Problem
VR combat is significantly easier than gamepad play in this mod, mainly for two reasons:
Weapon hitboxes track real swing/stab motion, so hits land based on actual physical timing and reach instead of a canned animation window.
Bow aiming uses real 1:1 arm/head tracking instead of stick input, which is inherently more accurate than gamepad aiming, especially against small fast-moving targets.
The existing swing/stab detection system solves hitbox abuse (spamming a weapon into an enemy to instantly stagger it), but it doesn't address the deeper issue: there's no resource cost tied to attacking or blocking at all, so a player with good VR motion accuracy can attack and defend continuously with no downside. Vanilla BOTW's difficulty assumes gamepad-level input precision; VR removes that constraint without anything replacing it.
Proposed change
Add a Dark Souls-style stamina cost to combat actions that currently have none:
- Swing/stab stamina cost (per attempt, not per hit)
Charge a stamina cost when a swing or stab motion is executed, independent of whether it connects. This is the important distinction: gating cost on a successful hit only penalizes what's already being penalized by the existing swing-detection system, and doesn't discourage wild flailing, which is the actual behavior this is meant to curb. Gating on the swing/stab motion itself means whiffing still costs stamina, same as Dark Souls, so spamming attacks carries real risk instead of just being free until you happen to connect.
Suggested scaling: cost by weapon class based on BOTW's own design, not a direct Dark Souls weight mapping. Spears are fast, low-damage pokes in BOTW, they shouldn't cost more than one-handed swords. Two-handers (heavy, slow, high damage) should cost the most. Rough order: spear lowest, one-handed mid, two-handed highest, matching each class's existing attack speed and damage rather than assuming size correlates with cost.
Worth noting for whoever implements this: stamina cost should trigger on the attack action itself, regardless of whether it was initiated via motion (swing/stab detection) or the attack button. Tying cost only to detected physical motion creates a balance gap for weapons like spears, where players may prefer button input to preserve reach advantage over melee-range motion tracking, and that gap would undermine the whole point of the change. Action-based triggering avoids that entirely and keeps the cost consistent no matter how the player chooses to input the attack.
- Block stamina drain on impact
When a blocked hit lands, drain stamina proportional to the incoming hit's power, rather than a constant drain just for holding the shield up. This avoids punishing players for simply having a shield raised outside combat, while still making sustained blocking against real pressure costly.
- Blocking suspends stamina regen while active
Stamina already stops regenerating during other actions (sprinting, climbing). Adding "actively guarding" to that same suspend-list would prevent players from holding block indefinitely as a free panic button while still regenerating in the background. This seems like the smallest lift of the three asks, if regen-suspend is already handled as a flag/state list internally rather than hardcoded per-action.
Net effect
Stamina becomes a single shared resource gating both offense and defense, matching the actual Souls-style design goal rather than three isolated tweaks. Right now VR players have no reason to ever stop swinging or drop shield, since neither costs anything. This closes that gap specifically for the VR advantage this mod introduces, without touching vanilla/gamepad balance.
Open questions for maintainer
Is there an existing hook point for "attack action executed" that fires regardless of input method (motion vs. button), independent of the hit-connect check already used for swing detection? This is the preferred trigger point per the note above, to avoid input-method balance gaps.
Is stamina regen-suspend already handled as a general state flag (extensible to blocking), or hardcoded per action?
Toggle
This should be a toggleable option, not forced behavior, consistent with how other balance-affecting settings are exposed (e.g. Cemu's own graphic pack toggles, or BetterVR's existing deadzone/third-person settings). Not everyone wants VR-specific difficulty rebalancing, so this should be opt-in.
Problem
VR combat is significantly easier than gamepad play in this mod, mainly for two reasons:
Weapon hitboxes track real swing/stab motion, so hits land based on actual physical timing and reach instead of a canned animation window.
Bow aiming uses real 1:1 arm/head tracking instead of stick input, which is inherently more accurate than gamepad aiming, especially against small fast-moving targets.
The existing swing/stab detection system solves hitbox abuse (spamming a weapon into an enemy to instantly stagger it), but it doesn't address the deeper issue: there's no resource cost tied to attacking or blocking at all, so a player with good VR motion accuracy can attack and defend continuously with no downside. Vanilla BOTW's difficulty assumes gamepad-level input precision; VR removes that constraint without anything replacing it.
Proposed change
Add a Dark Souls-style stamina cost to combat actions that currently have none:
Charge a stamina cost when a swing or stab motion is executed, independent of whether it connects. This is the important distinction: gating cost on a successful hit only penalizes what's already being penalized by the existing swing-detection system, and doesn't discourage wild flailing, which is the actual behavior this is meant to curb. Gating on the swing/stab motion itself means whiffing still costs stamina, same as Dark Souls, so spamming attacks carries real risk instead of just being free until you happen to connect.
Suggested scaling: cost by weapon class based on BOTW's own design, not a direct Dark Souls weight mapping. Spears are fast, low-damage pokes in BOTW, they shouldn't cost more than one-handed swords. Two-handers (heavy, slow, high damage) should cost the most. Rough order: spear lowest, one-handed mid, two-handed highest, matching each class's existing attack speed and damage rather than assuming size correlates with cost.
Worth noting for whoever implements this: stamina cost should trigger on the attack action itself, regardless of whether it was initiated via motion (swing/stab detection) or the attack button. Tying cost only to detected physical motion creates a balance gap for weapons like spears, where players may prefer button input to preserve reach advantage over melee-range motion tracking, and that gap would undermine the whole point of the change. Action-based triggering avoids that entirely and keeps the cost consistent no matter how the player chooses to input the attack.
When a blocked hit lands, drain stamina proportional to the incoming hit's power, rather than a constant drain just for holding the shield up. This avoids punishing players for simply having a shield raised outside combat, while still making sustained blocking against real pressure costly.
Stamina already stops regenerating during other actions (sprinting, climbing). Adding "actively guarding" to that same suspend-list would prevent players from holding block indefinitely as a free panic button while still regenerating in the background. This seems like the smallest lift of the three asks, if regen-suspend is already handled as a flag/state list internally rather than hardcoded per-action.
Net effect
Stamina becomes a single shared resource gating both offense and defense, matching the actual Souls-style design goal rather than three isolated tweaks. Right now VR players have no reason to ever stop swinging or drop shield, since neither costs anything. This closes that gap specifically for the VR advantage this mod introduces, without touching vanilla/gamepad balance.
Open questions for maintainer
Is there an existing hook point for "attack action executed" that fires regardless of input method (motion vs. button), independent of the hit-connect check already used for swing detection? This is the preferred trigger point per the note above, to avoid input-method balance gaps.
Is stamina regen-suspend already handled as a general state flag (extensible to blocking), or hardcoded per action?
Toggle
This should be a toggleable option, not forced behavior, consistent with how other balance-affecting settings are exposed (e.g. Cemu's own graphic pack toggles, or BetterVR's existing deadzone/third-person settings). Not everyone wants VR-specific difficulty rebalancing, so this should be opt-in.