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

[Himu]

Who is it

[Don Rumata]

Who is it

It's one of the long shadow ninjas, there are 3 or 4 i think as proper mini bosses, and one of them you can't do, after you beat a story related boss (just cause you can't access that area anymore).

[Himu]

The purple ninja at hirata?

[Don Rumata]

The purple ninja at hirata?

Same type, but it's the one in Serpent Shrine.

[Bebpo]

The purple ninja at hirata?

Same type, but it's the one in Serpent Shrine.

Wait, not the old serpent shrine above Sunken Valley right? I thought it was odd there's an idol rest point there but...nothing there besides a drop or two and then you jump down and there's another one real close at Sunken Valley start. Maybe I have to go back after talking to Kuro?

Actually, wait, are you talking about the one in Ashino Reservoir by 7 Spears? I've fought purple ninja guy twice so far. Once in Hirata and once there.

[Don Rumata]

The purple ninja at hirata?

Same type, but it's the one in Serpent Shrine.

Wait, not the old serpent shrine above Sunken Valley right? I thought it was odd there's an idol rest point there but...nothing there besides a drop or two and then you jump down and there's another one real close at Sunken Valley start. Maybe I have to go back after talking to Kuro?

Actually, wait, are you talking about the one in Ashino Reservoir by 7 Spears? I've fought purple ninja guy twice so far. Once in Hirata and once there.

It's too early for you to fight him in the first place.
Just go check there when the scenery changes.

But yeah, it's that pathway from Ashina Castle, filled with monkeys, that leads to a wooden hut and a chasm.

[Himu]

[Bebpo]

Really nice run. I went WTF at 1:26 when you closed the gap really fast. I was like how did you do that and then I watched it again and it looks like that prosthetic skill where you throw a shuriken and then slice at the same time? I haven't messed with those skills yet, but now I see I should!

Also what was the item you used at the start of the vit? Didn't notice anything too different. I should use more items before boss fights, I'm just hoarding everything and haven't really used anything.

[Himu]

It allows a follow up attack after using a prosthetic. Shuriken obviously does the furthest damage, a follow up attack allows a long hit box. You can go across the screen and do a follow up attack if they're running away from you. Good tactic to maintain momentum and pressure to not lose posture meter. Shuriken in general is great because it has a short start up allowing long combos. So you can do attack x 3 cancel shuriken cancel follow up and just keep going in a constant loop of pressure.

Whatever anyone tells you about prosthetics being pointless, don't believe them. Another great thing about shuriken? You can spam that shit. Only takes on 1 unit per use. Owns.

Unfortunately ran out of shurikens and was like wtf during mid-fight and ended up dying because I didn't realize i was out. Oh well. Snake Eyes is still a punk.

[Himu]

The item I used was Uko's sugar which increases damage. In my experience it also increases damage done to posture bar. I could be wrong but it was why I used it.

[Himu]

I wasn't talking about you, I've read people say that on reddit. Most of the prosthetics are indeed pointless.

[Himu]

Today was eventful.

Made it to poison area, fought baboon boss, killed purple ninja looking for me in the old well. I love this game.

[Himu]

GUARDIAN APE 

[Himu]

Do Soulsborne games have this type of side questing?

Bebpo don't read if you're not ahead already.

Subtle, world building shit. Like for instance, a lady tells you about fruit: one dry, one wet. And you're not sure what she's talking about. But you're interested. You go down and encounter a snake, you have to survive encounters and then you're face to face with the beast. Then you have to solve a puzzle to get past it. You go in the house it's guarding and turns out it's guarding a heart. I defeated another snake before, and it dropped a dry heart. This one was sopping wet with blood.

Then there's this.



Does Soulsborne have organic side questing/world building like this? I do recall in Dks1, there was a fat knight with a cute outfit guarding a place and there was a quest with a cursed person on the lower deck behind some bars.

[Bebpo]

When you guys are talking about monkeys do you mean the mini-boss with the glutton guy with his monkey buddies in hidden forest? Just did that and got through Mibu village which was creepy as heck. I like that Snake Eyes in Ashina Depths has the same moves as the other Snake Eyes so once you get good at one of them the other is a one try kinda fight. Got the hidden prayer bead on buddha head there and got my VIT to 15 now.

In the area with Ashina Depths Snake eyes there's a wall near the lower save point that's too high and no way to reach?

Also are you supposed to be able to fight the shaman guy at abandoned dungeon at this point? I tried but there was no way to even hit him without building up huge amounts of terror. I even tried using the pacifying agent to reduce terror build up but that whole fight is terror. Feels like I'm missing something.

