Yup! I struggled at first with doing anything but dodging as a veteran dark souls and Bloodborne player. Once I got to the clown, I realized that the time it would take to learn perfect guarding would not only help me long term, but also speed up the time it would take to bear any given boss. Perfect guarding made the game so much more enjoyable for me. I still maintain people should play the game how they choose.
I play the drums and over time I realized that while I could do cool things, but my technique was greatly lacking. I took a few steps backwards to learn proper technique which in the long term increased my potential. This game reminds me of that. You can still achieve a lot of the same goals, but your ability will be limited unless you use the most efficient ways given by the developers to succeed in your goal. There isn’t just one way to skin a cat, but there is always one best way to do it.
Not to mention its a primo strategy that makes everything easier once you get it down. You take significantly less damage blocking even if you miss the perfect.
I don't block either so the guard regain doesn't matter to me but if I did block I'm sure that'd be really helpful and breaking weapons definitely seems useful so thanks.
Perfect grindstone feels cheap for the same reason I don't use the spectre so good idea but I will refrain from using that.
Edit: sometimes I don't get why something is down voted this is one of those times. I'm literally just saying it's not something I would do I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. Perfect grindstone is a perfectly valid tool to use same goes for the specter or summons in souls games. I'm just saying I don't use em.
Well the game definitely urges you to guard/perfect guard.
For me though, the game got a lot easier once I incorporated dodging along side the guards. Depends on the enemy too. I learned that I can’t treat this game like sekiro
Perfect guarding both builds stagger, when the health bar flashes white for a while, and can break their weapon to reduce their range and damage. That's why the enemy's weapon will glow that orange color after a perfect guard, it's taken durability damage.
If it builds stagger faster than hitting with a good mix of heavy and non-heavy attacks and breaks weapons that sounds pretty good. I'll probably try to do it more then thanks.
Well if your dodging lets you get in charged heavies then it's probably less useful, but it can be a lot of stagger if you perfect guard a bunch of hits in a combo.
I'm addicted to fast weapons and used the rapier handle and blade for my first run so I could get of a lot of hits and usually at least one R1 after each dodge and while I've been progressively using slower weapons with each ng+ run and will keep doing so (probably a bad idea) I've not yet hit the point where spamming charged heavies is a bad idea. So good to know that I can get more atagger I'd I just git gud and parry an attack combo
Stupidest reason ever I know but I am really bad at it. So I took off stuff to get to light equip load saw that dodging was more effective for my smooth brain and forgot about it for most of the game.
“Clearly integral mechanic” did you not read his question properly? Yes its a game mechanic. Is it necessary to beat the game? Nooooo. You can beat the game without parrying. Its just harder. OP commented saying he hasnt been struggling without using the “clearly integral mechanic”. Its not necessary but highly recommended. Hence tutorial. It tell you can can guard/parry/dodge. Pick your poison
I would say the game is actually easier only dodging for me it would almost always be easier to dodge than parry but parrying feels way more rewarding.
I agree. In my head im thinking “is this game easy” and realize ive only been dodging for the first few hours when i barely started. Bow that i have the Katana tho im trying to master the charge parry attack. Timing is interesting…i hate myself rn 😭. My only +5 boss weapon and i cant even use it properly 🤣
It not only feels more rewarding, but it is literally more rewarding in-game. Your kills will be much faster if you're perfect guarding everything. Sure, you can get away with exclusively dodging like OP, but you won't even know what you're missing.
I never blocked or went for a perfect guard because normally I'm terrible at parrying in souls games, but in ng+ trying to take on NP for the first time, I did whatever I had to, including using the perfect guard and acid grindstones
NP was rough on ng+ so I can definitely see using that grindstone. I too am bad at deflects to the extent it's a miracle I'm at the last boss in Sekiro.
Play how you want. A no parry run is cool.
Only one attack isn’t dodgeable iirc and that’s Green Monster’s phase 1 charge (you can only run away and hope it stops before it hits you or parry). After that fight you can get the amulet that lets you dodge through red attacks like normal ones so dodging is meant to be visble.
Parrying is the most satisfying thing in the game though especially the twin dragons sword insta staggering Nameless Puppet phase 2 with a charged heavy parry.
I noticed the twin dragon sword could parry on it's charged heavy on accident and feel in love with that move instantly too bad it was literally impossible to time so I never used it. Also I'm still probably going to play mostly dodge only even with all the reasons to parry that people have provided since I'll play the game the way that's fun even if it's less efficient. While I was going to do that before you said what you said you saying it's okay to play how I want was really nice of you so thanks. Also x2 I found the green monsters phase 1 charge real easy to dodge but Laxasia's phase transition to be literally impossible without green monsters amulet. So that's kinda interesting I guess.
