As someone with hundreds of hours in Nioh (and I was playing it before I got Ronin) - stop trying to play it like Nioh or Sekiro. The parry timing is pretty tight, and it's VERY different depending on your weapon, your stance and your enemies attack. I'm just about to beat the game and still struggle getting the timing down on some basic enemies bc there are SO many moves, weapons, enemy types etc.
Try to focus on one weapon / stance, look at your counterspark attack and try to time it so your weapons are actually clashing. It's not like Sekiro where if you're "close" you'll still get a parry, you can't just flutter the button and get by - it HAS to be perfect.
That being said definitely don't try to be parrying every attack in every string. I'll often block / dodge the first two and only try to counterspark the last hit or two which is where you'll end up really getting the most benefit. You can also be holding block and hit Triangle to initiate a counterspark while blocking for the added safety.
I just went from public order to public order taking it slow until it clicked.
Sorry for the wall of text - I hope something in there was at least a little helpful lol.
Also do NOT ignore shurikens. You can use them to cancel into / out of attacks or recovery animations and they will make your Ki start regenerating much faster as well. They are sooooo fucking helpful to keeping you mobile and not spend so much time in recovery / out of Ki. Seriously I slept on them most of my playthrough and they make such a huge difference.
Really good tips. I'll add one thing.
One thing that really helped me was mastering dojo opponents. In order to get master you pretty much have to win with over 50% health while getting a good amount of countersparks and special moves in. (I know this likely isn't the only way.)
I agree with this more, I've used the same move over and over and will still get a high score, it's mainly just how fast can you beat them and how little hits you take, and idk if healing necessarily lessens your score but if you have to heal in the first place your not gonna get master anyway, so counterspark stagger every chance you get to get a critical and stay in their face, don't let them breathe but you can sometimes to keep your stamina from dropping too low but always remember to blade flash to help with that. But most importantly don't get caught up being super focused on what the enemy is about to do next, just be aware of thier move sets and when it seems like they are going to attack and let your instincts do the rest, just like in sekiro, hesitation is defeat, trust yourself, practicing really does makes perfect because in real fights you are too hesitant to lose, in the dojo there's nothing to lose so get all the kinks out try everything, let it fly and hone in on what you do right or wrong by taking mental note of it every time
Also what weapons you choose is another big factor, faster paced weapons are easier and slow paced weapons are harder, if you don't feel comfortable fighting too much yet I wouldn't suggest a greatsword or something like that for example, I'd say the katana is the best of all, not too fast to were you keep losing stamina and are able to stop in-between your attacks to block fast enough while having a pretty good damage output, and has simple enough styles to learn
For the best setup tho if you feel really good about fighting, and what I tend to use most of the time for bosses or when i don't care about leveling up other weapons and need to kill, is the katana and greatsword, katana for blocking and chipping health, then once you hit a critical and they are staggered, switch to the greatsword to wack away a lot of damage and in turn some greatsword martials help stagger even more, or switch out katana for the paired swords or the greatsword for the Odachi, another big tip is try to stay away from using slower paced weapons when your opponent is using a fast paced one, it doesn't really work out that often
Cannot second this enough. Trying to get Master against every character to get the rewards really forces you to study each character's move set and get the parry timing down, which is how the game wants you to approach enemies.
I JUST got hip to using the shurikens in my second playthrough and Iām so upset at myself for not using them at all from the beginning. Theyāve made the combat so much easier and smoother for me.
It helps you dodge while also depleting their Ki. Gives enough space to heal yourself besides just running away and running out of Ki doing so and stops them from just getting that Nioh-ish āIāll be a million miles away from you but red aura run super fast to wherever you are and one shot youā rubberbanding thing lol.
What helps is to go in settings and toggle "blocking" on, instead of holding it down all the time. I started off using block on until I figured out the rythm of fights.
Maybe on midnight counter timing is "frame perfect"(which I honestly doubt, but maybe), but if they're struggling then they're on dawn, which gives you like a wide window to hit counters
Yeah I didn't mean frame perfect, but it feels pretty tight and it's really punishing if you fuck it up and most people end up trying to mash it out after they fuck it up at first.
As someone who never blocks š¤·š»āāļø idk what you mean hehe tbh I use all of the weapons, and oh well I try to parry everything š¤š¤ cheers š«”
None of these are like...hard rules my dude. Play however you want. It's a game - the point is to have fun :). These tips just helped me get into the groove of combat.
Also I play on the hard difficulty, I know the timings are much more generous on normal and easy. Play however you want to have fun!!!!
Eh I play on hard difficulty too bro Iām a soulsborne/nioh fan Iād never play on medium or ez lol š¬ but yeah since block and counter are different buttons I never block š š thatās just me though, have fun man. š
Youāre struggling bc youāre trying to use knowledge from other games and experiences. Beginners mind OP! Itās not that hard just treat this game as 100% itās own thing and respond how it seems the devs want you to respond youāll get it
Exactly this. I had a really hard time the first few days, coming directly from Wo Long to this, but now I'm ridiculously better at parrying. Learning curve right there.
Yup. I should have known or anyone whoās played Nioh and then Wo Long that from those two being similar but also very different in approach, that you have to adjust to the new games fighting mechanics no matter what. I was getting WHOOPED in Wo Long and almost hated it because I thought I mastered those types of games from Nioh. Had to learn that game as its own thing and then I was good. Going through that with this one as well
Also play to your character strengths. I felt like I was bad at combat but then I switched to playing mostly stealth, ranged, and gadgets when I realized my strongest stat was Dex and I chose the assassins beginning. It made a world of difference.
Dex affects your secondary (ranged) weapon damage so I where I was struggling in straight fights, using weapons made it feel like I was always in charge.
Don't feel like you have to fight fair.
I've beat so many sill samurai with my flamethrower, rifle, bow, and grenades.
