Melee upgrade: Parry

[tiny phoenix]

I'm working this as a reference to ultrakill cause it just feels right

Exotic Player Upgrade
CQC-TrainingV1.exe
"When timed right, your melee can now parry some attacks, negating their damage"

Mainly physical attacks, but can also parry those elemental bubble launchers. If you parry a projectile it sends the projectile backwards. If you parry a physical attack you'r flung backwards. The distance you're flung scales with the damage you would've taken.

Exotic Player Upgrade
CQC-TrainingV2.exe
"Hold the melee key to charge a more powerful strike. Warning: overcharging may damage your unit"

When you hold the melee key you charge your fist, on release you do a melee attack that is stronger and has a bit of AoE.
If you hold it for too long (indicated by your arm looking "overcharged") it will instead explode. The explosion deals massive damage to you and anyone nearby. Damage done to you should not be an insta kill, but leave you on red

[austere lance]

parrying this game too hard to implement without overhaul of the game. You not tnaky enough to survive 1-3 attacks. ENemeis attack animations too janky and hard to see to perfctly parry without making it super generous on the window. Too many projectiles attack and aoe friendly fire

[opal mist]

there are a few areas where it could be really nice. if i Melee a Missile, but that Melee isn't enough to outright Kill it atm, rather than the Melee having done nothing, affecting its course so that the Missile has to come back around for another pass or something would feel better than it exploding in your face.

or if you try to Melee a Core but there's like, a claw tentacle that attacks you at about the same time, that could block your Melee potentially. preferable would be to atleast punch through it or deflect it and still allow the hit you were intending to be possible.

[tiny phoenix]

Fair point but this is more designed towards VIPs
I mean, you could try to parry a grunt, i bet some people could get really good at it, but it's not the intended use.

[tiny phoenix]

I already believe the game could have some better telegraphing for melee attacks from enemies, this became specially clear to me farming the amalgamation

But that's for a completely different reason

The parry upgrade should be as simple as:
If melee attack hits active hitbox - Incoming damage set to zero;
And then you get flung to the opposite direction

I'm not even saying "go full VA Proxy and let us parry the nuke"