Leon S. Kennedy’s return in Resident Evil Requiem brings back the high-intensity, physical combat seen in the glorious Resident Evil 4, but with some crucial changes. Mastering this mechanic is essential for survival, especially at high difficulties such as Standard (Classic) difficulty, where enemies are relentless.
While the game introduces the mechanic early on, the tutorial doesn't tell you everything you need to know about it. Here is how to master the parry and save your skin in the most intense fights.
Table of contents
The Basics of Parrying
The core of Leon’s combat mechanics in Resident Evil Requiem lies in his hatchet. By holding L2 / LB / L, you can enter a defensive stance to deflect incoming blows.
- Every time you parry an attack, your hatchet will lose sharpness. If it goes blunt, you lose your primary defensive tool until it's sharpened by holding L2 / LB / L and pressing Square / X / Y. Sharpening takes some time, so make sure to do so while standing away from enemies.
- Keeping L2 held down is the safest way to avoid taking direct health damage, but it is not the optimal way to play as it drains a lot of durability without providing any other advantage other than negating damage.
The Perfect Parry
To truly master Leon's combat, you should always aim for a Perfect Parry. This is achieved by pressing L2 / LB / L at the exact moment the enemy attack connects.
- A Perfect Parry leaves an enemy staggered and wide open for a high-damage follow-up or a finisher, if its health is low enough.
While this is one of the best moves in Leon's kit, it is also the most risky. Don't attempt perfect parries against powerful enemies you have never fought before, especially in Standard (Classic) difficulty, as you risk receiving a lot of damage. Instead, take the time to learn enemy patterns so as to attempt perfect parries with the highest confidence
Which Attacks Can You Parry?
The way the in-game tutorial frames the mechanic, you might think you can only parry enemies wielding weapons like debris, pipes or chainsaws. That is not the case!
In Resident Evil Requiem, you can parry barehanded attacks just as effectively as weapon strikes, and even nullify ranged attacks like thrown debris. Like for perfect parries, learn the enemy attacks to master this defensive mechanics and destroy the undead hordes coming at Leon as he makes his way through the Rhodes Hill Care Center and Raccoon City. Do note that some attacks cannot be parried, so learning the enemy attack patterns remains paramount for using Leon's parry effectively.
This concludes our guide. For more help with Capcom's latest horror entry, visit our Resident Evil Requiem Complete Walkthrough and Guides Hub.
Guides based on a full playthrough completed in the Steam 1.0 version at Standard (Classic) difficulty. Screenshots captured from the same version.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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