Mastering Parries in Elden Ring: A Professional Gamer‘s Advanced Guide - 33rd Square (2024)

As a long-time fan of FromSoftware games, I‘vepainfully learned that parrying well is essential for surviving their brutal combat challenges. And in Elden Ring, landing parries consistently against even deadly enemies and bosses can melt through their health bars faster than any magic or weapon art spam.

But I won‘t pretend that parrying is easy or comes naturally in these games. In fact, I still consider it one of the most difficult combat mechanics to master, even after sinking 500+ hours across the Dark Souls trilogy!

However, once parry timing finally "clicks" for you after practice, it becomes an indispensable tool for punishing enemies. So in this advanced guide from a professional gamer, I‘ll share everything you need to know to truly master parries in Elden Ring.

Why Parries Are So Powerful in Elden Ring

Let‘s start by covering why you‘d want to spend the time mastering parries in the first place:

1. Opens Enemies For Critical Damage: Parrying staggers opponents for a longer time than simply blocking their attack. This window allows you to perform a devastating riposte attack for massively boosted damage.

2. Breaks Through Blocks and Guard: Unlike blocking with a shield or dodging attacks entirely, successful parries pierce through an enemy‘s guard to open them up.

3. Works Against Any Attack With recovery: Parry frames activate during an enemy‘s attack cooldowns and recovery, not the actual attack damage window. So parrying works regardless of attack power or blocking ability!

4. Easier Than Dodging For Some Attacks: Attempting to simply dodge huge, sweeping arc attacks can be difficult due to lingering hitboxes at the end of animations catching rolls. But properly timed parries completely negate these!

5. Stops All Momentum and Combo Chains: Rather than trying to dodge every attack in a quick combo chain, one well-timed parry stops the onslaught completely to let you counter-attack.

   See Also

   6 Games With The Most Satisfying Parry Mechanics7 Soulslike Games With The Best Parry Mechanics10 Best Parry Mechanics In GamingParry Hard: A celebration of gaming's most satisfying mechanic

As you can see, parrying rewards mastery by turning enemies‘ own attacks against them. Now let‘s break down how you can consistently land these pivotal combat techniques.

Parry Frame Data: What Are Parry Windows?

All parrying tools in Elden Ring have certain parry frames during which they will successfully block attacks and stagger opponents. The more parry frames a shield offers, the more generous the timing window is to land parries consistently.

Let‘s compare the parry frame windows on a few popular small to medium shields:

| Shield | Startup Frames | Active Parry Frames | Total Parry Frames |
|————–|————————-|
| Small Leather Shield| 6 frames | 13 frames | 19 frames |
| Buckler | 8 frames | 20 frames | 28 frames |
| Target Shield | 6 frames | 14 frames | 20 frames |
| Golden Parry (Skill) | 11 frames | 14 frames | 25 frames |

As you can see, the Buckler offers the most generous window at 28 total parry frames. Comparatively, parry skills like Golden Parry have slower startups but longer active windows.

In General: Medium shields > Parry Skills > Tools for ease of use and room for error.

But the additional parry frames don‘t help if your timing is off! So let‘s cover how to consistently nail down attack timing…

Perfecting Your Parry Game: Tips from a Pro Gamer

While parrying may seem bewilderingly difficult at first, just a bit of focused practice to get the timing down can make a world of difference. Here are my best tips for mastering parries effectively:

1. Drill Parry Timing Against Slow Attacks

Don‘t just try parrying randomly! Instead, isolate specific slow attack animations from weaker enemies to practice against at first. For example, the Crucible Knight‘s sweeping sword slashes have very telegraphed windups ideal for drilling parry timing:

Getting consistently successful parries here builds your instincts without much punishment for messing up.

2. Analyze Enemy Attack Chains

Rather than panicking and spam parrying when faced with quick combos, take a step back first. Carefully analyze what attack chains the enemy uses.

For example, Godrick‘s moveset has:

• Long wind up overhead axe slams when not enraged
• Short dagger slashes into a shield bash when enraged up close
• Fire breath attack for ranged harassment

By identifying specific chained attacks, you can anticipate the correct timing for parries rather than relying on reactions.

3. Maximize Riposte Damage After Parries

Nailing the parry timing is only step one! Be prepared to immediately queue up a riposte by inputting light or heavy attack rapidly after you land the parry. Hesitating too long loses the riposte stagger window for maximum damage.

Equip weapons or buffs that further enhance riposte and critical attacks for devastating punishes from each parry opening.

4. Mix Up Parry Positions

Enemies will continue attacking even if you unlock and reposition around them, making parries across various angles easier compared to head on.

Bait an attack then unlock to swiftly turn and parry, opening new opportunities that are harder to react to normally.

And that covers the key techniques I use to consistently land parries, even against the hardest bosses in Elden Ring after hundreds of attempts. Patience and dedication to mastering parry timing intricacies pays back tenfold!

Let me know if you have any other parrying questions. And may your ripostes strike true, my friend!

Related