From Software became a household name by convincing players that frequently dying and grinding without loot was fun. Their latest game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice released this week and is staying relatively true to that belief. It is also proving to be immensely popular for both critics and fans.
But even die-hard fans of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne series will find that while Shadows Die Twice is similar, it also has some unique changes that can prove problematic for even the most experienced player from the old titles, let alone beginners who’ve never experienced one of their games before. So here are 14 tips and tricks to keep your ninja alive and ensure the game remains an enjoyable experience.
14 Stealth Is Key
Stealth is a vital component of this game for players who want to stay alive longer. Many of the game’s enemies will die in one hit and getting that hit in via stealth is much easier than facing them in battle. Learning to approach enemies from an angle and remaining unseen until you can stick a knife in their back is often the easiest and most recommend method of disposing of enemies.
It’s also often necessary if facing multiple enemies and dispatching one at a time or if you simply wish to bypass enemies all together. Whatever your goals, remaining unseen and in the shadows is always a good idea in this game.
13 Explore The World
The world is massive in Shadows Die Twice and considering it’s full of enemies, lifesaving consumables, upgrades, and useful routes to bypass or get the drop on enemies it’s absolutely in your best interest to explore as much of it as possible.
Finding that fourth prayer bead to get a health and posture boost or getting a better prosthetic can mean the difference between a boss being a minor annoyance or an iron wall to your progress. So while you might foolishly think that exploring is a waste of time, you’ll often find that your discoveries more than make up for the time you spent getting sidetracked.
12 Study New Enemies To Learn Moves
Combat in this game is more of a dance of strategy than button mashing. Each enemy has its own unique method of attacking and defending and within that choreographed twirl of fists and blades are opportunities that can be exploited for your character to fill up the enemy's posture bar and grant an opening for the kill.
Taking a moment to hold up your shield and let the enemy swing away can give you a feel for how they attack and how you can exploit their own moves against them. Don’t wait too long or you’ll find your own posture bar filling up and a cold blade of steel in your belly.
11 Take The High Road
Because stealth and surprise are such an important part of gameplay it’s often in the player’s best interest to climb upwards and use the high ground when preparing to take on an enemy. Leaping from a building onto an enemy for an instant kill, bypassing enemies via rooftops, fleeing the scene, or even getting a lay of the land are highly recommended activities for players wanting to beat the game.
Taking a moment to clamber up the side of a building, leap across rooftops, or zip around with your grappling hook can give you unique advantages that are often necessary for progress and survival.
10 Practice On Hanbei The Undying
Perhaps one of the most useful features of the game is the existence of Hanbei The Undying. This immortal individual acts as a living training dummy and sparring partner that the player can use to not only learn the game’s most basic mechanics, but also get a feel for combat with new tactics and gear.
If players find themselves dying often or are struggling to get the hang of new techniques paying a visit to Hanbeit The Undying can yield valuable experience without the risk of death and losing everything you’ve worked so hard to obtain. Though real battle is often a better teacher, Hanbei The Undying shouldn’t be overlooked.
9 Buy Coin To Preserve Coin
Coin is the currency of choice in Shadows Die Twice and absolutely vital for getting useful items from vendors. A player’s death will result in the loss of half the coins in your possession, which is a significant blow to the work you’ve done to obtain them.
In order to prevent this, players are advised to purchase spare coin purses to safeguard their wealth. While there is a bit of a loss involved, a purse that can hold 100 sen will cost 110 sen to buy, it prevents any loss should the player die, which will happen a lot in this game.
8 Keep Your Loadout Simple
While you’ll primarily be fighting with one weapon at a time, the game contains a number of consumables and other items that are extremely useful in a fight. The worst thing that can happen to a player is fumbling for the necessary item in the middle of a fight and dying because they couldn’t find it.
When you have some breathing room and a spare minute take some time to organize your quick items and practice rotating through the selections a few times. Then when you’re in mid battle or surprised by an enemy you’ll have that muscle memory of where everything is and can swiftly access items to keep yourself alive.
