Sekiro is not a game about health. It is a game about Posture, and the one skill that gates every fight in it is deflection. Attack to load an enemy's Posture, deflect to protect your own, and finish with a Deathblow when the bar breaks. Dodging like other soulslikes is the single most common way to stall for twenty hours. Bound by the Iron Code to a young lord, the wolf climbs from a prison cell to a palace above the clouds and back into a burning castle. Death is a mechanic, not a wall: you rise on the spot, though leaning on it spreads Dragonrot. First Hours is the deflection primer; Full Progression tracks every boss encounter across Ashina, with divergent and bonus fights kept apart so your run still reads as complete; Leveling is Attack Power, all 40 Prayer Beads, 10 Prosthetics and 9 Gourd Seeds. Every tick saves on this device as you go.
Deflect, do not dodge. Hold block and tap it as a blow lands to spark a deflection: that fills their Posture and empties yours. Attacking also loads Posture, so pressure is safety and backing off just resets their bar. Learn two answers early: Mikiri Counter for red-kanji thrusts and the Jumping Kick for sweeps. Buy Mikiri Counter first. Rest at any Sculptor's Idol to refill the Gourd. Hesitation is defeat.
Posture, not health, is how bosses die. You can win almost every fight without taking a chunk of their vitality if you deflect their whole combo and answer perilous attacks correctly: their Posture fills, it stops recovering, and one Deathblow ends it. New players lose because they treat this like Dark Souls and dodge for openings. Stand in, deflect, and be relentless. Aggression is the safe option here, not the risky one.
Light. Systems and the opening only. The full boss route is on Full Progression; Attack Power, Prayer Beads, Prosthetics and Gourd Seeds are on Leveling.
Tick these as they become habit. They save on this device as you go.
- Posture is the win condition. Every enemy has a Posture bar above their health. Fill it and it breaks, opening a Deathblow. Lowering their vitality only makes their Posture fill faster and recover slower, so chip damage is a means, not the goal.
- Deflection beats dodging. A well-timed block turns damage into Posture pressure on them. Rolling gives up that pressure and Sekiro's dodge has fewer i-frames than you expect.
- Perilous attacks (red kanji) each have one answer. Thrust: Mikiri Counter (step on it). Sweep: jump, and kick off the head for bonus Posture. Grab: dodge sideways, never block.
- Resurrection is a resource, not a safety net. Dying and rising on the spot is core, but repeated deaths spread Dragonrot, which dims some NPC questlines. It is widely overstated: cure it with a Dragon's Blood Droplet when a quest needs it and otherwise keep moving.
- You do not level by souls. Attack Power rises from Memories that major bosses drop; Vitality and Posture rise from Prayer Necklaces (four Prayer Beads each). Skill points buy arts and latent skills.
- The prosthetic arm is your toolkit. Flame, shuriken, axe, umbrella, spear and more, each a counter to a specific enemy. Spirit Emblems are the ammo.
- Stealth is a first strike, not a playstyle. An unseen Deathblow removes a full health bar. Many mini-bosses with two bars can be opened by stealthing one.
Your first points should go toward Mikiri Counter in the Shinobi tree, not a flashy Combat Art. Thrusting perilous attacks are everywhere and Mikiri turns them from a threat into free Posture damage. Buying a Combat Art you rarely press first is the classic wasted early investment.
Circling for a back-stab opening and rolling through combos is how a Sekiro fight lasts forever. There is no summon, no shield-and-poke, no over-leveling. Stand at deflect range and answer every swing. The learning curve is steep and then vertical, and this is the hump.
The Healing Gourd refills free at every idol, so saving it does nothing but get you killed. And skipping Gourd Seeds (more charges) and Prayer Beads (more Vitality and Posture) leaves you underbuilt for the back half. Sweep both as you go: see the Leveling tab.
| Threat | Answer |
|---|---|
| Thrust (red kanji, a stab) | ⭐ Mikiri Counter: step onto the spear. Huge Posture damage. Learn this first. |
| Sweep (red kanji, low) | Jump over it, and kick off the head for bonus Posture. |
| Grab / seize (red kanji, a lunge) | Dodge to the side. Cannot be blocked or deflected. |
| Terror (apparitions, poison mist) | Pacifying Agent, confetti, and do not linger. A full Terror meter is instant death. |
| Shielded / armored | Loaded Axe smashes shields; Shinobi Firecracker stuns beasts and cavalry. |
| Beasts & fire-weak foes | Flame Vent: a burst of fire staggers them and opens the combo. |
Gyoubu Oniwa at the castle gate is the game's honest first boss and a fair one: grapple to his horse, deflect the lance sweeps, and punish after each pass. If you can beat Gyoubu cleanly you have the deflection rhythm the rest of the game demands. Genichiro, at the top of the castle, is the exam.
