Space Marine 2 Blue vs Red Attacks: Parry or Dodge

Blue means parry

A blue indicator marks an attack you can parry. Standard swings from most minoris and trooper enemies are blue, and many normal melee hits can be parried even when there is no blue warning at all — the warning is a heads-up, not a requirement. When the attack is blue, tap your defence button a beat before the blow connects.

Red or orange means dodge

A red or orange indicator marks an unblockable attack — overhead slams, charging moves, grabs, and some ranged fire. No timing will parry these. Trying to block a red attack just feeds you the damage. Train yourself to see red and bail sideways with a dodge. A perfect dodge still sets up a Gun Strike, so a precise evade is not wasted.

It is about the body, not only the icon

The blue flash is not a metronome. The correct input still depends on the enemy swing. A Tyranid Warrior raising a sword, a Ravener lunging, or a Rubric Marine closing for a hit all have different windups. The best cue is the moment the attack commits forward — not the first blue flash, and not the instant the weapon touches you.

Combo rules

Enemies with attack combos only stagger, and only open a Gun Strike, when you parry the final hit of the string. Parrying an earlier hit just blocks it. Against a combo, wait for the last swing.

When to doubt yourself

If parries keep failing, the usual causes are: mashing attack (you cannot parry out of your own swing), holding the button (a hold becomes a block, not a parry — tap it), parrying a red attack, parrying the first hit of a combo, or running a Block weapon on Fencing timing. The parry-not-working troubleshooting page walks each one. For the timing itself, see parry windows by defence type and perfect dodge into Gun Strike.