How do you deal with more than one enemy at a time?

[11clock]

You can only parry one attack at a time, so multiple attacks at once is not something you can deal with via parries. Also, your dodge has a large cooldown, making it likely to get hit by another enemy's attack before you can recover. In Sekiro I usually deal with multiple enemies with dash-in-attack-dash-out tactics or just stealth, but these aren't options here either when you are limited to 2D movement, and again you can't spam dodge in this game.

I'm not really sure how to deal with crowds, and now the game is forcing me into a duo boss fight that I have no idea how to counter. Any advice?

[林博仁(Buo-ren Lin)]

Originally posted by 11clock:

You can only parry one attack at a time, so multiple attacks at once is not something you can deal with via parries.

Regular parries don't have a cool-down time, so you technically CAN parry multiple attacks as long has you can handle the timing.

Originally posted by 11clock:

Also, your dodge has a large cooldown, making it likely to get hit by another enemy's attack before you can recover.

That's true, so you need to avoid such situations and deal them one by one.

Originally posted by 11clock:

In Sekiro I usually deal with multiple enemies with dash-in-attack-dash-out tactics or just stealth, but these aren't options here either when you are limited to 2D movement

You technically can dash-in and dash-out, only being limited in a two-dimensional space.

Originally posted by 11clock:

the game is forcing me into a duo boss fight that I have no idea how to counter.

The movement speed of the two bosses are different, lure-out and deal with the faster one first.

[leo_gear]

Firstly, you can parry multiple attacks at once. Depending on the timing, it's not difficult to parry several attacks one after another. You can literally spam parry to protect yourself and even if your HP bar is reduced to internal damage, so long as you parry (precise parry or imprecise parry) you will not die and your HP will recover slowly.

Second, if you are talking about weaker foes, you can use Arrows to deal with multiple enemies quickly but you only get a limited amount of arrows and the chance to recover an arrow after a kill isn't guaranteed so you should attempt to avoid getting in a situation where you need the arrow to get you out.

Thirdly, you certainly can use stealth if you unlocked the Shadow Strike skill. This gives your arrows, charged attack, talisman or the 3rd hit on your combo a damage boost when attacking a foe from behind. Often you can kill standard enemies with a Shadow Strike.

Fourthly, kite. You can charge your charged strike while running, jumping, dodging and parrying. If you get hit or do an imprecise parry, it disrupts your charge, however. You can just run and kite that pair of bosses and just charge attack the one who gets close. I recommend trying to wear them both down but take them out one at a time so you maximize the time to hit Goumang when she starts ringing her bell.

[devilcukie]

Fortunately the game does not force you to fight duo boss like Guardian apes, and there's not really many cases you have to fight multiple enemies. The best tool i found is the azure arrows(cloud piecing or thunder one). there's also jade for multiple talismans attachment.

[BurntSoyMilk]

Originally posted by devilcukie:

Fortunately the game does not force you to fight duo boss like Guardian apes.

Goumang is easily a worse boss duo than Guardian Apes. Maybe I missed something because I only played it once, but it just felt like a bunch of overlapping attacks and running back and forth. 

With Guardian Ape's, they have set intervals where they each attack you separately while the other backs off. They also have attacks that fill in the blank parts of each other's combo. Even though it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥, you can still see effort put into making it a good duo fight. Goumang felt like they just threw Ornstein and Smough into a 2D room, but you can't use positioning or break them away from each other well because of the nature of a 2D game. 

Also you can skip the duo ape fight.

[11clock]

I managed to beat the duo boss with kiting strategies, thanks for the tips.

The boss in the prison ended up being even worse, but thankfully I had the bow upgraded some at that point, and the enemies regularly dropped more charges.