How to Effectively Counterattack in The First Berserker Khazan

You have a variety of defensive and offensive options in The First Berserker: Khazan, allowing you to turn the tide of battle in your favor. One of the most important moves to learn is the counterattack, which lets you counter incoming burst attacks that can’t be blocked or Perfect-Dodged.

Learning this move is essential if you want to stand a chance against stronger enemies and bosses of The First Berserker: Khazan, and I’ll teach you how to master it, and when to use it.

Counterattack in The First Berserker Khazan

The primary function of the counterattack is to counter unblockable burst attacks from powerful enemies and bosses. This attack type is very specific and has several indicators:

• First, Khazan will be marked with a “P” symbol.
• A distinct sound effect will play before the attack animation.
• A quick red flash will appear, typically around the enemy’s weapon or melee area.

To perform the counterattack in The First Berserker: Khazan, you need to press LB + B (or L1 + Circle) as soon as the attack animation connects with Khazan.

The trick to getting the counterattack down is to carefully observe the attack animation and only press the buttons when you’re confident of the impact time, which is usually the end of the animation. If you perform the counterattack before or after the impact, you will take plenty of damage instead.

A successful counterattack against a burst attack will fully restore your stamina, giving you enough power to land several follow-up attacks.

It may sound difficult, but what’s great about The First Berserker: Khazan is that the attack animations are very readable, and you can see exactly when the attack hits Khazan thanks to the clean animation work. The counterattack and the perfect guard have similar timings, unlike the reflection ability.

Can You Counterattack Normal Attacks?

You can technically counterattack most incoming attacks, but there are a few things to keep in mind. First, performing a counterattack on a regular attack does not restore any stamina. Secondly the counterattack has two parts when it comes to execution. For the first part, the incoming attack is essentially deflected, and the second part is the response attack from Khazan.

These two parts will always play out when used against a burst attack, but when it’s a regular attack, the second part can be interrupted if the enemy is performing a multi-hit combo with fewer frames than your response attack of the counterattack.

To explain this better, I’ll use two combat examples.

In the first example, the enemy performs a combo with fast attacks. Even though I can easily perform a counterattack, my response attack is interrupted by its combo, so I don’t deal back any damage. Instead, I get hit by the second attack and lose health. So in a situation like this, using a counterattack is counterintuitive. This should make a lot of sense to fighting game players as well.

In the second example, the same enemy performs a slow attack which might have a follow-up, but my response attack is fast enough that the counterattack hits and deals enough damage to finish the enemy off. This is an instance where the counterattack is quite useful.

So, is it worth using the counterattack against regular enemies and their attacks? Well, it really depends on their incoming attack. If you’ve fought an enemy or boss several times and know which attacks don’t have a follow-up attack, then you can use the counterattack for some excellent damage, but in most cases, you’re better off using a perfect guard instead.

Additionally, a counterattack against a regular attack doesn’t restore any stamina, so that’s something to also consider. You don’t want to just waste stamina and go into an exhausted state.