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

[Bebpo]

I never used the baby buddha statues but that's because I was saving them for the final boss/es. Don't they give you an extra Resurrection? So basically everytime you die in battle with the final boss you hit start and use a buddha and get the life back so you could theoretically have like 10+ lifebars to take on the final boss?

But then I never used them so I don't know if they also get rid of the time cooldown you have to wait after death to use a Resurrection. Like sure I had 3 resurrections in the late game, but on most bosses all I was allowed to use was 1 because I'd die again before the cooldown which barred me from using my second Resurrection.

[Bebpo]

Bebpo, now watch a speedrunner destroying all bosses in 1 hour

Was thinking about this and the thing is while I respect that, I don't enjoy watching speedrunners because it's like they're not even playing the same game. It's interesting in its own kind of way, but I'd rather watch someone play and suffer and die and barely beat stuff because I can relate to that with my experience. But like these dudes that break the game and everything, especially for bosses where they're just cheating an AI glitch or something, eh, not my thing.

[HardcoreRetro]

The only things I *never* used were the Baby Buddha Statues and Bite Down. WTF is the point of those items?

The statues give you an extra ressurect, bite down is used for going to stealth mode in regular gameplay. Later enemies stick around your corpse so bite down becomes pretty useless.

[paprikastaude]

I never used the baby buddha statues but that's because I was saving them for the final boss/es. Don't they give you an extra Resurrection? So basically everytime you die in battle with the final boss you hit start and use a buddha and get the life back so you could theoretically have like 10+ lifebars to take on the final boss?

But then I never used them so I don't know if they also get rid of the time cooldown you have to wait after death to use a Resurrection. Like sure I had 3 resurrections in the late game, but on most bosses all I was allowed to use was 1 because I'd die again before the cooldown which barred me from using my second Resurrection.

You can only use a single buddha statue until the next refresh. Still, it gives you one extra revival.

[Don Rumata]

Use bite down on first death, and you get no cool down on revival.
When an enemy kills you, you get revivals blocked until you perform a death blow, but with bite down you don't.

So if it's your first death, and you know you're about to die, just use a bite down and revive, so you'll get another chance without activating the cool down.

[kingv]

I beat the folding screen monkeys yesterday. The invisible one was a pain in the ass to find but I beat them first try.

I guess I’ll do the underground stuff next.

[HardcoreRetro]

Oh and I thought it was funny that I've watched a bunch of runs of people beating Spear Vilehand Masanaga out by Old Serpent Shrine, but not a single one of them has been able to beat him when he's buffed with Ako's Sugar. They all die if that happens and get a win in when they beat him before he can buff up. Or they use AI glitches to trap him in the forest area, but every AI glitch I ever tried on a boss I could never pull off myself /shrug.

Here I struggled for like 2 hours trying to beat him buffed thinking there was no way around it, because he'd usually do it in his first move after being stealth deathblow'd. Dude is just 100% bullshit when he gets his buff off. Unless you perfect parry every attack (because a perfect parry won't break your posture) his buffed posture damage will constantly break you and then hit you with a 95% damage kick while you're stunned which will usually kill you because he's doing posture + VIT damage before that.

I honestly think buffed with Ako's Sugar and not using any AI glitching tactics, he should be a contender for the hardest fight in the game.

[Bebpo]

Excellent job!

[kingv]

I got to O’rin of the water. Am having some trouble with her, as her defense seems really good.... but I know there is a mega cheese for her, I will probably use it.

I haven’t really been updating my prosthetics... are there any I should focus on? I know body’s said the Phantom Kunai were good. I’ve mostly been using the spinning Shuriken, as it can fuck up some monkeys in one shot.

When I got to Mibu Village and saw the big dude with the bell I just hoped out and ran to the next shrine. The little guys seemed like they would make that fight extra hard. And they respawn for a really long time.

Snake eyes shirahagi was a hard fight but I cheesed her with the poison.

[Himu]

Just parry her. She is easy. I beat her in like two or three tries.

[Himu]

I beat Owl. The end game bored me and I meant to go back but to it but I got Bloodborne and I was so fatigued/bored with Sekiro’s end game I dropped it for the time being.

[Bebpo]

I got to O’rin of the water. Am having some trouble with her, as her defense seems really good.... but I know there is a mega cheese for her, I will probably use it.

I haven’t really been updating my prosthetics... are there any I should focus on? I know body’s said the Phantom Kunai were good. I’ve mostly been using the spinning Shuriken, as it can fuck up some monkeys in one shot.

