Generally the hardest boss?

[The Perciprical]

Since I just achieved the "all bosses" achievement, and struggle to understand how even longtime players struggle with Isshin as a boss, who's actually the most difficult (based on experience)
I have only 100+ hours in the game.

[4tado]

So far I've made it as far as just beating Genichiro. Bosses including notable mini-bosses I've fought were the 2 generals, chained ogre, blazing bull, gyoubu, drunkard guy, lady butterfly, lone shadow swordsman, jinsuke, genichiro.
The hardest in my opinion so far is Seven Ashina Spears in the Resevior. I can't count how many times I did the little stealth run to him got the first blow only to die shortly after. He seems to be a Miriki reaction test but even when I land a bunch I still can't get him. I can attack him by jumping around him souls-like but I never even got close to beating him and as soon as I found out he's optional / known to be tough I moved on I'll come back later.

[opus132]

Originally posted by Ringo:

So far I've made it as far as just beating Genichiro. Bosses including notable mini-bosses I've fought were the 2 generals, chained ogre, blazing bull, gyoubu, drunkard guy, lady butterfly, lone shadow swordsman, jinsuke, genichiro.
The hardest in my opinion so far is Seven Ashina Spears in the Resevior. I can't count how many times I did the little stealth run to him got the first blow only to die shortly after. He seems to be a Miriki reaction test but even when I land a bunch I still can't get him. I can attack him by jumping around him souls-like but I never even got close to beating him and as soon as I found out he's optional / known to be tough I moved on I'll come back later.

Cross over from the other thread, but Seven Ashina Spears is a case in point to what i said there. Wanton aggression just won the day for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS_ZjizMP-I

He actually seems particularly vulnerable to this (possibly intentionally) because you can actually stagger him out of some of his attacks if you hit him. This means that if you keep hammering at him, he'll default to only two types of responses. A single riposte, which you can deflect with ease, or he starts spinning his spear overhead, which leads to a big slam attack which if you can deflect he follows up with that move you can use Mikiri on. With the latter you just need to be careful because once you step on his spear sometimes he does a follow up attack but if you can deflect it he loses his balance which gives you several free strikes.

[4tado]

Originally posted by opus132:

Cross over from the other thread, but Seven Ashina Spears is a case in point to what i said there. Wanton aggression just won the day for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS_ZjizMP-I

He actually seems particularly vulnerable to this (possibly intentionally) because you can actually stagger him out of some of his attacks if you hit him. This means that if you keep hammering at him, he'll default to only two types of responses. A single riposte, which you can deflect with ease, or he starts spinning his spear overhead, which leads to a big slam attack which if you can deflect he follows up with that move you can use Mikiri on. With the latter you just need to be careful because once you step on his spear sometimes he does a follow up attack but if you can deflect it he loses his balance which gives you several free strikes.

Apologies I deleted the thread I started about blocking because you proved me wrong and I felt dumb lol :)
And yup that follow up attack he does is prob what was throwing me off. I remember hearing that it's the only such miriki follow up in the game so maybe he's there to teach you how to time it better. When he killed me it was usually after landing a miriki, and attempting to jump away where he'd whack me with the back of his stick. It seems his posture bar goes day way faster than average so to beat him you need to be super aggressive. There are times that I'm able to get a whack or 2 in but I haven't been able to confidently determine when's a good time to attack, I guess it's down to responding to what he does after landing the miriki. I'll go back and try him again now that I have more attack power from being Genichiro.

[4tado]

First attempts 11:00 - 16:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PP9NV53R8U
Second attempt 9:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POo3E0VgOg

I guess I'm doing it wrong but my god he is hardddddddddd

[The Perciprical]

Originally posted by Ringo:

Originally posted by opus132:

Cross over from the other thread, but Seven Ashina Spears is a case in point to what i said there. Wanton aggression just won the day for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS_ZjizMP-I

He actually seems particularly vulnerable to this (possibly intentionally) because you can actually stagger him out of some of his attacks if you hit him. This means that if you keep hammering at him, he'll default to only two types of responses. A single riposte, which you can deflect with ease, or he starts spinning his spear overhead, which leads to a big slam attack which if you can deflect he follows up with that move you can use Mikiri on. With the latter you just need to be careful because once you step on his spear sometimes he does a follow up attack but if you can deflect it he loses his balance which gives you several free strikes.

