Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (new From Software game)

[Multidirectional]

Here's what I am using on this run to make prosthetic upgrades more exciting: https://www.nexusmods.com/sekiro/mods/103

All prosthetic tool upgrades now increase your spirit emblem capacity by 1.

I think I will keep this, I don't see why I should settle for measly 20 emblems. I am up to 38 emblems now and it feels better.

 

[toro]

There is no point for "Get all skills" ... 99% of them are shit.

How? Most of Ashina Arts are useful, especially the Ascending/Descending Carp and Flowing Water skill. The Prosthetic Arts tree is also very useful, with the exception of Shinobi's Karma skills which are underwhelming, and Emma's Medicine which are rather expensive.

Indeed the Ashina Arts are good because of posture damage but overall the arts are just fluff.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

There is no point for "Get all skills" ... 99% of them are shit.

How? Most of Ashina Arts are useful, especially the Ascending/Descending Carp and Flowing Water skill. The Prosthetic Arts tree is also very useful, with the exception of Shinobi's Karma skills which are underwhelming, and Emma's Medicine which are rather expensive.

Indeed the Ashina Arts are good because of posture damage but overall the arts are just fluff.

Most of the high level combat arts cost 3 or more spirit emblems and don't do enough damage to be worth using. If you pull off 3-4 perfect combat arts that cost that much on a boss, you will have maybe removed 1/4 - 1/3 of a single health bar by the time you completely run out of spirit emblems. Some of the free ones are nice, as is Mortal Draw, but most others are shit and/or only useful for mini-bosses that have a single health bar.

 

[toro]

There is no point for "Get all skills" ... 99% of them are shit.

How? Most of Ashina Arts are useful, especially the Ascending/Descending Carp and Flowing Water skill. The Prosthetic Arts tree is also very useful, with the exception of Shinobi's Karma skills which are underwhelming, and Emma's Medicine which are rather expensive.

Indeed the Ashina Arts are good because of posture damage but overall the arts are just fluff.

Most of the high level combat arts cost 3 or more spirit emblems and don't do enough damage to be worth using. If you pull off 3-4 perfect combat arts that cost that much on a boss, you will have maybe removed 1/4 - 1/3 of a single health bar by the time you completely run out of spirit emblems. Some of the free ones are nice, as is Mortal Draw, but most others are shit and/or only useful for mini-bosses that have a single health bar.

Honestly, I did not use anything else besides the passive ones.

 

[Wunderbar]

The only good combat arts are Ichimonji (and double ichimonji) and High monk. Rest of them are garbage.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

The only good combat arts are Ichimonji (and double ichimonji) and High monk. Rest of them are garbage.

Whirlwind is great early game as it cuts through blocks, but by the time you are NG+ your normal strikes will overcome posture quicker.

I probably use Mortal Draw the most. It does fuckloads of damage, so even with bosses, if you hit them with it 3-4 times it will lower their health enough that their posture regenerates much slower. That's probably the designers' intent with most combat arts. They aren't meant to be powerful enough to finish off a boss on their own, but they are powerful enough to lower their health to the point that they can be more easily posture broken.

 

[Multidirectional]

The only good combat arts are Ichimonji (and double ichimonji) and High monk. Rest of them are garbage.

I like Whirlwind and Praying Strikes better than those. Ichimonji especially I don't the hype about, it's too fucking slow.

 

[Lord Romulus]

Most of the combat arts that require spirit emblems suck because you're better off using firecrackers, or maybe even something like flame vent.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Both centipedes are easy as fuck if you just deflect spam, with occasional jump on their head during sweep attack. I never died to single one of them, not even on first run.

You're right. I went to a backup save and tried that fight again (*after I fixed my controller)

I did use an ako and a gokan sugar, tbh, along with deflect spam. The fight was over faster this way than my original way.

*So my controller...
I had it plugged in because, well, I thought it would minimize input lag.
Turns out the cable I was using to plug it in was bad or defective.

I went wireless for a bit and the input lag was less notable.

Gonna hunt down another cable and test again...

Zep--

 

[mogwaimon]

The only good combat arts are Ichimonji (and double ichimonji) and High monk. Rest of them are garbage.

I like Whirlwind and Praying Strikes better than those. Ichimonji especially I don't the hype about, it's too fucking slow.

I think people like Double Ichimonji in particular because hitting with the second strike actually heals your posture damage, IIRC. It's a nice punish to throw in on occasion just for that, but as others have mentioned it seems like it's always better to just R1 to victory. Though I never did get far enough down the Senpou tree to unlock High Monk to play with.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Beat Great Owl Shinobi on NG++ without Kuro's Charm! Took an embarrassingly long time, but I finally realized that you can dodge his charging sword slash by jumping backwards. So I just kited him around the ring, punishing his ninja star + jump attacks with mortal draw, and backwards jumping out of range whenever he'd do a charge slash. He was completely trivial once I figured it out (I had 7 healing gourds left and didn't die at all when I finally beat him).

Was getting so fucking bored, so I'm glad he's dead.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Spent a few hours (over the last couple days) grinding up some SP so I could get Shadow Rush. I needed 10 points to get there.

I'm not quite sure, but I think I dead-ended at everywhere I can go so far.

I've been dreading this for quite a while...but time to suck it up and try General Genichiro so I can unlock some new paths (I guess?).

