Prepare to die more than twice on these bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
- The Chained Ogre is encountered early on in the game, has a lot of health and can deplete almost your entire vitality bar in a single hit. The ogre has several grab attacks with a deceptively big hitbox range and can instantly land if you happen to be in front of it, may potentially hurl you off a cliff (which will kill you due to the combined damage) and can even drop-kick you. Up to this point you've mostly learned to deal with foes by attacking and parrying/deflecting, but this beast will require you to be on-point with your dodges to make it out alive. Fortunately, it possesses a weakness to fire. Using a Shinobi Tool like the Flame Vent will cause it cower in fear at the sight of flames for considerable amounts of time, making the fight a lot easier. This fight exists in part to teach you to eavesdrop, as the Chained Ogre's guards will tell you about its weakness to fire if you listen to them. Go in without knowing this, and...
- The Blazing Bull just outside Ashina Castle continuously charges around, giving you very little breathing room. It hits incredibly hard with very generous hitboxes, all the while inflicting burn status. Sticking close to the Bull avoids having to dodge its charge all the time, but this can be difficult as the Bull has very tight tracking and can make surprisingly sharp turns. At this point in the game, you are unlikely to be in the possession of a lot of Healing Gourd charges, so your healing options are limited. This guy actually got patched to be slightly easier and he's still That One Boss for many.
- The Snake Eyes mini-bosses are hated for a variety of reasons. Take the shotgun users mentioned in the Demonic Spiders entry and crank them all the way, and also give them a very nasty Perilous Grab Attack for an awful concoction. Special mention goes to Shirahagi, who is fought in a poison swamp and surrounded by snipers who will all fire on you at once if you don't take them out first or you're not careful sneaking up on her.
- O'Rin of the Water seems predictable enough, but she has a few tricks up her sleeve that can make her deceptively hard to kill. She can decide to extend her most common combo attack if you get too close or attempt to abuse the short version for an opening, has a dodge where she turns invisible and thus can escape your own combos, and will relentlessly press Sekiro if he runs away to try to heal.
- The Corrupted Monk Illusion can be this, especially for the ill-prepared. Despite requiring just one death blow, it has a gargantuan amount of vitality, takes little posture damage, and recovers quickly. Its weapon gives it a generous reach, a heavy punch towards your posture, and a number of deadly combos. Using any Snap Seeds on hand will stun the Corrupted Monk for a few seconds, but it only works 3 times, and the third time is really just a fake-out where it seems to work but she immediately attacks you and backs away after you use it. She's also hard to read because her thick, flowing robes obscure her movements.
- The True Corrupted Monk can also be a big stumbling block. Unlike the illusion, she has less vitality, and her posture bar is very slow to drain - but she has three deathblow markers, meaning it's still going to be a long fight. Like the illusion, she's still hard to read due to her robes, has great reach, does huge damage, and has long, powerful combos that will fill your posture bar even if you deflect them flawlessly. She also has a very cheap swipe that you would almost never react to on time outside of knowing it in advance. She's also got some new tricks up her sleeves. After you land the first deathblow, she gains the ability to summon illusory copies of herself, and after the second one, she starts mixing up her combos with lightning-fast swipes and can spray you with centipedes and goop to inflict terror.
- If you decide to tackle Hirata Estate as soon as or not too long after you gain access to it (which happens very early on in the very first level outside of the tutorial), Lady Butterfly is this. The two mini-bosses you encounter in the level serve as exams on your ability to perform the useful Mikiri Counter (meant to counter Perilous Thrust Attacks) and dealing with a miniboss + surrounding mooks (for which the game provides you with a friendly NPC that will assist you). Even the single Lone Swordman mook in the level is harder than them. You then face Lady Butterfly. She moves and attacks swiftly, combines melee and ranged attacks seamlessly, and actively encourages you to keep up the pressure and aggression, which requires the player to have a good understanding of the basic attack and parry/deflect mechanics. She's only a required boss fight if pursuing one ending path, but a requirement nonetheless. Killing her also gives you an extra life, heavily encouraging you to face her as early as possible—most likely well before you have all the resources you need to face her on an even keel.
