MUSIC FOR PUNCHING

June 17, 2026

Hey game masters! This time around I want to talk about combat music. There are dozens of games out there with awesome soundtracks that I use all the time for combat music. In this post I’ll cover a couple of my favorites and when I use them.

First off, I want to talk about tempo. It’s important to remember that a lot of time at the table is spent thinking and waiting. Extremely high tempo music doesn’t really fit that. That’s not to say that no action game music is suitable for the table, because I use music almost exclusively from action games. I just think it’s important to consider that crazy music playing while you’re sitting on a couch reading about how far you can cast your spell is only going to hurt your immersion. Turn-based games are great sources for music because the designers of these games realize this fact. I highly recommend music from Larian games such as Divinity Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 for this exact reason.

Anyway, here is my list of action game soundtracks I use all the time while completely ignoring the advice I just gave:

Hollow Knight (and Silksong)

Hollow Knight is almost always my first choice for not only combat music, but ambiance too. It’s boss themes are peak and the ambiance tracks are whimsical and curious, perfect for exploring low-level areas in your game. Here are a couple standouts:

  • Nosk’s Theme - This is one of the most intense songs on this list, but it holds a special place in my heart because I used it for the first boss fight I ever ran. The creepy use of strings in the song were perfect for the giant centipede monster my players fought.
  • The Collector’s Theme - The first time I heard this weird, distorted song, I knew I needed to use it for some kind of fight where reality is melting or warping around the players. The undistorted version is called “Desciscive Battle”, so I used that for the first phase of a fight where the players were fighting a boss inside a magic painting. The painting was melting as the fight progressed, causing their surroundings to drip and melt while I slowly transitioned to the distorted version of the song as we entered the second phase. It was awesome.
  • Lace’s Theme - In Silksong (and the original Hollow Knight to some extent) a lot of songs are heavy on the strings, making them thematically appropriate for spider-like enemies. I recently used Lace’s Theme for the first phase of a boss fight against an evil spider-like entity, then faded into Widow’s Theme for the second phase.
  • Radiance’s Theme - The big boss’ theme, as well as a bunch of tracks from the Godhome DLC, are all absolutely perfect for fights against celestials and larger-than-life enemies. I used several of them for all the phases of the final boss fight of an epic multi-year campaign I ran.

Monster Hunter

The Monster Hunter series is overflowing with tracks for almost any type of encounter you can think of. Have a fight in the jungle? You’re good. The party picks a low-stakes fight with some goblins? No problem. Time to fight the god of death? Easy-peasy. There is literally something for everything, and all of them are bangers. A few of my favorites include:

  • Bazelgeuse’s Theme - This song invokes feelings of airplanes and armadas. I’ve used it for a fight between two airships, a fight against a roc, and a fight against a group of dapper harpies.
  • Velkhana’s Theme - This is my go-to dragon song. It’s regal and grand, just like how I imagine a dragon would carry themself.
  • Teostra’s Theme - In one of my campaigns, there were a couple of sphinxes that the players had to fight as mini bosses. I felt like Teostra and Lunastra’s themes fit them perfectly, but I could have just been biased because of the lion-like appearance of sphinxes. Either way, awesome tracks.
  • Rotten Vale Battle Theme - Lots of the generic region battle themes from the Monster Hunter games are great for low stakes fights, but this one really sticks out for me for whatever reason. The tempo is low and it’s not too crazy and bombastic, perfect for early game combat encounters.
  • Gammoth’s Theme - Ok last Monster Hunter one I promise but I gotta throw my man Gammoth in there, his theme is sick and honestly lends itself perfectly to almost any kind of fight.

From Software Games

Ok yeah, a lot of the tracks in these games are pretty crazy. The amount of high-tempo orchestral chanting is pretty overwhelming. But some of them are great for the right situations! These are a few I’ve used:

  • Father Gascoigne’s Theme (Bloodborne) - I absolutely adore phase one of this track. I’ve only ever used it once when my group was facing off against a dread pirate and his crew in a naval battle in a thunderstorm, but I’ve been itching for opportunities to use it again because it’s so threatening and urgent.
  • Owl’s Theme (Sekiro) - I used the first and second version of this theme for a fight against an old, evil samurai and his son. The son had the first version of the theme and once the players defeated him easily, his big bad dad showed up and I switched to the more intense phase 2 of the theme. He kept parrying their attacks and they ultimately wound up having to kill him by stabbing him in the chest with a stick of dynamite and blowing him up.

Hades

One of the great things about the Hades soundtrack is that very few of the tracks are too intense for tabletop. They all have a fun, quirky, almost Halloween-like vibe. Here are some I’ve used:

  • Theseus and Asterius’ Theme - Having a low-intensity and high-intensity version of the same song makes it perfectly suited to a 2-phase boss fight, which is exactly what I used it for.
  • Hades’ Theme - I’ve used the first and second versions of the final boss’ theme for a 2-phase fight, but I also used The Unseen Ones once for a fight against a dude shredding on an electric guitar as the players fought him, which was a ton of fun.

Shadow of the Colossus

The soundtrack for Shadow of the Colossus offers a surprisingly wide variety of tracks of varying levels of intensity. It’s yet another one-stop-shop for if you want all your tracks to be consistent (since they’re all from the same game) but also need some of every tone from combat to mystery. Here’s some awesome ones from Shadow of the Colossus:

  • A Despair Filled Farewell - Shadow of the Colossus tracks all fit the fight they’re paired with extremely well, so why not just put the whole fight in your game? Dynamic fights where your players are riding on the backs of huge monsters are awesome, and A Despair Filled Farewell is perfect for fighting on/with a giant flying beast.
  • Counterattack - One of the more frantic and dire track from Shadow of the Colossus, Counterattack is perfect for making your players panic and make rash decisions. I once used it for a fight where the players were plummeting out of the sky from a shot-down airship and trying to kill a swarm of aarakocra assassins on the way down.
  • Demise of Ritual - While not necessarily a combat track, this song is made for a moment of somber reflection. Got real tears at my table with this bad boy. Honorable mention, The End of Battle (the one that plays after you beat a colossus) has the same vibe.

Red Dead Redemption

If you’re running a western themed game, I don’t think you need me to tell you how fitting the soundtracks from the Red Dead games are. But! Have you considered that you can use them outside of a western themed game? Sometimes it’s fun to shake up your campaign with a brief tonal shift. A random fight against cowboy goblins or a sidequest in a frontier town out in the desert are always fun. Here are some Red Dead tracks I’ve used:

  • American Venom - One of the best tracks in the game. I recently used it when the party fought a group of bandits in an abandoned watchtower. It felt appropriate, given all the ranged attacks and waist-high cover of that encounter.
  • Bank Robbery Theme - This rhythmic, tense track is made for a standoff. Your players versus a gang of baddies. Everyone hidden behind crates, frantically reloading, shots grazing off of cover, bullets and bolts whizzing by. Peak cinema.
  • Train Heist (Catching Train/Shootout) - Another great low tempo, high tension track. Maybe more suitable to a pursuit scene rather than an active battle.
  • Firefight With O'Driscolls - A slightly scarier/quirkier take on the typical bass-heavy tense music of Red Dead. Perfect for a crazed gunman.
  • El Club De Los Cuerpos - Yet another tense track with a slow build up. If you can time it perfectly and your players take their turns fast, it’s awesome to use progressive tracks like this so that the music ramps up in intensity as the fight itself ramps up in intensity.

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading! Hope some of these songs inspire you like they inspired me! If you want to talk shop, hit me up at fantasyfader@gmail.com or on my socials, which I’ll definitely make at some point.