Senpou Temple, Mount Kongo Walkthrough - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's Walkthrough and Guide for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This area-based Walkthrough will cover all enemy encounters, items to pick up, secrets to find and more as you complete your journey as the shinobi known as The Wolf. This guide contains information on the Sekiro Senpou Temple, in Mount Kongo.

Mount Kongo is one of the larger regions that you can explore past the Ashina Castle, though is best explored after defeating the boss of Ashina Castle. It includes lush cliffside temples and towering peaks along with dangerous paths along the cliffs - teeming with mysterious and aggressive Monks who have become entranced with seeking darker means to immortality.

For more information on how to access the Sekiro Senpou Temple, click on the links below.

How to Access Sekiro's Senpou Temple

Some Characters will mention that the roads to Senpou Temple have been closed, and alternate means to reach it must be found. If you find the Old Hag by the Ashina Castle's main Sculptor's Idol, she'll point off from the bridge towards the Abandoned Dungeon, and proclaim that the Divine Child of the Rejuvenating Waters lies at the temple, past the murky depths of the nearby dungeon.

Following her words, head across the bridge of the the Ashina Reservoir and into the Abandoned Dungeon, and swim across the flooded waterways to find a lift that will take you up to the temple grounds.

The Sekiro Senpou Temple

Video Guide: Senpou Temple

Arriving into a deserted lift room, head up the stairs only to be called out to by a mysterious voice. After a moment, the voice will bid you to look upon a nearby tapestry depicting Buddha, located by the Sculptor’s Idol.

You can “speak” with this portrait to be warned that the monks of the Senpou Temple have strayed from the true path and are up to no good. The voice implores you to turn back, but won’t try to stop you from continuing - which is good, because that’s what we need to do.

As you exit the lift house, you can look up to see the expanse of the temple grounds as they wind their way up the mountain. The path to the left makes its way up toward a large temple building, but first, look around the left side of the shack you exited to find Gachiin’s Sugar.

Dropping down to the path below, you can look out into the valley to spot one of those shinobi kites. If you happened to have bought everything of value from Blackhat Badger back below the Ashina Castle’s Old Grave, you’ll find him here now - looking out at the valley and kite. As it happens, he has a goal to get across, and the kite might do it, but its only operated by a Senpou Assassin down below who doesn’t seem to want to help. For now, we need to keep moving, but you’d do well to remember this tidbit of info.

Keep heading down the path on the right to find it ends with a broken bridge where a Monk is praying. Stab him in the back and drop down, where you’ll find a Mibu Balloon of Spirit and Gachiin’s Sugar. Nearby is the Senpou Assassin that Blackhat Badger spoke of, and sure enough he’s not in the talking mood. You can kill him if you want, and find that by interacting with the shinobi kite you can raise it up to the cliffs above - but you’d need to hold someone in place.

Grapple back up to the path above, and look for a sharp road going up above the broken bridge to find a crying member of the Taro Troop. His name is Kotaro, and he seems to be upset about some children who left.

If you try and ask him, he seems a bit simple-minded or confused, but thinks he’s looking for spinning flowers - a white flower in particular. Since you can’t help him now, it’s best to remember his location and keep moving up the path to the side of the lift house where you can find some Scrap Iron.

Now move back to the main path leading up to the temples - it’s time to get to fighting! On the path above are two monks - don’t be fooled by the lack of weapons, the martial arts they use can pack a punch.

They employ several spinning kicks that can end in a jumping axe kick if you aren’t careful, as well as several palm strikes that can end with a quick follow-up attack. Watch their movements carefully - if they shift into a crouching stance, they’ll be getting ready for an unblockable grab attack that can deal major damage. Thankfully, without weapons they tend to have low posture, and it will only take a few well timed deflections to set them up for a Deathblow.

Note that you can also use the tree branches above, or bushes on the right to advance to a small gate, where a staff-wielding monk watches the road.

The staff-wielding Monks have their own set of attacks, which revolve around sweeping long-range hits as they dart from side to side, or even use their staff as a pole vault to get into the air and slam down. Many of their sweeping hits will cause them to prepare an unblockable thrust attack where they try to fake you out by twirling to the side before thrusting forward - so be ready with a Mikiri Counter.

