Originally Posted by Del Duio
I find it almost always looks / works better to have the sword be part of the same sprite as the guy but if you want to have 50 swords that look different than each other you could be in for some future headaches.

Here's what I'm doing now, and I find it's the best method for me and doesn't have to rely on any hitboxes (per se) :

1.) Complete your hero's sprite with all the animations you'll need for attacking.
2.) Clone your hero!
3.) Go into the clone's animation editor and ERASE everything on him that's not a sword.
4.) Make an event that always sets the clone's X & Y position to the hero's, and that forces the clone's animation & frame to whatever the hero's are.
5.) Make the clone invisible.
6.) When you go to have weapons collisions, test if the CLONE is overlapping the ENEMY and the animation "ATTACK" is playing, then subtract damages and stuff from the enemy's HP. Since the CLONE is only the sword, you'll have really accurate hit detection


NOTE: You can also do something similar with your hero taking damage from the enemy, where your hero's weak points (e.g. head) are susceptible to being hit or whatever.