Hyper Light Breaker
Screenshot by Prima Games

How To Parry in Hyper Light Breaker – Explained

Hesitation is defeat!

Hyper Light Breaker is a challenging rogue-lite with a robust combat system that rewards skillful play and fast reflexes. In addition to the dodge, Hyper Light Breaker also features a parry mechanic which is quite useful once you have its timing down. There’s a risk and reward associated with this feature, making it a bit more situational at times but effective nonetheless. Here is how you can parry and perfect parry in Hyper Light Breaker.

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How Parrying in Hyper Light Breaker Works

In Hyper Light Breaker, there is a dedicated parry button. The default parry button is B/Circle on the controller and Q on the keyboard. In short, players can perform a parry by tapping the parry button after they see an enemy’s incoming attack flash right before it hits them.

The flash is consistent across all attacks, whether it’s melee or ranged. So when you see an enemy charging up a part of its body, a weapon, or its entire body, get ready to parry. Here are a few examples of this flash.

The timing after the flash can differ depending on the enemy type but that’s the indicator to look out for. After this, timing the parry button right before the attack hits you will deflect all incoming damage. You can do this on the ground or in the air. Below are the same attacks parried to show impact.

Regular enemies will be staggered a bit, and you can lunge in for some hits, but that isn’t the case with ranged enemies, of course. Make good use of this post-parry period to either deal some damage or run away if you have to.

Heavy enemy types are unlikely to be staggered either but parrying is useful regardless, especially when you get comfortable with the windup animations of different enemies.

When to Parry

In Hyper Light Breaker, you will rarely find singular enemies. They’re usually in groups and will try to overwhelm you with a variety of attacks. It’s why dodging is usually more useful in most situations because it has invincibility frames.

Parrying is more effective when you’re dealing with the last few enemies in a group or when you can’t avoid incoming projectiles. Parrying is especially useful against bosses, especially when you have the timing of their attacks down.

Perfect Parry in Hyper Light Breaker

In addition to a regular parry, if you hit the parry button at the last second/frame before the attack hits you, you’ll perform a Perfect Parry, which heals your character in the process. The timing of this is very strict and takes a bit to perfect, but you’ll know when you’ve done it correctly if you get some HP right after a parry.

This does feel a bit random in my experience as attacks are generally very fast and it’s hard to perform a perfect parry every single time.

Upgrading the Perfect Parry

To get the most out of the perfect parry, players can upgrade it by interacting with the Pherus Bit at The Cursed Outpost by unlocking the Tier 2 upgrade slot using a Golden Ration. The “Reflector” node deflects projectiles that are perfectly parried, dealing 10 additional damage.

Overall, like the first Hyper Light Drifter, parrying is a tricky but rewarding mechanic that can turn the tide of any combat encounter whether you’re playing alone or with friends.


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Author
Image of Ali Hashmi
Ali Hashmi
Ali has been writing about video games for the past six years and is always on the lookout for the next indie game to obsess over and recommend to everyone in sight. When he isn't spending an unhealthy amount of time in Slay the Spire, he's probably trying out yet another retro-shooter or playing Dark Souls for the 50th time.