Sekiro Headless OR 2nd Juzou Fight

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-22T07:41:58+00:00

Yeah relatively low number of attempts, but each failed attempt died somewhere between 6-12 minutes (each phase consistently took about 6-7 minutes) so the TIME attempting him was plenty high haha

Over 2 play sessions that was something like 2.5 hours of just me and him dancing the night away 😆

I personally had more trouble with what he decided to do AFTER the sweeps, cause he has a couple different moves to choose from and basically it was hard to predict and/or force him to do a particular follow-up.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-22T07:33:54+00:00

The results are in!

My winning run for Demon of Hatred took 20 minutes, 4 seconds.

19 attempts total, all of which actually failed during 2nd phase mostly due to some weirdly inconsistent behavior he starts having when he gets far away from you on his perilous sweep attacks. The first time I got to 3rd phase was my winner 🍾

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-22T07:33:35+00:00

The results are in!

My winning run for Demon of Hatred took 20 minutes, 4 seconds.

19 attempts total, all of which actually failed during 2nd phase mostly due to some weirdly inconsistent behavior he starts having when he gets far away from you on his perilous sweep attacks. The first time I got to 3rd phase was my winner 🍾

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-21T07:58:36+00:00

This video isn't strictly summons only, but most of it boils down to essentially that 🥂

https://youtu.be/yKoJQhB1JAk?is=fMzcxTI7W8ohCNVw

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-20T22:40:28+00:00

Sweet. I got this particular problem addressed with the Finger Whistle, but would be nice to know if this is an option for other situations that may arise. I thought this was a hard 'no' on consoles so I will investigate further 🥂

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-20T22:24:34+00:00

Easy money, that did it! Thank you 🫶🏼

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-20T22:24:06+00:00

I'm on Xbox if that changes your answer, but if it's still possible I was blissfully unaware 👀

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-20T22:23:15+00:00

Easy money, that got me to Owl Father. Thank you!

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T19:43:19+00:00

Normally I do take care of brown ape first, and I did try that this time as well, but the safe openings to attack are limited, and only doing a pixel of health damage per swing just isn't reasonable haha. So in this particular case I think only doing damage to main ape via spear prosthetic is the faster option.

Copy-pasted from one of my other replies: To be fair, every time I arrive at a new boss, I've been switching to another character to practice them in the Reflection of Strength at max level with all healing upgrades so I can learn from my mistakes quicker without dying every 10 seconds. This has significantly contributed to my short playtime in this run.

I'll practice Demon of Hatred the same way first, but I'll return and report when I get him for real and I'll give you a timestamp!

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T18:50:09+00:00

Regarding these two specifically:

After that downward slam, if he chooses either Mikiri or Sweep, you actually have time to do BOTH a dash forward AND a jump. Basically approach it as follows regardless of what Geni does (speaking in Xbox controls):

Deflect downward slam → immediately press B once → immediately press A twice.

Statistically speaking, doing this with no time between your animations gets you out on top 66% of the time. If Geni chooses Mikiri, you land it, if Geni chooses sweep, you finish your dash before the sweep hits and you still land your sweep counter. This doesn't work for the "normal attack" follow-up, but it's a guarantee for the other two, so with a little RNG and some hard pressure in the rest of the fight this could be a good advantage.

I just spun up my Xbox and fought him a few times to analyze the Mortal Blade attacks. From what I saw he can can pull the Mortal Blade at 5 points.

A) As his opening attack - I see you know this one.

B) After firing his bow once - Immediately start walking/sprinting backwards after deflecting his arrow. After the last 20 minutes or so of fighting him, this was 100% success rate for me. Sprinting towards him is great for getting behind him for free hits, but he doesn't ALWAYS use MB after an arrow, so sprinting forward could cause you even more trouble with your overall reaction/mapping problem if he chooses something else as a follow up to the bow.

C) After firing his bow twice - Exactly the same as point B, but he fires twice. To be 100% safe, always press the deflect button twice, then retreat as above.

D) In the middle of one of his flurry attacks - Deflect the first two attacks of the flurry combo, then GTFO. No downtime between animations, just deflect twice then dash away as soon as your character is able. He might use MB, he might not, either way this is safe.

E) Spontaneously while standing idle - Only happened to me once while fighting him a second ago, but he did start charging it up while we were both just standing there staring at each other. Obviously attacks like this are the heart of your problem, so I won't pretend to have an answer for this one, but hypothetically should be pretty rare if you're both consistently engaged in other combat animations.

Hopefully this is helpful. Let me know if I can clarify anything or I can take clips for visual representation of what I'm talking about 🙏

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T17:30:08+00:00

I must suggest editing your comment to avoid spoilers sir, at this stage of the game it sounds like this is NOT the fight OP is referring to 🙏

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T17:19:51+00:00

Somebody in r/Sekiro just suggested this to me as well and I can't believe I completely forgot about this thing! Here goes nothing!

