Tips for a first time Sekiro player

[astro]

Hey all.

I recently beat Elden Ring which was the first Souls type game I've ever finished. I've played previous games, but I only managed to beat a few bosses. Before ER, my biggest achievement was beating Father Gascoigne in Bloodborne.

I would have loved to play BB next, but I'm waiting on a remaster/patch/whatever to play it at higher frames. I tried to play DS1 and 3, but so close to ER they felt a bit too awkward and I was getting tripped up by the similarity/differences in mechanics and some dated designs. So, I figued Sekiro would be a good one to try as it's more different and modern.

My main issue playing this game is that I have a health condition that makes concentrating quite hard sometimes. In Elden Ring I found it managable as there were quite a few ways I could buffer it with abilities, spirits, etc... but Sekiro so far seems to be a lot more intense. I can only play in shot bursts, and I'm struggling a litle... but I am enjoying the basic combat mechanics a lot. Beating the first general mini boss ( snuck up on him and took out 1 deathblow icon first, then fought him head on for the other) was pretty exhilerating. I love this early game feeling you get from Souls type games.

I'm looking for some tips, maybe some of those "I wish I knew this before I began..." types.

I'm a little confused about combat. I'm not sure exactly how I should be splitting my deflection/strikes. I'm playing quite patiently, with any new enemy I wait for them to strike, defelct, then go from there. Jumping/dodging the red icon moves, etc... but I'm unsure exactly how to balance my deflects and strikes. Both decrease enemy posture, but deflection decreases my own... should I be deflecting entire strings, or mixing in defelcts and strikes?

I'm also a bit unsure how the death mechnic works in this game, is there no way to retreive your "souls" like in other games?

Any advice would be very welcome, I'd really like to see how far I can get. Beating ER has given me a bit of an addiction to the feeling these games give.

Cheers!

 

[Dest]

The advice that helped me was Ben Pack saying "get in that ass and stay in that ass", and that helped me figure out how to play it. That's literally all it took

 

[DanteMenethil]

One tip I can give to reduce mental load/stress is to deflect by spamming the button instead of timing it. The game has failsafe for this tactic by reducing the deflect window for each mistimed deflect until you succeed one but in practice it doesnt matter. Going for a proper deflect is better mind you, but spamming the button is like 90% as good and reduce mental load by a lot.

I'm a little confused about combat. I'm not sure exactly how I should be splitting my deflection/strikes.

Click to shrink...

The general flow is to be super aggressive, spamming r1 until you hear the opponent deflect. This high pitch sound is very distinct from a normal block, you will soon be familiar with it. Once your opponent deflect you essentially switch roles and you become the defender, until you deflect the correct attack, mikiri counter the thrust, jump the sweep, sidestep the launge etc.

 

[mrmickfran]

I'm also a bit unsure how the death mechnic works in this game, is there no way to retreive your "souls" like in other games?

Click to shrink...

Nope; once they're gone, they're gone. Though there is a chance that you may not lose em after death, but it's quite low. This is called Unseen Aid

One thing to note if you die too much is to watch out for Dragonrot, it lowers the chances of the already rare Unseen Aid and you have to find a cure for it

Video for how to deal with it:

 

[Deleted member11191]

Just be very patient, you cant cheese the game like you can in other souls games

 

[Transistor]

Treat Sekiro like a rhythm game rather than a Souls-like.

 

[Spinluck]

This is going to sound boring but stay in some of the early areas where dying isn't that large of a consequence and practice perfect parrying.

Every enemy is different but you but getting a grasp on the combat early will save your skin long term as you will kill bad habits.

Better to do it now than 30hrs in where you hit a wall and go back to practice only to realize everything you needed to be good was taught to you the first 2 hrs of the game.

 

[cdudeachyut]

Game is all about parrying, but don't hesitate to attack if the enemy isn't swinging at you as that usually makes them fall into easier to read attack patterns.

 

[astro]

What exactly is it that you lose when you die, and how is levelling handled in this game?

