Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (translator's note: Sekiro means ninja fuckery)

[paprikastaude]

Rushing through NG+ reconfirms the ogre as the worst boss. Not only is his pattern annoying, but the game teaches you the wrong playstyle by putting him in the very beginning. It makes you think dodging is way more important than it is, while later enemies barely every have any grabbing attacks.

[Coax]

Rushing through NG+ reconfirms the ogre as the worst boss. Not only is his pattern annoying, but the game teaches you the wrong playstyle by putting him in the very beginning. It makes you think dodging is way more important than it is, while later enemies barely every have any grabbing attacks.

Watched a fighting game player (Maximilian Dood) stream some of Sekiro a little ago who considered that ogre BS as well, mostly for the sweeps that don't connect at a reasonable distance yet count.

Later in the VoD I saw he beat the final boss in like three attempts with the fight lasting just a few minutes. Someone in the chat complained he cheesed it merely because he was too fast

[paprikastaude]

[kingv]

In a 30 minute stretch managed to kill drunk boi and the shining hunter.

The shining hunter can be massively cheesed, as he cannot cross the bridge leading up to him under any circumstances. He will always start backing up once on it.

One thing I am not 100% clear on is which attacks the mikiri  counter works on and which don’t.

I have had this trouble with Shinobi hunter and seven Spears.

Some of the attacks look like thrusts to me, but then it seems like my counter isn’t registering even though the timing feels right. Not sure if I’m missing the timing or some attacks look like thrusts but the game doesn’t count them as thrusts.

Specifically, on seven spears, it’s that scoop thrust where he digs the spear into the ground.

[Coax]

Some of the attacks look like thrusts to me, but then it seems like my counter isn’t registering even though the timing feels right. Not sure if I’m missing the timing or some attacks look like thrusts but the game doesn’t count them as thrusts

Specifically, on seven spears, it’s that scoop thrust where he digs the spear into the ground.

Clipped this GIF from a video that shows his thrust (if that's the one you mean) countered vs the sweep from that fight, if it helps

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Couple of other couple things to keep in mind: the counter is activated more reliably using Forward+Dodge and the counter is triggerable when the enemy begins to move the weapon forward (the glint on the weapon is a bit of a visual cue) rather than just following the appearance of the symbol itself.

Late edit: Forward+Dodge correction.

[paprikastaude]

Not checking every water straight after getting diving?

[MMaRsu]

[Don Rumata]

Couple of other couple things to keep in mind: the counter is activated more reliably using Forward+Block and the counter is triggerable when the enemy begins to move the weapon forward (the glint on the weapon is a bit of a visual cue) rather than just following the appearance of the symbol itself.

The method i use for the Mikiri, is i press dodge right when the warning symbol starts disappearing.
It worked out well so far, with most attacks.

[Bebpo]

Finally started playing this and I fucking suck at it. Took me an hour to beat the chained ogre (had missed the flashback area and the flame vent subweapon and didn't know you could stealth a lifebar off, so was just whittling him down both life bars head on but kept getting grabbed and losing 90% HP before I could kill him). Doing the flashback area now and stuck at both Spear boss and Drunkard boss who both kill me in 1-2 hits and have tons of mobs around them. After I quit for the night I found out that I was doing the Mikiri counter wrong because I was trying to counter the spear like a sword counter with L1 on PS4, now I know how to do it with dodge so I'll try to stealth off the mobs and one lifebar from him and counter him. My only experience with the drunkard was a buddy samurai guy running out and getting killed by mobs in 10 seconds and then I'm surrounded by mobs and this huge guy that 1 hit kills me. I read that the trick is to take the mobs out and run away and reset the encounter without mobs and then activate the sword guy and double team him so will try that next.

Like the game a lot, but yeah I suck at these bosses!

[Coax]

The method i use for the Mikiri, is i press dodge right when the warning symbol starts disappearing. It worked out well so far, with most attacks.

Interesting. When I began practicing it was the timing differences between enemies threw me so I instead looked at their movement but good to know this as well.

I only just noticed I posted 'Forward+Block' rather than 'Forward-Dodge' (which I was thinking of). Brain fart. Corrected.

