10 Dark Souls Habits You Must UNLEARN To Beat Sekiro

8. Blocking All The Time

Unless you're confident in your two-handed skills or played a glass cannon in Dark Souls, you might have picked up the habit of constantly holding up your shield. The habit makes some players feel safer navigating through new levels, acting as a barrier against surprises or as a fail-safe in combat between attacks (once you've recharged stamina, of course).

One obvious hindrance in Sekiro — a game where swift movement is everything — is that you lose mobility while blocking. Also, if you press the attack button while still holding block, you'll activate a combat skill, which could have unexpected consequences. The block button is often more useful for recharging your posture gauge than actually avoiding damage.

In Sekiro, deflection (or parry) is the new block. The better you get at deflecting enemy attacks, the more damage you'll avoid and the safer you'll be. Blocks come in handy against certain types of attacks, like kicks and punches that can't be deflected, but otherwise the game actively punishes you for always holding the block button.

Enemies take posture damage from your deflections, which can eventually lead to a Deathblow, regardless of their HP. The timing of deflections is critical, so you won't get away with holding block or hammering the button in hopes of randomly catching the enemy's weapon in time. You have to get the timing just right.

This is probably the hardest skill to master, but it's one that will carry you through the rest of the game.