Is it just the 4 beads thing, right now I see now way to use "souls" to raise stats or anything like that.

One tip I can give to reduce mental load/stress is to deflect by spamming the button instead of timing it. The game has failsafe for this tactic by reducing the deflect window for each mistimed deflect until you succeed one but in practice it doesnt matter. Going for a proper deflect is better mind you, but spamming the button is like 90% as good and reduce mental load by a lot.

Click to shrink...

I read this before, and I tried it, but it felt very unstatisfying. As Transistor said above, a lot of people say it's like a ryhthm game and I'd quite like to get into it that way. I beat the first general with that kind of feel and it felt amazing, but I'm just unsure on the specifics of when to defelct and when to strike etc...

Just be very patient, you cant cheese the game like you can in other souls games

Click to shrink...

I beat ER with a pure STR Collosal sword and step skills, so if I can get this to click mechanically I've got patience practised pretty well at this point.

 

[th1nk]

Just be ready for this game to be VERY demanding. For many players it is the most stressful of all FromSoft games. The bosses especially do not fuck around and there are not many cheeses. I played through the game once, it was amazing but it took everything I got. I am not sure I will ever want to go back to that head-space you need to play through the game again. You need to 'become' Sekiro if you want to succeed.

Elden Ring is a more laid-back experience because you can just go elsewhere and level up when a boss keeps beating your ass. In Sekiro you have to bang your head against the wall until you finally break through. It is exhilarating but also exhausting.

Still, beating the final boss is one of my proudest moments and will never leave me. I had to take few days off of work for it, though. 😹

 

[Deleted member11191]

I beat ER with a pure STR Collosal sword and step skills, so if I can get this to click mechanically I've got patience practised pretty well at this point.

Click to shrink...

All enemies in the game scale with you, so you can't just two shot them or tank a lot of attacks.

There are strategies that make your life easier, but if you aren't skileld you will die a shit lot.

Also, Sekiro is much, much faster than ER

 

[Dust]

Sekiro is all about offense and you need to understand that as fast as possible. You need to be agressive and dictate the flow of the fight and keep deflecting/bringing down posture of enemies. Turtling mindset will give you a roadblock from around half-way through bosses.
+Get that thrust parry skill ASAP (Mikiri? It's been a while since I played it) and master it.
+You can run/jump around as much as you like, remember that
+If enemy does a multihit string attack you need to really parry the first hit and then just mash deflect in rhythm
+Learn to tackle unblockable sweeps (with jump kickback) and thrust (with Mikiri)
+As long as there is no Red Kanji (unblockable) you can parry almost everything, even if it is a gigantic 20 meter tall sword coming down your head
+NEVER STAND RELAXED CLOSE TO BOSSES WHEN YOU KILL THEM, A LOT OF THEM HAVE DESPERATION MOVE WHEN THEY DIE/TRANSITION TO SECOND PHASE

 

[Ishmae1]

Treat Sekiro like a rhythm game rather than a Souls-like.

Click to shrink...

This. Absolutely this. You will bounce hard if you treat it any other way.

it's Parappa the Rapper: Combat Edition
(said with love)

 

[Tamath]

Iirc you can't get your XP back but the penalty is only losing the progress on your XP bar, not the points themselves. So if you're saving up points for a skill and you feel you're near a boss and your bar is nearly full grind a bit to top it off and then you have nothing to lose should you die to the boss. "Banked" skill points cannot be lost, so don't feel forced to spend them ASAP on 1 point skills if there's a 2 or 3 point skill you like the look of.

 

[Kill3r7]

Invest in mikiri counter. You are in for a hell of a ride.

 

[astro]

In ER, while I could go anywhere... I did tend to bang my head against the wall until I beat a boss. It took me 6 hours straight to beat pre-nerf Radhan lol, so I'm totally down for throwing myself against those walls.

All enemies in the game scale with you, so you can't just two shot them or tank a lot of attacks.

There are strategies that make your life easier, but if you aren't skileld you will die a shit lot.