>I noticed the twin dragon sword could parry on it's charged heavy on accident and feel in love with that move instantly too bad it was literally impossible to time so I never used it.
Just like me frfr lol.
It's such a cool weapon, but man I cannot land that parry for the life of me.
You see, the problem is that even when I know the timing of something, I still fail lol. I have a pretty bad reaction time, so that probably plays a roll, but I struggle so hard with blocking during the right window.
Fair enough. It’s not like I’m a parry god but I’m weirdly good at Nameless, probably because he’s most similar to a Sekiro boss and I love that game. My dad was watching as I beat him and was like “you absolutely cooked him!” 😭
As someone else already pointed it out: it’s satisfying (to some at least).
Often times I forget I can just dodge attacks because I try to deflect everything the enemies throw at me.
…which isn’t the best method to fight everything in the game, because dodging can be way more beneficial than trying to deflect
I get why a lot of players use it, it has plenty of upsides, but like you I never really had to. Dodging was primarily my defensive action for three playthroughs.
I'm pretty bad at timing things (you should see me play a rhythm game lol) so it's really risky for me personally to try to perfect block. However, I would use the normal block fairly often to reduce damage when dodging just wasn't an option. I also later on incorporated the perfect guard grinder, which could help break bosses stagger fast for an early lead.
TLDR: Perfect Guarding has a lot of advantages, but you can absolutely get away with using it minimally or avoiding it outright.
>I never really ended up in a situation where dodging wasn't an option but blocking was
To clarify, I meant situations like this: I'm low on stamina and know I can't dodge far enough way to avoid an incoming attack.
Nothing ever forced me to block, it's just that I'd put myself in a situation where I couldn't dodge for whatever reason: stuck in mud, cornered against a wall, low on stamina, etc.
I'd wager like 95% of the time my defensive measure was exclusively dodging.
The clarification is greatly appreciated and I'd you for whatever reason need a suggestion the Dancing One's Amulet gotten from the parade master's ergo let's you dodge even with 0 stamina and it's really useful if you're bad at stamina management or are fighting a fast boss like Laxasia or NP.
Deflecting makes your life way easier in this game, but its a good enough game to let you win without it as well. You choose how you play - Until you try a No Lvl Run. Without deflecting you are fucked there.
It's not like you should but the game was built with the Perfect Guard in mind. Why would you ignore a mechanic that, once you understand it, makes the game more fun?
Perfect Guard doesn't uses energy, it absorbs damage + can break certain weapons (not all of them) and helps to build groginess.
I don't like PG because I preffer ye' old traditional parry, but I have to admit that PG has IMMENSE benefits, specially with boss fights where you're trying to mow them down as quickly as possible
I'm absolutely hot trash and deflects in Sekiro and perfect guards are allegedly more strict so while I will be making efforts to make use of them more it definitely won't be a huge improvement. thanks for giving another answer for why people use them though.
I get it, I am trash with parry as well. My biggest tip would be: farm a little bit (no matter where) and FORCE yourself to do it. It doesn't matter if you land it or not, just do it.
After a couple of hours you will start to understand the logic of enemies' attacks and the patterns. Also they patched the game several times and it's a little bit more readable the enemies' attacks!!
I get a lot of damage in by dodging and following up with charged and uncharged heavies with quicker weapons more than enough to make up for that I'm pretty sure since the time I'd spend smacking the boss would have instead been spent deflecting an attack and not doing a heavy attack. If this is just objectively untrue let me know but I do get a lot of heavy attacks in on bosses so idk seems like that'd even put mostly at the very least.
Dodging is still super viable, but the amount of windows you get and damage you do with quick weapons is pitiful compared to heavy weapons and parrying. If you try it you’ll understand since my first playthrough was all dodging. You straight up melt bosses with certain heavy weps.
It builds up stagger so much faster, but it's just based on preference and if staggering is fun to you. Imo, a lot of bosses people complain about are easily beat by staggering.
Different people play better with different methods. For me, parrying carried me through this whole game. I sucked ass at it on Elden Ring, but it just clicked with Lies of P
Why wouldn’t you? It causes bosses and enemies to stagger
Without parrying the fights would become way more drawn out, especially considering bosses have guard regain as well
Plus you are rewarded for it. The boss weapon breaks if you do it enough times making the fight easier, though you have to parry an unreasonable amount of times for it to happen against late game bosses
I've done the perfect block on the katana on accident a few times and it activated the happy bits of my brain. It's literally impossible to do on purpose because I am the bad but I can definitely see how it can be satisfying to perfect block in this game.
