Can large enemies be parried?

Certain large enemies can be parried, I've never gotten a Parry off on the Stone Knights or the sentinels, but the Black Knights can definitely be parry and riposted. As well, the big Tower Knights can be parried, they just can't be riposted. If you don't know what they are, they wear the steel knight set, there is on next to the first fire keeper soul a player should find.

^^this and black and silver knights are actually quite easy to parry.

Black & silver knights are a great way to learn how to parry.

Let's not forget the Club Giants in Blight Town.

Yes, practicing on the knights is a great way to learn, and also will make various trouble spots in the game much easier. Notably the infamous silver archers in Anor Londo.

If you want to practice, I recommend a knight close to a bonfire so if/when he kills you it's not hard to get back. Anor Londo is obvious and you can also farm up souls fast, but for folks starting out the knight atop the tower in the parish, near the sunlight altar is pretty good. When you do successfully parry him, just back off rather than riposte to keep him alive.

befowler wrote:Yes, practicing on the knights is a great way to learn, and also will make various trouble spots in the game much easier. Notably the infamous silver archers in Anor Londo.

OMG yes! After my last trek through Anor Londo I can't believe I haven't tried parrying that silver archer until my latest playthrough. Talk about making an extremely tough and annoying part ridiculously easy.

I was co-opping w/ a guy when I first did it... so what does he do? He goes after the other archer and does a lockon fall to his death. WTF dude? Just follow me!

Haha yes it's so easy, I just started doing it too. My runs went from having 3 people milling around and getting knocked off one by one to just me sprinting up, over to the knight on the right, wedging in against the wall and parry/riposting him either to death or right off the side, then a bit more around and waving the rest of the group up. It takes like 20 seconds and you don't need to even bother with the other one. Parries ftw!

How large are we talking, here? I'll just list all the large enemies I can think of... In no particular order:


Anor Londo Sentinels: Can not be parried/ riposted/ backstabbed

Infested Barbarians (Btown large club guys): Can be parried/ riposted/ backstabbed

Giant Skeletons: Can not be parried/ riposted/ backstabbed (I have tried, but I'm not 100% sure you can't parry them. They have some nice slashing attacks that would be ripe for the parrying, but their height make it hard to ever be in a good position to parry it, which is why I'm uncertain.)

Berenike Knights (steel set knight guys): Can be parried, not riposted/ backstabbed

Black/ Silver Knights: Can be parried/ riposted/ backstabbed

Butchers (The Depths): Can be parried/ riposted/ backstabbed

Channellers: Never tried... I imagine: can be parried, not riposted/ backstabbed

Stone Knights: Never tried, I imagine not.

Giant Mushrooms: I never tried, but I imagine they can't be parried!

Taurus Demons: Dunno, never tried. I imagine they can be parried, not riposted.

Capra Demons: Dunno, never tried, I imagine not.


So... Those are all the large/ giant enemies I can think of. Some of them I never thought to try parrying; the rest, I gave you results based on my experience. Seems, basically: any enemy large enough for you to walk between their legs, you can't parry (Sentinels, Giant Skeletons, Taurus, etc.). If they're smaller than that, and you can backstab them, you can parry and riposte them (Infested Barbarians, Butchers, Black/ Silver Knights, etc.). Finally, there are the exceptions, that are large enough that you can't backstab, but small enough that you can't walk between their legs, but you can still parry them (Berenike Knights).

befowler wrote:Haha yes it's so easy, I just started doing it too. My runs went from having 3 people milling around and getting knocked off one by one to just me sprinting up, over to the knight on the right, wedging in against the wall and parry/riposting him either to death or right off the side, then a bit more around and waving the rest of the group up. It takes like 20 seconds and you don't need to even bother with the other one. Parries ftw!

Assuming you don't mind a bit of PvP to get the Ring of Fog first, it's a cinch. RoF will keep you safe up until the actual ledge, then just run to the pillar and shield until the knight falls off.

^Or trade a Skull Lantern with Snuggly, and he'll give you the RoF.

BLA1NE wrote:^Or trade a Skull Lantern with Snuggly, and he'll give you the RoF.

That works too, however three winning PvP matches in the forest seems like a smaller task then getting lucky on the necromancers or a suicide run all the way to Tomb of the Giants and back up.