Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: Complete Guide

A guide to beating Sekiro: how posture and deflection actually work, which skills and prosthetics to prioritize, boss tips for the big walls, collectibles (Prayer Beads, Gourd Seeds), and how to get each of the four endings.

Researched September 2026, current as of the final PC version (the GOTY Edition includes the 2020 free update with Reflections of Strength boss rematches, Gauntlets, and Remnants). The game no longer gets balance patches. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• This is not Dark Souls. There's no stamina, no builds, and no leveling through stats. You win by deflecting (tapping block right as a hit lands) and breaking the enemy's posture.
• Tap block, don't hold it. A well-timed tap deflects and builds enemy posture. Holding block only soaks damage and fills your posture bar.
• Keep attacking. Enemy posture regenerates when they're not under pressure, and it regenerates faster while their health is high. Lower their HP to slow their posture recovery.
• Read the red kanji (危, "perilous" attacks):
• Sweep (low swing): jump, then jump-kick off their head.
• Thrust (stab): Mikiri Counter (dodge into it) or deflect.
• Grab: dodge sideways or back. You can't block it.
• Stealth first. Use crouch, grass, and walls to deathblow enemies before fights start. Clear minions before minibosses.
• Death isn't free. Dying without resurrecting costs half your unspent sen and half your XP progress, unless Unseen Aid triggers. Spend your sen, and convert XP into skill points often.
• Resurrection: after dying you can revive right where you fell (the resurrection nodes refill as you deathblow enemies). Revive only if you know how to finish the fight.
• Upgrade the Healing Gourd with Gourd Seeds at the Sculptor's Dilapidated Temple, and turn in Prayer Beads (4 = 1 necklace) at any Sculptor's Idol for more vitality and posture.
• Boss Memories raise Attack Power at a Sculptor's Idol. Always use them, because Attack Power is the only way to hit harder.
• Stuck on a boss? Explore somewhere else. The game branches after the early chapters, and extra beads, gourd seeds, and skills make a big difference.

Core Combat

Posture

Both you and enemies have a posture bar. When it fills, you break posture and can deathblow (on some enemies that means an instant kill, on bosses it removes one health bar). Posture builds up from:

• Your deflects (the biggest source), attacks landing on a guarding enemy, and some combat arts.
• Mikiri Counters and jump-kicks off sweeps, which deal huge posture damage.

Your posture fills when you block or get hit on guard. Fully filled means you're stunned. Let it recover by backing off or deflecting instead of holding block.

Vitality and healing

• Healing Gourd: starts with a small number of uses. Each Gourd Seed (there are 9) adds one.
• Pellets (Ako's Sugar, Pacifying Agent, and so on) and status items are consumables. Keep Pacifying Agent for Terror and Divine Confetti for apparitions.

Death, Dragonrot, and Unseen Aid

• Dying repeatedly spreads Dragonrot to NPCs. This lowers your chance of Unseen Aid and can pause some NPC quests.
• Cure it with Dragon's Blood Droplet (at the Sculptor's Idol). The first one is given to you in the story, and more can be found or bought later.
• Dragonrot doesn't lock you out of anything permanently. Cure it before important NPC conversations.

Controls (default layout)

The controller combat buttons (attack, deflect, prosthetic, combat art, dodge, jump, grapple) are the standard defaults. Keyboard keys and the item button are common setups but worth confirming under Settings > Key Config, since they're easy to remap.

Action | Keyboard/mouse | Controller (Xbox)

Attack | Left mouse | RB

Guard / deflect | Right mouse | LB

Prosthetic tool | Ctrl | RT

Combat art | Guard + Attack together (check your binds) | LB + RB

Dodge / sprint | Shift | B

Jump | Space | A

Grappling hook | F | LT

Healing / item | R | X

Skills: What to Buy First

Skill trees unlock with Esoteric Texts: Shinobi Arts, Prosthetic Arts, Ashina Arts, Temple Arts, and later Mushin Arts. You earn skill points from XP (at the Sculptor's Idol bar).

Priority skills:

Skill | Tree | Why

Mikiri Counter | Shinobi Arts | The best answer to thrusts. Essential for bosses

Breath of Life: Light | Shinobi Arts | Heals a little on every deathblow

Shinobi Eyes | Shinobi Arts | Mikiri Counters deal more posture damage

Suppress Presence | Shinobi Arts | Makes stealth easier

Whirlwind Slash | Shinobi Arts | Early combat art for crowds

Ichimonji / Ichimonji: Double | Ashina Arts | Big posture damage and it slows your own posture. The go-to combat art for many bosses

High Monk | Temple Arts | A strong mid-game combat art

Shadowrush | Shinobi Arts (final skill) | A long-range, powerful thrust. Great gap closer

Spiral Cloud Passage | Mushin Arts | Requires Shadowrush and Ashina Cross. Unleashes shockwaves at range

Mushin Arts unlocks when you learn any tree's final skill and then talk to the Tengu of Ashina, who hands over the Mushin Esoteric Text.