- Making Lady Butterfly even worse is that her fight is a lot harder without Snap Seeds. While they can be bought from a vendor, Said Vendor is unavailable until VERY late into the game.
- Genichiro Ashina atop Ashina Castle serves as the point where the game stops pussyfooting around and expects the player to have mastered the combat system in order to progress. Part of what makes him such a challenging encounter is that most bosses up to this point have a notable weakness to certain prosthetic tools, abilities, or strategies. Genichiro doesn't. He's fast, precise, and relentless. He has few holes in his defenses and will punish you if you are reckless. He attacks with a variety of sword and bow moves in various combinations (meaning he's an all-range character), uses all kinds of perilous attacks, has dirty tricks up his sleeve, and is the first boss you encounter that has a total of three deathblows, with one not even being revealed until you take out the first two. To defeat him, you must rely on all your experience to read his movements, find and exploit every tiny opening he gives you, learn how to properly defend yourself from his onslaught, and endure a long and grueling battle. By the time you defeat him, you should be well-trained to take on the other tough bosses that follow in the second half of the game.
- The Guardian Ape is infamous for having a truly wild and schizophrenic moveset that can really take new players off-guard, with both of its grabs dealing tremendous amounts of damage complete with Hitbox Dissonance. Even if you do manage to memorize its attack patterns, its incredible speed means that parrying its various attacks can be a challenge in itself. Luckily, it's weak to the Mortal Blade and can easily be stunned by the Shinobi Firecrackers, which helps make the fight much easier. However, beheading the creature doesn't even put it down. Its second phase forces the player to approach it in a vastly different way from the first, encouraging them to be slow and methodical in a fight that had previously been frenetic and chaotic.
- If you haven't reached an idol past the Poison Pool in Ashina Depths before killing the Guardian Ape, then you're in for a nasty surprise, as the rematch with the Ape becomes mandatory. Not only do you have to perform two deathblows on the headless ape, but once you pull the first off, it summons its mate, who fights like the first form of the Guardian Ape (although thankfully without the grabs or poison attacks and with more susceptibility to being staggered).
- Owl is also a pain in the ass both times you fight him. Whereas the other duel bosses use vaguely Ashina-style attacks of the sort you've been fighting the whole game, this fight uses an advanced form of your own moveset that you have no frame of reference for countering. Not only is he tough as nails, one wrong step will have you being hit by a mikiri counter, something no other boss uses. He also uses numerous other shinobi tricks, such as smoke that blinds you so he can catch you off guard, firecrackers that stun you and do hellish amounts of damage, puddles of poison, and a debuff that completely stops you from healing for about a minute. If you wish to get the Purification Ending, you will have to fight him again in the Hirata Estate reached using Father's Bell Charm. He boasts an even more powerful moveset that ratchets up all of the aforementioned elements, along with a Guardian Spirit in his second phase that allows him to teleport and throw out extremely powerful ranged attacks. Defeating him in either instance will prove you have truly Surpassed the Teacher.
- Regardless of the ending you choose, you must face Isshin and prove your mastery. In the Shura ending you face him literally on death's door, though he proves to be no less of a threat, with lightning-quick swordplay and the ability to channel fire into his strikes. In all other endings, you must battle a desperate Genichiro, and after him, Isshin in his prime. He retains the highly skilled and quick swordplay from before, but has three phases and adds in a spear and a ''gun'' in his second phase, able to leap across the battlefield in an instant. He hits hard and one wrong move can kill you in a flash. The one saving grace is lightning in the third phase, allowing you to devastate his posture and health. Regardless, this is a duel that will require all of your skill to emerge victorious. After all, hesitation is defeat.
