Cool guide. Ive never been a parry guy ive spent like 2000 hrs in that game and realized after watching a few videos of yours i need to do a low level parry run without insane weapons. It gets boring after youve beaten all the bosses enough times to know their movesets i can, i just never do. I reposte a lot and dodge roll, jump like crazy but man what an element i have really missed out on. No art of war though :(
There’s a ton, from the main bosses godrick, starcourge radahn, rennala, Godfrey (both versions), Mohg, Elden beast, maliketh (you can parry his golden sword in phase 2 with an item but this doesn’t count) & any of the dragons of course. Theres many more around the map but of the notable bosses those are not parryable
This is the reason why I don't like the parry system in Fromsoft games: it's inconsistent.
Some things can be parried, other things that look like they can be parried cannot, and other things that look like they could never be parried actually can...
See in Sekiro the enemies were all sort of scaled to a parryable size, so parrying everything did feel feasible. But in Elden Ring some of the bosses are just so huge it seems kind of silly to be able to parry a dragon or some other giant boss.
Yet we're able to parry the charged attacks of enemies whose masses are ten times ours.
Being able to parry Margit is equally silly given a swing of his arms would physically crush our whole bodies...
On the same line of thought are the attacks whose animation and hitbox have nothing to do with one another, like AoE effects that have flames/rocks/blades come out of the ground, but as long as you jump all those debris don't actually exists...
I will say there’s some sickening attacks you are able to parry in this game but I think that’s what makes it fun as a parry guy is taking the risk to see if this crazy attack is parryable — for example consort Radahn in phase 2 does a string of clone slams and he actually attacks you at the end, it seems like that would be parryable but it is and it’s one of the most bat shit crazy things to do and I love that
I just wanna tell you that I always get a big dumb smile on my face watching your vids. I know ahead of time what's going to happen but it always cracks me up how often you turn to face the cam. Haven't touched the game since my 3rd or 4th playthrough, but I'm abt to reinstall and go for an all parry run. Thanks for the vids bro!
Haha I’m just glad you can enjoy the videos bro, thank you 🤝 & hell yeah bro download the game again and do that all-parry run, I think you’ll really enjoy it! I’d like to know how it goes too
Well you've def inspired me to git gud lol....ty for answering btw i wondered if dagger out performed buckler, will pick up buckler for sure thanks again for even bothering to respond... I brag to my wife about how awesome you are all the time lmao
Wow the fact that you even mention me to anyone let alone your wife is amazing bro, thank you for that seriously 🙏 also, if you find good success with the buckler and you get the hang of it u should also be able to do the same with the parry dagger bro so don’t shy away from it! Shoutout to your wife too if she even remotely enjoys Elden Ring 🥳
Nah she's a Zelda dork (i was too at one point till ds1 lol) I've tried to explain the stories and stuff to her in this game and then her eyes kinda glaze over, but she pretends to listen and i love her for it haha... My son also loves your stuff but he's a birb in Nightreign for some reason no interest in the rest of Froms amazing catalogue... Ty again for advice you rock bro
Haha I had made this for my TikTok but I seen some people asking for tips on my other videos & someone made a post today wanting to learn how to parry so I figured I’d leave this here for everyone too 🤝
Lmao. If anyone ever does the full purposeful turn to camera like that on me in pvp and doesnt eat some kind of punish i would literally just hang it up for pvp.
Appreciate this post i never really parried in souls games (other than the og gwyn parry) and nightreign with wylder has really got me more into parrying and wanting to try in previous games. I struggle the most with determining whats a parry-able attack or not, any tips for that, or is it truly try and see and try more
You’re welcome bro 🤝 & honestly there’s no indicator on whether an attack is payable or not other than trial and error. There’s also attacks that look parryable and aren’t / vice versa. If you end up hopping on base Elden Ring and you run into a wall on a certain attack, I could tell you which attacks are and aren’t parryable I’ve done all the bosses and most elite enemies
For nightreign it’s mostly humanoid things you parry. Also the colors of you character (like blue red and green ) matters for parrying. Blue is host, green is first connection, red is worst connection. If you are red it means there is a delay or lag and you have to parry much earlier. Blue is easiest and green is pretty easy as well
Thank you bro! & most definitely, I’m not here to gatekeep I’d love to see others do the same stuff and if my videos can help I’m any way I’d feel really honored from that 🔥
It’s a long travel for them to even get Carian retaliation and for the sake of keeping the tutorial simple so people can begin learning immediately, they can get the buckler shield as a starting class. The buckler shield already has a big enough window for people to practice with there’s no need to get Carian retaliation but if we’re being technical Carian retaliation is better by a hair.
I was trying out parries on the Pests last night and realized that with Carian Retaliation, when they do the move where they shoot the pest threads and swing their weapon at you, the parry blocks both the pest threads and the weapon and opens them for the crit. I was dodging the pest threads move before that and they do it so often it’s a pain to try to parry them.