7 Avoid Death
Death is always a bad thing in any game and in Shadows Die Twice it means the loss of valuable coin, experience points, and useful items. But there is a mechanic called Dragonrot that can make dying frequently an even more painful experience.
This Dragonrot sickens NPC’s and can close off certain questlines until the NPC is cured of their sickness. It also penalizes a player’s Unseen Aid, which is a mechanic that gives you a 30% chance of keeping your stuff when you die, too much Dragonrot and this percentage drops significantly. So, while death is to be expected in this game, don’t let that be an excuse to die too often.
6 Try A Different Approach
Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result and nowhere is that statement truer than in Shadows Die Twice. The game world is expansive with multiple routes forward, opportunities for stealthy attacks, ways to bypass enemies, various techniques, weapons with different capabilities, that can all be combined to create unique strategies and tactics for approaching any given problem.
If one way of fighting a mini-boss isn’t working then just doing the same thing over and over again isn’t going to change much. Try new approaches, use different prosthetics, or even just wait until you’re a little better equipped or more skilled before trying again. Get creative and try new things when you find yourself getting stuck and the game will stay fun for you.
5 Lean On Your Prosthetic
One thing many new players forget to fully utilize to their advantage is their prosthetic tools. There are a wide variety of prosthetic tools that offer lots of unique and interesting capabilities for the player’s disposal. Grappling hooks to gain access to higher areas of the game, firecrackers that can distract or stun enemies, fire attacks against fire adverse enemies, and even an ax that can shatter an enemy’s shield.
Prosthetics can be purchased from vendors, rewarded after defeating a boss, or even found in the environment. Each one can be utilized to devastating effect and make for some very creative strategies when tackling tough enemies. Ignoring this important tool will make the game a very tough slog.
4 Be A Fly On The Wall
While exploring the game world you’ll find yourself stumbling across clues to some useful items in the game or potential weakness the bosses might have. Many of these clues and useful advice can be obtained by eavesdropping the enemy.
As these soldiers talk around the campfire you’ll learn useful and helpful things that can make upcoming fights a cake walk or even can point you in the right direction to finding a new prosthetic. It’s tempting to blitz into the scene from the shadows or drop down on a wandering guard when you have the chance to do so, but taking a moment to listen in on their conversations once in a while can be very rewarding even if it means missing your initial opportunity to strike.
3 Consume Your Consumables
If you’re taking time to explore the game world properly and you’re doing a fair job at avoiding death you’ll find your inventory becoming cluttered with all the consumables you find in your travels. Instead of letting these go to waste upon death, start sucking down some of those items and reap the benefits they provide.
Admittedly there are some items you should be hoarding like divine confetti or homeward idols, but most of the other items are better used sooner rather than later. So start popping those Mibu Balloons, douse your enemies in oil and scarf down that special sugar to make your gameplay more productive and speed up your progress a little.
2 When In Doubt, Be Aggressive
Combat in this game is designed to be up close and personal. It’s only possible to kill an enemy if you get the jump on them or fill their posture bar enough to grant you a killing strike. This game doesn’t reward players who dance in and out of battle, you either get in and fight or run away.
This can be a hard lesson to learn for veterans of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne series as those games required players to dart forward to chip away at health before backing off to avoid getting clobbered. Shadow’s Die Twice is different and you need to get in and get dirty to finish off your enemies, so don’t be afraid to be more aggressive.
1 Failure Is The Best Teacher
While the above tips and tricks will help a player die less and get a better handle on the game, the single best way to become a better player in Shadows Die Twice is to fail and fail often. This isn’t to say that you should embrace death, as the game penalizes you for that, but don’t shy away from it either.
Falling to a particular enemy type over and over again teaches you a weakness you may have in your fighting style, getting clobbered by the same mini boss over and over again can teach you different tactics that make later enemies more of a breeze. In this game dying is a painful tutorial and each setback is a down payment on becoming a stronger player, so learn from failure and don’t be afraid to fail if you haven’t learned enough yet.