Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Catch-All

I don't know how many hours it actually took me (probably about 6 or so) but after taking a day off from the below boss fight I came back to it today and crushed it with almost no hits taken.

Spoiler:

Owl(Father) in Hirata Estate

JohnKillo wrote:

So the overhead slash is not too bad. It is very situational against some quicker enemies. I like it against some enemies that spin jump at you.

I find it most useful in boss fights, since it also helps you regain posture.

Also, cleared the Shura ending. Only one left to go, but I might need a little bit of a break.

benign1 wrote:

Nice to have a partner to celebrate victory with, and I have to admit that I basked in the awed "how did you DO that?" reaction just a little bit.

Yeah, this game is pretty amazing at that. There were a few fights where I paused the game after perfectly deflecting my way through a difficult phase to let my brain catch up to my reflexes.

JC wrote:

I don't know how many hours it actually took me (probably about 6 or so) but after taking a day off from the below boss fight I came back to it today and crushed it with almost no hits taken.

I had the same arc with that fight.

Attempt 1:
IMAGE(https://pa1.narvii.com/6189/2e7d8ba461a0248c40bf024b1126897ed53e128a_hq.gif)

Attempt 25:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/BBIulBx.gif)

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
JohnKillo wrote:

So the overhead slash is not too bad. It is very situational against some quicker enemies. I like it against some enemies that spin jump at you.

I find it most useful in boss fights, since it also helps you regain posture.

Also, cleared the Shura ending. Only one left to go, but I might need a little bit of a break.

I haven't gotten that high on that skill tree yet but I'm excited for that.

I seemingly sequence broke a bit by jumping onto a section of castle roof before I was supposed to be there. This led me to another open window, which in turn led to a room containing Swordslasher Quicklington. After disposing of SQ, I inadvertently stumbled upon a forced cutscene gate simply by grappling up to an anchor. I was not prepared for what followed. Shocking.

Leaving that behind, I explored more by jumping down a looooong pit. Found some poison. And a scout troop of the Shotgun Bandage Man Brigade who apparently are not immune to poison. Several minutes and a few backstabs later, they were dead and I was allowed to continue exploring!

Things are getting misty, so I must have found the source for all the Dark Souls fog gates. Further bulletins as events warrant!

Tyrian wrote:

I seemingly sequence broke a bit by jumping onto a section of castle roof before I was supposed to be there. This led me to another open window, which in turn led to a room containing Swordslasher Quicklington. After disposing of SQ, I inadvertently stumbled upon a forced cutscene gate simply by grappling up to an anchor. I was not prepared for what followed. Shocking.

This is intended. As far as I can tell that's how you're supposed to arrive there.

So I ring MY BELL. Ring my bell.

I may just get rid of it and go back to normal difficulty for now. I may go back to monk hunting while looking for the next boss. I stealthed killed the Darth Maul wannabes instead of straight brawling them instead.

I have never beaten the twinblade mobs in a straight-up fight. All stealth kills. Screw those guys.

One-on-one I can do it. Two, I'm toast.

Oh, man, did I just do what I thought I wouldn't be able to at all.

So...

Spoiler:

Ashina Depths/Sunken Valley poison pool. I run into a boss fight without even realizing - I miss fog gates, people, I do - and then there's the headless portion of the Guardian Ape and I manage to get the first deathblow in without too much trouble. It runs away and calls for another freakin' ape. Two ginormous apes against lil' ol' me. Needless to say, I ate it. Bit the dust. Three tries later, I barely managed it. I can admit I panicked a good deal in the first encounter. Second and third, not so much, but I did rage as there were some serious camera issues. Any time I was near a wall, the camera would seem almost like a First Person view, which needless to say made it nearly impossible to properly parry, much less dodge. In the fourth attempt, I manage to keep the fight mostly toward the center, thus mitigating the camera issues a good deal. This is far harder when there's two freakin' apes of large dimensions trying to kill me. In my 4th attempt, I died once when the apes-twosome were set upon me, but managing to actually kill the non-headless (is there a term for a "headed" being?) restored my revival, and that was enough to get me to kill the headless ape, then kill the centipede (mukade?) for good measure. I had the tooth thingy equipped - which I've learned isn't quite endless; more like doubling the revival allowance - but the fight was so frantic that I forgot about it completely.

