How to use pocket sand

[tedbearr]

Whenever I use pocket sand on an enemy it only triggers the finisher 20% of the time and that's not good if I'm low on health.how do you increase the chance of finisher

[IceColdHawk]

6 minutes ago, Taedber said:

Whenever I use pocket sand on an enemy it only triggers the finisher 20% of the time and that's not good if I'm low on health.how do you increase the chance of finisher

He must face into the sand directly to enter it's eyes. You can't blind them from behind.

[ThorienKELL]

Also, depends of enemy type. Some enemies cannot be finished, i think they have to be "human body based". Afaik you can't do finisher on flyer or roller. Use your quicksand on those guys. 

[TARINunit9]

In addition to what the other two guys said, there's also a matter of timing:

Finisher triggers are checked for when you press your melee button, not when your melee weapon hitbox first touches the enemy. If you're at a far distance or at a bad angle, it won't trigger the "finisher check". Be sure to get right up, nice and cozy to your enemy before you start pressing the melee button

[Tesseract7777]

Also, almost all enemies can be hit with finishers -- although like someone said there are still some non-boss enemy types for which there is no melee finisher. However, most of them can. Sometimes it may not feel like it does because you have to approach them from a different angle. 

For example, if you are performing a finisher on an enemy you blinded with Inaros, if it is a Grineer Heavy Gunner for example, you can finisher them from the front, and I think from the back as well. The reason I am not sure is because if the enemy can have a finisher triggered from the front, then its always going to be quicker to do it that way when using Pocket Sand -- the reason is because, as already stated, they must be facing you to be blinded by it, and I think there has to be no enemy directly in the way of them either, because sometimes it seems inconsistent in large groups and I have to cast multiple times to blind them all. I need to test this more. However, if it is an ancient, or a moa, you have to approach them from the back to trigger the finisher -- I'm not sure if this is the same with abilities like Radial Blind, but this is how it works on Inaros. This is counter-intuitive, but it works -- try it. With Chargers I don't remember exactly but I don't think its from the front, I think its a slightly odd angle sort of from the back. 

 

Also if you are in the middle of momentum of some sort it will sometimes not proc the finisher, and you don't necessarily need to see the prompt to start the animation. If you stop fully next to the blinded enemy from the right angle, and then just tap e, it should work if they are properly blinded. Try this on an ancient or Moa. Hit them with Pocket Sand, then go around behind them, stop fully almost next to them and tap e. And just wait, the finisher on the Moa especially is a rather long animation for most weapon types as far as I have been able to tell. I'm really just expounding on what TarUnit said which is correct, you have to get close enough to them, and you have to be at the right angle. For some enemies you can only know the right angle from testing. For others it's more forgiving/omnidirectional. If you get yourself accidentally into a combo before you are at the right range/angle, you'll just beat the Tar out of your enemy instead of triggering finisher. 

[tedbearr]

So I have to be a certain distance away from the enemy and press my melee from back or front then.

[Tesseract7777]

Essentially yes, but I also stress that making sure you are not in the middle of any actions that have momentum will help. Even if it is a basic combo, if you get into the animation before you are quite in range, it may not trigger the finisher. That's why I not only suggest making sure you are almost in hugging range, even if your melee has a lot of range + range mods, but also make sure you have come to a complete stop and are not in the middle of any combo actions, which will just cause you to beat up your enemies normally. 

I was testing it last night in sortie and if you can finisher an enemy from the front using Desiccate, you can also get them from the back. However, some enemies can only be finishered from behind. If that particular enemy type (I know Moa's and Ancients work this way) cannot be finishered from the front, try the back (or just different angles) until you find the right angle to do it from.