How to do a guard counter

[rowan[G]]

Hello everyone,

Currently I am trophy hunting and I want to get the "Not today!" trophy, which requires you to perform a "guard counter" 200 times. I have no clue what that even is. I got the trophy which requires you to perform "perfect guard" 200 times.

So my question is what is a guard counter and how do I do it?

[muxmeister]

Basically you have to do a perfect guard against certain enemy attacks, blocking all damage plus stunning them for a short time, rendering them vulnerable. This video against Sun/Moon Beetles in Sapphire Ridge shows some things you need to take a note of.

https://vimeo.com/285742564

1. This is probably common sense, but unless you've activated Bastion in the Cold circuit, you will need to be facing your enemy's attack to guard against it.

2. When you see a "P" next to a shield icon accompanied by a certain sound effect plus the enemy staggering back with a red triangle saying "counter", you've successfully pulled it off.

3. In the video I briefly open the quick menu to show you how precise you need to be to succeed. You only have a few frames' opening. It is best to get a feel for the distance between yourself and the enemy when practicing.

4. There are certain enemy attacks that cannot be perfect guarded or otherwise countered; I've dashed away from those. You will come to know what those attacks are through experience.

5. The red beetle's special attack can only be perfect guarded, not countered. Note the difference in sound effects. Basically don't let your guard down even when you think you've pulled off a perfect guard.

6. Even though perfect guards/counters seem to block all damage, they do still wear down your shield's durability. Try it against equal or higher level enemies too many times and it will still break, so be careful.

---

Once you've practiced enough, the best place to farm perfect stuns quickly is the hedgehag herd room in Autumn's Rise with your party members out but not attacking, as enemies are coded to only take turns attacking you one at a time if you are alone.

[rowan[G]]

Wow a video even. Thank you very much!

I got the trophy. I used the beetles to farm it's basically just perfect guard against certain types of attacks.

[Favmir]

As a side note, developer Lachsen mentioned that they might buff the guards by making more attacks able to be counter-blocked.

[idiot5k]

Originally posted by Favmir:

As a side note, developer Lachsen mentioned that they might buff the guards by making more attacks able to be counter-blocked.

they are? it already feels really overpowered to me (you just need the right experience and then the game becomes really, really easy with your shield. just go for high defense gear, gear with pin body and/or gear with avenger. if you think your shield has taken a lot of damage or an "unblockable" attack is coming use guard sphere and start attacking, then when it runs out raise your shield again, rinse and repeat. with the 10% health regen skill from neutral skilltree and the health regen skills from the wave skilltree you become litterally unkillable this way, as all damage you do take due to mistakes is easelly healed without using items. and early on you dont even need the wave skilltree so even there its not a problem as long as you have the neutral skilltree health regen)

Originally posted by muxmeister:

Basically you have to do a perfect guard against certain enemy attacks, blocking all damage plus stunning them for a short time, rendering them vulnerable. This video against Sun/Moon Beetles in Sapphire Ridge shows some things you need to take a note of.

https://vimeo.com/285742564

1. This is probably common sense, but unless you've activated Bastion in the Cold circuit, you will need to be facing your enemy's attack to guard against it.

2. When you see a "P" next to a shield icon accompanied by a certain sound effect plus the enemy staggering back with a red triangle saying "counter", you've successfully pulled it off.

3. In the video I briefly open the quick menu to show you how precise you need to be to succeed. You only have a few frames' opening. It is best to get a feel for the distance between yourself and the enemy when practicing.

4. There are certain enemy attacks that cannot be perfect guarded or otherwise countered; I've dashed away from those. You will come to know what those attacks are through experience.

5. The red beetle's special attack can only be perfect guarded, not countered. Note the difference in sound effects. Basically don't let your guard down even when you think you've pulled off a perfect guard.

6. Even though perfect guards/counters seem to block all damage, they do still wear down your shield's durability. Try it against equal or higher level enemies too many times and it will still break, so be careful.

---

Once you've practiced enough, the best place to farm perfect stuns quickly is the hedgehag herd room in Autumn's Rise with your party members out but not attacking, as enemies are coded to only take turns attacking you one at a time if you are alone.

you dont need bastion, and every attack CAN be blocked, however you need the neutral guard art guard sphere/blade sphere, the cold guard art icy bastion/filmbutvr (i hope i spelled that right), or the wave guard art circle of valor/karma scale to do so. really fun to combine guard sphere/blade sphere/icy bastion/filmbutvr with pin body and/or avenger with loads of defense: you can block all damage from every attack, regain sp (if you have avenger) and/or return damage back to the attacker (with pin body). if you have guard sphere this becomes seriously op (remember the second fight with appollo? run into his 4 mines when using guard sphere using the highest level robe and gauntlets that give pin body you can get your hands on, as well as hats and boots with the highest amount of def, and watch him take a beating of a lifetime, and this is just one example of how op guard arts really are)

[Icirian]

Originally posted by muxmeister:

Once you've practiced enough, the best place to farm perfect stuns quickly is the hedgehag herd room in Autumn's Rise with your party members out but not attacking, as enemies are coded to only take turns attacking you one at a time if you are alone.

Confirmed, got it in 40 mins. man! my hand was tired after that, and i don't have 100% success rate...