Lies of P's combat system is a pretty deep one. At any moment, players can block, dodge, attack, charge attack, use Fable Arts, throw an item, use their Legion Arm abilities, and of course Perfect Guard.
Perfect Guard in Lies of P is basically this game's version of the Parry or Deflect system from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. There are obviously other games that have perfect guards like this, but Sekiro's is by far the one it feels the closest to. All that said, the two systems aren't exactly the same and there are a few details that might trip up Soulslike players unless they're aware of them. So, let's go over exactly how Perfect Guards work in Lies of P.
Perfect Guard Overview
To start, a Perfect Guard in Lies of P is what it's called when the player presses the 'Block' input at the moment the enemy's attack is about to connect. Players will know they've executed a Perfect Guard as the bright red effect and sparks that come from the two weapons clashing will look very different from the standard Block reaction.
There are a lot of added benefits to a Perfect Guard (as can be seen in the video above against King's Flame Fuoco) that incentivize players to aim for Perfect Guards rather than a standard block or dodge. However, the window for a Perfect Guard isn't very generous, and most enemies like to deceptively wind up their attacks, so it will take some getting used to compared to other Soulslikes.
Fury Attacks
Perfect Guards are the only option for handling Fury Attacks, at least outside of running away from them altogether. Players will not be able to block a Fury Attack nor will they be able to dodge through it, so a Perfect Guard or a hasty escape are their only options. Thankfully, enemies usually only have one to two Fury Attacks at most, and the timing for Perfect Guarding them is always the same (from enemy to enemy). However, this is by far the highest risk-reward choice for players to make, as mistiming this Perfect Guard will lead to most, if not all, of their HP suddenly disappearing.
Chip Damage & Guard Regain
When an attack is Perfectly Guarded, players will notice that they don't take any chip damage from the attack they blocked, as opposed to the chip damage, stamina loss, and Guard Regain of a normal block. They'll still lose some Stamina of course, Perfect Guards can't be 'that' good, but the total nullification of any incoming damage allows players to tank hits from robots 10x their size such as the Puppets of the Future.
Breaking Enemy Weapons
As players progress through the game and continue to Perfect Guard attacks, they'll notice that the enemy's weapon actually breaks after some Perfect Guards. This varies from enemy to enemy as their stature and weapons are all different, but Perfect Guards also have the ability to severely inhibit an enemy's weapon. Essentially, look at the enemy's weapon after a Perfect Guard, if it glows a bit as if the metal was 'heating up' it's very likely that weapon is breakable.
Staggered Enemies & Fatal Attacks
Lastly, Perfect Guarding is one of two primary ways that players can put enemies into the 'Staggered' state. By continuously Perfect Guarding, players will be filling an invisible bar the enemy has that, when full, will cause their health bar to get this white glow around it. Hitting the enemy with a Charged Heavy Attack after this will make them open to taking a Fatal Attack.
The in-game Guide also states that Fable Arts can open them up to a Fatal Attack as well, but the results seem to vary depending on the Fable Art in question.
How To Reliably Perfect Guard
Now players may be wondering how exactly other people they've seen playing Lies of P are Perfect Guarding so often compared to them. To be honest, the window for a Perfect Guard is pretty tight in Lies of P, it feels like an even smaller window than Deflecting in Sekiro.
So, as a general rule of thumb, players will want to press the 'Block' input right as the enemy is about to swing, not as the attack is about to connect. Think of it like predicting when a person who jumps while standing in place will hit the 'apex' of their jump. The reasoning for this is that most enemy attacks in Lies of P have big windups, but the actual attacks themselves are incredibly quick. Because of this, players who try and react to the attacks mid-animation will find themselves missing the Perfect Guard window quite often. Obviously, this rule of thumb doesn't apply to every single attack in the game, but in general, it applies to a large portion of them.
Lies of P is available now on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
