100% Achievement Guide: Sekiro - Shadows Die Twice

This is a comprehensive 100% Achievement guide detailing a step-by-step walkthrough to take you from 0 all the way to 100%. If you are looking for a particular Achievement or Collectible, use Ctrl+F & type it into the search bar for more direct help.

I run support & debug help on all my guides. If you have any questions, problems, or find errors in the guide itself, do not hesitate to leave me a comment & I will get back to you as soon as I am able to. Happy Hunting!

Introduction:

Achievement Breakdown: (34)
Story Related: (16)
Character: (3)
Collectibles: (5)
Slay: (7)
Miscellaneous: (3)

To earn 100% of the Achievements in Sekiro, we need to complete a minimum of 2.5 playthroughs. There are four separate Endings that need to be acquired to 100% Sekiro. Normally & traditionally, this would require us to complete four separate playthroughs. To save some tedium, we can Back-Up Save File & re-use it three times to earn the three compounding Immortal Severance, Purification, & Return Endings. The Shura Ending will require its own playthrough in NG+ as it involves very different perimeters. We also need to do at least one run of NG++ as there is not enough Lapis Lazuli to max out all 10 Prosthetic Tools in a single playthrough.

I don’t condone these kinds of methods of exploiting Achievements however unlike other Fromsoft “Souls” titles, there actually isn’t anything else pertaining to other Achievements to do on subsequent playthroughs. Shura needs its on separate playthrough which makes sense, but to then have to beat the entire game two more times after that just for alternate Endings? I implore you to do so, as this is an amazing game… but. But. I understand if you do not.

For the most part, the bulk of our Achievements will come from natural progression of killing story bosses & exploration. The longest Achievements we will be working towards are the Master of the Prosthetic Achievement & the Height of Technique Achievement. The Height of Technique Achievement specifically will be extremely grindy as we need to farm Xp to unlock all 125 Skills in the game.

As a bit of a forewarning, death comes at a price in Sekiro (not Resurrection). When we die & are returned to a Sculptor’s Idol, there is a chance (on average every 10 or so deaths) that we may spread Dragonrot to a random NPC we have encountered; doing so will halt their Questlines. If you die often, it is possible to infect all known NPCs, but this is not grounds to restart your game. The sickness will not kill the NPC, just hinder our progress until we can cure it. Though finite, there is an Item we can find throughout the world that will instantly cure everyone’s afflictions… just be sure not to use them before we enter a boss fight or somewhere we know repeated deaths may incur. Having 100% the game, we do not actually need to progress a single NPC’s Questline except Anayama the Peddler & we do this early on. This means, you really do not have to stress out about Dragonrot as all NPC Questlines are unimportant as far as our 100% Achievements go.

For those interested, here is an organized list of all the Achievements/Secret Achievements. This is how I derive my Achievement Breakdowns & the first reference I create before I begin my 100% journeys. This Checklist also include all Prosthetic Tool Upgrade requirements & the farming locations of all Upgrade Materials.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2908716149&searchtext=achievement+checklist

*Guide contains major spoilers.

Sequence 1: A Lord & His Shinobi

1. Ashina Castle: Ashina Reservoir
2. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple, Outskirts Wall – Gate Path
3. Gourd Seeds: 1/9
4. Prosthetic Tools: 2/10
5. Prayer Beads: 1/40
6. Achievements: 4/34
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Ashina Castle – Ashina Reservoir:

Achievement #1 – Revered Blade: Received the Kusabimaru from Kuro.
Story Related. Awaken & complete the movement portion of the Tutorial; reach Lord Kuro & we will receive our faithful blade the Kusabimaru, unlocking the Achievement.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Achievement #2 – Shinobi Prosthetic: Acquired the Shinobi Prosthetic.
Story Related. After we duel Genichiro Ashina, we will awaken in the Dilapidated Temple with the Sculpter & acquire our Shinobi Prosthetic.

Outskirts Wall – Gate Path:

Prosthetic Component – Shuriken Wheel: Pass through the first area of the Ashina Outskirts until you reach the next Sculptor’s Idol at the Outskirt’s Wall – Gate Path. From here, look straight ahead to the ruined archway & Grapple over to the lower roof top on it. Enter in through a broken portion of the viewing wall & look to you left to find a dead Nightjar & the Shuriken Wheel beside it.

Dilapidated Temple:

Prosthetic Tool #1 – Loaded Shuriken: Use the Sculptor’s Idol & Travel back to the Dilapidated Temple. Return to the Sculptor & we can craft our first Prosthetic Tool, the Loaded Shuriken, by handing him the Shuriken Wheel.

Outskirts Wall – Gate Path:

Achievement #3 – Resurrection: Returned from the dead using Resurrection for the first time.
When we die for the first time, most likely against the mini-boss General Naomori Kawarada, we will have the option of staying dead or Resurrecting; choose Resurrect to unlock the Achievement.

Prayer Bead #1 – General Naomori Kawarda: Defeat General Naomori Kawarda & we will receive our first Prayer Bead. These are needed to increase our maximum Health & Posture.

Kawarda is susceptible to Plunging Deathblows; we can make our way along the upper left side of his area to get behind him for the drop attack to remove one of his health bars.

Gourd Seed #1: We will receive our first Gourd Seed from defeating General Naomori Kawarda as well; we need to collect all nine to unlock the Ultimate Healing Gourd Achievement.

NPC – Crow’s Nest Memorial Mob: After we defeat General Naomori Kawarda, stand on top of the gateway in between us & the next area; a ruined part of the village with a lot of Ashina Soldiers in it. Before dropping down into it, look off your left to see an isolated rocky plateau with a crow covered tent in between two trees. This is where we need to get up to. Skirt around this plateau to its lower side & we can find a series of ledges we can Grapple up. At the top, look inside the tent to find our first Memorial Mob Merchant.


Achievement #4 – Memorial Mob: Encountered the Memorial Mob.
Speak to any Memorial Mob NPC to unlock this Achievement; there are six different Memorial Mob Merchants total in the game.

Prosthetic Component – Robert’s Firecrackers: Of all the Items that the Crow’s Nest sells, the most important is Robert’s Firecrackers, a Prosthetic Component we need to unlock the Shinobi Firecracker Prosthetic Tool. The problem is, it costs 500 Sen, which is a hefty amount this early on.

As good practice, I do recommend farming the Ashina Soldiers to cover the cost of the Firecrackers; keep your eyes open for Light Coin Purses as well for an instant 100 Sen bonus when consumed or sold! We can find three of these purses underneath Inosuke Nogami’s home.

NPC – Inosuke Nogami’s Mother: From the Crow’s Nest Memorial Mob, look over the plateau edge close to where we climbed up here to see a ruined house next to a bright red maple tree. Head over to it, & we can find an old woman ringing a tiny bell.

Key Item – Young Lord’s Bell Charm: Speak with Inosuke’s Mother, choosing either dialogue option, & she will give us the Young Lord’s Bell Charm. We need this Key Item to access an “optional area” of the game…

Dilapidated Temple:

Esoteric Text – Shinobi: Return to the Dilapidated Temple once again & if you have accumulated enough Xp to purchase a Skill Point, speak with the Sculptor to receive this Esoteric Text.

Prosthetic Tool #2 – Shinobi Firecracker: We can give Robert’s Firecrackers to the Sculptor to unlock another Prosthetic Tool for us to use.

Ignore the Golden Buddha statue in the corner of the temple for now; this is where we use the Young Lord’s Bell Charm to transport us to the secret area…

NPC – Emma the Physician: If you have not already done so, speak with Emma just outside the temple & we can give her Gourd Seeds to upgrade our Healing Gourds charges!

Dragonrot: Emma will most likely ask us about Dragonrot & our Resurrection when we speak with her as well. This is our cautionary warning about dying in the game (not necessarily Resurrecting). Repeated deaths may start inflicting our friendly NPCs with Dragonrot & we will receive Rot Essences of their affliction. This is just going to be a natural part of the game we will have to deal with. Unfortunately, we will not receive a Dragon’s Blood Droplet for a while, outside of the initial one we can collect when our first NPC becomes sick.

For now, do not worry too much about it; I will include the cure Items locations as well as a bit more information on Dragonrot even though all NPC Questlines are optional in our 100%.

Sequence 2: Sacking of the Estate

1. Ashina Outskirts: Outskirts Wall – Stairway, Dilapidated Temple
2. Hirata Estate (First Memory): Dragon Spring – Hirata Estate, Estate Path
3. Gourd Seeds: 1/9
4. Prosthetic Tools: 4/10
5. Prayer Beads: 2/40
6. Achievements: 4/34
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Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

Outskirts Wall – Stairway Idol: Get past the Ashina Cannoneer & get on top of the following rooftop to see our next Sculptor’s Idol on a tall stone lookout off our right. Past the Gamefowl.

NPC – Anayama the Peddler: Drop down into the small courtyard behind us & we can witness a Remnant of Kuro & Emma. Further behind us, against the gateway we leapt off to get to the Idol, we can find Anayama the Peddler sitting on the ground. Anayama is an important Merchant as he will sell us a unique Upgrade Material needed for the Phantom Kunai Upgrade.

To start, give him 10 Sen when he asks for it to learn some information. Give him 20 more Sen afterwards & we will receive the Flame Barrel Memo. Giving him this 30 Sen will unlock him as a Merchant after we Rest at an Idol & return.

The Phantom Kunai is an expensive 3000 Sen; remember where Anayama is for when we return to him later on…

Up ahead is another mini-boss, the Chained Ogre. It is pretty difficult, but made much easier if we get the Flame Vent Prosthetic Tool found in the Hirata Estate. Since we need to go there anyways, now is as good a time as any. Return to the Dilapidated Temple & pray at the Golden Buddha to be transported back in time…

Hirata Estate – Dragon Spring – Hirata Estate:

NPC – Pot Noble Harunga: Leave our first Idol up here on the plateau & drop down to the lake front. Across the lake off our right will be some isolated rocks in the water in front of the waterfall at the back. Swim to them, & we can find the Pot Noble Harunga.

The Pot Nobles are important as we need to spend at least 12 Treasure Carp Scales on their wares to receive a unique fishing bait we need for the Great Coloured Carp Achievement.

Collected Skill – Floating Passage Text: We can purchase this Skill from Harunga for 5 Treasure Carp Scales; there should be more than enough on the Treasure Carp here & throughout Hirata Estate.

We need this for the Height of Technique Achievement.

Estate Path:

Prosthetic Component – Flame Barrel: From the Sculptor’s Idol, make your way through the estate village until you reach the cluster of tightly packed homes with the large bonfire at the end of it. Around this bonfire, will be quite a few Bandits with a Bandit Archer overlooking them on a nearby rooftop. Carefully dispatch the enemies here & we can collect this Prosthetic Component in front of the bonfire.

We can give this to the Sculptor to make the Flame Vent Prosthetic Tool.
Prosthetic Component – Shinobi Axe of the Monkey: From the bonfire, carry on & we will shortly come across a wounded man after killing a lone Bandit. Speak with him & he will tell us about the “shinobi axe”.

Round the corner & take a left down the Estate Path; at the end of the path, we can unbar a gateway opening a valuable Shortcut back to the Idol.

From the Shortcut gateway facing back the way we came, enter into the courtyard off our right & we can overhear two Bandits arguing over looting/burning a temple. Dispatch them & open up the temple doors to collect the Shinobi Axe of the Monkey.

We can take this to the Sculptor to receive the Loaded Axe Prosthetic Tool.

Prayer Bead #2 – Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen: Carry on down the Estate Path now, past two Tower Shield Bandits & across the following bridge. Up ahead, is the mini-boss Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Misen. Before we duel him, stealthily take out the other Bandits around him so we can face him one on one. If you get discovered, use the Grapple to escape to high ground & hide yourself once again.

We can also use a Stealth Deathblow on him from the flower patch to knock out one of his health bars; fight aggressively to interrupt a lot of Enshin’s attacks. If you have learned it, the Mikiri Counter Skill can be incredibly useful; tap dodge in the direction of his Perilous Thrusts to perform it.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Rot Essence: If it has not happened already, the Shinobi Hunter will most likely kill you a few times, causing us to spawn back at the Dilapidated Temple with the Sculptor (& potentially other NPCs) receiving Dragonrot.

Prosthetic Tool #3 – Flame Vent: Before we continue in Hirata Estate, it is a good idea to hand over these two Prosthetic Components as the Tools they will give us will make the rest of the Estate much easier to complete.

Give the Sculptor the Flame Barrel & we will receive this new Prosthetic Tool.

Prosthetic Tool #4 – Loaded Axe: Hand over the Shinobi Axe of the Monkey to receive this Prosthetic Tool as well.

Esoteric Text – Prosthetic: After we have unlocked at least three new Prosthetic Tools, the Sculptor will reward us with this next Esoteric Text, unlocking a new Skill Tree for us.

NPC – Emma the Physician: Speak with Emma about the Sculptor’s affliction & she will tell us she will need to consult her research. Rest at the Idol, & Emma can now be found kneeling with the Sculptor. Speak with her here & we will be tasked with locating another NPC who is afflicted with the Dragonrot.

We may have already collected one, so far we can infect the Crow’s Nest Memorial Mob (Rot Essence – Crow Mob) & Inosuke’s Mother (Rot Essence – Timid Maid). When we have either of these Rot Essence, go to them & collect a Dragonrot Blood Sample from them.

Return to Emma & hand it over to her so she can continue her research.

Item – Dragon’s Blood Droplet: Rest at the Idol & speak with Emma once again to receive our Dragonrot reversal Item. These Items are finite; I recommend holding onto/hoarding them until we need to undo the Dragonrot to progress NPC Questlines.