[Don Rumata]

Finally started playing this and I fucking suck at it. Took me an hour to beat the chained ogre (had missed the flashback area and the flame vent subweapon and didn't know you could stealth a lifebar off, so was just whittling him down both life bars head on but kept getting grabbed and losing 90% HP before I could kill him). Doing the flashback area now and stuck at both Spear boss and Drunkard boss who both kill me in 1-2 hits and have tons of mobs around them. After I quit for the night I found out that I was doing the Mikiri counter wrong because I was trying to counter the spear like a sword counter with L1 on PS4, now I know how to do it with dodge so I'll try to stealth off the mobs and one lifebar from him and counter him. My only experience with the drunkard was a buddy samurai guy running out and getting killed by mobs in 10 seconds and then I'm surrounded by mobs and this huge guy that 1 hit kills me. I read that the trick is to take the mobs out and run away and reset the encounter without mobs and then activate the sword guy and double team him so will try that next.

Like the game a lot, but yeah I suck at these bosses!

The start is honestly the worst part of it.
There are definitely harder bosses and mini bosses coming, but at the start you die with a spit, and you still don't know how to play.

It gets easier.

I'm at the True Monk boss (late game boss) now, and i'm starting to think Bloodborne was harder than this, despite thinking the exact opposite, when i started playing.
I do think Bloodborne's difficulty is mostly due to the worse gameplay though, i don't think i'd ever be able to go back now.

[Bebpo]

Finally started playing this and I fucking suck at it. Took me an hour to beat the chained ogre (had missed the flashback area and the flame vent subweapon and didn't know you could stealth a lifebar off, so was just whittling him down both life bars head on but kept getting grabbed and losing 90% HP before I could kill him). Doing the flashback area now and stuck at both Spear boss and Drunkard boss who both kill me in 1-2 hits and have tons of mobs around them. After I quit for the night I found out that I was doing the Mikiri counter wrong because I was trying to counter the spear like a sword counter with L1 on PS4, now I know how to do it with dodge so I'll try to stealth off the mobs and one lifebar from him and counter him. My only experience with the drunkard was a buddy samurai guy running out and getting killed by mobs in 10 seconds and then I'm surrounded by mobs and this huge guy that 1 hit kills me. I read that the trick is to take the mobs out and run away and reset the encounter without mobs and then activate the sword guy and double team him so will try that next.

Like the game a lot, but yeah I suck at these bosses!

The start is honestly the worst part of it.
There are definitely harder bosses and mini bosses coming, but at the start you die with a spit, and you still don't know how to play.

It gets easier.

I'm at the True Monk boss (late game boss) now, and i'm starting to think Bloodborne was harder than this, despite thinking the exact opposite, when i started playing.
I do think Bloodborne's difficulty is mostly due to the worse gameplay though, i don't think i'd ever be able to go back now.

Interesting.

See my experience with Dark Souls/Bloodborne was that they were inverse difficulty curves and this was almost entirely because of weapon upgrades. Like they were hard at the start but as you got more and more upgrade levels they became jokingly easy games. You can tell they were and had to be balanced for lower weapon levels because to max weapon upgrades required grinding and secrets and stuff the average player wouldn't do. But that meant if you did that stuff (which I always do as soon as I can) you'd be super OP. Like in Bloodborne I don't even know if Margo's Wet Nurse had moves, at Weapon lvl.10 with the start short blade you just mash slash and the fight's over in 10 seconds.

The Dark Souls games & Bloodborne literally go from YOU HAVE TO LEARN EVERY BOSS PATTERN AND EXECUTE THEM PERFECTLY to you can run up and mash attack and beat bosses on your first try. My Dark Souls 1 run was with a blood element max Katana and I think I killed the final boss in like 4 slashes.

I don't remember if Demon Souls was as broken since it's been too many years since I played it.


My thinking from a couple hours of Sekiro was "no weapon levels? oh shit, there's no way to break this one", and since you only increase weapon power/hp after you beat the bosses/mid-bosses it feels like From Soft could really control the balance and increase the boss damage and HP to match your increases so it remains the same level of challenge throughout, but idk, maybe not?

