Sekiro boss guide: Chained Ogre

Sekiro’s Chained Ogre is the most difficult early game fight. But he’s not insurmountable — especially if you decide to put off the fight and grab something helpful first. In this guide, we’ll show you how to defeat the Chained Ogre with fire.

Get the Flame Barrel first

If you eavesdrop on some of the conversations that Sekiro characters have and read item description text, you'll learn that enemies with red eyes are weak to fire. The Chained Ogre has red eyes. But you probably don’t have a fire-based weapon when you first confront him — we sure didn’t.

This is also an early lesson about how Sekiro works. Just because you can fight someone right now doesn’t mean that you should fight them. There may be a better way, and there’s no penalty for doing something else first.

If you don't have the Flame Vent or Flame Barrel, don’t fight the Chained Ogre. Instead, take some time to get the Young Lord’s Bell Charm and a Prosthetic Tool upgrade.

FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

If you don't have the Young Lord’s Bell Charm, look for a house with broken walls. It’s something like halfway between the Ashina Outskirts > Outskirts Wall – Gate Path and Ashina Outskirts > Outskirts Wall – Stairway Sculptor’s Idols, in the general area of the large enemy patrolling the area with his giant hammer. She’s on the second floor. Just speak to her, and you’ll receive the item.

Return to the Dilapidated Temple, place the Young Lord’s Bell Charm in the Buddha Statue near the Sculptor, and enter Hirata Estate.

Grid View

• FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon
• FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon
• FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon
• FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon
• FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

Hirata Estate’s layout makes giving directions difficult, so we made the gallery above. The numbers in the list below correspond to the images in the gallery above.

1. From the beginning of the level, make your way over the bridge to the Hirata Estate > Estate Path Sculptor’s Idol.
2. Grapple up to the roof on the building adjacent to the Sculptor’s Idol.
3. Turn to your right, and look for a fiery glow in the distance. That’s a bonfire — and your destination. Make your way to the bonfire, in any way you can.
4. From this perch in the area near the bonfire, you can see the the enemy hanging out near the bonfire. Right by him, you’ll find the Flame Barrel.

Take that back to the Dilapidated Temple, and give it to the Sculptor. Then you’ll receive the Flame Vent Shinobi Prosthetic.

Now you’re ready to begin your fight with the Chained Ogre.

How to beat the Chained Ogre boss fight

Armed with steel and fire, it’s time to take the Chained Ogre down. There are several steps to this fight, and we’ll break them up into discrete little chunks.

1. Kill the low-level enemies

Kill the enemies at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the Chained Ogre. You don’t want to fight him and others at the same time.

2. Alert the Chained Ogre

Walk about halfway up the stairs, and stop as soon as the triangle appears above the Chained Ogre’s head. That means that he sees you. A few seconds later, he’ll break free of his confinement.

FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

Don’t walk all the way up the stairs to the Chained Ogre. That will alert an enemy with a spear past the mini-boss and up a hill to your left. The best strategy is to keep that guy unaware of your presence.

Then again, if you’re comfortable with it, you could just run your way past the Chained Ogre and take care of the spear dude.

3. Fight the Chained Ogre

When the Chained Ogre breaks free, lock onto him and back down the staircase, convincing him to follow you. You want to fight him down below, not up top.

Unblockable attacks

Keep your distance at first. He’s likely to use his unblockable grab attack, but that won’t work if he can’t catch you. Whenever you see the red kanji symbol appear above Wolf’s head, the Chained Ogre is about to launch a powerful attack. Get away — almost always with the Step Dodge button.

There may be nothing more important than this piece of advice — or this and other bosses. Get caught by a red kanji attack, and you’re going donate a huge chunk of your health. It doesn’t seem like an exaggeration to argue that avoiding these attacks is half the battle.

Keep your distance and grapple

The Chained Ogre’s most dangerous attacks require you to be nearby, so as a general strategy, keep your distance.

You can’t reliably attack from afar, but that’s OK. Occasionally, you’ll see a green grapple point appear above the Chained Ogre’s head. Hit the right button, and you’ll close the gap, land behind him, and get a few swings at him.

Don’t get greedy. Take a couple of swings, and Step Dodge away from him. He causes so much damage that it’s better to take it slow.

If he does catch you, and you’ve lost health, run away and take a drink to refill your health. You could even grapple up to a tree branch. He’s not going anywhere, and the distance between you gives you the time you need to heal.

Step Dodge to avoid his attacks up close

The Chained Ogre attacks like a professional wrestler, but his moves are easy to avoid — as long as you pay attention to him.

Listen for his roar. He won’t attack without doing that first. When you hear it, Step Dodge away.

At that point, you can hit the attack button to close the distance and get a hit or two off. But again, don’t get greedy. He only needs a moment or two to recover and attack again. Use those moments, but no more. If you hear him growl again, Step Dodge away.

Attack with fire

This is why we recommend putting this fight off until you’ve created the Flame Vent. The Changed Ogre is a red eye-type enemy, and that makes him particularly vulnerable to fire. With a Shinobi Prosthetic that spews fire, you have a big advantage.

Make sure he’s not attacking, and use your Flame Vent in relatively close proximity to him. Immediately follow up with a series of sword attacks. He’ll cower in fear for a few moments (at least), which gives you the opportunity to inflict more damage than you normally would.

Just be ready to Step Dodge out of the way when he starts attacking again. And he will.

You don’t need to look at Wolf as your attacking. Look at the Chained Ogre. When he recovers, get out of there.

Attack when he’s staggered

FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

The Chained Ogre will be staggered after you hit him with your Flame Vent, but he can also stagger after a series of attacks. This is always your best opportunity to attack — as many as six times. You can tell when he’s staggered because he assumes the position in the image above.

It’s also a great opportunity to use your Flame Vent to keep him staggered longer. You’ve got the opportunity to inflict the Burn status abnormality on him, and you can attack a lot when he’s on fire.

Above, you can see us make him stagger with the Flame Vent, attack him six times (counting helps you restrain yourself) with our sword, and then follow the sixth attack with a Flame Vent attack. That causes the Burn status abnormality, and we’ve got time to hit him several more times.

4. Collect your rewards

Defeat the Chained Ogre, and you’ll receive a Prayer Bead, which gets you one-forth of the way toward an attack power upgrade. You’ll also get the Shinobi Medicine Rank 1 skill, which makes every recovery item you use more powerful.