The bosses are many players’ favorite part of Fromsoft games, mine included. This is because over the years, Fromsoft has completely and utterly perfected the formula it takes to make a compelling and challenging boss fight and this formula has only arguably gotten better with each subsequent game.

Sekiro is no exception. Paired with one of the greatest combat systems to ever grace a video game, Fromsoftware also included some of the most memorable, dynamic and difficult boss fights in the entire industry and wrapped it nicely into one game. Most fights truly feel like a dance between skilled masters of the blade.

With that being said, Sekiro is difficult. Oh sweet lord, it is difficult. Each boss fight can take you a multitude of deaths if you don’t know how to properly deal with them. So, this list serves to rank all the main bosses of the game based on difficulty but also includes notes on how to best deal with them!

13. Folding Screen Monkeys (mid-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maLlmao_9h4

How to defeat Folding Screen Monkeys

• Right off the bat, as soon as you spawn into the arena, do a full 180° turn and start swinging. This way, you can kill the invisible monkey quickly without having to do the guessing game later on which can take a long time
• Face the correct way again and go to the building on the left, where there will be a room lit up with candles with a giant door to the end
• Open the door
• Now, find the orange monkey and kill him as it is very easy to (this can be done at any point but best to get it over with early so he can’t alert the others at any point)
• Next, lure the purple monkey to the room with the candles through the opening in the roof
• When he reaches the bottom, the room will be dark so he won't be able to see so you can kill him there easily
• Next, lure the green monkey to the central platform of the main building in the back (he goes there a lot as it is)
• Once he is there, make your way to the lower parapets where you will find a giant bell
• With the green monkey on the platform, sneak to the bell and ring it
• This will cause the green monkey to get stunned, where you can grapple up to him and kill him

12. Divine Dragon (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTBO5B92QtA

How to beat Divine Dragon:

• The first phase is very easy
• Beat all the mini dragon things 
• When the Divine Dragon himself shows up, its best to dodge the wind sweeps, though they can also be deflected
• Of all the trees that sprout up, find the one with flickering yellow light at the top of it
• This is the one that will get struck with lightning
• Make your way to this tree, dodging or deflecting the sweeps as you go 
• When you’re, close enough, grapple onto the tree and shoot the lightning at the dragon once your sword is imbued with it
• After being blown back, keep repeating until the boss is dead

11. Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa (early-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBiWErimUqw

How to beat Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa:

• Gyoubu can be fought like a boss from previous games
• Using firecrackers trivializes the fight even more as they startle the horse and stun the boss long enough for a few hits
• His attacks are easy to read so deflects have a large window to land
• Grapple to him whenever he goes far from you and makes a sharp turn or just whenever you have the option to 
• This allows for you to close distance against him quickly and get a few hits in

10. Lady Butterfly (early-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX1ZWlwylCs

How to beat Lady Butterfly:

• Learn to deflect
• Deflect all of her moves, even the melee moves done without weapons such as her kicks
• You have to keep attacking, giving her any space or time away will get her posture bar to start resetting
• In her second phase, use snap seeds only after she has spawned the ghost spearmen enemies
• Use the snap seeds after you see them all spawn, don’t use them when they turn into the butterfly homing attack as it won’t work then and will waste your snap seed
• The snap seed usage always has at least 1 spearman remaining so be sure to kill him before resuming the fight with Lady Butterfly
• If you didn’t use the snap seed correctly and the spearmen turn into the homing butterflies, quickly run as far as you can and hide behind a pillar to block the attack and avoid the boss at the same time

9. False Corrupted Monk (mid-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKzN3W5IwW8

How to beat False Corrupted Monk:

• Learn all his attacks and the deflect timings for all of these attacks
• Use snap seeds to stun the monk in order to get hits in 
• Use Divine Confetti to dish out more posture damage
• Keep an eye out for his swinging attack where he sweeps a total of 5 times
• The 5th sweep has a slightly different deflect window as compared to the ones before
• He may sometimes follow up many attacks with a thrust which you can Mikiri counter so always be prepared for that

8. True Corrupted Monk (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsRBcea1KC4

How to beat True Corrupted Monk:

