick animation you use the dodge. While it doesn’t give you the dodge animation to move about, it will allow you to not get hit while kicking. This is extremely useful against Pukers and groups primarily. I-Kicking is also useful against zombies who tend to instantly attack or when you are going for a second kick to give you invincibility before the second kick.
Swapkicking
This is a technique that is only useful once you reach a kick cooldown of roughly 1.5s (70% Kick CDR). This allows you to animation cancel your kicks in order to kick faster. To perform a Swapkick you kick and during the kick animation your swap weapons before kicking again. The weapon swap animation overrides the kick animation and because it is cut short, it allows you to kick again before the animation ends. Animation Canceling is the key for end-game kicking. Swapkicking is not possible with melee weapons and it requires two ranged weapons to work.
Phantom Kick
This is a technique that can be useful even to those that do not use kick as their main damage output. Phantom Kick requires you to have two firearms as it does not work using melee weapons. Simply press the kick button and hold the aim button while swapping to your alternative weapon. This will make the kick go through but stop the animation early as you swap to the aim animation. This allows free movement near directly after the kick.
Phantom Kickshot (PKS)
This is an adaptation of the Phantom Kick that is primarily effective for slow shooting weapons such as shotguns. By utilizing the phantom kick to animation cancel the weapon swap you can shoot your secondary weapon faster than the second shot of your weapon as well as canceling any delay occuring during a weapon swap.
Kick Videos
I am aware that a lot of you might be skeptical on the practicality of a kick-focused built, so along my journey of perfecting the build I have made various videos, often after discovering tech based around kicks. This build performs as well if not better than melee builds on average. While it is generally not as good for bossing due to its lower damage per attack it is capable of bossing and I have killed various bosses with it.
Kick Tech
0.15s Kick (Lowest Cooldown possible) **Outdated/Nerfed**
Kick utilized during an outpost attack**Outdated/Nerfed**
Kick Tech
0.15s Kick (Lowest Cooldown possible) **Outdated/Nerfed**
Kick utilized during an outpost attack**Outdated/Nerfed**