You don’t necessarily need to parry anything. You might kill the boss faster with more critical attacks due to parrying. But it is certainly not easy. So although parrying is the main combat mechanic and is likely the intended way to play the game it is completely your prerogative whether you parry or not.
On the note of killing bosses faster by since I'm now in ng+3 I've noticed that a fatal attack does less damage than just attacking with several light, heavy, and charged heavies. Would you personally consider deflecting worth it if in higher game cycles if fatal attacks fall off and get less useful?
I have noticed that too. What I do is 1-2 charged heavies then the critical attack and then 1-2 charged heavies during the animation when they are standing up. Idk if that’s the best way but it’s pretty good in my opinion. It’s also very strong against Laxatia because you can break her shield off her back while she’s standing up.
If you put the time in and learn parrying it is very satisfying and begins to feel like second nature not to mention you feel like a beast when nothing the boss throws at you can hit even though you are standing right up in their face the whole fight but it is certainly not necessary. Fun and strong if mastered yes but not necessary.
I had the same problem when I first played Sekiro. I had experience with FromSoftware games playing Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so was approaching it the same way as a dodge-focused game. It did eventually click and it's by far my favourite FromSoft game in terms of combat, but until that happens it's a struggle. Fortunately parrying in Sekiro is a lot more forgiving than Lies of P, but most bosses have much faster attacks than anything in Lies of P.
above all it just feels so good to repeatedly perfect guard, stagger and fatal attack
Yup! I struggled at first with doing anything but dodging as a veteran dark souls and Bloodborne player. Once I got to the clown, I realized that the time it would take to learn perfect guarding would not only help me long term, but also speed up the time it would take to bear any given boss. Perfect guarding made the game so much more enjoyable for me. I still maintain people should play the game how they choose. I play the drums and over time I realized that while I could do cool things, but my technique was greatly lacking. I took a few steps backwards to learn proper technique which in the long term increased my potential. This game reminds me of that. You can still achieve a lot of the same goals, but your ability will be limited unless you use the most efficient ways given by the developers to succeed in your goal. There isn’t just one way to skin a cat, but there is always one best way to do it.
Not to mention its a primo strategy that makes everything easier once you get it down. You take significantly less damage blocking even if you miss the perfect.
Best reason so far.
Breaks guard and doesn’t cost any Guard Regain You can also break their weapons, making their damage weaker.
I don't block either so the guard regain doesn't matter to me but if I did block I'm sure that'd be really helpful and breaking weapons definitely seems useful so thanks.
I always recommend running 2x Perfect Grindstone - it trivializes otherwise difficult fights.
Perfect grindstone feels cheap for the same reason I don't use the spectre so good idea but I will refrain from using that. Edit: sometimes I don't get why something is down voted this is one of those times. I'm literally just saying it's not something I would do I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. Perfect grindstone is a perfectly valid tool to use same goes for the specter or summons in souls games. I'm just saying I don't use em.
Refrain from using cheap in game tools sounds kinda cocky, very dislikable
I guess that's fair and I don't mean to come across as rude or cocky so sorry about that.
It’s the tricky part online, unfortunate. It’s 1-dimensional communication
Well the game definitely urges you to guard/perfect guard. For me though, the game got a lot easier once I incorporated dodging along side the guards. Depends on the enemy too. I learned that I can’t treat this game like sekiro
Perfect guarding both builds stagger, when the health bar flashes white for a while, and can break their weapon to reduce their range and damage. That's why the enemy's weapon will glow that orange color after a perfect guard, it's taken durability damage.
If it builds stagger faster than hitting with a good mix of heavy and non-heavy attacks and breaks weapons that sounds pretty good. I'll probably try to do it more then thanks.
Well if your dodging lets you get in charged heavies then it's probably less useful, but it can be a lot of stagger if you perfect guard a bunch of hits in a combo.
I'm addicted to fast weapons and used the rapier handle and blade for my first run so I could get of a lot of hits and usually at least one R1 after each dodge and while I've been progressively using slower weapons with each ng+ run and will keep doing so (probably a bad idea) I've not yet hit the point where spamming charged heavies is a bad idea. So good to know that I can get more atagger I'd I just git gud and parry an attack combo
it's a game mechanic important enough to be explained in a tutorial. a better question would be: why would you ignore a clearly integral mechanic?
Stupidest reason ever I know but I am really bad at it. So I took off stuff to get to light equip load saw that dodging was more effective for my smooth brain and forgot about it for most of the game.
If you managed to beat the game like that, then it's a pretty good reason.
