I finished Sekiro, ask me anything

So after five straight days of injecting Sekiro into my veins, including taking the weekend for vacation to play, I finally finished the final boss last night, and cleared every single optional boss and got most of the hidden secrets.

I think it's a masterpiece on the level of Froms previous outings, but throughout the game and endgame cleanup I realized that not a ton of info was available to help people through some sections, as well as finding some of the hidden questlines and collectibles.

So, given that I did nothing but play Sekiro for five days straight. I figured I'd volunteer myself to help anyone having trouble or confusion about mechanics or specific scenarios. I also nist wanna keep talking about Sekiro, so if anyone wants to ask for tips or information, drop a line in here and I'll keep checking back in.

Idk if this beats Bloodborne for my favorite From title, but it damn well could after some time and a couple more playthroughs.

Yo how cool is that final boss though.

@efesell: that last boss is a culmination of all of the combat lessons in the game, and by far the hardest end boss of the main story From has ever developed.

It also highlights something I love about this game, that you can bang your head against a boss phase for hours and hours, but once you have the fight figured out, you can blow through it in like thirty seconds.

By the time I finally cleared the final boss, I could blow through the first two phases in less than a minute without even getting hit.

With the other Souls games I never felt like I was brushing up on a skill ceiling that was actual perfection, but Sekiro kind of forces you to.

What a good fucking game.

What skills did you find extremely useful and which ones do you feel weren't as good. I just got that "gain HP for finishers" skill and it gives such a small sliver of health I feel as if I should have invested those points in prosthetic arts instead.

@humanity: by the end of the game, I had obtained every single skill of the base Shinobi skillboard and I think I'd highly recommend doing that.

The gain HP on deathblows is definitely an essential one, the amount of health you gain back seems to be based on how difficult the enemy you kill is. Boss death blows can generally give you a third of your health back, and this seems to scale up as you gain a larger health bar as well.

But yeah, I'd say everything on that first skillboard is pretty essential, except maybe the last skill on the board. Make sure you get the stealth buff early, as well as Mikiri counter upgrade.

How are you doing, really?

Not looking for too much in the way of specifics, but I suppose I do have two questions that I'll keep in vague terms.

I have three skill trees, and I get the impression that's all there is. Yes or no?

I encountered Seven Spears and the Lone Swordsman the last time I played the game, but now that MLB The Show is out I'm taking a slight break. When I come back, I imagine I'm at about the halfway point but this game makes it pretty hard to tell; if Sekiro were a five-act story, which act would you say I'm on?

@cheburashka: I'm doing pretty well, have steady full time employment, a serious relationship, etc.

I remember binging games with this type of furor when I was unemployed and depressed, and taking vacation time for a weekend for a game I knew I would dive way deep into was a far more positive experience, not least of all because I was actually getting paid for a lot of those hours.

I found the gauntlet to be rejuvenating overall, and it reminds me why I love video games.

I hope you're doing good as well!

@nodima: alright I might skirt into some stuff people will consider spoilers so continue to read at your own risk, I'll try to be vague

Sekiro is definitely three acts, with the third act being entirely missable depending on a choice you make at the end of the second act. Based on what you told me, you are likely approaching the end of the first act. You'll know the fight for it when you get there, I promise.

There are more than three skill trees, I believe there are actually five. The last two are technically missable, but you will probably find them if youre exploring even casually.

If you find that you have bought everything you want in your build don’t just buy filler. Those extra points can be immensely valuable in another way.

If I haven't really liked the past From games, do you think I would like this one? Is it different enough?

The idea of no stamina bar, the added mobility and the lack of variable stats make me think I could get into this.

I was never a huge fan of the difficulty of previous From games but I might be willing to put in the work on this one.

Just curious if you think it is any better for "newcomers" vs. From's other games?

@holycrapitsadam: I dont think it's more friendly for newcomers to be honest, and for as much as is said about the leveling and stat systems being gone, you are definitely still filling XP bars, upgrading health, upgrading attack, learning skills etc

Aside from the combat being more precise and demanding, the surrounding trappings are still very much that of a souls game, except it's actually easier to lose your XP and money than ever before.

