Parrying is a Combat mechanic in Elden Ring. It can cancel certain enemies' attacks and make them vulnerable to a critical hit. This Combat action requires an appropriate shield or Parry Skill. Parrying is one of the main Combat maneuvers players can use when going against difficult Bosses or even in PvP and can be used as an effective offensive action combination when followed up with an attack. This gives players a chance at dealing a critical hit. It requires timing and patience to master, but provides more rewarding results than regular Dodging and guard countering giving players a chance at a critical hit. Unsuccessful Parries may result in a regular block or great damage intake. Below are all the tips and tricks, and related equipment and information about Parrying in Elden Ring. Learn how to parry in Elden Ring during different situations and against different Combat styles to help players perform successful Parries during Combat encounters.
Parrying in Elden Ring
How to Parry 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 Elden Ring
Not all enemies are parriable, nor are all attacks even from enemies that are! 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.
- 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 and Whips attacks cannot be parried.
- 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 Elden Ring
Parrying doesn't have to be limited to melee! With the 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.
Why Parry?
Parrying isn't for everyone. It requires more precise timing than dodging or guard countering attacks and you often take a lot of damage if you get the timing wrong. Even if you nail your parries, you'll deal less total damage per critical hit than if you were using jump attacks or guard counters to try to stance break your enemy instead, since those attacks do damage even before the critical. Still, there are a few great reasons to learn to parry:
- Interrupting: Bosses in Elden Ring often make it hard to get an attack in edgewise. They hit quickly and frequently, with relatively few openings for you to counterattack. Parries can be the best way to interrupt these relentless assaults and ensure you ca safely whittle down your foe's HP.
- Crowd Control: When you successfully land a parry, you get a few frames of invulnerability where other enemies around you can't land attacks. When you land the follow-up critical hit you get even more invulnerability frames, and when that animation completes enemies around you will stumble back and give you room to escape. This makes parrying an excellent tool for dealing with groups of enemies without getting overwhelmed.
- Fun: Elden Ring is all about honing difficult skills for satisfying results, and parrying is a prime example of this. Learning all the parry timings for a challenging boss and never letting them land a hit is fun because it's such hard work at first. Once you become an experienced parrier, many boss fights start to look like a walk in the park.
Why can't I Parry Elden Ring?
Even long time players may find difficulty performing a successful Parry. Elden Ring has a Parry window that is easy to miss resulting in an unsuccessful parry and great potential damage. As mentioned, ensure you meet the requirements and conditions to perform this action. It requires a parry Shield and a parriable opponent. Players can use the Bosses page as reference. Each individual page will state whether the Boss can be parried or not. Players can practice parrying against both melee and magic attacks though parrying a magic attack will not allow a critical hit. Make sure you closely observe the initial attack animations of your opponent to be able to recognize these parry windows. It is likely one of these conditions aren't met resulting in unsuccessful parries. Some notes and tips have been added below for players who wish to practice the Parrying skill.
Getting Good at Parrying in Elden Ring
Here are some tips to help you improve your parrying skill:
- Practice, Practice, Practice: Mastering parries is as much a matter of building up muscle memory as it is learning to consciously do the right thing. Take the time to do dedicated parry practice to teach your subconscious just when to hit that button in order to land the parry. The woods outside Groveside Cave are perfect for this: it's full of Godrick Soldiers who have a variety of attacks, almost all of which are parriable. You can also practice on particular bosses with parry-only practice runs, where you commit to only doing damage through critical hits.
- Watch the Hand: Although it's tempting to watch an enemy's weapon when deciding when to press the parry button, it's often more reliable to watch the hand that's holding the weapon instead. This gives you a better idea of when their momentum is actually shifting towards you, which is the best indicator of when you should press the skill button.
- Notice Tells: If you're struggling to parry a particular attack, pay close attention to the enemy's entire animation leading up to that attack. Try to find a particular nuance of the animation that happens around the time you need to press the skill button, then make a couple parry attempts exactly when you see that tell. If you're too early or too late, find a different tell and try that until you find one that works consistently. For example, you might notice that parrying Tree Sentinel's Jump Attack works best if you press the button just as it pauses at the apex of its leap.
Parry Skills Elden Ring
While the Parry skill comes attached to a number of shields, there are a variety of different parry skills scattered throughout the Lands Between. The "vanilla" Parry skill itself even has different parry frames depending on what type of shield or weapon you attach it to!
