I give up, I'm too bad and burned out

[Ottfried Otterbass]

Warning, spoilers!

Ok, I'm on my first run through the game, I was able to defeat the well-known monkey on the second try, so far I've always had more joy than frustration and somehow I poked my way through this world. But now, at the point where I have to fight Isshin (and his apprentice) because I owled the owl out of stupidity... I can't handle this fight!! Even if I get through the first phase without any mistakes, in the second this old-skinned grandpa has been pounding me for 4 hours.

I must have gotten too old for these games. As much as I love them.

But I just don't enjoy it anymore, and when I want to take a break, I notice how more practice and skill is stealing from me every hour.

[Alexoferith]

Yo, I know how you feel. I am 62 yrs old. I couldn't even remember how long it took me to defeat Isshin in my first playthrough. But after nearly 2,600 hrs spent in the game, if I could do it, and you got this far as well, so you can. Maybe some advice can help.
First, be patience. Don't rush. This is the key to preserve healing potions, pellets and spirit emblems, especially when you have to get past Emma first. By now, you should be able to perfect parry / deflect Emma's attack. Treat her flurry attacks like a piece of music. She has a little pause among her attack. Then use Double Ichimonji on her to recover your posture. Rinse and repeat. If you have to heal, use a firecracker on Emma first, then heal.
Second, use a red sugar as soon as you kill Emma, and a confetti after that if you can afford it. Press ESC to skip the cutscene, otherwise you will waste time on your sugar and confetti.
The key to defeat Isshin, is dealing with his infamous special skill - the one where he makes the whole place on fire, then he will unleash his One Mind art on you. As soon as you spot Isshin stamping his right leg down and starting to, I guess "humming", throw a firecracker on him. This will totally stop his move. Carry on fighting him as normal. As you can see, this is why I state earlier to save the spirit emblem when fighting Emma. Even if you have got the ceremonial dagger, you really don't have much chance to use it during the fight.
You may have seen videos about using the umbrella to deal with his killer move. But from experience, the firecracker seems to be the best to keep the pressure on Isshin.
I have not mentioned how to deal with his other two moves. Dodging out to the right or left then get in to get one or two hits is the most effective way. No need to use any firecracker or umbrella. Again, this is to reserve emblems for the firecracker move.
Hope this help. Good luck and have fun.

[Ottfried Otterbass]

Originally posted by Alexoferith:

Yo, I know how you feel. I am 62 yrs old. I couldn't even remember how long it took me to defeat Isshin in my first playthrough. But after nearly 2,600 hrs spent in the game, if I could do it, and you got this far as well, so you can. Maybe some advice can help.
First, be patience. Don't rush. This is the key to preserve healing potions, pellets and spirit emblems, especially when you have to get past Emma first. By now, you should be able to perfect parry / deflect Emma's attack. Treat her flurry attacks like a piece of music. She has a little pause among her attack. Then use Double Ichimonji on her to recover your posture. Rinse and repeat. If you have to heal, use a firecracker on Emma first, then heal.
Second, use a red sugar as soon as you kill Emma, and a confetti after that if you can afford it. Press ESC to skip the cutscene, otherwise you will waste time on your sugar and confetti.
The key to defeat Isshin, is dealing with his infamous special skill - the one where he makes the whole place on fire, then he will unleash his One Mind art on you. As soon as you spot Isshin stamping his right leg down and starting to, I guess "humming", throw a firecracker on him. This will totally stop his move. Carry on fighting him as normal. As you can see, this is why I state earlier to save the spirit emblem when fighting Emma. Even if you have got the ceremonial dagger, you really don't have much chance to use it during the fight.
You may have seen videos about using the umbrella to deal with his killer move. But from experience, the firecracker seems to be the best to keep the pressure on Isshin.
I have not mentioned how to deal with his other two moves. Dodging out to the right or left then get in to get one or two hits is the most effective way. No need to use any firecracker or umbrella. Again, this is to reserve emblems for the firecracker move.
Hope this help. Good luck and have fun.

My friend, you have brightened my evening and mind! It's not every day that you get advice from a full-time ninja (2700 hours? My deepest respect!) I actually play quite aggressively and rarely stand back in combat. So I'm going to try your advice on staying calm. This boss fight will be my skill check and I feel recovered enough to let the Ashina family beat me up.

