help with parry system

[Arkanis]

I have played almost every souls like game out there and i have always been able to get a grips with the combat system but with lies of p i just cant get to grips with how the parry timing windows work as well as the dodge which feels pointless in this game. i can Parry single attacks for the most part but as soon as they chain them it feels like P is too slow to block them.

Any tips would be much appreciated :)

[rlh445]

use a trainer to get the timing down.

[ap0calypse644]

I get where you are coming from. The mechanism is slightly different from titles like Elden Ring, DS or Sekiro. Just some personal tips:

1. Look at the arm, not the weapon: do not aim for the moment when the weapon will hit you. Rather press the block button when the arm/leg/tentacles/head starts moving towards you. Be aware though, most swings are delayed or, they swing the weapon twice over their head before deciding to hit you. So, you gotta learn the attacks.

2. For some attacks, it's better to dodge: a classic example is those corpses running at you, pausing for a sec, and then slashing you. The slash is so fast, that there is barely enough time to react to parry it. Unless you get the timing down. That won't be the case for most other attacks. You can clearly see it coming and react.

3. Press and hold the block button, then tap for consecutive attacks: unlike in Sekiro, where you used to tap the block button at the correct time, here you have to press and hold it for like 0.5 seconds. If there are follow up attacks coming, you can let go and press it back again. That is, whereas in Sekiro, you would have the button unpressed and then "tap and release" back to back to parry multiple attacks, here, you hold the block button down and "release and press" back to back.

4. Don't attempt to chain dodge: While in other fromsoft titles, you can kinda dodge infinitely and chain together dodges, here, you can dodge at most twice (with the link dodge p-organ) update. This is to prevent panic rolling that we are so used to. If you hit dodge twice in quick succession, you have to wait for the second animation to finish completely before you can act. So be careful of attempting to panic roll. Other than that, the window for dodging is very similar to that of parrying. Look for the arm, not the weapon.

5. Don't always dodge towards the enemy: Dodging consumes quite a lot of stamina in this game. While in Elden Ring and DS games you are encouraged to roll into an oncoming attack, it does not work out so well in lies of p. That is because, the enemy has a combo of attacks, and if you dodge twice towards the enemy, you are stuck in animation for like a whole second (costing you half of your HP). Don't use dodge to land hits on the enemy (unless you know that was the last attack in their combo). Rather dodge back or left-right to avoid attacks.

Some closing remarks. Lies of P is a game where none of the three mechanisms (dodging, blocking and parrying) are self-sufficient. Rather, you have to use all three of them to make the game easy. In Elden Ring, I used to completely rely on dodge alone. But that's not something you can do here. All three mechanisms have to be used at the correct time. Don't feel forced to parry every single attack perfectly. It's better to just run away from certain combos. Similarly, in some cases, it is actually better to roll towards the enemy, rather than away from it. The trick is to figure out when to use what.

Good luck friend; hope this helps.

[Elymnir]

Take what I'll say with a grain of salt, as I didn't test this and it's just a feeling I have.

tl;dr try parrying just an instant before the attack and when already in full guard position, I think you'll have more success.

So, in Lies of P, it would seem that enemies actually hit you at frame 1 of their attack animation. I noticed this on multiple occasions, with parries or hits happening when they haven't connect with my chracter yet. Which means that if you react the very moment they move, it'll already be too late. What I did to adapt is learn to guard juuust a bit before they actually move and it seems to work consistently. The problem, however, is that you constantly have to rely on memorization, you have to "feel the moment" to parry.

Hit at frame 1 would also explain why I regularly get hit fully even though I pressed the guard button. Quite often, an enemy will attack, I press the guard button and nothing happens, I just take the full blow.

Now, unrelated to those point, a tip I have is to be on guard early, stay on guard and then tap guard to parry. You can see by tapping guard repeatedly that your character isn't in full guard position. However, when you're already guarding, if you tap guard repeatedly, your character won't entirely lower the guard before putting it up again. This is another assumption, but I think it's easier to parry this way because you actually decrease the "travel time" from guard to parry.

[Krypto]

You just have to practice to get the timing down. From my own experience, pressing and holding the button later than you'd think you normally should is usually good enough to get the perfect guard.

Now perfect guarding fury attacks is much harder, because unlike Sekiro - where the kanji symbol would start to fade (indicating when you should jump or press O for a Mikiri Counter) - Lies of P doesn't really have anything like that. In most cases, if I can run away from the fury attack, like with shovel bot, I just do that, then rush in for a heavy attack.

[Giganx]

As far as parrying goes, P recovers instantly and can parry again even if it looks like he can't because he's locked into a different animation.

It's confusing and disorienting because during a chain of attacks it looks like you're locked into the blocking animation a lot of the time. While it's true that you're still blocking, if you continue pressing the block button you'll continue parrying successive attacks.

Victor does a lot of long strings so I'll post my mostly parry's fight with him here as a reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPv1jVsyHpk&t=371s

[1100011]

Some notes I took waiting for the price to go down (I'm very patient):

Did you try parrying using the Legion Arm Aegis?
Quote: turns out Legion Arm Aegis can perfect guard without even any upgrades, has an earlier and longer window than perfect guarding with a weapon.

Comments say it's only valid for the first attack of a combo (you block the rest).

Apparently it has / had a glitch, too, if you want to break the game, comment quote:
You can hold LT and spam Parry LB and it will perfect guard every time the mob strike .

Edit: adding here so I can find it back, comment from a player in another parrying thread:

Honestly I don't even use the weapon block to perfect parry anymore unless it's a VERY quick Fury with almost no wind-up. I use Aegis legion arm and the Blind-Man's Double Sided Spear handle's heavies for my Perfect Parry needs. Aegis has a lingering Perfect window with the initial red glow which helps if you deploy it a bit too early on some very delayed Fury attacks, and the Blind Double Sided handle has guard frames through the animation after the quick thrust out with the perfect parry window being the thrusting animation itself as the weapon goes past you and lingering for a few frames after.