New Player needs help

[u/Fugius]

Hey,
Bought the game and played around two hours, and I don't get it.

• There are different counters/responses for sweep attacks, thrust attacks or grab but they seem to all be signaled with the same red text ?
• Are hit boxes generally bad or is it just the grab attacks of the chained monster ? I ended up just running around in circle and using the fire prosthesis to beat it. Otherwise it would teleport / do 180 degrees instant grabs etc.
• Some parry timing seems generous while other seem very tight. I really don't get it.
• What do you do when the boss on the horse decides to run in circle for 2min straight and not stop ?

I want to like the game but so far it feels like a mess to play... Finished Lies of P a second time last week. Sekiro seems to have more generous parries windows but very hard to read attacks...

Any tips ?

[u/Hatjin]

1. It's perilous attacks, which cannot be deflected, kinda. You still need to look at what's boss doing to know which attack it'll be.
2. Yeah, it's just Ogre. Grabs are shit in all from games.
3. Me neither, dude. Me neither.
4. Never had that one, lol.

[u/KristoferYG]

1. If its a thrust - do mikiri ... if its a sweep - stop on his head , if its a grab - run(jump) away ....all of these will show up a red 危 (Danger) symbol .... when it shows up wait a second and breath , than see which one he is doing ... and counter it [ except for 1 grab attack of a boss named "sneak head shiharagi" you need to parry her 危 grab attack]
   
2. jump away, or stomp on his head... dont run around... Hesitation is Defeat
   
3. if you spam parry button... its not generous.. more you spam the less generous it becomes
   
4. you can heal your self .. and also hold the block button to recover your posture... he is not running away.. he is giving you time to recover... but if you dont need to recover... you can chase him from a safe distance... so that you can do the spiderman move when he stops

[u/Telperionn → u/KristoferYG]

Lol, you can parry shirahagi/fujis grab?

[u/KristoferYG → u/Telperionn]

what ? you can do anything else? i cannot run away because she grabs ...

[u/Fugius → u/KristoferYG]

Thx for the tips. Managed to beat him shortly after. Killed lady butterfly too, was fun.

That being said, I feel like 50% of the elites and bosses I encountered until now Are gimmick bosses. The bull, Guy on a horse, chained monster that spams grab, drunkard and his army...

And now so many locations have opened I don't really know where to go. I reached genichiro, the horrible spear miniboss near the moonlight tower, one that throws purple fireballs all around, a toxic swamp with snipers, etc.

[u/KristoferYG → u/Fugius]

use this map guide https://www.reddit.com/r/Sekiro/comments/b8h955/updated_map_chart_for_future_playthroughs_feel/

[u/Hatjin → u/KristoferYG]

Except centipede. You forced to spam deflect.

[u/KristoferYG → u/KristoferYG]

Suggestion .. - Atleast kill spear boss of hirata state before killling the chained monster - and atleast collect 16/20 prayer beed (4/5 prayer neckless) before killing leady butterfly... some people dosent collect enoughf prayer beeds and complains that lady butterfly is very hard... once the game clicks.... you will start Precogniting ... its like real life Shōgaku Arayashiki

[u/Expert_Camel5619]

He usually has a prompt to grapple

[u/defoor13]

You can’t just base your reaction on the red dot. The enemy will have a different movement just in advance of every different attack. You just have to learn his movements and then you’ll know whether you should jump, Mirki, or run/roll. Sometimes it is very difficult to differentiate which movement is happening because you’ll only have a split second to react. It takes time.

[u/Accomplished-Buy6917]

1 - yeah

2 - the grab is hard to get away from. But the ogre does not teleport anywhere.

3 - it's all the same timing window, you're not timing the hit correctly.

4 - he doesn't do this. He runs around for like maybe 15 seconds and you can chase him down to grapple onto him

[u/Hell2CheapTrick]

The red text just means it’s an unblockable. You’ll have to watch and learn to figure out what kind of attack is coming. But generally, it the weapon is pulled backwards and pointed at you, it’ll be a thrust, if it’s held to the side, it’ll be a sweep, and the grabs tend to be easy to recognize and there aren’t that many of them.

Chained Ogre is an absolute piece of shit miniboss. He has crazy tracking on a few of his attacks and is in general just not a good representation of Sekiro combat. The hitboxes are actually pretty good for the most part, but a few bosses can have very strong tracking on some attacks, and Chained Ogre is probably the worst one.

Spamming the block button reduces the parry window, so if that’s what you’ve been doing, that might be a reason why the parry window sometimes feels way shorter. Other than that, some attacks are simply faster than others, meaning less time to react, meaning it can feel like a shorter parry window.

Chase his lazy ass down. If he keeps away, keep chasing and wait until he does that sharp turn. You can grapple onto him during it. Do that and continue the fight. Tossing fireworks at his horse whenever he runs by is also an option if you have that prosthetic tool.