When I got to Mibu Village and saw the big dude with the bell I just hoped out and ran to the next shrine. The little guys seemed like they would make that fight extra hard. And they respawn for a really long time.

Snake eyes shirahagi was a hard fight but I cheesed her with the poison.

Like Cindi said, O'rin is not bad because she attacks so much that you just tap block block block block block and parry all her stuff building up posture damage. You just have to see the timing for when she starts the combos as she has like 2-3 different starters but usually she backs off and does a fast float attack -> combo. Her red alert move you jump on her head but watch out for the grab one she does sometimes which might catch you if you jump. She rarely uses the grab one though so usually it's safe to jump on her head.

Now if you have divine confetti, use one of those and get in a hit or two after the head stomp and after each combo and it should be a cinch. I didn't have any divine confetti left and so I didn't attack once and still beat her just parrying and head stomping. Still took like 5-10 tries doing it that way, but it's not bad.

[Bebpo]

I watched a list of the "hardest Sekiro fights ranked in order" and was surprised they put snake eyes in Ashina Depths poison pit as harder than Sunken Valley one. The Sunken Valley one you have to do some motherfucking voodoo magic to get a stealth deathblow off, so without that it's a 2 deathblow fight whereas the Ashina Depths one you can literally just walk right behind her and get the stealth blow and then fight her for 1 lifebar in that cave she's in without any enemies being alerted and it's much easier since it's a 1 hp fight vs 2 hp.

The ranking was placing the ashina depths one higher simply because poison and other enemies joining the fight, but if you fight her in the cave neither of those apply so I think the Sunken Valley one is harder. Would've beat that one in a few attempts if it was only a 1 lifebar fight.

I'm also always surprised they put Genichiro in like the top5 or so in all these lists but I get that everyone has trouble at different bosses. Genichiro was probably like the easiest boss for me because it was like a normal fight with fair reach and recovery and posture damage and you just played the way the game had taught you to play and it wasn't bad. The 3rd phase I thought was the easiest since he does the lightning thing so much and if you know how to reverse it you get all the free damage and it's a dodge/run around and counter that twice and you're done kinda fight.

On era so many people who beat the game said Genichiro was the hardest and where the difficulty peaked and I just don't get it. I spent more time on the General guy on the stairs leading up to Ashina castle than Genichiro and Great Shinobi Owl is literally the Genichiro fight but way harder because he's got much longer range, does even more damage, is faster, does a ton more posture damage, and in phase 2 throws out the bullshit poison. I dunno how anyone can think Genichiro is harder than Owl, but again everyone has trouble with different shit. I had no problem with Guardian Ape phase 1, but tons of problems with phase 2 and a lot of people it was the opposite. Monk gave me a ton of problems, but O'Rin & Centipede man didn't.

[Himu]

Sunken Valley Snake Eyes is way harder.

1. Poison.

2. Multiple enemies, one with cannon fire.

It’s only easier if you manage to find the second idol off on the side and manage a stealth blow. If you go head on, it’s far harder.

How did you manage to get behind Ashina Depths Snake Eyes is the real question. Without finding that second idol off to the side doing so is literally impossible because Snake Eyes can see across the damn map.

I never used a stealth blow on the second snake eyes and didn’t even know that was an option.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I explored the poison lake area and found the idol on the other side. (it's a small area). Going from there past the 2 guys in the hut you hug the wall and end up in the cave with the fog wall and just walk right up behind her and deathblow and then fight in the cave with no other enemies/poison lake.

[Himu]

Yeah, I explored the poison lake area and found the idol on the other side. (it's a small area). Going from there past the 2 guys in the hut you hug the wall and end up in the cave with the fog wall and just walk right up behind her and deathblow and then fight in the cave with no other enemies/poison lake.

In order to stealth blow Snake Eyes in that area without looking it up I’m going to assume you need a lot of luck. For one, the area is nothing but poison and you get rapid poisoned quickly. Also, Snake Eyes aggros almost the second you slip in. You have almost no reason to assume there’s an idol nearby, therefore have almost little reason to explore. Original Snake Eyes I beat in 2-3 tries. Depths took me 6-10. I think you just lucked out and found another idol.

[HardcoreRetro]

I think you just lucked out and found another idol.

In my case it was trying to find a hiding spot to break the enemies line of sight. No luck involved. Just playing like a ninja. (coward)

[Himu]

Difference in play style then.

Me, I take niccas head on.

[shosta]

Ashina shinobi, Houston division

[kingv]

Up to the point I’m at now, I think Genichiro is the best boss. He’s fair, there’s no bs getting things set up to start the fight, and you can really feel yourself improve each time you try him.

Also, the save is like right there so you just run up to him and retry.