Dont come into this expecting it to click ir you bounced off the difficulty of the old Souls games. This game, along with souls, WILL require you to push yourself past the point where you feel like giving up before you're really going to start loving it.

It may feel like you'll never obtain competency, and that you're wasting time fighting and dying with no progression, but the progression is in the learning, and you WILL eventually figure it out if you commit to continuing to try.

But to answer your question, no, I dont think this is any more friendly to newcomers, except maybe if your personal taste just likes the aesthetics and combat style more.

I think if you like Souls you'll like this, and vice-versa.

How easy is it to miss the third act? Feel like I'm getting close to this decision and I don't want my playthrough to be cut short. Loving the game btw, glad to hear the final boss is a real satisfying fight.

@secondpersonshooter: Thank you for this feedback. Sounds like it probably won't be for me then. Maybe I will pick it up when it's like $20 or something to give it a shot.

@drachmalius: there is a dialogue choice at the end of the second act that will determine if you fight a few exclusive bosses and end the game early, or continue into the third act.

If you want to do the third act, make sure you pick the second, bottom dialogue choice when the time comes

Does this game have different weapons or anything that supports different playstyles? Armor sets, slow vs quick etc. I am just curious as that was something i enjoyed about all their other games.

@oursin_360: I think weapon sets have been replaced by the prosthetic tools/combat arts, which offer a range of options, many exploitable on specific bosses.

Comparing to Souls, your R1 attacks will always be the same no matter what, but you essentially have a swappable R2 function. Many of these tools have mixup and combo potential, and have upgradable variations that make them operate in unique styles.

As for armor, that is really lacking entirely. It's just not something the game was designed around; I wouldn't really describe it as "lacking", although some cosmetic armors would have been nice. I dont think you should consider this a dealbreaker.

I went through most of the game just honorably swordfighting all the bosses without much use of the tools or combat parts, but there is definitely potential there for experimentation; I think the coming months will show some of those more advanced tools be used in incredibly unexpected ways.

So did you find the dragon rot mechanic to be a factor at all? It was something I worried about excessively before playing and I see a lot of others do the same.

And it ended up happening like... twice.

One of my favorite moments early on was when I found the tool used for wood chopping and realized it operated a lot like a certain starter weapon from Bloodborne. For the following two hours I was doing a lot of hoonting with that thing as my main.

I'd say I agree, in my limited experience, especially once you get some of the skills that allow you to follow up on tools with immediate, unique strikes. At that point the tools not only change your special abilities but your overall combat style.

I don't think I ever even thought to use the tools on many bosses, I was too focused on on having good samurai movie duels with everything possible.

I'll cheese the hell out of a mini boss though fuck all those guys.

OK, so I bought it on PC and put about 90 mins into it. 30 mins left in the return window. Mostly I was just messing around to see if Steam Link input lag would make it unplayable. Seems fine, but my question is this.

If it took me four tries to beat the tutorial mini-boss (the first two death blow guy), is this game going to drive me crazy? To be fair, I've never really played a souls game before, and by the fifth time I could put him down very quickly.

@frytup: depends on how frustrated you get, you hit pockets of confidence where you can kill bosses in a couple tries, and then there will always be a few that will destroy you over and over again.

I'd say four to five tries is probably average, and this game even more than Souls is about memorizing enemy movements and anticipating attacks after knowing the animations and combos, so I beat far less bosses on my first try in this than I did in Souls.

The last two bosses i beat easily took me 20-30 tries a piece, I'm talking about three hours each of doing nothing but fighting them and slowly climbing that hill. If that's something you feel like you can do, go for it. I dont think there's a more gratifying feeling in gaming than conquering a good Souls boss, but I understand mileage varies.

I do think people are scared these games are too hard for them, and I think it's less about ability and more about drive. Anyone can beat these games if they're willing to knuckle down and keep playing, you dont even have to actively try to get better, you just will. The subconscious learning aspect is heavy in these titles.

But for my money, I would easily rate the game a 5/5 on the Giant Bomb scale.

