These are two important defensive actions that players can perform in order to maximize their defense.  Both are announced at the start of the turn, and both affect the player's powersuit or mech for the entire turn.  Each one costs one action to perform, so doing them both in a turn will take two actions.

Dodge:  this action adds +2 to your Defense rolls for the entire turn, except against missiles and automatic weapons (machinefire or autofire) in which case it only adds +1.

Parry:  all of the powersuits of Yoali Ehecatl have shields attached to one arm.  Using the Parry option allows you to use this shield to deflect incoming attacks.  If you elect to parry all successful incoming attacks strike your shield first (giving you extra armor) then the arm holding the shield.

You may also parry certain types of attacks with hand weapons or items that you scrounge off the battlefield (tree limbs, powersuit limbs, etc).  Using a hand weapon or scrounged item allows you to parry beams weapons, projectile weapons, thrown objects, melee weapons, and energy melee weapons, but not missiles, kicks, punches, and automatic weapons (machinefire or autofire).  Damage goes first against the object held, then against the arm holding it.

You may never parry the following sorts of attacks:  knockdowns, entanglements, grapples, full-body blows.

Characters who have only a single action per turn may still elect to both Dodge and Parry simultaneously.  However, this uses up their action for the next turn in addition to the current one.
 
 

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