Also found the 2nd headless mini-boss in hidden forest. Should I do them now? Should I buy the terror reducing gourd for 1800 to use on these fights? I feel like the fights aren't bad but I die from terror.

[Bebpo]

I have like 10 divine confetti at this point.

[Coax]

Terror Gourd is available from the Mibu Village merchant, from memory. Also the anti-terror umbrella is a useful prosthetic upgrade imo but like most prosthetics is more suited to specific encounters (the S. Warriors mini bosses are where it's probably most useful).

[Don Rumata]

Terror Gourd is available from the Mibu Village merchant, from memory. Also the anti-terror umbrella is a useful prosthetic upgrade imo but like most prosthetics is more suited to specific encounters (the S. Warriors mini bosses are where it's probably most useful).

If you absorb their laser and use projected force to send it back to them, you do massive posture damage.

[Coax]

Terror Gourd is available from the Mibu Village merchant, from memory. Also the anti-terror umbrella is a useful prosthetic upgrade imo but like most prosthetics is more suited to specific encounters (the S. Warriors mini bosses are where it's probably most useful).

If you absorb their laser and use projected force to send it back to them, you do massive posture damage.

Saw someone also get an instant deathblow on one of them (from a full health bar) using one of the Lilac moves (deflection?) right beside them just after they went into the air IIRC. Personally hadn't tried that but seems crazy powerful.

[Himu]

Ashina Depths? Hidden Forest? Where is this? What the fuck. How has Bebpo not encountered monkeys yet if he’s fought his way through Sunken Valley?

Bebpo:

Three monkeys - kuro and wolf want to end the divine line. To end the divine line you need the mortal sword. To get it you go to Senpou. In the main hall is a man. Before you beat Genichiro you cannot progress further but this man says to tell a girl something. You have no idea what girl he’s talking about. After Genichiro boss fight go back to Senpou main hall. The Undying man is no longer there. Ring the bell. Fight three monkeys. Continue to sword.

Monkeys - there are monkeys in trees at Senpou near the first Centipede.

Armed Monkeys - progress through sunken valley after killing the snake.

Did you get to Ashina Depths by beating the purple boss in Abandoned Dungeon?

[Himu]

I found that out last night.

I wrecked his shit with mortal blade.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

First form was easy, took three to four tries. Then that second...

[close]

I got spooked after dying and quit the game after that

[Himu]

Ashina Depths? Hidden Forest? Where is this? What the fuck. How has Bebpo not encountered monkeys yet if he’s fought his way through Sunken Valley?

Bebpo:

Three monkeys - kuro and wolf want to end the divine line. To end the divine line you need the mortal sword. To get it you go to Senpou. In the main hall is a man. Before you beat Genichiro you cannot progress further but this man says to tell a girl something. You have no idea what girl he’s talking about. After Genichiro boss fight go back to Senpou main hall. The Undying man is no longer there. Ring the bell. Fight three monkeys. Continue to sword.

Monkeys - there are monkeys in trees at Senpou near the first Centipede.

Armed Monkeys - progress through sunken valley after killing the snake.

Did you get to Ashina Depths by beating the purple boss in Abandoned Dungeon?

The game is very open ended before Genichiro. You can get SUPER far (even you haven't been there yet!) before facing Genichiro. 65-70% of the whole game map area before this fight.

This game

[Bebpo]

Wait, talk about open-ended. I thought I'm on the way to get the Mortal Blade in Senpou Temple. Cindi already has the mortal blade so shouldn't see have gone through hidden forest/mibu village? Or did I miss the branch to the senpou temple somewhere along the way and went in a different direction.

I went and talked to Kuro and then Isshin and then Kuro again and then went to

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Abandoned Dungeon -> Jump into hole -> Ashina Depths -> Hidden Forest -> Mibu Village

[close]

Anyhow I guess I'll buy the purple gourd and see about upgrading my umbrella. 1,800 is just kinda expensive so hopefully it's useful. I'm not made out of money in this game! XP is much easier to grind than money for me at this point.

What about the red burn gourd from the carp guy in Hirata? Is there stuff upcoming where having that would help? Because so far outside flaming bull burn hasn't been an issue and if you do catch on fire you can just use an item.

[Himu]

How’d you get past purple dude??

Hidden forest/mibu is from an exit at Senpou?!

