u/Wooden-Jello-8795

An easy method is to go for 2 R1s during most punishes then react to whatever Tomoe's response is, since just like Isshin some of her moves have hyper armor. She has the fastest posture recovery in the game, but if you keep up the aggression and know which moves can be safely interrupted, you can prevent her from regenerating all of it.

A suggestion is to use Phantom Kunai to counter her input reading for projectiles. I also recommend using Flame Vent's Living Force since she is weak to fire.

Spiral Cloud Passage has to be one of my favorite moves to fully deflect, though Loaded Umbrella is very useful if you want an easier time. That said, she will recover vitality on block so you should still spin the Umbrella. Phantom Kunai can be used for triggering the semi-scripted first Spiral Cloud Passage. Another tip is that you can Mikiri the finishing thrust during her Phantoms for a big punish.

I love how you are heavily rewarded for surviving her most difficult yet still intuitive moves, it's a sign of great game design. Absolutely one of my favorite bosses from the DLC!

One of the best in the game. Very deflection heavy unlike most other bosses.

Phase 3 is really intense. The sweep has a disgustingly short recovery time, you can get frame trapped if you stomp on her head.

Only the owls and inner bosses are left. I don't know if I have it in me...

Been dreading this so I left it near the end. Glad to get it done without too much grief, though far from easy. Sekiro's early game bosses are surprisingly difficult.

One of my least favorite memory bosses, really not sure what they were thinking with phase 2. It seems getting her stuck against a wall is optimal in phase 2 but apparently there's a bug where she instantly spawns the butterflies. I've never encountered that one myself, though maybe it's just RNG.

some ichimonji slop

It's Isshin, being peak is a given. He's an S tier boss, obviously. Literally the most glazed boss in the series, so I'll focus on my criticisms.

I think this boss is more flawed than people say. The phase 1 poke reaction check (because of mixup with the slash) is very annoying but learnable, so it's more of a personal preference thing. OST is meh imo, but again, personal preference.

My main issue with him is his AI, which I think is comparable to PCR.

1. This really bad mixup on his wombo combo (https://www.reddit.com/r/onebros/comments/1vos2bo/how_my_isshin_hitless_attempt_ended_this_shit/). I've been told he's never supposed to do this move unless you fail a distance check, but Mist Raven seems to make him think you're really far away, it's a lot like how PCR crashes out when you use a projectile. It's unreactable and basically never seen, so it's literally just a screw you move.
2. Another example is a specific one. If he deflects your attack when he is at full posture in phase 1, he doesn't do a counter attack and just pauses there while you wait for his counterattack, and then he just uses a move he can only do in neutral. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but an arbitrary change in rhythm can easily end fights in this game.
3. His aim in general is worse than the other bosses, sometimes his moves just miss you even when you are in point blank range. Rarely, he can decide to attack the air. Unlike the other games, this is actually quite bad because whiffs in Sekiro mean combo extensions you wouldn't have to deal with if you deflected it.

Sure, you can manage all of this. But you could say the same about PCR using long range moves at point blank range or randomly doing combo finishers in neutral.

Here, there is no Genichiro because this is Reflection, which absolutely makes the fight more fun in my opinion. I honestly think Reflection Isshin is a lot tankier than NG scaled Isshin + Geni, but regardless I'm not doing an entire new run just to increase the length of my runback. I do wish FromSoft would stop pairing 2 different bosses together - it's not anywhere near Radabeast, but it does get a bit annoying even if both bosses are peak.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. Isshin is peak, S tier, insanely fun boss. I'm just giving my honest thoughts. Also, this boss is very difficult. Way harder to no hit than to beat for the first time, kind of the opposite of Malenia (in my opinion).

First time beating the headless ape before the brown ape

Not looking for someone who used firecrackers + mortal draw on the brown ape. I also know that they have paired AI. Please don't give any surface level advice like that. Might be unnecessary to preface this but I'm just kind of tired of people just giving useless or outright wrong information while saying "skill issue". The casual fromsoft community can be like that.

