Sekiro: Best Tips to Fighting Demon of Hatred

You’re about to take on one of the toughest boss battles in the game. Good luck

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is full of bosses, from the first few steps you take in Ashina Outskirts, the great foes you face later down the road, each with a rich, unique quality to them. That said, the Demon of Hatred is one of the tougher bosses you’re going to face in the game. It’s going to feel difficult, and it’s not going to come at you with ease. It’s stacking up all the skills you’ve learned up to this point. Here are some go-to strategies to make your fight against it, that much easier.

Fighting The Demon of Hatred

Prepare Yourself

The Demon of Hatred has a firey left arm, which it uses to throw fireballs and smashes down on you throughout the fight. As you learn more and more how to fight this boss, you’ll want to have some items that lower your burning effect, this way you’re able to stay alive and don’t lose a life to the flames.

Also, you’ll want to upgrade the Finger Whistle to its highest quality, which is called Malcontent. With it, you’re going to have the chance to stun the Demon up to three times during the fight. However, you’re likely going to want to use those stuns during the final phase of the battle, when the Demon causes the most havoc against you.

Phase One

During the first part of the fight, you’ll want to sprint up to the Demon of Hatred as quickly as possible. You need to remain as close as possible to the boss throughout each phase of the fight because if you choose to stay too far away, it’s going to only throw firey projectiles at you, which you cannot deflect and you’re going to sustain massive fire damage.

When you’re up close, you want to watch out for two consistent attacks: a foot stomp, and a headbutt. You deflect both of these, but you can dodge the headbutt. Whichever choice you can properly use at the time. You won’t get as lucky to avoid the foot stomp, meaning deflecting is your best option throughout the fight. If you see it leap up into the air and smash down, rush back a short distance, wait for the smash to come down, and then you’ll have the opportunity grapple back to it. Doing so prevents it from throwing out fireballs against you, and partially stuns it for a short period, so you get in some more attacks.

Additionally, there’s an unblockable charge attack the Demon is going to unleash on you. The only way to avoid this attack is by jumping to the left. You cannot jump to the right, as you’re still going to hit by his fire arm. Once he finishes his charge, rush back to it and stay as close as possible, slashing it consistently.

Phase Two

Luckily, throughout this entire fire, the Demon keeps many of the same moves. During this part, you’re going to find he gains two new attacks. One of them is strike where he raises his left arm in the air and smashes down, leaving behind a molten trail of fire. You want to run to the left or right and dodge this attack, jumping right before it hits the ground. The only way to deflect this attack is with the umbrella. However, you need to ensure you have the upgrade of it where it deflects fire damage, to have it stand out.

The second attack is one you don’t have to worry about too much. The Demon shoots out fire orbs that are going to track you, and you’re going to have some difficulty dodging these as you rush in. It’s better to stay in as close as possible because these can knock you down hard, giving the Demon an opportunity to land you with some of its nastier abilities.

Again, stay as close as possible, repeat much of what you did during the first part of the fight, and you should get the next killing blow, shortly after.

The Final Phase

The final phase of the fight is a hard one. At the beginning of the battle, you need to run away as fast possible as he’s about to throw out a lasso of fire around itself. It first circles it a short distance, and then steadily becomes bigger before light surrounds them. If you did not get away fast enough, you’re going to have some trouble. However, if you did, you need to watch the flames as much as possible because he’s about to charge out at you.

After this, though, it’s business as usual. You’re going to stay as close as possible, hit the Demon regularly, dodge their attacks, jump to the left when they charge, and never give them an inch. During the final fight, you have the chance to use the Malcontent whistle to stun it. You can only use this Prosthetic three times, so make sure they count.