Switch to Full Progression for the spoiler-structured boss route and live tracker, and Leveling for Attack Power and the collectible plan.
Three ways to get stronger. Attack Power rises from Memories that major bosses drop (turn them in at an idol). Vitality & Posture rise from Prayer Necklaces: collect 4 Prayer Beads, make one necklace, use it. Healing rises from Gourd Seeds (more charges) taken to Emma. Then widen your options with Prosthetic Tools and a couple of Combat Arts. First-run target: sweep every bead and seed, and pick up all ten tools.
Every trackable pickup, with a wiki link per line. This checklist is SEK-specific and saves as you go. Per-item locations are drawn from Fextralife and community maps; a few are flagged for a final source pass.
| Tree (Esoteric Text) | How you get it | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Shinobi Arts | From the Sculptor early in Ashina Outskirts. | ⭐ The core tree. Holds Mikiri Counter and the Jumping Kick. Buy these first. |
| Prosthetic Arts | From the Sculptor after fitting a few prosthetics or an upgrade. | Follow-ups and buffs that trigger off prosthetic use. |
| Ashina Arts | Finish the Tengu of Ashina side task in the Outskirts. | Direct sword skills. Home of Ichimonji: Double, the workhorse Posture art. |
| Senpou (Temple) Arts | In Senpou Temple, past the centipede cave to an isolated tower. | Mobility and mid-air tricks; the Devotion latent skill. |
| Mushin Arts | Endgame: finish Tengu's quest and cap any tree, or ask Isshin. | The strongest late arts, including One Mind. |
| Skill | Priority | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mikiri Counter (latent) | ⭐⭐⭐ | Turns every thrust into free Posture damage. The single best purchase in the game. |
| Ichimonji: Double (art) | ⭐⭐⭐ | Big Posture damage and it restores your own Posture. Your default answer after a deflect. |
| Jumping Kick / Ascending Carp | ⭐⭐ | The sweep answer, plus extra Posture on the head-kick. |
| Breath of Nature / Life | ⭐⭐ | Posture and vitality recovery skills that make attrition fights survivable. |
| One Mind (Mushin) | ⭐ | Endgame burst for the final trials. Expensive, situational, glorious. |
| Mortal Draw | - | Flashy, costs an Emblem, rarely the right button. Skip on a first run. |
You cannot farm your way to more Attack Power in any meaningful way: it comes from Memories that major (main) bosses drop. That is why the Bosses tab and this tab pull in the same direction: every main boss you fell is also a permanent damage upgrade.
| Content | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Every Prayer Bead (40) | Must-do. Ten necklaces of Vitality and Posture is the difference between struggling and comfortable. Most drop from bosses you fight anyway. |
| All Gourd Seeds (9) | Must-do. More heals, no downside. |
| Headless & Shichimen apparitions | Worth it for the Prayer Beads and spirit items, but bring confetti and Pacifying Agent. Skippable if Terror is wrecking you. |
| Demon of Hatred | Optional. A magnificent, brutal fight that plays by different rules. Take it for the challenge, not because you must. |
| Hirata second memory | Do it if you want the true endings; it is the gate to two of the four. |
| Gauntlets / Reflection (GOTY) | Skip on run one. Pure boss-rush practice for after the credits. |
Four endings exist. One is an early divergent choice that ends the run before the palace and the final trial (its two bosses are tracked in Divergent Paths). The other three run through the whole game to the final fight; two of those additionally require the Hirata second memory and a late item hunt. The game asks what the wolf owes his oath, and lets you answer at the end. This guide names that the choices exist and how to keep them open, and stops there: the fates are yours to find.
Pair this with Full Progression to see which region you are in and sweep its beads, and First Hours if deflection has not clicked yet.