I'm trying to specifically target the headless ape because apparently that makes the fight good... Sorry, really not seeing it. Right now I'm not convinced I would miss out on anything fun by melting the brown ape.

Also wtf was that last attack. She's not supposed to jump there...

1. I hate how he spams the scream then his friend does the 5 hit combo and then one extra slap for good measure
2. spear seems like an inconsistent punish (because of brown ape jump attack) to when he falls down, sdmetimes i can deflect the jump attack and sometimes i can't
3. arena is small as shit

Please don't click off because of Mortal Draw 😭 the scripted opening here was too juicy and I love the animation. Wanted to slow her insane posture recovery. Don't worry, there will be no Mortal Draw for True Monk.

A great boss because the real version is great, so it's basically Sekiro's Goldfrey. Idk why this even got a memory when O'Rin and Armored Warrior didn't.

Popular pick for best boss in the series btw. If you are familiar with this boss, you will know that combo 99.999% of the time does not end like that...

Idk about you, but Gael would never do this shit to me. Owl Father would never do this shit to me. At least not because of an extremely rare and unreactable mixup deliberately placed in his moveset. I'm sure you can prevent this and I don't care. Guess we just have to double deflect the 4th hit from now on waiting for a move that happens in nearly 0 fights! I've been told this only comes out because of a failed distance check but in practice it exists to screw you over because of his janky af AI.

His AI can be so goofy in general. Sometimes he just attacks the air and misses you, which would be great in any other game from the series but here it's actually fucking terrible because that means he can do his combo extensions when you expected to prevent them with a deflection.

Here's some more slop.

One of the easier bosses imo, though absolutely one of the best in the series.

shit boss

"Sekiro is peak, trust me"

The peak in question:

Reflection Geni has stupid amounts of posture.

I would farm this guy under fewer restrictions, but this was honestly really difficult for me. Some Sekiro bosses demand total concentration for several minutes and this is one of them.

Things that got a bit annoying:

1. Floating Passage is practically impossible to deflect without Umbrella, so you have this otherwise really satisfying deflect sequence you just need to give up and wait through.
2. Arrow Barrage has the same bug as Floating Passage that makes it very difficult to deflect. If he spams this and Floating Passage, the fight takes a lot longer.
3. Camera goes crazy near walls or objects in the room. You can't just casually reposition for better camera like in the other games since you need to constantly attack to not lose your progress.

I can't say I enjoy this fight as much as I used to. Nonetheless, he's still one of the best bosses they've ever made.

First whirlwind doesn't count as a hit according to Team Hitless since it is unavoidable.

Extremely easy boss that almost no one uploads to this subreddit for obvious reasons, but I honestly quite like it. I'm cool with gimmicks as long as they are inoffensive and tick the other boxes other than gameplay while still being at least somewhat fun. Old Dragons of the Tree are also excluded from the reflection, which is a plus.

Less of a fight, more of a really beautiful interactive cutscene.

You don't know my pain.

This is an easy boss with absolutely stupid amounts of health. This isn't an optimized attempt of course, but 11 minutes for DBCL reflection is fucking insanity.

I do need to know if 8:48 is a hit because I don't want to do all of this just for my hitless to be invalid. Team Hitless hasn't said anything about it on their site.

Also does this guy have way more health in reflections? I look at someone else's DoH DBCL kill and they do grey damage, around the same with no buffs as me with confetti + yash.

Might be my favorite boss in the game.

Idk what's up with the blue owl move but otherwise the pacing of the fight is beyond peak. Arguably the best OST too.

Would have gone for no damage but i quickly got tired of the genichiro shaped runback and being posture broken by the phase 1 poke. I was a lightning reflection away on one of my first no damage attempts, so that was a bit frustrating.

Technically that's sekiro base vit done. I did the remaining bosses after this but haven't done dbcl, emma/isshin or inner bosses so this might just be the beginning of the sekiro stuff

the long term goal is dbcl hitless/damageless on every main boss but idk if i have the reaction time for that tbh

since when could he animation cancel that move

as in the boss is satisfying, not my gameplay since i kind of suck

i'll probably come back and try dbcl hitless eventually

mortal draw is sekiro's star fist