Also, Sekiro is much, much faster than ER

Click to shrink...

Right, I got most of that from the first hour. Have any advive to deal with these things?

 

[Abi]

Hesitation is defeat.

 

[DanteMenethil]

What exactly is it that you lose when you die, and how is levelling handled in this game?

Is it just the 4 beads thing, right now I see now way to use "souls" to raise stats or anything like that.


I read this before, and I tried it, but it felt very unstatisfying. As Transistor said above, a lot of people say it's like a ryhthm game and I'd quite like to get into it that way. I beat the first general with that kind of feel and it felt amazing, but I'm just unsure on the specifics of when to defelct and when to strike etc...


I beat ER with a pure STR Collosal sword and step skills, so if I can get this to click mechanically I've got patience practised pretty well at this point.

Click to shrink...

Ive edited my post to explain the general flow a bit but yeah if you feel like it absolutely deflect like a rythm game, this is when the game becomes amazingly satifying. Deflecting multihit moves will have some trial and error for sure when you first start learning, dont be afraid to just block when you learn.

 

[closer]

tapping deflect is inordinately powerful, take a little time to learn the timing but you won't ever get a missed deflect -> blow to your face this way

 

[Kadzork]

I would also add - in regards to basic enemies - that you should not be afraid to thin the herd with stealth or run away in order to do so.

The game gives you the tools and means and you should use them wherever possible to give you an edge.

But I will also echo the need to be aggressive when locked into combat - this mantra led me to beat the game for the first time this year.

 

[Actinium]

Master the ancient art of holding your sword parallel to the ground and wiggling it.

 

[astro]

Sekiro is all about offense and you need to understand that as fast as possible. You need to be agressive and dictate the flow of the fight and keep deflecting/bringing down posture of enemies. Turtling mindset will give you a roadblock from around half-way through bosses.
+Get that thrust parry skill ASAP (Mikiri? It's been a while since I played it) and master it.
+You can run/jump around as much as you like, remember that
+If enemy does a multihit string attack you need to really parry the first hit and then just mash deflect in rhythm
+Learn to tackle unblockable sweeps (with jump kickback) and thrust (with Mikiri)
+As long as there is no Red Kanji (unblockable) you can parry almost everything, even if it is a gigantic 20 meter tall sword coming down your head
+NEVER STAND RELAXED CLOSE TO BOSSES WHEN YOU KILL THEM, A LOT OF THEM HAVE DESPERATION MOVE WHEN THEY DIE/TRANSITION TO SECOND PHASE

Click to shrink...

Ahh, okay. This is one thing I was touching on... I shouldn't be too defensive. I was "tutling;' the general at first with deflects, but it soon became apparent that I would never reduce his posture that way and mine was going down a lot faster.

I'll try to be more aggressive then, trying to shake that ER mentality....

 

[Servbot24]

For starters, Bloodborne is never getting a remaster so you'll be waiting forever. Secondly the complaints about frame pacing are way overblown -they don't stop the game from being top 10 all time. So I would say just enjoy that game now.

On to Sekiro (which might be even better than Bloodborne) the main thing is to practice controlled aggression. Cautiously chipping away like you do in Souls/ER won't work in Sekirio. You need to overwhelm your enemy, but of course you can't just button mash. Just go in with the mindset that more aggression will be required. Oh and get the Mikiri Counter as soon as you can.

 

[NediarPT88]

I'm looking for some tips, maybe some of those "I wish I knew this before I began..." types.

I'm a little confused about combat. I'm not sure exactly how I should be splitting my deflection/strikes. I'm playing quite patiently, with any new enemy I wait for them to strike, defelct, then go from there. Jumping/dodging the red icon moves, etc... but I'm unsure exactly how to balance my deflects and strikes. Both decrease enemy posture, but deflection decreases my own... should I be deflecting entire strings, or mixing in defelcts and strikes?

Click to shrink...

Some general tips:

You can recover your posture much faster by holding block. So if you are getting overwhelmed and feel like your posture is going to break put some distance to your enemies and hold block to decrease it quickly.