The one I found the hardest So far was the ogre and/or seven spears. The ogre gets old quick because you need to dispatch like three dudes in his arena. Also his hit tracking just felt really unfair to me. Like he’s pivoting in the air to track you with his dropkicks.

Seven Spears has part of the same issue. he’s hard, but you also have to fuck around a lot to get to him which makes it so much more painful.

[Himu]

you can kill two of the men easy before even touching the ogre. One of which with a stealth kill. The third man will not come fight depending on where you are. if you're below the stairs (where you should be) he won't come get you. Then all you have to do is kill the ogre and kill him afterwards. As for Seven Spears, I just ran full tilt towards him. I kill a guy on the side and then go into the side entrance. They don't chase you over the gaps so it resets. Then you get a free stealth kill. He's not that bad.

[HardcoreRetro]

Like he’s pivoting in the air to track you with his dropkicks.

I like the teleporting grab attacks.

[Bebpo]

you can kill two of the men easy before even touching the ogre. One of which with a stealth kill. The third man will not come fight depending on where you are. if you're below the stairs (where you should be) he won't come get you. Then all you have to do is kill the ogre and kill him afterwards. As for Seven Spears, I just ran full tilt towards him. I kill a guy on the side and then go into the side entrance. They don't chase you over the gaps so it resets. Then you get a free stealth kill. He's not that bad.

On the ogre the guy upstairs with the spears is random if he comes down and joins. I've had things play out identical and sometimes he joins, sometimes he doesn't. Luckily he's pretty easy to kill.

But yeah, Ogre gave me a lot of trouble at first because of how fast his grabs are.

[kingv]

When I beat the ogre I killed all three dudes get the two on the bottom then dash up to the top guy and kill
Him before the ogre breaks out. Then hide around the corner until he loses aggrieved and hit him with stealth for the first health bar.

Hardest thing about the ogre is he just wrecks you in two hits and you only have like 3 or 4 flasks... and aren’t used to the mechanics yet.

I think I spent more time on him than basically any other fight so far.

[kingv]

I played for about 90 minutes and broke off both Orin and the corrupted monk.

 this game is at its best when a boss just clicks for you and you wreck its shit.

 Both Orin and the monk I was beating my head against them and then mid fight I had an epiphany about how to exploit their moves and beat the rest of the fight taking almost no damage. And then it’s just like “oh why was this so hard before?

It sort of reminds me of learning the  patterns in 16 bit games

[kingv]

Also, is there anything I need to do with the esoteric texts to “activate” them?

I’m 90% sure that I got the one in Senpou but I still don’t have the temple tree.

[kingv]

The arena you fight the long arm centipede giraffe or whatever that dude is called? Do they play test these games at all?

The boss was pretty easy, but I couldn’t see my character almost the whole fight. The camera was trash.

[Himu]

The arena you fight the long arm centipede giraffe or whatever that dude is called

*blinks*

No. I don't know who that is.

[Bebpo]

Cindi it’s the claw guy in Sunken Valley that’s also optional in Senpou with fire adds.

And yeah, easy fight but tiny areas.

[kingv]

I beat the guardian ape tonight. I guess it’s about time for the end game... or something kind of close to it.

He didn’t really take me that many tries, but I still found him quite hard. The first phase I mostly had down, and then I ran out of spirit emblems, so I had to spend sen to get them, which really sort of annoyed me.

I watched some guides on him but I think a lot of people were being too cautious on him. I firecrackers him in the dick and then would wail on him for like a quarter of his health bar pretty reliably.

The second phase was really hard the first few times because his movements are so weird, but I channeled my inner Boris and just kept running away until he does that dive move. Then I’d jump in and get 4 hits then run away in case he did the scream. He took a while, but he basically didn’t hit me unless I mistimed the jump for the dive move.

[Bebpo]

The second phase was really hard the first few times because his movements are so weird, but I channeled my inner Boris and just kept running away until he does that dive move. Then I’d jump in and get 4 hits then run away in case he did the scream. He took a while, but he basically didn’t hit me unless I mistimed the jump for the dive move.

 

Yeah, that's how I eventually beat that phase.

And yeah, you're at endgame now.

[paprikastaude]

Just eat anti-fear pills/estus and take off the majority of his health during the long cry

[kingv]

I have to save those for when I need them duh. 

[Bebpo]

Just eat anti-fear pills/estus and take off the majority of his health during the long cry

Yeah this works too.

[HardcoreRetro]

Only got xp grinding left for the platinum trophy.

[Rufus]

Rikimaru from the Tenchu games.

