Holding block and parrying?

[Medina_Rico]

What's the deal/trick with people that keep their guard up and parry multiple attacks? Are they letting go of block just before the attack hits or what.

Here's an example between 0:50 - 1:00
https://youtu.be/gj6FLbSKPpQ?si=EkR6bpNx_dqBelsA

I've seen that Ongbal guy doing this too.

[Fenix]

Yea I think he is just letting block go then hitting it again to prefect parry, but the game don't show him dropping his guard.

[Sonnenbank]

if you do it the correct way the block animation will stay up.

just hold block for ~0,8 seconds -> let go for ~0,3 seconds(qick release) and hold again for 0,8 seconds

it will look like holding block but it actually will give 2 deflects

[Nonexistinghero]

If you pay attention you can see him barely dropping it if there's enough time between the hits. Even if you let go the instant you perfect guard, the guard animation will still be up for a bit even if you're not guarding.

Works a bit differently for regular guard. In fact, in some situations I prefer to use the regular guard because it can push an enemy out of range. I think blocking small hits with regular guard it'll drop faster than with perfect guard. But for big hits the recovery takes much longer (and sometimes isn't even fast enough to block the next hit. I know Nameless Puppet phase 2 has a cheap combo like this where if you fail to perfect block the first move, the guard stun just takes so long you can't block or dodge the 2 moves at all and down goes 80% of your health).

[Medina_Rico]

So instead of doing it normally by tapping block when he's about to get hit, he let's go when he's about to get hit instead then presses block again after the parry?

[HypetheKomodo]

There is a special grindstone that auto-perfect blocks for a very short duration. A little cheat code if a boss combo is wrecking you.

Normally you will have to time it for every block. Take a thrust attack from the pitchfork puppets for example. You'll have to time the block for every hit in the thrust so you'll constantly hit the button so you'll constantly only shortly lower your guard to get that perfect block.

It's risky but can really pay off.

[Scraps]

You typically don't want to tap your guard, you should stay committed to guarding if you whiff. Frankly, my logic behind it is that even if I don't get a perfect guard, I still guard, and get recover that hp back when retaliating. Not guarding means you're committed to the full hp loss, which leaves more room for vial mismanagement.

However, it's mainly because the full duration of the parry frames exceed the time it takes for you to stop guarding when you tap, so the perfect guard frames are smaller than they should be when you tap and spam. Bug or feature? Probably the latter, since it's a less nuanced way Sekiro's done that punishes players for spamming the strongest defensive option in the game.

With that said, the player's impressive for doing the trick that makes it look like he's guarding throughout the whole onslaught, but ultimately, this is probably the best way of dealing with Laxasia anyways. Break her sword to get to phase 2 and let her damage herself rather than get risky with attacking her.

[Medina_Rico]

Yeah I noticed in this game, while you can spam parry, unless you're parrying a multi hit move, the parry window seems to dissappear if you try mashing while the enemy is winding up.

I've always been fine just tapping/timing the parry to get it, and yeah it makes sense to hold it after the attempt if you did it too early, but. I'm wondering if this just makes the window bigger because why else would these godlike players be doing this when the hits are so separated?

Like this dude has his controller on the screen, and it looks like his guard isn't going down, but he's also only tapping the button.
From 0:18-0:25
https://youtu.be/f_yalFYVJWU?si=_nMQqCn7SLJn7YhM

Here, from 0:33-0:40 I'm just tapping it, too. But you can see my guard going down every time.
https://youtu.be/atBvZa3Mx7A?si=EJGpZ97_K8Tr8jFS

Seeing the one dude's inputs just makes me slightly more confused. I can only guess he's holding it just a bit longer. But I've also seen other videos (have no inputs though) where even when the hits are separated even farther apart, he's still holding guard in between hits. Maybe it's a preference thing or something.

[Limp Squirrel]

I wonder how you are supposed to deflect very rapid or double attacks. The king of puppets phase 1 has this particular sweep attack that hits twice (once with with the arm, and an instant immediate hit with his hand). Is it even virtually possible to deflect both, or can this be blocked at best?

[IronBanana]

That tap tip is placebo. You only need to press the guard button in the right moment.

I perfect guarded a ton of bosses, and parry (with the skill parry of the rapier) and the windows in tight, but i never hold the button for the perfect guard.

[IronBanana]

Originally posted by Squidcake:

I wonder how you are supposed to deflect very rapid or double attacks. The king of puppets phase 1 has this particular sweep attack that hits twice (once with with the arm, and an instant immediate hit with his hand). Is it even virtually possible to deflect both, or can this be blocked at best?

you need to press twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3AVFZ0ePjs&ab_channel=IronBanana

[Limp Squirrel]

Oh ok. That window is so extremely tight, it's hard to pull off. That said, the damage from that is negligible anyway if blocked, and he doesn't do that attack very often either.

[Sonnenbank]

Originally posted by IronBanana:

That tap tip is placebo. You only need to press the guard button in the right moment.

I perfect guarded a ton of bosses, and parry (with the skill parry of the rapier) and the windows in tight, but i never hold the button for the perfect guard.

Well you can button tap instead of holding
however it makes it unnecessary difficult.

Miss timing with tap = get hit 100%
miss timing with hold = get hit 30%

advantage of tapping instead of holding ?
none

so yeha tapping is just bad
it has 0 advantages and massiv disadvantage