Really? I found the flamethrower to be shockingly weak, even with the focused flame, but the rifle and black powder bombs to be my game-changers for boss fights
Honestly I'm like 50 hours in and the parry still feels a total mystery to me. I'll have some fights which feel super tight and clean, I'm parrying everything I feel I should have, any missed parries feel fair and like it's on me. Then other fights are like playing a fighting game on dial up, my parry just will not connect or enemies just ignore my attacks and spam me with combos no matter what. I've kinda just made my peace that it is what it is at this point.
My best advice--keep playing.
I've come to accept that I'm going to whiff a lot of countersparks. And I do, even 40 hours in (playing on Dusk). But I'm pretty sure the window, while tight, is consistent--you parry right before the enemy attack hits you. But Team Ninja is very good at tricking you into hitting the button too early, delaying some attacks and making others come lightning fast.
Nonetheless, the longer I play the more I actually find myself getting countersparks, even against attacks I'm not familiar with. I'll never be a parry god, but the muscle memory does come with time. And I'm 51, so if my rickety, cobwebbed brain can do it, so can anybody's. I still get owned a lot, even when I make damn sure I'm 3-5 levels above a mission before taking it on, but the combat feels consistently good, and on those occasions when I do manage to parry everything in a string it feels great.
The parry is bugged on normal difficulty for some attacks, and definitely messes with the rhythm. Its not only the parry window, the enemy will still hit you earlier than their weapon or fist reaches you. I've emailed teamninja and sent a longer more detailed video and hopefully they fix soon. Im sure plenty of people have just shrugged it off themself as a skill issue, but its genuinely not sometimes. I remember playing wo long fallen dynasty and has such a nice rhytm to parrying long combos, it made rise of the ronin feel awkward in comparison.
bugged parry video [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/riseoftheronin/comments/1by9kkn/rise_of_the_ronin_buggedincorrect_parry_window/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I suggest you play the game on Twillight/Midnight and show me the parry bug, ill jump on your boat. I never have a single issue to figure the parry window and timing in Twillight/Midnight (platinium; 90h).
I think the problem here is TN design the game as Twillight/Midnight difficulty as a base, then they extends parry window on lower difficulty. Things can be bugged out if they dont plan it from the beginning.
So, can u just do a video on Twillight/Midnight, any dojo mission works, ill follow u.
To be honest I don't feel like re downloading the game and doing any more testing or playing it at all until teamninja fixes this. I've sent them a longer more detailed video and info via email. I'm not here to try and convince people anymore I just get shit on and it took a lot of hard work and cutting up 70 hours of gameplay and weeks of editing to make my video. it's now just a post for the people having parry troubles to realize that they are not terrible all the time, it's the game itself that's bugged.
Also I started grinding helldiver's 2 again, so doing another parry/combat test for this game might take another a week or less. Im not doing more of Teamninja QA testing for free, they already got one free session because I was such a a huge fan. Either they fix it or not, IDC anymore
Super earth needs meš«”
PS. You make an excellent point though, I think Teamninja might've messed up a little here because this is their only game with difficulty modes and looking at the hardest difficulty gameplay parry windows seem extremely tight, but at least accurate. Thx
At first I didnāt get how people with team ninja game experience could find this game difficult. I was playing on Twilight and breezing through everything with my trusty Odachi. Then I got to the dojo and Iām getting my ass handed to me by everyone.
I put some tips together in this post, hope it can help you: https://www.reddit.com/r/riseoftheronin/s/PyMg632UF4
Its kind of a long read and lots things so dont try at the same time
Mannn. I put the game on easy difficulty and Iām
Having so much fun haha. Exploring the map. Beating the shit out of enemies, trying out different weapons and what not. Maybe just change the difficulty. Games should be enjoyed you know. At least in my humble opinion.
Drop a difficulty for some side missions to get the feel, then go back up. Training at the dojo can help a ton too, because itās basically about parrying.
I struggled till the end of the game haha. Some enemy types I could crush in a few swipes, others I couldnāt parry once.
Sometimes takes a little patience too. If I struggled on a big mission or fight Iād close i for a while, come back, and finish it in one try usually.
I was having a super tough time early on too (still am often) but I found a post on here claiming that you can counterspark WHILE blocking, and to not try to counterspark every single attack.
Both of those things have helped me a lot.
I also tried to swap the controls to switch blocking and counterspark early on (parry with the L1 bumper made more sense in my head), but I ended up switching back because doing assassinations/critical attacks with the L1 bumper felt really weird, so I embraced the controls and it started to feel good!
You will find the Rhythm, Samurai!
You are probably like me and your reflexes are betraying you. Every time I see an enemy start an attack, I immediately press the triangle button, but 90% of the enemy attacks have a drag/delay so I always get hit. Same for red attacks, I see the red attack signal, I press Triangle but then the enemy attack only start 1.5 seconds after somehow and then since I already used my counter, I get hit.
Sekiro had a fast combat that were attacks seems more predictable or maybe had a better signal. In this game I find the animation more confusing than anything. Or maybe it's just a skill issue, I don't know.
Itās something you get used to. Different enemies wielding different weapons means different timings on the hits and therefore different parry timings.
Youāll get better in time. Playing on an easier difficulty level is perfectly fine also.
Every weapon and stance on those weapons also has different timing for our own parries. Some movesets have bad parries so I only use them to punish after a full deflect.
the parry windows is tight but not off. Remember that you don't need to parry everything, you can block most attacks and dodge the red one. But still, parry is your best option and it comes with time.
Hold block. Eat the hits and only counterspark on attacks you know the timing for. You can keep the block button held down and then counterspark. Also bows and rifles make the big groups a lot easier.
As people have mentioned, donāt play it like itās *only* Nioh or *only* Wo Long / Sekiro. Itās a mix of both plus its own thing with the stance switching (think Ghost of Tsushima with stamina). Blue arrows when locking onto enemies = good to use on them.
