Knockdown and Recovery

This guide shows how to configure knockdown and recovery for combatants.

Knockdown is an optional fatal damage reaction. When enabled, fatal damage can place a combatant into a temporary knocked down state instead of immediately starting the normal death flow. The combatant can then recover through a Gameplay Event, or die if the knockdown duration expires.

For more information, see Damage Reactions and Vulnerable States.

Prerequisites

Collision and Components

Your collision channels, combat components, Ability System setup, and base character setup should already be configured. For more information, see Combat Setup and Combat First Steps.

Damage Pipeline

The combatant must use a Damage Data asset through its Damage Manager or Combat Manager. This asset defines the damage outcome pipeline used to resolve fatal damage as knockdown.

Animation Assets

Knockdown usually uses three animation-related pieces:

An Animation Blueprint that can react to the knocked down state.
A Knock Down Montage that plays when the combatant enters knockdown.
A Recovery Montage that plays when the combatant recovers.

Configure the Animation Instance

Create an Animation Blueprint using NinjaCombatAnimInstance as the base class.
In your Anim Graph or state machine, use bKnockedDown to blend into and out of knocked down animation states.
Make sure your Animation Blueprint has a full-body Slot that can be used by the knockdown and recovery montages.

Create the Knockdown Montages

Create an Animation Montage for the transition into knockdown.
Create an Animation Montage for the recovery animation.
Set both montages to use the full-body Slot configured in your Animation Blueprint.
Adjust blend times as needed so the transitions into and out of the knocked down state feel smooth.

Movement Component

If your character should move differently while knocked down, use a movement component that can react to the combat state.

Ninja Combat provides NinjaCombatCharacterMovementComponent, which can listen to combat state changes and adjust movement settings such as walk speed.

Configure Knockdown Movement

Open your Character Blueprint or base character class.
Select the Movement Component.
Configure the movement settings used while the character is knocked down.

For more information, see Combat Components.

Knockdown Abilities

Knockdown uses two Gameplay Abilities:

-CombatAbility_KnockDown, which handles entering the knocked down state. - CombatAbility_KnockDownRecovery, which handles recovery.

Configure the Knock Down Ability

Create a Gameplay Ability Blueprint using CombatAbility_KnockDown as the base class.
Set the Default Animation Montage to the knockdown montage created earlier.
Keep the default Knocked Down State Effect Class, or assign a custom effect based on CombatEffect_KnockedDown.
Keep the default Dead Effect Class, or assign a custom death effect used when the knockdown duration expires.
Grant this ability to the combatant.

Configure the Knock Down Recovery Ability

Create a Gameplay Ability Blueprint using CombatAbility_KnockDownRecovery as the base class.
Set the Default Animation Montage to the recovery montage created earlier.
Keep the default Recovery Effect Class, or assign a custom effect based on CombatEffect_RecoverFromKnockDown.
Grant this ability to the combatant.

Knockdown Attributes

The default knockdown flow uses two Gameplay Attributes:

Attribute	Description
`KnockDownDuration`	Defines how long the combatant can remain knocked down before dying.
`KnockDownHealthPercent`	Defines how much health is restored when recovering from knockdown.

Both values must be greater than zero for the default Knock Down outcome to resolve fatal damage as knockdown.

Configure Knockdown Attributes

Open the attribute initialization table assigned to your combatant.
Set NinjaCombatAttributeSet.KnockDownDuration to a value greater than 0.
Set NinjaCombatAttributeSet.KnockDownHealthPercent to a value greater than 0.

Damage Setup

The combatant must opt into knockdown through its Damage Data and Combat Manager configuration.

Configure Knockdown Damage Resolution

Open the Damage Data asset assigned to the combatant.
Add the Knock Down Damage Outcome to the damage outcome pipeline.
Make sure the Damage Data asset is assigned to the combatant's Damage Manager or Combat Manager.
Open the combatant's Combat Manager.
Enable Can Enter Knockdown State.

Once this is configured, fatal damage can be redirected into knockdown instead of immediately starting the death flow.

Recovery

In this example, a Trigger Box is used to recover knocked down combatants that overlap it. You can use the same event flow from other systems, such as Ninja Interaction

Create a Recovery Volume

Create a Blueprint based on Trigger Box.
Create a function named HasKnockDownEffect that receives an Actor.
In HasKnockDownEffect, retrieve the Actor's Ability System Component.
Create an active Gameplay Effect query that checks for CombatEffect_KnockedDown as the effect definition.
Return whether the Ability System Component has an active Gameplay Effect matching that query.
Create a function named SendRecoveryEvent that receives an Actor.
In SendRecoveryEvent, check for authority and retrieve the Actor's Ability System Component.
Send a Gameplay Event using the Combat.Event.RecoverFromKnockDown Gameplay Tag.
In the Event Graph, bind to the collision component's On Begin Overlap event on authority.
When an Actor overlaps, call HasKnockDownEffect.
If the Actor is knocked down, call SendRecoveryEvent.

Give Up

A knocked down combatant can also be forced into the death flow by sending the Combat.Event.GiveUp Gameplay Event. This can be used for player-controlled give-up actions, timers, AI behavior, or scripted events.

Trigger Give Up

Retrieve the knocked down combatant's Ability System Component.
Send a Gameplay Event using the Combat.Event.GiveUp Gameplay Tag.

28 June 2026