Apologies I deleted the thread I started about blocking because you proved me wrong and I felt dumb lol :)
And yup that follow up attack he does is prob what was throwing me off. I remember hearing that it's the only such miriki follow up in the game so maybe he's there to teach you how to time it better. When he killed me it was usually after landing a miriki, and attempting to jump away where he'd whack me with the back of his stick. It seems his posture bar goes day way faster than average so to beat him you need to be super aggressive. There are times that I'm able to get a whack or 2 in but I haven't been able to confidently determine when's a good time to attack, I guess it's down to responding to what he does after landing the miriki. I'll go back and try him again now that I have more attack power from being Genichiro.

IMO the hardest thing abotu seven ashina spears is getting all the other enemies to not tag along with you. Every route I take they aggro on me. Never been able to really defeat the boss either way.

[4tado]

Originally posted by Bluw:

IMO the hardest thing abotu seven ashina spears is getting all the other enemies to not tag along with you. Every route I take they aggro on me. Never been able to really defeat the boss either way.

My fool proof way is go left use the branch, run past the corner kill the pot banger (guy there wont see you), sneak under and out of house, kill 2 guards standing there making sure the trolls don't see you from down below, don't use the grapple instead climb into the side of the house, then from there it's a straight shot to him. From there it's usually just me and him on top the cliff, and then I die

[opus132]

Originally posted by Bluw:

Originally posted by Ringo:

Apologies I deleted the thread I started about blocking because you proved me wrong and I felt dumb lol :)
And yup that follow up attack he does is prob what was throwing me off. I remember hearing that it's the only such miriki follow up in the game so maybe he's there to teach you how to time it better. When he killed me it was usually after landing a miriki, and attempting to jump away where he'd whack me with the back of his stick. It seems his posture bar goes day way faster than average so to beat him you need to be super aggressive. There are times that I'm able to get a whack or 2 in but I haven't been able to confidently determine when's a good time to attack, I guess it's down to responding to what he does after landing the miriki. I'll go back and try him again now that I have more attack power from being Genichiro.

IMO the hardest thing abotu seven ashina spears is getting all the other enemies to not tag along with you. Every route I take they aggro on me. Never been able to really defeat the boss either way.

I had to corner him to prevent that from happening but it's not guaranteed and if he gets into the house it becomes a mess because the camera is too close.

Very badly designed location i remember on one attempt he actually fell down that hole on the left side of the staircase. I dropped down but the camera was so close i could barely keep up with him and then some random mooks decided to join in as well and i just jumped off the cliff and suicided myself out of frustration.

The one positive is that it's not too difficult to sneak up on him so at the very least you can get a deathblow to start with if you are struggling and getting frustrated.

[PainkilleR]

Recently I've made this thread where I said that Sekiro feels really easy compared to other souls games. I have finished my first blind walktrhough since then.

Long story short the Demon of Hatred was absolutely the most difficult/annoying (and btw the only one) boss in the entire game. The whole concept of this fight steps into this bs territory of dark souls fights where you have to play by "programmer's rules" and not by in-game rules. For example there is this sweep attack the demon performs from time to time: he lowers his arm to the ground and sprints at you; you are supposed to jump over it. No problem there yet. BUT, if you move your character to the other side of the attack, and won't jump, he will still hit you regardless of what is shown on the screen (ie he charges at you with his left arm lowered. You stand to his right. You get hit.)... That kind of nonsense.

[Crypto Gamer]

For me the hardest one was the second memory father.

After that likely the Final boss albeit I have not fought Shura final boss and the gaunlet inner bosses yet.

Demon of hatred is hard but fire umbrella and malcontent helps a LOT.

