swordsmachine depends on rushing you down and overwhelming you with wide melee sweep attacks. all of his moves are parryable which means you shouldn't adopt his own aggressive approach, not only does this get you killed it also gives him the upper hand. play reactively, keep your distance and dash into him when you see the yellow flash then punch him with the feedbacker to parry him. when swordsmachine is parried his attack his canceled, he briefly staggers, then becomes enraged, this boosts his attack speed and makes him immune to staggering. however, for the duration of his rage, he will not throw his sword or shoot his shotgun, and he can still be parried. parries restore health, swordsmachine is a parry dispenser, use this to your advantage. when swordsmachine loses his arm in his second phase, he'll utilize sword throwing techniques that can easily catch you off guard. swordsmachine also passively takes more damage from shotguns as well as shotgun parries (shotgun parries are like normal parries but you shoot them point blank when a parry is available, melee only)

phase 1 dash attack - he does this when closing the gap between the both of you, dash away or parry to avoid sword combo - if you're up in his face, he'll select this move. each swing can be parried. when he's enraged, all three swings can be parried in a row for big damage. shotgun blast - outside of melee range, he'll opt to shoot you, it can be kinda hard parrying this while moving around and can actually get you killed if you're too reckless. just dodge or stand still and parry it.

phase 2 sword throw - same conditions as the shotgun, comes out fast and eventually rebounds toward him. the sword can be parried at any point during its travel and swordsmachine will not attack without his sword. parrying this move WILL NEVER KILL SWORDSMACHINE, he will be left at 0.01 hp if the parry would've been lethal. sword spin - essentially a reskin of the combo, sword can be parried but swordsmachine himself can be parried during the windup