This GIF about Counter Hits and Weapon Clashes made me want to compile a list of terminology that I use to design the combat in The Moon Fields.

Dash - tapping the A button repeatedly while moving confers a large amount of speed to your movement speed at the cost of being a bit more predictable with your momentum.

Jump - tapping A while not moving hops you up in the air ~2m which is enough to leap over most horizontal attacks. You still have some control of your movement in the air which helps with climbing over the terrain.

High Jump - hold A while moving charges for 12f and then leaps you into the air ~3m and bestows a large amount of horizontal movement. You can combo this with dashing beforehand to get to hard to reach places. Warning: holding the A button will also slow your movement before the Jump.

Tilt Attack - activating an attack while the Analog stick is pushed past its threshold activates the Tilt Attack. In general these are fast and aggressive.

Neutral Attack - activating an attack while the Analog stick is closer to its center activates Neutral Attacks. In general these are trickier attacks meant to defend or take advantage of an indecisive enemy.

Air Attack - these attacks are activated when the player's feet are not on the ground. Most weapons only have one Air Attack, but some technical weapons will have both an Air Tilt and an Air Neutral. The Shortbow's Air Tilt shoots downward at an angle whereas its Air Neutral shoots straight ahead.

Focus Points / Magic Points - players holding magical items generate FP. FP is represented by floating pink cubes around the player. Different amounts of FP are used to cast spells. Some magical weapons will also use FP to gain special abilities. E.g. The Drain Blade uses FP to cast "Drain" to steal the damaged HP for its caster. Heavy actions such as swinging large weapons or running will also deplete FP.

Fire/Explosive/Magical Explosive Damage - the most pertinent information is that this damage can't be blocked. Fire and Explosive damage can also ignite Black Goo.

Black Goo - this sticky stuff slows down any player that comes into contact with it. It can be ignited, so Fire and Explosive damage are very dangerous around Goo. Activating a Jump or High Jump will remove one goo orb at a time.

Quick Turn - this is an amount of degrees that an action turns the player when it is activated. E.g. the bread and butter Knights' Sword Stab has a Quick Turn of 180, so no matter your facing direction, when you activate the attack, you will stab in the exact direction you're pushing your analog stick. On the other side of the spectrum, the mace Black Branch Smash attack has a Quick Turn of 0, so if you miss you have a high chance of being flanked.

Forehand/Counter Clockwise/CCW - these attacks are swings that swing from your right to your left and are generally fast. The directionality is helpful because it tells you the direction you should be moving around an object to utilize that attack. E.g. you want to chase enemies around objects Counter Clockwise so your Battle Axe Forward Swing can wrap around the environment. Conversely, if you're being chased by someone with a Battle Axe, try hugging the environment while moving Clockwise to stuff their Battle Axe's Forward Swing.

Backhand/Clockwise/CW - these attacks are swings that swing from your left to your right. If you and your opponent are facing each other, this will avoid their Shielded Side. A common Backhand attack is the neutral Grand Blade Swing. This is one of the faster CW attacks! You can tell it's coming because you have to stop moving to let it go; so if you're using the Grand Blade on offense, try alternating between walking and standing still.

Shielded Side - in general when I say Shielded Side I mean your character's left side. Holding steadfast against Forehands or turning from Backhands, you can take advantage of sloppily swinging enemies. Against enemies that prefer to stab straight at you, you can attempt to circle your enemy Counter Clockwise. This combos very well with a Back Shield.

Back Shield - a few of the larger Shields are placed on your back. Face to face, these protect against only the most overshot swinging attacks. But circling an enemy will help you block an entire half of swings. CCW movement will protect from Forehands, and CW movement will protect from Backhands. The most important thing about this is that while moving CCW your Backhands can hit your enemy much quicker, and while moving CW your Forehands will also hit your enemies much quicker as well. Back Shields are also great for running away.