[Don Rumata]

Fuck that's a good looking Rikimaru, i'm gonna install it.

[Svejk]

Is that a dlc?!  Really From?!  Fucking cock teasers.  If they drop a playable Ayame, I'll buy this game today.

[Svejk]

I was about to say      

[kingv]

I thought only dlc announced was the easy mode and the auto parry token micro transactions.

[Svejk]

PC ftw

[Don Rumata]

Those animations on 2B. 

[HardcoreRetro]

32 skillpoints down, 8 to go...

The grinding is so boring I'm listening to entire albums while doing runs.

Edit:




The superhit on which I got the platinum.

[kingv]

Got up to the owl. I really had a hard time grinding through the Ashina Castle rooftops until I realized there is a route you can take where you don’t really have to fight much, and can kill most of the purple dudes with stealth.

Also beat vilehand and chained ogre 2.

The chained ogre stays one of the worst fights. He’s an enemy I think is legit cheap. The tracking on his attacks is worse than probably any other enemy in the game. The drop kick and the diving throw can both change direction in mid air substantially and when you get hit by them in that situation it feels like total bullshit.

[Himu]

Putting the ogre in that closed in room. Smh

[kingv]

He’s strangely hard to bait too. I would just keep circling that statue and he would just follow me, then eventually I’d be like “oh I guess I need to slash at him” then he would finally attack.

I do like his people’s elbow move though, lol.

[Bebpo]

By that point in the game just light his ass on fire and be done with it.

[Bebpo]

 

[kingv]

By that point in the game just light his ass on fire and be done with it.

I find the fire not as helpful as I’d hoped. You can light him up, but it’s not super reliable, and doesn’t really get you far enough to beat him without having to learn the fight.

I think that’s the case with most of the bosses really. Prosthetics May help if you are close to beating it on your own, but seldom are enough to get you there on their own.

[Coax]

Putting the ogre in that closed in room. Smh

I used doorway strats similar to your Bloodbourne video in the other thread

[Bebpo]

By that point in the game just light his ass on fire and be done with it.

I find the fire not as helpful as I’d hoped. You can light him up, but it’s not super reliable, and doesn’t really get you far enough to beat him without having to learn the fight.

I think that’s the case with most of the bosses really. Prosthetics May help if you are close to beating it on your own, but seldom are enough to get you there on their own.

I actually think you're wrong on this. I did the drop down deathblow for 1 HP and then flame shot -> slash slash slash -> flame shot -> slash slash slash -> flame shot -> slash slash slash and it pretty much killed him. You might need to dodge an attack to get in close to flame vent without getting hit while doing it, but the upgraded flame vents will stun him for like 3-4 seconds each time which gets you a good amount of slashes in.

I didn't have flame vent for the first ogre and yeah he was a paaaaaain. But this second one was a joke with the deathblow + flame vent.

[kingv]

Ah, I couldn’t quite figure out the positioning for the stealth deathblow. I could see it working if you only had the one health bar to plow through. I actually didn’t 100% know you even could get it off.

[Himu]

Now that I’m at the end of BB I can say without a doubt that it is 100 times the game Sekiro is. Sekiro is good but...not nearly as good as BB. Combat, dungeon design, level design, variety, choices, customization, BB has it all. Sekiro is boring in comparison and I love Sekiro.

Sekiro might go down as goty for me, but Bloodborne is gotg. Amazing how much better BB is to me.

Either way, From is my favorite developer this gen. Haven’t played DkS3 yet but I have confidence they’ll remain in that camp unless Nintendo manages to top them (please announce new switch).

[Himu]

Dp

[Bebpo]

Ah, I couldn’t quite figure out the positioning for the stealth deathblow. I could see it working if you only had the one health bar to plow through. I actually didn’t 100% know you even could get it off.

Yeah, I came from the top save point and grappled down to the ceiling bar above and then jumped where he is and did a deathblow from above.

[kingv]

I got the Shichimen warrior and the other giraffe long arm dude or whatever he’s called by senpou temple

I can get owl down to about 1/2 of his second life bar, but not quite. Had to put aside for a day or so, was getting annoyed with him

[MMaRsu]

Yikes 

[El Babua]

Beat Owl probably took around 7-8 tries.

Struggled a lot yesterday, but got him in two tries tonight!

[kingv]

I haven’t went back to owl yet, but a lot of times I find that waiting a day or two and going back to a boss makes them seem a lot easier.

[El Babua]

Damn, Fountainhead Palace just tanks my framerate.

Still beat True Corrupted Monk first try but all that fog and whatever else tanking the performance definitely made things feel a bit more choppy.