Weapon Steal

Weapon Steal is an ability introduced in Batman: Arkham Knight. For Batman, it replaced the Special Combo Bat Swarm featured in Batman: Arkham Knight and Batman: Arkham Origins. With this ability, you can use a blunt weapon used by enemies, namely a Baseball Bat or a wooden baton, which was not possible in previous games.

The command for this ability is □+✕ on PlayStation, X+A on XBox and Shift+Space (this also the same command for picking up throwable objects and the Environment Takedown). It only works if a bat or baton is highlighted in sight. Only bats and batons on the ground can be picked up, which can be caused by enemies dropping them because you have hit and floored them with combat moves. You can also snatch weapons directly from enemies' hands by Stunning them first.

Weapons deal more damage and can pierce through the defenses of Brutes, shielded enemies and enemies with Stun Batons. They can also speed up certain moves, such as the Ground Pound. Due to their power, weapons don't last forever: they will break after a couple of strikes, or when you perform a Beat Down Finisher or when you take out a Brute with them. You can purchase an upgrade in story mode named Weapon Steal Mk II which extends the power and durability of weapons. Note that weapons will always break if you use them for the final strike on the last standing enemies regardless of whether you've had the upgrade or not, although they won't break if you use them for a finishing Ground Pound.

The Weapon Steal ability is only available for male characters other than Red Hood, namely Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Azrael, similar to the Fear Multi-Takedown.