Parry as the hit arrives to break posture in Valor Mortis. Land it on a normal rebel's swing and you can execute them on the spot instead of chipping away at their health. Most missed parries are early ones: enemies pause mid wind-up, and that pause is bait.
When should you parry in Valor Mortis?
Trigger your parry when the attack reaches you, rather than when the enemy starts winding up.
- Let the enemy commit to its attack. Against a dog, bait the leap and wait for it to close in.
- Parry the incoming hit. The dog is right in front of you during the successful parry.
- Follow the successful dog parry with an execution. You move into a close finishing animation instead of continuing to chip away at its health.
A long wind-up looks like your cue, but it isn't. Wait it out. One player who parried early against an axe-wielder had to dodge away and still took several hits.
If you mistime the parry, dodge away and reset. Trying to force another exchange after an early attempt can leave you taking repeated hits.
How does parrying break enemy posture?
Successful parries damage posture, letting you break an enemy's stance instead of relying only on health damage.
The smaller bar beneath an enemy's health bar is its posture bar. It's easy to mistake for a second health bar, but it's what your parries damage, and breaking it opens the enemy up.
Enemies with this bar can keep attacking through your stabs. Spamming light attacks risks retaliation because those hits do not reliably stagger them. Parrying their attacks gives you a way to break posture and end the exchange quickly. Normal rebels can be executed immediately after a parried swing; focus on that opening instead of squeezing in another stab.
Is the saber or rapier better for learning to parry?
The saber is the safer learning choice because it can block; the rapier trades that fallback for stronger parries and a tighter timing window.
Saber: recommended while learning
You can block with the saber while you learn to read incoming attacks. That gives you more room for mistakes than a weapon that cannot block. Start here if long wind-ups keep baiting you into an early parry.
Rapier: stronger posture damage
The rapier cannot block, but its parries deal more posture damage. Its tighter timing rewards you once you can consistently wait for the hit. The full weapon list shows where to find both.
Rapier upgrades can restore endurance on successful parries, with health restoration available later. If that's the playstyle you want, here's how weapon upgrades work.
What upgrades help with parrying?
Parrying Impact increases posture damage from successful parries, while a focus item increases the parry window.
Parrying Impact: stronger successful parries
Choose this for more posture damage when your timing is already landing. In the Level Up menu, the skill is named Parrying Impact, and its description reads: "Successful Parrying deals increased Posture damage."
If you're deciding where your next points go, the skill tree guide lays out the priorities.
Parry-window focus: more room to land the timing
Choose the focus item that increases the parry window if you want more timing leeway. A wider window addresses landing the parry; increased posture damage addresses what happens after you land it. If you're also picking ambers, the ambers guide covers what each one does.
Once waiting for the hit becomes habit, most normal enemies go down to one parry and an execution. Head back to the walkthrough when you're ready.