Sekiro boss guide: Long-arm Centipede Sen’un

Sekiro’s Long-arm Centipede Sen’un boss fight is not only creepy, it’s also immensely difficult. Sen’un’s got unrelenting attacks that are hard to dodge and hard to survive.

The worst mistake you can make in Sekiro is attacking without a plan. Bosses are happy to disrupt your attacks and cause major damage. In this guide, we’ll show you how to defeat Long-arm Centipede Sen’un, the items you should bring with you, and strategies to react to his attacks.

The best items and moves for Long-arm Centipede Sen’un

Long-arm Centipede Sen’un only has one attack speed: fast. Sen’un deals a lot of posture damage in a short amount of time, and he doesn’t give you a chance to recuperate. If you find yourself struggling, eat some Gokan’s Sugar (there’s even some on the ground in the room where you have the boss fight). This sugar reduces the Posture Damage you take for about 30 seconds, which means you’ll be able to block more hits.

Our recommended approach to this fight doesn’t leave a lot of room for Prosthetic Tools or even Combat Arts to recommend. Equipping the Loaded Spear can help, but it won’t interrupt Sen’un’s attacks, so you won’t get a lot of time to use it. We’d recommend focusing on dodges and Jump Kicks (we’ll explain our approach below) instead.

Approaching the Long-arm Centipede Sen’un boss fight

The closest Sculptor’s Idol to this boss fight is at the Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo > Temple Grounds. There are a bunch of monks between you and the building where Sen’un hides, but you can ignore, jump over, and sprint past all of them as you run up the hill.

Take a right at the top and jump over to the roof of the building, then drop down to the larger, main roof. Turn around to find an opening in the roof that lets you drop into the room from above. The video above shows how we did this without any fighting.

FromSoftware/Activision via Polygon

Once inside, you’ve got some stabbing to do. As you fall into the room, grapple onto one of the beams before you hit the floor. Use the grapple points on the beams to clear out the enemies in the rafters. Ignore the two on the ground with Sen’un until those in the rafters are all dead.

Once the rafters are clear, wait for one of the goons on the floor to move away from Sen’un, then drop and take it out. Immediately get back up to the rafters to avoid getting spotted. If you can take out the other one this way, do it, but you can also just ignore it for now.

Head toward the door — in the direction the statue is facing — to find two more goons. Deal with them, then head outside. Run up the path, then wait for the boss fight music to die down — this basically just resets Sen’un so he’s not looking for you.

Phase 1: Long-arm Centipede Sen’un Stealth Deathblow

Head back inside and into the rafters. Position yourself above Long-arm Centipede Sen’un and drop down for a Stealth Deathblow. If you haven’t taken out the last of his smaller friends, handle it quickly while he’s recovering.

If you miss or screw up this Deathblow, don’t worry. You could leave and come back, but Long-arm Centipede Sen’un doesn’t have many tactics through his fight. You’ll just have to wear him down twice instead of once. Use the tactics below to get through it.

Phase 2: Long-arm Centipede Sen’un second Deathblow

Long-arm Centipede Sen’un is not a complicated or varied boss, he just attacks a lot. He’s got a pattern, though, and learning it is the key to surviving this fight.

Long-arm Centipede Sen’un’s attacks

Let’s talk about Long-arm Centipede Sen’un’s attacks, how to identify them, and what you should do about them.

Claw flurry

Sen’un’s main attack (that he will do very, very often) is just a flurry of 10 swipes with his claws. Any time this happens, cancel the lock-on and sprint away until you catch your breath.

You can block them all, but doing so is going to completely fill your Posture bar (if not break it). You can see in the video above that missing just a couple of these attacks ate half of our Vitality, while blocking the rest destroyed our Posture.

Perilous Attack: Sweep with claws

Sen’un’s only Perilous Attack is a two-armed sweep with his claws. He’ll usually do this at the end of one of his flurries. While it’s a dangerous attack, it’s also a great opportunity for you to deal some Posture damage. Jump when you see the red kanji appear, then deliver a Jump Kick to him.

Wolf’s attacks

This fight is entirely about keeping your own Posture Damage under control while dealing some to Long-arm Centipede Sen’un in return. The Jump Kicks you hand out after his Perilous Attacks are a good start, and you can win the fight that way if you’re patient enough. But dealing Posture damage a little faster will make this fight shorter.

Deflect

Deflects deal a surprising amount of Posture damage to Sen’un. And there’s a rhythm to his claw attacks. It’s predictable. And that means you can learn it.

After you block your way through a couple of his onslaughts, start tapping block instead of holding it. Time out your taps to match his rhythm — just remember there’s a pause before his final swipe. You don’t have to get every one perfectly, but every Deflect you land will drive his Posture damage up.

In the video above, we completely filled his Posture damage bar with Deflects and then finished him off with a Jump Kick in response to his Perilous Attack. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be.

Long-arm Centipede Sen’un drops, items, and rewards

Defeat Long-arm Centipede Sen’un, and you’ll receive some Yellow Gunpowder and a Prayer Bead. Sweep the room to pick up some Black Gunpowder and, if you didn’t grab it yet, some Gokan’s Sugar as well.