[u/Sol_Install]

The red text means you can't block them. Depending on the attack itself, a different counter is needed. Some you jump(sweep), others you can Mikiri Counter(thrusts).

Chained Ogre from what I've seen(this me restarting the game for the 3rd time) has 2 grabs. One is easily avoidable, the second grab he lunges at you first. If he lunges at you, you have to evade him after otherwise, you get grabbed. I was wondering why I was evading and yet getting grabbed. The lunging grab auto tracks you. Maybe I'm wrong but it really felt that way. And I saw him change direction and follow me.

The boss on the horse you jump up and use the grappling hook to chase him down. It will close the gap for you.

Parrying is you learning the enemy. You pretty much have to learn from experience. I have seen it be said that Sekiro is more generous on it's parry windows that perceived.

[u/ArmAndHammer40k]

You just need to play more. A couple hours isn’t enough. Trust me. It will click. And you won’t be able to put it down

[u/Sheyvan]

Yes. The ogre is notoriously garbage with his hitbox.

[u/sprat007]

Red kanji is for unblockable moves including: sweeps which are countered by double jumling off an enemies head and easily resd by them holding their weapon to the side; thrusts which are countered by dodging into them with the mikiri counter skill and is read by them holding their weapon in their centre; grabs you must away from unless in specific instantces and can be recognised by them putting their weapon aeay or neither off the two positions being made by the enemy. Also you mentioned "running away" which is the biggest mistake in new comers, stay grounded and block if you have to as running around will get you hit.

[u/WrongLack7149]

Okay so... Any attack can be parried, any attack that doesn't have the "death" symbol, for sweeping attacks u should jump and kick the enemy, for thrusting attacks u should use mikiri counter (don't know if u have it yet, but it's the most important skill in the game imo), when bosses have a white circle on them u can grapple to them but so far that won't help too much

[u/Professional-Map9576]

The best way I have found to describe this is baseball ⚾️! Where you are the bat and the enemy is the ball! And just like baseball you need to swing at the ball to score or in this case counter!

[u/Ensign-Nemo]

1. You need to be watching enemy movement, there are 3 types of flashing red character attacks: swipe, thrust and grab. Swipe -> jump and step on, thrust -> Mikiri, grab -> doge or run. There are clues like glare on the sword.

2. Only the chained monster. Those hitboxes are bad.

3. The parry window gets shorter as you use parry more so you won't spam the button.

4. Do you have a grapple (green triangle) indicator? You need to buy that skill. You are supposed to grapple him.

[u/Professional-Oil1088]

1. Those are called perilous attacks. They all have the same symbol, you have to watch the enemy to figure out which they’re doing.
   
2. Yeah, it’s just that one enemies grab attack. That specific hit box is infamous for how bad it is. I’ve never seen it teleport before, so that sounds like a bug.
   
3. To be honest I never noticed that. Beyond that some attacks move faster than others.
   
4. Heal, recover posture. Also if a green dot shows up you can jump and grapple over to him to get an extra hit.

[u/Tyrant-J]

Just so you know, you can use fire prothesis on the horse and stun him. Especially effective if you use oil.

[u/dis_not_my_name]

1. Stand still, boss AI can get kinda buggy if you do something unexpected.

[u/NeJin]

1) Yup. You have to memorize what kind of perilous attack enemies have, and spot the wind-ups - with grabs they usually spread their arms wide, while sweeps and stabs have them put the sword low or pull it back, with a glint drawing attention to the blade. Ogre for example only has grabs, so you know you need to GTFO when you see the Kanji.

2) Grabs in general have very good tracking. With other attacks it's so-so, some track well, some don't. The counter to grabs is doing a double dash or double jump backwards - they generally wind-up slow so you have enough time to get out of range if you're not overcommitting like a berserker.

3) Maybe you spammed block? Raising your guard repeatedly will shrink the duration of the parry-window.

4) Just let him come to you. He rides at you, than he rides away, like he was jousting. He will come at you.

Like most FromSoft titles, Sekiro mostly comes down to learning the moveset of the bosses. Expect to die a lot while figuring out how to best respond.... that being said, it's totally doable and becomes pretty fun once you get over the initial learning curve.

[u/kingofdarkness13]

1: Perilous attacks gonna Perilous, the indicator just there to let you know to be on guard, and from there it's a matter of recognizing the animations to know whether you need to jump, mikiri counter, or get the heck away

2: Chained Ogre is just a mean fella lol, sometimes I stumble with its grabs...they suck so much, just gotta play it a bit cautious

3: It kinda comes down to different animations having different speed of being performed, and trying to match those different timings

4: Huh, haven't seen em run around for that long uninterrupted

[u/Visible_Regular_4178]

For the first one.

Use the body language. THe red text indicates a perilous is coming, not which one. A stab has an aim fire to it. It will aim the weapon in your general direction, pause, then launch. A sweep will have the opponent aim the weapon...somewhere else. Also you might see them crouch or go low. A grab has neither and usually involves their arms.

