How to parry attacks and how parrying works in Valheim

Combat happens pretty frequently in Valheim. You’ll be battling against several bosses known as Forsaken. They have numerous minions wandering the map, such as skeletons, Draugrs, Greydwarves, and Fuhlings, which you might refer to as a goblins. When you’re battling these enemies, you can parry their attacks using a shield, a great way to survive these encounters. You need to block these attacks at the right time, though. After hitting it correctly, the enemy is open for a critical attack, maximizing damage with your weapon.

How to parry

You can parry using most weapons in the game and your shield. We’ve had the most success using a shield. The technique breaks down to hitting the block button seconds before the enemy’s attack connects to you. If you miss the timing and you’re too early, the worst thing that happens is you block the attack, taking a reduced amount of damage. If you do it too late, you’ll take the full damage, and your character will be knocked back, taking a fair amount of damage. The exact amount of damage you take varies on how much armor your character is wearing at the time and the type of enemy they’re fighting.

When you land the parry, you’ll hear a distinct ‘dinging’ sound, and the enemy you hit will be knocked back. They perform an animation as if they’re falling backward, their hands spinning in the air. When you see this happen, perform an attack against them, and you’ll do increased damage while they remain in this state. Certain weapons do more damage to enemies, such as the polearm weapons will do three times as much damage. Other weapons, like the sword and mace, only do twice as much. The knife does four times as much damage.

Parrying is extremely important. You’ll be able to hit them on some bosses, but that timing is a bit more difficult.