What is the difference between repel, absorb and pulling?

[Forsparda]

its all just parrying right? i dont really understand what the difference between them but alot of traits seem to only affect one aspect of the parry

[Bellkatze]

Originally posted by Forsparda:

its all just parrying right?

In short, right.

In long, a repel is when a healthbar is grey and your parry just... well, repels the attack.
With the right trait this can damage the attacker.

An absorb is a parry against a red healthbar. It will absorb a portion of the enemy's breath.
This completely empties the red part of a healthbar until it gets stopped by a grey part or kills the enemy.

Pulling is one of the many traversal mechanics. A yellow ring indicates when and what you can pull.
It can be used to navigate the world as well as to stagger enemies out of attacks.

[Slug Camargo]

Absorb and Repel both happen with the same button, which is indeed a parry of sorts. You perform this by pressing the button right when an enemy attack is about to land.

• If you parry a red health bar, you'll get an Absorb, which by default will damage (sometimes even kill) the enemy and will give you a certain amount of Breath. I say "by default", because the effect can be improved via traits (Garden Walker's trait, for instance, is so good it's borderline broken).

• If you parry a grey health bar, you get a Repel, which by default causes no damage but it stops the attack (leaving you unharmed) and it can stun the enemy, leaving them open for an attack. Some enemies will recover faster than others (especially bosses), so that opening might or might not be useful. Again, some traits will add different benefits (Ancient Limb is ridiculously good).

Always keep in mind that you can Absorb/Repel any attack from any enemy as long as the enemy is not surrounded by a strong red glow (which indicates that they're invulnerable). My first time through I kept forgetting to try repelling, and it can truly be a game changer (especially against bosses). So you wanna use it as often as you can.


Pulling is an entirely different move. It's an upgrade you get from the Mothers and, as the name implies, pulls enemies in your direction, much as it does with platforms.

Pulling can only be done when the enemy is surrounded by a golden ring (the same ring which indicates that a platform is pull-able), so it works only with certain specific attacks.

Pulling will interrupt whatever attack the enemy was winding up for and most of the times will give you a *huge* window to hit back. It's much more powerful than repel since it staggers even bosses, but again, only on those attacks that are designed to be pulled. And some late game bosses will recover from a pull pretty quickly.

Finally, if you pull a projectile you'll avoid damage and fire the projectile back to the original attacker (or to whatever enemy stands in the way). Again, red projectiles can't be absorbed. Red is always a big no-no.