Yeah I mean it would be kinda nice to not run to a new boss area and die in 1 hit (if not topped off 100%) before learning anything and then res and die in 1 hit and then run back to the boss area and die in 1 hit and res and die in 1 hit later on. After I beat spear guy and drunk guy I'll have my 4 beads (left Ashino right after beating Ogre before progressing further) and I'll see what kind of difference an upgrade there makes.

[kingv]

Drunk boi and shinobi boi can both be sort of cheesed.

Drunk Boi: that little pond where the Ashoka helper is... instead of going through the center of it all, go around the rocks. From there you can aggro drunk boi without alerting the mobs because he can see a lot farther.

After he starts to round the corner in the pond, start running until he starts to walk back to his spot, then do a stealth backstab while he’s going back. Then draw him back to the middle and get your buddy. He’s pretty trivial at that point.

Shinobi hunter you can make him a lot easier by drawing him down to the bridge right before him. He cannot cross it so you can always jump back across the bridge if you need a break. Using it you can really control his aggressiveness by kiting him.

[shosta]

WTF I found a NEW Headless After 100+ hours!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Remember that snowy area before the Gun Fort where there were those grave-like stone pyramids and Prayer Bead was just lying there? You can see those stone pyramids at the beginning of the game from Ashina Outer Wall. Behind those pyramids is a tiny, icy lake. You can dive and swim to a dark cave with Headless inside.

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

there's one for every sugar.

[close]

[Bebpo]

Man, I dunno about this game. I finally got the 4 prayer beads and I got...+1 vitality? So I still do the same pidly damage and my health is barely noticeably any longer? Guess there is no upgrade system to make things easier in this haha.

My only issue with the whole "draw the mobs out first, reset the boss and stealth and then fight the boss" is that when you spend 10 mins setting this up and then you die in 20 seconds and have to do it all again it's not fun. This happened on the dumb shinobi guy for me, then I tried to just fight him with all the enemies still alive and that went bad, then did the whole kill all grunts first and then beat him but yeah that was annoying. Same thing happened on drunk boi, stealthed and cleared all the grunts and activated samurai guy only to still get killed WHILE TALKING TO THE SAMURAI GUY ACTIVATING HIM and then lolz when I resurrect I get hit while resurrecting and die instantly for a 2nd time. Just feels like a huge waste of time taking out the grunts each time. Next time I took out the grunts quicker and didn't get hit while activating samurai guy and shot him with oil and fire and slices from behind and it was no problem.

Tried fighting Lady Butterfly. I'd heard she was ridiculously hard, so I was kinda surprised when after a few deaths of getting the hang of dodging all her moves and staying in her face with single slashes between each of her attacks, I killed her without taking almost any damage on like my 3rd attempt. THEN PART 2 and yeah fuck that I don't have the skillset in this game yet to deal with dodging her attacks again this time while getting mob stabbed from ghosts behind me and then she did that move where they all turn back into light and then explode me for instant kill, ehhhhhh.

Guess I'll go back to Ashino now and make some progress in that direction and come back to Butterfly later. Was hoping that getting the 4 pray beads would make a noticably difference in feeling stronger but nope, maybe after the second group of 4 I'll get +1 on my strength and then I'll notice a change? I'm not even sure what skills I should be getting so I'm mainly just grabbing stealth skills for now.

[Bebpo]

Actually I didn't realize that the ghosts go away at some point and then it's just the same fight but with her throwing explosions here and there. Ehhh, I think I can do this. Got her down to 50% HP on 2nd part just now.

[Bebpo]

Man, this fight is annoying. It's really good but there's one move that is absolutely destroying me. I can handle every attack she throws out, I can run around the ghost bois like no tomorrow without taking hits. But I take damage at 2 spots:

First is after ghost bois when I'm fighting him but she keeps shooting 2 sets of butterflies at a time. I'm circle strafing around her hitting her and doing damage but my HP is slowly getting chipped down as these pass through me while I circle around her.

Second is the big one. After I dodge the ghost bois and she turns them all into a giant clusterfuck bomb of butterflies, I can't seem to dodge this and it does 100% HP damage. I made it past the first set of this with 1 death and got her kinda low on life in phase 2 but then she summoned another set of ghost bois and did this again and it killed me. I swear if I had 2 fucking snap peas I'd beat this fight no problem But I used the one I got and I have none.