- FP indicates how much FP is consumed when you successfully parry. Not all parry skills use FP, and those that do only consume it when the parry is successful. You can still parry even if you run out of FP—it will just behave like the basic Parry skill.
- Delay measures how many frames (at 30FPS) elapse between pressing the skill button and being able to parry an attack. Lower is better.
- Duration measures how many frames (at 30FPS) the skill is active and able to parry an attack after the delay. Higher is better.
- Recovery measures how many frames (at 30FPS) elapse after the parry frames end but before you're able to roll again. See also Recovery Frames below. Lower is better.
| Name | FP | Delay | Duration | Recovery | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 15 | In addition to having the best delay and duration of any parry skill, this can parry attacks from a short distance away. | |
| 8 | 4 | 6 | 15 | In addition to having the best delay and duration of any parry skill, this can parry spells and send glintblades back at the enemy. As FP is only consumed when parrying spells, this provides the best melee-parry without additional FP cost. | |
| - | 4 | 5 | 16 | Unique to the Buckler, this is by far the best parry skill that doesn't require an Ash of War, as well as the best one available without leaving Limgrave. | |
| - | 5 | 5 | 15 | The basic Parry skill is at its best on small shields. | |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | 15 | Blocks projectiles in addition to parrying. This has better stats than the basic Parry skill when applied to a medium shield, although still worse than Golden Parry or Carian Retaliation. | |
| - | 6 | 4 | 15 | If you want to parry with an offensive weapon daggers are your best bet, with worse stats than a small shield but better than a medium shield. | |
| - | 6 | 4 | 15 | Blocks spells in addition to parrying. This has better stats than the basic Parry skill when applied to a medium shield, although still worse than Golden Parry, Carian Retaliation, and even Storm Wall. | |
| - | 6 | 2 | 17 | With a long delay and a very short duration, using Parry with medium shields is not recommended. | |
| - | 6 | 2 | 17 | With a long delay and a very short duration, using Parry with thrusting swords is not recommended. | |
| - | 6 | 2 | 17 | With a long delay and a very short duration, using Parry with curved swords is not recommended. | |
| - | 6 | 2 | 17 | With a long delay and a very short duration, using Parry with fists is not recommended. | |
| - | 6 | 2 | 17 | With a long delay and a very short duration, using Parry with claws is not recommended. |
Recovery Frames
Different actions take more or less time to perform after a parry. Note that left-hand attacks are only possible after parrying with a shield if you're holding that shield in your right hand.
| Name | Roll | Skill | Attack | Guard | Quick Item | Item | Walk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right | Left | |||||||
| Golden Parry | 15 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Carian Retaliation | 15 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Buckler Parry | 16 | 18 | 14 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 19 |
| Parry (Small Shield) | 15 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Storm Wall | 15 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Parry (Dagger) | 15 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Thops's Barrier | 15 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Parry (Medium Shield) | 17 | 18 | 15 | 19 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 17 |
| Parry (Thrusting Sword) | 17 | 18 | 15 | 19 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 17 |
| Parry (Right-Hand Fist/Claw) | 15 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| Parry (Left-Hand Fist/Claw) | 17 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 17 |
| Parry (Curved Sword) | 17 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
AnonymousAh so I wasn't crazy thinking the medium shield was slow af and I had to parry way earlier
- Anonymous
this is exclusively a pvp mechanic. guard counters are simply better in almost every situation in pve. if its only good against crucible knights and bell bearing hunters then its not good.
- Anonymous
Parrying is terrible in this game. The FS games usually lean heavily into parrying/blocking but this one doesn't in favour of rolling. Why would they severely weaken such an iconic ability?
- Anonymous
I wish the parry ash of wars were able to be used on regular armaments, or the regular parry ash of war had more parry frames. Sucks trying to powerstance curved swords and having only 5 party frames.
- Anonymous
I thought the parry on the ****ler has one more active frame than small shield parry?
- Anonymous
Never even tried using shields in like 900 hours, but when I did...man, parrying is SO satisfying (guard counters too). It's hard to get the timing down but it's worth it. Just got to the capital at lvl30 with a +3 and thanks to carian retaliation the knights are no problem anymore. Fun way to play
- Anonymous
I was told that parrying collosal weapons when two handed is not possible (pvp) and found an online article that said the same thing, I came here to verify but found no mention of it other than a comment wishing the buckler could do so.