3 malcontent usage basically can kill phase 3 by itself.Likely 2 is enough on NG if used with divinie confetty and dmg sugar.

Reduce burn status effect consumables also reduce vitality fire dmg by 40,50,60% depending on type used.

Sub boss wise the hardest for me was the loneshadow swordsman at the starting area because of the camera I often could not see his moves...

And the loneshadow who could summon dogs at the second memory starting location.....

The two Seven Ashina Spears are also hard but both of them can be stealth death blowed.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

I don't know, most bosses aren't that hard once you learn them, but the obvious ones stand out until then, like Isshin and DoH. Thing is, part of what makes those fights hard is just them being long and one little mistake can get you killed.

In my most recent run, where I came back to the game cold after a year or two of not playing, I just resumed where I'd left off, NG+12 or something, charmless + demon bell, and without contest DoH gave me the toughest time. I beat Isshin on my first try, even though I remember he was one of the harder ones, at least charmless on higher difficulties. But I kind of want to say DoH was mostly easy for me, just every once in a while in my 15-minute-or-so runs with him, he'd hit me with something weak or unexpected and manage to snowball it into my death. So I don't know if that's 'hard', really.

And then there are a few mini-bosses that I just find annoying because they're surrounded by mobs of weaklings you're meant to take out first. Although it's funny Seven Spears is mentioned here. I just sneak past everybody on the left side, stealth him for one orb, toss oil, flame vent, attack, then once he puts me on the defence I finish the fight easily in the open grassy area near the house without interruption.

But for the most part on this run, I beat every boss in the game on my first go, so I think in general once you learn them none of them are that hard. It just takes varying levels of focus and time to do that. I think Isshin is probably up there in that regard, because of his three phases, one of which has his 'wave-like' spear combos which aren't like much else in the game besides the monk.

[s0d0]

Originally posted by Bluw:

Since I just achieved the "all bosses" achievement, and struggle to understand how even longtime players struggle with Isshin as a boss, who's actually the most difficult (based on experience)
I have only 100+ hours in the game.

"Only" :D :D

I'd say Great Shinobi - Owl is generally the hardest.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Originally posted by Ringo:

First attempts 11:00 - 16:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PP9NV53R8U
Second attempt 9:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POo3E0VgOg

I guess I'm doing it wrong but my god he is hardddddddddd

So, basically, you can attack almost all enemies in this game until they don't block your sword. Often they deflect before countering, but sometimes they'll just get hyper armour and start an attack. This applies to Seven Spears as well.

For him, first off, you want to let him walk down from the house so you can deathblow him to eliminate his first phase effortlessly. Then he will give you a few seconds to do something as he recovers. I like to toss oil and go at him with the flame vent, especially if you have the upgrade to set your sword on fire afterwards.

And finally, learn the tells for sweeps vs thrusts. Nearly every enemy in the game follows this rule for the wind-up of the Perilous Attack:
Sweep - tip of blade faces away from you, generally near the attacker's side
Thrust - tip of blade is drawn back and aimed towards you

When Spears thrusts, you Mikiri, then he nearly always does a normal attack which if deflected leaves him open for your best opportunity for vitality damage.

And if it wasn't already obvious via the game itself, enemies in heavy armour like that are vulnerable to fire, so, use fire when possible.

[The Perciprical]

Originally posted by s0d0:

Originally posted by Bluw:

Since I just achieved the "all bosses" achievement, and struggle to understand how even longtime players struggle with Isshin as a boss, who's actually the most difficult (based on experience)
I have only 100+ hours in the game.

"Only" :D :D

I'd say Great Shinobi - Owl is generally the hardest.

Typo now 125+
either way great way to spend my time.

[s0d0]

Originally posted by Bluw:

Originally posted by s0d0:

"Only" :D :D

I'd say Great Shinobi - Owl is generally the hardest.

Typo now 125+
either way great way to spend my time.

Oh yes definitely!
I have 99 clocked and 0 regrets either. :)

[Peabody]

Inner Isshin or Inner Owl