Floating Passage is bought from Pot Noble Harunaga for 5 Treasure Carp Scales. It's a great combo art for aggressive players.

Mortal Draw variants: defeating Isshin Ashina (Shura ending) gives One Mind, and defeating Isshin, the Sword Saint gives Dragon Flash. You get both only at the end of a playthrough.

Latent skills worth knowing

• Lightning Reversal: when a lightning attack hits you in mid-air, attack before you land to throw it back. This is key against Genichiro, Way of Tomoe and Isshin, the Sword Saint. Never block or dodge onto the ground when you're charged, because touching the ground electrocutes you.

Prosthetic Tools

Tool | Best use

Loaded Shuriken | Chasing enemies who jump back or leap. Punishes jumpers (like Lady Butterfly)

Shinobi Firecracker | Scares beasts (dogs, apes, bulls) and briefly stuns humans. Opens gaps for attacks

Flame Vent | Sets enemies on fire. Beasts like the Guardian Ape hate it

Loaded Axe | Breaks shields and wooden guards

Loaded Spear | Pulls armor off enemies and pulls enemies toward you

Mist Raven | Escapes a hit and repositions (upgraded forms add more)

Loaded Umbrella | Blocks almost everything, including projectiles. Upgrades add fire and terror protection

Sabimaru | Applies poison

Divine Confetti (item) | Lets you damage apparitions. Needed for the Headless and some illusions

Upgrade tools at the Sculptor with materials you find, and don't sweat unlocking every branch. The Firecracker and Umbrella upgrades are the most useful early.

Collectibles

Prayer Beads

There are 40 Prayer Beads in one playthrough. 4 beads = 1 Prayer Necklace, which increases maximum Vitality and Posture. That means 10 upgrades. Most come from minibosses (below); the rest are in hidden chests (a few need the Mibu Breathing Technique to reach underwater), plus one sold by the Dungeon Memorial Mob in the Abandoned Dungeon.

• Ashina Outskirts: General Naomori Kawarada, Chained Ogre, Tenzen Yamauchi, Blazing Bull, Shigekichi of the Red Guard (after the area is set ablaze)
• Hirata Estate: Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen, Juzou the Drunkard
• Ashina Castle: General Kuranosuke Matsumoto, Lone Shadow Longswordsman, Seven Ashina Spears, Ashina Elites; after the Interior Ministry invasion, Lone Shadow Masanaga, Lone Shadow Vilehand, and a second Chained Ogre; later, a second Seven Ashina Spear and Red-Eyed Ashina Elite Ujinari Mizuo
• Senpou Temple: Armored Warrior, Long-arm Centipede Sen'un
• Sunken Valley: Snake Eyes Shirafuji, Long-arm Centipede Giraffe
• Ashina Depths: Snake Eyes Shirahagi, Headless Ape (2 beads), O'Rin of the Water, Tokujiro the Glutton
• Fountainhead Palace: Sakura Bull, Okami Leader Shizu

The second Hirata Estate memory (opened with Father's Bell Charm, and required for Purification) adds beads from Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-bearer and a Juzou the Drunkard rematch.

Gourd Seeds

There are 9 Gourd Seeds. Some you buy from vendors (e.g. the Crow's Bed Memorial Mob and Battlefield Memorial Mob), others you find in the world. Bring them to Emma at the Dilapidated Temple.

Progression and Bosses

The game branches after the early chapters, so the order below is typical, not required.

Early game

• Gyoubu Oniwa (Ashina Outskirts): a horseback fight. Use the grappling hook on him to close distance, then deflect. The Firecracker scares his horse.
• Lady Butterfly (Hirata Estate): shuriken her when she jumps, deflect her thread attacks, and use Divine Confetti on phase-two illusions.
• Genichiro Ashina (Ashina Castle): deflect his rapid combos and Mikiri his thrust. In the final phase, use Lightning Reversal.