[Don Rumata]

For the skills, i'd prioritize Mikiri Counter (and all related skills), and whatever lets you do "block" and "attack" while in the air first.
The game doesn't get "easy", but it does get less tedious in the way you're describing, as i said the first 2 areas (Ashina Outskirts and Hirata Estate) are among the worst in that sense, in my opinion.

At least, until the end game phase, then it ramps up again in bullshit, but by then you're expecting it.

[Bebpo]

Ok, read that the pillars block the butterfly bomb after the ghosts. Tried once more after learning that and beat it on first try after. YES +1 attack, now I should feel stronger.

[Bebpo]

The scripted

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Snake

[close]

bit is kinda annoying lol

[Bebpo]

Beat the horse general on first try, seemed pretty easy if you just stay back and use the green arrows to swing in and get some hits. Still was pretty greedy on my hits. Had one death + resurrection in battle and then I beat him with this much life left:



But hey, another attack +1, up to 3 now and oh wow that is a big tool upgrade tree! Here I thought this was going to be a short game.

[Bebpo]

Open world doesn't sound good with From though. One of their really strong strength is their level design in these games. Unless the open world actually just means hub that connects to the levels, just don't see it working.

I'd say their level design, enemy variety, enemy & boss attack patterns (hell even Chained Ogre has like 6 unique moves), combat design, atmosphere and storytelling is what makes their games great.

I really liked Demon Souls when I played it. The player-controlled monk boss was amazing and the seaside place with the giant manta rays and of course that defiled place with the holy chick and her knight. That being said I felt like the gameplay got much better at Dark Souls, but then in Demon Souls I played a ranged spell caster that would run and shoot missiles, while in all the Dark Souls games I went different melee builds and Bloodborne/Sekiro are melee so it might just be that.

[Bebpo]

I also feel atmosphere/story-wise nothing outside Bloodborne can hold up to Dark Souls 1 when you're including the expansion. The knight and the wolf, the scaleless dragon's library, the serpents and Anor Londo, the story and atmosphere in the 2nd half from Anor Londo on is freaking amazing and is the best Berserk game ever.

Bloodborne is so different in being cosmic horror that it's hard to compare but for what Bloodborne does in story/atmosphere, it does really well.

Honestly if I could have From Software make any game next I'd have them make Bloodborne 2. I still feel a little annoyed that Demon/Dark Souls got 4 medieval fantasy games and we got 1 horror title that was the best lovecraft game ever made and then just sorta moved on. I get they probably don't want to make exclusives anymore since they have a wide fan base across platforms, but they could demon -> dark souls it and just do another cosmic horror themed souls game with an action focus.

Also I've got nothing against Dark Souls 2. I played it years later right before Dark Souls 3 and it was about as good as Dark 1/3/Demon Souls except that the gameplay balance was even more shit and broken than Dark Souls 1 and the DLC area in the snow where you run for 5 mins to die in 10 seconds in the 2 wolves is complete bullshit as is one of the missile spam areas towards the end of the main game. But let's not kid ourselves that Dark Souls 1 didn't have some shitty sections too like the lava stuff. The story in DS2 is pretty interesting! It's also kinda interesting because it's like 85% complete and then just leaves certain things unanswered to make your own theories. It gets a lot of unfair hate imo.

I'd actually say Dark Souls 3 has the weakest story/atmosphere out of all those games. Played great and was pretty balanced and looked really pretty though.

[paprikastaude]

There's no Aztec game, that was bs about what Shadow's Die Twice was going to be.

What we need is a concrete release of Metal Wolf Chaos.

[Bebpo]

Flaming Bull is scary. Walked in 1 kill away from next bar of xp, saw some guys up ahead "oh, this can't be the boss area because there's normal grunts in it, boss must still be another room away" bull bursts out and kills the grunts ffffuuuck, 350xp gone.

[Himu]

Took a break from Sekiro to work on some projects. I'm back

[Let's Cyber]

Beast of Hatred is Manus on steroids and I'm not sure how to handle him.

