Sekiro’s Big Bosses Ranked From Easiest to Hardest

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Sekiro has become known for its legendary boss battles, from the fight between the raging bull to facing off against the lead character’s legendary shinobi leader, these are all of the bosses ranked from easiest to hardest

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When you jump into FromSoftware’s latest title, Sekiro, you have to be willing to meet it on its level. If you approach like any of their previous games, such as Dark Souls or Bloodborne, you’re going to find yourself getting stomped. Once you accept the differences of Sekiro, you’re going to find yourself facing off against the legendary bosses in this game and taking on the harder challenges. However, not every boss in this game stacks up on the same difficulty. Here’s a list of all the bosses you can find in Sekiro, ranked from easiest to hardest. We are going to skip a handful of the smaller bosses, such as those like General Naomori Kawarada.

Sekiro Bosses Ranked

11. Gyoubu Oniwa

The first big boss you meet in the game is guarding the gates to Ashina Palace. Gyoubu Oniwa rides his mighty steed, and here is where you put your skills to the test for the first to see how well you’ve mastered the parrying and grappling hook mechanics. After you understand his patterns and start to use the firecrackers against the horse, taking him down is no real effort, though. After you’ve finished him, you get your first significant power boost, and you can start upgrading your prosthetic arm.

10. Divine Dragon

When you’re near the end of your journey, and you’re about to acquire the last ingredient to assist Lord Kuro, you face off against the mighty Divine Dragon who’s down in Fountainhead Palace. The boss fight against this powerful creature is far more comfortable than some of the other bosses you have to face in this game. You’ll jump into the air and parry the dragon’s powerful lightning attacks, but at the end of the day, it’s a quick fight.

9. Folding Screen Monkeys

When you enter the dream-like paradise of the battle with the Folding Screen Monkeys, everything seems a little off, even the fight. The trick here is to think outside the box, and you can get stuck pretty quickly if you do not play the game set-up before you. However, if you’ve been playing Sekiro this long, you’ve become accustomed to knowing when the game wants you to play by its rules, and you’ve accepted them already. If you do so again here, this battle should not take you long, and instead be a fun, witty battle you did not expect to have in this game.

8. Juzou the Drunkard

While Juzou the Drunkard is not one of the big bosses of the game, he is an incredible challenge you have to overcome. You’ll find him surrounded by several smaller minions, and you have to find a way to balance fighting him and his cronies to advance. Getting his minions away from him and attempting to fight him one-on-one is awkward, plus, his attacks hit for incredible amounts of damage. For such an early fight, he’s tough to beat.

7. Lady Butterfly

Shortly after you defeat Juzou, you’re facing another tough boss, Lady Butterfly. If you did not already take down Gyoubu before facing Lady Butterfly, this fight could prove a little more difficult because you can equip particular prosthetic upgrades to make this battle much more accessible. Lady Butterfly, regardless of if you do grab the upgrades or not, is all about a swift wave of patterns and deception, forcing you to advance against her and then turtle up when she begins her onslaught of quick attacks. It’s an engaging fight, and once you get her pattern down, she’s quick to slice up.

6. True Corrupted Monk

When you first arrive at Fountainhead Palace, everything appears beautiful and calm. However, as soon as you cross the bridge, you’ll be met by an old foe: The Corrupted Monk. This time, they’re not an image and are a physical force you have to face off against to advance. There’s a simple strategy of using the overhead tree branches to eliminate the monk’s first two health bars, but if you don’t know this tactic, you’ll fight the monk head on. It’s not an easy fight, and the unprecedented attacks of the monk’s staff make it even harder.

5. Genichiro Ashina

When you’re getting to the half-way point to the game, you’ve either gotten by with semi-decent parries or by dodging. However, this fight tests to see how much of parrying you can genuinely do. This fight forces you to play with parries and land them correctly, or continually die to this boss and have to start the battle over and over again. You need to learn the bosses’ pattern, understand how parrying works, and then when you can land a handful of your attacks. This battle tests you, and if you blink, the rest of the game is a nightmare. After you conquer this challenge, though, moving forward against the other bosses is far easier.

4. Great Shinobi Owl

Similar to the last fight, you need to meet this boss head on and learn their patterns while mastering your parrying ability. Unlike the Genichiro Ashina fight, you fight Owl near the end of the game. An owl is a tough opponent, and there’s plenty of emotional weight going on in the fight as Sekiro defies his teacher/parent to do what he feels is right. Everything feels great about this battle, and the combat is wonderful. When Owl starts to mix things up during his second phase, though, it becomes a small challenge that you haven’t already faced before in other fights. It’s a great way to start wrapping up Sekiro.

3. Guardian Ape

Taking the Guardian Ape is not an easy challenge. He’s a large, formidable foe that feels like a mixture between a Dark Souls fight, which makes battling him a bit harder. You have to use different tactics to topple him, and even then it’s an uphill battle. This battle is where you have to force yourself out of your Sekiro shell and find a way to make it work, or you can’t advance.

2. Genichiro Ashina (Ending)

For those who chose to defy Owl and honor Lord Kuro’s wishes, you have to face off against Genichiro Ashina once again, before you can walk away. Not only are you fighting him again, but you’re fighting in him the location you lost your arm. There’s plenty of significance in the location, but also, Genichiro is not alone. He cuts himself in half and spawns a new form of his Grandfather, who is summoned by the Second Mortal blade. Now, Sekiro must stop a legendary swordsman from finishing up his journey. The boss battle is challenging, and the fact you have to repeat the first part of the fight after losing is a bit annoying, but it’s a great way to finish up the game.

1. Demon of Hatred

While this boss is not a required fight, it is hands down the hardest fight in Sekiro. You have to face off against a creature who is going to rip you to shreds in a handful of hits, and if you have not grabbed as many prayer beads as you can, he’ll take you down pretty quickly. You have to learn the patterns of every single fight, and even then you might get destroyed based on how difficult this fight is going to be. The Demon of Hatred is probably one of my least loved fights, but it’s also the most difficult, and for a good reason.


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Zack Palm
Zack Palm is the Senior Writer of Gamepur and has spent over five years covering video games, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Oregon State University. He spends his free time biking, running tabletop campaigns, and listening to heavy metal. His primary game beats are Pokémon Go, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and any newly released title, and he finds it difficult to pull away from any Star Wars game.