PARRY

You only block, and every arrow, axe and fireball lands on the beat.

PARRY All games

PARRY

You only block, and every arrow, axe and fireball lands on the beat.

You stand at a crossroads and attacks come down all four roads, each landing on the beat of a drum and bass loop that speeds up through the round. A ring closes on the target in each lane: block as it lands. A perfect, inside 45 milliseconds, sends the arrow or fireball straight back and knocks out whoever threw it. A good just bounces it off, and a miss costs one of your three hearts. Rogues fake a swing and strike a beat later. Ninjas throw two daggers down the same road, half a beat apart. Boulders have to be held, and bombs must not be blocked at all.

There are eight stages, from Forest Road to the Storm Citadel. Each round lasts about a minute and ends with a boss whose attacks are a short song, from the Bandit Brute to the Black King. Perfects in a row build a multiplier up to x8. Every stage has three stars, for surviving, for the score target and for perfecting the boss. Clear stage 4 and Endless opens, starting at 108 beats a minute and climbing to 168.

What is in it: Cartoon fantasy fighters (bandits, knights, ninjas, ogres, pirates) are knocked flying or puff away with a KO when you block them back. Small cartoon explosions from bombs and fireballs. No blood. More for parents

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Controls

  • Arrows / W A S Dblock up, right, down, left
  • Hold the keyhold against a boulder (purple ring)
  • Do nothinglet a bomb (red X) fly over
  • Esc / Ppause
  • Rretry straight away
  • Enter / Spacemenu button
  • Tap a sideblock on a phone (swipe in settings)
On a dashed cyan ring, count "one" on the fake swing and block on "two": the rogue always strikes exactly one beat later.

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How to play

PARRY is a rhythm game where you only ever block. You stand at a crossroads and attacks come down the four roads, each one landing on the beat of a drum and bass loop that speeds up through the round. Block with the arrow keys or W A S D, one key for each road. On a phone you tap the side of the screen the attack comes from.

Each road has a target circle next to your hero, and a ring closes on it as an attack comes in. Block when the ring lands. Inside 45 milliseconds either side is a PERFECT: the arrow, axe or fireball flies straight back and knocks out whoever threw it, and a swordsman is cut down where he stands. Inside 135 milliseconds is a GOOD, which stops the attack but only bounces it away. Anything later and you lose one of your three hearts. Blocking at nothing breaks your streak, so mashing does not work.

Some attacks change the rules, and the colour of the ring tells you which:

  • Dashed cyan ring, "WAIT...": a purple rogue fakes a swing, then really strikes one beat later. Block the fake and it counts as blocking at nothing.
  • Two in a row: ninjas throw two daggers down the same road half a beat apart. Tap twice.
  • Purple ring, "HOLD": an ogre rolls a boulder. Block on the beat and keep the key held until the meter around the target fills. Let go early and you are crushed.
  • Red ring with an X, "DON'T BLOCK": a goblin's bomb. Do nothing, and it sails over you and blows up behind you for 50 points. Block it and it blows up on your shield, costing a heart.

Every round lasts about a minute. After a short count-in and about 42 seconds of waves, the stage boss walks in, roars, and plays its own short song of attacks. Its health bar drains with each block. The song ends with one big, slow finishing strike, and if you are still standing after it the boss is knocked out.

Tips and strategy

  • Listen more than you look. Every attack lands on the music, so once you feel the beat the rings only tell you which road. Forest Road climbs from 100 to 112 beats a minute; Storm Citadel from 124 to 142.
  • Protect the streak. Every five perfects in a row raises your multiplier by one, up to x8, which takes 35 perfects in a row. A perfect is worth 300 times the multiplier, so one perfect at x8 is 2,400 points, while a good is always 100 and resets you to x1.
  • Treat feints as a count. When you see the dashed cyan ring, say "one" on the fake and block on "two". The rogue always strikes exactly one beat after the fake.
  • Hold through the whole boulder. The hold lasts one beat after the block. Keep the key down until the meter is full.
  • If the music feels off, fix the offset. The settings have an audio offset of up to 150 milliseconds either way. If the music feels late against the rings, lower it; if early, raise it.
  • Learn the charts. Each stage is built from a fixed seed, so it plays exactly the same every time, like a song.

What's in it

Eight stages, each with its own place, enemy and boss: Forest Road (archers and swordsmen, the Bandit Brute), Castle Gate (axe throwers, the Iron Knight), Desert Road (fire mages and feints, the Dune Ogre), Night Dojo (ninjas, the Shadow Sensei), Frozen Pass (boulders, the Frost Giant), Pirate Docks (bombs, Captain Powder), Volcano (everything at once, the Magma Ogre) and Storm Citadel (everything, faster, the Black King). From Volcano on, some attacks come in pairs from opposite roads at the same moment.

Each stage has three stars: one for surviving, one for beating the score target, and one for a perfect on every boss attack. The target assumes 80 per cent perfects and a boss knockout: it is 24,400 on Forest Road and 72,100 on Storm Citadel. Knocking out the boss is worth 2,000 points, a boss fight with nothing but perfects is worth 3,000 more, and every heart left at the end is worth 500.

Endless mode unlocks when you clear stage 4. It starts at 108 beats a minute and keeps climbing to 168, adding a new kind of enemy every few bars. The scenery changes, and you get a heart back, every 64 beats.

Questions

What counts as a perfect?

Blocking within 45 milliseconds of the beat, so the window is 90 milliseconds wide. A good is anything within 135 milliseconds.

How do I unlock the next stage?

Survive the stage before it. You only need the first star; the score and boss stars are for coming back. Clearing stage 4 also opens Endless.

Can I play on a phone?

Yes. Tap the side of the screen the attack comes from, or switch to swipes in the settings. A mouse click works like a tap.

Does it save?

Yes, in your own browser: your stars, best score on each stage, which stages are open, your Endless best, and your sound, touch and offset settings. Clearing your browser's site data clears the save.

Are there quick keys?

Esc or P pauses. R retries at once, during a round or on the results screen. Enter or Space presses the main button on any menu.

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