# Blade Component

The **Blade Component** is a Unity component that must be attached to a prefab game object used as the scene representation of a weapon. It serves two purposes:

On one hand, it allows to display *particle* and *sound effects* when clashing with other scene objects, as well as show a trail during the activation phase of an attack.

On the other hand, it is also responsible for determining and collecting the enemies hit by the weapon during an activation phase.

![(Blade Component)](https://2174264233-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LAqwYovmUPn5V6CMeID%2F-M1V3KfOmNDjniEQCkai%2F-M1V4xPDQtN4XeHuItBI%2Fmelee-blade-component.jpg?alt=media\&token=0a7f4693-b069-42e9-b0aa-3b7123ce7f9c)

**Debug Mode** allows to display internal information about the sword slash. This is useful if you don't have a weapon trail or it's barely perceptible and you want to know why an attack is not hitting an enemy.

![(Debug information about the trail and hit casts)](https://2174264233-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LAqwYovmUPn5V6CMeID%2F-M1V3KfOmNDjniEQCkai%2F-M1V6_oMObkFssGjgJOv%2Fmelee-blade-component-debug.jpg?alt=media\&token=dfa623d3-d22a-426a-b50a-5d952028ce45)

### **Blade Edge**

**Blade Edge** positions allow to define a segment that will be used for both the trail of the weapon and detecting hits (when the weapon is required to) if the **Capture Hits** dropdown is set to segment.

![(Point A and Point B define a segment that goes along the blade)](https://2174264233-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-LAqwYovmUPn5V6CMeID%2F-M1V3KfOmNDjniEQCkai%2F-M1V8Hu8Fd0UucckRSBG%2Fmelee-blade-component-points.jpg?alt=media\&token=e17e789e-1eb7-497f-875c-610d5ccd517b)

These **Blade Edge Point A** and **Point B** fields should go along the whole blade (in case of a *Sword*) or along the head (in case of a *Hammer* or *Axe*).

### Capture Hits

The **Capture Hits** dropdown allows to select how you want to detect hits using this weapon. As for now you can choose between two options:

* **Segment:** Detects hits by *Raycasting* along the blade of the weapon (determined by Point A and Point B). However, in order to avoid ghosting through objects due to a fast slash, it also checks inter-frame objects. This is determined by the **Segment Resolution**: The lower the value, the more precise. However, it will also be more costly. Something around 0.5 should fit most cases. 
* **Sphere:** Detects hits by casting a sphere at a specific position and processes any objects caught inside. This is the most performant capture mode, and should be used if you're targeting mobile devices or WebGL platforms.

### Blade Trail

The **Blade Trail** is a custom made trail effect used during the *Activation* phase of an attack. Because most attacks are too fast to be perceived by the human eye, it's a common practice to draw a trail that represents the blur of the moving weapon at a high speed.

This effect can be customized to use a custom **Material** as well as define its **Duration** and how smooth the trail will look using the **Granularity** field.

The *Trail* will always use the segment defined by **Point A** and **Point B** from the *Blade Edge* section.