Need tips

Where are you in the game and what exactly is challenging?

Generally, you want to be quite aggressive until the enemy deflects you! (You can recognize that by a higher "ching“ sound and an orange flash where the weapons interlocked)

This is your signal to be mindful and ready to deal with the enemy‘s attack!

Normal attacks should simply be deflected, hit the block button just before the strike should hit you, the skill to (somewhat comfortably) deflect is essential to this game.

If the red kanji appears, 3 things can happen:

• the enemy will do a grab attack, which you should just evade (back) from

• the enemy will do a sweeping attack, which you need to jump and if possible jump on the head of your foe

• the enemy will to a thrust attack, which you should evade into (You need the ability "Mikiri counter“ for this to work!)

The timing can be different for different foes, but generally you’ll want to hit the button when the kanji is about disappear or his weapon has a white flint.

After you’ve successfully dealt with the enemies attack, or deflected his combo, it’s your "turn“ again and you should be aggressive again (The cycle repeats itself)

Be sure to try different combat arts and Shinobi tools, but if you want I’ll give you the most important ones.

Apart from what everyone else has said, there's a run button

We’re going to need more information.

Where, what or who is the struggle?

Oh! One major tip almost never given. If you're playing with a controller change the layout so you have instant access to all combat skills and after you relearn it and build the muscle memory you'll notice it's far easier.

I blew through the game, PC with mouse and keyboard, streaming and getting comments on how nice my dodges and last second deflects are. Few runs in I tried with a controller and died for the first time ever to madam butterfly. She hit me time and time again because I needed the spilt second my finger went from one button to the next. Got use to focusing on the game and dancing with the bosses and every action being instinctively at my fingertips. I ended up remapping the controller to get back some buffer and give me more time if I make mistakes as every split second matters.

Also deflect whenever you can, blocking should be a last resort. Not only helps you not get broken but if you have the traits for it then it increases posture damage for a bit I think.

Listen - don't be afraid to go all out.

Don't wanna be that guy but not everyone struggled with this game. Is there any boss in particular you're struggling with? If you can narrow down what's giving you trouble it's easier to give help.

For general game play make sure you unlock Mikiri counter first and focus on the skills you get in the book for killing rats. The posture damage bonuses there will help a lot and can push you over the edge. Prosthetic tools are far more powerful than you initially assume so remember to use them. Shuriken is good for jumping enemies and low health ones. End game if you unlock the living force skill at the end of the tree the flame becomes my favorite sleeper hit. You can try new things and mix it up and find what works for you as YouTube tactics don't usually have broad appeal.

Stand your ground

Others may have mentioned, it’s basically a game of boss fights with some filler between. I actually don’t agree that you have to learn every boses move set emphatically, or detox from DarksSouls. Approach the boss fights like you would an arcade fighting game, it helps. Deflecting is just as damaging, if not more so, than an attack on an enemies posture, so just deflect and attack constantly, you get that quick at it that your starting one before finishing the other, hence all the guys telling you to be aggressive.

Mikiri Counter gives you heaps of lee way timing wise so always use it when you can, but if you struggle with all the multi tasking, just get away from perilous attacks in general, you don’t have to parry/counter everything, it’ll just require more patients if you don’t, as the fights will go longer.

So basically parry and hit back as fast and often as you can, keep an eye out for big sparks, flashing meters and flashing red symbols, and you’ll be sweet.