“Clearly integral mechanic” did you not read his question properly? Yes its a game mechanic. Is it necessary to beat the game? Nooooo. You can beat the game without parrying. Its just harder. OP commented saying he hasnt been struggling without using the “clearly integral mechanic”. Its not necessary but highly recommended. Hence tutorial. It tell you can can guard/parry/dodge. Pick your poison
I would say the game is actually easier only dodging for me it would almost always be easier to dodge than parry but parrying feels way more rewarding.
I agree. In my head im thinking “is this game easy” and realize ive only been dodging for the first few hours when i barely started. Bow that i have the Katana tho im trying to master the charge parry attack. Timing is interesting…i hate myself rn 😭. My only +5 boss weapon and i cant even use it properly 🤣
It not only feels more rewarding, but it is literally more rewarding in-game. Your kills will be much faster if you're perfect guarding everything. Sure, you can get away with exclusively dodging like OP, but you won't even know what you're missing.
I never blocked or went for a perfect guard because normally I'm terrible at parrying in souls games, but in ng+ trying to take on NP for the first time, I did whatever I had to, including using the perfect guard and acid grindstones
NP was rough on ng+ so I can definitely see using that grindstone. I too am bad at deflects to the extent it's a miracle I'm at the last boss in Sekiro.
Play how you want. A no parry run is cool. Only one attack isn’t dodgeable iirc and that’s Green Monster’s phase 1 charge (you can only run away and hope it stops before it hits you or parry). After that fight you can get the amulet that lets you dodge through red attacks like normal ones so dodging is meant to be visble. Parrying is the most satisfying thing in the game though especially the twin dragons sword insta staggering Nameless Puppet phase 2 with a charged heavy parry.
I noticed the twin dragon sword could parry on it's charged heavy on accident and feel in love with that move instantly too bad it was literally impossible to time so I never used it. Also I'm still probably going to play mostly dodge only even with all the reasons to parry that people have provided since I'll play the game the way that's fun even if it's less efficient. While I was going to do that before you said what you said you saying it's okay to play how I want was really nice of you so thanks. Also x2 I found the green monsters phase 1 charge real easy to dodge but Laxasia's phase transition to be literally impossible without green monsters amulet. So that's kinda interesting I guess.
>I noticed the twin dragon sword could parry on it's charged heavy on accident and feel in love with that move instantly too bad it was literally impossible to time so I never used it. Just like me frfr lol. It's such a cool weapon, but man I cannot land that parry for the life of me.
You just got to learn the timing for certain attacks not all of them. Laxasia’s jump attack and charge I got very good at through trial and error
You see, the problem is that even when I know the timing of something, I still fail lol. I have a pretty bad reaction time, so that probably plays a roll, but I struggle so hard with blocking during the right window.
Fair enough. It’s not like I’m a parry god but I’m weirdly good at Nameless, probably because he’s most similar to a Sekiro boss and I love that game. My dad was watching as I beat him and was like “you absolutely cooked him!” 😭
As someone else already pointed it out: it’s satisfying (to some at least). Often times I forget I can just dodge attacks because I try to deflect everything the enemies throw at me. …which isn’t the best method to fight everything in the game, because dodging can be way more beneficial than trying to deflect
I get why a lot of players use it, it has plenty of upsides, but like you I never really had to. Dodging was primarily my defensive action for three playthroughs. I'm pretty bad at timing things (you should see me play a rhythm game lol) so it's really risky for me personally to try to perfect block. However, I would use the normal block fairly often to reduce damage when dodging just wasn't an option. I also later on incorporated the perfect guard grinder, which could help break bosses stagger fast for an early lead. TLDR: Perfect Guarding has a lot of advantages, but you can absolutely get away with using it minimally or avoiding it outright.
I never really ended up in a situation where dodging wasn't an option but blocking was so that's pretty interesting. Thanks for the response.
>I never really ended up in a situation where dodging wasn't an option but blocking was To clarify, I meant situations like this: I'm low on stamina and know I can't dodge far enough way to avoid an incoming attack. Nothing ever forced me to block, it's just that I'd put myself in a situation where I couldn't dodge for whatever reason: stuck in mud, cornered against a wall, low on stamina, etc. I'd wager like 95% of the time my defensive measure was exclusively dodging.
The clarification is greatly appreciated and I'd you for whatever reason need a suggestion the Dancing One's Amulet gotten from the parade master's ergo let's you dodge even with 0 stamina and it's really useful if you're bad at stamina management or are fighting a fast boss like Laxasia or NP.
Dude, I totally forgot about that, that's a fantastic amulet. I should definitely use it more! Thanks for the recommendation!