I feel pretty good about managing this, though.

Spoiler:

Have to say I was very happy to take down the twin great apes on my first attempt. And made very short work of the Shichimen Warriors too. Low-key stuck on the Owl Father at the moment

Tyops wrote:
Tyrian wrote:

I seemingly sequence broke a bit by jumping onto a section of castle roof before I was supposed to be there. This led me to another open window, which in turn led to a room containing Swordslasher Quicklington. After disposing of SQ, I inadvertently stumbled upon a forced cutscene gate simply by grappling up to an anchor. I was not prepared for what followed. Shocking.

This is intended. As far as I can tell that's how you're supposed to arrive there.

Spoiler:

So, I'm referring to turning around from the antechamber idol, going back out that first window, and then wall jumping over to a section of roof that allows you to get up to the window that leads to one of the Ashina Elite dudes. it looks like you are expected to come into that room via the doors that lead to the other idol on that floor. I could have bypassed him entirely and gone up to the top floor where Genchiro awaits (and killed me good)

Alright, I have made it to the end, with just the final 3 hard bosses to take out:

Spoiler:

Owl Father, Demon of hatred and Genichiro/Isshin

Gotta say, at some point the combat has really clicked for me, very few of the closing 19 bosses/mini-bosses have taken me more than 2 or 3 attempts and quite a number went down first time (especially if they were a reworkings of bosses I'd previously seen).

Really looking forward to how things will pan out for NG+, there's still a huge amount on the skill trees that I'm not close to acquiring

It'll take a while to get them all, yes. I'm on the very end of New Game+++ and I still need a couple of skill points to get the last one.

(So I basically lied when I said I would give it a break. But after *this* playthrough I really will.)

Continuing my journey, I explored a creepy village, was ambushed by a ghost lady playing a sanshin, and hit my head on a ghostly monk shaped roadblock for an hour.

Apparently that ghostly monk held the coveted secret of the magic snorkel, as I can now dive under the surface of water and stay there indefinitely! Time to do some back tracking!

Well, that's a big monkey.

Tyrian wrote:

Apparently that ghostly monk held the coveted secret of the magic snorkel as I can now dive under the surface of water and stay there indefinitely! Time to do some back tracking!

That’s hilarious.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

It'll take a while to get them all, yes. I'm on the very end of New Game+++ and I still need a couple of skill points to get the last one.

(So I basically lied when I said I would give it a break. But after *this* playthrough I really will.)

yeah, I'm not against a little grinding at fountainhead Palace though.

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

I haven't made it to Corrupted Monk yet. Just killed the flute guy over the weekend before stopping. I know Gokan's Sugar reduces posture damage though so maybe that would be useful.

brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

Try firecrackers and ash clouds -- the monk is very susceptible to being stunned/interrupted by those, and you can create lots of opportunities to roll behind and chip away, sometimes getting several stun/roll/attack sequences chained together.

Probably worth learning the deflect pattern before using too many resources, though, since ultimately you'll probably need to be able to cleanly deflect the attack chains to wrap things up. Thankfully, despite the imposing posture damage you take in normal defense, the patterns are pretty easy to spot and learn if you keep at it.

brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

So, I discovered that snap seeds both stun AND damage this entity. Ash also knocks her for a loop (2 hits, safely), as do the firecrackers (again, 2 hits). You CAN stunlock her for a bit using all those, but YMMV. I fought this stupid thing for an HOUR last night and burned a ton of consumables, which made me sad.

Tyrian wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

So, I discovered that snap seeds both stun AND damage this entity. Ash also knocks her for a loop (2 hits, safely), as do the firecrackers (again, 2 hits). You CAN stunlock her for a bit using all those, but YMMV. I fought this stupid thing for an HOUR last night and burned a ton of consumables, which made me sad.

The strategies you're talking about for this particular boss are exactly what speedrunners use. They, of course, have it down to a science, and the boss is down in less than 20 seconds. But still.

brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

That's funny. I had much more trouble with Orin than the Corrupted Monk. Different challenges for us all, right? As mentioned, snap seeds (only 3 max per fight), ash, and firecrackers are good for giving you openings. If you have gone down the Prosthetics skill tree and picked up Projected Force, whip out the Lotus Umbrella.

