Sekiro

Didn't know it was possible to poison Snake Eyes, though. It was a tough fight until I figured out a route to get a Stealth Deathblow in, and then just tanked out the second phase. Mortal Blow (or whatever that Combat Art is called) is excellent for reducing Vitality enough to stop Posture dropping instantly. A bastard to time it, but if it lands a couple of times that's half the fight right there.

O’Rin of the Water. What a cow. First phase is doable quite easily, but when she does that Headless type mist attack my brain folds in on itself and I mess it up.

On another path farming for Sen I stumbled on the kite solution and found the Great Serpent and put paid to that. Not even a Prayer Bead! Tight git!

Phattso

If you have sebimaru, use that on o'rin. She really doesn't like it.

That’s actually how I’ve made the first phase easy for myself. Can’t seem to land it reliably in the second phase though.

In that case, I must have found an idol after the boss arena before fighting Guardian Ape and jumped straight there after

You can miss it if you don't go back there, I was arguing the point about it not triggering, sorry if that wasn't clear. It will always trigger if you go to the cave after the GA fight. That's all I was saying.

Yeah, but for the sake of an easy life I'm going to pretend I didn't read that and just keep going. :-D

What am I now, five, six bosses from the end? Guardian Ape for sure, then whatever's at the end of the Mibu Village branch, then there's whatever's still left of Genichiro who obviously is going to make another appearance, then I presume a handful of others? No need to add another bastard onto that list, that's for sure!

I think it's entirely moot, as Guardian Ape has flummoxxed me for now. Not Genichiro levels of teeth-gnashing determination to beat him or anything, I just don't seem to be able to make progress. With Genichiro I knew it was just a matter of executing my plan. Here I don't seem to be able to nail a workable plan, even with the hints you guys have made. I'm ___this___ close to YouTubing for inspiration.

Less time to play these past few days anyways - wrestling with a monstrous Man Flu - hence mopping up some mini bosses (Seven Spears, Drunkard, Snake Eyes Mk. 2, etc.), and making steady progress in the Depths. Presently grinding out Sen also, as I realised I hadn't even had a look at the Prosthetic upgrades available to me - it's possible that some help might come from that direction.

Heh - I've tried kiting, I've tried getting up in his grill, I've tried Operation Flying Monkey doing a hit-and-run while there are still trees to fling myself off of, all sorts.

The nagging fear that's growing in my gut is that this might genuinely be a reaallllly looooong first phase by design. Longer than any of the others. So depending on what's waiting for me in phase 2, that might be the most galling thing in the universe or a non-issue. Either way, just gotta Git Gud enough to see for myself.

Feels like I'm not a million miles away from meeting the boss in the Depths anyway, just need to figure out She o'the Water first.

Oil, fire and firecrackers. Fucks him up good and proper. I start the fight by lobbing an oil urn before setting him on fire, getting a load of hits in, then lobbing firecrackers and getting more hits in. If you pop an Akos sugar first as well that helps. Then it's a case of staying close, running around him and lobbing firecrackers every once in a while. He soon goes down.

Although I'm now at the stage where I'm setting everything on fire for the hell of it.

The only mini-boss I'm conscious of missing was back in Hirata - the Ninja fellow guarding something in a temple. But good call - I wanna get 'em all anyways, jsut don't wanna spoil the game at the same time.

Not that I think it'll help. I've more health now than when I killed Genichiro, so I think this one's down to ability rather than gear or stats. I'll dedicate and evening to it and see how it goes sometime this coming week. I'm actually quite looking forward to it, which is a definite change from the earl portion of the game.