Feels like the most Dark Souls boss in the entire game which is kinda dirty after being forced the previous 30 hours to unlearn all my Dark Souls tendencies. 

[kingv]

I beat lady butterfly... and honestly she’s not that hard.

I think I did it on my third try.

[Bebpo]

So the boss that may make me quit this game isn't some tough one like lady butterfly...it's the goddamn fire bull. Tried 3-4 times so far and it's annoying the hell out of me. I can dodge most of it's attacks though the reach is fucking huge and sometimes even a side dodge gets clipped when it's ramming, but getting in attacks seems very difficult since there's few openings and it has a good amount of life. Also unlike all the bosses so far I don't think it has any weakness? It's just a dodge dodge dodge get 1-2 hits in dodge dodge dodge 1-2 hits in and try to not get clipped too many times an die before you can grind it down?

Duckroll says this is one of the easiest bosses in the game so I dunno what I'm missing. Maybe it's time to google this and see if there's a weakness I'm not seeing. This boss feels like one that should have a grapple point somewhere to get over the boss when it rams. Or a when to get it to ram something and get stuck for a few seconds to get some hits in but I'm not seeing either.

[Bebpo]

oh hey, there's a sprint button. I did not know this. Definitely is helping on this fight. Can dodge the stupid ram attack without getting hit 1/3rd of the time doing 70% damage to my HP now by sprinting out of the way. Just need to practice a little more.

[Bebpo]

This fight is still really hard for me. I do so little damage from the side/back I can't even see the damage on his HP unless I get a few slashes in at AP3. I run around him and get pokes here and there but he loves to hit the wall turned with his face pointing away from the wall so he'll nail you if you try to get a hit after. Got him down pretty far but then still dead.

[Bebpo]

Ok, so since I can't beat this and am terrible at this fight I actually uploaded my last attempt which is far from my best run so far, but shows how this fight is fucking me up. As you can see I have a hard time getting in and getting hits when he's near a wall. When he's away from the wall and I can circle around him and hit him on the side while he swings forward it's fine, but most of the fight he just dashes from wall to wall and only stops at walls. I also only have enough sub-weapon for like 4 firecracker shots in the battle and that gets me 3-4 hits each which isn't a ton of damage though it helps. The bit at 1:11 shows how if I'm not sprinting and I just side dodge I still get clipped for 70% damage at times so I feel like I'm forced to just sprint the entire fight.

Any tips would be helpful.

[Bebpo]

and of course I beat him on my next try after that :|

[Bebpo]

Should I try to fight the headless in Ashina Outskirts now? I'm at Ashina Castle after the bull fight and have 3/4 prayer beads and wondering if I should kill the headless or the purple ninja in Hirata which I both skipped to get that last one and a bit more HP?

[Don Rumata]

Should I try to fight the headless in Ashina Outskirts now? I'm at Ashina Castle after the bull fight and have 3/4 prayer beads and wondering if I should kill the headless or the purple ninja in Hirata which I both skipped to get that last one and a bit more HP?

I'd leave headless to way further down the road, it's a bullshit fight.

[Don Rumata]

He asked.

[Bebpo]

Spent an hour on this guy, but really wanted that 4th bead to get my second HP upgrade (vit 12 now!). Actually had a run about 30 mins in where I didn't get a stealth kill but fought him anyhow for practice and got 1 lifebar off and died, then every time after I did the stealth kill but died. At least he's dead now. Pretty sloppy, but I'm tired after like 30 tries and have slow reaction time in general.

[kingv]

I feel like “stand and fight”’ is the best strategy on most bosses. I had a ton of problem with the flaming bull until I started deflecting his attacks.

I feel like Madam Butterfly because of the way way she attacks makes you think the best strategy is to dodge and run, but taking it to her is the best strategy.

She’s almost like a rhythm  to her attacks.

Only thing that really annoyed the shit out of me on that one one was that snap seeds are so hard to find. I beat her the first time I got to the second stage, but was worried I would “waste” my snap seeds.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I'm almost done NG+ and have never used a  Snap Seed 

[Bebpo]

That's sloppy? You were on the offense all the time!