• Basically, do exactly what you did for the False Monk fight for the first 2 phases
• As soon as the second phase starts, quickly grapple onto the trees at the top and wait until the move ends
• When the move actually does end, you can execute a stealth deathblow from the tree, finishing his second health bar directly
• For phase 3, watch out for the move where he throws the centipedes at you as they inflict terror and can kill you quickly
• Loaded axe and loaded spear work very well against this phase

7. Genichiro Ashina (mid-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH3TBPHyDPw

How to beat Genichiro Ashina:

• Usually after landing 2 hits on him, Genichiro will do a large swing from either side right after you land the hits
• This can easily and very predictably be deflected
• His flurry can be deflected very well for good posture damage by spamming deflect button
• In his second phase, watch out for when Genichiro steps backwards
• This means he will jump up and do his triple arrow attack
• This is very hard to reliably dodge so your best bet is to start blocking as soon as you see him step backwards
• In his first phase, his jump attack will always be followed by a thrust attack which can be mikiri countered
• In his second and third phases, the jump can be followed by either a thrust or a sweep. If he takes his blade back, he will do a sweep so jump over it
• The third phase is just like the second but always starts with him doing a lunging attack so mikiri counter it
• As soon as you see him jump and grab lightning, you jump as well
• When hit with the lightning, make sure you’re in mid-air as it only does damage when you land
• As soon as the lightning hits you, quickly press the attack button to hit him back 

6. Guardian Ape (mid-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHKUPbUxOJU

How to beat Guardian Ape:

• Firecracker shinobi prosthetic is perfect for this fight
• Using it stuns the monkey for quite a while for you to get hits in
• Flame vent is also pretty useful as the boss is a beast type enemy whose fur can catch on fire pretty easily and do burn damage
• As soon as you see him running away and then turning around with his hand behind his back, it means he is about to do his poop throw
• As soon as you see that he is indeed doing this, immediately start running towards him
• This causes him to jump and miss you with his poop and you end up right under him (gross) and can start hitting him as soon as he lands
• For phase 3, as soon as you see him crouch down and sway sideways and look like he is gathering energy for something, immediately start running away
• This is the AoE terror attack that can kill you instantly if the terror builds up fully
• Deflect all of phase 3’s attacks
• As soon as he does the slam with the long wind up at the end of his combo, deflect it
• When he falls face forward, use the loaded spear on his neck where the head used to be
• This does an incredible amount of damage to him and partially brings out the centipede that is controlling his lifeless body

5. Great Shinobi Owl (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P77E3oWAiyc

How to beat Great Shinobi Owl:

• As soon as you see him crouch down and throw out the small bomb, run away
• Firecrackers work very well against him
• He has a ton of combo mix ups so always be prepared for a different follow up from a standard start move
• Many combat arts such as ichimonji do well against him
• Front flip attack can be deflected and then followed up for hits

4. Isshin Ashina (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuAvLqPr1MM

How to beat Isshin Ashina:

• For Emma, stay up in her face and keep hitting her
• After she deflects you, deflect a couple of her moves then repeat the process
• Don’t stay at a distance
• Most of Isshin’s moveset can be trivialized by the firecrackers
• Use firecrackers as soon as he starts his animation
• Animation of first ichimonji can be interrupted but not the animation or attack of the second one
• Watch out for the the read of Isshin’s One Mind move and run away as far as you can when you see it
• This is one of his most dangerous moves as it can completely obliterate your health bar. You can try to deflect this but it is very risky
• Most important note for this fight is to always use the firecrackers as soon as he is starting any combo
• Just memorize his moveset enough to the point where you realize which moves can be interrupted with firecrackers, with like 80% of his moves being interruptible
• Learn this and use firecrackers as soon as he is starting up any of the interruptible moves

3. Isshin, Sword Saint (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x7jXMs7sHI

How to beat Sword Saint Isshin:

