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This is how you can beat the main bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Sekiro's boss fights are theatrical brawls that will test your ability to experiment under harrowing conditions. You'll still a die a lot, though, so here's a quick guide for every main encounter.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a beautiful nightmare. It's without a doubt one of the most difficult FromSoftware games to date, and despite the lack of an easy mode it treats every engagement as a lesson in mechanics and a catalyst for creativity and flair.
Its more than 50 bosses and mini bosses will test your thumbs, reflexes, and patience, while trolling you for hours on end. However, they also trigger some of the most satisfying video game experiences out there today thanks to pivotal moments in which you're able to string everything together. Those (semi) perfect runs can be hard to come by in your first play through, so we put together a mini-guide to help you navigate some of the more challenging boss fights you’ll stumble across in Shadows Die Twice. To quote the Sculptor himself. "If there's someone that needs killing, there's a proper way to kill them."
Some bosses, mini bosses, and boss phases were omitted from this guide for the sake of story spoilers and the extraordinary moments that come with them. Trust us, things get anime.
'Tis the season for samurai slaying
© Activision
General Naomori Kawarada
Location: Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall Gate Path
Reward: Prayer Bead, Gourd Seed
The General is Sekiro's first true tutorial boss, as he's here to teach you the rock-paper-scissors fundamentals of two Perilous Attacks: the sweep and the grab. The sweep can be countered by jumping over him and then jumping again to deliver a kick that deals massive posture damage, while his unblockable grab can be avoided via a dodge (and countered with standard sword attacks).
Just remember that Sekiro is more Tenchu than Souls, so experiment at will. Stealthing across the courtyard's rooftops beforehand can leave him open to a deathblow, and being aggressive with strikes can increase posture damage and send him right back to the film set of TMNT III.
Chained Ogre
Location: Ashina Outskirts - Outskirts Wall Stairway
Reward: Prayer Bead, Shinobi Medicine Rank 1
The Ogre flat out sucks. His WCW-inspired powerbombs and suplexes can be insta-kills, so use this encounter to measure distance. His dropkicks, elbow drops, and overhand smashes can be nullified with a step dodge and counter, and staying out of his range triggers a grapple stun that leaves him open for a one-two.
Some prosthetic tools (i.e. Flame Vent, Firecrackers) will let you get a quick smack or heal in, but don't forget about items. Gachin's Sugar makes you harder to detect for a short period of time and allows you to get a deathblow off while he's still chained.
You will remember the Demon's name
© Activision
Gyoubu Oniwa
Location: Ashina Outskirts – Ashina Castle Gate Fortress
Reward: Memory, Mechanical Barrel
Gyoubu is intimidating as all hell. He's loud, obnoxious, and owns a war horse, but h'’s also susceptible to varying attack strings and larger amounts of posture damage because of his poor defence. In other words: block everything. Doing so will help you recognise his patterns, and make you a bit more comfortable with the idea of deflecting a 6m spear at close range. Just make sure to monitor your own posture meter by retreating, or using Gokan's Sugar so that you're less vulnerable to free hits and being dragged for eternity.
Blazing Bull
Location: Ashina Outskirts – Ashina Castle Gate
Reward: Prayer Bead, Shinobi Medicine Rank 2
This great big ball of fire is all about patience and managing space. The Shinobi Firecracker tool (and Dousing Powder) will help you in a bind, but locking on to the Bull and taking advantage of its wide turns will help you with its high vitality. It only attacks with its horns, and it can't block any of your strikes, so bait it towards you and stick to its sides at all times. The goal here is to be the aggressor who's doing the chasing rather than being chased, so bait, strike, retreat, and repeat.
Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen
Location: Hirata Estate – Estate Path
Reward: Prayer Bead
Enshin is a skilled shinobi hunter, meaning he's well versed in knowing how to mess you up. With that in mind, use the building that's to the left of the bridge on the Estate Path to survey your surroundings and devise a plan to silently take out the archers and other mobs. Then, use the garden area on the left to stealth one of his life pips away. Doing so not only makes this 1v1 significantly easier, but it gives you an open invitation to read spear attacks and practice Mikiri Counters mid-battle.
The latter are one of the more difficult skills to master, as Perilous Attacks have varying animations and speeds, so dodge, counter and put your combat arts to use.
Juzou The Drunkard
Location: Hirata Estate – Main Hall
Reward: Prayer Bead, Unrefined Sake
Hirata Estate is all about managing enemies in numbers, and taking on Juzou The Drunkard is no different. He has his own entourage equipped with arrows and wooden shields, so there's two ways you can go about this.
