Parrying is an important defensive tactic in Stellar Blade and is essential for recharging Beta skills. A well-timed parry can prevent damage, break the enemy’s posture, and leave them open for a counter-attack. It is one of the best ways of dealing with bosses and single enemies, though it can be harder to use when fighting groups.

The best method of parrying is to fully build your skills around it. The "Survival" tree has various perks that can make perfect parrying more versatile. By playing the demo, you can even practice prior to Stellar Blade's official release date. Even if being defensive isn't your main focus, other builds should still consider the mechanic during certain encounters.

Best Skills For Perfect Parrying

Invest In The Survival Skill Tree

Stellar Blade features three skill trees you can mix and match for EVE. “Attack” provides direct damage with the sword, and “Beta” uses special moves by consuming the Beta gauge. But the key parrying skills are all in the “Survival” tree. At a minimum, you will need to invest in the Perfect Parry node to use the action. Focus Boost will greatly increase the window to use a parry, while Counter allows you to attack immediately afterward.

Purchasing any skill nodes requires spending SP. You may want to build out your offense power first, then move into Survival once comfortable. If you can’t damage the enemy, no amount of protection will matter.

How To Practice & Use Perfect Parry

After purchasing the aforementioned skills, practicing is the best way to understand perfect parrying. Go to a safe place, like a previous zone you can fast travel to in Stellar Blade. You can also enter training from the skill tree menu itself. This will provide a robot training dummy that performs a set pattern of attacks.

Despite being a fast game, parries in Stellar Blade are akin to the methodical timing found in Dark Souls or Elden Ring. When using a single strong offensive attack, enemies in Stellar Blade do not telegraph. You instead need to hit the block button slightly before the moment of impact. This might even mean getting hit a few times when first fighting each particular enemy.

When an enemy does a multi-strike combo, they will flash red instead. Each hit can be perfectly parried. However, only the final one will fully stagger and allow for the use of Counter. It all comes down to muscle memory to get it just right.

With so many different enemies and attacks, you should enter real fights to understand enemies in Stellar Blade. While it is easy to grasp the concept of perfect parrying in a few minutes, each opponent is different. Most favor speed over power, but it is unknown how many hits they will deal with until you experience the fight at least once.