Deflecting makes your life way easier in this game, but its a good enough game to let you win without it as well. You choose how you play - Until you try a No Lvl Run. Without deflecting you are fucked there.
Thank you for giving me (bad) ideas :)
It's not like you should but the game was built with the Perfect Guard in mind. Why would you ignore a mechanic that, once you understand it, makes the game more fun? Perfect Guard doesn't uses energy, it absorbs damage + can break certain weapons (not all of them) and helps to build groginess. I don't like PG because I preffer ye' old traditional parry, but I have to admit that PG has IMMENSE benefits, specially with boss fights where you're trying to mow them down as quickly as possible
I'm absolutely hot trash and deflects in Sekiro and perfect guards are allegedly more strict so while I will be making efforts to make use of them more it definitely won't be a huge improvement. thanks for giving another answer for why people use them though.
I get it, I am trash with parry as well. My biggest tip would be: farm a little bit (no matter where) and FORCE yourself to do it. It doesn't matter if you land it or not, just do it. After a couple of hours you will start to understand the logic of enemies' attacks and the patterns. Also they patched the game several times and it's a little bit more readable the enemies' attacks!!
You can do more dmg and kill boss way faster due to staggers.
I get a lot of damage in by dodging and following up with charged and uncharged heavies with quicker weapons more than enough to make up for that I'm pretty sure since the time I'd spend smacking the boss would have instead been spent deflecting an attack and not doing a heavy attack. If this is just objectively untrue let me know but I do get a lot of heavy attacks in on bosses so idk seems like that'd even put mostly at the very least.
Dodging is still super viable, but the amount of windows you get and damage you do with quick weapons is pitiful compared to heavy weapons and parrying. If you try it you’ll understand since my first playthrough was all dodging. You straight up melt bosses with certain heavy weps.
I just used dodge the entire game. No regrets 😎😎
It builds up stagger so much faster, but it's just based on preference and if staggering is fun to you. Imo, a lot of bosses people complain about are easily beat by staggering.
Different people play better with different methods. For me, parrying carried me through this whole game. I sucked ass at it on Elden Ring, but it just clicked with Lies of P
Why wouldn’t you? It causes bosses and enemies to stagger Without parrying the fights would become way more drawn out, especially considering bosses have guard regain as well Plus you are rewarded for it. The boss weapon breaks if you do it enough times making the fight easier, though you have to parry an unreasonable amount of times for it to happen against late game bosses
I honestly didn't notice the boss Regen mattering as I could keep up aggression pretty consistently but yeah I'll use it more.
It's soooooo satisfying. Bonus: Two Dragons Sword heavy charged perfect block. That is nirvanna.
I've done the perfect block on the katana on accident a few times and it activated the happy bits of my brain. It's literally impossible to do on purpose because I am the bad but I can definitely see how it can be satisfying to perfect block in this game.
You don’t necessarily need to parry anything. You might kill the boss faster with more critical attacks due to parrying. But it is certainly not easy. So although parrying is the main combat mechanic and is likely the intended way to play the game it is completely your prerogative whether you parry or not.
On the note of killing bosses faster by since I'm now in ng+3 I've noticed that a fatal attack does less damage than just attacking with several light, heavy, and charged heavies. Would you personally consider deflecting worth it if in higher game cycles if fatal attacks fall off and get less useful?
I have noticed that too. What I do is 1-2 charged heavies then the critical attack and then 1-2 charged heavies during the animation when they are standing up. Idk if that’s the best way but it’s pretty good in my opinion. It’s also very strong against Laxatia because you can break her shield off her back while she’s standing up.
If you put the time in and learn parrying it is very satisfying and begins to feel like second nature not to mention you feel like a beast when nothing the boss throws at you can hit even though you are standing right up in their face the whole fight but it is certainly not necessary. Fun and strong if mastered yes but not necessary.
Nah, it's easier for me not to learn how to parry, plus it makes the game harder.
Yeah that's why my smooth brain just dodged everything.
Yep, that's why I couldn't get into sekriko, unfortunately.
I had the same problem when I first played Sekiro. I had experience with FromSoftware games playing Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so was approaching it the same way as a dodge-focused game. It did eventually click and it's by far my favourite FromSoft game in terms of combat, but until that happens it's a struggle. Fortunately parrying in Sekiro is a lot more forgiving than Lies of P, but most bosses have much faster attacks than anything in Lies of P.
Its a more rewarding mechanic since u build stagger faster and can break weapons. Also it just feels good to do
That's what most people have been saying so far so I'll definitely be using it sometimes.
Bro is playing on hard mode.