Sequence 3: Teachings of A Butterfly

1. Hirata Estate (First Memory): Bamboo Thicket Slope, Main Hall, Audience Chamber, Hidden Temple
2. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
3. Gourd Seeds: 1/9
4. Prosthetic Tools: 5/10
5. Prayer Beads: 4/40
6. Boss: 1/14
7. Achievements: 5/34
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Hirata Estate – Bamboo Thicket Slope:

If you defeated Shinobi Hunter Enshin of Mesin, the Fog Gate will dispel & we can continue on into the Bamboo Thicket Slope.

Prosthetic Component – Mist Raven’s Feathers: Head up the Bamboo Thicket Slope a little ways & we can spot a Grapple Point just off our left to a ledge overlooking a lake. Drop into the lake, & swim upstream underneath a wooden bridge & Grapple onto a Grapple Tree off our right. From here, we can slash apart a bamboo wall to enter into the cliffside where we can Consecutive Wall Jump.

Do so, & we will land on top of a high ledge quite a ways above the lake. Head up the pathway to the pagoda (the one Anayama the Thief told us about if you bumped into him earlier in the memory).

As we approach the pagoda, a lethal Interior Ministry Ninja will drop off the roof to fight us. This guy is bad news & can one shot us if we are not careful. The best way to deal with him is to lure him near the edge above the lake, & then just jump off. Typically, he will just run off the ledge after us & die.

When the Ninja is taken care of, go to the pagoda & open the doors to find the Mist Raven’s Feathers; return these to the Sculptor to receive a new Prosthetic.

NPC – The Owl: Follow the Bamboo Thicket Slope to its end & we will enter into the burning Hirata Estate grounds. In the inner courtyard, we can find The Owl sitting against a boulder in its center.

Key – Hidden Temple Key: Received from The Owl; we need this Key to reach the optional boss in Hirata Estate.

Hirata Estate – Main Hall (First Memory):

Main Hall Idol: Though we can easily progress to the Main Hall from where we found The Owl using Grapple Points, we can also get here from the Bamboo Thicket Slope Idol as well. From the Idol, run backwards to the bridge where the Tower Shield Bandits are & leap into the river below. Swim upstream & Grapple onto a tree branch off our left where we can Grapple up to a ledge (where we drop down from meeting The Owl using the Grapple Points). We can then enter into a heavily guarded cave entrance & Consecutive Wall Jump up to the next area.

Prayer Bead #3 – Juzou the Drunkard: After crossing the inner pond of the Estate, we will come across a large group of Bandits along with the mini-boss, Juzou the Drunkard. This is a very difficult fight. Near the rocks at the edge of the pond, we can find Nogami Gensai looking over at the enemies; speak with him for some spirited resistance against Juzou.

Before we do, try thinning out the Bandits as best you can through stealth or luring them away one by one. Try your best to fight Juzou from behind; the longer you can keep Gensai alive the better!

Hirata – Audience Chamber (First Memory):

Prayer Bead #4 – Chest Bead: When we reach the Sculptor’s Idol in this area, backtrack to the hall we found the patrolling Bandits in. At the dead end of this hall, go to Hug Wall against the wall with a banner of a lone white heron near the water, & it will reveal a secret room to us. Search this room & we can loot a Chest with a Prayer Bead inside of it.

With four Prayer Beads collected, we can go to a Sculptor’s Idol & Enhance Physical Attributes to increase our Health & Posture.

Hidden Temple (First Memory):

Before we attempt this Boss, be sure to spend all Skill Points & Sen on what you can… it will most likely all be lost by the time we beat her. It is also highly likely that all of our NPCs will contract the Dragonrot as well…

Boss #1 – Lady Butterfly: After speaking with an injured Inosuke Nogami, push aside the Tatami Mat & head down the stairs to the Hidden Temple. Use the Hidden Temple Key we got from our Father to enter inside, & prepare for our first real Boss battle of the game.

We need to kill all 14 Bosses in the game to earn the Man Without Equal Achievement.


Achievement #5 – The Phantom Lady Butterfly: Defeated Lady Butterfly.
Lady Butterfly is a two part Boss fight; play defensively & do not get greedy with spamming attack. For the first phase, the majority of her attacks can be deflected. When she leaps around on her wires, use the Loaded Kunai to knock her out of the air mid jump; she will deflect them if she is just standing still. Focus on bringing her Posture down as opposed to draining her Health; when her Posture is down, we can perform a Deathblow.

For phase two, she will begin using her illusion magic. When the Lady summons Phantom Mibu Villagers to fight us, focus on destroying them & evade her & her magic attacks. We can use the Phantoms to replenish some of our Spirit Emblems.

Lady Butterfly is actually fairly “simple” to beat if you continually Dodge & immediately follow up with an attack. Dodge to get behind her & attack, & 7/10 times you will keep hitting her mid attack animation, stunning her. Don’t get lost in the system though, while it makes the fight much easier, you still need to be on you’re A game & block the attacks you need to… probably took me 30 attempts to kill her in two hours.

If Lady Butterfly gives you too much grief, save her for later. After our next boss fight in Ashina Outskirts we will deal more damage as well as have access to more Gourd Seeds…

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Prosthetic Tool #5 – Mist Raven: Give the Sculptor Mist Raven’s Feathers to unlock this new Prosthetic Tool.

Sequence 4: Breaking Their Morale

1. Ashina Outskirts: Outskirts Wall – Stairway, Ashina Castle Gate Fortress, Dilapidated Temple
2. Ashina Castle: Ashina Castle, Ashina Reservoir
3. Gourd Seeds: 3/9
4. Prosthetic Tools: 5/10
5. Prayer Beads: 9/40
6. Boss: 2/14
7. Achievements: 6/34
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Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

Prayer Bead #5 – Chained Ogre: Return to the Outskirts Wall – Stairway, & we will now face the Chained Ogre. This foe is defeated much more easily if you use the Flame Vent.

Collected Skill – Shinobi Medicine Rank 1: We will receive this Skill from killing the Chained Ogre as well.

Gourd Seed #2: After the Chained Ogre is defeated, look up above on the gateway he was chained near & we can Grapple up through a broken wall. From where we enter, head down the hall off our left & we can find this Gourd Seed in a small room.

Prayer Bead #6 – General Tenzen Yamauchi: We will have another mini-boss battle immediately after the Chained Ogre in the next area. General Tenzen has other Ashina Soldiers around him; try luring them away if you can before engaging him.

Ashina Castle Gate Fortress:

Boss #2 – Gyoubu Oniwa: Evade the Great Serpent in the Underbridge Valley & reach the Sculptor’s Idol in the Ashina Caste Gate Fortress. Go through the fortress grounds & we can drop down into a massive battlefield where we will encounter our next boss fight.


Achievement #6 – Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa: Defeated Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa.
Story Related. Gyoubu is much easier than Lady Buttfly & should not pose too much of a threat to us; though he has two health bars, he only has one phase.

Key Item – Mechanical Barrel: We will receive this important Item from killing Gyoubu, we are now able to begin upgrading our Prosthetic Tools.

NPC – Tengu of Ashina: Instead of carrying on over to where Gyoubu busted out of, head across the battlefield to the opposite side & make your way up a large set of stairs. At the top, round the corner to the right & we can enter inside a temple. Here we can find Tengu of Ashina. Speak with him & agree to help him hunt down the “rats” in the area.

The rats are actually Senpou Assassins, & there are three of them to be found.

Prayer Bead #7 – Temple Attic: After speaking with the Tengu, head up the second floor of the temple & use the Grapple Points to get up in the rafters. Walk along to the center beam & we can leap up into the top floor attic where we can find this Prayer Bead inside a Chest.

NPC – Battlefield Memorial Mob: Go back outside the temple the way we came, & head left up a set of stairs around it to find a new Memorial Mob Merchant.

Gourd Seed #3: We can purchase this Gourd Seed from the Battlefield Memorial Mob for 1000 Sen; if you have Coin Purses to spare, definitely use them to acquire this.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: We can also purchase a Dragon’s Blood Droplet to keep in our reserves for only 180 Sen as well.

Ashina Castle Gate:

Tengu’s “Rats”: Make your way up the path from the Sculptor’s Idol & Grapple onto the gateway ahead of us. From up here, look off your right to see a snowy plateau where we can spot a lone Assassin leaning against a tree with the other two looting corpses a little ways down from it; dispatch them.

Ashina Castle Gate Fortress:

Esoteric Text – Ashina: Return to Tengu of Ashina & report back that we have taken care of the Assassins; we will receive this Esoteric Text as our reward.

Ashina Castle – Ashina Castle:

Prayer Bead #8 – Blazing Bull: Enter into the new location, Ashina Castle, & we will almost immediately be attacked by the enraged Blazing Bull mini-boss. Though extremely intimidating, this guy is not actually too bad. The trick is to literally chase it around the courtyard, staying behind it at all costs; it has no rear attacks. As it runs, it will constantly plant its ram in the ground when it wants to stop/change direction which is the perfect time to attack. Do not get greedy though as if it has time to face you prepare to be mauled!

Collected Skill – Shinobi Medicine Rank 2: We will receive this Skill from killing the Blazing Bull as well.

Key Item – Gatehouse Key: After defeating the Bull, we will walk out onto a bridge with an Old Woman NPC on it. Grapple across the canal off our left & we can find another bridge spanning out. On it, are two Ashina Soldiers that we can Eavesdrop on; kill the Ashina Spearman & we will receive this Key.

We need this to collect a Prosthetic Component later on…

Ashina Reservoir:

Ashina Reservoir Idol: From the Ashina Castle Idol, we can find another Remnant of Kuro & Emma up ahead. Go down the pathway to the Remnants left & we can open up some doors to enter into a building. Drop down a level & open another set of doors to find the Ashina Reservoir Sculptor’s Idol.

Prosthetic Component – Gyoubu’s Broken Horn: Head down the hill from the Idol & we will enter a large courtyard with many enemies, two being Taro Troop giants. Dispatch them, then head up the stairs towards a building off our left where that Ashina Sentry was banging his pots. Here we can use our Gatehouse Key to unlock the doors where we can find this Prosthetic Component inside a Chest.

Prayer Bead #9 – Seven Ashina Spears – Shikibu Toshikatsu Yamauchi: Head up the stairs now at the opposite end of the courtyard & we will be intercepted by Shikibu coming out from a lone tower. This guy has a big name & an even bigger spear so be careful.

If you use the stealthy approach, you can use the cliffs around the left side of his tower to get in behind him for a Stealth Deathblow. Using the Flame Vent may help to give you some temporary stuns on him as well; the Mikiri Counter is extremely useful.

Prayer Bead #10 – Lone Shadow Longswordsman: Return back to where that Ashina Sentry was & walk over to where the cliff edge is past a wooden fence. Look off our right & we can see a thin wall we can sidle along to get to the far side. Here we can find the NPC Jinzaemon Kumano standing over the well entrance where we began the game.

Instead of entering the well here, carry on down the trench & we can find a hole in the ground with the well below us. Look down into it to see the Lone Shadow Swordsman; we can perform a Plunging Deathblow on him (he may need to be spoken to first before we can fight him).

Sequence 5: Shinobi Rage

1. Ashina Castle: Ashina Castle, Old Grave, Upper Tower – Antechamber
2. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
3. Gourd Seeds: 5/9
4. Prosthetic Tools: 7/10
5. Prayer Beads: 12/40
6. Boss: 2/14
7. Achievements: 6/34
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Ashina Castle – Ashina Castle:

Prayer Bead #11 – General Kuranosuke Matsumoto: Return to the Ashina Castle Idol & begin making your way up the long set of stairs leading to the castle itself. At the top of the stairs, we can see a group of Ashina Riflemen & the General, Kuranosuke Matsumoto.

Grapple up to the rooftops on either side of us to get a more stealthy approach at the group. Perform a Plunging Deathblow on the General then immediately rush around to kill the four Riflemen so we can duel the General solo.

NPC – Fujioka the Info Broker: After taking out the General, enter over to the area with the buildings to the right of the barred castle doors. Look right again & to see a short wall has sloughed away where we can spot a man sitting on the ground in an enclosed alcove just below us. Approach him & he will task us with taking care of the Ashina Soldiers patrolling the streets below him.

Clear out the alleys & return to Fujioka & he will reward us with info on the Nightjars smoke signals. He will then relocate to the Dilapidated Temple where we can find him next as a new Merchant…

Gourd Seed #4: Grapple up onto the rooves above us now & we can see trails of smoke coming off of some of them that will lead up towards the castle. Follow them but be stealthy as there are Brown Nightjars up here that will ambush us if we are not careful; try to fight them one by one if you can.

Follow the rooves along & we can get onto Ashina Castle’s where more Nightjars will await us. Carry along the main castle rooftop, dealing with the Nightjars as we go, & round the corner to the right on the far side of it. A Nightjar here will kamikaze us & explode here so be careful! After avoiding death, look up above us & we can see the final smoke signal & an open window we can Grapple through. Enter inside & we can find this Gourd Seed in a nearby Chest.

Upper Tower – Antechamber Idol: We can find our next Sculptor’s Idol in the same room as the Gourd Seed.

Old Grave:

Sculptor’s Idol – Old Grave: Before we continue through the Upper Tower, drop back out of the window we came in & leap down into the waters off our right. Swim along towards a wooden bridge & we can Grapple up onto a landing nearby it. Follow the walkway along past a Blue Spear Monk & an Ashina Soldier to find a new Idol.

Item – Dragon’s Blood Droplet: From the Idol, enter into the building off our left & we can find a Blood Droplet on an offering bowl in front of an old burning pier outside, the Old Grave itself...
New Inventory For Anayama: If you backtrack to where the Blue Spear Monk was patrolling, carefully walk out towards the nearby bridge & Eavesdrop on the two Ashina Soldiers speaking. They will reveal that Ashina is running low on salt & unsure how to get more… which is what we can report to Anayama to start stocking… doing so will expand his Inventory further for us.
Great Serpent Shrine Idol: If you carry on from the bridge, we can follow a dirt path down to the Great Serpent Shrine. Watch out for the Monkeys!