With just a bit of chip damage you should be able to win mostly through deflection once you learn the attack patterns. I would highly suggest you try to learn the patterns for this particular fight.

Also, use Divine Confetti once you think you have a chance at winning.

Tyrian wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

So, I discovered that snap seeds both stun AND damage this entity. Ash also knocks her for a loop (2 hits, safely), as do the firecrackers (again, 2 hits). You CAN stunlock her for a bit using all those, but YMMV. I fought this stupid thing for an HOUR last night and burned a ton of consumables, which made me sad.

That's a neat thing with the snap seeds. I usually rely on divine confetti to boost my damage.

DanB wrote:

yeah, I'm not against a little grinding at fountainhead Palace though.

I prefer spawning at the stairway in Ashina Outskirts in the very endgame, working my way towards the castle. It's a lovely daisychain of backstabs.

NSMike wrote:
Tyrian wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

So, I discovered that snap seeds both stun AND damage this entity. Ash also knocks her for a loop (2 hits, safely), as do the firecrackers (again, 2 hits). You CAN stunlock her for a bit using all those, but YMMV. I fought this stupid thing for an HOUR last night and burned a ton of consumables, which made me sad.

The strategies you're talking about for this particular boss are exactly what speedrunners use. They, of course, have it down to a science, and the boss is down in less than 20 seconds. But still.

I believe it. I can see how if you had enough spirit emblems, ash, and snapseeds, you could get her down far enough that you'd be able to deathblow her shortly thereafter.

That... was not me.

Tyrian wrote:
NSMike wrote:
Tyrian wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

So last night...

Spoiler:

After a lengthy play session exploring the misty region after Ashina Depths, I eventually killed some kind of yokai that was playing a flute, which dispelled the mists. This allowed me to explore a little, run into a headless miniboss from which I ran away, then make it to Orin of the waters. I got her in my first attempt (sweet!), but soon after, I encountered the Corrupted Monk and it tooled me. It seems to do a lot of posture damage, and the long combos it engages in make it hard for me to keep up without eating some serious damage. It also seems to take very little posture damage itself, so I guess chipping away it its health is the name of the game. Will try again tonight. After yesterday's single attempt, I was already to tired and sleepy to give it an honest go.

Spoiler:

So, I discovered that snap seeds both stun AND damage this entity. Ash also knocks her for a loop (2 hits, safely), as do the firecrackers (again, 2 hits). You CAN stunlock her for a bit using all those, but YMMV. I fought this stupid thing for an HOUR last night and burned a ton of consumables, which made me sad.

The strategies you're talking about for this particular boss are exactly what speedrunners use. They, of course, have it down to a science, and the boss is down in less than 20 seconds. But still.

I believe it. I can see how if you had enough spirit emblems, ash, and snapseeds, you could get her down far enough that you'd be able to deathblow her shortly thereafter.

That... was not me.

Spoiler:

I'm digging that we all happen to be this in sync. I also ended my night after reaching O'rin of the Waters, but was too mentally fried to sustain more than a couple of messy attempts. I kind of want to leave her be for now to see if there's a more satisfactory answer to her question to be found, but I can't decide if that's actually the intention.

FWIW

Spoiler:

For some reason I found the Monk much easier than the twirly knife woman ... who I could not kill until I semi-cheesed her by removing her from the main arena into a place where she did not twirl so much.I guess I suck at fast deflects. The monk you can take down with firecrackers and judicious R1 spam ... confetti makes it go a bit faster.

benign1 wrote:
Spoiler:

I'm digging that we all happen to be this in sync. I also ended my night after reaching O'rin of the Waters, but was too mentally fried to sustain more than a couple of messy attempts. I kind of want to leave her be for now to see if there's a more satisfactory answer to her question to be found, but I can't decide if that's actually the intention.

There's not. She's the resolution of a certain npc:s questline (unless

Spoiler:

you fed him to Doujun

), but it's definitely worth it to beat her either way becaus of the reward you get.

Thanks for the tips, people! I'll definitely give all of that a go later today. I really want to get the hang of the monk's patterns.