First, you can use Gachin's Sugar (or stealth tactics) to sneak around them and take out the smaller mobs one-by-one. Or you can talk to a friendly NPC, who you'll meet before taking Juzou head on. Doing so gives you an opportunity to take care of the other enemies while the boss is distracted, and it'll usually result in an easy peasy deathblow and a quick one-on-one with Juzou that focuses on deflections and avoiding poison damage.
Three words: shall we dance?
© Activision
Lady Butterfly
Location: Hirata Estate – Hirata Audience Chamber
Reward: Memory, Sakura Droplet
Lady Butterfly is perceived to be the game's first real bosses, because of the way she Metal Gear Solids her away around a visually stunning environment. Her attacks are nimble and deceptive, and she'll kunai the hell out of you, or dive kick you into oblivion any chance she gets.
The key here is to counter her aggression with aggression yourself, and turn the fight into a full-on dance number with blades. Countering her attack chains with chains of your own can deplete her posture at a much faster rate, but always make sure to dodge to the side (not backwards), as it prevents her from sneaking in a hit. Doing so will give you a better understanding of Sekiro's posture system and if things get weird… well, just use Snap Seeds.
Seven Ashina Spears - Shikibu Toshikatsu Yamauchi
Location: Ashina Castle – Ashina Reservoir
Reward: Prayer Bead
Shikibu is one of the most frustrating mini bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, because he's a thicc boi who could care less about your dodge, dodge, attack strategies. He's also surrounded by a swarm of different soldiers, including two giants, so your best approach would be to take them out one-by-one before engaging. Doing so will create a sequence you can use for grinding out XP and skill points later on, and give you a chance to retrace your steps from the prologue to land a stealth deathblow from above.
From there, it's just a matter of breaking Shikibu's guard via deflections, Mikiri Counters, double jumping his spear sweeps to deal posture damage, and using the Firecrackers tool, or the Fistful of Ash item, to stun him and attack with combat arts.
Lone Shadow Longswordsman
Location: Ashina Castle – Ashina Reservoir
Reward: Prayer Bead, Scrap Magnetite
The Lone Shadow Longswordsman is pretty much a shinobi that's stranded in a well. It's a story you’ve more than likely heard before, so instead of taking the obvious path in, venture further up the cliff to jump down a hole that you can use to take off a free health bar. If that fails, you'll have to fight him the hard way.
The purple ninja has an affinity for using kicks and Perilous Attacks in claustrophobic environments, and since they can mess up your health and posture in a matter of seconds, your best strategy is to parry, jump, and Mikiri Counter. If Mikiris aren't your thing, then step dodge to the right, or visit Hirata Estate for a forgotten memory that can help with timing.
Ashina Elite Jinsuke Saze
Location: Ashina Castle – Upper Tower Ashina Dojo
Reward: Prayer Bead
This mini boss is as Bushido Blade as Bushido Blade gets. Jinsuke hits hard and the speed of his attacks can be extremely difficult to pin down, so you can either fight aggressively with the use of prosthetics, like the Firecrackers and the Subimaru, or you can take the time to master deflections. Going with the latter strategy pays off in the long run, as it will help you recognise smaller details, such as hilt/sword flashes, to gain a better understanding of when you should parry. Jinsuke has very little health and posture so deflect, deflect, deflect, and then deathblow.
You'll grow sick of this view
© Activision
Genichiro Ashina
Location: Ashina Castle – Upper Tower Ashina Dojo
Reward: Memory, Bloodsmoke Ninjutsu
Here's the thing about Genichiro: he's Vegeta, Shishio, and Tatsumaru all rolled into one. And because of this, he has around a dozen or so attack animations and his damage output makes other Sekiro bosses look like pushovers. His arrows hit like serrated two-by-fours; his flurries feel like someone smashed the 'Turbo' button on a GameCube controller; his Perilous thrusts and elbows will put the fear of red kanji symbols in you; and to make things even worse, he will automatically send an arrow your way if you decide to use a healing item.
His biggest weakness? Memorisation. Taking a second or a few deaths to identify his attacks and attack strings will help you realise that Sekiro is secretly a rhythm game, and that it's about using hypothetical 'what-ifs' to strengthen your own offensive patterns. Identifying openings and initiating a response can be as easy as using single sword strikes to interrupt Genichiro's flurry and turn it into a back-and-forth that significantly damages his posture. You still need to time your deflections, but it's a part of what makes this fight such a pivotal turning point, as it forces you to give bosses a little less respect. The other part? Well, that's something we won't spoil.
