What's The Proper Progression Path?

[Something]

I've tried to play this game three times since it launched but gave up each time. This is the only From Software game I've played that I've given up on, and that bothers me. So I was thinking about giving it yet another go, but thinking back to all of my previous playthroughs one thing stands out to me above just straight sucking at the mikiri counters, and that is that I feel like I'm progressing through the game either wrong or the hard way.

My progression always seems to be Lady Butterfly and that fat dude outside, then the Bull and the dude on the horse, then Tachibana and Ninja Dad. Ninja Dad is where I always end up throwing in the towel. I always feel like I'm lacking something going into that fight. I know a large part of it is just a lack of parry skill, but on attempts where I land most of my parries, it seems like after parrying his flurry I don't have enough of my own bar to do anything defensively, and his never seems to build up enough. That and I don't seem to ever have enough health to give me some wiggle room on mistakes as one of his hits typically drops me from 100% to like 15%.

So I was wondering what the proper progression path through the game is supposed to be? I feel like I'm missing a bunch of upgrades and other bosses.

[L9 dorothea]

ashina outskirts, ashina castle, senpou temple, sunken valley and finally ashina depths. from there its pretty obvious where to go. just do hirata whenever

[Ritterkreuz]

For me, i did Ashina outskirts and Hirata at the same time and then move on to Ashina castle and then to Sunken valley, senpou temple and lastly Ashina depths and so on.

[FTZ35]

Ashina Outskirts until the Chained Ogre, then go to Hirata to grab the prosthetic tools and kill the Shinobi Hunter, then finish Outskirts, kill the Blazing Bull and go and finish Hirata. If you collected all the prayer beads this will allow you to have a vitality upgrade before Gyobu and 2 upgrades before Lady Butterfly.
Then go to Ashina Castle, clear the reservoir before fighting the boss, this will allow you to have another vitality upgrade before the boss.
After the castle you can go in 3 different directions but Senpou Temple is generally the easiest, after that Sunken Valley and finally Ashina Depths.
Then you have to go back to Ashina Castle where depending on your choices the game might end.
If it didn't end you can go to Fountainhead Palace. Kill the first boss there for the attack power bonus then you can do the second Hirata Memory (only available if you follow the Purification chain, if you don't know how to do that just keep eavesdropping on Emma whenever she in in the same room as someone else then talk to her about what you've overheard)
After finishing Fountainhead Palace you can head directly to the Reservoir or do the optional boss in the Outskirts.

[Something]

So should you have all the upgrades before doing the Genichiro/Ninja Dad fight in Ashina Castle?

[L9 dorothea]

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

So should you have all the upgrades before doing the Genichiro/Ninja Dad fight in Ashina Castle?

genichiro is the ninja dad?

[Ritterkreuz]

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

So should you have all the upgrades before doing the Genichiro/Ninja Dad fight in Ashina Castle?

For me, yes i did everything 100% on every location prior to facing Genichiro or Owl so i can stand the best chance of defeating them without much sweat.

[Something]

İlk olarak christmas tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

So should you have all the upgrades before doing the Genichiro/Ninja Dad fight in Ashina Castle?

genichiro is the ninja dad?

No, but you fight them both back to back essentially if I remember right.

[HighLanderPony]

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak christmas tarafından gönderildi:

genichiro is the ninja dad?

No, but you fight them both back to back essentially if I remember right.

Nah. You fight Geni the first time you climb the castle. Then you go on a treasure hunt and only face Owl when you return.

[Something]

İlk olarak HighLanderPony tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

No, but you fight them both back to back essentially if I remember right.

Nah. You fight Geni the first time you climb the castle. Then you go on a treasure hunt and only face Owl when you return.

Ah. Well I guess my mind just merged two brutal ass-beatings into one.

[HighLanderPony]

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak HighLanderPony tarafından gönderildi:

Nah. You fight Geni the first time you climb the castle. Then you go on a treasure hunt and only face Owl when you return.

Ah. Well I guess my mind just merged two brutal ass-beatings into one.

Understandable. Bad-guy-beat-down-trauma can do that. I know from experience.

[grandma_moses]

I did a quick Shura run today for some achievements. My progression path for this has been ( THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! ):

I got to Genichiro as quickly as possible, which means sprinting to the Underbridge Idol after the Ogre, then do Gyobou immediately. Then it's bull ( can skip if you want ) and just grappling upwards to the dojo and finally, to Genichiro.

After Genichiro, I went to collect the blade from Senpou, fighting basically nothing but Robert's dad and the Folding Monkeys there. If you don't do Senpou first, somehow Kuro doesn't open the area of his room that contains the Gun Fort key needed to progress ( afaik ). Back to Kuro's room.