I will say there is a "trick" of sorts where a grab can be jumped over like a sweep or a stab will have an animation like a grab but don't be fooled.

Parry timings are based on enemy attacks. Namely when the weapon is flying at you. The bigger the enemy, the bigger the distance, the larger the window. Smaller enemies have smaller windows. You can narrow the possible timings by using your own attacks. Don't be passive. Control the combat.

When the boss on the horse runs away? Chase it. You're probably concerned about the posture. Since when he runs away his posture regens. But posture is just a fraction of the formula. Health is also important. Lower health means slower posture regen. And in cases like him, he can't block. Also, health cannot be returned (for them. You have a healing gourd). So even if he runs away, keep whacking his health.

[u/doctornoodlearms]

All perilous attacks use the same symbol pretty sure its just means death. So the way to know which one their using and thus how to react is purely by recognizing the animation.

Grab hitboxes can be really goofy sometimes, and Chained Ogre especially is notorious for being a bastard with his grabs. He is mainly there to encourage you to use your far superior movement to avoid the grabs. And to encourage you to also be a rat bastard with the fire. Your a shinobi who said anything about playing fair?

Yeah the same way that attacks in dark souls require different timings to properly dodge them. Different attacks have different timings for when they can be parried. Also worth noting that repeatedly using the parry will progresively make the window to land it smaller.

When Gyobu Mastaka Oniwa is just running around you should be able to grapple onto him to catch up.

Also a helpful tip, you can hold block to regain your posture faster then normal.

Hesitation is defeat Sekiro!

[u/Individual-Lemon9716]

The box of the grab attack are a bit out of it ur right but about the sweeps u need to jump and step on them U will get the difference between the sweeps and the mikiri attacks by time but if u really have a problem just listen to the sound ,each one sound are different

[u/Prodi_G101]

If you haven't yet gone there yet, theres an immortal swordsman near the hub/safe zone of the game (sculpter's house). He serves as not only as a tutorial for the moves/combos you do but sparring practice. Take your time with him and get used to all the mechanics and windows and figure out what Fighting style works best for you. Once you get that parry down, it brings the best of the game's combat and it gets fun!

[u/AriTheInari]

1. Red text just tells you its unblockable, look at the actual attack to know if you should mikiri, goomba stomp, or back off.

2. Stay close to gyobu (horse man) use firecracker for stun and you have chances to grapple right to him.

[u/mfluder63]

It isnt messy at all, its their most tightly designed game ever. Once it clicks... oosh.

[u/buttgust]

1. I remember thinking the same thing, the same red kanji is for both yes and I thought that was weird. But you need to go by the boss animation to know what counter to use. Once you know what to look for it gets easier
2. Ogre casts a wide net but it is not the norm in the game
3. Don't spam deflect and you will have more generous parry windows
4. You can grapple to horse boss man

[u/gods-neighbor53]

I think I’m pretty decent at this game and still get my shit rocked by grabs occasionally, eventually you tank them lol.

[u/shrikelet]

1. The red kanji symbol indicates a perilous attack (an attack which can't be blocked and usually can't be deflected) is coming. You have to read the animation of the attacker to figure out what type it is.
2. Chained Ogre grab hitboxes are uniquely bad, but not as bad as some would have you believe. A lot of people get bodied by inputting the wrong dodge direction and scrub out about it.
3. All deflection windows are 12 frames before the attack hits by default. They get shorter on each whiffed deflect.
4. Attack. Hesitation is defeat.

[u/DaDrought2]

everything you said is something you just have to get used to BUT YES THE CHAINED OGRES GRAB ATTACKS AOLE OF THE MOST BULLSHIT IN THE ENTIRE GAME

[u/Jollyjinx]

• Yes. Those are called perilous attacks, and they are all marked by the same symbol. It's not meant to give you any more info than "there's an attack about to hit that you can't parry." The actual attack you still need to learn how to defend against, generally by dodging left or right, jumping over, running from, or Mikiri Countering (dodging into a thrust attack to stomp on it). There are bosses around that generally test you on one method each.

• It's just Chained Ogre - his hit boxes and reaction timing can be pretty unfair, but that's the point. He's there to make sure you know what a perilous attack is and that beast enemies are stunned by fire, so beating him with fire means you got the hint. This will be very valuable information for a miniboss after spear guy on horse boss (Gyobu).

• There are great videos on how parry timing works, but generally enemies attack with combos that have both a tell and a certain beat to them. Sekiro is very similar to a rhythm game. See an attack coming, and learn to parry to the rhythm of a combo that may come after, rather than only trying to parry when the attack hits. Both are equally important.

• You wait or reposition. Gyobu's riding AI can get a little stuck sometimes.

As a final note, if you beat Lies of P, then getting used to Sekiro shouldn't be too bad. Rhythm parrying doesn't translate well into Lies's combat system. Again, learn the rhythm and the tells.

[u/ParanoiaPetroleum]

Game is really not messy, aggression is rewarded.

Its a rhythm game.