Since I couldn't find any guides about parrying on either YouTube or Steam Guides, figured I'll just make a quick and dirty guide for all you Ultimate Badasses:


Parrying is simple. You just have to press the Melee button (Default: V).

When done right, you will fully mitigate the incoming Xenomorph attack and take ZERO damage.

However, it is critical that you time your Melee correctly.

Unlike dodging, pressing the melee button 60-75% into the reload animation will not cancel it.

There were many incidents where I couldn't finish reloading before a xenomorph got too close for comfort. So I dodged its attack... only to realise my magazine is still empty.
By then, his buddies had caught up to him. So I gotta deal with 4 Xenomorphs with an empty magazine now. Panic-stricken, I'll mash the [R] button frantically... But they got too close again, forcing me to dodge their attacks... again. Now, there's 7 Xenomorphs about to hand my ass back to me.

This could've all been avoided if I had just parried that single Xenomorph attack at the beginning.

I found that the easiest way to parry an attack is to wait for the Xenomorph to be in mid-jump before pressing the [V] button. See image above.

As long as you hit the button after the Xenomorph pounces -- and of course before it hits you -- you will not take any damage. See image below.

You must be wondering, why PARRY when you can just DODGE out of harm's way?

Parrying is extremely useful in the following situations:

• When you are cornerned and have your back against a wall.
  
  
• When you are surrounded, and dodging sideways/backwards is not an option.
  
  
• When you know that dodging will only cause you and your team more harm than good.
  (i.e. taking friendly-fire damage from squad members, or breaking formation and putting you out of position, etc).
  
  Positioning is extremely important in higher difficulty and a poorly-time dodge can cause a domino effect that leads to your position being overrun.

Do not attempt to block an attack in the following situations:

• When MORE THAN ONE xenomorph is lunging towards you
  While you will still parry the attack of the first xenomorph, the second xenomorph's attack will connect and damage your character.
  
  
• You cannot block a Prowler's pouncing attack or any Special Xenomorph's Grapple attacks (The one that leads to a Quick-Time event). But you can block their regular lunge attacks though.

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