Take him out, and watch out for three monks slowly going up the road, followed by three more in a rocky outcropping to the left. Defeat the first group (and make sure to utilize Bloodsmoke Ninjistu to help take on groups) then look where the lower group was gathered to find some bound corpses holding a Mibu Possession Balloon. Be sure to also look back at the small gate to find a nest on the roof you can jump to and find a Light Coin Purse.

As the group of three Monks slowly go up the steps - be careful when engaging, as there are two more Monks at the top of the stairs that can spot you early on - especially if you try and use the tree branches straight ahead. There’s also another pair of Monks slowly walking to the main road from a smaller path on the right side, and can ambush you if you aren’t aware of their incoming.

Some of the Monks ahead can and will use candy like Ako’s Sugar or Ungo’s Sugar, so be prepared. Up on the left there’s a Pellet, and the ledge above you can find a Pacifying Agent behind a rock with two corpses. There’s also Ako’s Sugar found along the main path where the two Monks on the right will join the main procession.

You can evade them by moving along the lower cliff and grappling between branches to come up at the end where you can find 2 Antidote Powder and a Light Coin Purse by a big tree.

On the ledge above you can find some Spirit Emblems, and a branch above you can grapple to where a Heavy Coin Purse is. As for all the monks - there’s plenty of places to hide, so make your moves carefully to try and isolate the groups where possible.

As you reach the underside of the first temple building where two Monks stand guard, you’ll find no entrance - but a Fistful of Ash. Instead, look up to grapple to a beam and find an open area to jump up and climb into.

In the darkened room here are some giant dusty statues and lots of Crickets - but most of them shouldn’t actually attack you, but they do offer free XP. Be sure to also get the Ako’s Sugar in here, then head down the stairs.

In this next room, one Monk patrols the nearby wall while three other Monks pray in front of the mummified remains of a Temple Priest. Take out the first Monk silently, then contend with the three others - the Bloodsmoke Ninjistu can help here.

Quickly kill the trio, because a Taro Troop Brute will emerge from behind the shrine and come at you with his giant mace. After killing him, check out the item in front of the priest - a Gourd Seed… and then watch as the priest comes to life to start spitting out Crickets and worms at you. The spitting doesn’t actually hurt you, but it makes the Crickets go into a frenzy and swarm you.

If you kill the priest, he’ll actually come back to life and keep spitting - apparently the Infested Priest is another sign of the Monk’s of Senpou getting into some very wrong stuff - so leave him be. Unlike the Rotting Prisoner, no amount of Deathblows will kill him… for now.

Get the Lump of Fat Wax behind the shrine, and then head for a far open window, and grab the Gokan’s Sugar and Ceramic Shard in the corner before leaving. Outside, you’ll find the Old Hag once more (she really gets around doesn’t she). Speaking to her, she’ll spout riddles about the fruits of a serpent, and one is located across the valley that you can’t access yet - but she also seems to want Rice, so keep that in mind.

Look around the corner from the window you jumped out to find a Mibu Balloon of Spirit, and then head to the large tree nearby. Grapple up onto it to find several Spirit Emblems, and one of the branches holds a nest with a Light Coin Purse. You can also just make out a platform on the far cliff - but can’t reach it for now.

Heading back down the tree, the building nearest to you has a Monk praying towards the tree, and another along the balcony further back - take them both out carefully so they don’t alert anyone else, and grab the Ungo’s Sugar by the second Monk around the corner.

Retreat back to the temple you exited and look out on the courtyard below. There’s a Bandit Archer and another armed with a torch here (apparently under the employ of the temple), and the archer is facing an intimidating looking Temple Guardian with a big hat and bigger bladed staff. Check along the corners of these building to find some Antidote Powder, then try and lure the torch-bearing bandit from his friends.

You can try assassinating the archer from the tall grass here - which may or may not alert the nearby Temple Guardian.

These guys fight in a very unpredictable manner - they’ll use their weapons to pole vault up into the air, either tossing two shurikens at you, or twirling their blades before dashing toward you extremely quickly. They may also go in for two spinning attacks followed by a low sweep. Because of this, they can be hard to deflect, and don’t leave themselves open for long, and also do an extremely fast low sweep charge you must jump over or away from.

To find your opening, you’ll either want to pursue them with a chasing slice, or wait for them to bounce into the air and toss a Shuriken to quickly ground them, and attack as they fall to the ground and before they can get back up.

If you bought the Anti-air Deathblow Skill from Blackhat Badger, note that there are certain times when the Temple Guardians float up into the air before attacking - if you leap towards then, you'll be able to perform a devastating mid-air attack by attacking when you see the Deathblow target in the air, regardless of their health or posture!