- Anonymous
it feels like the smaller the (weapon using) enemy is the better parry works. Since the dodging is fun here too its this time rly a sometimes this sometimes this and this is amazing :D
- Anonymous
No está dicho, pero los ataques a dos manos (no habilidad de carga) , con armas ultra pesadas, NO pueden ser paradas, cumple la lógica de DS3
- Anonymous
I wish more bosses were parryable like in DS3, there doesn’t feel like much utility to parrying outside of pvp and basic enemies anyway
- Anonymous
In PvE-decent until lategame/endgame where every boss 2-3 shots you at 60 vigor.
In PvP-it's annoying to pull off due to latency, but 1 tapping some poor dudes or dudettes is always fun.
If engaging in jolly cooperation-beware the host's latency will affect your parry timings.
Just make it like in Sekiro without any start up frames. Hit that button precisely when the enemies' weapon hits you.
- Anonymous
only single digits in active frames and only 5 of them are halfway viable what a joke
Potentially a hot take, but I think all forms of parry should have the same startup frames as Carian Retaliation/Golden Parry
- Anonymous
really wish you could put golden parry or storm wall on daggers
- Anonymous
really wish you could put golden parry or storm wall on daggers
- Anonymous
The Abyss Watcher's sword was so cool to have a built-in parry. I hope the DLC includes something like that.
- Anonymous
Why even have parry on weapons if you’re going to give it an impossibly small window? It’s infuriating.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
They could at least make it so buckler can parry two handed colossals or jumping attacks.
- Anonymous
not even gonna tell us what weapons/skills are and aren't parryable?
- Anonymous
Trying to get good at parrying in this game but can't get the timing down even for the basic enemies. It feels really awkward compared to the souls games. In the souls games, you parry reactively by deflecting an incoming weapon. In ER, it seems like you're meant to treat the parry as a proactive measure where you interrupt the enemy's attack during the windup. But then that's not consistently the case either, some attacks are parried early in the actual swing of the attack, after the windup. Are there any telegraphs I should be keeping an eye out for to consistently land parries? Or do I just have to trial and error to memorize the timing for each individual attack?
- Anonymous
i dont understand why having an ash of war on my sword means that i just can't parry any more. It's stupid that it seems like i have to choose
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I don't know From (ER is my first "Souls" game), but I would like SofET include an Ashes of War "Riposte" that boosts critical damage by ten percent following a successful parry. Equipable on small shields and weapons only, with parry frames similar to a buckler. There should be some strategy that at least trades with Carian Retaliation on a Medium shield for parrying effectiveness. It would also be cool to do a powerstance dagger/thursting sword/etc. that could parry. (As is, you can, but parry frames are so tight on weapons...) Would that be badly OP?
- Anonymous
I block every parry user m. I will not be punished for not using whips or only jump attacks. Stupid mechanic. And no it is not hard, it is so easy to parry especially in PvP, it’s such a cheap and boring crutch. Oh, you like to cast to punish parries? Sorry, we have magic parries too, all in one! Only whips and jump attacks! What fun!
- Anonymous
"Yeah no, parry isn't viable, use stance-break."
*proceeds to furiously complain about every high poise humanoid enemy with slow swings*
Mechanically, it appears as if a nearly missed parry is treated as guard/block.
As a result, having higher guard boost means less stamina drain when you miss your parry. I tested this with the greatshield talisman and a +0 buckler on soliders at Gatefront. After several intentionally missed parries (and many accidentally successful ones--damned muscle memory) it was clear that much less stamina is drained when just missing the parry with the greatshield talisman equipped. If you have a shield that you parry with a lot, it's worth leveling the shield some to get the extra guard boost.
I disagree with the article's assessment above that "you will do more damage with stance break for criticals than trying do parry, since this will do damage before you stance break." Parrying is not in an exclusive alternative to other strategies but complementary to them. You can put a buckler in your left hand and a zweihander in your right. AFAIK, enemy stance points are in no way affected by successful parries or vice versa. You do the most damage when you blend available strategies efficiently and parrying most certainly increases your damage output when you successfully blend it.
