Buttstroke

Overview

Buttstroking is a tactic that consists of using a rifle as a blunt weapon by striking the enemy with the gun's stock. Most shooters these days have a melee button for that exact purpose, as popularized by Halo: Combat Evolved. However, some games have this as an alt fire function that only works with specific weapons, like in XIII where the shotgun is the only weapon that can buttstroke. In other games, it's a separate "firing mode"; for example, the sniper rifle in Golden Eye: 007 adds a separate "weapon" to James Bond's arsenal in the form of the back of the rifle, allowing players to strike enemies much more effectively than the game's infamously weak "slapper" melee attack.