Sekiro boss guide: Genichiro, Way of Tomoe (final)

Sekiro’s Genichiro, Way of Tomoe encounter is a lead-in to the final boss fight. He’s stronger this time, and he’s got a few new tricks.

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 Genichio quickly with strategies for reacting to his attacks.

Don’t worry about items or Prosthetics

Spoiler: This fight is a one-Deathblow prologue to a much harder, much longer fight. Save your items and Spirit Emblems for what comes next. If you’re careful and read our advice below, you’ll be able to get through this fight (mostly) unharmed and pretty quickly.

The only special move we consider a requirement is the Mikiri Counter. It’s invaluable both in this fight and the one that follows.

Genichiro, Way of Tomoe Phase 1

This may be a teaser fight for a much larger fight to follow, but it’s still deadly. Genichiro will drain your health completely with only a couple hits. And that means you have to be ready for everything he throws at you.

General strategies

Both this fight and the one that follows pit you against enemies with a repertoire nearly as vast as yours. The best way to make sure Genichiro doesn’t get to use his moves on you is to kill him before he gets the chance.

This fight is all about Posture. Genichiro’s Posture doesn’t drain quickly, so your job is to just keep pounding away until you break him.

That doesn’t mean attacking indiscriminately, though. His attacks are brutal and will obliterate your Vitality and Posture if you’re not careful. We’ll break down his attacks below so you know what to avoid and can spot your chances to attack.

Genichiro, Way of Tomoe attacks

Let’s talk about Genichiro’s attacks, how to identify them, and what you should do about them.

Starting the fight

As you walk toward Genichiro after his cutscene, he’ll start with his Mortal Draw attack. Every time. Don’t rush, and don’t bother trying to deal any damage. Just get ready for the Mortal Draw, and then move on.

Mortal Draw

Genichiro has his own Mortal Blade now. The good news: This replaces his lightning attacks. The bad news: If he hits you with it — even if you block it — it’ll take a huge chunk off your health.

Genichiro will growl-shout as he winds up this attack, and that’s your cue. When you see him pull his Mortal Blade and you see the black energy around it, start blocking — just in case — and inch to the right slowly. When his shout reaches its crescendo — just as he starts his swing — dodge to the right. (It’s possible to dodge left, but we had more luck with the right.) Follow it with a counterattack, but be prepared to dodge again. He won’t swing twice every time, but you don’t want to get caught unawares.

He’ll also draw his Mortal Blade occasionally mid-fight — but it won’t happen often, and it might not happen at all. You’ll know it’s coming when he fires two arrows at you. Handle it the same way.

Perilous Attack 1: Leaping thrust

If you get some distance from Genichiro — say, to back off and heal — he’ll leap toward you with a thrusting Perilous Attack. It’s easy enough to Mikiri Counter the thrust.

Perilous Attack 2: Circle and sweep

During a fight — basically when Genichiro gets frustrated — he’ll start running to your right. He’ll run a lot, then hit you with a sweeping Perilous Attack. You have two options here:

1. You can keep attacking and interrupt him — he’ll switch to defense instead of following through with the Perilous Attack.
2. Jump over the sweep and use it as a chance to land a Jump Kick.

Perilous Attack 3: Thrust

Genichiro’s next Perilous Attack is hard to spot (it was for us, at least). He’ll hold his sword up on your left at chin level, pointing straight at you. He’ll follow that with a thrust. It’s possible to block or even Deflect this attack, but a Mikiri Counter is even better.

Perilous Attack 4: Grab

He’ll use it rarely, but Genichiro has a fourth Perilous Attack. He almost always does his grab attack after you miss a counter of his leaping Perilous attack. He’ll put his sword away and hold out his right hand as he rushes toward you. Distance won’t save you here because he’ll cover a lot of ground before he gives up.

Jump or dodge to the side to avoid him. If you’re really lucky, you can outrun him if you sprint, but there are enough obstacles in the arena that this is not a safe option.

Leap

Genichiro’s other move when he’s frustrated is to leap straight up in the air and crash back down with an overhand swing. Your best move is to dodge to the side, then follow up with an attack or two. It’s oddly a slow attack — even if you’re close and attacking, you’ll likely still have time to dodge.

Other attacks

We’re going to just lump every other minor attack he has into “other.” He swings his regular sword and fires (surprisingly strong) arrows. The answer to these attacks is to Deflect what you can, and block (absorb) everything else.

We’re not dismissing his attacks, but there’s a way to basically make them moot. Let’s talk about offense.

Sekiro’s attacks

Most of this fight is about responding to Genichiro, Way of Tomoe’s attacks, but we should also point out what to do when you’re on offense.

The short answer here is: Always be on offense.

Aside from the Perilous Attacks we talked above, you can disrupt most of his other attacks by just attacking. He might block sometimes, but (nearly) every swing you take will drive up his Posture damage. Add in your counterattacks after his Perilous Attacks and jumps, and this fight isn’t nearly as complicated as it first seems.

The video above shows the entire fight in about 45 seconds.

Genichiro, Way of Tomoe drops, items, and rewards

You don’t get anything for defeating Genichiro, Way of Tomoe this time. You get a cutscene, then you get another fight.