Combat Arts Guide

An extensive guide on which combat arts to use in regular play and on how to get the most use out of them.

Overview

There are 18 combat arts in Sekiro, offering various offensive abilities to the player and - as one might guess - their effectiveness varies. This guide serves to demonstrate the power and utility of each skill and will also demonstrate what peculiar, situational uses they might have. This guide combined with my Prosthetic Tools guide will allow you to become the ultimate shinobi and acquire Prime Nippon Swagger.

TL:DR

If you don't care about me breaking down the uses of each skill, here's the short version:

- Just use Mortal Draw with the jump attack and you're set for the end game
- Spiral Cloud Passage is insane against enemies that cannot block and can be used to set enemies aflame with ease, it is great with Bestowal, Living Force and Divine Confetti
- Ichimonji is ideal for a first playthrough since it can be acquired right after the first boss

- The rest sucks, hard

Game Design Oversight?

Unfortunately, as with the prosthetic tools, a significant portion of the combat arts are worthless. Many are outclassed by their straight upgrades, while others have their jobs done better by something else.

A major problem with Sekiro's combat arts system is it's dissonance with the posture system. Deflections as a core mechanic offer very high posture damage build up and many combat arts rely on continuously interrupting the enemy, meaning that they cannot hit you, thus you cannot deflect their attacks. This means some combat arts end up working against the player, since the posture damage done by them is much slower than regular sword swings combined with deflections. Thus in general combat, some early arts should be ignored.

Not cutting the mayonaise

Underwhelming:
Whirlwind Slash, Exorcism, Floating passage - I won't talk about these skills in detail, to put it briefly, their vitality and posture damage are so underwhelming that hitting your enemy with the sword and deflecting is more effective than weaving them into your playstyle.


Outclassed:
Nightjar slash; Mortal Draw, Ichimonji; Praying Strike; Leaping Kick; Shadowrush


Note that this guide does not take game progression into account, thus will rate each skill at face value. For example, the Whirlwind Slash might be better than nothing when you start the game, but it falls off immediately.

With that, we are left with only 9 combat arts, I will rank them based on their spirit emblem cost.

Emblem cost - ZERO

These skills can be spammed indefinitely, meaning they could be a powerful method of spicing up your gameplay.







Let's get the Nightjar Slash Reversal out of the way first, this skill is just gimicky ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It allows you to engage and disengage from combat, which may sound interesting. However it is severely outclassed by the Chasing Slice ability you can follow up a shuriken throw with, and as for the "disengagement" part, you just never would want to do that in Sekiro, dashing to the side or jumping over an attack will always be superior. In essence, this skill is unsalvagable. Your built in tools are quicker and better.







Starting with Ichimonji Double, we're getting into the good stuff. Double Ichimonji is a solid gap-closer and makes human enemies reel from your strikes. It also fully restores your posture which, while useless on later NG+ cycles, comes in very handy on a first playthrough. The first hit can also be charged for more damage, let your enemies walk into your slash! Overall it is a solid and very simple addition to your arsenal, it can help turn a battle's tide in your favor.







Coming up is High Monk, a skill I had absolutely no experience with before making this guide. It's first hit is once again a solid gap closer, whereas the rest of the combo stuns the enemy while building up posture damage. Most foes will have trouble blocking all attacks, resulting in fair posture and vitality damage. Overall, I'd rate it slightly higher than Ichimonji, because the first attack can be used to jump over perilous attacks.

Emblem cost - TWO

These abilities are more costly, but all of them offer a unique dimension to gameplay

Let's continue with Ashina Cross. While not a skill to weave into combos, Ashina Cross gives you the ability to hold your sword in it's sheat, thus you can wait for enemies to wander into your sword. The posture damage is high, but the Vitality damage is simply insane. It is thus a great skill to use in situations where an enemy is left vulnerable for a longer period, such as after Issin's Ichimonji or Flame attacks. This skill is made vastly more effective when used as a follow-up mid-air after jumping over a perilous attack, for example against the Headless Ape's grab.

Coming up next is Dragon Flash! This move is the player's one and only ranged attack that actually deals damage! Said damage is mediocre, but it's range is infinite. When charged, the first slash is followed up by a shockwave which deals damage once more, the two hits combined are about equal to the Ashina Cross' damage output. Some bulkier enemies may be hit by the shockwave multiple times, allowing for extra damage, but this only happens once in a blue moon. Overall, there is very little reason to use this move, since the long charge-up means you will never want to use this in boss battles. While the range is very nice, the damage is not high enough for this skill to be used to snipe dangerous foes, like the gun fort's sentries.