Damage - each attack has its own damage. Every one of those attacks will always do the same damage as every other one of those attacks.

Stun - each attack also has its own amount of Stun. Connecting a hit will do both Damage and Stun. Having your hits blocked means the Stun will be returned to you - though some weapons have Returned Stun Multipliers that will modify this number. In general heavy attacks have low RSM while lighter, pokey attacks have higher RSM.

Power Attack - this attack powers through a block without stunning the attacker (after a collision, a Power Attack does not convey any damage). Generally this is for multihit attacks like neutral The Knights' Sword's Flurry.

Armored Attack - this attack is also a Power Attack, but it cannot be Counter Hit.

Counter Hit - hitting an opponent while they are in the middle of activating a normal or Power Attack knocks them out of their attack and confers a bonus 15f stun. This appears as a yellow and orange cloud.

Power Block - the first 15f of block multiplies the Returned Stun by the shield's Power Block Multiplier. The Buckler's multiplier is 4x whereas the Barricade's multiplier is 1.5x. Power Block will also stun a Power Attack (cancelling it and any followup swings for its attack).

Weapon Clash - a large yellow cloud of sparks appears before both attacking players are pushed away.  Neither player will be stunned, and both players will finish out their attack animations before being able to attack again.

Dash Cancel - after a Weapon Clash or a successful hit, you can press a direction and the A button to skip the rest of the attack animation and return to idle. You can also Jump Cancel by pressing A without holding a direction. Both let you immediately return to attacking.

The armory is currently separated into 11 different item types. Certain groups of item types can be safely grouped together (e.g. Guns and Bows both fit under the category of Ranged), though the specific categorizations are meant to help with builds (e.g. it is easier to swap a Melee in with another Melee than it is to swap with a Large Melee). The categories are: Large Melee, Melee, Magic Melee, Ranged, Gun, Shield, Strafing Shield, Magic Trinket, Trap, Consumable, and Miscellaneous.

Large Melee, Melee, and Magic Melee all have attacks and hitboxes that act similarly. Large Melee will generally "expend Focus" making them difficult for Magic users to use, though they also have high damage and stun, and are more likely to have Power and Armored Attacks. Regular Melee either postpone or have no effect on Focus Point generation. Magic Melee will follow these same rules, but if you have enough Focus Points, you may be able to cast while also attacking (e.g. the Drain Blade will cast Drain on itself and can steal HP on a hit).

Both Ranged and Guns use ammunition. Many of the ranged attacks will have an Aim mode that can be activated from any of the four command types. The Aim mode will lock your direction while allowing you to strafe.

There are regular Shields and Strafing Shields. Strafing Shields are a subset of shields that have flat faces and upon activation lock your direction. The rest of the Shields are curved and have the option of strafing like above or rotating like normal if activated while Tilted. Shields are further separated by other traits: Durability, Side or Back placement, Parry Strength, Walking Speed, Quick Turn, and Weight. Last note: when a Shield loses all Durability, pressing the Shield button will spend a moment to recover the shield instead.

Magic Trinkets and Magic Melee both can consume Focus Points to cast spells. Magic Trinkets will only have actions that are spells (and will sputter out when you don't have enough Focus Points). Magic Melee can do both, and will revert to their melee attack without a spell if you don't have enough FP.

Traps and Consumables both have limited uses. Traps are outwardly projected only e.g. Caltrops or the quickly exploding Drop Bomb. Consumables are generally used on your own person, though they can be thrown for varying effects e.g. the Magic Bottle can be ingested for a quick maxout for MP or it can be thrown for a small amount of splash damage.

The Miscellaneous category has stuff that doesn't fit nicely into categories above. The Goblin Head is like a Ranged Weapon, but it shoots fire. The Hook Chain is also shoots a projectile, but it is more about physics and doesn't do any damage. And the Dash Boots are also a little odd. These guys are the weirdos, and I think it helps keeping them away from the other items because they're so unique.