Mid game (in any order)

• Folding Screen Monkeys (Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo): after Isshin tells you where the Mortal Blade is, interact with the table in front of the giant Buddha statue to enter the Hall of Illusion. It's a puzzle fight. Catch each monkey, and use the sound cues and the environment to find the hidden and invisible ones.
• Guardian Ape (Sunken Valley): stay close, burn it with the Flame Vent, and scare it with the Firecracker. The fight continues after the first "death".
• Corrupted Monk (Ashina Depths, at the far end of Mibu Village by the Water Mill, guarding the Wedding Cave): deflect-heavy, fair duel. She drops the Shelter Stone.
• Great Shinobi Owl (Ashina Castle, later in the story): uses smoke and firecrackers. Stay on him, and use Mikiri on his thrusts.

Late game

• Corrupted Monk (True) (Fountainhead Palace), Divine Dragon (Fountainhead, a set-piece fight).
• Final boss depends on your ending path: Isshin Ashina (Shura) or Isshin, the Sword Saint (other endings). The Sword Saint fight is a four-phase test of everything. Use Mikiri, Lightning Reversal, and deflect-then-punish.

Optional

• Demon of Hatred (Ashina Outskirts, late): fire. Use the Umbrella's fire-protection upgrade and stay behind it.
• Owl (Father) (Hirata Estate, memory on the Purification path): harder than the Great Shinobi Owl.
• Headless, Shichimen Warriors, Sakura Bull, and more. Many give Spiritfall buffs or beads.

Reflections of Strength at the Sculptor's Idol let you rematch bosses you've beaten, and the Gauntlets are boss rushes (from the 2020 free update).

Endings

Ending | Key choice/requirements

Shura | When the Owl asks you to abandon Kuro, choose to follow the Iron Code. Locks out the other endings for that run. The final boss is Isshin Ashina

Immortal Severance | Stay loyal to Kuro, then give him only the Divine Dragon's Tears

Purification | Eavesdrop on Kuro, get Father's Bell Charm from Emma, defeat Owl (Father) in the second Hirata memory, and give Kuro the Aromatic Flower plus Divine Dragon's Tears

Return | Stay loyal and finish the Divine Child questline: find Holy Chapter: Infested, get both Fresh and Dried Serpent Viscera from the Great Serpent, feed the Divine Child rice and a persimmon, and collect the Frozen Tears from her. Give Kuro the Frozen Tears plus Divine Dragon's Tears

Missable notes:

• Shura is permanent for that playthrough once you pick it. Save-back if you want to see it without losing the others.
• The Return ending's steps involve conversations and items you can skip. Follow a checklist.
• You can collect all endings across New Game+ cycles. Skills, prosthetics, and Attack Power carry over.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Holding block. Tap to deflect.
• Panic rolling. Most attacks are better deflected. Dodge only grabs and some swipes.
• Ignoring the jump-kick against sweeps. It deals massive posture damage.
• Never turning in Prayer Beads or Memories. Vitality and Attack Power come only from these.
• Hoarding sen. You lose half on death. Buy Coin Purses from vendors so your money is safe.
• Fighting minibosses before clearing the area. Kill minions first or fight in a space you've cleared.
• Leaving Dragonrot untreated before important NPC events.

Advanced Tips

• Deflect rhythm beats reaction: most bosses have combo patterns. Learn the strings and deflect on the beats.
• Mikiri + Shinobi Eyes + Ichimonji: Double is a strong general-purpose setup for boss posture damage.
• Use Sugar buffs (Ako's Sugar for attack, Gokan's for posture) on hard bosses.
• Spiritfall items (from optional bosses) are strong temporary buffs. Save them for the final fights.
• Demon Bell and Kuro's Charm make the game harder for extra challenge (and more drops in some cases). Try them on a second run.
• Bell Demon plus Charmless is the hardest version of the game. Only attempt it once you're consistent.

FAQ

Is Sekiro harder than Dark Souls? It's less forgiving because you can't grind levels past a boss. Once deflection clicks, most players find it fairer than it looks.

How many Prayer Beads are there? 40 in one playthrough, which makes 10 necklaces.

How many Gourd Seeds? 9.

Which ending is best? Return is often seen as the "true" ending. Purification is the most demanding to set up. Do Shura on its own save or in a later cycle.

How do I beat Genichiro? Deflect his combos, Mikiri his thrust, jump his sweep, and use Lightning Reversal in the final phase.

What does the GOTY Edition add? It includes the 2020 free update content (Reflections of Strength boss rematches, Gauntlets, Remnants, and new costumes) plus the base game.

How do I get Floating Passage? Buy it from Pot Noble Harunaga for 5 Treasure Carp Scales.

Sources

• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Prayer Beads
• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Skills and Skill Trees
• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Endings
• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Folding Screen Monkeys
• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Corrupted Monk
• Fextralife Sekiro Wiki: Floating Passage