Thanks Borys, it's sloppy because I wasn't good about parry timings (his moves are a little slower because he raises his arms before slashing so I tend to hit parry too early on him) and focused too much on trying to get firecracker shots off which is how I got hit by his grab through it that killed me on my first death. I've definitely had some tighter fights (got a couple mikiri counters off on his stab attack and head jumps on his horizontal slash), but hey I beat him that time so I'm happy

Fun fact about that fight, so I pulled him in the alley because I noticed the gunners never go into the alley which means less time wasted each attempt taking out the mobs, I also pull him all the way to the wall even though it makes the camera worse and gives me less room to maneuver because on a few attempts where I fought him in the middle of the alley I'd die from a shuriken in the back from the ninja on the rooftop behind that alley. But close to the wall it blocks the ninja's line of sight so you can just count on fighting the boss.

Generally I try to go as full offensive as I can and even avoid taking out the mobs if I can just because I'm impatient and if it's gonna take me a dozen tries to beat a boss, the faster I can get in and out the better, so I basically treat every attempt as a speedrun to try to figure out a faster way to get to the boss and do the fight. Exception is the fucking bull because I just had to run like hell and get hits in when I could. In NG+ I'll have to try to parry the bull attacks and maybe buy that burn resistance drink from the fish scale guy and use that to not worry about burn building up.

[MMaRsu]

Bepbo you can run if you hold circle dunno if you knew that

[kingv]

I'm almost done NG+ and have never used a  Snap Seed 

I feel like I would get Really fed up with it if I was getting ganked by her and/or mobs while I was focused one or the other.

The combat systems in these games I feel are really at their worst with multiple enemies. It’s fine as long as they are all basically in front of you, but feels really bullshit really quick when not.

Edit: I’m not sure if she slows her attacks while her dudes are out or not.

I beat her the first time I got to her second bar, so it was a little tense.

[Let's Cyber]

Demon of Hatred is still wrecking my shit and idk. I've rage quit 2 days in a row.

I'm ok at the first phase now but 2 and 3 (when I get there) fuk me up. Apparently the whistle can help but I never have enough spirit emblems by phase 3 to use it so yeah..

[Bebpo]

Bepbo you can run if you hold circle dunno if you knew that

Yeah, didn’t know that until midway through my bull run tries. It’s nice now because it makes the backtracking a lot quicker. I feel like that part of the tutorial was missing...

[Don Rumata]

Bepbo you can run if you hold circle dunno if you knew that

Yeah, didn’t know that until midway through my bull run tries. It’s nice now because it makes the backtracking a lot quicker. I feel like that part of the tutorial was missing...

It's a carryover from the Soulsborne games, they probably assumed most of their audience came from there, i'm thinking.

[Bebpo]

lol, I played all of them! But I totally forgot that holding O runs.

[Himu]

Bebpo I made this for you.



Boss is trash. There is no stamina. Just lock  on and hold run, wait for him to attack, whiff, punish, repeat. Go for a health kill rather than posture.

[Bebpo]

Yeah I did that circle run once or twice. My problem was it was tough getting in after whiffs because he tends to run past you pretty fast and far if you move out of the way and by the time you run up and hit him in the ass he's turned around and hitting you.

I feel like even on NG+ out of all the bosses, that boss will be just as difficult since every other boss has patterns I can learn and practice and counter. Then again I never tried a parry attempt with the bull (didn't even realize you could parry him) and maybe that's how to do it consistently.

[Don Rumata]

You can deflect (some at least) grabs, too.
I deflected Snake Eyes' hook grab move, before finding out the shioeld was god mode.

the tutorial mentions it btw, it says they can be deflected but not blocked.

[Bebpo]

That's funny how many bosses you can skip entirely. Like he completely skips the Bull!

[kingv]

I had a productive sekiro hour or so this morning.

I was able to finally beat 7 Spears, got the thrust spear and most raven, found 2 prayer beads, and a bunch of shrines and stuff. Got all the way near to something called the gun fort. I feel like it’s intended for a higher level though.

[D3RANG3D]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Let's Cyber]

Demon of Hatred is still wrecking my shit and idk. I've rage quit 2 days in a row.