This game

[kingv]

First area I went to after Genichiro was sunken valley I think. I eventually back tracked and did some other stuff, but i found like two prayer beads and two gourd seeds in like 30 mins of exploring.

[Himu]

Is this the abandoned dungeon from Ashina Castle?

[kingv]

It’s basically like off to the side of the bridge right before the castle. Like, where those rifle dudes are up the top of the stairs with the sword samurai guy? Turn around and walk away from that point back to the bridge where the old lady is... praying or whatever she is doing, and then the dungeon is kind of off to the right.

[Himu]

I really did go left and Bebpo went right then

[Bebpo]

Yeah I found Senpou temple. See I got to abandoned dungeon after beating the purple guy where you started in the intro and then past him was the right side of abandoned dungeon which looked like just the shaman boss and bottomless pit. Didn't realize there was another entrance from the castle.

Anyhow, went part way up Senpou but not sure what to do now. Getting to lots and lots of ghost fights and without infinite purchase divine confetti I'm kinda stuck. Right now I've got:

-2 headless fights
-1 shamaniac warrior
-1 ghost O'ren
-1 corrupted monk

On the corrupted monk, is he a ghost? Because I seem to be doing very minor slight damage without divine confetti and when I used divine confetti I didn't notice a difference. But then he appears out of the air and looks like a ghost so idk. I'm not even sure how to beat him because I do very very minor chip damage and he instantly regains full posture even when I deflect his stuff nonstop (which does huge posture damage on me). I feel like I could probably beat him after a long drawn out fight of chip damage for like 10-20 mins while perfectly dodging every attack, but considering Sekiro boss fights are like 2-4 mins long I'm missing something so I feel like I should come back later.

Also I grabbed all the mats and the 1000 coins for the purple umbrella upgrade to fight shamaniac warrior but it won't let me buy the upgrade because I'm missing the last sub-weapon and it's part of the upper tree to the unlock When two trees combine in the upgrade path, do you seriously have to finish out both paths that connect to the upgrade to buy it? Because I bought the flame vent path to the purple umbrella but it won't let me buy the upgrade.

At this point I'm gonna finish Senpou Temple first, then do past the locked door in Sunken Valley which I now have the key before doing all the ghost shit above.

Also for the carp guy, I have 6 scales and the dragon mask half is 7 and the floating technique is 5 and the burn gourd is 2. When I hit 7 carp scales should I just buy the dragon mask? Is the floating technique important?

[Himu]

Ghosts at Senpou?!

[Bebpo]

Ok, first Headless down. Took me a bunch of divine confetti. I guess I'll blow the rest of my divine confetti stock to take out the 2nd one.

Ghosts at Senpou?!

No, ghosts are mibu village.

[Bebpo]

Oh damn, beating the headless in ashino leads me back to Senpou, demon bell. Neat.

[Himu]

How do I get past the purple dude in abandoned dungeon?

[Himu]

Oh damn, beating the headless in ashino leads me back to Senpou, demon bell. Neat.

Ringing the bell is hard mode. Don’t ring it.

[Bebpo]

Oh damn, beating the headless in ashino leads me back to Senpou, demon bell. Neat.

Ringing the bell is hard mode. Don’t ring it.

Ok, yeah it says not too, so I was thinking I probably shouldn't do it yet.

[Bebpo]

How do I get past the purple dude in abandoned dungeon?

What purple dude? Are you talking about the jump kick loneshadow ninja?

[Himu]

Some purple dude in a cave that shoots massive projectiles and uses terror

[Bebpo]

Oh, yeah I can't fight that guy either. It's Shamaniac Warrior. People all saying need to upgrade umbrella to purple to do that fight.

If you want you can run past him to the other side and grapple to get to bottomless hole. Or just go back to where you fought 7 spears, find the secret hole and fight the loneshadow ninja and crawl forward afterwards to get to bottomless hole.

Also for the carp guy, I have 6 scales and the dragon mask half is 7 and the floating technique is 5 and the burn gourd is 2. When I hit 7 carp scales should I just buy the dragon mask? Is the floating technique important?

Floating technique is a combat art. It's meh. Dragon mask is more interesting but won't be useful until you get the other 2 pieces. Just do whatever, neither is important except for completionism.

Ok yeah, saw the guy at abandoned dungeon entrance has the 2nd piece for 5,000 which I totally do not have. When I find the 3rd piece I guess I'll head back and buy the other two.

[Himu]

I got there by going to the well from the beginning of the game, killing the ninja after me, and going to abandoned dungeon.