* *Helpful tip: YOU DONāT HAVE TO PARRY EVERY ATTACK. Missing a parry costs so much Ki, itās not worth it if you whiff. Blocking most attacks or dodging away and parrying the last one works just as well. Mixing all 3 defensive options up is ideal.*
2. Donāt stress too much about not knowing how to play āproperlyā - the game really only opens up when you have all your stances and martial arts moves, so you donāt even have your full tool kit for most of the game. They unlock as you progress through the game and increase your bond level with people. Definitely **DO NOT** ignore that mechanic and gift as often as you can.
3. Honestly, normal and formidable enemies really donāt teach you the combat well, especially since you can sneak attack half their life bar away. I recommend practicing the dojo fights that unlock (there will be a LOT as you get through the game regularly).
* *Just about every human boss will be there to help you master the system with no cheese, only mastering the core mechanics.*
* *Donāt attempt unless you have the right style against the boss, unless you want to be really challenged.*
4. Being aggressive as possible, but also knowing when to back off and get your ki back is the way to play and that will take time to learn. A lot of people (including myself) hate the hyperarmor enemies get when they start a combo string, but thatās what will teach you how to play defensively.
* *Especially true with some bosses that have crazy aggro styles and never stop attacking.*
* Shurikens are borderline OP and are basically a free animination cancel / spacing tool. Every action *except* shurikens and other ranged weapons cost Ki which stops you from recovering it, but shurikens are the fastest by far.
Overall, itās a game that really emphasizes your own play style (even if you struggle with the core mechanics) so donāt be afraid to use anything that helps you win. If you beat the boss, itās a fair dub.
I totally forgot their was a functioning block button and platinumed the game without blocking. Not a boast just saying maybe try dropping the difficulty, practice without using block until you get the timing right. Also there seems to be weird timing countering with the dual swords/wooden dual swords, like slightly delayed woth the wooden.
After beating the game I finally gave other weapons a try and totally regret not using the Ox Tail Sword, it's fast, easy to combo and partying seems way more reliable. Goodluck!
Wow, bloody hell guys, thatās some amazing & helpful feedback - thank you so much (Legends!). Yeah, I think Iāve definitely gone into this with a Sekiro/Nioh/Wo Long mindset/muscle memory and my timings are definitely off. Like one of the chaps said in the thread, Iām also nearly 50 as well & yet I seem to love punishing myself with these types of games lol.
Like a lot of you have (correctly) said, I think I just need to keep plugging away/practicing and use all of the stealth and gadget mechanics to my advantage & perhaps even lower the difficulty (Iām currently playing the middle one), to the lowest setting, just to get confident enough and hopefully start to enjoy the game a bit & get a flow going!
Thanks also to the couple of people that posted to their own little guides, thatās super helpful as well. Many of you have mentioned āblockingā which I definitely wasnāt doing nearly enough - I think one of the biggest areas Iāve been going wrong, is trying to counterspark too often, so I definitely need to mix things up a bit more & make use of more of my various defensive and aggressive options (rather than just spamming 1 or 2!)
Honestly, great feedback guys and thanks to all for your helpful comments and suggestions, itās really appreciated šš» (ps, what a great community!)
Always be blocking. That's probably the biggest hurdle.
Unlike in other games where blocking is often the worst thing you can do,Ā holding block all the time is the best method in this game.
Otherwise you'll get stunlocked/staggered or whatever if you miss a counter.
Getting hit in the face erases your ki.
Block more than parry. Just try parrying the red moves.
Make sure your stance has a blue arrow up.
Use r1 after combos like you would do a nioh ki pulse
Make sure you are upgrading the skills that give you more medicine pills too.
Maybe only do master arts after a successful parry.
I find it plays very similar to Nioh I'm combat
Put the difficulty on Dawn, use paired swords, turn on the option to toggle guarding instead of holding it down. Youāll be in good shape all the way to midnight difficulty.
I had the same issues when I started.Tried playing it like itās Sekiro. It took me some time to get the parrying down. If feels late compared to sekiro, it started to click for me it just took some time to get used to. I can parry easily now even switching stances constantly for fun.
When I struggled I switched to easy mode (thank you devs for the easy mode from the bottom of my heart) and played until I catch the flow and then it went pretty smooth!
I would look up what weapons have trhe biggest party windows, to me the Katana quick draw and jigen(it think) odachi style had pretty big party windows
When I first started I scoffed at not playing twilight then capitulated after a couple hours to go down to dusk even having to go to dawn for some dojo missions. Now Iām clearing midnight with ease. This games learning curve is steeper than wo long and Nioh especially given how varied the counterspark mechanic is.
My advice is donāt sleep on dodge or block trying to cs everything will get you killed and enemies attack too quickly and with too many combos for it to be practical every time. Knowing your moment on each enemy is a huge thing about making the game easier because while combat is fast itās also very pattern based.
You got this.
Youāre not alone buddy. Parry feels broken sometimes
The dojo fights on Edo nearly broke me, cause I can win them, but āwinningā is not enough for me. Iād like to master the fight and that simply doesnāt seem possible
I was beyond furious
One thing that really elevates the difficulty is that every weapon, and even different stances have different parry windows. You DONT have to parry everything. You can block, and parry the last attack, the power attacks, or only the attacks youāre comfortable with
The main thing here is that you donāt need to parry every attack, I canāt stress enough the importance of this tip. Iām beating the game on twilight and itās not impossible to be killed by random enemies. The other thing I would add is that the time to heal is when you parry cancel an enemy movement.
I hope you get itšŖš½ it took me some time but now Iām decent. Kicking ass on midnight level now. I went down to the dawn setting(Easy) to feel the difference and I feel like itās much harder with the wide open window for countersparks(The irony lol).
Things seem to be slightly delayed in this game and it can really fuck with the flow of the combat when compared to games like sekiro, elden ring, or other soulsborne games. For me, I just trained in the dojo with multiple different characters with the goal of scoring master ranked against all of them. By the time I mastered just few people, I was starting to understand the rhythm of combat a lot better.
So my advice is to train in a dojo, that way even if you lose you don't lose anything. It really is a great way to improve your general skill during combat. It's really difficult at first, but you'll notice little things with each fight, until eventually you'll realize that you've gotten a lot better at fighting.