Enemy posture recovery rate depends on their health, so sometimes is better to take things slow and focus on dealing health damage instead of deflecting every single attack (some attacks are easy to dodge and allow you to get a charged R1 in without much issue).

It can be disappointing to deal a lot of posture damage to a boss but then screw things up at the last moment and see them recovering from all that hard work while you are ressurecting or have to create distance to heal, which is why focusing on health damage instead can be a good option when you are learning a boss since that is permanent.

Unlock the mikiri ability as soon as possible, which allows you to counter thrust attacks with a red icon. This does good posture damage and also gives you a free hit.

Regarding your question about strikes/deflect, ideally you want to keep the pressure up at all times, just make sure to pay attention to a big orange spark when you are attacking, because that means the enemy deflected your attack and is going on the offensive.

 

[collige]

My main piece of advice is to unlearn your instinct to dodge attacks ASAP. The dodge iframes do not work like they do in Souls at all and you will get slaughtered if you try to play it like a Souls game.

What exactly is it that you lose when you die, and how is levelling handled in this game?

Is it just the 4 beads thing, right now I see now way to use "souls" to raise stats or anything like that.

Click to shrink...

You lose your progress to the next skill point. You get the ability to spend 5 skill points to increase your damage way later in the game, but there's no stat upgrades besides that and HP.

I read this before, and I tried it, but it felt very unstatisfying. As Transistor said above, a lot of people say it's like a ryhthm game and I'd quite like to get into it that way. I beat the first general with that kind of feel and it felt amazing, but I'm just unsure on the specifics of when to defelct and when to strike etc...

Click to shrink...

Once enemies start parrying, that's your cue to go on defense.

 

[SinkFla]

Treat Sekiro like a rhythm game rather than a Souls-like.

Click to shrink...

This.

Goddamn I love Sekiro.

 

[DanteMenethil]

Master the ancient art of holding your sword parallel to the ground and wiggling it.

Click to shrink...

 

[astro]

The general flow is to be super aggressive, spamming r1 until you hear the opponent deflect. This high pitch sound is very distinct from a normal block, you will soon be familiar with it. Once your opponent deflect you essentially switch roles and you become the defender, until you deflect the correct attack, mikiri counter the thrust, jump the sweep, sidestep the launge etc.

Click to shrink...

Right... I tried this precise thing on the general and it seemed to work when I could time it right, but I thought maybe I wasn't doing it right as being /that/ aggressive felt a bit mashy compared to ER, but it seems I need to unlearn what I knew there.

This makes it a lot clearer, thanks!

 

[Daysean]

It is a rhythm game lol
Get in there and learn that beat

 

[Gonzito]

Dont give up, put effort to learn parry and once you learn how to do it, the game will click and you will be able to go through it

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Guard all the time. Let enemies attack you, while you're guarding you will see the rhythm of enemy attacks and then deflect them and get 1-2 hits in if you can, repeat.

Also Deflect properly, I never had to "mash" to win in this game.

 

[astro]

Some general tips:

You can recover your posture much faster by holding block. So if you are getting overwhelmed and feel like your posture is going to break put some distance to your enemies and hold block to decrease it quickly.

Enemy posture recovery rate depends on their health, so sometimes is better to take things slow and focus on dealing health damage instead of deflecting every single attack (some attacks are easy to dodge and allow you to get a charged R1 in without much issue).

It can be disappointing to deal a lot of posture damage to a boss but then screw things up at the last moment and see them recovering from all that hard work while you are ressurecting or have to create distance to heal, which is why focusing on health damage instead can be a good option when you are learning a boss since that is permanent.

Unlock the mikiri ability as soon as possible, which allows you to counter thrust attacks with a red icon. This does good posture damage and also gives you a free hit.

Regarding your question about strikes/deflect, ideally you want to keep the pressure up at all times, just make sure to pay attention to a big orange spark when you are attacking, because that means the enemy deflected your attack and is going on the offensive.

Click to shrink...