[Himu]

I AM CONFUSED. Where is Mibu?!

Kingv mentioned a dungeon? To the right of the bridge?! Did he mean the abandoned dungeon entrance from underwater now passage? I already found that a long time ago. Where is Mibu?

[Bebpo]

did you find the bottomless whole rest point? everything is after that in a straight line if you find it. It's to the right wall of the shamaniac warrior fight in abandoned dungeon. Just find that first and jump down the hole.

[Bebpo]

Fuck, got 1 hit away from killing the 2nd headless on his 2nd deathblow. Dude has way more HP/Posture than the Ashino Outskirts one. I probably went through 3 divine confettis that fight Almost out. Having to cycle between terror gourd and regular gourd and replenishing divine confetti while parrying/dodging is really pain in the asssssss, can't say I like this apparation side of the gameplay. Wish you could just get a sword upgrade to let you hit ghosts without divine confetti.

[Himu]

How’d you get to Ashina Depths?

[Himu]

Fuck, got 1 hit away from killing the 2nd headless on his 2nd deathblow. Dude has way more HP/Posture than the Ashino Outskirts one. I probably went through 3 divine confettis that fight Almost out. Having to cycle between terror gourd and regular gourd and replenishing divine confetti while parrying/dodging is really pain in the asssssss, can't say I like this apparation side of the gameplay. Wish you could just get a sword upgrade to let you hit ghosts without divine confetti.

Terror and divine confetti are legit awful. No lie.

[Himu]

Did you find this hole with a guide or by yourself? Because if by yourself I’m very impressed.

[Bebpo]

Cindi, if you went and fought lonesome shadow purple kung fu ninja from 7 Spears a straight line literally takes you to bottomless hole rest point. It’s obvious you did not fight lonesome shadow yet. Go back to Ashino Reservoir and find the samurai talking about hearing someone playing music.

[Bebpo]

[Himu]

Who is lonesome shadow? I’ve already killed the purple ninja. I found it. I couldn’t see the damn wall on the side of the purple shaman dude which you can walk on to get across. I thought the only way across wasnfighting the shaman.

[Bebpo]

I think I'm gonna save every ghost boss for endgame or at least until the game lets me buy the purple umbrella. Gonna move on and do the rest of Senpou now. Out of divine confetti and 2nd headless, O'Rin, Corrupted Monk, Shichimen Warrior all seem impossible without it.

[Bebpo]

Did Armored Warrior and the Monkeys. Vit up to 16 now, AP5. Oh and Centipede Man #2. Not sure what the point of clone bosses are other than free prayer beads.

[Bebpo]

Alright, gonna take a break from this game for a bit. Everything in its pissing me off atm. I think I finished everything at Senpu Tenpou, got the skill book and think I fought all the bosses/mini-bosses. In Mibu can't advance because of Cursed Monk, so I'm pretty sure all that's available to me is Sunken Valley Rift and the ghost bosses but I have no more divine confetti. Got to the snake cave and to the end part with the snake where you get on the rock below him with the shivering monkey but if I grapple to the snake he hits me do 60% damage and knocks me into a pit which is instant kill. Only other thing is Guardian Ape and I thought that was a real good fight in the way flaming bull wasn't, was fun dodging and attacking. Barely got a kill and felt satisfying and then Pt.2 with terror, yeah fuck that shit.

So pretty sure I'm stuck in the game until I can beat Guardian Ape or do something with the snake. Don't think there's anywhere left for me to go or something to do. I might be able to do it but I gotta get a lot better at the pt.1 of the fight so I don't burn through all my HP gourds just to beat the first part.

[Himu]

Click if you want an answer to the snake.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Use puppet ninjutsu on the monkey.

[close]

[Bebpo]

I just blew most of my best save for final boss items on Ape pt.2 to try to get the last few hits.

Still died.

Fuck this game I'm out. Sekiro beat me.


I can do ape pt.1 almost no damage at this point but I can't beat pt.2 for the life of me. I can deflect all his shit but none of that matters since you can't kill him by deflection. I can avoid his terror stuff with terror guard but whenever I get in and do damage I take damage. I just can't deal with pt.2. This is the hardest boss in the game easily so far.

[Don Rumata]

Click if you want an answer to the snake.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Use puppet ninjutsu on the monkey.

[close]

Or just run towards in from the front and

spoiler (click to show/hide)

use Mist Raven to dodge the attack and teleport past it.

[close]

 

[Himu]

Multiple saves? You can have multiple saves in this? I only have one.