Zep--

 

[Multidirectional]

I am fucking stuck on Owl (Father). Since I never did Purification ending before this playthrough this is my first time with him. Goddamn firecrackers. He makes earlier Owl fight look like a joke. Gonna turn off Bell Demon effect for this one.

 

[Wunderbar]

Goddamn firecrackers.

if you time it right, you can dodge through firecrackers and punish Owl for two hits.

 

[Multidirectional]

Yes I know, I'm just fucking up. Usual learning the boss phase.

 

[Zep Zepo]

I am fucking stuck on Owl (Father). Since I never did Purification ending before this playthrough this is my first time with him. Goddamn firecrackers. He makes earlier Owl fight look like a joke. Gonna turn off Bell Demon effect for this one.

Cheese...



Zep--

 

[Zep Zepo]

I've been watching Distortion2's speed-runs, sure he glitches shit (no fighting), shit falls into the void or whatever.

Watching him really fight though, has helped me immensely. Sure he cheeses some shit, but without glitching.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBaHYWh_265k73PxkgaNkrA

Zep--

 

[cruel]

Is Owl fight mandatory for Return ending? I have Frozen Tears already, not sure if I have patience for this guy

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Nortar]

No, he's only needed for Purification ending. Frozen Tears is all you need for Return.

 

[cruel]

Thanks.

Good video for people having issues with Owl in Hirata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh6Ha5BYh0s

I'm still trying, but I had no idea that you can mikiri his sword lunge attack. This may be a game changer.

 

[DemonKing]

I got back into this over the last week after taking one time out to play Days Gone. The second Guardian Ape and his little bitch ape went down pretty easily. Old Shinobi Owl though was probably the boss that's taken me the most tries to "get guid" enough to kill. Heard the Great owl version in Hriata estate is even tougher - not looking forward to that one.

 

[cruel]

Almost done with the game - the only bosses left are Father Owl, Demon of Hatred and Isshin. And, to be honest, I think I will leave it as it is.

When I was younger (<25) I really enjoyed trying something for 20+ times to finally beat it. Now I feel I't just not really a time good spent. What is really annoying about Owl and Isshin fights - they designed them more like a puzzle than actual boss battle. You need to exactly follow proper steps / reactions in proper moments, if you don't do it, you are done. Not much area to improvise or be creative, more like tedious memorize / implement. While fighting Friede, Gael or Orphan solo, I never felt this way.

I don't regret playing the game, would rate it probably around 7.5/10. Nowhere near Dark Souls though, and probably will never play it again (not much reason to do so with zero weapon variety).


I'm curious, can we add a poll to this thread about how many tries it took Codexers for Isshin? Options: 1, 2-5, 5-10, 5-15, 15-30, 30-50, 50+, never beat him.

 

[abija]

When I was younger (<25) I really enjoyed trying something for 20+ times to finally beat it. Now I feel I't just not really a time good spent.

Maybe turn to more suitable hobbies like watching TV? You can use twitch or similar for a smooth transition from gamer to potato...

 

[Hassar]

Almost done with the game - the only bosses left are Father Owl, Demon of Hatred and Isshin. And, to be honest, I think I will leave it as it is.

When I was younger (<25) I really enjoyed trying something for 20+ times to finally beat it. Now I feel I't just not really a time good spent. What is really annoying about Owl and Isshin fights - they designed them more like a puzzle than actual boss battle. You need to exactly follow proper steps / reactions in proper moments, if you don't do it, you are done. Not much area to improvise or be creative, more like tedious memorize / implement. While fighting Friede, Gael or Orphan solo, I never felt this way.

I don't regret playing the game, would rate it probably around 7.5/10. Nowhere near Dark Souls though, and probably will never play it again (not much reason to do so with zero weapon variety).


I'm curious, can we add a poll to this thread about how many tries it took Codexers for Isshin? Options: 1, 2-5, 5-10, 5-15, 15-30, 30-50, 50+, never beat him.

I started getting into rogue likes and hard games with high skill ceilings post 35. Beating a game just to say I beat it means less now than mastering an easy to play but hard to master game from any genre, like Crusader Kings, Mordhau, etc. If a game does not seem rewarding or fun, I am way more prone to just returning it or giving it away now than when I was younger and would just play it because I did not have enough resources to get a replacement or I was so bored that I would do anything to kill the time. Time is precious now and there are so many different competitors for my attention that are more worthwhile that I barely remember how it felt to waste hours on a game like Ghosts n Goblins (that to this day I don’t really like) just to say I beat it.

 

[cruel]

Of course, after complaining on Codex, I forced myself to try few more tries. Finally beat Father Owl, around 20 tries - my worst boss so far. But to be honest, he wasn't even cheap - just a VERY hard skills check. Things that made the difference for me in this fight:
- mikiri against his sword thrust
- jump over flame wave in phase 2
- don't dodge his overhead slam too early; wait until he almost hits you and then dodge - this leaves him open for a counter


What surprised me a lot, is that I was able to beat Isshin under 10 tries - the fight seemed much easier than Owl for me. Not sure if they nerfed him in one of the patches, or maybe I got lucky - I failed miserably 3 times for lightning reversal, and still was able to get him in the end. Still, needed to use all healing, 3 pellets and even one rice, with the end being pretty intense.

Also, I was missing one prayer bead - it seems it is located close to a very easily missable Headless, located in Sunken Valley (go backwards from Under-Shrine Valley).


So now the only boss left, to not feel like a pussy, is Demon of Hatred