How to get gud at Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

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To git gud at Sekiro, you must:

*Never dodge. You dodge, you die.... EXCEPT when dealing with perilous attacks.

*Pay close attention to all foes. Many new ones will kill you. Learn when they are unable to block you, and ensure they become easy.

*Use dive kicks and AQUIRE AND MASTER THE MIKIRA COUNTER.

*Take out the guardian apes mate first, when she goes aggro during the terror attack.

*Learn to kill that one purple ninja or you will hate your life later.

*Learn the basics, and then move onto prosthetic combos. Prosthetics open endless combos and make them game lots of fun, adds replayability.

*Activate the bell demon for better loot. If you git gud the added difficulty should be a natural progression.

I'll add more in detail later, but these are good tips. Feel free to add more or ask questions if you want to know more about the game or need help with it.

This is one of those games that would just make me crazy.

All the shmups and things I've played have taught me to dodge everything... a habit that aint breaking anytime soon.

Oh, I actually just fought the double Guardian Ape battle yesterday, and wondering if I should make a discussion about it. I was doing the first battle against the Guardian Ape the day before, and it was kicking my ass, but I ended up actually really good at the fight, that a little advice with firecrackers to take on the second ape was all I needed to weaken it enough to make it not too much of a sweat. In my opinion, the headless ape is actually the easier of the two forms, its attacks are easier to see telegraphed and to parry. The best being when it raises the sword high into the air before trying to slam it down, because all you need to do is press block when you see the arm start to come down and you are guaranteed to cause fairly heavy posture damage, and leave it vulnerable to a few hits. Just otherwise ready to jump back if it brings the head up, jumps into the air, or prepares a sweeping hit.

All the different From Software games have you kind of relearn the basics. For me, Dark Souls can mostly be managed by blocking and making sure your stamina is high enough as you recover it between hits to wait until your enemy is vulnerable and your stamina is high enough, although dodging is also a possibility for big hits. Bloodborne changes it up where dodging is key, the trick being to generally dodge into or away from attacks, and to hit back quickly if you get hit yourself. Sekiro has changed it up where dodging I don't think gives you any invincibility frames, and avoiding one attack likely means you will be hit with the next, leaving only a few unblockable attacks to be useful against. Instead, the trick is to block attacks, and then go on the offensive to not give opponents a chance to recover their posture, a bar that once full can give an instant kill regardless of health, useful for a battle to not just be a fight of attrition, and there is a technique to recover health with it. Getting good at the deflecting can become key, that is pressing guard just as an enemy attack is about to hit, this stops damaging your own posture, and hurts your opponent's posture or even stuns them to allow some hits in.

Takes some practice, with some of the bosses acting as gatekeepers. I think that Gyoubu Oniwa (horse rider guy) is the first to really drive it home that you need to stand your ground, block his attacks at right time, and go after him. Although Lady Butterfly that should be fought around the same time, requires you to not be as passive as Goubu Oniwa to get how it should be played, some of her attacks can cause not just heavy damage but cause heavy posture damage if you choose not to dodge that one or guard at the right time, and she recovers her posture if you don't go after her. She gave me a heap of trouble before I learned the tells for the dangerous attacks, get better at deflecting her normal attacks, and don't give her room to breathe, and learning that kind of helps you going forward.

I love these From Software games that try to get you to take it from another angle and train you to learn it. Such as the Bloodborne bosses teaching you the key to good dodges.

And I finished my first play though. The last boss was pretty tough, I was starting to think I could never beat it. A four phase (deathblow) battle, with a character of pretty much same size and attacks of pretty much humanoid level, the best fights in the From Software games, like Bloodborne's Maria (who I remember beating the first time because I was in the zone), took me a bit and I ended up with 4 dragon rot from it. Certainty felt like I was getting in the zone. Although tough, at the end I kind of think the optional boss beforehand, the demon, was kind of less manageable, despite how overwhelmed I felt after a few hours of trying. In true From Soft style there really were tricks in learning the moves via the tells and reacting the right way.