For our final 2-cost combat art, Shadowfall combines distance closing with damage dealing. This move is an improvement upon Shadowrush, and like it's predecessor can be used to combo into whatever mid-air prosthetic tool combo the player wishes to execute, however this move can also be followed up with a mid-air double slash at no additional cost. The damage caused by this move is heavy, but will most often be blocked by stronger foes. The distance shadowfall covers is even longer than your Chasing Slice, this combined with the damage means it might be desirable to use this skill instead of the shuriken for double the emblem cost. The fancy factor alone makes this skill worthwhile if you ask me, plus your dad uses it too. How cool.

Emblem cost THREE (or more, or less)

And with that Ladies and Gentlemen, we've reached the anime-esque final moves in our beloved videogame, it is at this point that watashi recommend anata to unsheath your kusabimaru and put on anata no kimono desu. These moves all focus on dealing crushing damage to your foes, but they all go about it in a different way.









Let us begin with the simplest of the all, One Mind. This skill allows one to strike the enemy with a flurry of moves, which can be followed up with a strong unseathing slash, dealing solid posture and vitality damage, however it's effect is greatly reduced by blocking, thus it is once again best utilized on enemies such as the ape, or on the drunkards. This skill is easy to land and gets the job done, starting it mid-air, especially after jumping over a perilous attack greatly improves its effectivity. Unfortunately the flurry moves of the blade do not benefit from getting buffed by Living Force.

Spiral Cloud Passage is a similar flurry move, which showers the enemy with swift cuts while drifting forwards, however, unlike One Mind, Cloud Passage benefits from the Living Force buffs, as well as Divine Confetti and the Bestowal ninjutsu. This makes it the perfect tool for applying the Burn status instantly, or DPS-ing down apparitions, as well as decimating any enemy without the ability to block. Once an enemy is set aflame, this move ravages their health and posture, combined with sugars, this move is fearsome. Furthermore, you may stop mid-combo without any recovery in case you want to evade, every pair of flurries costs one emblem, thus the full combo of six flurries comes out at the same cost as One Mind. Quite a deadly ability, lucky that none of our enemies use it against us, amirite?


And I've saved the best for last fellas, Empowered Mortal Draw is undoubtedly the king of burst damage. Ludicrous vitality and posture damage with STYLE is the name of the game here, even bosses are helpless against this beast of a combat art, and even in higher NG+ cycles you can skip an entire healthbar via spamming it. I normally do not endorse using tools which let you brainlessly skip a section of a fight, but the Mortal Blade just looks and sounds far too satisfying not to stick with. Unlike regular Mortal Draw, you may charge up your slashes and deal even greater damage, in an arc with impressive range. Also, I am pretty sure this is a programming error, but if you trigger this art mid-air, your strike will deal as much damage as if you had fully charged it, making this THE combat art for jumping over perilous attacks. Good things don't come cheap however, each swing of the blade costs 3 spirit emblems and the recovery window after the blade's use is lengthy. Yet, the damage you deal is serious, even through enemies who block your strikes, making this perhaps the best skill in the game.

Utility comparison

The vast majority of combat arts can be sorted into groups based on what they are trying to specialize in. Using this group sorting we can conclude which move is the best in it's specific application.

Firstly, let's get the gimmicky Dragon Flash out of the way. It tries to do something unique and sucks at it. Dragon Flash as a ranged attack is pitiful, and sucks in a sword fight.

General combat; High Monk may be able to evade sweeping attacks, but when contrasted with a simple jump into Mortal Draw combo, it's pitiful. Ichimonji Double offers a unique take in that it lends itself well to any encounter, helps you recover posture while keeping the pressure on, and is free.

Closing distance; in this regard nightjar reversal is beaten by Shadowfall plainly. Nightjar reversal is beaten by innate skills - Chasing Slice and your dash - and just doesn't help you kill enemies.

DPS: This group has the most contenders, with Empowered Mortal Draw's jump attack coming out on top. Ashina cross is cool and all, but it has no advantages over Mortal Draw, except perhaps its emblem cost. One Mind just sucks really hard, it can be blocked and it's damage is lame comparatively, it should cost 2 emblems in my opinion. Spiral Cloud Passage is a strong contender, but unlike Mortal Draw, it can be blocked, meaning it will not do you much good against many foes. It's ability to be used with the Flame Vent and Divine Confetti make it situationally optimal however.

Personal Notes

High Monk, Nightjar, Nightjar Reversal, Dragon Flash, One Mind, Ashina Cross, Ichinmonji, Praying Strikes, Exorcism, Leaping Kicks, Shadowfall, Whirlwind Slash and Floating Passage are ALL OBSOLETE, as with my prosthetic tools guide, in depth analisis reveals that combat arts too are a very flawed game mechanic unfortunately.

Shadowfall does have some utility and I adore it's style, but a shuriken with Chasing Slice fills the same role better, because the speed of the shuriken throw means you can immediately interrupt posture regeneration, unlike with Shadowfall.

Ichimonji Double does have some viability, especially since it is available right after killing Gyobu, it can be used in general combat with zero setup, it doesn't leave you vulnerable and can recover posture, an impressive skill for zero emblems. It is of little use in later NG+ cycles however, as at that point a single mistake often means death, rendering the player's posture meter a non-factor.