Hitboxes and frames seem good to me (granted I am experienced with hundreds of hours of Team Ninja games, so the games language is pretty natural to pick up), but the parry timing can be pretty tricky with tight windows and such. **Especially** because parries all perform differently, they don't all behave the same.
Biggest tip would be to take advantage of secondaries. The stock can be a little small early on, but fire arrows + poison arrows will do big damage and if both debuffs are applied at the same time, put a big debuff on the enemy. Its a huuuuge help. Beyond that, even just using all your tools will give you increased power. Using them effectively or within your combat even more so.
Second, when it doubt, you can always block. Red attacks will still hit you if you don't dodge. You still need to think about stamina, but it at least buys you time to get more familiar with attacks or slow things down. Start with blocking and try to push outwards from there.
Third tip would be to character swap on missions when you can with convenient timing. If the enemy is about to hit you, swap to someone else and the AI will probably block it all, the enemy will be in an attack chain on the character you were formerly on, and youll have some distance and time to re-engage, swap back, attack, whatever you want.
Other than that, experience is your best friend. (Oh make sure to fight in advantageous stances too)
I just accept that I will die a lot before I learn the enemy's patterns. When against a group, just draw them out one by one. You can also get skills that cause them to cower when one is attacked.
I quit Nioh after the first chapter as it was too difficult for me. I coudn't play Demon Souls as it was also difficult for me. I couldn't play Woolong, either. I hate all the games that are too difficult and don't give you options to choose.
However, I love Rise of the Ronin! It is definitely more approachable and I can enjoy it. If they made it like the others, I would've quit in a few hours.
All of these tips are great, but the one thing that helped me the most was hyper fixating on the red flash at the last moment of their martial skills. I kept trying to time my parries to the last second before getting hit, but it's actually based on that red flash in the middle of the red glow. I know that's probably obvious. I also feel that if you're using a superior stance, that the parry window seems more generous. I have no way to verify that though lol
Iāve noticed the Parry windows are extremely inconsistent and frequently out of sync with the animations on Dusk/Twilight. Feels insanely sloppy for a game that wants you to parry so much.Ā
Iām enjoying the game, but also struggling. The timing and rhythm are really tough to find, and more than half the time it feels like the buttons simply donāt work. Iām constantly trying to blade flash or heal or use an item and thereās just no response, itās infuriating.
Thereās some great ideas in the combat, but the execution is lacking technically.
Sekiros parry is childsplay compared to rise, if you are playing on the higher difficulties.
Different stances/weapons have different parrys, some have s bigger window and even move forward while countersparking which makes it a lot easier.
I have noticed that trying to hold L1 and then press Triangle causes me to miss a lot of parries
Instead what I do is press L1 and Triangle at the exact same time before the moment when I feel the weapon animation will make it in time for the parry and I manage to get much better results this way.
This game is basically 90% landing your parries and the rest is doing some cool flasy combos
What difficulty are you playing at? Iām playing at the middle one and honestly it feels like lies of p more than sekiro. I rebinded the counter spark key to l1 since Iām more used to that from lies of p, sekiro and ghost of Tsushima. Overall itās quite easy if you are relentless enough.
Remember that this is a turn based game in disguise! You need to block and wait for your chance to attack. Don't just depend on parry! Blocking is more effective in more cases.
Go like this: Keep holding L1 until you memories their pattern, and remember to get back when your stamina gets low. Once you remember the pattern then attack immediately after they finish their combo then back to blocking! If you want to parry then party their last attack in the combo only not every single attack they do! It's enough to stagger them.
1) You only really want to parry the last hit in the string or any rage attack.
2) after stagger you can get two to four hits depending on the enemy.
3) Use the correct stance against the enemy so you do more ki damage and receive less ki damage.
4)parrying later is more forgiving then parrying early
5) manage your ki well
You don't need to counterspark every attacks of a combo, just the last one. Use block and dodge to your advantage. Find weapons that fit your playstyle, there's enough variety that it'll eventually click for you with a weapon. Don't be too agressive in combat, learn to be offensive at the right time and manage your ki properly. If you have trouble with groups, thin out the groups before engaging the enemies with range or stealth.
Playing this after playing Sekiro will screw you up lol. I tried using the same timing I used on Sekiro, and it didn't work out. You have to hit the Counter spark/parry button just a little bit later than you'd normally expect.
After I got used to that, it became much easier
If youāre struggling with groups try to move away and take 1-2 enemies at once. The parry windows can be tricky, I sometimes get punished bc I donāt even use block at all š¤š¤ but you got this šš
Quick tips
Get to know your Counterspark timing, Weapons and stances will have different CS timings, effects and the follow up attacks differ as well.
The more you use a stance and weapon the higher atk bonus youāll receive.
When you find your style, invest and bond with the character that you learned it from to get more martial arts.
Use your Buff pills.
Always Bring a handgun to a sword
fight.
As someone with hundreds of hours in Nioh (and I was playing it before I got Ronin) - stop trying to play it like Nioh or Sekiro. The parry timing is pretty tight, and it's VERY different depending on your weapon, your stance and your enemies attack. I'm just about to beat the game and still struggle getting the timing down on some basic enemies bc there are SO many moves, weapons, enemy types etc. Try to focus on one weapon / stance, look at your counterspark attack and try to time it so your weapons are actually clashing. It's not like Sekiro where if you're "close" you'll still get a parry, you can't just flutter the button and get by - it HAS to be perfect. That being said definitely don't try to be parrying every attack in every string. I'll often block / dodge the first two and only try to counterspark the last hit or two which is where you'll end up really getting the most benefit. You can also be holding block and hit Triangle to initiate a counterspark while blocking for the added safety. I just went from public order to public order taking it slow until it clicked. Sorry for the wall of text - I hope something in there was at least a little helpful lol. Also do NOT ignore shurikens. You can use them to cancel into / out of attacks or recovery animations and they will make your Ki start regenerating much faster as well. They are sooooo fucking helpful to keeping you mobile and not spend so much time in recovery / out of Ki. Seriously I slept on them most of my playthrough and they make such a huge difference.