I might wait for the inevitable Prepare to Die Edition. The climbing the hill does interest me. I'm guessing it's more execution heavy than Souls because you haven't got a stat sheet to build?

I’m finding sprinting kind of broken for big boss arenas. Some bosses I never had to dodge and was able to evade by just sprinting.

It's a complicated question. In many ways I'd argue that this game has much more simple and predictable bosses. The sword to sword combat is very defined and once you "get it" it's pretty straight forward. It's easy to forget that in Souls games you fight all kinds of demons and monsters etc that behave in erratic and strange ways. That leads to combat being all about positioning and understanding where to move and dodge. That is completely non-existent in the sword fight battles here. There are a few monster battles where you see it come through, but for the most part the only challenge you face is reading whether a slow charge-up move is a thrust, a sweep or a grab. As long as you read the right one the timing is fairly forgiving.

Also, on my second playthrough I fought the second main boss with basically twice the life and healing I did the first time around, since you have access to 80% of the game once you beat the first boss and you can just go kill all the minibosses and find all the healing upgrades. The drop in challenge between your first exploratory run and your second informed run in this game is quite staggering. Which means it's still pretty much all about the knowledge, like the Souls games.

Do you ever get a other sword also how's New Game Plus like?

Yes, but it's only used in some Deathblow animations and Combat Arts, it's not an upgrade.

NG+ is pretty easy, you take more vitality and posture damage, but enemy placement and movesets are the same. You have an option to turn the difficulty up a bit higher, but I didn't do that, so I don't know how big of an impact that makes.
I'm on NG+2 now, I'll mop up the rest of the achievements and then try the game on a higher difficulty on NG+3.

I killed a looter NPC early in the flashback area. Have i screwed myself over (i'm bang average at Souls games)?

Should i restart or carry on?

Anayama the Peddler? That NPC has a small side quest and sells an unique upgrade item for one of your prostethic tools, but according to a wiki you can get that item from the donation box.

I'd say you're fine, your playthrough isn't affected in a major way in terms of difficulty.

No idea, he's looting one of the huts and in the Estate early on and says look out for a three tiered temple to loot, i then killed him thinking you were supposed to

Thanks for the advice, i'll contine on.

@briarpack: the extra NG+ option makes you take chip damage on a block so you MUST parry.

It turns out I just sort played that way anyway so it’s not so bad.

This is good to know. I've heard there were multiple endings so I'm glad to know how to actually get into the "true end". If you do decide to end the game early, are you then able to go back and make the other choice or does it throw you into NG+ right away? I want to check out those exclusive bosses, but I tend not to make it through NG+ in these games so I'd rather play the full story the first time if I have to pick.

I'm curious about how important Dragonrot ended up being as well.

You can manually enter NG+ but once you commit to an ending that’s it. It’s telling a much more traditional story.

Thanks. I'll probably end up playing through twice at least. I imagine with the way the game's designed that a second playthrough would go way faster.

@secondpersonshooter: Thanks for the info, I ended up getting to the branching point last night. I will say its the choice that I would've picked anyway, which is a smart move on From's part. Looking forward to a second playthrough to see the other route.

There are 4 endings all told. The choice handles the main straightforward break point. However there are still 2 optional endings you can do after that (if selecting the traditional main story path) for which most people will either need to be very thorough/lucky or more likely use a guide/wiki.

Kind of like Darksouls 3 also had two other optional endings for which you needed to jump through some hoops through.

Popping back in here to share a few more thoughts

I started New Game Plus, and its incredible how fast I am running the game. I got through the first act in about half an hour just running through bosses, it's insane how a 40 hour game can turn into a 5 hour game after you gain the basic boss knowledge.

I think this game is harder than most Souls titles on your first run, but easier on the subsequent runs. Although, the game is incredibly satisfying to play as a straight boss rush with the in-between cut down; since the exploration and discovery is largely done with.