I've completely missed the difference between health and posture damage... I'll look this up now, thanks for the tip!

So there's a visual and audio cue for the enemy deflects, that will make it much easier thanks!

 

[stn]

Such an amazing game, I'm also working on it beating it. My main tip is to (DUH!) learn how to parry. I have found the game much more manageable when I started timing my parries rather than just spamming.

 

[Ninjician-]

Some bosses are defeated by attacking.

Some bosses are better defeated by blocking.

Sooner you figure out if it's a Health Boss, or Posture Boss, the more fun you'll have.

 

[hey it's that dog]

I'm a little confused about combat. I'm not sure exactly how I should be splitting my deflection/strikes. I'm playing quite patiently, with any new enemy I wait for them to strike, defelct, then go from there.

Click to shrink...

With basic enemies you can just mash attack on them until you see them deflect you (bigger spark flash, unique sound) then get ready to block or deflect their counterattack.

Being patient and observant is the right move when encountering a new enemy type. Once you get comfortable, I think the optimal strategy is to put pressure on enemies with attacks until you have to defend, then do your best to parry them into a posture break. As enemy attack patterns get more complicated, this gets more challenging, of course.

Big enemies that don't flinch will require more spacing and caution rather than aggression, I think.

 

[astro]

Some bosses are defeated by attacking.

Some bosses are better defeated by blocking.

Sooner you figure out if it's a Health Boss, or Posture Boss, the more fun you'll have.

Click to shrink...

Thanks, this souns very helpful... can anyone elaborate a little please?

 

[Robochimp]

Unlock mikiri counter and the passives that increase the amount of posture damage that you do and decrease the posture damage done to you.

Genechiro is your first true test of understanding the mechanics of the game.

 

[Blade30]

Learn timing for parries and mikiri counter and to regain your posture faster guard.

Be aggressive, unlike the Souls games this game encourages you (most of the time) to be offensive and putting the pressure on the enemy, basically don't give them time to recover.

 

[zma1013]

I've completely missed the difference between health and posture damage... I'll look this up now, thanks for the tip!

So there's a visual and audio cue for the enemy deflects, that will make it much easier thanks!

Click to shrink...

The red symbols above them mean a special attack that requires some special response. During a sweep attack, jump on their heads, during a thrust attack, use mirikiri counter that you have to buy, etc etc. These do big posture dmg on the enemy. Learn what move to do vs. each special red attack.

 

[DanteMenethil]

Right... I tried this precise thing on the general and it seemed to work when I could time it right, but I thought maybe I wasn't doing it right as being /that/ aggressive felt a bit mashy compared to ER, but it seems I need to unlearn what I knew there.

This makes it a lot clearer, thanks!

Click to shrink...

To give an idea how different the approach to combat is in Sekiro and why being aggressive is super rewarding: When you spam attacks on an ER boss, what happens (besides a few exceptions)? The boss poises through and slaps you forcing you to wait for recovery windows. In Sekiro, bosses physically block. Blocking means not attacking. Thats why when you are super aggressive in Sekiro you are in control of the fight, because the boss is busy blocking all your shit. Until he gets tired of your shit and parries lol but thats the ebb and flow of the fight.

 

[astro]

To give an idea how different the approach to combat is in Sekiro and why being aggressive is super rewarding: When you spam attacks on an ER boss, what happens (besides a few exceptions)? The boss poises through and slaps you forcing you to wait for recovery windows. In Sekiro, bosses physically block. Blocking means not attacking. Thats why when you are super aggressive in Sekiro you are in control of the fight, because the boss is busy blocking all your shit. Until he gets tired of your shit and parries lol but thats the ebb and flow of the fight.

Click to shrink...

Very helpful way to explain it, I can see it right away. Thanks very much mate!

 

[Ra]

I've actually been thinking about Sekiro myself, as my time with ER winds down. The Surge 1 and 2 were my previous experience with the genre, and like you astro I'm not sure I can go back to the Dark Souls games.