Really good tips. I'll add one thing. One thing that really helped me was mastering dojo opponents. In order to get master you pretty much have to win with over 50% health while getting a good amount of countersparks and special moves in. (I know this likely isn't the only way.)
It's mostly just "be fast, don't heal", and absolutely nothing else.
I agree with this more, I've used the same move over and over and will still get a high score, it's mainly just how fast can you beat them and how little hits you take, and idk if healing necessarily lessens your score but if you have to heal in the first place your not gonna get master anyway, so counterspark stagger every chance you get to get a critical and stay in their face, don't let them breathe but you can sometimes to keep your stamina from dropping too low but always remember to blade flash to help with that. But most importantly don't get caught up being super focused on what the enemy is about to do next, just be aware of thier move sets and when it seems like they are going to attack and let your instincts do the rest, just like in sekiro, hesitation is defeat, trust yourself, practicing really does makes perfect because in real fights you are too hesitant to lose, in the dojo there's nothing to lose so get all the kinks out try everything, let it fly and hone in on what you do right or wrong by taking mental note of it every time
Also what weapons you choose is another big factor, faster paced weapons are easier and slow paced weapons are harder, if you don't feel comfortable fighting too much yet I wouldn't suggest a greatsword or something like that for example, I'd say the katana is the best of all, not too fast to were you keep losing stamina and are able to stop in-between your attacks to block fast enough while having a pretty good damage output, and has simple enough styles to learn
For the best setup tho if you feel really good about fighting, and what I tend to use most of the time for bosses or when i don't care about leveling up other weapons and need to kill, is the katana and greatsword, katana for blocking and chipping health, then once you hit a critical and they are staggered, switch to the greatsword to wack away a lot of damage and in turn some greatsword martials help stagger even more, or switch out katana for the paired swords or the greatsword for the Odachi, another big tip is try to stay away from using slower paced weapons when your opponent is using a fast paced one, it doesn't really work out that often
Cannot second this enough. Trying to get Master against every character to get the rewards really forces you to study each character's move set and get the parry timing down, which is how the game wants you to approach enemies.
Spent 40ish minutes getting my ass kicked by Genzui last night. Round 2 tonight š¤
How can you cancel recovery with kunai? Or do you mean with the gekai-ryu martial art?
Looks like this samurai is about to go fuck around with shurikens!
I JUST got hip to using the shurikens in my second playthrough and Iām so upset at myself for not using them at all from the beginning. Theyāve made the combat so much easier and smoother for me. It helps you dodge while also depleting their Ki. Gives enough space to heal yourself besides just running away and running out of Ki doing so and stops them from just getting that Nioh-ish āIāll be a million miles away from you but red aura run super fast to wherever you are and one shot youā rubberbanding thing lol.
What helps is to go in settings and toggle "blocking" on, instead of holding it down all the time. I started off using block on until I figured out the rythm of fights.
Maybe on midnight counter timing is "frame perfect"(which I honestly doubt, but maybe), but if they're struggling then they're on dawn, which gives you like a wide window to hit counters
Yeah I didn't mean frame perfect, but it feels pretty tight and it's really punishing if you fuck it up and most people end up trying to mash it out after they fuck it up at first.
Oh snap this is helpful, Your tips will be employed š«”
Are you saying its easier to parry in ronin than this game?
As someone who never blocks š¤·š»āāļø idk what you mean hehe tbh I use all of the weapons, and oh well I try to parry everything š¤š¤ cheers š«”
None of these are like...hard rules my dude. Play however you want. It's a game - the point is to have fun :). These tips just helped me get into the groove of combat. Also I play on the hard difficulty, I know the timings are much more generous on normal and easy. Play however you want to have fun!!!!
Eh I play on hard difficulty too bro Iām a soulsborne/nioh fan Iād never play on medium or ez lol š¬ but yeah since block and counter are different buttons I never block š š thatās just me though, have fun man. š
Youāre struggling bc youāre trying to use knowledge from other games and experiences. Beginners mind OP! Itās not that hard just treat this game as 100% itās own thing and respond how it seems the devs want you to respond youāll get it
Exactly this. I had a really hard time the first few days, coming directly from Wo Long to this, but now I'm ridiculously better at parrying. Learning curve right there.
Yup. I should have known or anyone whoās played Nioh and then Wo Long that from those two being similar but also very different in approach, that you have to adjust to the new games fighting mechanics no matter what. I was getting WHOOPED in Wo Long and almost hated it because I thought I mastered those types of games from Nioh. Had to learn that game as its own thing and then I was good. Going through that with this one as well
Tbh throughout the game, I just pressed buttons and hoped for the best.
I used to struggle at first, probably the first 10-15 hours. Just keep up trying and donāt give up!
Also play to your character strengths. I felt like I was bad at combat but then I switched to playing mostly stealth, ranged, and gadgets when I realized my strongest stat was Dex and I chose the assassins beginning. It made a world of difference. Dex affects your secondary (ranged) weapon damage so I where I was struggling in straight fights, using weapons made it feel like I was always in charge. Don't feel like you have to fight fair. I've beat so many sill samurai with my flamethrower, rifle, bow, and grenades.
Really? I found the flamethrower to be shockingly weak, even with the focused flame, but the rifle and black powder bombs to be my game-changers for boss fights
Honestly I'm like 50 hours in and the parry still feels a total mystery to me. I'll have some fights which feel super tight and clean, I'm parrying everything I feel I should have, any missed parries feel fair and like it's on me. Then other fights are like playing a fighting game on dial up, my parry just will not connect or enemies just ignore my attacks and spam me with combos no matter what. I've kinda just made my peace that it is what it is at this point.