The comment in the article is the result of the logic of "builds" where someone is trying to put together the best combination of equipment for that single (sometimes mindless) playstyle that leads to spamming one or two attacks to do all your damage. While those builds are certainly viable, comments to the effect that parrying is "suboptimal" derive from assuming that you are somehow trying to do a "parry build" or simply that you can't pull it off reliably. Neither is a worthwhile assumption.
- Anonymous
Two next-best-things that you can do to dogs instead of parrying them: 1. Knock them out of their incoming attack with your own attack. 2. Jump straight up as their attack reaches you and it'll (usually) whiff so you can punish with a jump attack immediately.
For context, I resent being forced to roll out of the way of dogs (or having to hide behind a shield and guard counter them). I want to assertively hold my ground against them and shut them down in a parry-like way (meaning something that requires some skill/awareness and rewards you by being resource efficient, not a guard counter which is mindless and wastes stamina), but they can't be parried, so these are my next-best options. The jump counter is probably especially useful on very slow or stubby weapons.
- Anonymous
I've been running parry in pvp with the dagger talisman and a misercorde in my other slot. Absolutely worth the practice, I can beat players who have 100% better spacing than me, higher poise/hyperarmor, i can win vs high pressure fast attacking dual-wielders, and i absolutely wreck greatspear users. No it isnt going to win you every duel but if you practice reading your opponent, sometimes you can end a duel in the first ten seconds. I use a weapon that has a bad ash of war i would never use in pvp anyway, so parrying has become my bread and butter
- Anonymous
They gotta rebalance this. Nothing about it is broken, but it's not right that 100% phys reduction shitters can slot a long distance parry with better frames than the Buckler. Or that the parry that allows you to meme mages doesn't cost anything if you don't block projectiles. Unlike the one that only blocks arrows and bolts, which always uses FP and, by the way, has worse frame data.
Just really bizarre all around.
- Anonymous
Why are so many types of parry straight up worse than others? I wanted to use great epee with sidearm parry rapier for a cool giant rapier/dagger combo but there's pretty much no reason to do so instead of just using a buckler/golden/carian
- Anonymous
Parrying usually isn't worth the trouble since the risk/reward/effort ratio is so skewed, a crit can be obtained more easily by jump attacks and guard counters. A few enemies however make it worth considering; Crucible knights get absolutely wrecked by parries and many of their attacks are pretty easy to parry, and with a bit of practice some of the most frustrating fights in the game can be utterly wrecked by parries.
shame it takes multiple parries to riposte bosses like melania, parrying would be way better if that wasn't the case
- Anonymous
-"Humanoid enemies are parriable"
Not Godfrey, be careful out there.
- Anonymous
(Note: I'm talking about PvE here) Recently tried to learn how to Parry, and it really just doesn't feel rewarding to practice this. The extra critical hit is nice but not amazing, especially for something that is really hard to get good at and doesn't even work on tons of enemies and bosses. I mean even if you want a crit-based build, collosal jump attacks are probably more reliable than the parry mechanic. It sucks because this feels cool to pull off, but is relatively worse than just dodging or blocking attacks. I wish the crits you got from parries did better damage or something than just poise breaks, because then this might be a bit more useful.
- Anonymous
For the love of god, don't drain all my stamina when I fail a parry, let me take the damage dammit
- Anonymous
I hope someone can confidently answer this, as parry goblins are rough. Can you parry jump attacks? Or is it only certain weapons.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Parrying is too difficult and inconsistent that it makes it completely worthless. Especially in PvP with those instable latencies and From's shitty netcode. Just dodge or block.
- Anonymous
Just wanted to say that I have actually managed to parry an attack more than once. I've never been able to do that before. As for any lower damage from the follow-up attack it doesn't mean anything to this build as my weapon is whatever spell I'm using on my staff (carian slicer if I'm close enough to be parrying).
- Anonymous
I'm not sure if they changed it recently, but the parry on Curved Swords is definitely not as long as this page says it is. It comes out WAY faster than the dagger parry. It feels like it has very few frames, but its delay is a lot shorter.
- Anonymous
Somehow Elden ring managed to make this skill that requires awesome timing and great skill completely useless.
If you miss the timing due to lag or whatever else, you get annihilated from the stamina drain.
If you catch it the damage is terrible because one goofy magic spell does twice the damage without the risk. It’s an utterly useless skill in this game at this point. It needs a major damage boost to be useful again.
- Anonymous
Where does the Blasphemous Claw you use against Maliketh(Only) rank in all this?