Don't give up Bebpo. Sleep on it, and wreck him tomorrow. Use the red sword on him. He's undead and that sword kills undead like butter.

[Bebpo]

No cindi I said save for the final boss items, aka all my elixir HP/Posture full heals.

Here's a preview of my great runs:

[Don Rumata]

I just blew most of my best save for final boss items on Ape pt.2 to try to get the last few hits.

Still died.

Fuck this game I'm out. Sekiro beat me.


I can do ape pt.1 almost no damage at this point but I can't beat pt.2 for the life of me. I can deflect all his shit but none of that matters since you can't kill him by deflection. I can avoid his terror stuff with terror guard but whenever I get in and do damage I take damage. I just can't deal with pt.2. This is the hardest boss in the game easily so far.

This is so odd, Ape p.2 is one of the easiest bosses for me (i know this doesn't help).

Consider that it has only one attack that is truly dangerous, and that's the scream.

Once you learn to recognize that sort of weavy animation of the ape getting its head up to scream (and see the perilous attack symbol), just run (not dodge, run) backwards directly away from it, and wait it out (use that moment to heal if you have to).

Any other perilous attack it has, is something you have to jump (i don't even think it has a grab in p.2), so just jump when you see the symbol, and keep hacking away at it.
When he jumps way up high off screen and the perilous symbol appears, wait for it to start coming down and then jump also, that's also a sweep but it's easy to avoid once you know.

Everything else is just deflectable, so just stay close and spam block, trying to learn the timings of combos will help make it go faster, but spamming usually work good enough at first.

Other important attacks to keep track of:

1) The lunge forward with one swipe (where it ends up on its belly) can be deflected, but it's probably easier to dodge into, so you can punish severely.
2) The one where it gets all vertical with the sword held up high and just topples down on you is the one you gotta look forward to deflect, as it stuns it majorly, and then you can double tap the spear on its open neck/torso for massive posture damage.
3) Its standard combo is the 4 attack "dance-like" thrusts (but are normal attacks) and those are also good and easy to deflect.
4) If you stay close it has a couple of other combos, but they're all sword attacks that you can just spam block to, and if you deflect enough of them, it'll either scream you away, or (ideally) do (2), which is what you want, for the afore mentioned reason.

You don't need anything particular for this fight, but the spear with the pull combo (double tap of R2) helps make it faster.

[Bebpo]

So I beat him, but you can see I struggle so hard at getting hits in on pt.2 that I had to cheese him.

The terror scream is whatever, it's a free chance to get some damage on his back when its winding down
The lunge is the only attack I can run around and get free hits in

All his other attacks are impossible for me even after a ton of tries. If I deflect his sword stabs the posture damage adds up and breaks me and kills me. If I try to side dodge them I get stabbed, if I try to jump away I get stabbed. Even if I survive the stabs and swings there's no opening in there to get any damage in! I have no idea how you're supposed to fight an attack like that.

Since the only attacks that seemed safe to get damage in were the lunge and the scream I was forced to basically sprint around running away from him until he'd do the lunge and then get a few hits and repeat. So it took a while but it worked. Definitely the hardest boss by a good margin, idk how you found him easy Don.


I also snuck past the giant snake in there and now that I have the whistle I got my purple umbrella. Will try corrupted monk again tomorrow. I thought you had to have divine confetti but I guess he's not an apparition and he just has an insane amount of HP so that chip damage you are doing is normal and it's just a very long chip fight.

3) Its standard combo is the 4 attack "dance-like" thrusts (but are normal attacks) and those are also good and easy to deflect.

This is so untrue, you can see I deflect x 4 and it basically fills my entire posture from nothing to broken.

[Bebpo]

Killed shichimen warrior with purple umbrella. Guess it's time to take down Hidden Valley Headlines, O'Rin & Corrupted Monk next.

[Don Rumata]

This is so untrue, you can see I deflect x 4 and it basically fills my entire posture from nothing to broken.

I did the ape 4 of 5 times at this point, so it is true, but going from the video, you're blocking (not deflecting) 2 or 3 attacks out of 4 in that combo, so the posture meter goes up significantly more.
Since the attack is slow enough and somewhat telegraphed, i suggest avoid spamming in that one particular case, and try to time it more, or running away is also a good option there, since it doesn't leave that much room for punishing, that attack.

I know, just like in past Souls games, different people have trouble at different bosses, so this is probably the case, many have problems with the Ape, but i'd consider Part 1 significantly more complex than part 2.
Clearly though YMMV.