This is a later game Idol we need; return back to the Old Grave after it is unlocked.

NPC – Black Hat Badger: From the Old Grave Idol, look down over the nearby edge & we can see a building below us with a hole in its roof. Drop down through it… & we can find a friendly Senpou Assassin, Black Hat Badger.

Collected Skill – Anti-Air Deathblow: Black Hat Badger is actually a Merchant. Access his wares & we can purchase this Skill for 1200 Sen.

Prosthetic Component – Iron Fortress: We can also purchase the Iron Fortress for 1600 Sen; this will unlock the Loaded Umbrella for us to use once we give it to the Sculptor.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Prosthetic Tool #6 – Loaded Spear: Hand over Gyoubu’s Broken Horn to the Sculptor to unlock this Prosthetic Tool.

Prosthetic Tool #7– Loaded Umbrella: Hand over the Iron Fortress to the Sculptor to unlock this Prosthetic Tool; aside from the Loaded Shuriken, this is my next most used Prosthetic...

Gourd Seed #5: We can find Fujioka the Info Broker outside the temple as well who will sell us some Dragon’s Blood Droplets as well as a new Gourd Seed. Chances are though, you probably barely afforded Black Hat Badger’s wares using our Coin Purses & that Gourd Seed Fujioka sells is 2000 Sen. We are soon to battle a very difficult boss so every edge we can get is ideal.

To farm 2000 Sen decently quickly, we can Travel to the Hirata Estate – Hirata Audience Chamber. Here we can kill twenty one Bandits from the Audience Chamber, outside it, & the dozen Bandits across the pond close to/inside the burning buildings to the Hirata Estate – Main Hall Idol. They are 22 Sen a piece, netting us 503 Sen a run; we will also accumulate 714 Xp from the run as well.
Dragon’s Blood Droplet x2: Sold by Fujioka the Info Broker for 180 Sen each.

Ashina Castle – Upper Tower – Antechamber:

Prayer Bead #12 – Armory Secret Room: Return to Ashina Castle & enter into the large multi-floor room past the Idol. We will encounter the blue kimono garbed Fencers here in the Antechamber; when possible, take them out with Stealth Deathblows.

On this top floor, enter into the side room off our right side & we can find two Fencers kneeling over a battle map. In this same room as them, we can find two sets of gusoku armor on stands. Approach the wall in between them with the mounted samurai banner, & Hug Wall to reveal a secret room where we can find this Prayer Bead in a Chest.

Prosthetic Component – Sabimaru: In the same multi-floored room we were in previously, drop down to the very bottom floor of it; be sure to have full health as the fall will knock us down by about half. There are two Ashina Soldiers as well as a Fencer awaiting us so be careful; I would rush down the nearby stairs to open up the door shortcut leading back down to the Ashina Castle Idol as a failsafe for a second attempt.

Regardless of what you choose, carefully dispatch the enemies down here & enter into the room they were guarding to find this Component inside a Chest.

Sequence 6: Way of Tomoe

1. Ashina Castle: Ashina Dojo, Castle Tower Lookout, Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room, Ashina Castle, Abandoned Dungeon Entrance
2. Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo
3. Ninjitsu: 1/3
4. Gourd Seeds: 6/9
5. Prosthetic Tools: 8/10
6. Prayer Beads: 14/40
7. Boss: 3/14
8. Achievements: 7/34
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Ashina Castle – Upper Tower – Ashina Dojo:

Prayer Bead #13 – Ashina Elite – Jinsuke Saze: When we reach the Ashina Dojo further up the Upper Tower, we will see a sealed door we can open right across from the Idol. (If you braved the group of three Grey Nightjars on the floor below us, do not head out across the rooftops through the window or you will pre-emptively initiate the boss fight with Genichiro Ashina!)

Open up the doors to the Ashina Dojo & we will see a unique Fencer called Jinsuke. His attacks are devastating, even when blocking! To defeat him, quickly dodge towards his attacks behind him on his right side for strikes at his back. His “flash” attack strikes far, so dash as fast as you can away or towards him to evade it. He has terrible Posture; focus on perfect deflections of his attacks to perform Posture Deathblows on him. Timing is everything.

Castle Tower Lookout:

Boss #3 – Genichiro Ashina: Make your way along the upper rooftops of Ashina Castle up to the Castle Tower Lookout where we will encounter our nemesis, Genichiro of Ashina.


Achievement #7 – Genichiro Ashina: Defeated Genichiro Ashina.
Story Related. Genichiro will be the true test to see if you have been mastering Sekiro or only cheesing through it. His first phase will take two Deathblows. He can be walked around for easy back strikes as well as struck when he is about to use his massive Yumi Bow. Deflecting his barrage of attacks is also a quick way to lower his Posture; it is possible to perform a Posture Deathblow on him before his health is even at half.

For Genichiro’s second phase, he drops his armor & calls upon the Lightning of Tomoe. When he unleashes his lighting attacks, leap into the air. If you get struck, immediately press the attack button before you hit the ground to reverse the lightning back at Genichiro for massive damage; if you don’t, we take massive damage instead & it is basically an instant kill. You will want your Resurrection & the bulk of your Healing Gourd uses for this phase…

Ninjutsu #1 – Bloodsmoke: Obtained after defeating Genichiro Ashina.

Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room:

NPC – Lord Kuro: Head down the stairs after speaking with Emma & we can find our long lost ward, Kuro. When we have to answer his question to help him break the chains of the Dragon’s Heritage, both answers result in the same thing.

Ashina Castle:

NPC – Isshin Ashina: Follow the Nightjar smoke signals across the Ashina Castle rooftop & we can find Isshin in his watchtower. Speak with him to learn of our next step in Immortal Severance; we must locate the Mortal Blade at Senpou Temple.

Isshin will only appear if we have killed the “rats” for Tengu of Ashina…

Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room:

NPC – Lord Kuro: Return to Kuro & tell him what we learned as well as getting another need lead on the Fountainhead Incense as well.

Using the Sakura Droplet we received by defeating Lady Butterfly, give it to Lord Kuro & we can receive a permanent extra Resurrection.

Key – Gun Fort Shrine Key: We can find this Key just behind Kuro in the library; we will need it later on for the Sunken Valley area.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Curing Dragonrot (Optional): With Genichiro defeated, you may consider using a Dragon’s Blood Droplet to cure all our NPCs of Dragonrot so we can speak with them. This is optional, & does not need to be done right now.

Prosthetic Tool #8 – Sabimaru: We can give the Sculptor the Sabimaru to be fitted into our arm as a Prosthetic Tool.

If you Eavesdropped on the Ashina Soldiers on the bridge in Old Grave, we can return to Anayama & tell him the samurai want salt to expand his Inventory; this can only be done if he does not have Dragonrot.

Ashina Castle – Abandoned Dungeon Entrance:

Abandoned Dungeon Entrance Idol: When you are ready to continue, go to the Ashina Castle Idol & speak with the Old Woman on the bridge to get pointed in the right direction to the Abandoned Dungeon Entrance. Defeat the Bell Taro Troop & his Dogs across the following bridge, & we can find the Abandoned Dungeon Entrance Idol in the building ahead.

Prayer Bead #14 – Dungeon Memorial Mob: From the Abandoned Dungeon Idol, we can find a new Memorial Mob along the side of the room behind some wooden columns.

Among with the useful Items he sells, we can find a Prayer Bead for sale for 1400 Sen.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: We can also purchase a Dragon’s Blood Droplet for 180 Sen.

Progress through the Abandoned Dungeon area now until we reach Senpou Temple. Navigate to the Underground Waterway Idol & we can get to the Temple; there are no further Items we need here. There is the NPC Doujan, but we will not be fulfilling his Questline for this playthrough. There is also an extremely difficult mini-boss, the Shichimen Warrior down here but they are optional as well.

Senpou Temple, Mount Kongo – Senpou Temple:

NPC – Kotaro: From the Senpou Temple Idol, exit outside & head around the right of the building where we can drop down. Up ahead, we can find a crying Taro Troop sitting against a tree named Kotaro. Kotaro is tied to three separate Side Quest; for this one, we will use him for Anayama’s.

Senpou Farming Location: From the Senpou Temple Idol, we can find a large number of Seeker monks who will provide us with 35 Sen & 87 Xp a piece. There are 13 Seekers in between the Idol & the pathway up to the temple entrance making this a perfect new place for farming for 455 Sen & 1131 Xp a run. Should you need to...

Gourd Seed #6: Fight your way through the Seeker monks up the pathway until we reach the temple entrance. Grapple up onto a beam above the front entrance & we can enter inside its Cricket infested upper floor. Head down the stairs into the first room, & we can find three Seekers kneeling in front of an Infested Seeker; a Taro Troop will reveal itself as well once the monks are alerted. Deal with them, & we can loot the Gourd Seed in front of the Infested Seeker… who will then puke some Crickets at us.

Sequence 7: The Senpou Monkeys

1. Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo: Shugendo, Main Hall, Halls of Illusion, Inner Sanctum
2. Ashina Outskirts: Outskirts Wall – Stairway
3. Ninjitsu: 2/3
4. Gourd Seeds: 6/9
5. Prosthetic Tools: 8/10
6. Prayer Beads: 16/40
7. Boss: 4/14
8. Achievements: 8/34
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Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo – Shugendo:

NPC – Shugendo Memorial Mob: When we reach this Idol, look off the cliff edge off our left & we can see some wooden walkways along the rock wall below us. Jump down or Grapple to them, & follow the walkways along to a plateau where we can find a new Memorial Mob Merchant.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: We can purchase this Droplet from the Shugendo Mob for 180 Sen.

Persimmon: Though this is a drop we can receive from fighting Monkeys later on, purchase a Persimmon for only 30 Sen & hold onto it; having at least one in our Inventory is essential for progressing one of our Ending requirements.

Red & White Pinwheel: Progress along the cliffs until we reach the top where the long bridge way leads out onwards to the temple. Before heading across it, head over to the left of the bridge where we can find an outcrop with some carved Buddhas & pinwheels. Go to the top of the outcrop to find the Red & White Pinwheel to loot; we will bring this to Kotaro later…

Prayer Bead #15 – Armored Warrior: Cross the bridge now & we will be accosted by the Armored Warrior. We cannot hurt this enemy; it must be knocked off the bridge using a Deathblow. To do this, we need to reduce its Posture through deflecting his attacks, using our Kusabimaru, or the Loaded Axe which deals a lot of Posture damage. When his Posture meter is almost full, lure him to the walls of the bridge & perform a Posture Deathblow on him. When it is performed, we will kick him & the Armored Warrior will stumble backwards off the edge (or through the wall, off the edge) killing him.

Collected Skill – Breath of Nature: Shadow: We will acquire this Skill upon defeating the Armored Warrior.

Temple Grounds:

Prayer Bead #16 – Long Arm Centipede Sen-Un: From the Idol, fight your way through a group of Seekers towards a large walled off courtyard with barred doors. Follow the walls around the outside of the courtyard to the right & we can drop down onto a rooftop below us. Underneath an upper “floating roof” we can find a hole in its center with a bonfire & Sen-Un. Quickly defeat the two regular Centipedes & then focus your attention on deflecting Sen-Un’s flurry of attacks. Deflect one set of his attacks, then evade away from the next to let your own Posture reset. Max out his Posture meter twice to kill him with Posture Deathblows.

Main Hall:

Main Hall Idol: The Main Hall can be entered two different ways: through the doors guarded by two difficult Bandit Spear Adepts, or around the backside of the temple through some open doors.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: From the Idol, walk over to the large golden Buddha statue in the center of the hall (ignore the Illusive Hall Bell for now, do not inspect it!). In the hands of the Buddha statue will be an Item, use the Grapple Points on the halls upper beams to jump over to collect the Droplet.

Esoteric Text – Senpou: Exit the Main Hall through the back entrance’s open doors & enter into the nearby cave. Drop down through the darkness to a lower level, & Crouch under a low wall in the flooded section to continue. Fight through some more Centipedes & we can Grapple up out of the cave where we can find a small shrine. Open the shrine doors & we can find this Esoteric Text inside.

Halls of Illusion:

Boss #4 – Folding Screen Monkeys: Return to the Idol & interact with the Illusive Hall Bell to be transported to the Halls of Illusion, where the four Folding Screen Monkeys can be found.


Achievement #8 – Folding Screen Monkeys: Caught the Folding Screen Monkeys.
Story Related. There are four different Monkeys: Purple Kimono Seeing Monkey, Orange Kimono Speaking Monkey, Green Kimono Hearing Monkey, & the White Kimono Invisible Monkey. Gachiin’s Sugar is very useful for this boss fight.

The Invisible Monkey is the easiest, though invisible, his entire schtick is to be perpetually stalking us from behind; you can even hear his footsteps if you listen carefully. Walk a little ways, then turn around & start slashing behind us; alternatively you can just turn around & sprint in lines until you bump into him.

The Speaking Monkey should be your next target; it gives off an orange aura along with leaving a trail of fire in its footsteps. He can be dispatched “easily” be sneaking up behind him & performing a Stealth Deathblow.

The Seeing Monkey is next who can spot us from across the map. They leave behind purple flamed footprints, but leap very quickly across the map. You will need to track them extremely carefully; once they are located, you need to perfectly get behind them for the Stealth Deathblow.

The last Monkey will be the Hearing Monkey who will leave behind a trail of green fire. To dispatch them, you will most likely need to use a Gachiin’s Sugar stealth candy. Only use it when you have gotten behind the Monkey & are ready to approach it for the Deathblow.

Inner Sanctum:

Ninjutsu #2 – Puppeteer: We will receive this Ninjutsu upon arriving at the Inner Sanctum after we defeat the Folding Screen Monkeys.

NPC – Divine Child of Rejuvenation: Speak with the Divine Child, & we will receive the Mortal Blade.

We will also receive some dry Rice.

Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo:

NPC – Kotaro: Give Kotoro the Red & White Pinwheel, then suggest a travel destination. Tell him to go see Anayama the Peddler & he will join him in Ashina Outskirts, maxing out Anayama’s Inventory.

Do not give him the White Pinwheel or tell him to go to the Abandoned Dungeon if you have unlocked those options…

Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

NPC – Anayama the Peddler: Return to Anayama & we can see his new maxed out Inventory. Apart from some Purses we can store our Sen in, he will have a lot of new Upgrade Materials for sale. Be sure to purchase what you can over the course of this playthrough; it will save us farming for them in NG++ when we need to acquire the Master of the Prosthetics Achievement.

Check out my Sekiro – Shadows Die Twice Achievement Checklist in the Introduction to see the requirements for all Prosthetic Upgrades.

Sequence 8: Clash of the Titans

1. Ashina Castle: Great Serpent Shrine
2. Sunken Valley: Under-Shrine Valley, Sunken Valley, Gun Fort, Riven Cave, Guardian Ape’s Watering Hole
3. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
4. Ninjitsu: 2/3
5. Gourd Seeds: 7/9
6. Prosthetic Tools: 10/10
7. Prayer Beads: 20/40
8. Boss: 5/14
9. Achievements: 10/34
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Ashina Castle – Great Serpent Shrine:

NPC – Tengu of Ashina: At the Great Serpent Shrine (accessed across the bridge from the Old Grave Idol) we can now find the Tengu of Ashina. He will ask us if we have learned any secret Techniques. Chances are you have not; by this he means unlocking the Final Art of any Arts Tree.

Focus on using your Skill Points to work towards any Arts Tree’s Final Art for the Master of the Arts Achievement & to receive our final Esoteric Text.

Sunken Valley – Under-Shrine Valley:

Prayer Bead #17 – Snowy Cavern: Drop down to the Under-Shrine Valley Idol & turn around to walk backwards up the hill. From here, we can Grapple across to a ledge where two Gun Fort Riflemen are. Dispatch them & jump up to a ledge we can grab onto & climb up. Here we can find a thin edge we can sidle along to get over to the far side. Drop down to the snowy plateau below with the three pyramid shaped burial markers & we can find this Prayer Bead in front of one.

Gourd Seed #7: Return to the Idol & continue through the Sunken Valley. Get past the next two Gun Fort Riflemen, & on the ledge that we killed the second one, we can spot a cave we can climb up into. Pass through the cave to the other side where another two Riflemen will be patrolling. Grapple up to where the highest one was & climb up to the plateau above him where a wooden shelter will be; we can find the Gourd Seed inside it.

Sunken Valley:

Prayer Bead #18 – Snake Eyes Shirafuji: Leap off of the cliff edge & Grapple along the trees to reach the large statute head; be careful of the Riflemen as they can shoot us out of the air! When we reach the statue, we will be immediately attacked by Shirafuji. Outside of her annoying grab attack, she is not too bad. When you see the her Perilous Grab attack, back peddle away from her; evading side to side can still get you swiped by the grab.

Gun Fort:

Prayer Bead #19 – Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe: Walk down the tunnel after we reach this Idol & we will stumble upon another Long-Arm Centipede like we fought in Senpou Temple. Just like when fighting Sen-Un, breaking this enemy’s Posture is paramount. Unfortunately, we fight Giraffe in a much smaller arena so recovering our own Posture can be pretty tricky; I do not like this fight.

Prosthetic Component – Large Fan: After we defeat Long-Arm Centipede Giraffe, approach the wooden Buddha statue clutching a white snake & collect the Item in front of it to receive this Prosthetic Component.

Prayer Bead #20 – Dark Chasm: In the same room, we can spot a hole in the floor beside the wooden Buddha statue. Drop through it & we can Crouch underneath the floorboards & we can enter into a confined tunnel system. Take the path to our left (right will be a dead end) & we will reach a deep chasm. Use the Grapple Points on the beam above us & then Grapple up to the lit ledge off our right. From here, drop down to a darker lower ledge where we can see some Centipedes & Geckos even further down. Drop down & defeat them, & we can collect this Prayer Bead in the center of the area.

Riven Cave:

Return back to Giraffe’s room & use the Gun Fort Shrine Key to unlock the door behind the Buddha statue. When we go to cross the bridge… it will break on us & we will fall into the water below. Quickly swim across to the cave & we can find the Riven Cave Idol.

It is possible if you are lucky to make it across the bridge before it breaks. If you do, you will miss the Idol but find some Items. These Items can still be found later even if you do not make it across.

Guardian Ape’s Watering Hole:

Boss #5 – Guardian Ape: Ignore the poison river at the bottom of the valley & make your way over to the far rock plateau with the host of Monkeys communing. Across the valley from them, is a ledge we can Grapple to that has the Bodhisattva Valley Idol as well as our access to the Guardian Ape.


Achievement #9 – Guardian Ape: Defeated the Guardian Ape.
Story Related. The Loaded Umbrella is going to be our best friend for this fight; especially in the second phase. For phase one, you need to play hyper aggressive while dodging the ape’s onslaught of attacks. The ape is often off balance & can be staggered after most of its attacks.
For the second phase, it will become an Apparition & has a scream attack that rains blood causing Terror. To avoid this, use the Loaded Umbrella & hide underneath it to receive zero Terror build up. It does take extra damage from Mortal Blade since it is an Apparition, but be careful not to use up all of your Spirit Emblems for the Loaded Umbrella.

Prosthetic Component – Slender Finger: We will acquire this Prosthetic Component by defeating the Guardian Ape.

Key Item – Lotus of the Palace: Enter into the narrow passage the Guardian Ape was… well… guarding, & we can find the white Lotus of the Palace flower growing in a small pool.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Prosthetic Tool #9 – Finger Whistle: Bring the Sculptor the Slender Finger to acquire this Prosthetic Tool.

Prosthetic Tool #10 – Divine Abduction: Bring the Sculptor the Large Fan to acquire this Prosthetic Tool.


Achievement #10 – All Prosthetic Tools: Acquired all 10 Prosthetic Tools.
If you have been following along with the guide, you will unlock this Achievement after crafting the final Prosthetic Tool.

Sequence 9: Old World Gods

1. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
2. Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo: Sunken Valley Cavern
3. Sunken Valley: Bodhisattva Valley
4. Ashina Depths: Poison Pool, Guardian Ape’s Burrow
5. Ninjitsu: 3/3
6. Gourd Seeds: 7/9
7. Prayer Beads: 24/40
8. Boss: 6/14
9. Achievements: 13/34
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Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo – Sunken Valley Cavern:

Sunken Valley Cavern Idol: Now, it is finally time to deal with the Great Serpent. Travel to the first Senpou Temple Idol, & drop down the cliff ahead of us to the broken bridge with a Seeker Monk on it. Drop down again, & we can find a Senpou Assassin next to a Kite Contraption. Stealth Deathblow the Assassin & use the Puppeteer Ninjutsu on him. He will then run up & operate the Contraption, raising the Kite high into the sky.

Head up the pathway now as normal, up the gateway rafters, through the building, & out the window to the other side where the Old Woman is. From here, Grapple up the massive old growth maple tree & we can see a Grapple Point on the Kite we raised up. Leap off the tree & Grapple onto the Kite to get launched over to the far side of the valley. Drop down off the ledge we landed on & carefully Grapple along the trees jutting out of the cliffside to reach the bottom plateau. Enter into a cave opening & drop down to find this secret Idol.


Achievement #11 – Great Serpent: Defeated the Great Serpent.
Leave the Sunken Valley Cavern Idol & pass through the cave to enter into the Sunken Valley. From here, we can walk out onto a wooden beam over the valley. Look down, & we can see the Great Serpent conveniently below us. Leap off the beam & perform a series of cinematic Deathblows on the Serpent to slay it.

The Great Serpent is one of two bosses that does not count towards the Man Without Equal Achievement.

Key Item – Fresh Serpent Viscera: We will receive this important Key Item for slaying the Great Serpent.

It is an essential Item for unlocking the Return Ending.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: After we defeat the Great Serpent, we will land on the other side of the bridge that the snake previously destroyed earlier on. Carry on into a dead-end cave, & we can find this Item inside it.

Sunken Valley – Bodhisattva Valley:

NPC – Toxic Memorial Mob: Return to Bodhisattva Valley now & carefully make your way down to the poison lake down below us at the bottom of the valley. Near the center of the valley, we can pass under the large cliff wall where we can find another Memorial Mob has set up camp.

The Green Mossy Gourd he sells for 1800 Sen can be a very useful Item to have going forward…

Key Item – Dried Serpent Viscera: Carry on from the Memorial Mob & enter into a very dark cavern. This is a Great Serpent’s lair; plot twist, there are two of them. When we reach the far end, we can spot a decrepit temple… guarded by the Great Serpent. To enter the temple, we need to use our Puppeteer Ninjitsu to distract the Serpent. Carefully drop down to a lower ledge to the left of the pillar we hide behind from the snake. Go forwards & we can climb up onto a rocky ledge with some Spirit Emblems, & more importantly, a Monkey.

Perform a Stealth Deathblow on the Monkey & use our Ninjutsu in it. The Monkey will climb up to a high point & distract the Serpent allowing us to Grapple up to the temple & get inside it. We can find our Dried Serpent Viscera at the very back on a shrine to the Great Serpent.

This Key Item is essential for unlocking the Return Ending.

Ashina Depths – Poison Pools:

Poison Pool Idol: The Great Serpent will block the entrance to the temple off, trapping us inside. To escape, look above where the Serpent Shrine is & we can see some Grapple Points. Grapple up to the top & we can find the Poison Pool Idol in the basin of putrid basin.

Prayer Bead #21 – Snake Eyes Shirahagi: Shortly after we leave the Idol, we will be ambushed by another Snake Eyes sister, Shirahagi. Before fighting her, be sure to Grapple over to the Gun Fort Cannoneer & dispatch them. This mini-boss plays out exactly like the previous Snake Eyes general, Shirafuji.

Prayer Bead #22 – Fetid Cavern: After we defeat Shirahagi (& unlocked the Ashina Depths Idol in the cliffs above us with the Gun Fort Cannoneers), enter into the nearby cave. When we reach the ledge we can see a trail of blood & a dying Cannoneer; look up to our left to see a Grapple Point from up here. Follow the path down & we will have to crouch through a confined space. Before crouching through a second space, look up to our left again to see a ledge we can jump to. Here, we will need to perform some Consecutive Wall Jumps to reach a new ledge higher up. Do so, & we will exit back out to the Poison Pool; Grapple onto the head of the large Buddha statue here to find a Prayer Bead.

Guardian Ape’s Burrow:

Boss #6 – Headless Ape: If you defeated the Guardian Ape Boss in the Sunken Valley… we can find him again here in Ashina Depths… headless.


Achievement #12 – Guardian Ape Immortality Severed: Used the Mortal Blade to sever the Guardian Ape's undying.
Story Related. The first phase of this fight plays out the same as it does during phase two of the Guardian Ape. After performing the first Deathblow however, the Headless Ape will summon its Mate to assist him in the fight. We now need to juggle two Apes; the Mate fights similar to the first phase of the Guardian Ape but has less attacks.

Killing the Headless Ape will end the boss fight; killing the Mate can make things easier & restore a Resurrection if you used it but is not recommended. Focus on killing the Headless Ape if you can. Baiting the Headless Ape to use his belly slide attack is the best move as we can get in 3-5 attacks on him without needing to dodge a lot. Just keep your distance from both Apes & wait for that attack.

After we defeat the Headless Ape & tear out the Parasite from it, it will lie on the ground twitching; it will not revive. Approach the Parasite & perform a final Deathblow on the Ape using our Mortal Blade to sever its immortality & unlock our Achievement.

Prayer Bead #23-24: We will receive not one, but two Prayer Beads for defeating the Headless Ape.

Ninjutsu #3 – Bestowal: Obtained after defeating Headless Ape.


Achievement #13 – All Ninjutsu Techniques: Acquired all 3 Ninjutsu Techniques.
We will unlock this Achievement after collecting the final Ninjutsu Technique.

Sequence 10: Forgotten Realm of Mibu

1. Ashina Depths: Hidden Forest, Mibu Village, Water Mill, Wedding Cave Door
2. Ashina Castle: Great Serpent Shrine
3. Gourd Seeds: 8/9
4. Prayer Beads: 28/40
5. Boss: 7/14
6. Achievements: 14/34
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Ashina Depths – Hidden Forest:

Prayer Bead #25 – Tokujiro the Glutton: Exit the Guardian Ape’s Burrow & Grapple up into the Hidden Forest. From the Idol, pass over the misty forest (there is a Headless mini-boss down here so be careful) over to the far side. Drop down into the second half of the area & follow along the left side of the cliff wall. Keep following the wall along & we will be able to Grapple up to a hanging tree branch that will take us to a side area with Tokujiro the Glutton; he fights identically to Juzou the Drunkard in Hirata Estate.

The Mist Noble: After taking out Tokujiro, carry on down this side area & we can Grapple over to the top of the locked temple in the previous area. Enter in through a hole in the wall on the roof, & we can spot the Mist Noble playing the flute. He is very challenging, so prepare for a brutal fight; we can take out one of his health bars via Plunging Deathblow.

Killing the Mist Noble will dispel the fog enshrouding the Hidden Forest. Note that this also dispels all the re-spawning Samurai Spirits; these are a decent source of Xp if you needed to farm some Skill Points.

Mibu Village:

NPC – Exiled Memorial Mob: From the Mibu Village Idol, drop down & cross the stream over nearby to find the last Memorial Mob. This one sells quite a few useful Items.

Gourd Seed #8: Make your way through the Mibu Village until you reach the large candle lit tree at the village’s center. The tree is surrounded by Mibu Villagers; we can find a Gourd Seed on the ground in front of the tree.