Rabdom tangent; idk if anyone here ever played Furi, but I did a couple weeks before Sekiro came out, and it's kind of weird how similar the swordfighting/parry mechanics are. The resurrection mechanic is similar to how Furi handles lives as well. Playing Sekiro again rushing down bosses further reminds me of Furi. Underrated game and if you like Sekiro, you'll probably like Furi, although Furi is quite a bit easier.

I'm starting to wonder if the Demon Bell is functioning at all, at least in NG+.

It's supposed to make the game harder but appears to do nothing whatsoever.

@secondpersonshooter: thanks for the info! Seems like it will be a cool game to try out at some point, seems a lot more streamlined though with less systems in place. Which could be a good thing for a lot of people.

Interesting. Is it like Bloodborne's true ending where you can go back right before the end of the game and do whatever is required, or are the conditions for those alternate endings missable as you progress?

@gazoinks: they are missable as you progress.

It is possible to reach a gamestate where you can reach three of the four endings, but if you complete one you will not be able to access the other endings, however you can explore the world post-game until you choose to move into new game plus.

If you want to see all the endings without playing the game four times, it's best to use cloud saved to roll your gamestate back.

How screwed am I if I have resurrected and failed? I've held off on it mostly early game. That being said, I still have 3 of those rotted heart things. Two I don't know how I got - it just gave them to me, I hadn't even tried the resurrect mechanic. One is totally on me though.

@captain_insano: not very screwed at all. Use your resurrects every time you die! There is no downside to doing this, other than temporarily losing your resurrection charge.

The dragonrot only progresses on "real" death, if you are opting to die to make the dragonrot progress slower, you are actually making it worse

That and you lose your XP and gold every time you die, so staying alive and avoiding "real" death should be priority outside of boss fights.

That all being said, it's relatively easy to reverse dragonrot entirely back to zero, and you can do it multiple times through a consumable item. I tended to use these after dying forty times on a particularly hard boss, but honestly, dragonrot and game difficulty are only tangentially related if at all.

I probably will never play this...but I am curious. Is winning the boss fights at all like beating Deathstroke in that one Batman game? Or some of the other bosses in Batman? I go through those bosses pretty well...Or is it completely different...Have never played a Souls game...

Like as soon as you get a rhythm, the fights become pretty easy...

@stabfreely: it's not entirely dissimilar, in that there's a rhythm to the fight you key into and watch for telegraphed moves for counters and dodges; you could even compare it to Punch Out to go even further back.

However, Sekiro is a lot more difficult; I guess it's hard to say if you would vibe with it unless you give it a try.

My advice to anyone playing a Souls game for the first time (I'm just gonna consider Sekiro a souls game, is that cool with everyone?) is to not do a blind run. Use the internet, use wikis, use video guides, use whatever you need to to progress and see it through to the end.

After you beat your first one, you'll have a much better time running other entries in the series blind, as they follow similar logic and scenario design and you'll know what to look for.

NG+ is absolutely not at all designed to rechallenge you which is a little bit of a bummer. If you don't take the extra option at the start of a run it's really not worth engaging with it at all beyond an easier way to achievement hunt.

Apparently the Charm you can give up applies if you start a New Game as well which is a worrisome idea that I'm kinda drawn to.

I just beat my first playthrough and I used the bell as soon as I got it (before 1st boss at the top of the tower). I think it's wild that even though it changes enemy AI and combo strings it actually makes the game easier because normal enemies do a much better job at training you in how the game wants you to play.

I struggled quite a bit against two bosses, in particular, the rest of the way. Yet, outside of that, the game didn't feel that difficult(that is not to say I didn't die a lot) I'm interested in seeing how hard things are with the NG+ charm thing and the bell active. Also, fuck the optional side boss in the Flames of Hatred it is so out of place in this game

Okay a brand new game after unlocking ng+ and giving up the Charm is a radically different experience.

Suddenly not being able to rely on block avoiding damage is fucking me all the way up.

Alright just did NG+ without the charm, its definitely harder, dunno if I'd say its harder than the bell

So what are all the ways to make NG+ harder?

I know of two: bell demon and the Kuro's charm. Any more?

I'm probably only going to do one more run, that being on NG+ for a while and wanted to get the most out of it.