• First phase is fairly straightforward
• Watch out for all the tells of his sweeps and thrusts and react accordingly
• He does a palm strike that is always followed by a thrust so expect this to Mikiri counter it
• Whenever he runs a bit to the left or right, he is ready to do a slash that can do a ton of damage so be careful and deflect at the right time
• His most confusing move is an AoE wind slash that has a very long wind up and is difficult to run away from if you are right in front of him and is very delayed
• This can be blocked but will still deal vitality damage so since it is very delayed, learn to deflect at the last moment
• 2nd phase is the hardest as he brings out a massive glaive from the ground, increasing his moveset and range significantly
• As soon as the second phase starts, run away as the phase transition where he brings out his glaive can do damage to you
• Apply any new buffs/heal while he is taking the glaive out
• His flurry is a 7 hit combo that’s very fast but repeatedly pressing deflect won’t work to get you perfect deflects
• Each subsequent attack comes out a little delayed than the one before
• So, don’t spam deflect button and instead learn the timings
• Bait his slam by staying at a distance as this is very easy to deflect
• Keep in mind most of his combos will end in his thrust attack that can be mikiri countered 
• That’s why you shouldn’t be impatient and start hacking away at him as soon as you think his combo has ended
• When you see him running towards you, start running to the left or block as he may bring out his rapid fire gun to deal a ton of damage
• Phase 3 is identical to phase 2 but a little easier due to lightning attacks
• Lightning attacks do a ton of damage but reversing them is easy and do a lot of damage to Isshin and stun him for you to get more hits on him
• When you see him jump in the air, jump as well and press the deflect button 
• If he jumped to do a lightning attack, you can just reverse it like you’re supposed to
• However, if he does his glaive slam instead, you can just deflect it mid-air

2. Owl Father (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkEknpQ5Hac

How to defeat Owl Father:

• Equip double ichimonji as it is very useful for this fight
• His thrust attack is fairly easy to read in phase 1 and can easily be mikiri countered
• When he jumps back and throws firecrackers, he usually follows up with the thrust attack from behind the crackers
• As soon as he jumps back, you do the same in order to not be blinded by them and do a mikiri counter as soon as you see the perilous attack indicator marker disappear from your head
• He also has a sweep attack which is unreliable to jump on his head after because of his delays and mix-ups
• Instead, jump over the sweep and wait for him to roll over and do the overhead slam where he lifts his arms above his head
• This is also a tricky move to dodge or deflect as it is very delayed
• Dodge to the right at the very last second before the attack as dodging too soon will have him turn the overhead slam into a slash that will almost always hit
• Best way is doing ichimonji after a dodge as soon as he brings his sword down
• Punish flip slam with ichimonji
• Firecracker combo is always shoulder hit, side slash then firecracker throw
• After the 2 initial hits, just jump backwards to not be caught in firecrackers
• Remember, no thrust attacks as he can mikiri counter as well
• Phase 2 is pretty similar, just now he will throw shurikens after he backflips away so be prepared
• When you're locked onto him and the lock on suddenly disappears, just start sprinting backwards immediately
• This means he has vanished and will teleport on top of you to do a slam attack
• He will always follow up a fireball with a thrust
• As soon as you jump over the fireball owl attack, position yourself and get ready for a mikiri counter right after you land

1. Demon of Hatred (late-game)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu4_jcrSv3Y

How to beat Demon of Hatred:

• If you want to do it fairly, give up
• Lure it to the northwest corner of the map, which is the cliff area
• Once it is there, run along the edge of the cliff to in front of the castle
• This will lock the boss in place over the cliff 
• Once in front of the castle, run to the wooden watchtower closest to the roof
• Keep trying to climb up the watchtower by double jumping and ledge holding
• Once on top of the tower, sprint and jump onto the roof of the castle
• Once you are there, run to the very edge of the castle that is overlooking the cliff where the boss is and just stand as close to the corner as possible 
• This bugs the AI of the Demon as he tries to hit you from the cliff to the roof of the castle
• This will eventually have the boss try to hit you but fall off the cliff instead, ending the boss fight there

No, I am not sorry for doing this.

You might also be interested in:

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Best Combat Arts To Use [Best And Worst Combat Arts Revealed]

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice Best Prosthetics [Best And Worst Prosthetics Revealed]