Spiral Cloud Passage does fare better for it's cost against enemies which can't block, and is seemless to initiate and to recover from, with the aforementioned Living Force and Divine Confetti combos, it is situationally even better than Mortal Draw. Certainly a very appealing option, visually and performance-wise.

But in the end, all my experimentation just confirmed the obvious, that Mortal Draw is in fact devastating and that most of the skills pale in comparison. It can be weaved into general combat via using it as a riposte for sweeping attacks. This combined with the fact that it's the only combat art whose power is still fierce even when one runs out of spirit emblems puts it above all. It is doubtlessly the king of combat arts, simple as it is to use.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out my guide on Prosthetic Tools as well, which I made 3 years ago. Kept you waiting, huh?



PS:
I put a couple extra playthroughs into the game lately and realized that a rather obvious application of combat arts is missing from my guide and should be mentioned.

There area several situations in which deflecting enemy attacks leaves you in a cinematic "pushed back" animation, most bosses have such attacks and while you are left immobile for a brief moment when this happens, you may still charge weapon arts, leading to better results than a simple charged or regular sword swing - especially because in some instances your regular hits don't close enough distance where weapon arts might.

Some enemies are incapable of blocking the follow-up move on Ichnimonji Double. For example when Genichiro uses the Tomoe-style flurry move, it is optimal to deflect every strike, then riposte with a double Ichimonji strike. Both of them will connect and deal severe vitality and posture damage. Isshin can also be riposted in such a fashion. Many bosses are out of range for this technique though sadly. All in all this just makes the already great Ichimonji stand out even more from the chaff.

On later NG cycles battles are so drawn out that there is merit in arguing that spirit emblems are better spent on prosthetics than on Mortal Draw to allow for a more free and enjoyable playstyle. Once you run out of Emblems though, Mortal draw is still ludicrously powerful.

[Crowley42]

I put some extra hours into the game and updated the final segment of the guide to include some applications where weapon arts can be used to recover from stunned animations after a deflect. TL:DR if you weren't already using Ichimonji, you should be.

[Alex]

The weird punctuation aside (commas. Commas everywhere lol) thank you very much for this guide. Appreciate it!

[SphfinkTuuR]

Praying Yikes? ---PrAyiNg YiKeS!--- Ahem...Whirlwind slash does chip damage on block but you could use PAinTiNg KiTeS for some reason, I mean, Idk what "outclassed" means at all here, if we're opting for a move that does no physical dmg at all...and don't @me with posture. I don't care. Just shut the game off. It make the same progress and takes less effort.
.
Other ex before TL;DR: you could become the devoted bride of using Shadow Rush/Fail, and then you can be Mikiri Countered a single time and molested by your father. Your maxed health bar drains to match Hitler's pp within one move. This type of stuff missing will induce a stroke. Stop scrolling and get me help, before I tell you why High Monk outclasses your mom, even nerfed. Yes, I'm not sorry you didn't earn it well. No, using Mortal Drawl on enemies who tank it and hit you for more is not waifu material. You need Chuck Norris on DVD.

[John Shirt]

Idk if this is too helpful, but one mind is good early on in the game, even in ng+7. It's sort of a more situational/commital ashina cross. While really, niche, early on you can just kinda throw out one mind and watch the early bozos fall without much effort. Past that, it's still good for any openings slightly larger than an ashina cross opening.

[Gilgamesh]

ichimonji double my beloved

[Micah]

Filling posture is useless on ng+7

[miku simp]

I can assure you that the double bonk (ichimonji) remains completely viable even at NG+7. Mortal draw burns through your spirit emblems very quickly. You'd think maxed out emblems + dagger would last you, but on higher NG's the bosses get super tanky and fights get really drawn out. Ichi double has great stagger and clears your entire posture bar in two swings making it very strong for fights like genichiro, owl, or even saint isshin.

[Micah]

*sweeps

[Micah]

Sakura dance for lightning or seeps is good

[Eruredraith]

While I generally agree with the points mentioned here, I do feel that it is worth bringing up the utility of some of the 0 cost skills.

While whirlwind slash doesn't have high dps, its great for crowd control in the early game costing no spirit emblems, and can be used in some hit-and-run strategies used to chip away at enemy health, even when they block.

Praying strikes exorcism is underrated imo, what you want to look at is its charged version, which can stagger quite a few bosses out of their moves. (Emma and Isshin's grab attacks, most of fire Isshin's phase 2 moves, Owl's overhead attack and Isshin's phase 2 large aoe cleave come to mind) It comes out much faster and has longer range than ichimonji double, with the same or slightly higher stagger potential.

Also, while it was nerfed since launch, High monk serves as a much better counter to sweeps than jumping on enemies, as it does much more posture damage.