Block, synchronized block and dodge | Tips Castlevania: LoS 2 Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

During the fight, you have to remember about the most important thing - defense. Spamming the enemies with random, chaotic attacks can work at the smaller foes, but when you will come across stronger, faster or simply more complex enemies it will be insufficient. That is precisely why you must learn and master 3 key skills: block, synchronized block and dodge.

Block

The easiest way to defend yourself and the least useful. Blocking incoming attacks allows you to avoid getting damaged, but besides this it won't help you at all - it's not making the fight easier, as enemies are not losing health, it's not exposing their weaknesses and it's not rewarded in any way (be it experience points or building up of Combat Focus bar).

A regular block is only useful at the beginning of the game, when you can't use its synchronized equivalent yet and you don't have any other skill which will allow or help you with dodging enemies' attacks. That is why you should learn and master synchronized block as fast as you can.

Synchronized block

Harder to master and execute successfully than a regular block, but giving a huge advantage if used correctly. To use it, you must block just as an attack is about to hit you - if you do it right, you will get a white flash at the point of impact and the game will slow down. Aside from avoiding damage, the blocked enemy will now be defenseless for a brief time and you can (and should) use this window to deal huge amounts of damage. It works on all enemies, even bosses, but you can't block unblockable attacks with this (you will see a red flash above the enemy head when he is preparing such an attack).

You will fail execution of this move dozens of times, it's inevitable, but when you will master this maneuver, all the future fights will be a lot easier for you.

Dodge

Unfortunately, not all attacks can be blocked. When you see a red flash above the enemy head just before he attacks, it means that he's preparing an unblockable attack and you should dodge it to avoid getting hit. You will be dodging a lot, way more often than blocking, because this move is easier to execute and works on all enemies, especially on those who have loads of unblockable attacks (and you will start to encounter them sooner or later).

A variant of dodge, which can simply be called "shoulder charge" is a move that is not covered in the tutorial in the game but it's extremely useful. To use it, you have to "dodge onto the enemy" - there's a chance to knock down smaller enemies this way, giving you an opportunity to freely attack them. Unfortunately, it doesn't work every time and it's useless on anything bigger than yourself.

Remember: you are not invincible during a dodge! If you time it wrongly, you can (and probably will) still be hit, which will most likely knock you down.