Armored Warrior
Location: Senpou Temple – Shugendo
Reward: Prayer Bead, Breath Of Nature: Shadow
There are a lot of hidden layers to this face-off, including a gimmick and a few FromSoft nods that won't be spoiled for the sake of spoilers, but the best advice for Robert's father is to treat him like a Souls boss. He can't take any damage and his posture doesn't recharge, so dodge or parry attacks and counter his slower-moving swings with the Loaded Axe (and not the Loaded Spear). The prosthetic tool deals massive posture damage to shielded enemies and it can be incredibly useful for when the Warrior's too busy with renovating the environment around you.
Long-Arm Gentipede Sen'un
Location: Senpou Temple – Temple Grounds
Reward: Prayer Bead, Yellow Gunpowder
The main focus of this mini boss encounter is to use the tactics you already know. Grappling up to the wooden beams in the boss chamber allows you to stealth the three smaller enemies that are up there and land a deathblow on the Gentipede, as you kill the remaining mobs that are on the ground.
Getting rid of them beforehand eliminates the most annoying element of this clash (fire damage) while giving you more elbow room to deal with the Gentipede. Its berserker rage sequences and Perilous Attack can be countered pretty easily with well-timed deflections and a jump kick, so make sure to rely on those if your stealthing leads into a neverending firestorm.
Snake Eyes Shirafuji
Location: Sunken Valley – Gun Fort
Reward: Prayer Bead
One of the biggest challenges of this mini boss fight is grappling your way to a safe space, while avoiding the different riflemen who never seem to miss a shot. Maneuvering your way across the valley to rest and reset at the Gun Fort idol can help you eliminate the henchmen and steal one of the boss's health bars, but then there's the process of going head-to-head with Shirafuji himself.
Like Genichiro, his range can be tedious to deal with, so deflect his strikes, step dodge his cannon, and do whatever you can to avoid his Perilous grab. It's sneaky, as it covers a lot of distance, so counter his trolling with Firecrackers or a few swift stabs with the Subimaru tool.
He doesn't care about your Monkey Booze
© Activision
Guardian Ape
Location: Sunken Valley – Bodhisattva Valley
Reward: Memory, Slender Finger
The Guardian Ape encounter is an outstanding technical achievement and a leading example of FromSoftware's new found love for white-knuckled action. It will smack you around like a pinball; toss poisonous dung at you from a mile away; and it will use two Perilous grapple attacks just to get your opinion on if instant-kill moves should be allowed in video game design.
The Ape can't block your attacks and most combat arts are too slow in this instance, so the best strategy is to stun him with Shinobi Firecrackers when possible and counter with standard sword strikes. You can use the grappling hook when prompted to get in close and get off a quick one-two, while its stunned, but mixing things up will help you discover one of the greatest boss fights of all-time.
O'rin of the Water
Location: Ashina Depths – Water Mill
Reward: Prayer Bead, Breath Of Life: Shadow (Skill)
Without spoiling much, O'rin of the Water is a Tumblr teen who's obnoxiously unforgiving. She's a rather peculiar mini boss, who can't be missed, as you’re forced to interact with her in order to advance. Better yet, she's an apparition-type enemy and attacking her doesn't really do a lot of damage.
The best tactic here is to be aggressive, with continuous sword strikes, deflect all of her different attack strings, and offset her Perilous sweep with a jump kick to break her posture meter as quickly as you can. O'rin can be cheap when she wants to be, so make sure to offset her swooping ranged strikes with a well-timed step dodge counter to make it an even fight.
Corrupted Monk
Location: Ashina Depths – Water Mill
Reward: Prayer Bead, Mibu Breathing Technique (Skill)
The ghost version of the Corrupted Monk is no walk in the park. The main boss does an absurd amount of damage, mixes up unpredictable attack strings with sweeps and stabs that cannot be blocked, and its range and attack speed is so ambiguous that they always seem inconsistent. It takes a bit of time to get used to its patterns, so use your first few runs to get a feel for its rhythm so you can figure out when to take advantage of its openings. Deflecting the Monk's strikes can be a terrifying experience, so parry when you can, dodge and use combat arts, such as Mortal Draw, and quickly swap between Firecrackers and the Loaded Spear to get the upper hand.
