There are two types of bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. There are major bosses, and mini-bosses. Mini-bosses are often completely optional. Both boss types are special, named enemies that are much harder challenges than standard enemies. Defeating them will drop useful items like Prayer Beads or Memories which will increase your health or attack damage respectively.
Bosses are the main enemies you’ll have to defeat to progress in the game. Some bosses will lock you into an arena, while others allow you to retreat at any given time. All bosses have two ‘Deathblow’ health bars. You’ll need to hit them with two Deathblows to defeat them. This is standard, but some bosses can be defeated with a single deathblow — or can’t be defeated with a deathblow at all.
- NOTE ON DEATHBLOWS: Many bosses can be attacked from stealth, allowing you to initiate a stealth Deathblow and cut down their health by 50%. You can only do this once. If you retreat and attempt to hide, the boss will fully recover. Initiate the battle after your stealth deathblow and finish the boss in combat.
Table Of Contents
- Ashina Outskirts Bosses
- Hirata Estate Bosses
- Ashina Castle Bosses
- Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo Bosses
- Sunken Valley Bosses
- Ashina Depths Bosses
- Fountainhead Palace Bosses
- The Final Bosses
Boss: Guardian Ape
- Optional?: No
- Stealthblow?: Yes
- Location: Sunken Valley
- Loot: Memory: Guardian Ape, Slender Finger
This extremely challenging boss encounter is found in a large watering hole at the bottom of the Sunken Valley. The massive ape protects the Lotus of the Palace, one of the components required to sever the bonds of immortality. This huge ape takes two very different forms, though it shares some attacks.
Phase 1: In the first phase, the Guardian Ape is susceptible to Shinobi Firecrackers. Use them to startle the ape, and be prepared for two different types of unblockable attacks — grabs, and sweeps. You can parry the sweeps for heavy posture damage.
Otherwise, the ape moves very fast and attacks wildly. Sometimes, it will attempt to leap in the air and throw feces at Wolf. If you’re standing behind the ape, rarely, it will release a poisonous gas cloud. Fight it like a beast. Move and dodge to avoid attacks, then swoop in close to attack. Use the firecrackers to stun it temporarily, and you should be able to bring it’s health down fast.
Phase 2: After chopping off the ape’s head, it comes back to life and changes form. Instead of a beast, it is now an apparition than can cause terror. It is no longer effected by firecrackers. Swap to the Loaded Spear (Piercing Formation) instead.
This phase transforms the battle into a more traditional swordfight. The ape now uses a sword in combat. Instead of grabbing, it will now use an AOE scream that causes terror damage. If your terror gauge fills, you’ll die instantly. If you see the ape raising it’s head to the neck, retreat immediately.
If you perform a perfect parry on the ape’s huge downward swing attack that ends his combo, you’ll knock the ape down and stun him. Use the Loaded Spear directly on the neck hole to do extra damage and severely damage his posture meter. Just watch out, the ape will change its attack patterns after performing this trick.