Now I advice on getting the stone before the flower so you can skip the headless ape fight. I like to get to Bodhisattva valley idol first, then turn around and access the depths for the stone through the snake cave.

After getting the stone from the monk, simply port to Bodhisattva valley and immediately kill the ape. After that, the idols in the castle will cease to function.

Use the abandoned dungeon idol and grapple to the dojo again. Beat the mini-boss-combo there ( easy cheese available ) and go through the window to face the last two bosses on the upper level.


Now I skipped Hirata which I would not recommend in NG, but only in NG+ and above. This route is the fastest I could find and can easily accomodate for other endings as you basically just tack fountainhead / 2nd Hirata at the end of the route.

What helped me not getting lost at first was learning the three 'directions' you have to take to reach the three key items ( blade, stone, flower ). The blade starts next to the base of the stairs leading to the castle itself, the other two start at the 'back' of the castle through the stretch of forest. ( In this route that is, you can of course always get the stone by going back to your starting location and then jumping into the hole ).

Although this route is rather quick, it is definitely not recommended for a first playthrough as you will miss dozens of prayer beads and a few gourd seeds as well as some attack-power enhancing memories. But the very basic principle of thinking in terms of the three items every playthrough has to get still holds some value I reckon.

[Something]

I'm just gonna uninstall this game for the 4th and last time. I don't have the reaction time for those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mikiri counters and the game's only gonna get harder. I don't have the split second decision making capabilities to be able to just instinctively do a mikiri counter instead of a parry and I get jacked up constantly because of it. This is why I never parried in the soulsborne games. Yeah I know it gives you ample warning, but I don't know the kanji difference between a thrust attack coming in and a swipe

I hate that I have to give up on this game but this game is going to give me a stroke with all the anger-headaches it gives me. This is the one From Software game I haven't been able to just "git gud" at. If Elden Ring is like this then I think I'm done with this company unfortunately. My mental processes just aren't quick enough to handle the kind of crap this dev team likes throwing out anymore.

[grandma_moses]

If it isn't for you, then there's nothing anyone can do.

It took me 30 hours to click with the more aggressive style of play in Sekiro, and I almost gave up on it as well. All I can say is that, when it clicked, it clicked beautifully - the combat is now my favorite in all of Soulsborne.

And of course I agree with you, the sheer number of moves per boss, the new moves per phase - it sure did seem overwhelming at first, no question. I doubt you will want to hear it, but after some time you will go to bosses that seem unsurmountable in the first hours of the game and kill them in a beautiful ballett of sworddancing without breaking any sort of sweat, wondering how they could ever pose a challenge. Sadly all the DS muscle memory works against you those first few dozens of hours ( reliance on I-frames being the main culprit ).

Have a nice day, and if you do not want to play it, don't play it. :) I can surely see where you are coming from.

İlk olarak Nibbie tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

IYeah I know it gives you ample warning, but I don't know the kanji difference between a thrust attack coming in and a swipe

There *isn't* a difference. I believe it just means "danger", and all it means is that a perilous attack is coming, it has nothing to do with which one. You have to watch your *opponent*, not a symbol, and react to what they are doing

Which doesn't mean you have to react in 0.3 seconds to everything that's going on. The tells are spot on in the game, and after 15 deaths to, say, a swipe you will simply learn to see it coming and start to jump over it. But no one can spare you the 15 deaths to figure the move out. I'm just pointing that out so you won't get the feeling that if you cannot react to the things that are going on instantly in your first try, you won't make it.

It's more of a process. Example - you will learn that the boss has 2 'red' attacks, then you will learn that one is a swipe and one is a grab, then you will recognize them and push the right button. In that order, slowly and with lots of dying. We all learned this way, bit by bit.

[Nibbie]

İlk olarak Dr. Doge MD tarafından gönderildi:

IYeah I know it gives you ample warning, but I don't know the kanji difference between a thrust attack coming in and a swipe

There *isn't* a difference. I believe it just means "danger", and all it means is that a perilous attack is coming, it has nothing to do with which one. You have to watch your *opponent*, not a symbol, and react to what they are doing. Swipes and thrusts have different animations, that is what you use to react properly. If you don't think you can keep up with the game, that is fair enough, but it isn't too different from changing the timing of your dodge in Dark Souls/Bloodborne based on what movement your opponent makes. It did take me pretty much the entire game to start jumping sweeps with any consistency, but I still got through it, so it may possible you can too. Lastly, it is worth noting that if it is just Mikiri getting you down, don't do it. Thrusts can be deflected (but not blocked).

[Kleerex]

You should do Ashina Depths before Sunken Valley to avoid fighting two apes.