Upgrade Material – Pine Resin Ember: Swim across the nearby lake over towards a small dock with some fishing boats moored at it. Grapple up to the wooden ledge above us & we will be at the far end of the lake/village. Head down a small pathway towards a ruined building at a dead end with a ladder on it & we can find the Pine Resin Ember on top of the building’s roof.

We need this Item to craft the Okinaga’s Flame Vent Upgrade.


Achievement #14 – Master of the Arts: Grasped the inner mysteries of any combat style.
The Mibu Villagers here in the… Mibu Village give us 87 Xp a piece. What is more, is that they respawn at least 5-8 times each making this an extremely lucrative location to farm for Xp. If you have not already done so, farm out one of the four available Final Arts from our Arts Trees to unlock this Achievement.

Shadow Rush from the Shinobi Arts costs 6 Skill Points, Chasing Slice from the Prosthetic Arts costs 4 Skill Points, Ashina Cross from the Ashina Arts costs 5 Skill Points, & lastly High Monk from the Temple Arts costs 4 Skill Points. We only need to work towards one; though it is the most expensive, Shadow Rush is the most useful of the four Skills…

Ashina Castle – Great Serpent Shrine:

Esoteric Text – Mushin: With any Final Art learned, Travel to the Great Serpent Shrine in Ashina Castle & speak with Tengu of Ashina here to receive our final Esoteric Text. As of now, we have all five Arts Trees unlocked.

If you do not unlock a Final Art before we complete Mibu Village, Tengu of Ashin will disappear for good. We can instead unlock this Esoteric Text by speaking with Isshin Ashina in his tower… because they are actually the same person.

Ashina Depths – Water Mill:

Prayer Bead #26 – O’Rin of the Water: Carry on through the Mibu Village, past the Water Mill Idol, & we can find the shamisen playing witch, O’Rin of the Water. We may have also passed the NPC Jinzaemon Kumano if you never sent him to the Abandoned Dungeon for Doujun’s Side Quest.

Speak with her or avoid her, & she will attack us. O’Rin counts as an Apparition enemy, & is weak to the Mortal Blade & Divine Confetti. Try fighting her a few times without using Confetti to learn her attacks; Divine Confetti is extremely rare for us & we do not unlock an infinite supply of it until later… I find O’Rin harder than the actual upcoming boss…

Collected Skill – Breath of Life: Shadow: We will receive this Skill upon defeating O’Rin of the Water.

Prayer Bead #27 – Village Shrine: Across a wooden bridge guarded by a Phantom Fencer, we will find a large building with a flock of Villagers outside it. To the right of the front doors, we can see a small space we can crouch beneath to enter underneath the floors. Follow the underside to the end, & we can spot a Shinobi Floor Passage we can interact with to enter the building.

Exit the building onto a small stone bridge over the river, & turn around to look back to see a Grapple Point on the building’s second floor. Grapple up, & we can find this Prayer Bead on a small shrine inside surrounded by Spirit Emblems.

Wedding Cave Door:

Boss #7 – Corrupted Monk (Illusory): Around the outside of the previous building, we will enter into the boss room of the Corrupted Monk. The Corrupted Monk fortunately only has a single health bar we need to destroy; she is not an Apparition & does not take extra damage from Divine Confetti. She has insanely high Posture, so the only way to defeat her is to whittle down her health. While her attacks are devasting, they are also very slow; dodging & attacking is your best method. Take it slow, & do not get greedy with your attacks. She does still take massive damage from the Mortal Blade…

After we defeat her, do not enter the Wedding Cave just yet! Doing so will plunge is into a new arc of the game & progress the Questline.

Collected Skill – Mibu Breathing Technique: Acquired by defeating the Corrupted Monk (Illusory).

This is an important Skill as it will allow us to collect previously inaccessible Items by diving underwater to grab them.

Mibu Village:

Prayer Bead #28 – Mibu Lake: Now that we have the Mibu Breathing Technique, backtrack to Mibu Village & approach the large lake in its center. Enter the lake & we will receive a Tutorial of how to use the Skill; dive down close to where the fishing boats are docked at the far side & we can find this Prayer Bead in a Chest at the bottom of the lake.

Sequence 11: Father...

1. Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo: Temple Grounds
2. Ashina Depths: Wedding Cave Door
3. Ashina Castle (Invasion): Great Serpent Shrine, Upper Tower – Antechamber, Upper Tower – Ashina Dojo, Castle Tower Lookout, Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room, Old Grave
4. Gourd Seeds: 8/9
5. Prayer Beads: 32/40
6. Boss: 8/14
7. Achievements: 15/34
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Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo – Temple Grounds:

Key Item – Holy Chapter Infested: Now that we have the Mibu Breathing Technique, we can go collect some more Items hidden underwater. This time back in Senpou Temple. From the Temple Grounds Idol, drop down to the pond below us & dive into it to find this Key Item at the bottom of the pond.

We can alternatively have received this Item previously before we fought the Folding Screen Monkeys. It can be collected by speaking with a friendly Monk in the Main Hall close to the golden Buddha statue. He will disappear after we kill Genichiro, & we can find this here in the pond instead.

We need this Key Item for the Return Ending.

Prayer Bead #29 – Underwater Treasure: While in the same pond, we can swim further on to find this Prayer Bead resting on a sunken shrine in a small cave.

Ashina Depths – Wedding Cave Door:

Key Item – Shelter Stone: When you are ready to continue, return to the Wedding Cave Door & enter inside. Here we can find the Shelter Stone, our last needed piece for the Fountainhead Incense.

Ashina Castle (Invasion):

When we go to Travel back to Lord Kuro, we will find that all our Idols in Ashina Castle have been disabled. The castle is under attack. Our only way in will be from the Abandoned Dungeon Entrance to make our way to the castle from there.

Great Serpent Shrine:

Prayer Bead #30 – Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer: Navigate your way down to the Great Serpent Shrine & we can find a new Lone Shadow in place of where Tengu of Ashina was. We can use a Stealth Deathblow to remove one of their health bars.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: We can collect this Item off of the nearby dead Lone Shadow that Masanaga was mourning; the one Tengu had killed earlier.

Upper Tower – Antechamber:

Prayer Bead #31 – Chained Ogre: From the Upper Tower – Antechamber Idol, enter into the following room & we can immediately hear another Chained Ogre thrashing around below us. If you Grapple onto the beam in the center of the room beneath us, we can easily drop off it & perform a Plunging Deathblow on the Ogre, removing one of its health bars. This fight is identical to the Chained Ogre we fought at the beginning of the game; we can use the Flame Vent to stun lock it…

Collected Skill – Shinobi Medicine Rank 3: We will receive this Skill when we defeat the Chained Ogre in the Upper Tower – Antechamber.

Upper Tower – Ashina Dojo:

Prayer Bead #32 – Lone Shadow Vilehand: Return to the Upper Tower – Antechamber & progress through the castle to reach the next Idol. In the next room, we can find another Lone Shadow assassin, Vilehand.

Be warned, there is an Interior Ministry Ninja in the left corner of the room; make sure you take him out with a Stealth Deathblow before engaging Vilehand. Because this will make us discovered, we need to physically defeat Vilehand’s two health bars manually.

Castle Tower Lookout:

NPC – The Owl: Head out onto the rooftops & make your way up to the Castle Tower Lookout where we fought Genichiro. Instead of him, we will find our father The Owl here waiting for us. The conversation you have with him is a defining moment in the game!

The Owl will demand that we adhere to the Iron Code & forsake Kuro, if we choose this, it will void 3/4 Endings & set us down the Shura Ending.

We must choose to break the Iron Code, & stay loyal to Kuro!

This will keep us on course to unlock the main 3 Endings; we will complete the alternate Shura Ending on NG+…

Boss #8 – The Owl (Great Shinobi): If we choose to stay loyal to Kuro, The Owl will betray us, & we must defeat him to protect Kuro. Choosing the Shura Ending will void this boss fight.


Achievement #15 – Great Shinobi Owl: Defeated Great Shinobi Owl.
Story Related. There are many attacks that leave the Owl exposed by him leaping into the air & landing. Outside of Shadow Rush, do not use any Thrust Attacks when he is not exposed as he can perform a Mikiri Counter on us that will take out 9/10s of our health bar. He also throws a Nullifying Bomb at us often that will disable all our Items, including the Healing Gourd, for 30 seconds; this move does leave him exposed if you dodge it.

In his second phase, the Owl does not get any more moves out side of using more Shinobi tools. He will begin using smokescreens, poison bombs, & adding a firecracker effect onto some of his Ōdachi swings.

Key Item – Aromatic Branch: We will receive our final ingredient for the Fountainhead Incense after defeating The Owl.

Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room:

NPC – Lord Kuro: After The Owl is defeated, head downstairs to Kuro’s Room where we can find him & Emma. Deliver him all the ingredients for the Fountainhead Incense to progress the story.

Before we carry on to Fountainhead Palace, we have quite a few errands to run as more conditions for some of the Endings.

To start, head around the back wall where Kuro is facing now & we can perform an Eavesdrop; the Eavesdrop only seems to trigger when you are looking through one of the see-through wooden walls with the holes in it.

NPC – Emma the Physician: After we have performed the Eavesdrop, rest at the nearby Idol & Emma will have moved upstairs. Confront Emma about what you heard Kuro speaking about & agree to help her, as Lord Kuro cannot be allowed to die. She will then tell us she will try locating a starting point for us to begin searching for an alternate for Immortal Severance.

NPC – Lord Kuro: Head back downstairs & rest at the Idol. Return behind the same wall we were previously & Eavesdrop again on Kuro to hear him speaking about someone being too strong…

Key Item – Tomoe’s Note: Return to Emma, & she will have found the necessary research, handing us Tomoe’s Note.

Old Grave:

NPC – Emma the Physician: Now that we have Tomoe’s Note, Emma will have gone to reflect at Tomoe’s grave site at the Old Grave. Travel to the Idol, & pass through the doorway off our left to find the old graves & Emma standing beside them; we found a Dragon’s Blood Droplet here on our first visit. Speak with her for the next lead.

Sequence 12: Child of Rejuvenation

1. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
2. Ashina Castle (Invasion): Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room, Old Grave
3. Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo: Inner Sanctum, Halls of Illusion, Main Hall
4. Hirata Estate (Second Memory): Hirata Estate – Main Hall
5. Gourd Seeds: 8/9
6. Prayer Beads: 34/40
7. Boss: 8/14
8. Achievements: 15/34
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Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

NPC – Emma the Physician: Travel to the Dilapidated Temple now & we will need to perform another Eavesdrop. Head around the backside of the Sculptor’s house & peer in through a hole in one of the walls where we can then Eavesdrop. After the disturbing Eavesdrop conversation, enter into the house & confront Emma about it. Wolf sure is shameless about his Eavesdropping…

Key Item – Father’s Bell Charm: Confront Emma again asking her what she is hiding, & we will refer back to what we originally overheard Kuro speaking about “doing what must be done”. She will then give us this very important Item.

Using this Item at the Golden Buddha Statue here in the Dilapidated Temple will send us to the second memory of Hirata Estate. There is an insanely hard boss we need to defeat there needed to access the Purification Ending! Do not do this just yet…

Senpou Temple. Mt. Kongo – Inner Sanctum:

NPC – Divine Child of Rejuvenation: We now need to do some tasks for the Return Ending. Travel to the Inner Sanctum & speak with the Divine Child to receive some Rice. If you already received Rice from her, eat it, & Travel to a different Idol. Return to the Divine Child to receive more Rice; do this cycle three times, having received/eaten the Rice. You must Travel elsewhere as simply Resting will not restore the Divine Child’s supply of Uncle Ben’s…

Rest at the Idol after eating three handfuls of Rice, & the Divine Child will have fallen ill. She will ask us to bring her a Persimmon; we can purchase these from the Shugendo Memorial Mob for 30 Sen or from farming Monkeys.

Once we have a Persimmon, give it to the Divine Child & we will be blessed with even more Rice.

Key Item – Rice For Kuro: We will also receive a special packet of Rice, just for Lord Kuro.

Ashina Castle – Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room:

NPC – Lord Kuro: Return to Kuro now & give him the Rice from the Divine Child. Rest at the Idol, & speak with Kuro again to receive a Sweet Rice Ball. Eat the rice ball & make Kuro happy.

Senpou Temple. Mt. Kongo – Inner Sanctum:

NPC – Divine Child of Rejuvenation: Head back to the Inner Sanctum now & tell her that you gave Kuro her offering of Rice. Now hand her the Holy Chapter: Infested we collected earlier from the bottom of the Senpou pond.

Rest at the Idol, & the Divine Child will have disappeared.

Halls of Illusion:

NPC – Divine Child of Rejuvenation: Travel to the Halls of Illusion now either using the portal at the Inner Sanctum or by ringing the Illusive Hall Bell in the Main Hall. We can now find the Divine Child here just after the first bridgeway across. Speak with her, & she will give us a lead on how to achieve the Dragon’s Return.

Main Hall:

Key Item – Holy Chapter: Dragon’s Return: We now need to collect another Holy Chapter for the Divine Child. From the Idol, enter into the nearby cave with all the Centipedes in it. Drop down through the darkness to the lower down area, & crouch under the low hanging wall through the water to the other side. Climb up to where all the dead Infested Monks are, & we can now collect this Key Item from the long dead High Priest of Senpou Temple.

Inner Sanctum:

NPC – Divine Child of Rejuvenation: Return again to the Divine Child back at the Inner Sanctum & hand her the Holy Chapter: Dragon’s Return. We will then be tasked with collecting the two Visceras from the Great Serpents… good thing we have already done that.

Key Item – Frozen Tears: Give the Divine Child the Fresh Serpent Viscera & the Dried Serpent Viscera. Rest at the Idol, & the front doors of the Divine Child’s temple will be locked. Do Wolf’s favourite pass time, & Eavesdrop at the door to hear the Divine Child having a rough go of eating the Visceras…

Rest at the Idol again & the doors will now be opened. Speak with the Divine Child to learn she has successfully become the Cradle now; we will receive these Frozen Tears from her which are essential for the Return Ending.

