Sometimes he just pulls the bullshit lever and hits you. Usually you can avoid those hits with a good Firecracker, but not always. Also when hitting him just keep dodging towards his ass as you swing, it helps keep you away from his head since the game slides you towards it as you’re attacking him. Usually he’ll have to disengage and that’s when the charge comes, but not always. If things are going well you can drop the firecracker while you’re on his ass if it’s been long enough.
One thing that’s hard to get your head around, especially if you are really into the souls games, is that Sekiro plays differently.
You don’t use up stamina by attacking. You should basically ALWAYS be attacking, unless you’re blocking or something. You should basically always be doing something.
This is in stark contrast to how I played souls games, where it was all about slinking around and avoiding damage until an opening presented itself.
In Sekiro, you can attack forever. You can’t BLOCK forever. So in general, you don’t want to block.
You either want to attack, or you want to deflect, or you want to dodge. Always. As long as you attack, you’ll keep chipping away at an enemy’s posture, eventually killing them.
The one exception to this, MAYBE, is some bosses who regen posture super fast while their health is high. For these guys, attacking their posture is kind of pointless, until you do some health damage to them. Then, once they’re hurt, they stop regenning their posture as fast.
But even in those cases, it still often pays off to just go right for their throat.
The trick is that enemies will deflect your attacks, and counter attack, so in a lot of cases you go something like:
Attack, attack, attack, attack, deflect, deflect, attack… etc.
Like, you can get these ridiculously long chains against mini bosses, and if you can keep it going, it melts their posture and they get no chance to regen it, and you can get a deathblow much sooner than you can by killing their health.
Also, in a lot of cases, you get audio clues regarding what you need to do… a lot of times, when they deflect and are about to attack, you get a different kind of sound.
How did you deal with his kicks? Deflect? Step dodge? Those things just wreck my posture.
I LOVE this area. Creep fucking city. Just when you think the game is all just Feudal Japanese architecture and mountain passes, you find that place…and what’s waiting for you is even worse! Love it.
This is a good post. And it’s why I love the game so much. It wants you to be relentless. When the combat is flowing, there is nothing quite like it.
I felt it the most with Lady Butterfly. I had her attacks down perfectly so it was attack, attack, deflect, deflect, deflect, dodge, attack.
And when she backed off and threw her knives at me, I just batted them out of the sky.
It’s similar to bloodborne in some ways, but is also very different.
Bloodborne had you play more agressively than other souls games, but Sekiro does this differently.
I basically just dodged to the left every time he was going to attack and hit him.
It keeps the camera from going apeshit and once you get his timing down he’s pretty consistent. If he manages to hit you, unlock and run like a bitch down the hallway and jump on the ledge to heal. I also had oil and some fire for after he jumped up if I had time.
And I mean that was basically it. I just was dodging because I screwed up my drop and then I beat him. He’s pretty predictable on his attacks once the camera isn’t looking at the ceiling. Blocking him doesn’t really work because he attacks so fast and his hits do so much posture damage, but dodging just counters him. He charges forward on basically every attack, so you slide out of the way and slap him a couple times and then he mostly keeps doing it.
Jinsuke Saze might be the dumbest thing in any video game ever.
I mean… I get the fight. It’s just fucking stupid.
Edit: Whoever designed this should be fired. It’s like they put the opposite of a Soulsbourne game in one. What the hell is this?
So this is the fight that’ll teach me to dodge…got it!
Well, it’s more about figuring out his timing. He’s very consistent and methodical. Which is bad when you’re blocking and it shoves you into a corner where your camera goes up your ass. But when you just slide out of the way and smack him and he keeps doing it, it’s not so bad.
Be ready to unlock and run like a girl though, cause if you mistime it or he gets off his timing he can kill you fast.
I was right there with you in the original Dark Souls. Then the DLC and Dark Souls 2 added bosses that were fun to fight!
I do genuinely worry about the lack of “I win” button with co-op. I don’t want to tell you guys the game gets harder necessarily, but there are some bosses that I think are going to be a serious roadblock if people are having trouble with bosses that have 98% safe and painless strategies like Lady Butterfly and the flaming bull. Some of these bosses you have to buckle down and engage aggressively like Timex said.
But not all! There are no guarantees in this game! There is no single way to play that will get you through every fight. I can’t stress this enough.
Wow that’s crazy. Once I figured out the strategy I killed him the first try. Maybe one or two heals? So much easier than getting roflstomped by facing up his charge.
If you’re super stuck maybe make your own video. Now I’m curious.
Haha I liked this fight. Yet another specific teaching moment and you feel like a samurai badass when you do a clean run. Obviously the flash of light is what to watch for. Even then it’s ultra fast. I had to reach my right hand over and press LB instead of using my left finger. It’s faster that way.
You… don’t think I’m healing myself…?
I don’t know what to tell you, though. I’d already tried what you suggested and it didn’t work. He’s way too fast, not plodding at all like a real bull. He whips around and charges and sometimes what you describe works, and sometimes it seems like my hit box is 10 feet in front of me.
Sekiro got you down? Thought you were a Souls Master but never learned how to parry (like me)? The solution? Vanilla Ice’s classic “Ninja Rap” on endless loop takes the piss out of it pretty quickly, and led to far less enraged Alt+F4’s.
No, I meant that I only used one or two heals. That’s how effective the strategy was.
If this game had a bonfire ascetic system I’d revive that boss and record a video. If you want to record your own then we might be able to comment.
That’s a good idea, maybe I’ll try that at lunch.
It’s more that I’m not 16 years old. I don’t need a twitch reflex test in my Souls-like game.
I beat him, but it wasn’t fun.
We’re going to get through Sekiro together as a forum. I won’t let you guys give up! The Dragon Heir needs you!
Trading boss fight strategies is so much more fun than trading solutions to ludicrously obscure mechanics and secrets in Dark Souls.
@ShivaX I’m 37, so I guess it made me feel like a 16 year old again for just a few moments. Hehe
Do you have the firework arm and are you abusing the shit out of it?
Yes, it works about 30% of the time I use it. Often he just ignores it. I’ve used it right in front of him when he charges at me and that has stopped his charge 0% of the time. It only works if he’s just standing still, and then only about a third of the time.
I even have it upgraded!
I mean when I finally did it, it felt pretty good, but I’d also resigned myself to just cheesing him down by any means necessary.
Ah, I remember when I was 37 and I thought my reflexes were slow. Wait until you get into your 40’s, it slides away quick. :)