The parrying mechanic in Final Fantasy XVI provides a useful way for you to interrupt most enemies just before they’re about to land a melee attack. You won’t be able to parry all attacks at first, especially those which use magic at range, but it will work with most regular melee hits and you can use special abilities to parry some magic attacks later on. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to parry successfully in FF16 on this page.
Parrying in Final Fantasy XVI.
How To Parry in Final Fantasy 16¶
The first thing that you need to know about parrying in Final Fantasy XVI is that it doesn’t have its own dedicated button. Instead, you need to use the regular attack button, which is 
by default. Since the button is shared for two different functions, you won’t be able to spam parrying at any given time, and you’ll be forced to time your use of it properly. There are a number of different parrying mechanics in action games, but in the case of FFXVI, it’s fairly simple: you need to press just before an enemy attack lands to successfully parry it.
You will only be able to parry melee attacks by default in the beginning of the game, but as you progress you can unlock specific abilities, such as the Phoenix 
Eikon ability called 
Heatwave, which will allow you to parry most ranged attacks. There is some overlap with the counterattack mechanic with this ability, since it’s technically classed as a counterattack, but the principle of parrying here is the same in that you need to execute the ability just before the projectile is about to hit you. In the case of Heatwave, this will counter by firing some fire arcs back at the enemy.
Parrying Humanoid Attacks¶
The best way to determine when you need to time your parry correctly is by looking at the movements of the enemy. This will be different for each enemy type, since they come in different shapes, sizes, and forms. The easiest attacks to parry generally come from humanoids, who often wield weapons which give you an extra visual aid as to when their attack is about to hit. So, for anything with a weapon, keep a close eye on that weapon and wait for the moment that it comes bearing down on you. The precise moment when you need to parry will be different depending on the attack speed of a specific enemy, and the various animations involved.
Parrying Monster Attacks¶
The real difficulty with parrying comes when you’re fighting different types of monsters, and especially amorphous enemies such as 
Flans. You will encounter a large variety of monsters throughout the game such as wolves, hornets, crabs, spiders, dragons, and much more. Each of these will have different attack animations and different sounds which precede most of their attacks that can be parried. For this reason it’s important that you pay close attention to their movements as soon as you encounter them, and try to learn exactly how they move (and sound) with different attacks early on.
One of the best ways to quickly learn the variety of attack animations that a specific enemy is capable of is to let them attack you for a while before you try to kill them with powerful attacks of your own. You can stand still and wait for them to approach, and just before they strike press 
to dodge out of the way. This will give you an opportunity to see the attack animation in motion, while still being unharmed by it. Do this a few times for every new enemy that you encounter, then try parrying at the last moment, just before the attack lands.
(1 of 2) Some enemies, like this goblin, will wind up an attack by moving slightly backwards just before they unleash it.
Some enemies, like this goblin, will wind up an attack by moving slightly backwards just before they unleash it. (left), Time will be slowed for a brief period when you execute a parry successfully. (right)
Parrying Boss Attacks¶
As you might expect with most bosses, each will have their own unique attacks that you’ll need to learn, so you may find yourself failing to parry multiple times in a row as you try to adjust to their specific animations and sounds. However, as mentioned above, dodging out of the way at first while you observe exactly how a particular attack is executed is a good way of quickly learning without putting yourself in harms way. If you fail to parry at the right moment, you will almost always be hit by the incoming attack, but if you dodge the attack instead while you’re learning, you’re much more likely to come out unscathed.
The good thing about boss battles is that once you’ve gained enough experience to become familiar with the specific attack animations and sounds of a boss, it becomes much more predictable and therefore easier to master parrying their attacks. This is good news for anyone who wants to earn the You’re Not the Boss of Me trophy, which requires you to defeat a boss without taking any damage. If you fail to do this the first time that you fight any boss, you can always try again using the 
Arete Stone to revisit specific fights, but more on that below.
Use Parrying to Stagger Enemies¶
One of the most significant benefits of mastering the parrying mechanic in FFXVI is that whenever you parry an attack, it will briefly stagger the enemy. This will give you a chance to get in some free attacks of your own while the enemy remains helpless, and time will be slowed for a second or so to reflect this. As a result parrying is arguably more effective than counterattacking when it comes to inflicting the most amount of damage to enemies, since you can follow up the parry with a combo attack or a 
Magic Burst sequence, but this will change depending on the skills that you might choose to counterattack with, such as Heatwave mentioned above.
Practice Parrying With Training at the Arete Stone¶
The Arete Stone is in the Hidden Hideaway hub, and it can be used to enter different combat modes such as the Hall of Virtue, Arcade Mode, and Stage Replay. In each of these you can revisit specific combat scenarios or just practice against particular enemies by training in the Hall of Virtue, which provides a great way to perfect your timing with parries!
(1 of 2) Interact with the !Arete Stone in the Hidden Hideaway to practice parrying in the Hall of Virtue.
Interact with the !Arete Stone in the Hidden Hideaway to practice parrying in the Hall of Virtue. (left), The location of the !Arete Stone in the Hidden Hideaway. (right)
If you’re more of a casual player and you’ve tried mastering the parry mechanic but just can’t get the hang of it, there are specific accessories known as Timely Accessories which aim to make combat easier in general. None of these will allow you to automatically parry attacks, but there are some which allow you to automatically dodge, such as the 
Ring of Timely Evasion. If you want to learn more about these accessories, be sure to check our Timely Accessories in FFXVI - Complete Guide. However, note that we don’t recommend using these if you’re looking for a challenge with the combat system.
More Combat Guides for FF16¶
If you want to learn more about the combat system in Final Fantasy XVI, be sure to check the pages below:
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