If you don’t alert him - try luring him into the tall grass with a Ceramic Shard, otherwise get ready for a fight - he drops a Heavy Coin Purse. Once he dies, his friend will come down from the stairs above - so be ready for round two.

As you head up the stairs, you’ll find the bridge is our here too, along with a Gachiin’s Sugar. However, off to the left is a branch leading to a cave you can grapple to. Before doing that, look down to the left to find two more Bandits lounging about - one with an axe, one with a shield, and drop down to say hello, then loot the Pellet they had between them.

Shugendo

Video Guide: Shugendo and Demon Bell

Once you reach the cave, get the Spirit Emblems and head through the tunnel to the other side to find the Shugendo Sculptor’s Idol.

Before moving right - be sure to look down below the cliffs to see a broken wooden platform snaking off below to the left, and hop down. Follow it along the cliff face to find a Ceramic Shard in a nest, and it leads right to the Shugendo Memorial Mob, who sells items like posture-restoring Persimmons, a Dragon’s Blood Droplet, and Five-color Rice that can be dropped as landmarks.

Back at the Sculptor’s Idol, take the right path along the broken wooden beams and grapple to the next ledge to enter another cave. Here you’ll find a Mibu Balloon of Spirit, and at the end of the tunnel, carefully look up to the left to spot a Senpou Assassin hanging from the wall. Don’t let him ambush you - because another Senpou Assassin is watching from a nearby isolated rock platform, and will start tossing shurikens your way.

Shuriken the hanging Assassin to get him to drop down and quickly finish him off, then grapple to the lone rock to take out the other Senpou Assassin, and grab the Gachiin’s Sugar by the tree. Another Assassin waits back on the ledge you came from, just above where the hanging assassin was, so don’t be fooled and let him ambush you.

As you move up the wooden platform path - note the tree branch high overhead you can grapple to - otherwise you’ll have to contend with a final Senpou Assassin on the narrow platform, and their quick dagger attacks can be hard to avoid unless you get the drop on him.

When you reach a dead end, look above you for several ledges you can hang from, and sidle to the left to climb up and over to a new area, taking you up to a long covered bridge.

Bell Demon’s Temple

There’s a small diversion to explore before entering the bridge - Look to the left around the corner to the entrance to find a plateau lined with lots of pinwheels and wooden statues - and at the end you’ll find a Red and White Pinwheel. This sounds like something Kotaro might want - and you can return to him and give it, but he wants the white one. Still, he’ll trust you at this point, and be open to suggestions.

It’s at this point that Kotaro’s fate may lie in your hands. If you’re a real jerk, you can suggest he check out the Abandoned Dungeon where the surgeon is, and condemn him to be experimented on. Or, you can fulfill Anayama the Peddler’s wishes and send him to the Ashina Outskirts to help out - not a bad choice, but we still have Kotaro’s own desires to factor in, so let’s keep looking for the white flower.

Back where you found the pinwheel, look down on the left of the cliff to find some lower platforms you can drop to. Look down right along the cliff face here to find more wooden platforms you can jump to, wrapping under the plateau above. At the end of the path here is a deep ravine, but you can make out lines of ledges to grab if you jump across the ravine and fall down a bit (you can make it!)

Once you grab on - look behind you for a low hanging tree branch that can catapult you back across the ravine to a small platform (you need to be at the very end of the ledge to make it work) and you’ll find a Heavy Coin Purse here, along with another ledge path back to the Shugendo. There’s more to find here, so grapple back using the branch to the ledges and sidle left to go up over more ledges. Enter a very narrow crevice where two Crawling Geckos will drop down, and then use your wall-jump ability to jump out of the crevice onto the ledge above.

Turn around here, and you’ll finally find the White Pinwheel that Kotaro wants. Now jump across to the main cliffside and head up the slopes to another temple (watch out for more Crawling Geckos hiding in the grass). There’s a broken wall on the right you can enter to find a Heavy Coin Purse, and Monkey Booze held by a statue - which you can share with the Sculptor, Isshin, or Emma if you choose. Look for a door back outside you can open, which gains you access to the Bell Demon’s Temple - including the shortcut back to the Ashina Outskirts in the Headless Mini-Bosses cave.

Be sure to return to Kotaro the Taro Troop brute back at the Senpou Temple entrance with the White Pinwheel. If you want to give him a happier ending, give him the white pinwheel.

