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Rift RunnersGuides

Parry timing, and the three attacks worth learning

You do not need to parry everything. You need to parry the three things that end runs.

Parrying is a damage button

A successful parry does not only prevent damage — it opens a stagger window that is usually the single largest damage opportunity in the fight. Treating it as defence is why so many players never use it.

The three worth memorising

  • The wind-up overhead. Slow, telegraphed, and the most common cause of a failed tower run.
  • The three-hit chain. Parry the third hit, not the first. The first two are bait.
  • The charge. Parry on contact, not on the start of the run — the timing feels a full second later than it looks.

Everything else can be dodged. These three are worth the practice because they are the ones that end runs.

The training loop

Take a character you do not care about into the overworld and fail on purpose for ten minutes. Learning the timing on a unit you have not invested in costs nothing; learning it during a tower attempt costs the attempt.

New players usually build first and learn second. In this game that order is backwards — execution is worth more than a tier of investment.

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