After seeing what controllers are capable of in this game I decided to give them a try but I was unsatisfied with the imprecision of the analog stick targeting. It can make certain playstyles very difficult so I decided to give a hybrid control set up a try. I came up with it for use in other games but thought that it might work well in this one, and it does.

Not too long ago I had a setup that didn't allow me to use a keyboard comfortably so I mostly stuck to playing controller exclusive games. Eventually, I wanted to play games that relied heavily on mouse precision so I came up with a controller/mouse hybrid type setup. It doesn't work for everything due to it being restricting on how many buttons you have access to but it does work for Exanima. Unfortunately this guide needs to assume that you have a mouse that has AT LEAST two extra programmable buttons on it for full functionality, although the more the better. This setup can obviously be tailored to your preferences, so I still recommend changing bindings around even if you don't have a mouse-capable setup. You may make it work.

I have my full setup uploaded to the community section in the controller setup layout, and you can find it by searching for "Hybrid". Otherwise this is just an edit of the default controller template provided by the developer.

An example of what intuitive movement can look like:

This is just my personal setup, and this guide is more about the idea rather than the specifics but I will provide a template. This setup uses a switch pro controller but other controllers should work just fine.

The interact section provides everything you need outside of combat including combat toggling, weapon switching and number keys for quick use of thaumaturgy. This is where you will need your first mouse button bind. Bind a mouse button to "Use power" to be able to quickly use thaumaturgy at the start of combat in combination with the d-pad. You will also have use of one extra button on the controller to use a saved thaumaturgy.

The ZL goes unused for me, so it is an extra keybind you may be able to make use of. Keep in mind I have it set to crouch when in combat.



As stated, the only difference in the combat section is that ZL is now used for crouching.



And here the "-" button is set so that when you pause (with the - button) you will be able to unpause with the - button.

With the mouse the only keybinds you will need are "Alternate attack" and "Use power". There are of course many more that are useful but these should be the only necessary ones.

Others that you may want to use if possible include

• Flip weapon (if not needed in combat, this can be done in the menus)
  
• Inventory
  
• Skills
  
• Journal
  
• Power bar
  
• Power tree
  
• Mouse look (I personally set this to the middle mouse button so it shouldn't require an extra mouse button)
  
• Interact (can be useful if you need to use doors/move objects during combat)

And there you go. With this guide I hope that the game at least feels better to play. It's unlikely to actually make you a better player but I definitely think it's much more enjoyable to be able to play without having to use the god awful WASD controls.

Again, this is only a template and if you think you have a better idea of how to do this then you should try it, and also let me know what you come up with.