Kotaro will be happy with this, and then ask one more favor: to be spirited away. This may sound confusing, but if you look at the tooltips for the Divine Abduction Prosthetic Tool gained in the Sunken Valley, it mentions it has the power to "spirit away". Accept his request, and use the Divine Abduction on Kotaro and he'll vanish before your eyes. But where did he go? We'll find out, eventually.

Mini-Boss - Armored Warrior

Entering the long tunnel-like bridge, a hulking suit of armor will appear to challenge you, armed with a giant sword. This ironclad knight from the West is fairly imposing - in fact, none of your attacks will deal any damage to his vitality, and the Loaded Spear won’t be able to rip off his armor.

The Armored Warrior will use big slashing attacks and change his stance constantly as he prepares for his slashes - and his erratic swings can take a bit of practice to get down the timing of when to deflect - but his wild swings will start tearing holes in the walls of the bridge your on.

Instead, the only thing you can do is build up his posture damage, which doesn’t recover at all thankfully. He’ll engage in large sweeping attacks that are all fairly slow and thankfully telegraphed enough that you can begin deflecting them - just watch out for a follow-through attack that transitions into a thrust you can dodge into and further damage his posture. He also has a nasty shove that can put you off balance as he readies another slash that can be hard to react in time.

When his posture gets near the breaking point, he’ll start getting even madder, dropping his sword to the side and crouching low before slamming it around in a 4-hit combo, and then lunge forward once more with an long-reaching slash attack. While it can be terrifying, deflecting these attacks will usually send him over the edge and break his posture.

As you break his posture, you’ll find that a Deathblow in fact does no damage at all! However, Sekiro will kick off from his opponent, sending the Armored Warrior staggering back. This point is key - along with the fact that the Mini-Boss has been slashing big holes in the bridge.

To defeat this hulking invincible fighter, you’ll have to use his armor against him. Get his posture close to the breaking point and let him corner you against the bridge’s broken walls. Dodge around behind him and pile on the attacks and deflections to break his posture - and then only engage in a Deathblow when his back is facing an open hole. The force of your knockback from the Deathblow will push him to the edge - and gravity will deal the finisher your sword cannot.

You can also kick him from the front out one of the breakable panels using a Deathblow as well

Upon his fatal fall to the valley below, you’ll earn a Prayer Bead, and the Breath of Nature: Shadow skill that allows you to regain posture with successful Deathblows - which can be combined with the Breath of Nature: Light skill from the Ashina Skill tree to further increase posture recovery!

Temple Grounds

Video Guide: Temple Grounds and Main Hall

After defeating the Armored Warrior, head to the Temple Grounds Sculptor’s Idol and find a Scrap Magnetite nearby. Looking down below you’ll see lots of Monks waiting for you on the path to another temple, with the main temple high above built into the cliffside.

There’s a stairway nearby leading down to the first building below - but many Attack Dogs are lurking along the sides - so have your Firecrackers or Shuriken on standby to deal with them. You can also jump to the roof of the building from the Sculptor’s Idol to avoid them - and find nest up here holding a Ceramic Shard.

Looking down from here you can spot the main path leads through lots more Monks, a pond with two Treasure Carp holding a Treasure Carp Scale apiece, and two Attack Dogs on the right guarding Gokan’s Sugar on a lower ledge. There’s also a path past the dogs leading downwards, where two Monkeys will try and ambush you by a Pellet.

If you haven’t been to the Sunken Valley yet, you may not have engaged these animals - which attack erratically but are still killed easily with Shurikens, or stunned by Firecrackers.

Further down the path, three more Monkeys will try and ambush you from the ledges above - but go down easily enough with Shurikens. As you round the corner, you’ll see a member of Taro Troop sitting with a Monkey, and he won’t like it when you kill his friend, so watch out for that hammer and let him tire himself out before finishing him off.

Nearby where you encountered them are two Mibu Balloon of Spirit along the cliff wall, and a Persimmon by a tree. Down below are more bound corpses among some Spirit Emblems, and at the end of the path you’ll find the other side of the broken bridge, along with a Mibu Balloon of Spirit and Heavy Coin Purse.

Returning to the main path, you’ll find the Monks are assisted by a new variant that tosses actual exploding homing missiles your way. As there are three of them all on various ledges and guarded by regular Monks, you may want to find an alternate sneaky route.