I'm ok at the first phase now but 2 and 3 (when I get there) fuk me up. Apparently the whistle can help but I never have enough spirit emblems by phase 3 to use it so yeah..

Strange, he was one of the easiest bosses for me. It's a Bloodorne boss and you have to play with him like you were playing Bloodborne. Never parry, never block - only run & dodge. He is super easy if you continuously run to your left (clockwise). He has a lot of openings:

- after his 1-2-3 slam - run up to him and punish
- after his jump + shockwave - jump at the correct moment, grapple into him, punish
- !DANGER! rush attack - jump up, run up to him and punish
- 8-fireballs attack - run like hell and count in your head. After the 7th fireball (before the 8th) run diagonally up to him and punish a lot
- cone of fire attack (2nd phase) - keep on running left and jump up after a second. If you are in proper distance from him you can grapple, punish.
- ring of fire (3rd phase) - this is counterintuitive but jump TOWARDS him (twice! as there are two ring waves). You want to be inside the ring of fire circle with him for a proper battle.

There is only one attack that cannot be punished - his fire wave swipe (1st phase). Just stay away and you are safe.

You don't need any tools (Prosthetics) or Skills (Combat Arts). It's a pure R1 battle.

All in all for me he is the single best boss in the entire game. Precisely because he is not a Sekiro boss (fuck parrying, fuck timings, fuck stamina bar) but a Souls boss. Bloodstarved Manus.

kk, Ill give it another shot this weekend. I've been trying to parry and block his fire with the upgraded fan but it's been a struggle.

Full bloodborne it is.   

[Bebpo]

Damn, AP 39?? I’ve got a long way to go still from AP3 ...

[Let's Cyber]

Killed Demon on my second try this morning.

Thanks for the tips, Borys.

 

[kingv]

Busted up Genichiro.

Tough fight, partly because he has an extra phase to most bosses so far.

The final form I think is actually easier than the first two  once you get the hang of the lightning counter thing. It does a ton of damage and posture damage.

Not really sure what I’m supposed to do next tho.

[Bebpo]

Spent the evening running around Ashina Castle exploring. Found a couple prayer beads (one under the serpent shrine, one in the hidden wall in the upper antechamber) and found 3 minibosses and 1 boss and a new area.

Here are my options at this point to do in any order:

-Purple Ninja in Hirata
-Headless in Ashina Outskirts
-Lonearm Samurai guy where you were resurrected in the intro
-Seven Spears guy at the temple ahead of that
-Grey haired blue samurai guy at the Dojo
-Genichiro at the top (I got there by going down the stairs from the dojo past the 2 samurai and then run past the 3 grey tengu ninjas up the stairs onto the rooftops; dunno if that was the main way)
-And access to the Sunken Valley (haven't gone in yet)

I've got 2 prayer beads and I read there's a hidden one I missed in Hirata so once I grab that I'll have 3/4 beads. I should be able to get like 2 more VIT upgrades from all those mini-bosses.
I got the umbrella/spear/sabimaru sub-weapons & the anti-air deathblow attack. Can't afford most of the sub-weapon upgrades even though I have the materials because don't have the coin yet.

I gained 7 skill levels doing this. Haven't spent them on anything yet, not sure what to get next. Got the deathblow healing 5 cost skill last. Have air slash/deflection/Mikiri. Hmmm.

Also I got Isshin's letter above the 3 grey haired tengu and it says to ask Emma about it but it won't let me ask her about it at the shrine? Weird.

Haven't really messed around with any of those sub-bosses or bosses yet, just found them, died and went exploring elsewhere.

[Bebpo]

Ok, took down the Purple Ninja in Hirata and got the mist raven one. Gonna go fight the guy where I you start in the intro since I read he's basically the same fight.

[Don Rumata]

-Lonearm Samurai guy where you were resurrected in the intro

Do this, so you'll open up a whole new area.
You can get a stealth kill in, but then be careful because the fight is made 100 times worse by the shitty camera.

BTW before you fight Genichiro, you can get up to 9 Gourds (so 8 gourd seeds, and there are 9 total in the whole game), if you explore everything at your disposal.
Not sure how many you've got yet.

[Bebpo]

And he's down. VIT UP time to 13.