Guarding

Guarding is one of the four basic combat actions, along with Melee, Balls and Dashing. Guarding can be used to greatly reduce damage from attacks that are too fast to dodge (Such as the Training Turret's ball swarm). Guarding is directional - only attacks from the direction the player is facing are reduced, although certain talents can allow to guard from all sides. It is possible to aim and rotate while guarding but it takes a while to gain full focus.

Guarding is associated with Cold and is the primary tool of Quadroguards.

Perfect Guarding & Guard Counter
There is a hidden mechanism called perfect guarding in the game, which is not mentioned by any in-game tutorials. Perfect guarding is an advanced fighting strategy against most enemies. To execute a perfect guarding, hold your shield just before your enemy's attack is about to hit you. When a perfect guarding is successfully executed, a letter P will pop up instead of numerical damage. For charging enemies, the perfect guarding automatically becomes a guard counter when successfully executed, which breaks the enemy's guard instantly, making it vulnerable to Lea's attacks.

This fighting strategy is hard to master - usually it needs some practice to find the right timing. The Royal Guard status increases the time window of a perfect guard, making this action easier to use. Some Guard Arts guarantee a perfect guard, such as Ignite Embers and Freeze Frame.

Guard Break
Lea's shield cannot hold infinitely long in front of enemies' attacks. It starts flashing when it is about to break. The shield will regenerate slowly when not activated. When Lea enters the shield break state, the guarding action is inaccessible for a period of time.

This mechanism prevents players from relying their shield too often. However, executing perfect guards does not contribute to the "shield break meter".

Combat Arts
Guarding Combat Arts can be executed by charging while holding up guard.