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A little guide on some early missable mechanics

By Prios

You may want to avoid reading this guide until you reach the western gardens.
I'm being deliberately vague in the title and description of this guide because figuring out the mechanics is part of the game's challenge and charm. Reading this guide will spoil a tiny bit of that, but hopefully not too much.

Award

Created by

Prios
In-Game
Warframe

Category: Gameplay Basics

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

21 Mar, 2022 @ 1:21am

28 Mar, 2022 @ 11:24pm

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44	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Running

Understanding Exhaustion

Special Technique

Switching Targets

Staggering Enemies

Secret Ability

Regarding Comments on this Guide

Comments

Running

To run, keep holding down the dodge-roll button after the dodge completes.

Running costs no stamina beyond the stamina cost of the initial roll; you even start to regenerate stamina after a moment. But be warned that you'll be knocked down if you take damage during the run. For this reason, it's probably best to only run through areas you know to be safe, or to run away from enemies.

Understanding Exhaustion

As long as your stamina bar is flashing red, you are still in the exhausted state even if you have non-zero stamina!

You need to wait until your stamina regenerates all the way back to full before you'll leave the exhausted state (at least near the start of the game). Stamina regenerates slower when you have your shield up, and doesn't regenerate at all while you're attacking, though does regenerate (slowly) while running.

When exhausted, you take 50% more damage, your dodge rolls turn into hops that give you no invulnerability time, you are unable to block, and taking damage will knock you to the ground. Engaging enemies while in this state is extremely dangerous.

Special Technique

To perform a "special technique," press both the dodge roll button and the sword attack button simultaneously while moving (obviously you need to find a sword first). Your timing needs to be precise. You'll know you did it right if you perform a single sword thrust (not a sword swing) immediately after the roll. You'll also get an achievement the first time you do this, though some people get the achievement by accident without realizing what's happened.

This attack comes out fast and deals higher damage, but unlike other attacks it costs stamina. It also has a fairly long recovery time. I still find it very useful for evasive enemies, or for getting in a quick, strong opening attack.

Switching Targets

This ability is not mentioned in the manual.

When "locked-on" to an enemy, you can change which enemy you're targeting by using the right thumbstick on controller, or by using arrow keys on keyboard.

Staggering Enemies

If you strike an enemy you're "locked-on" to, you should see a thin white bar start to fill in just underneath their health bar. If you keep attacking and cause this bar to fill up, the enemy will become staggered, which interrupts their attacks, stuns them for a few moments, and usually knocks them back. This system even works on bosses.

You don't have to be "locked-on" to cause staggering: stagger is still tracked on enemies even if the white bar isn't visible.

This can reward aggressive attacking. (Being hit by the enemy's attacks is the potential punishment.)

Secret Ability

This ability is mentioned only obliquely in the manual.

Tap the shield button once to perform a parry. (You need to have a shield first.) You'll swing your shield outwards in a wide arc. This technique can be difficult to execute and difficult to time, but melee enemies that strike you will be stunned for a couple of seconds and take extra damage, while most ranged enemies will have their attacks reflected directly back at them. Even enemies with shields will be helpless.

Regarding Comments on this Guide

I'm leaving comments enabled on this guide for now. Try not to post additional mechanics/hints/secrets in the comments; this guide is designed to be a gentle nudge towards a few important mechanics that people sometimes miss, and I'd like to keep it that way.

24 Comments

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Freya 23 Apr, 2024 @ 7:26pm

Not a full second, but there is a stamp that makes parries better anyways.

Ichaukan 23 Apr, 2024 @ 6:12pm

I'm reasonably certain that the parry takes right around if not precisely 1 second to process. Make of that what y'all will.

A man 2 Jul, 2023 @ 5:30am

bro im not a thinker

Freya 1 Jul, 2023 @ 2:16pm

Isn't that one of the first pages you get in the manual?

A man 1 Jul, 2023 @ 11:33am

Thanks, i was wondering how tf do people sprint and shi

Freya 2 Jan, 2023 @ 10:33am

You knock his shield if you attack him a lot OR if you attack him a single time AFTER you parry a single of his attacks. And they not only drop their shields btw, but they get stunned for a while and take extra damage while stunned.

You can parry the tall guys with the spear very easily if you run at them and press parry as soon as you get within their range of attack even before the tall guy starts his attack animation. You will stun them 100% of the time with that method. Buuuut if you are still having trouble with parries, try equip equiping the Aura's Gem Card which triples the amount of frames in which parrying is active.

A lot of people may see the Aura's Gem Card as a clutch, but funny enough that's the intended way of parrying stuff with, and the little Fox even wears the Gem Card on his shield in the art for the cover/box of the game.

bryson777 2 Jan, 2023 @ 10:09am

I would love to see an "advanced" version of this guide. Why not separate it into a beginners and advanced section?

This game's difficulty is kind of notorious but so far I've managed to beat the Garden Knight without turning down the difficulty and it wasn't so bad. Early in the game I accidentally knocked the shield out of the hand of the mini boss guarding the key to the Old House. Does anyone know how I did that? Was that from the "special technique" or from "parry" maybe?

Freya 23 Nov, 2022 @ 4:43pm

And even though Parrying doesn't seem like much at the begining, its honestly very useful against the trickiest enemies to get, like the ones that only attack with projectiles. And as a bonus, parried projectiles can actually 1-Shot the enemy that shoot them, which is very useful against Flying Torrets , the annoying Rat Snipers , and SPECIALLY against the floating guys with a revolver at the cementary during daytime which usually requres at least 12 swings to kill.

Freya 23 Nov, 2022 @ 4:42pm

I came here after 100%'ing the game on my own to check if I missed any mechanic to make New Game Plus feel more unique/interesting but apparently I didn't. Kind of a shame since I like the idea of using Stamina to execute different abilities like the parry or the roll-thrust.

Also, while Parrying only requires 1-Quick press of the Shield. I REALLY recommend people double-tapping durring combat since you may press the shield key for too long without noticing. To make parrying WAY easier you can equip the Aura's Gem stamp to triple the amount of frames in which parrying is active. If you don't recognize that item/name, then take a look at the Shield that the Fox is holding in the official cover box art of the game, and check if you have a stamp with a similar icon.

Glundyn 17 Sep, 2022 @ 2:11pm

Came to find a spoiler free guide telling me what that special technique achievement is about. Got what I wanted. Thanks!

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