Hirata Estate (Second Memory):

When you are ready, return to the Dilapidated Temple & approach the Golden Buddha Statue. If you received the Father’s Bell Charm from Emma earlier, when we pray at the Statue, we will enter a new memory at the Hirata Estate… The only areas that are different are from the Hira Estate – Main Hall Idol onwards; all previous portions of Hirata Estate are identical to the First Memory & stays looted.

Note that doing this will overwrite these areas from the First Memory; if you still have not killed Lady Butterfly, Travel to the Hidden Temple first before praying at the Statue!

Hirata Estate – Main Hall:

Prayer Bead #33 – Lone Shadow Masanaga the Spear-Bearer (Rematch): When we enter the Second Memory, we will be outside the burning Estate entrance. Head inside to the courtyard where we found the Owl dying in the First Memory, & this Lone Shadow will be in his place.

This is a difficult fight but can be made extremely easy. From where we enter the Second Memory, turn around & kill the Taro Troop & the two Tower-Shield Bandits. Go up & aggro Masanaga now & lure him down towards the bridge & it will be outside of his “patrol zone”. As he starts walking backwards, spam attack & drive up his Posture to perform our Deathblows; just be sure not to get too far away from him or his health will reset.

Prayer Bead #34 – Juzou the Drunkard (Rematch): From the Hirata Estate – Main Hall Idol, make your way towards the Hirata Audience Chamber & we can find Juzou in his same location outside the entrance. This time however, he will be accompanied by two Bandit Archers & an Interior Ministry Lone Shadow.

Kill the Archers & lure the Lone Shadow into the pond behind us to reach the end of his & Juzou’s “patrol zone” where we can more easily defeat him. With his minions taken out, the actual Juzou fight is very simple; just attack him from behind.

Sequence 13: Old Memories of Patricide

1. Hirata Estate (Second Memory): Hidden Temple
2. Fountainhead Palace: Fountainhead Palace, Vermilion Bridge, Mibu Manor, Flower Viewing Stage
3. Gourd Seeds: 8/9
4. Prayer Beads: 35/40
5. Boss: 10/14
6. Lapis Lazuli: 1/10
7. Achievements: 18/34
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Hirata Estate (Second Memory) – Hidden Temple:

Boss #9 – The Owl (Father): We can find The Owl has now relocated down where we originally fought Lady Butterfly.


Achievement #16 – Father Surpassed: Defeated Great Shinobi Owl at the Hirata Estate.
This is an extremely difficult boss fight, arguably the hardest in the game; much more aggressive & faster than the first time we fought The Owl. He has the majority of the same moves he had when we fought him atop Ashina Castle but without his Poison or Healing Nullifying bombs. Shadowrush can still be useful against him, but you have to be careful as Owl Father can now Mikiri Counter this move & essentially one shot us as well.

Patience & memorization are the key to this battle; you need to go through every fight with care as though it were your first attempt. I highly recommend learning the timing to perform a Mikiri Counter on the Owl’s own Shadowrush attack. Like most bosses/enemies, striking the Owl in the back is the most effective way of defeating him; though you will only be able to perform 1-2 strikes tops at a time.

For the Owl’s second phase, he will summon… an owl. The spectral owl adds on an extra three moves, two of them are very easy to dodge & just give us more opportunities to attack. For that third move, the Owl will send the specter at us which we must jump over, then immediately he will follow it up with a Shadowrush that we need to dodge or Mikiri Counter.

Key Item – Aromatic Flower: We will receive this Key Item after defeating the Owl Father; this Item is essential for the Purification Ending.

Fountainhead Palace – Fountainhead Palace:

I highly recommend farming Sen to purchase the Mottled Purple Gourd from the Exiled Memorial Mob in the Mibu Village before we continue as we will be encountering enemies that inflict Terror upon us. When you are ready, Travel to the Wedding Cave Door in the Ashina Depths & enter into the marriage Palanquin at the top of the hill inside. With the Fountainhead Incense, we can now Pray, & the massive Shimenawa will take us away…


Achievement #17 – Ashina Traveller: Traveled to all 8 areas of the game.
Arriving in Fountainhead Palace will unlock this Achievement for us as this is the final area of the game.

Vermilion Bridge:

Boss #10 – Corrupted Monk (True): When we reach the Fountainhead Palace Idol, we can see the Vermilion Bridge ahead of us. Walk onto the bridge & we will be challenged by the true Corrupted Monk.


Achievement #18 – Corrupted Monk: Defeated the Corrupted Monk.
Story Related. For the most part, the Corrupted Monk (True) fights similarly as her Illusory form with plus or minus some moves. This time however, she needs three Deathblows performed on her. It isn’t until phase two that things alter as she will temporarily summon three illusory versions of herself to fight us. After phase one, immediately Grapple up into the tree branches above the Corrupted Monk & you can leap off to perform aerial Deathblow to instantly bring her to phase three; this can only be done when she is summing/re-summoning her phantoms.

If you are not fast enough, you will have to defeat phase two the old fashioned away; fortunately, the phantoms do disappear over time, so focus more on survivability than to dispel them. Simply Grapple up into the nearby trees to evade them but do not stop as they can still strike us up here. The trick to her first two phases, is Posture damage; the Corrupted Monk has extremely weak Posture making deflecting her attacks actually very effective.

The Corrupted Monk's third phase is much more aggressive & has a Terror attack, however she is very susceptible to the Shinobi Firecracker & can be stunned for a pretty decent stint of time. If you save all of your Spirit Emblems for her final phase, you should be able to defeat her relatively quickly.

Key Item – Dragon’s Tally Board: We will receive this Item upon defeating the true Corrupted Monk. This Item will expand the Inventory of our Merchants, & most importantly, give them infinite Divine Confetti that we can purchase for 300 Sen a piece. This is an essential Item that we will need to defeat certain enemies, specifically the Shichimen Warriors we will soon be facing…

Mibu Manor:

Mibu Manor Idol: Carry on through the area, avoiding the massive lake due to the Okami Leader Shizu firing lightning kemari at us. Pass through the flooded lake temple to reach the Mibu Manor Idol.

Flower Viewing Stage:

Flower Viewing Stage Idol: There is nothing noteworthy in Mibu Manor (though there is of course loot so I do recommend exploring it) so fight your way through it, & we will exit out the other side to find the Flower Viewing Stage Idol in front of a wooden bridge.

Prayer Bead #35 – Sakura Bull of the Palace: From the Idol, take a left around the corner of the flooded temple grounds close to the cliff walls & there will be a very long pathway ahead of us. As we head down this path & reach about halfway, the Sakura Bull will round the corner & engage us. Quickly lead the bull back towards where it came from at its dead end & do not fight it in the pathway or we will be harassed by an Okami Archer.

You can alternatively follow along above it on the rooftop & perform an Aerial Deathblow on it as well!

The Sakura Bull has the exact same moves set as the Blazing Bull except it deals Terror damage not Fire; keep behind it at all costs!

Collected Skill – A Beast’s Karma: We will unlock this Skill after defeating the Sakura Bull of the Palace.

Lapis Lazuli #1 – Shichimen Warrior: From the Idol, make your way through the massive Flower Viewing Stage & drop down to the lowest level where the streams have flooded. At the far end of the area near the cliff wall, there will be three waterfalls coming down; the Shichimen Warrior will be at the bottom of the farthest one from the Idol. If we get on the rocks above it, we can perform a Stealth Deathblow to knock out one of its health bars.

These are very difficult enemies & do tons of Terror damage to us; the Mottled Purple Gourd will be essential. What will also be essential, is using Divine Confetti as these are Apparition enemies; Mortal Draw will also do a lot of damage to it as well.

Defeat this Shichimen Warrior, & we will receive our first Lapis Lazuli. This is an extremely rare Upgrade Material we need for final level Prosthetic Upgrades. We need 10 of them total, however we can only receive a maximum of 6 per playthrough. What’s more is that we are unable to get any Lapis Lazuli during our Shura Playthrough, which is why we need to complete 2.5 playthroughs instead of only 2.

Sequence 14: The Great Coloured Carp

1. Fountainhead Palace: Great Sakura, NearPot Noble, Palace Grounds, Sanctuary, Feeding Grounds
2. Sunken Valley – Guardian Ape’s Watering Hole
3. Gourd Seeds: 9/9
4. Prayer Beads: 37/40
5. Boss: 10/14
6. Lapis Lazuli: 4/10
7. Achievements: 19/34
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Fountainhead Palace – Great Sakura:

Great Sakura Idol: To reach this Idol, we have to navigate through the different elevations of the Flower Viewing Stage to get as close as we can to the massive pink flowered Sakura Tree & where that lightning Okami kemari is. Be warned, there is a massive group of Okami on the stage just before the Idol.

Prayer Bead #36 – Okami Leader Shizu: When we reach the Idol, we can see a Grapple Point on the Sakura Tree ahead of us. As soon as we get across, the Okami Leader will engage us; fortunately, she only has one health bar. Once you close the distance to her, she is incredibly easy.

Near Pot Noble:

NPC – Pot Noble Koremori: To find this Idol & new Pot Noble, turn around from the Great Sakura Idol & head back to the far end of the Flower Viewing Stage towards the cliff wall. In between the two farthest waterfalls will be a bridge leading to a Locked Door. Turn around from this door to see an archway above the bridge we crossed; get on top of it. From here, follow the roof along to the “first” waterfall along the cliff wall & we can find a Grapple Point in a small cave across from us.

Follow the passage along & we can drop down to a previously inaccessible area with the Near Pot Noble Idol & the Pot Noble himself.

Lapis Lazuli #2-3: We can purchase our next two Lapis Lazuli pieces from this Pot Noble for 6 Treasure Carp Scales a piece.

If you do not have enough Scales, we can find 15 in Fountainhead Palace alone in the lake & in a side room we need to dive into.

Dragon’s Blood Droplet: We can purchase another Droplet if you need it for one Treasure Carp Scale from Koremori.

Key Item – Truly Precious Bait: If you have spent at least 12 Treasure Carp Scales on either Pot Noble Koremori &/or Harunga, speak with them & exhaust their dialogue to receive this Key Item. We will need this Bait to slay the Great Coloured Carp; Koremori is easiest since he is here & the Lapis Lazuli will fulfill the requirement.

Great Sakura:

Prayer Bead #37 – Fountainhead Lake: With the Okami Leader slain, we can now safely swim in the Fountainhead Lake; beware of the Great Coloured Carp though! From the Great Sakura Idol, leap into the Fountainhead Lake & swim down into its deep center. Close to a half intact building with a roof, we can see the glowing green remains of a dead Great Carp; the glow comes from worms. As we approach the skeleton, we will be attacked by not one but two Headless, ignore them, & we can find a Chest containing this Prayer Bead in front of the skeleton.

Palace Grounds:

Palace Grounds Idol: Evade the Headless & swim away from them. Swim up to the surface & over to a visible rooftop in the water close to the Great Sakura Tree. Here we can find one of the Daughters of the Carp Attendant. From her rooftop, we can dive into a smaller pool of the lake nearby & see the Great Coloured Carp smash in through a submerged building. Swim after it & we can find it patrolling inside a massive cave; we need to get past it. Swim to the far end of the cave & enter into a sunken building where we can reach the surface from. From there, we can Grapple up to this new Idol.

Gourd Seed #10: From the Idol, enter into the building ahead of us & defeat the ravenous Palace Nobles feasting on corpses inside. At the end of the building, near some closed doors, we can find our final Gourd Seed inside a Chest.

Sanctuary:

Sanctuary Idol: Exit the building to the other side; we can either Grapple onto the roof above us or carry on across some tree branches up towards a pathway lined with Sakura Tree. Follow this path up, & we will reach the Sanctuary Idol.

Do not progress past here! At the top of this path will be a shrine we can pray to that will trigger the Divine Dragon boss fight; we want to save this until the end of our playthrough as Ashina Castle will progress into the endgame event.

Feeding Grounds:

Feeding Grounds Idol: Backtrack down the path & Grapple across the trees back to the building with the Palace Nobles. Grapple up onto its roof now & head over to the far side to overlook the Flower Viewing Stage. From here, go to the left side of the roof & we can Grapple onto a tree branch where we can then leap off of & Grapple to a previously inaccessible rooftop below us. Drop down to the deck above the water with the Great Carp Attendant on it to find our Idol.

NPC – Great Carp Attendant: Close to the Idol, we can find the Great Carp Attendant. Speak with him & he will tell us to ring the nearby bell & feed his master.

If we feed the Great Coloured Carp two regular Precious Baits & speak with the Attendant afterwards, we will receive 4 Treasure Carp Scales if you still need them…

With the Truly Precious Bait we received from Pot Noble Koremori (or Pot Noble Harunaga in Hirata Estate) & feed it to the Great Coloured Carp. Once the Carp has eaten it, it will swim down into the lake. Rest at the Idol & the Truly Precious Bait’s effects will have taken hold.

Near Pot Noble:

Lapis Lazuli #4: Return to Pot Noble Koremori, after giving the Great Carp his Truly Precious Bait & we will find him dead; we can loot this Lapis Lazuli off his corpse.

If you used Harunaga’s bait, Travel to him in Hirata Estate for the same event.

Sunken Valley – Guardian Ape’s Watering Hole:

Key Item – Great White Whisker: Travel now to the Guardian Ape’s Watering Hole & we can immediately see… the massive corpse of the Great Coloured Carp in front of us. Don’t ask me how it got here… Approach the carp’s gaping mouth & we can collect this Item in front of it.


Achievement #19 – Great Coloured Carp: Defeated the Great Colored Carp.
This Achievement will unlock as soon as we collect the Great White Whisker.
We can return to the Great Carp Attendant to complete his Questline, but it is optional & not necessary for this Achievement.

