007 First Light Guide: How to Master the Parry
Stop Button Mashing and Start Dominating Hand-to-Hand Combat
Quick Answer: Button mashing will get you killed. Watch your enemies closely and press the parry button once when they flash yellow. If they flash red, dodge out of the way. If they hide behind their guard, use a grab to break their stance and slam them into the environment.
While slipping through the shadows is always the preferred method for any MI6 operative, your cover is going to blow eventually. When the alarm sounds and the room swarms with aggressive guards, trying to blindly punch your way out is a guaranteed trip to the respawn screen.
007 First Light heavily prioritizes tactical melee brawls. Enemies are relentless and will absolutely gang up on you. To survive these encounters and clear the room like a true super spy, you have to master your defensive toolkit.
Lock Down Your Controls
Before you step into enemy territory, make sure your defensive keybinds are firmly committed to muscle memory. You will not have time to check the pause menu during a 5v1 fistfight.
| Combat Action | PC Keybind | PlayStation Input | Xbox Input |
| Parry / Counter | Q | Circle | B |
| Sidestep / Dodge | Space + Direction | X | A |
| Grab / Lock On | E | R2 | RT |
Reading the Room
Knowing the buttons is only half the battle. Surviving melee combat requires you to read enemy animations and react with the correct countermeasure.
Punishing Yellow Attacks
If you take away one piece of advice from this guide, let it be this: stop mashing the parry button. The game’s combat engine is designed to actively punish panic presses by ignoring your inputs entirely.
Instead, watch your attacker. A split second before their strike connects, their body will emit a bright yellow flash. That is your cue. Tap the parry button exactly once. A perfectly timed press will block the damage and often stagger the enemy, leaving them wide open. Once a target is stumbling, you can trigger an instant takedown (for example, by hitting X and Square simultaneously on PlayStation) to remove them from the fight completely.
Do not worry about guards sneaking up behind you. As long as you hit the parry button when the yellow indicator flashes, Bond will automatically pivot and block the incoming attack.
Need a break from getting your teeth kicked in? Step away from the brawls and check out our complete checklist for finding all 14 mementos so you can knock out that Recovered Assets achievement.
Evading Red Chargers
Not every punch can be blocked. Enemies will occasionally wind up for massive, heavy attacks. Instead of the standard yellow glow, these brutes will flash bright red.
Do not attempt to parry a red attack. It will crush right through your guard and chunk your health bar. The moment you see red, use your sidestep input to dive out of the danger zone, then punish them while they recover from their missed swing.
Shattering Defensive Guards
Some enemies prefer to play it safe, holding their arms up to block your incoming flurries. Swinging at a blocking target is a massive waste of time and leaves your back exposed to other attackers.
When a guard turtles up, hold down your grab button to lock onto them.
- Tap the grab button again to throw them, completely breaking their defensive stance.
- Follow up a successful grab with a quick barrage of light attacks.
- Drag the grabbed enemy toward a desk, railing, or wall and smash them into it for an immediate, satisfying knockout.
Once you get comfortable mixing your yellow parries, red dodges, and guard-breaking grabs, you will be clearing out heavily fortified rooms without breaking a sweat.