I also have cognitive issues, mine cause me to space out on concentration for fractions of a second and even in The Surge and Elden Ring it gets me killed. Sekiro seems like it is even more focus based so I'm hesitant to take the plunge.

 

[Lockness Mobster]

I really really wanna jump into Sekiro. After taking on Bloodbourne as my first souls type game and it actually becoming one of my top 5 favorite games ever, im gonna give this one a try. Thanks for all the tips everyone.

 

[Sellda]

The advice that helped me was Ben Pack saying "get in that ass and stay in that ass", and that helped me figure out how to play it. That's literally all it took

Click to shrink...

This, run toward the fight until you can't lol

 

[Zebesian-X]

Thanks, this souns very helpful... can anyone elaborate a little please?

Click to shrink...

Landing a hit on an enemy reduces their Health.

Deflecting (parrying) an enemy's attack fills their Posture bar.

An enemy can be killed either by reducing their health to zero or by filling their posture bar. Also, the lower an enemy's Health, the easier their Posture bar fills up.

The key to success is mastering the Deflect mechanic, it's much more forgiving than it is in Souls and almost any attack can be punished with it. I found myself taking down most enemies through posture rather than health by the end of the game.

 

[astro]

I've actually been thinking about Sekiro myself, as my time with ER winds down. The Surge 1 and 2 were my previous experience with the genre, and like you astro I'm not sure I can go back to the Dark Souls games.

I also have cognitive issues, mine cause me to space out on concentration for fractions of a second and even in The Surge and Elden Ring it gets me killed. Sekiro seems like it is even more focus based so I'm hesitant to take the plunge.

Click to shrink...

I feel this mate, it's held me off trying this game for so long. The fact it is still relatively expensive gave me pause, but I'm going for it... I'll let you know how I get on if you like? I'm going to try to put in a few hours this evening when I'm usually at my most focued.

 

[TheXbox]

For regular traversal, stealth is your best option. Enemies are generously stupid and the levels are designed for you to sneak around or quickly escape when needed. The hook is awesome and you should use it all the time.

Bosses are rhythm games. Parry, parry, parry. Punish windows usually allow a couple hits, rarely more. Don't overlook the shinobi tools; the umbrella and shuriken are great on certain bosses. If all else fails, you can hammer L1 and reliably block most attacks, with a 50/50 chance you outright deflect.

edit: also, you can deflect almost every attack in the game. Dodging is better for spacing than avoiding attacks.

 

[robot]

People have already said to stay aggressive, but some times people misconstrue this as "always be attacking". The way I like to think about it is with optimal play every action you or your opponent takes should be damaging their posture. If you can, strike your opponent (duh), this decreases their posture and/or their health, which reduces their posture recovery instead. If neither of you are attacking, you need to close the gap and start attacking immediately to keep their posture down. If your opponent attacks, deflect it to decrease their posture. Mikiri counter their thrusts to decrease their posture. Jump on the sweeps to decrease their posture. The only move you can't reliably utilize is grabs, though there are exceptions even there, especially with the use of shinobi tools. If something in the fight isn't damaging the enemy posture, consider how you could start to respond so it does. Sekiro has no stamina, and the animations are pretty quick, so the only thing slowing you down in combat is your own mental bandwidth.

It takes some time and a lot of precision to turn everything that happens in a fight in your favor, but if you can internalize it fights go incredibly fast and become super satisfying as you systemically dismantle those poor fools.

 

[lol_not_ok]

You're in for a treat, best combat IMO! Many people like to compare it to a rhythm game, but it's not quite that restrictive. Imagine a rhythm game where you can choose which note you play.

Two important things that are different from ER:

No Stamina management! You can run around the combat arena at will. Something I did a lot for late game fights. Feel free to disengage if you need a moment.

You can cancel out of a lot of your actions! Panic dodging works sometimes. You'll find there is still input queuing, but it's much less strict here.

 

[GungHo]

It's a dance. You can attack, you can dodge, you can block, you can counter, you can jump away, but you cannot stand still.