Parrying | Elden Ring Wiki

How to Parry in Elden Ring

First, you must have a Shield equipped in your left hand with Parry or another parry skill. Then when the enemy makes a parriable attack, press the skill button at just the right time so your shield is coming up just as the enemy's arm is coming down. You'll know it works if your enemy recoils and you take no damage from the attack. If you didn't get the timing quite right, your shield will still block some of the damage from the attack but the attack will continue and you'll take a big hit to your Stamina.

For most parriable enemies, a single successful parry is enough to bring them to their knees and make them vulnerable to a critical hit. Other enemies (usually bosses) must be parried multiple times before they fall. Unlike Stance damage, an enemy's parry counter doesn't decay after a period of inaction, so you can take your time between parries without fear. Be aware though that some parriable enemies won't become vulnerable to a critical at all: instead, they'll just stumble briefly, giving you time to land some normal attacks before they start attacking again.

Under the covers, each parriable attack has a certain range of frames (often only one) in its animation where it can be successfully parried. Similarly, each parry skill has a certain range of frames during its animation where it can successfully parry. If an attack's parriable frames line up with your parry frames while the attack's hitbox overlaps with your shield's, it will be parried. Because this depends so heavily on finding that moment of overlap, it's a good idea to choose a parry skill with a large number of parry frames!

What to Parry in Elden Ring

Not all enemies are parriable, nor are all attacks, even from enemies that are parriable! As a rule of thumb, the following categories are more likely to be parriable:

• Humanoid enemies. Soldiers are parriable but Giant Bats are not.
• Enemies that aren't huge. Omens are parriable but Trolls and Golems are not.
• Aging Untouchable. An enemy introduced in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC that cannot receive damage before being parried.
• Attacks with weapons, particularly when the weapon is swung in an arc. Tree Sentinel's Halberd Combo is parriable but its Horse Bash and Charge Attack are not.
• Physical attacks. Margit's Swing Flurry is parriable, but his Hammer Smash is not.
• Flails, Whips, Shields, and Perfume Bottles cannot be parried. Colossal Swords and Colossal Weapons cannot be parried when they are held with two hands, excluding certain skills which can be parried regardless.
• Jumping Attacks from hostile players cannot be parried. Some jumping attacks from Rakshasa's Great Katana can be parried if you start the attack while you're descending, specifically the two-handed jumping light attack and the one-handed jumping heavy attack. This weapon is the only instance of parriable jump attacks in the entire game, and is likely a bug.
• Ranged attacks are never parriable, except with special parry skills.

The best way to determine whether a particular attack is parriable is to try parrying it a few times. If it seems like you're getting the timing right but the parry still isn't happening, you're out of luck.

Parrying Spells in Elden Ring

Parrying doesn't have to be limited to melee! With the Carian Retaliation skill (or the corresponding sorcery), you can parry most magical projectiles. It works a little differently than a normal parry: when a projectile hits the blue orb created by the skill, it vanishes and is replaced by three glintblades that will fire back at the enemy once they come in range. There are a few caveats, though:

• Parrying a spell won't give you an opportunity for a critical hit.
• Parrying a spell won't give you any invulnerability frames.
• Each use of the skill can only parry a single projectile. This means that parrying isn't safe if multiple projectiles are flying towards you at once, since only one of them will be stopped and the rest will still connect.

You can also parry spells with the Thops's Barrier skill (or the corresponding sorcery), but this won't create any glintblades. The only advantage is that Thops's Barrier doesn't consume any FP.