- Anonymous
Great game mechanic IF you can pull it off at least 95% accuracy. Otherwise just roll or block.
- Anonymous
Does heavy equipment load weight make your parry slower...or perhaps faster if weight is at light or zero?
- Anonymous
if you look closely there isn't a single parry tool whose total parry frames (windup + parry window) are larger than 10 frames (10/30 = .33 or 330 ms).
if you are complaining about the page because things like small shields and parry daggers are "not recommended", consider that the timing remains constant. a parry dagger has 6 windup frames (6/30 = 200ms) and 4 parry frames (4/30 = 130ms), while Carian Retal has the opposite - 130ms windup and 200ms parry window. you can press the button at the same time as you would with a dagger and get the parry every time. The only time you'd be in trouble is if you learned to parry with Carian Retal and then decided to switch to parry dagger or one of the less forgiving parry tools.
- Anonymous
Worth noting that if you miss the timing on Parry and it counts as a block instead you can't seem to guard counter off the 'block' so in that way it's not really a block
- Anonymous
I wish there was no block on unsuccessful parry. Blocking with a weapon leaves you without any stamina and it's oftentimes worse than taking a hit.
- Anonymous
that feel when the worst parry tool is the only one you manage to parry with but 95% succes rate,
i dont understand???
- Anonymous
that feel when the worst parry tool is the only one you manage to parry with but 95% succes rate,
i dont understand???
- Anonymous
The only thing "not recommended" is this entire page, as it uses frame data for 30 fps. This is only important for ps4 users, which make up only 9% of the playerbase.
- Anonymous
I think its a bit over the top to literally list half of these parry options as "not recommended". I have zero problem with parrying enemies and players alike with a scimitar its just more difficult and definitely took an hour or two of practice for a couple days.The extra frames on buckler are worth mili-seconds of time. It's a bit of a stretch to say everything else should be thrown in the dumpster.
- Anonymous
In past games parrying power was generally inverse to opportunity cost. Buckler was the worst shield for blocking, and so was the (arguable) best for parrying. Medium shields had the best block, and thus the worst parry of the shields, and small shields were in between. Weapons had fairly poor parries because they could also attack from the offhand. Carian Retaliation and Golden Parry offering the best parries in the game to some of the best blocking shields is a mistake, imo. Besides equip load, there's no advantage to a small shield anymore, and Parrying Dagger has no purpose at all anymore, because daggers with better damage and/or crit multiplier can equip the Parry ash of war and parry just as well as it.
- Anonymous
Dont let the statistiques run to your head . even If you fail a parry with a medium shield with 100 dmg chances are it will count as a regular block dépending on the timing. And personally i found it so much easier parying with anithing but the bucler the animation and the timing dosent feel natural + the waky modele designe ....just try everything with every item
Me i llike the curved sword or the wakasishi or wtv the katana dagger cause it can be power stance with reg katana so i can get parry and unsheat
And finaly take the shield you like the most even if its not a 100 dmg negation your 80%dmg + armor will absorb a lit dont forget 100% of 1 it still is 1
- Anonymous
Does the non-shield parry also block some damage if you get the timing wrong? Talking about dagger or sword parrying.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Parrying carried me through all of my fights with Crucible Knights
- Anonymous
Honestly, ER has a much better parrying system than any of the DS games IMO, I having to land multiple parries for a riposte makes parry only challenges for some bosses incredibly fun without the boss, some bosses have stupid parrying windows like Malenia, but for others like Radagon, Elemer, and Noble it's so much fun. It doesn't outright trivialize some bosses if you learn their parrying times like with Gwyn or Pontiff, and you can parry ANY humanoid melee boss, unlike in DS3. Radagon is the best example IMO, he takes 3 parries to riposte with really tight and straightforward windows, and always follows up with either his sunlight spear or grab attack after a non-riposte parry which is really easy to take advantage of
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Honestly buckler parry sucks ass. Having one specific shield be effectively better than all other parrying options is annoying and boring.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Funnily enough, I find parrying with fist weapons more intuitive than with Medium shields or Small shields (buckler excepted). Even with delay being what it is I find it parries when I expect it to.
- Anonymous
Incorrect information on the buckler "is by far the best parry skill that doesn't consume FP," because Carian Retaliation "only costs FP when successfully parrying a spell (not a physical attack)."
Fist parriers unite
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