[DISRuPTED]

I couldn't understand how to avoid most of his flame attacks, i end up beating him by abusing mist raven teleport

[Alexoferith]

Originally posted by DISRuPTED:

I couldn't understand how to avoid most of his flame attacks, i end up beating him by abusing mist raven teleport

No, no, no, using Mist Raven is not an abuse to the fight. It takes skill in timing and clear head where to go. Me, after over 2,600 hrs, I still cannot use Mist Raven. Everytime I tried to use it, I bloody ended up dead, twice, or more so I don't use it at all.
Of course, you don't have to deal with his infamous flame attack move, by using a firecracker on him as soon as you spot him starting that move. But then you have to be in range first.
For players who are new or facing Isshin Ashina the first time, DON'T attack him first!!! That is to say defeating him via breaking his posture rather than depleting his health. Well, that is the primal aim. And that will require a decent success rate in executing perfect parry / deflect because when you can perfect parry, your posture will never be broken even when full. Use Double Ichimonji to recover your posture or, of course, hold the block button when not engaging Isshin to recover your posture.
There is one way to deal with his infamous flame attack, apart from using the umbrella to block out the whole duration of the flame attack, you don't really need to use anything at all but perfect parry and where to stand from the moment he starts the flame attack. Quickly move to a spot that has no flame or fire. Then you have to parry every single attack from his One Mind move. Then use the umbrella to block his very last move and then use the umbrella to attack him back. But I am not confident with parrying his One Mind attack, I will stick to my firecracker interrupting his move as the primary tactics.
Have fun and good luck.

[DISRuPTED]

Originally posted by Alexoferith:

Originally posted by DISRuPTED:

I couldn't understand how to avoid most of his flame attacks, i end up beating him by abusing mist raven teleport

No, no, no, using Mist Raven is not an abuse to the fight. It takes skill in timing and clear head where to go. Me, after over 2,600 hrs, I still cannot use Mist Raven. Everytime I tried to use it, I bloody ended up dead, twice, or more so I don't use it at all.
Of course, you don't have to deal with his infamous flame attack move, by using a firecracker on him as soon as you spot him starting that move. But then you have to be in range first.
For players who are new or facing Isshin Ashina the first time, DON'T attack him first!!! That is to say defeating him via breaking his posture rather than depleting his health. Well, that is the primal aim. And that will require a decent success rate in executing perfect parry / deflect because when you can perfect parry, your posture will never be broken even when full. Use Double Ichimonji to recover your posture or, of course, hold the block button when not engaging Isshin to recover your posture.
There is one way to deal with his infamous flame attack, apart from using the umbrella to block out the whole duration of the flame attack, you don't really need to use anything at all but perfect parry and where to stand from the moment he starts the flame attack. Quickly move to a spot that has no flame or fire. Then you have to parry every single attack from his One Mind move. Then use the umbrella to block his very last move and then use the umbrella to attack him back. But I am not confident with parrying his One Mind attack, I will stick to my firecracker interrupting his move as the primary tactics.
Have fun and good luck.

The flame attack that gets me is not even this one that you have to step out of the fire, the flame attack that always gets me is the one that goes straight forward *facepalm* my success rate of dodging that one is 20% or less.

I always escape One Mind after the flame pillar part, by using Mist Raven at that dash attack he does before all those hits of One Mind. I usually just choose to go behind him with Mist Raven.

[Alexoferith]

A

Originally posted by DISRuPTED:

Originally posted by Alexoferith:

No, no, no, using Mist Raven is not an abuse to the fight. It takes skill in timing and clear head where to go. Me, after over 2,600 hrs, I still cannot use Mist Raven. Everytime I tried to use it, I bloody ended up dead, twice, or more so I don't use it at all.
Of course, you don't have to deal with his infamous flame attack move, by using a firecracker on him as soon as you spot him starting that move. But then you have to be in range first.
For players who are new or facing Isshin Ashina the first time, DON'T attack him first!!! That is to say defeating him via breaking his posture rather than depleting his health. Well, that is the primal aim. And that will require a decent success rate in executing perfect parry / deflect because when you can perfect parry, your posture will never be broken even when full. Use Double Ichimonji to recover your posture or, of course, hold the block button when not engaging Isshin to recover your posture.
There is one way to deal with his infamous flame attack, apart from using the umbrella to block out the whole duration of the flame attack, you don't really need to use anything at all but perfect parry and where to stand from the moment he starts the flame attack. Quickly move to a spot that has no flame or fire. Then you have to parry every single attack from his One Mind move. Then use the umbrella to block his very last move and then use the umbrella to attack him back. But I am not confident with parrying his One Mind attack, I will stick to my firecracker interrupting his move as the primary tactics.
Have fun and good luck.

The flame attack that gets me is not even this one that you have to step out of the fire, the flame attack that always gets me is the one that goes straight forward *facepalm* my success rate of dodging that one is 20% or less.

I always escape One Mind after the flame pillar part, by using Mist Raven at that dash attack he does before all those hits of One Mind. I usually just choose to go behind him with Mist Raven.

Ah, that fire attack. If he is going to do one of those, if I remember correctly, his body shake or at least his shoulder shook.

[Leslie]

Easy mod if you just want to have fun and save time. https://www.nexusmods.com/sekiro/mods/418?tab=description

Don't feel bad if you use it. It's a hard game and you already overcame many of the game's challenges. It might also be good practice.