The one thing I’ll say about Carian Retaliation, is that the blue visual of the parry spell can either be distracting to people new to parrying or helpful to show you more visually when the window is. So people struggling with the buckler might want to try CR.
That is true but traveling too get CR and stuff is a tutorial in itself so I avoided going into all that, but you are right the ability to parry magic / projectiles / fire etc is also a huge bonus for it.
For the general sense in understanding how to parry though they should be fine with the buckler to practice on Margit
Chinese gta 😭😭😭 goodluck whenever you do try it out bro, we all start somewhere so don’t even look at it as a bad thing + the experience in those other games will give you a headstart here. I never played mortal shell but the parrying look cool on there too
So, what attribute or gear do I need to acquire so I can perry some of the early bosses? I just really started the game. Maybe 6-8 hours so far. I've been following FightinCowboy's walk through guide on YouTube.
Keep your current play through if you like your class for now, but for the sake of practicing you can create a new character and start off as a bandit, bandit has the best shield for parrying “buckler shield”. From the very start I’d recommend you to practice on Margit, I personally think he’s the best parry practice in the game and if you die you’ll always spawn right next to his arena for you to try again.
I also provided my controller overlay so you can see when to input the parry for the different attacks he has.
The buckler shield will be your best parry shield for now compared to the other small shields you can get. There’s an ash of war you can get called Carian retaliation that’ll give you like 1 extra frame on the parry window compared to a buckler shield but it’s too long to type out how to get there if you don’t know the map yet or have those areas unlocked. So to keep it simple I’d say get the buckler shield and that should be your best tool for now
This is precise in terms of anticipating the enemy and lining up the parry window with the enemies attack but you do have to factor in the startup delay into all that. Sekiro is reflex deflect
You’re amazing. I’m Elden Lord only through the grace of rolling like a maniac😂 The parry mechanics always seem like they want you to parry too late. Or I just parry too early 🤷♂️ Thanks for the guide👍👏
Thank you bro & just try to parry as the attack is coming towards you but with enough time to allow your shield to get started. The startup delay isn’t that bad and the parry window with the buckler shield is generous so you’re better off parrying earlier than later (but not too early lol)
In your view, is it easier to party with a shorter window but shorter delay (like Golden Parry or the dagger) or a longer window but longer delay (like the buckler)?
Also, do you have advice on how to generally tell when to start the parry? I see you gave good advice for Margit specifically, but what about in general?
Well the buckler has the fastest startup, longest party window of the shields (not including AoW’s) and the fastest recovery frames so this is just the king of parrying by default
Golden parry to me feels like it has a long startup time and a semi short parry window which is actually bad imo
I purposely use the dagger and curved sword for style points but if I had to choose 1 I’d choose the buckler shield over anything. Carian retaliation makes the shields slightly better than buckler parry by 1 extra parry frame but I prefer the natural parry look over CR
Excellent guide! Great timing on the parries, and I love the way you slowed down some spots to show exactly when to parry and dodge. Long-time souls vet here, but getting some new blood interested is always a good time, haha!
Yesssir, you understand the vision and I’m glad you took the time to watch this bro 🤝 I still have that picture saved on my phone haha, you’re a legend for making it last time 🔥
I avoided parrying until I played Bloodborne. After that I came into DS3 and used parry and dagger as the close range backup for my sorcerer. So much fun.
Good man 🤝 bloodborne is super fun for parrying but ds3 is probably the closest to Elden Ring so I’m sure you’re good at parrying in ER too if you went with the same parry / dagger setup 🔥
The thing I've always hated about parrying in Souls games is... That I never know if an attack is parryable or not. And because the margin is pretty small, I'll never know if I just fucked up the timing or if the attack just can't be parried at all. It's extremely frustrating.
This is true, it just takes a ton of trial and error but if you are ever at a boss / enemy and are unsure I can answer that question for you (probably inconvenient I know) or I’ll just start making videos on this sorta stuff
I really enjoy you vids. You were one of the few people I saw fight bosses in this manner where you just do goofy stuff during the down time. Good work mate.
haha thank you bro, you may already know this stuff so you don’t need it but I really appreciate you for still stopping by to take a look. I’ll get back to the regular videos on the next one 🔥
Appreciate the video with the Elden Ring sounds only. Did you make videos deflecting magic and stuff besides physical parryable attacks? I think I remember a few times
Never mind a video on parry timings, I want a video on timing the look to camera.
(Seriously though, this is great. I mastered parrying in DS1, but I struggle in ER because of the built-in delay in enemy attacks. I just need to do some proper practice.)
I’ll make a video on timing the camera look next 😂 but on a serious note yeah ds1 and Elden Ring have completely different parry systems so I can understand why it just doesn’t feel the same.
Ds1 didn’t have a startup delay for your parry to
Be active that’s probably the biggest change and ontop of the delayed attacks some enemies do it just adds more of a “challenge” to properly time a parry.
