The Eighteen Arms of Wushu
Combat in The Bustling World is built around the concept of the Eighteen Arms of Wushu (十八般兵器), a classification of Chinese martial arts weapons that dates back centuries in wuxia tradition. The game features eighteen weapon types drawn from this system, covering swords, sabers, spears, staffs, hooks, and more. Each weapon category has its own fighting style and animation set, all recorded through motion capture to give attacks a sense of weight and timing.
Players do not start with access to every weapon type. Weapons and martial arts techniques are found throughout the game world in temples, ancient ruins, faction headquarters, and secluded schools tucked away in remote mountain areas. Some of the most powerful martial arts secrets are guarded by specific organizations. The Beggar Gang has its own fighting traditions. The Sunflower Sect keeps unorthodox techniques under lock and key. Getting access to these restricted styles requires either earning trust through loyalty, trading for them, or taking them by force.
The game does not hand you a skill tree at character creation and ask you to pick a path. You collect fighting knowledge the way you collect anything else in the sandbox: by going out and looking for it. A player who spends time exploring ruins might learn a completely different set of techniques than one who joins a martial arts school, and both paths are valid.
All combat takes place from the game's isometric 2.5D perspective. The developers have not released detailed information about combo systems, skill trees, or stance-switching mechanics. What has been shown in trailers and at events like GDC 2025 is that different weapons produce visibly different attack patterns, ranges, and speeds, and that the motion-captured animations give each weapon its own character.
Bounty Hunting and Fugitive Capture
Bounty hunting is one of the primary combat activities. Players take on contracts to track down and capture or kill wanted individuals. This system ties directly into the game's criminal systems. Characters who commit crimes accumulate wanted levels, and bounty hunters can profit from bringing them in. The bounty board creates a steady stream of combat objectives that send players across the map.
Catching fugitives is a related but distinct activity. Fugitives are characters who have already fled from justice rather than those actively committing crimes in the open. The difference matters in practice because fugitives may have relocated to entirely different regions. Tracking them down requires traveling, investigating, and sometimes navigating the politics of whatever area the fugitive has settled in before you can engage.
Both bounty hunting and fugitive capture reward the player with money and reputation. They are a reliable way to earn income through combat skill alone, without needing to run a business or manage territory. For players who want to focus purely on fighting, these activities provide a sustainable gameplay loop.
Bandit Camps and Exploration
Bandit camps are scattered throughout the world and work as combat encounters with material rewards. Clearing a camp may yield weapons, crafting resources, money, or information about nearby factions. Camps vary in difficulty based on the number and strength of the bandits occupying them, so players need to assess their own combat readiness before charging in.
Beyond surface-level bandit encounters, the world contains temples, caves, and ancient ruins filled with mechanisms and traps. These locations function as dungeon-like content where combat and puzzle-solving overlap. A ruin might require fighting through guards, disabling a trap mechanism, and solving a spatial puzzle to reach the martial arts secret stored at the end. These are the locations where the rarer techniques and powerful weapons tend to be found.
Wild beasts add another layer to exploration combat. Some animals are hostile and attack on sight. Others only become aggressive when provoked or when their territory is entered. Certain rare species found in the wild can be tamed as combat companions rather than killed, connecting the combat system to the animal husbandry mechanics. A tamed wolf fights differently than a tamed eagle, so the choice of combat companion adds tactical variety.
Martial Arts Tournaments
Competitive martial arts tournaments are recurring events in the Jianghu. Players can enter these tournaments to test their skills against other fighters in structured competition. The developers have stated that "winning in the competitions brings players honor and money," making tournaments one of several ways to earn income through combat rather than business or professions.
Since The Bustling World is a single-player game, tournament opponents are NPCs rather than other players. The tournaments appear to function as event-based competitive brackets where the player fights through rounds against increasingly skilled opponents. Winning builds reputation in the Jianghu, which has downstream effects on how factions and NPCs perceive the player.
Tournaments also serve as a proving ground. A player who does well in tournaments demonstrates their mastery of the weapon types and techniques they have collected. For players who have invested heavily in combat skills, tournaments are the formal way to show that investment paying off.
Mercenary Forces and Hero Recruitment
Beyond personal combat, players can recruit martial artists and heroes to form a private mercenary force. These are named characters with their own skills, weapon specializations, and personalities. Recruitment is not automatic. Each potential recruit has motivations, conditions, and loyalties that influence whether they agree to join. Some want money. Some want to see proof of the player's fighting ability. Others may require the completion of personal requests before they commit.
The hero recruitment system ties into the NPC systems. Every recruitable hero is a full NPC with personality traits, family connections, and their own opinions. A hero who values justice might refuse to join a player with a criminal reputation. One who craves combat might grow restless during extended periods of peace. Managing a mercenary force means managing relationships, not just assigning troops to positions.
Building a strong mercenary force is about quality, not just quantity. Each recruited hero brings specific weapon specialties and martial arts knowledge. A force composed entirely of swordsmen fights differently than one with a mix of spearmen, archers, and staff wielders. Diversity of fighting styles makes the group more effective across different combat situations.
Military Warfare
At the largest scale, combat extends into full military operations. Players can recruit soldiers and horses, upgrade their army's equipment and training, defend controlled territory from attack, and launch campaigns against rival powers. This is the highest-stakes combat layer, where the consequences of victory or defeat reshape the political map.
Military strength directly affects faction diplomacy. A player commanding a large, well-equipped army has more leverage in peace talks and trade negotiations. A weak military invites aggression from neighbors who sense opportunity. Geography matters too. Defending a mountain fortress is fundamentally different from holding open farmland, and the terrain of a region shapes which military strategies work.
Wars are not abstract. They displace NPCs, disrupt trade routes, damage buildings, and reshape the economy of affected regions. A region devastated by warfare needs rebuilding, which loops back into the construction and city management systems. Winning a war is only the first step. Governing the aftermath is the harder part.
The military layer connects personal combat to the game's political simulation. You might start the game as a lone fighter with a sword, gradually recruit a mercenary band, build that band into a proper army, and eventually wage war to control entire regions. The overview covers how this progression fits alongside the game's other systems.
Motion Capture and Visual Style
All combat animations were created using motion capture. This applies to weapon attacks, martial arts techniques, and defensive movements. The motion capture data gives combat a physicality that hand-keyed animation often lacks. When a character swings a heavy guan dao, the weight of the weapon is visible in the body mechanics.
Combat uses the same isometric perspective as the rest of the game. The camera does not shift to a different angle during fights. This means combat is always presented in the context of the world around it. You can see buildings, NPCs, and terrain while fighting, which matters tactically when positioning or retreating.