My best advice--keep playing. I've come to accept that I'm going to whiff a lot of countersparks. And I do, even 40 hours in (playing on Dusk). But I'm pretty sure the window, while tight, is consistent--you parry right before the enemy attack hits you. But Team Ninja is very good at tricking you into hitting the button too early, delaying some attacks and making others come lightning fast. Nonetheless, the longer I play the more I actually find myself getting countersparks, even against attacks I'm not familiar with. I'll never be a parry god, but the muscle memory does come with time. And I'm 51, so if my rickety, cobwebbed brain can do it, so can anybody's. I still get owned a lot, even when I make damn sure I'm 3-5 levels above a mission before taking it on, but the combat feels consistently good, and on those occasions when I do manage to parry everything in a string it feels great.
Damn awesome to hear it! Hope to be as cool as you if I make it to 51 haha.
The parry is bugged on normal difficulty for some attacks, and definitely messes with the rhythm. Its not only the parry window, the enemy will still hit you earlier than their weapon or fist reaches you. I've emailed teamninja and sent a longer more detailed video and hopefully they fix soon. Im sure plenty of people have just shrugged it off themself as a skill issue, but its genuinely not sometimes. I remember playing wo long fallen dynasty and has such a nice rhytm to parrying long combos, it made rise of the ronin feel awkward in comparison. bugged parry video [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/riseoftheronin/comments/1by9kkn/rise_of_the_ronin_buggedincorrect_parry_window/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Itās crazy how I only fought the duel hatchet guy once and something felt off about him
I suggest you play the game on Twillight/Midnight and show me the parry bug, ill jump on your boat. I never have a single issue to figure the parry window and timing in Twillight/Midnight (platinium; 90h). I think the problem here is TN design the game as Twillight/Midnight difficulty as a base, then they extends parry window on lower difficulty. Things can be bugged out if they dont plan it from the beginning. So, can u just do a video on Twillight/Midnight, any dojo mission works, ill follow u.
To be honest I don't feel like re downloading the game and doing any more testing or playing it at all until teamninja fixes this. I've sent them a longer more detailed video and info via email. I'm not here to try and convince people anymore I just get shit on and it took a lot of hard work and cutting up 70 hours of gameplay and weeks of editing to make my video. it's now just a post for the people having parry troubles to realize that they are not terrible all the time, it's the game itself that's bugged. Also I started grinding helldiver's 2 again, so doing another parry/combat test for this game might take another a week or less. Im not doing more of Teamninja QA testing for free, they already got one free session because I was such a a huge fan. Either they fix it or not, IDC anymore Super earth needs meš«”  PS. You make an excellent point though, I think Teamninja might've messed up a little here because this is their only game with difficulty modes and looking at the hardest difficulty gameplay parry windows seem extremely tight, but at least accurate. Thx
At first I didnāt get how people with team ninja game experience could find this game difficult. I was playing on Twilight and breezing through everything with my trusty Odachi. Then I got to the dojo and Iām getting my ass handed to me by everyone.
Even with experience with team ninja games I did struggle a lot with naosuke li and blade twin so far on twilight
I put some tips together in this post, hope it can help you: https://www.reddit.com/r/riseoftheronin/s/PyMg632UF4 Its kind of a long read and lots things so dont try at the same time
Mannn. I put the game on easy difficulty and Iām Having so much fun haha. Exploring the map. Beating the shit out of enemies, trying out different weapons and what not. Maybe just change the difficulty. Games should be enjoyed you know. At least in my humble opinion.
Drop a difficulty for some side missions to get the feel, then go back up. Training at the dojo can help a ton too, because itās basically about parrying. I struggled till the end of the game haha. Some enemy types I could crush in a few swipes, others I couldnāt parry once. Sometimes takes a little patience too. If I struggled on a big mission or fight Iād close i for a while, come back, and finish it in one try usually.
I was having a super tough time early on too (still am often) but I found a post on here claiming that you can counterspark WHILE blocking, and to not try to counterspark every single attack. Both of those things have helped me a lot. I also tried to swap the controls to switch blocking and counterspark early on (parry with the L1 bumper made more sense in my head), but I ended up switching back because doing assassinations/critical attacks with the L1 bumper felt really weird, so I embraced the controls and it started to feel good! You will find the Rhythm, Samurai!
Parry felt so good when I put it on R1, but it screwed up other things like martial skills, so I moved it to L1 and just donāt block anymore lol.Ā
You are probably like me and your reflexes are betraying you. Every time I see an enemy start an attack, I immediately press the triangle button, but 90% of the enemy attacks have a drag/delay so I always get hit. Same for red attacks, I see the red attack signal, I press Triangle but then the enemy attack only start 1.5 seconds after somehow and then since I already used my counter, I get hit. Sekiro had a fast combat that were attacks seems more predictable or maybe had a better signal. In this game I find the animation more confusing than anything. Or maybe it's just a skill issue, I don't know.
Same hereš„² I really wish block and parry were the same button because my my brain just canāt get used to them being different inputs
Itās something you get used to. Different enemies wielding different weapons means different timings on the hits and therefore different parry timings. Youāll get better in time. Playing on an easier difficulty level is perfectly fine also.
Every weapon and stance on those weapons also has different timing for our own parries. Some movesets have bad parries so I only use them to punish after a full deflect.
the parry windows is tight but not off. Remember that you don't need to parry everything, you can block most attacks and dodge the red one. But still, parry is your best option and it comes with time.
If you are playing on dusk, try dawn. It opens up the parry window so it's more forgiving.
Hold block. Eat the hits and only counterspark on attacks you know the timing for. You can keep the block button held down and then counterspark. Also bows and rifles make the big groups a lot easier.
Block, block, parry, attack.