Sequence 15: The Divine Dragon

1. Ashina Outskirts: Dilapidated Temple
2. Sunken Valley: Guardian Ape’s Burrow
3. Fountainhead Palace: Sanctuary
4. Ashina Castle (Ablaze): Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room
5. Ashina Outskirts (Ablaze): Ashina Wall – Stairway
6. Prayer Beads: 39/40
7. Boss: 11/14
8. Lapis Lazuli: 4/10
9. Achievements: 21/34
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Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Achievement #20 – Ultimate Healing Gourd: Fully upgraded the Healing Gourd.
With the final Gourd Seed in hand, quickly return to the Dilapidated Temple & turn it in to Emma to max out our Healing Gourd & unlock this Achievement.

Ashina Depths – Guardian Ape’s Burrow:

Upgrade Material – Malcontent’s Ring: When we defeated the Mist Noble in the Hidden Forest way back in Sequence 10, we disabled the Guardian Ape’s Burrow Idol & spawned in another Shichimen Warrior mini-boss there. To get back there, we will need to Travel to the Hidden Forest Idol & backtrack.

Now that we have an unlimited supply of Divine Confetti & the Mottled Purple Gourd, we should be able to defeat this guy without too much grief. Doing so will reward us with another unique Prosthetic Upgrade Material.

Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

Upgrade Material – Phantom Kunai: The final unique Upgrade Material we need it the Phantom Kunai. The Phantom Kunai is sold by Anayama the Peddler for 3,000 Sen if we have given him 50 Sen near the very beginning of the game.

We need this Upgrade Material to unlock the Phantom Kunai upgrade for our Loaded Shuriken which will segway us into unlocking the Lazulite Shuriken.

Fountainhead Palace – Flower Viewing Stage:

Sen/Xp Farming: The Okami Warriors in this area will net us 77 Sen & 513 Xp a piece… & there are a lot of them, making this our current best farming location.

Alternatively, you can farm the Palace Nobles in Mibu Manor. They will give us 87 Sen & 530 Xp; they are much faster to kill, though can one shot us with there Enfeeblement Debuff making it a lot more dangerous to farm.

I recommend farming enough Sen to upgrade your way to the Malcontent Finger Whistle & the Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella. These Prosthetics will be paramount in defeating an extremely difficult optional boss in endgame, that is if you do not “cheese it” to death...

Sanctuary:

Boss #11 – Divine Dragon: When you are ready to proceed, Travel to the Sanctuary Idol & head up the pathway to the top. Note that doing so will lock us into the endgame! Here, we can find a stone altar we can Pray to alongside a dead shrine maid. Do so, & we will initiate our colossal boss fight with the Divine Dragon.


Achievement #21 – Gracious Gift of Tears: Defeated the Divine Dragon & obtained the Divine Dragon's Tears.
Story Related. The first phase against the Dragon is very simple; it will summon a host of mini wooden duplicates that we can perform Deathblows on. Perform enough Deathblows to reduce its health bar to 0. When large branches emerge from the clouds we can Grapple up to, do so, & perform a Plunging Deathblow which will make us swing the Kusabimaru wide & take out many duplicates causing a lot of damage.

For the second phase, the Divine Dragon will fully awaken & wield… the Moonlight Greatsword? Trees will emerge from the ground in front of it & be randomly electrified with lightning. We need to quickly/carefully get to trees that are being electrified & when we Grapple on them, we will be launched into the air & if we perform a standard attack, we will throw a Lightning Spear at the Divine Dragon & damage it; you do have to aim the spear at the Dragon or you will miss… Rinse & repeat this until it is dead. After hitting it with around four Lightning Spears, the trees will disappear, & we will need to survive the Divine Dragon’s attacks until they re-appear again.

Key Item – Divine Dragon’s Tears: We will receive this Key Item when we defeat the Divine Dragon; as of now, we have every Key Item needed to perform all the alternate Endings (except Shura).

Ashina Castle (Ablaze) – Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room:

Key Item – Secret Passage Key: With the Divine Dragon defeated, we will return to Kuro’s Room in Ashina Castle. All Idols in Ashina Castle & Ashina Outskirts are now disabled again & we will have entered into the endgame section.

Speak with Emma, crouching over the corpse of Isshin Ashina, & we will receive this Key so that we can link back up with Kuro. Of course, that will be the very final thing we will be doing…

Prayer Bead #38 – Ashina Elite – Ujinari Mizuo: The only way we can exit Kuro’s Room is through the open window close to where Emma is. On the other side of it, head over to the left side of the castle rooftop & jump across to the roof/room where we used to be able to find Isshin Ashina in. Head down the stairs in this room to the dojo where we used to find three Nightjar, & we will find this red-eyed Fencer instead.

Entering the room from the stairs will instantly aggro him; run away down the hallway instead & hide in the dead-end room. Doing so will undo the aggro & he will reset; we can then sneak up behind him for an easy Stealth Deathblow taking away half of our stress…

Ashina Outskirts (Ablaze):

Reaching Ashina Outskirts: To reach the Ashina Outskirts, we have to navigate through the under siege Ashina Castle to the Old Grave Idol. From here, head down the stairs all the way to where the broken bridge used to be. It has now been repaired, & we can fight our way across it into Ashina Outskirts.

Remember this bridge battle all the way to the Outskirts Wall – Stairway Idol; we will be coming through here in NG++ to farm an insane amount of Xp to snag the Height of Technique Achievement.

Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

Prayer Bead #39 – Shigekichi of the Red Guard: After we cross the bridge into Ashina Outskirts, climb up the short stone wall ahead of us & we can look into the courtyard below where we will spot Shigekichi. This is the same courtyard we previously fought General Tenzen Yamauchi for Prayer Bead #6.

He is another Juzou the Drunkard type mini-boss, only with a fire gimmick instead of poison.
NPC – Anayama the Peddler: If you finished his questline by bringing Kotaro to Anayama, we can find the pair on the other side of the building they are usually near close to the Idol. It is now ablaze; Anayama will be beside a bonfire with Kotaro dead…

Item – Promissory Note: Speak with Anayama, & we can purchase one final Item from him, the Promissory Note. It only cost 1 Sen & owning it will give as a permanent 10% discount at all Merchants; it carries over across all NG+s. Though by this point, we probably own every Item we actually need from Merchants so it isn’t actually that useful now…

Sequence 16: A Sculptor Unbound

1. Ashina Castle (Ablaze): Ashina Reservoir
2. Ashina Outskirts (Ablaze): Dilapidated Temple, Flames of Hatred
3. Prayer Beads: 40/40
4. Boss: 12/14
5. Lapis Lazuli: 6/10
6. Achievements: 24/34
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ashina Castle (Ablaze) – Ashina Reservoir:

Prayer Bead #40 – Seven Ashina Spears – Shume Masaji Oniwa: We have one last Prayer Bead to obtain before we fight our final two bosses of the game. Journey over to the Ashina Reservoir, & we can see an Eavesdrop opportunity just down the stairs from the Idol; it will by Oniwa & an Ashina General. I actually found this to be a very difficult fight… before cheesing him with Puppeteer.

The easiest strategy to use combines the Gachiin’s Sugar & the Puppeteer Ninjitsu. From the Idol, use a Gachiin’s Sugar & carefully sneak up to the Ashina General. Perform a Stealth Deathblow & immediately apply Puppeteer so he will then fight for us. After this is done, hammer on Oniwa & attack him in the back; make as much use of our temporary ally as possible.


Achievement #22 – Peak Physical Strength: Upgraded Vitality & Posture to their limit.
If you have been following along with the guide, we should have obtained our final Prayer Bead after defeating Shume Masaji Oniwa. Go to an Idol, & Enhance our Physical Attributes for the final time to craft the Final Prayer Necklace & unlock our Achievement.

Unlock using Boss Memories to Enhance our Attack Power, we can find no more Prayer Beads across subsequent playthroughs; our health & Posture are at their maximum potential.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Malcontent & Suzaku’s Lotus Umbrella: If you have not already done so, I recommend grinding the Sen you need to obtain these two Prosthetic Upgrades; they will be extremely useful in the upcoming boss fight. We will need every edge we can possibly get…

The Sculptor will be no where to be found, but we can take his place & craft our Prosthetic Upgrades ourselves…

Farming the Red Guards from the Outskirts Wall – Stairway Idol to the bridge leading to the Old Grave is our best possible location for Sen & Xp; if you are lucky you will also get some very rare Fulminated Mercury.


Achievement #23 – Lazuline Upgrade: Used Lapis Lazuli to upgrade any tool to its limit.
While we are farming, I highly recommend obtaining the Lazulite Shuriken Upgrade as well. Not only will is it probably the best Prosthetic in the game, but it will unlock this Achievement as well; it will use 2/6 of our obtained Lapis Lazuli. If this is too much grinding for you, don’t push it; we still have another whole playthrough to chip away at these Upgrades on as well as our mop up NG++ run.

Constructing the Lazulite Sabimaru, Lazulite Axe, or the Lazulite Sacred Flame will also unlock this Achievement.

Flames of Hatred:

Boss #12 – Demon of Hatred: To reach the Flames of Hatred, continue backwards through the Ashina Outskirts & try to reach where the Outskirts Wall – Gate Path Idol is. When we fight/sneak past the army of Red Guards, we will enter a large burning courtyard with some dying Red Guards in it. At the end of it near a burning gate will be an Idol; this is not a standard Idol & will just teleport us to the large snowy battlefield where we fought Gyoubu Masataka Oniwa. The actual Flames of Hatred Idol will be in front of us… as well as the very Souls-Like, Demon of Hatred boss…


Achievement #24 – Demon of Hatred: Defeated the Demon of Hatred.
This is arguably one of the most difficult boss fights in the game; fortunately, we will only need to defeat it once though it has three phases. If you have the Suzaku's Lotus Umbrella, we can block the majority of the Demon’s Fire attacks. The Malcontent’ Finger Whistle can also stun the Demon momentarily, but only for a maximum of three times. The Demon is also an Apparition so it will take extra damage from Mortal Draw & Divine Confetti. If possible, try saving your uses of Malcontent as clincher moves for his third phase as we will be at our weakest then.

First off, I don’t condone cheating… however because I want everyone to be able to kill this guy as we will not be able to fight him next playthrough… & you definitely don’t want to fight him during NG++ on our final playthrough. I thought I would include a tried & true cheesing method that just exploits AI & sprite collision. I am not sure if it is his original strategy, but Tyrannicon has an excellent video guide showing how to defeat the Demon of Hatred in basically under a minute.
https://youtu.be/Bu4_jcrSv3Y

This method is a bit tricky to pull off though in its own right; I tested it out myself on NG++ just for fact checking before finishing the guide. Watch the video closely where he goes & the angles he is jumping from. The essence of the cheese is to get the Demon caught behind the Ashina Gate so that we can climb onto a watchtower safely without him destroying it. Then we perform a jump onto the Ashina Gate wall itself, walk over above the cliff edge, & lure the Demon to its death. For the jumps, make sure you are sprinting the entire time for extra lift. Do not spam jump, as pressing jump again mid air will wreck our airtime.

Lapis Lazuli #5-6: No matter how you kill it; we will receive not one but two Lapis Lazuli from defeating the Demon of Hatred.

We now only need 4 more Lapis Lazuli for crafting the final Prosthetics. Since we will not go to Fountainhead Palace next playthrough due to following the Iron Code, we will instead need to do this on NG++. This is technically fine as the higher your NG, the more Sen & Xp we get from enemies making grinding the Height of Technique Achievement much faster.

Sequence 17: No Hesitation

1. Ashina Castle: Ashina Reservoir
2. Boss: 13/14
3. Lapis Lazuli: 6/10
4. Achievements: 28/34
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Ashina Castle (Ablaze):

This is the end now, with only the final boss remaining. If you have followed along with the guide, we should have the Divine Dragon’s Tears for killing the Divine Dragon, Aromatic Flower for killing our Father in Hirata Estate (Second Memory), & the Frozen Tears for completing the Divine Child of Rejuvenation Questline. With these Key Items, & some more exploiting, we can earn 3/4 game Endings after defeating the boss.

Again, I don’t condone these kinds of methods of exploiting Achievements however unlike other Fromsoft “Souls” titles, there actually isn’t anything else pertaining to other Achievements to do on subsequent playthroughs. Shura needs its own separate playthrough which makes sense, but to then have to beat the entire game two more times after that just for alternate Endings? I implore you to do so, as this is an amazing game… but. But. I understand if you do not. If you are going down the exploit road, remember to not rush ahead after we defeat the next boss & speak with Kuro as that will lock in our Ending for the playthrough…

Ashina Reservoir:

Near Secret Passage Idol: From the Ashina Reservoir Idol, head down the stairs towards where we fought Seven Ashina Spears – Shume Masaji Oniwa & go left towards the Grapple Tree. Grapple your way down the Reservoir & we can spot this Idol close to the secret entrance we used with Kuro back in the Prologue.

Boss #13 – Isshin, the Sword Saint: Enter through the secret passage using the Secret Passage Key we received from Emma & we will find…. Genichiro?


Achievement #25 – Sword Saint, Isshin Ashina: Defeated Sword Saint Isshin Ashina.
Story Related. The intro of this this fight is actually Genichiro, Way of Tomoe again. This is actually very simple as he does not have his lightning attacks; though he does now have a Mortal Blade & has a Mortal Draw-like attack. It is very easy to defeat him without taking damage.

For the actual boss’s phase one, we have Isshin Ashina, reborn; as you see, he has three health bars. If we die, we also have to fight Genichiro all over again as well… Fight aggressively, but defensively if that makes sense. Isshin leaves himself exposed often for easy attacks & for the most part, his attacks themselves can be easily deflected. You will most likely break his Posture before breaking his health.

After the first Deathblow he will slam the ground to initiate phase 2; if you keep spamming attack after you perform the Deathblow you can get in 1-3 hits in before he does so. Isshin becomes insanely aggressive & difficult for this phase; use the Loaded Umbrella (or Upgrade types) to block his Perilous Attacks to do significant Posture damage to him. Try baiting & Mikiri Countering his Perilous Spear Thrusts as well for more Posture damage.

