Enshrouded: How to Parry, Stagger Enemies, and Riposte

Combat in Enshrouded is a back-and-forth affair. Attacking and defending equally. If you’re rocking melee weapons, especially with a shield, you must know how to counter attacks. The timing and execution are weird here, so I’ll tell you how to parry in Enshrouded.

How the Parry Mechanic Works in Enshrouded

If you’re familiar with parry mechanics in other action games, parrying in Enshrouded feels mostly familiar. If you interrupt an enemy’s attack with a block at the right time, you parry that attack. A successful parry negates all damage and staggers enemies.

Enshrouded Parry Timing Detailed: When Does the Parry Window Start and End?

The timing on an Enshrouded parry is really strange. This isn’t Dark Souls or God of War. What surprises me is how early you must parry to connect in Enshrouded. The parry window starts just after an enemy’s attack animation begins. It ends well before their attack actually lands.

I’ve parried, and the enemy has hardly moved. However, the parry lands. Other times, I thought I was far too late parrying, but the animation landed. Depending on the attack type and the enemy attacking, parry startup frames can vary wildly. Wolves, for instance, have a very strange parry startup, as do the dual-wielding humanoid enemies. The Fell in Shrouded areas are much easier to prediction parry, provided you aren’t fighting 10 of them at a time like I have.

How Stagger Works and Affects Parried Enemies

Additionally, parrying builds the white stagger bar under an enemy’s health bar, as does attacking an enemy if they’re blocking. When the stagger bar fills, the enemy is stunned for about five seconds. I like to get in good damage here. After the stun wears off, the bar resets to zero.

What is Parry Power in Enshrouded?

There’s an additional wrinkle to parrying in Enshrouded, as well. You can parry with both the weapon you’re holding or a shield, and stagger amounts depend on the item’s Parry Power. The higher the Parry Power, the more stagger builds. An item’s Parry Power is listed in the item’s description when viewing it in your inventory or crafting menu.

Stagger values also increase as the blocking implement’s level increases, at least based on how many levels you have on your enemy. A Level 10 character always parries a Level 1 enemy. A Level 10 character always fails to parry a Level 10 enemy.

Merciless Attack: How to Riposte

I also suggest upgrading your shield as soon as possible. The Blacksmith has a pretty great upgrade, and while you’ll need a Forge and lots of Metal Scraps to craft it, the benefits quickly outweigh the costs. Further, taking the Merciless Attack node in the Skill tree gives you access to a powerful riposte that deals around five times the damage of a normal attack.

Merciless Attacks are available for the duration of an enemy’s stun, though I’m not sure if it applies to bosses. In any event, those are the basics of parrying in Enshrouded. It’s a relatively simple system to wrap your head around, but there’s a bit of nuance, especially regarding the stagger system. For more content on the latest survival crafting game, check out our Enshrouded guides hub.