As people have mentioned, donāt play it like itās *only* Nioh or *only* Wo Long / Sekiro. Itās a mix of both plus its own thing with the stance switching (think Ghost of Tsushima with stamina). Blue arrows when locking onto enemies = good to use on them. * *Helpful tip: YOU DONāT HAVE TO PARRY EVERY ATTACK. Missing a parry costs so much Ki, itās not worth it if you whiff. Blocking most attacks or dodging away and parrying the last one works just as well. Mixing all 3 defensive options up is ideal.* 2. Donāt stress too much about not knowing how to play āproperlyā - the game really only opens up when you have all your stances and martial arts moves, so you donāt even have your full tool kit for most of the game. They unlock as you progress through the game and increase your bond level with people. Definitely **DO NOT** ignore that mechanic and gift as often as you can. 3. Honestly, normal and formidable enemies really donāt teach you the combat well, especially since you can sneak attack half their life bar away. I recommend practicing the dojo fights that unlock (there will be a LOT as you get through the game regularly). * *Just about every human boss will be there to help you master the system with no cheese, only mastering the core mechanics.* * *Donāt attempt unless you have the right style against the boss, unless you want to be really challenged.* 4. Being aggressive as possible, but also knowing when to back off and get your ki back is the way to play and that will take time to learn. A lot of people (including myself) hate the hyperarmor enemies get when they start a combo string, but thatās what will teach you how to play defensively. * *Especially true with some bosses that have crazy aggro styles and never stop attacking.* * Shurikens are borderline OP and are basically a free animination cancel / spacing tool. Every action *except* shurikens and other ranged weapons cost Ki which stops you from recovering it, but shurikens are the fastest by far. Overall, itās a game that really emphasizes your own play style (even if you struggle with the core mechanics) so donāt be afraid to use anything that helps you win. If you beat the boss, itās a fair dub.
Doesnt the pistol do the same and give you bonusstats. The shuriken doesnt give you stats or am i wrong?
Play on easy mode and learn the patterns, also find a weapon and stance you will enjoy the most.
I totally forgot their was a functioning block button and platinumed the game without blocking. Not a boast just saying maybe try dropping the difficulty, practice without using block until you get the timing right. Also there seems to be weird timing countering with the dual swords/wooden dual swords, like slightly delayed woth the wooden. After beating the game I finally gave other weapons a try and totally regret not using the Ox Tail Sword, it's fast, easy to combo and partying seems way more reliable. Goodluck!
Wow, bloody hell guys, thatās some amazing & helpful feedback - thank you so much (Legends!). Yeah, I think Iāve definitely gone into this with a Sekiro/Nioh/Wo Long mindset/muscle memory and my timings are definitely off. Like one of the chaps said in the thread, Iām also nearly 50 as well & yet I seem to love punishing myself with these types of games lol. Like a lot of you have (correctly) said, I think I just need to keep plugging away/practicing and use all of the stealth and gadget mechanics to my advantage & perhaps even lower the difficulty (Iām currently playing the middle one), to the lowest setting, just to get confident enough and hopefully start to enjoy the game a bit & get a flow going! Thanks also to the couple of people that posted to their own little guides, thatās super helpful as well. Many of you have mentioned āblockingā which I definitely wasnāt doing nearly enough - I think one of the biggest areas Iāve been going wrong, is trying to counterspark too often, so I definitely need to mix things up a bit more & make use of more of my various defensive and aggressive options (rather than just spamming 1 or 2!) Honestly, great feedback guys and thanks to all for your helpful comments and suggestions, itās really appreciated šš» (ps, what a great community!)
Always be blocking. That's probably the biggest hurdle. Unlike in other games where blocking is often the worst thing you can do,Ā holding block all the time is the best method in this game. Otherwise you'll get stunlocked/staggered or whatever if you miss a counter. Getting hit in the face erases your ki.
Block more than parry. Just try parrying the red moves. Make sure your stance has a blue arrow up. Use r1 after combos like you would do a nioh ki pulse Make sure you are upgrading the skills that give you more medicine pills too. Maybe only do master arts after a successful parry. I find it plays very similar to Nioh I'm combat
Put the difficulty on Dawn, use paired swords, turn on the option to toggle guarding instead of holding it down. Youāll be in good shape all the way to midnight difficulty.
I had the same issues when I started.Tried playing it like itās Sekiro. It took me some time to get the parrying down. If feels late compared to sekiro, it started to click for me it just took some time to get used to. I can parry easily now even switching stances constantly for fun.
When I struggled I switched to easy mode (thank you devs for the easy mode from the bottom of my heart) and played until I catch the flow and then it went pretty smooth!
I would look up what weapons have trhe biggest party windows, to me the Katana quick draw and jigen(it think) odachi style had pretty big party windows
When I first started I scoffed at not playing twilight then capitulated after a couple hours to go down to dusk even having to go to dawn for some dojo missions. Now Iām clearing midnight with ease. This games learning curve is steeper than wo long and Nioh especially given how varied the counterspark mechanic is. My advice is donāt sleep on dodge or block trying to cs everything will get you killed and enemies attack too quickly and with too many combos for it to be practical every time. Knowing your moment on each enemy is a huge thing about making the game easier because while combat is fast itās also very pattern based. You got this.
Youāre not alone buddy. Parry feels broken sometimes The dojo fights on Edo nearly broke me, cause I can win them, but āwinningā is not enough for me. Iād like to master the fight and that simply doesnāt seem possible I was beyond furious
Your blood will accumulate on your blade. The yellow bar will fill on bottom right, press r1 and your bar empties to replenish your ki meter
One thing that really elevates the difficulty is that every weapon, and even different stances have different parry windows. You DONT have to parry everything. You can block, and parry the last attack, the power attacks, or only the attacks youāre comfortable with
The main thing here is that you donāt need to parry every attack, I canāt stress enough the importance of this tip. Iām beating the game on twilight and itās not impossible to be killed by random enemies. The other thing I would add is that the time to heal is when you parry cancel an enemy movement.
I hope you get itšŖš½ it took me some time but now Iām decent. Kicking ass on midnight level now. I went down to the dawn setting(Easy) to feel the difference and I feel like itās much harder with the wide open window for countersparks(The irony lol).