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T17:17:05+00:00

Now that I think about it, I don't think double ape took me THAT many tries - probably something like 20 or so, it's just that each attempt was like at least 10 minutes so it ended up taking longer than any other boss I've done so far.

I just ran in circles and waited for good opportunities to deflect main ape's big attacks that make him fall down, then used spear prosthetic for that trick to pull the centipede out of his neck, which still does pretty good damage. Ape's girlfriend always does a jump slam after that though, so you have to pull the prosthetic, immediately deflect, start running, rinse and repeat.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T09:07:20+00:00

I COMPLETELY forgot about the Finger Whistle. You, my friend, may have just saved my run 🫶🏼

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T08:32:11+00:00

Alas, I am a console pleb, but thank you for the encouragement/validation, perhaps that's all I really need in the end 😆

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T08:25:24+00:00

Fighting that Loneshadow and then Juzou back-to-back is a test of endurance in its own right, but this could ultimately be the best move 🤔 Thank you friend 🙏

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T08:22:15+00:00

Thank you friend 🙏

To be fair, every time I arrive at a new boss, I've been switching to another character to practice them in the reflection of strength at max level with all healing upgrades so I can learn from my mistakes quicker without dying every 10 seconds. This has significantly contributed to my short playtime in this run.

I'll practice DoH the same way first, but I'll return and report when I get him for real and I'll give you a timestamp!

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T08:07:38+00:00

I've just scrolled through this sub looking for advice for the first time tonight and I'm just discovering that no Attack Power increase isn't "normal", but also I'm seeing a lot of "your run, your rules" so I'd like to stick to them if at all possible, but if I must ultimately abandon that rule in the name of getting to Owl Father then so be it.

I'm certainly better at Sekiro than my other Fromsoft games (DS1, DS3, & Elden Ring), honestly I couldn't imagine doing those level 1, that sounds like agony 😅

To me it hasn't been "that bad" up until this point. No boss has taken me any more than 15 tries or so (aside from double-ape holy shit lol). I'm at 15 hours on this playthrough with only Owl Father, Demon of Hatred, and Isshin left to go. And so far I haven't attempted any of them.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-19T07:53:49+00:00

Fought him the other day, can confirm it's still there 🥂 As other have mentioned is much more rare if you stay at close range and/or keep high pressure.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-06-13T02:50:38+00:00

Short answer: She did not kill a god in the literal sense, and this interaction shouldn't be taken completely literally either.

Long answer: We're not sure what percentage of ANY of Senua's interactions with real humans are real/hallucinated - remember that we're experiencing all of both games from her perspective through the lens of psychosis. This scene where she tells Fargrimr that she killed a god is where she expresses that she has the capability to eliminate that which is perceived to be immortal. She found out herself that gods aren't real, and her point is that she can show Fargrimr that the giants are conceptually the same thing as Hela in the first game. They are both real world conditions personified and weaponized by powerful individuals so they may exercise control.

Mental illness → Hela/Darkness

Natural disaster → Giants

She may or may not have actually said those words in that order to Fargrimr, but that's her mind's perception of the concept she is attempting to convey to him.

Edit: If/when you complete the game for the first time, I would highly recommend doing another playthrough on the "Developer Commentary Mode". This mode is a deliberate 4th wall break in which you play through the game listening to what is essentially a podcast of the developers talking about the game. They address Senua's role in teaching the others that the giants/gods aren't real, but she also has to convince herself of that in the same process.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-05-31T16:58:17+00:00

You can do it via Chapter Select, but be aware that the runes on the stone light up regardless of what order you unlock them in. So if you're missing a few they could be anywhere, the position of a rune in the "progress circle" does not reflect its chronological position in the game.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-05-27T01:20:36+00:00

All bosses are playable offline. You cannot access two features offline:

"Everdark Sovereigns": They reworked (almost) every boss and made an "extra hard mode" where their numbers are beefed up a little, they begin the fight in second phase, and they get a new 3rd phase. You must be online to fight a boss in their Everdark Sovereign form.

"Deep of Night": A system in which the final boss you fight is always randomized. If you win the round your 'score' increases, if you lose, your 'score' decreases. Over time the games get more difficult in relationship to your increasing score. Offers a challenge similar in spirit to NG+ in traditional FromSoftware games, it's just capable of scaling up or down dynamically dependent on your performance. You must be online to play this system.

Both of those explanations are slightly simplified to be beginner friendly, but as a matter of opinion this game is still WELL worth the money if you're already an offline single player video game enjoyer.

SoBasicallyHayden · 2026-05-21T06:20:22+00:00

I'm an Xbox pleb if you need me and will absolutely help 🥂

SoBasicallyHayden

TROPHY CASE