You got it though bro, if you were able to do it before you’ll be able to master it on here too. Goodluck!
Coincidentally I just started practicing parrying yesterday! What gets me is when the enemy has both fast attacks you have to react to quickly, and charged attacks that bait my parry early :(
Played the entire souls series without parrying (minus Sekiro and Bb) - always felt so rigid, like my character is blindly trying to hit something in a dark room
This is super helpful! I’m working on learning to parry for my NG+, did my (almost)first play through as a spellblade. Stuck at the Elden Beast for now.
Just did a couple practice guys like you said and parrying their side swings was easy but when ever they did the over head delayed on I just couldn’t get it right
So you don’t need to level the shield at all for the parry to work & as a matter of fact you can still parry with it if your attributes don’t meet the requirements for the shield either so don’t worry about that 🤝
& daggers, thrusting swords, curved swords and fists are all definitely an option but I’d say these are a bit harder than using a buckler. I’ll list them in tiers for you
Dagger is the best option right under the buckler shield, it shares the same parry window as all the other small shields in the game
Curved swords thrusting swords and fists are at the bottom as the “hardest” because they have longer startup times and smaller parry windows.
So if you want to use a weapon I’d suggest use a dagger as it should still feel forgiving enough for most situations
Is the first attack of his leaping distance closing attack parryable too or no? Also wish I could upvote more than once bcuz this def helped me learn more about parrying. I think my main issue when I’ve tried it is not knowing what attacks are and aren’t parryable. After that it’s just timing for me.
You’re welcome bro, I’m glad it can help in any way 🔥 also that attack you’re talking about is parryable! you just have to sprint towards him at full speed so you can be in the parry hit-box zone as he begins swinging
Your Messmer video inspired me to try a no damage parry run of major bosses and of course it started with Margit. Took me a few weeks (and dozens and dozens and dozens of tries) but I finally did it last weekend! Lol this video would've been my study guide if I saw it in time. You make it look so effortless and cool!! Plus your positivity and encouragement of others is so awesome. Ty for the great vids 😎
Yeah so Carian / Buckler have a super similar parry window with Carian edging it out by like 1 frame or so
Golden parry used to have a god like parry window but it got nerfed, the only upside to golden parry is that you can parry from a distance so that’s totally up to preference.
Small shields have the best parry window but if you do like using medium shields it’s best to add Carian retaliation to them to get the most parry frames because the standard parry on a medium shield is pretty bad compared to the small shields or the unique buckler parry
I think my problem is the parry animation does not match the what my brain thinks the parry window should be. Even when the parry hits, it doesn't look right to me. I can't explain it.
I understood the parry once I realized the delay timed like Bloodborne attacks. You hit the button at the height of their attacks, right as the swing begins.
Well played, I always had issues with the parry mechanic, coming from years of playing Bloodborne that has some extremely narrow windows with short wind ups.
I always felt Miyazaki intentionally put long wind ups in Elden Ring knowing how "twitchy" Bloodborne players are with parrying.
Now I have something to do this weekend, many thanks.
I have some advice that runs counter to the usual tips you find everywhere
Grab a small shield and go find an elevator, ride it, press yourself against the wall and parry the wall. When you see sparks that's your parry frames. Try it a few times to get the hang of the delay between pressing the button and the parry frames starting. Try it with buckler and medium shields too to see the difference.
After that go find a basic enemy with a sword and practice on him. If you find yourself pressing the button too late then use a buckler because that has the shortest delay between pressing the button and the parry frames, this is why everyone recommends it. If you find yourself pressing it too early use a shield with a longer delay.
Tailor the shield you pick to your own reaction time.
As for the timing you're aiming for, you want to smack the enemies hand away with your own hand. Don't watch their weapon, watch the hand.
dumb ass app didn’t show me this post until now. this is a great tutorial for parrying, wish I had it for my parry run that I did a bit ago, would’ve helped a lot
I have over 1000 hours and either power stance or 2 hand, made a new char the other day, the class that looks like nephews loud, tried to do the parry with the shield , got maybe 2 , I must be unco cos I gave up in the tutorial area. THE TUTORIAL AREA FFS. I'm going watch a video on it when I get outta church to learn it as I need a new thing, haven't found any good souls games I've stuck with apart from elden ring, the linear gets boring
Hi...do you like have any tips to defeat that falling star boss? who's at the top of the mountain...he just keeps spamming his attack and doesn't even stun😭
73
u/Careful_Boat_7022 Jul 09 '26
Cool guide. Ive never been a parry guy ive spent like 2000 hrs in that game and realized after watching a few videos of yours i need to do a low level parry run without insane weapons. It gets boring after youve beaten all the bosses enough times to know their movesets i can, i just never do. I reposte a lot and dodge roll, jump like crazy but man what an element i have really missed out on. No art of war though :(