While most players may use a shield for blocking, true Dark Souls players will have mastered the art of parrying. Parrying, for the unaware, is when you utilize your shield to smack aside an attack from an enemy, opening up their guard and allowing you to follow up with a critical hit. Parrying is tricky, and many attacks are not parry-able — but it is a skill worth learning all the same. Here’s how to parry in Elden Ring.
With a light or medium shield equipped, depending on which slot you have it in, press the corresponding Heavy Attack button — for example, if you have a shield in the left hand, L2 is your parry button. Your character will do a short swatting motion. You must activate this within a certain window before an attack connecting to initiate a parry. If successful, a sound effect will play, and the enemy will be knocked off-balance. This is your window of opportunity to attack and score a critical hit.
All enemies are different, but in general, light attacks from melee weapons are parry-able. Heavy attacks are typically too strong to parry, but some can be parried depending on the weapon. This skill requires practice, experimentation, and enemy knowledge — don’t expect to parry a Giant Hammer Heavy Attack, as an example. A good training dummy to practice your parry is the forest outside the Church of Elleh — a roaming knight there will use Light Attacks often.
