Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Ranking Every Boss From Easiest To Hardest

6. Genichiro Ashina (Second Encounter)

This boss has given players all over the world a ton of trouble, and it’s easy to see why. This is one of the most exhilarating bosses in the game, and it’s made all the more impactful because of the mid-battle switch up that sees Genichiro become imbued with lightning, which he unleashes to devastating effect.

One of the biggest obstacles is that his range of moves seems perfectly suited to punishing players who rely on either solely dodging or solely blocking, which actually makes Genichiro one of the best bosses in the game for teaching players to break out of their preferred styles of play.

If you can parry his combo chains you’ll build posture damage quickly, but a great tip I found is that when he jumps in the air to stab you, dodge left, immediately jump and press jump again to air stun him as he sweeps under you for an easy 3-4 hits. Repeat this and he’ll be onto his second phase in no time.

This is the moment that things get silly, as with lightning on his side it can be tempting to stay the hell away from him, but instead stick close as even if he does try and zap you, jumping in the air as you see the red prompt and spamming R1 to fire his energy right back at him takes off a huge amount of posture. He’s an absolute beast, but he can be bested.