1st stage: When sword glows black like the start, generally run behind to do a few hits. Generally trick that flows through the entire fight, and probably useful with most of the game, is to do deflect, not holding down the guard but to press and then depress before pressing again, took some practice but generally this will either block an attack at the cost of some posture, or lucky it damage his and maybe leave open for more attacks. The thing is that most of the time you need to protect against multiple strikes, even at a distance from arrows, but his general combo is I think about 5 hits, so don't hit back until it is finished, another attack doing about 7 where you see it pick up speed, but keep deflecting and it will actually hurting him more. I read somewhere that said something about circling, but my experience was to mostly stand your ground, exceptions being when he pulls back for a moment in laying low, at these moments it is best to either jump up and off him or Mikiri counter, depending on the exact tell, but it can be fast and a little hard to tell which. Generally once you learn his tells and get a rythem of deflecting, he is kind of not so scary.

The 2nd to 4th stage is kind of different, but I kind of maybe looks more complex than it actually is. 2nd now has the boss hitting harder, but as a golden rule he actually attacks less in combos. Deflect guarding the general combos can have you gain ground if you remember it will hit three times before you can hit him, what may look like a 2 hit attack usually has feint that a third attack comes next, and they come very fast that there is less room to act rather than just assume defence. For this reason, refrain from healing as soon as you need to because he rushes in for another attack quickly, so jump away and heal when he already is in a combo. You are going to want to be more aggressive in his face. With the exception of if you see a glint on his sword in its sheath, this is a hint of an unblockable attack, but has a trick that it changes depending on distance, and is more manageable at a distance in that you can actually deflect it fairly easy from a simple two hit combo, although damage is gained from a simple guard, the bonus posture damage for a deflect make it a net positive. Another similar attack is where he puts his sword above his head to do an attack like a combat art, but it hits twice, and a deflect makes it mostly a net positive to try and deflect. Still be careful where he gathers wind for a sweeping attack by taking a low stance, for this one you are going to want to jump up and off him, although at a distance he has another, where the trick is you are going to want to go diangle to him, but keep close after that attack because he will do it again in the same spot and allow you to hit him.

3rd stage looks more difficult with a longer range and heavy attack added to combos, but again shouldn't be too hard to deflect if you are ready to do so, it usually being I think a 4 hit combo where if you are ready afterwards you attack back. The important ones here is being careful of a lunge that will require Mikiri counter, and a sweep that will require jump, they are more common and require picking up on the tell quicker to ready to respond, I didn't mention Mikiri counter attack in the second and I do think Isshin's such attack does take a bit to learn the temp of it since it is more delayed to Genichiro's. Extra warning that at a range where you think you can heal, even out of the spear range he now uses a gun that shoots about four times, so make sure he to not heal straight away and he is stuck in a move beforehand, but the gun is actually really easy to deflect, so not actually so scary if you stay calm. The trick really feels like it was to stay calm, learn the moves, and there really isn't anything too surprising.

4th phase is something I had a little less experience with, because by the time I was getting a handle of the other phases, where before I would die fairly easily, I kind of had this phase down too, although it does feel a little more chaotic. The biggest addition were some lightning attacks, which hit like a son of a gun, but are so big risk and reward where if you keep in mind to jump and counter it, you may almost wish he does more. I think maybe some of the attacks now have an extra attack or two in their combo, maybe a ranged wind attack, but apart from feeling more wild, it kind of feels like it looks more scary than it is. I think that learning to stay calm from the general build up of attacks doesn't make him all too bad, and just a learning from the earlier phases makes being able to keep resources up till now allowed me to finish it.

Not really easy, but fantastic in how it requires getting the mechanics down from some practice. I think I probably could go back through now at an easier time, and to get the other endings, where I got the return ending, but I missed a chance for a few bosses through a second memory, and what I think is the bad ending route. But I think that I will take a little bit of a rest to replay a couple other From Soft games first.