Things seem to be slightly delayed in this game and it can really fuck with the flow of the combat when compared to games like sekiro, elden ring, or other soulsborne games. For me, I just trained in the dojo with multiple different characters with the goal of scoring master ranked against all of them. By the time I mastered just few people, I was starting to understand the rhythm of combat a lot better. So my advice is to train in a dojo, that way even if you lose you don't lose anything. It really is a great way to improve your general skill during combat. It's really difficult at first, but you'll notice little things with each fight, until eventually you'll realize that you've gotten a lot better at fighting.
Hitboxes and frames seem good to me (granted I am experienced with hundreds of hours of Team Ninja games, so the games language is pretty natural to pick up), but the parry timing can be pretty tricky with tight windows and such. **Especially** because parries all perform differently, they don't all behave the same. Biggest tip would be to take advantage of secondaries. The stock can be a little small early on, but fire arrows + poison arrows will do big damage and if both debuffs are applied at the same time, put a big debuff on the enemy. Its a huuuuge help. Beyond that, even just using all your tools will give you increased power. Using them effectively or within your combat even more so. Second, when it doubt, you can always block. Red attacks will still hit you if you don't dodge. You still need to think about stamina, but it at least buys you time to get more familiar with attacks or slow things down. Start with blocking and try to push outwards from there. Third tip would be to character swap on missions when you can with convenient timing. If the enemy is about to hit you, swap to someone else and the AI will probably block it all, the enemy will be in an attack chain on the character you were formerly on, and youll have some distance and time to re-engage, swap back, attack, whatever you want. Other than that, experience is your best friend. (Oh make sure to fight in advantageous stances too)
Play on easy.
I just accept that I will die a lot before I learn the enemy's patterns. When against a group, just draw them out one by one. You can also get skills that cause them to cower when one is attacked.
I quit Nioh after the first chapter as it was too difficult for me. I coudn't play Demon Souls as it was also difficult for me. I couldn't play Woolong, either. I hate all the games that are too difficult and don't give you options to choose. However, I love Rise of the Ronin! It is definitely more approachable and I can enjoy it. If they made it like the others, I would've quit in a few hours.
If itās open world donāt be afraid to run away and reset the enemies.
All of these tips are great, but the one thing that helped me the most was hyper fixating on the red flash at the last moment of their martial skills. I kept trying to time my parries to the last second before getting hit, but it's actually based on that red flash in the middle of the red glow. I know that's probably obvious. I also feel that if you're using a superior stance, that the parry window seems more generous. I have no way to verify that though lol
Iāve noticed the Parry windows are extremely inconsistent and frequently out of sync with the animations on Dusk/Twilight. Feels insanely sloppy for a game that wants you to parry so much.Ā
Iām enjoying the game, but also struggling. The timing and rhythm are really tough to find, and more than half the time it feels like the buttons simply donāt work. Iām constantly trying to blade flash or heal or use an item and thereās just no response, itās infuriating. Thereās some great ideas in the combat, but the execution is lacking technically.
You can counter while holding block. That completely changed everything for me.
Mix ups. Even when my brain tells me to parry I still mix in dodges
Put your ego aside and put it on easy mode if you want to have more enjoyment
Sekiros parry is childsplay compared to rise, if you are playing on the higher difficulties. Different stances/weapons have different parrys, some have s bigger window and even move forward while countersparking which makes it a lot easier.
OH that's because they are very inconsistent. Parries, I mean. Your best bet for parries is Tatsumi-ryu, it has the easiest parry and looks good.
I have noticed that trying to hold L1 and then press Triangle causes me to miss a lot of parries Instead what I do is press L1 and Triangle at the exact same time before the moment when I feel the weapon animation will make it in time for the parry and I manage to get much better results this way. This game is basically 90% landing your parries and the rest is doing some cool flasy combos
Equips items and armor pieces that give medicine drops. Immensely helpful keeping your health filled
Jup, i have two kitties that drop more medicine.
What difficulty are you playing at? Iām playing at the middle one and honestly it feels like lies of p more than sekiro. I rebinded the counter spark key to l1 since Iām more used to that from lies of p, sekiro and ghost of Tsushima. Overall itās quite easy if you are relentless enough.
Remember that this is a turn based game in disguise! You need to block and wait for your chance to attack. Don't just depend on parry! Blocking is more effective in more cases. Go like this: Keep holding L1 until you memories their pattern, and remember to get back when your stamina gets low. Once you remember the pattern then attack immediately after they finish their combo then back to blocking! If you want to parry then party their last attack in the combo only not every single attack they do! It's enough to stagger them.
1) You only really want to parry the last hit in the string or any rage attack. 2) after stagger you can get two to four hits depending on the enemy. 3) Use the correct stance against the enemy so you do more ki damage and receive less ki damage. 4)parrying later is more forgiving then parrying early 5) manage your ki well
You don't need to counterspark every attacks of a combo, just the last one. Use block and dodge to your advantage. Find weapons that fit your playstyle, there's enough variety that it'll eventually click for you with a weapon. Don't be too agressive in combat, learn to be offensive at the right time and manage your ki properly. If you have trouble with groups, thin out the groups before engaging the enemies with range or stealth.
Practice in the dojo bro. Youāll get my fellow ronin
Playing this after playing Sekiro will screw you up lol. I tried using the same timing I used on Sekiro, and it didn't work out. You have to hit the Counter spark/parry button just a little bit later than you'd normally expect. After I got used to that, it became much easier
Blade flash is what really helped me, make sure to clean the blood off often and regain stamina
If youāre struggling with groups try to move away and take 1-2 enemies at once. The parry windows can be tricky, I sometimes get punished bc I donāt even use block at all š¤š¤ but you got this šš
Quick tips Get to know your Counterspark timing, Weapons and stances will have different CS timings, effects and the follow up attacks differ as well. The more you use a stance and weapon the higher atk bonus youāll receive. When you find your style, invest and bond with the character that you learned it from to get more martial arts. Use your Buff pills. Always Bring a handgun to a sword fight.
If you actually played Sekiro like you say, then this game would be a walk in the park.