The Dragonblade

You found a katana with the words “Ryu-Ichimonji” carved into its blade.

You are not him.
But for a moment, a fragment of his power answers your hand.

Overview

The Dragonblade is a katana-focused melee expansion mod for SULFUR.

It adds a toggleable katana stance, a cyber-ninja style dash strike, kill-based cooldown refresh, enemy-kill healing, tap / hold melee key behavior, compatibility handling for external weapon-switching mods, and a bottom-right ability HUD.

Features

• Toggle katana stance instead of holding the melee key.
• Tap the melee key to toggle katana stance.
• Hold the melee key to use the original melee behavior.
• Attack with the normal Fire input while the katana is drawn.
• Keep the original Aim / Block behavior.
• While holding a katana, Sprint becomes Dash Strike.
• Dash Strike moves in the direction you are looking.
• Dash Strike uses the current katana as the damage source.
• Killing an enemy refreshes Dash Strike.
• Killing an enemy heals the player.
• Breakable objects do not heal the player.
• Optional config allows non-NPC units, such as breakable obstacles, to refresh cooldown.
• Includes an ability icon HUD with cooldown display, refresh feedback, and healing feedback.
• Includes a small post-dash hang window to make aerial dash movement feel smoother.
• Includes compatibility handling for external weapon-switching mods.
• Optional config controls whether Dragonblade stance is kept or exited after another mod switches your weapon.

Basic controls

While holding a katana-like melee weapon:

Tap Melee key
→ Toggle katana stance on / off

Hold Melee key
→ Use the original melee behavior
→ Release to perform the original melee attack
→ Return to the previous weapon

Fire
→ Perform one melee attack while katana stance is active

Aim
→ Keep original aim / block behavior

Sprint
→ Dash Strike

The mod does not hardcode F, LeftShift, mouse buttons, or controller buttons.

It uses the game's own input actions, so it should respect key rebinding and controller input better than raw key checks.

Compatibility

Do not install Toggle Melee Stance together with The Dragonblade.

The Dragonblade already includes the toggle melee stance feature.

If you previously installed Toggle Melee Stance, remove it before using this mod, unless your installed Toggle Melee Stance version already auto-disables when kumo.sulfur.melee_expansion is present.

Compatibility with Random Weapon Per Level

The Dragonblade includes compatibility handling for weapon-randomizing mods such as Random Weapon Per Level.

By default, if another mod switches your current weapon while Dragonblade stance is active, Dragonblade will exit its stance when you try to fire.

This prevents a broken state where the player appears to be holding a gun, but Dragonblade still intercepts the fire input as melee input.

Default behavior:

Kill enemy
→ Another mod switches your weapon
→ You try to fire
→ Dragonblade exits katana stance
→ The gun fires normally

This behavior can be changed in the config.

Installation

1. Install BepInEx 5 for SULFUR.
2. Extract this package into the game folder.
3. Make sure the files are placed like this:

BepInEx/
└─plugins/
  └─TheDragonblade/
    ├─TheDragonblade.dll
    └─dash_icon.png

Configuration

The config file is generated after launching the game once.

If you updated from an older version and the new options do not appear, delete the old config file once:

BepInEx/config/kumo.sulfur.melee_expansion.cfg

The config will be regenerated the next time the game starts.

Important options:

[KatanaDash]
Cooldown = 5
Distance = 8
Duration = 0.22
HitRadius = 1
DamageMultiplier = 1
RefreshCooldownOnPlayerKill = true
RefreshRequiresKatanaStance = true
RefreshCooldownOnNonNpcUnitKill = false
HealOnEnemyKill = true
HealAmountOnEnemyKill = 5
PostHangDuration = 0.12
PostHangMaxDownwardSpeed = 0.5

[Compatibility]
KeepKatanaStanceAfterExternalWeaponSwitch = false

[ToggleMelee]
EnableTapHoldMeleeKey = true
MeleeToggleTapThreshold = 0.22

[UI]
EnableDashHud = true
DashIconFileName = dash_icon.png
DashHudIconSize = 76
DashHudUseActualSprintBinding = true
DashHudFallbackKeyLabel = SHIFT
DashKillRefreshFeedbackDuration = 0.45
DashHealFeedbackDuration = 0.85

[Debug]
LogDash = false
LogStateChanges = false

External weapon switch behavior

[Compatibility]
KeepKatanaStanceAfterExternalWeaponSwitch = false

false
→ Recommended default.
→ If another mod switches your weapon while Dragonblade stance is active, Dragonblade exits stance when you try to fire.
→ This allows guns to shoot normally after an external weapon switch.

true
→ Dragonblade tries to keep katana stance even after another mod switches your weapon.
→ This may conflict with weapon-randomizing mods.

Tap / hold melee key behavior

[ToggleMelee]
EnableTapHoldMeleeKey = true
MeleeToggleTapThreshold = 0.22

EnableTapHoldMeleeKey = true
→ Tap the melee key to toggle Dragonblade stance.
→ Hold the melee key to use the original melee behavior.

MeleeToggleTapThreshold
→ Maximum press duration treated as a tap.
→ Lower values make hold behavior activate faster.
→ Higher values make tap behavior easier.

Notes

• The Sprint key is not hardcoded. The mod reads the game's Sprint action, so remapped controls are supported.
• The Melee key is not hardcoded. Tap / hold behavior uses the game's own melee input action.
• The mod does not simulate keyboard input.
• While the katana is drawn, the mod keeps the game's own sprint state active through the internal sprint system.
• Dash movement is applied through the game's movement pipeline rather than directly teleporting the player.
• Enemy-kill healing only works on NPC/enemy kills. Obstacles can optionally refresh cooldown, but they never heal the player.
• If another mod switches your weapon after a kill, the default behavior is to exit Dragonblade stance when you try to fire, so the new weapon can shoot normally.

Version notes

v0.2.1

• Added tap / hold melee key behavior.
• Added compatibility handling for external weapon-switching mods.
• Added config option to keep or exit katana stance after another mod switches weapons.
• Fixed an issue where killing an enemy with Random Weapon Per Level installed could leave the player visually holding a gun while Dragonblade still blocked firing input.
• Changed external weapon-switch detection so Dragonblade only exits stance when the player actually tries to fire.
• Fixed unintended Dragonblade state loss caused by overly aggressive non-melee holdable checks.

Files

TheDragonblade.dll
dash_icon.png

Credits

Created by kumo.

This mod is an unofficial fan-made gameplay mod for SULFUR.