For phase three, Isshin will of course, wield the Way of Tomoe himself & attack us with lightning. His moves are identical to phase two except for the extra lightning attacks. Like with Genichiro before, when we get struck by the lightning attacks be sure to press “attack” in the air before hitting the ground to reflect the lightning back at Isshin.

Defeating Isshin will unlock the Gauntlet of Strength free DLC; there are no associated Achievements for it.

With Isshin defeated, this is where things get technical. Do not approach Kuro & carefully leave the area back to the Near Secret Passage Idol & Save. Then, quit the game to your desktop. If you plan on doing four separate playthroughs; ignore this step & instead skip down to Sequence 19: Sekiro so you can blast through the grind for all Skills & Prosthetic Upgrades; I do not recommend attempting to do all four Endings up to NG+4 on the same character as the bosses will get ridiculously hard.

The Back-Up Save!: If you plan on going down the Back-Up Save route & collect all three of the “compounding Endings” here are the steps we need to do. After Saving at the Near Secret Passage Idol, quit to desktop.

First step, go into your Steam Settings – Cloud & untick the “Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for applications which support it”. Not doing this will completely circumvent our exploit & ruin it; turn this off.

Second step is the actual back up. On PC, our Sekiro Saves are located in File Explore/This PC – Users – (Your PC username) – AppData. If you cannot see the AppData folder at this stage, go into your File Explore tabs at the top & click View then check the box that says Hidden Items to reveal AppData. Select AppData – Roaming – Sekiro. In this Sekiro folder will be a folder with a bunch of numbers, a Graphics Config XML, & a Steam Autocloud VDF. Copy the entire folder & the files, & save them somewhere else; on your Desktop is easiest since this is all temporary…

Third step is to unlock our Endings. With our master Save folder backed up, go back into Sekiro & begin unlocking Endings. When one Ending is unlocked, quit back to the Desktop & follow the steps to get back to the Sekiro folder. Once there, Copy (not cut!) the Back Up folder on our Desktop into the Sekiro folder & overwrite what is there to reset our game back to where we were. Our Achievements will stay unlocked, but our progress will be reverted. Unlock the next Ending; rinse & repeat.

Unlock your final Ending & enter into NG+. With that done, we can safely switch Steam Cloud back on & delete our Back Up Save with 3/4 Ending Achievements unlocked.


Achievement #26 – Immortal Severance: Attained the Immortal Severance Ending.
Story Related. Defeat Isshin, the Sword Saint, then give Kuro only the Divine Dragon's Tears to get this Ending.


Achievement #27 – Purification: Attained the Purification Ending.
Story Related. Defeat Isshin, the Sword Saint, then give Kuro the Divine Dragon’s Tears & Everblossom to get this Ending.


Achievement #28 – Dragon’s Homecoming: Attained the Return Ending.
Story Related. Defeat Isshin, the Sword Saint, then give Kuro the Divine Dragon’s Tears & Frozen Tears to get this Ending.

Could this Ending be a Sekiro 2 teaser?!

82% Complete

Sequence 18: Shura

1. All of Ashina
2. Ashina Castle (Invasion): Castle Tower Lookout
3. Boss: 14/14
4. Lapis Lazuli: 6/10
5. Achievements: 31/34
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When you have unlocked 3/4 Endings using the Back Up technique, be sure to turn Steam Cloud back on. Enter into the game, & if you have not already done so, go to an Idol & Start Playthrough #2.

For this playthrough, we can blast through the entire game basically. Still loot when needed & be sure to spend your Xp when you can to chip away at the Height of Technique Achievement. I recommend speed running this playthrough as fast as possible; we will take our time more in NG++ when we are farming our last Achievements…

This playthrough truly begins after we have defeated the Folding Screen Monkeys, Guardian Ape, & the Corrupted Monk (Illusory). Remember to speak with Lord Isshin Ashina to progress the Senpou Temple Questline after speaking with Kuro (after defeating Genichiro). The Gun Fort Shrine Key can be found in the library that Kuro moves to in Upper Tower – Kuro’s Room. The Hidden Estate Memories are completely optional & are more trouble than they are worth.

If you are going the hardcore route with each Ending getting its own playthrough, this will be your fourth & final playthrough; you will have already skipped ahead to Sequence 19: Sekiro & completed those tasks… This will then be your final playthrough.

Ashina Castle (Invasion) – Castle Tower Lookout:

NPC – Great Shinobi Owl: When you reach the Castle Tower Lookout after the Interior Ministry has invaded, we will find the Owl speaking with Kuro. Approach him & we will receive our ultimatum. When asked, obey the Iron Code & forsake Kuro. Doing this will cut the game short & put us down the Shura Ending… were it so easy.

Boss #14 – Isshin Ashina: If we side with the Owl & forsake Kuro, we will need to slay Kuro’s keepers being Emma the Physician & Isshin Ashina himself.


Achievement #29 – Isshin Ashina: Defeated Isshin Ashina.
Story Related. The first portion of this fight will actually be against Emma. She is fast but does not have a large move set. Fight defensively & focus on breaking her Posture rather than eliminating her Vitality if possible; try using the Mikiri Counter on her Perilous Thrust whenever she uses them. Capitalize on when she does her Perilous Grab & get behind her for 1-2 hits; we can also use the Shinobi Firecracker to stun her for a single hit.

When Emma is defeated, the next boss will emerge, the Tengu of Ashina; dying to Isshin will make us restart our fight with Emma. Isshin has the bulk of the same moves as his first phase as Sword Saint. Once again, focus on destroying Isshin Posture meter & try to Mikiri Counter his Perilous Thrusts. I find this phase is actually easier than the Emma battle… because Emma hits pretty hard.

On his second phase, Isshin will begin using fire attacks as well as a crazy whirlwind flurry attack. Though this phase will instill shear panic in you, do not be afraid. His insane flurry attack can be avoided by sprinting away from him. To combat the fire damage, use the Withered Red Gourd.

Collected Skill – One Mind: We will receive this Skill by defeating Isshin Ashina.


Achievement #30 – A Man Without Equal: Defeated all 14 Bosses.
Isshin Ashina is the only remaining boss we had to defeat; all others can be/were killed in a single playthrough. If you have been following along with the guide, we will unlock this Achievement after killing him.

Apart from missing Bosses accidentally, the biggest reason you may not unlock this Achievement is if you completed the Endings or Achievements over multiple playthroughs that were not connected (NG, NG+, NG++). Bosses only count towards this Achievement if it is all done on the same Save File. A minimum of 1.5 playthroughs are required for this Achievement as the Isshin Ashina Boss fight for Shura needs a separate run, while the other 13 Bosses can be killed in a single run.


Achievement #31 – Shura: Attained the Shura Ending.
Story Related. This is definitely the darkest of the Endings. After the credit screen, we can enter into our final playthrough on NG++ to mop up our final Achievements.

91% Complete

Sequence 19: Sekiro

1. All of Ashina
2. Fountainhead Palace: Flower Viewing Stage, Near Pot Noble, Feeding Grounds
3. Ashina Outskirts (Ablaze): Dilapidated Temple, Outskirts Wall – Stairway
4. Lapis Lazuli: 10/10
5. Achievements: 34/34
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once again, we can blast through our NG++ playthrough as quick as we can; unfortunately we need to essentially beat the entire game again to get to Fountainhead Palace & to Ashina Castle (Ablaze). If you still need them, I recommend finishing Anayama the Peddler’s Questline as well to gain access to a good supply of Upgrade Materials.

When we reach The Owl in Ashina Castle (Invasion) – Tower Lookout, be sure to stay loyal to Kuro & break the Iron Code; The Owl & Corrupted Monk (True) will be our hardest boss fight of NG++.

Fountainhead Palace – Flower Viewing Stage:

Lapis Lazuli #7 – Shichimen Warrior: When we reach the Fountainhead Palace once more, cut your way through to the Flower Viewing Stage Idol. From the Idol, make your way through the area & drop down to the lowest level where the streams have flooded. At the far end of the stage near the cliff wall, there will be three waterfalls coming down; the Shichimen Warrior will be at the bottom of the farthest one from the Idol. If we get on the rocks above it, we can perform a Stealth Deathblow to knock out one of its health bars.

Defeat the Shichimen Warrior to obtain our next Lapis Lazuli.

Near Pot Noble:

NPC – Pot Noble Koremori: To find this Idol, head in between the two farthest waterfalls to find a bridge leading to a Locked Door. Turn around from this door to see an archway above the bridge we crossed; get on top of it. From here, follow the roof along to the “first” waterfall along the cliff wall & we can find a Grapple Point in a small cave across from us.

Follow the passage along & we can drop down to a previously inaccessible area with the Near Pot Noble Idol & Pot Noble Koremori.

Lapis Lazuli #8-9: We can purchase our next two Lapis Lazuli pieces from this Pot Noble for 6 Treasure Carp Scales a piece.

If you do not have enough Scales, we can find 15 in Fountainhead Palace alone in the lake & in a side room we need to dive into.

Key Item – Truly Precious Bait: After spending the 12 Treasure Carp Scales purchasing Pot Noble Koremori’s Lapis Lazuli, speak with them & exhaust their dialogue to receive this Key Item.

Feeding Grounds:

The Great Coloured Carp: Get to the Feeding Grounds Idol & ring the bell to summon the Great Coloured Carp. Feed the carp the Truly Precious Bait to kill it.

Near Pot Noble:

Lapis Lazuli #10: Return to Pot Noble Koremori, after giving the Great Carp his Truly Precious Bait & we will find him dead; we can loot our final Lapis Lazuli off his corpse.

Ashina Outskirts – Dilapidated Temple:

Achievement #32 – Master of the Prosthetic: Upgraded all 10 Prosthetic Tools to their limit.
As of now, we have our final Lapis Lazuli & everything we need to craft all our Prosthetic Upgrades.
Now we need to farm out all missing Upgrade Materials & Sen to craft our Prosthetic Upgrades; consult my Achievement Checklist in the Introduction for where to find/farm Materials. Use Mibu Possession Balloons to increase enemy drop rates. Most likely, you will have most of the Materials you need through natural progression except Lumps of Gave Wax & Fulminated Mercury.

For the Grave Wax, I like farming the Palace Nobles in Fountainhead Palace – Mibu Manor. For Mercury, go to the Gun Fort Idol in the Sunken Valley & farm the Sunken Valley Scattershots there. This may take a few hours depending on how much Materials you need.
If you have defeated the Divine Dragon, there is actually a better place to farm for Fulminated Mercury while also getting significant Xp returns; see the below Achievements description.

Ashina Outskirts (Ablaze) – Outskirts Wall – Stairway:

Achievement #33 – Height of Technique: Acquired all 125 Skills.
Now… for the final grind of the game, farming Xp to purchase all of the remaining Skills. If you have been chipping away at this over the course of our 100% journey, you may not have too much to do. I only needed 8 more Skills (35 Skills Points)… though this still took me around three mindless hours straight to do.

For the best farming location, go to the Ashina Outskirts – Outskirts Wall – Stairway Idol AFTER you have defeated the Divine Dragon & the area is ablaze. From the Idol, Grapple onto a nearby watchtower & Plunging Deathblow the Red Guard Riflemen. Then drop down to the ground & Stealth Deathblow another Riflemen below the tower. Head out the nearby gates to then Stealth Deathblow the next three Red Guards.

Be sure to dispatch Shigekichi of the Red Guard before the run.

From the Red Guards we killed on the steps, Grapple up to the gateway above us & carry on to kill another Red Guard & Stealth Deathblow the Interior Ministry Red Guard. Then we can get to the bridhe leading to the Old Grave to kill another four Red Guards.

This is a very painless farming run, though I promise it will get monotonous, to earn all the Xp we need for our 100%.


Achievement #34 – Sekiro: All 34 Achievements have been unlocked.
Story Related. Once we have all 125 Skills unlocked, we will also unlock our final Achievement, 100%ing Sekiro! Well done!

Conclusion:

Sekiro was good. Insanely good, but as a purest, I cannot say this game was better then Dark Souls; though you could argue that the two are incomparable. There is something to be said about having the story follow a linear protagonist instead of custom/self-insert character. Sekiro is amazing. If you come from Dark Souls, you may or may not find this game all that challenging, though it definitely requires a different level of skill & has a very steep learning curve... I somehow made it to the Great Shinobi Owl boss fight without ever mastering the Mikiri Counter & REALLY suffered for it. 100% took me around 70 hours, though as always, a good 10-15 hours of that time was due to an idle game writing my guide.

If this guide helped you achieve 100%, rate the guide or let me know in the comments. Helps me know if I am doing things right!



100% Complete!
Thank you for choosing Cynical Guides, & I will see you in the next one!

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[Pibbs]

Amazing work, just got my game fully completed. Great guide!

[Sludge Bucket]

Thanks man. Just got 100% with your help :).

[Dannyboy]

I gave both "persimmons" to the divine child but after eavesdropping and resting the door didn't open. What do I do?

[Nandalee]

Great Guide! Thank you :)

[soulcalibvr]

legend, tyty <3

[tarnished]

followed your guides to 100% for DS1, DS2, DS3 and just now Sekiro, really appreciate the guides and the work you put in :)

[inordinary_bucket]

Absolutely marvelous of a guide am about to complete my 100% only the last few lapis ,then max prosthetic and max skills. Thank you again for providing such detailed overview of this.

[Cynic 0055]

Thanks for catching those, Division. Fixed them right away.

[Division]

If on checklist the Sekiro Achievement is Story Related then why is Achievement #34 Sekiro not tagged Story Related in here? Oh yeah Achievement #28 has two Story Related wordings so you might wanna remove the extra.

[Jomimi]

actually the best guide i have ever followed, thanks so much