Jump back into the pond where the two Treasure Carp were, and grapple up along the branches to the back of the building that hides you from the Monks. Keep to the left to spot a Monk under a tree, as well as a nearby Fistful of Ash. Carefully sneak along the left cliff wall to get to the tree and avoid the Monk on the building’s balcony, as well as the homing grenade-tossing Monk above.

After eliminating the Monk behind the tree, jump up onto the ledges on the left above, and then rush the three explosive-tossing Monks from behind to deal with them before they can react - like Riflemen, they barely have any posture or health to speak of - and one charged stab will do them in. After taking them out, you can try taking on the remaining Monks one at a time, and grapple around if you need a better fighting place.

Looking up at the next imposing building, you’ll find that the front door is locked, and the path around the right leads to a dead end - however you can jump down the ledges here either to the roof of another building (we’ll save that for a bit), or to find the spot where the three Monkeys ambushed you on the road to the bridge - and up here is a Mibu Possession Balloon, and the monkeys can sometimes drop Persimmons.

Back at the large building, take the left path instead and go all the way down to where several corpses have been stashed alongside a Ceramic Shard - and a broken window. Entering the courtyard here you’ll find three Senpou Assassins that you can sneak behind - which is better than trying to engage them all at once - as another Senpou Assassin waits on the roof above, and if you try to grapple up to the roof, two Assassins will come up too.

If you venture inside the building, you’ll find several Monks tending to the bodies of many corpses, with another Infested Priest in the center. Steer clear of the priest and assassinate a few Monks and bring the rest back to the courtyard to fight them.

Back inside, if you get close to the Infested Priest, a giant angry centipede will appear from within him, and lash out at you with extremely vicious attacks. This will make getting close hard, as he has one long-range lashing attack, as well as a three-hit combo and an unblockable grab where he snakes behind you to pull you in. However, if you can block the three-hit strike you’ll be able to stun the centipede and do some damage to the priest itself. Like the other Infested Priests, you can’t kill it for good - but you can duck past the body and grab the Lump of Fat Wax.

Head back into the courtyard and grab a Light Coin Purse near the door leading out - or you can jump to the roof and look for a ledge above to find an alternate path. This path leads to a Senpou Assassin with a reinforced hat, so be sure to swap to your Loaded Axe to cleave his head in two.

This leads to a ledge that overlooks the long sloping path heading up to the main temple. There’s a bonfire here with two Monks patrolling it, and another Monk on the opposite side of the bonfire.

Be sure to check along the right side to find a small side path heading down to a lower area towards the large building - and watch out for a large group of Attack Dogs and some Crawling Geckos huddled around an item. You can ambush them from the ledge above and use either the Spring-loaded Flame Vent or Firecracker to clear them out quickly, then grab the Mibu Balloon of Spirit. If you have the Finger Whistle, you can also use it here to send the beasts into a frenzy so they tear each other apart!

Mini-Boss - Long-arm Centipede Sen’un

As you enter the building, you’ll engage two Centipede Assassins that love to fling fire bombs at you - so close the distance quickly to eliminate them.

When you jump to the rafters above, you’ll find the next room has even more Centipede Assassins, both down below and crawling along the beams - along with a much larger Long-Arm Centipede Sen’un in the middle.

Given the Long-Arm Centipede’s relentless attack style, you’re not going to want to deal with his minions at the same time, so half of the fight will be preparation: You need to grapple in, kill a few centipede assassins, then leave and make sure the mini-boss de-aggros so you can repeat the process, especially when dealing with the ones on the ground next to the mini-boss.

Remember you can use the Grappling Hook attack skill to grapple to the enemies on the beams and hit them at the same time - and quickly grapple away when attacking the ones on the ground.

Once you’ve cleared the room, sneak back to the rafters when the Long-Arm Centipede isn’t looking and get a Plunging Deathblow on him to shave off one health bar. Like the one in the Sunken Valley, this enemy will attack with relentless swings, and only alternate with an unblockable low sweep attack.

Time your deflections against his attacks and don’t worry about attacking back - just break his posture and deliver the killing blow to get a Prayer Bead and a Yellow Gunpowder. Be sure to also look around this temple and the many corpses and piles of worms to find Gokan’s Sugar behind a wooden pillar, Black Gunpowder by the bonfire, and more Black Gunpowder off to the left.

Now head back up to the main path up to the large temple. Past the bonfire, move carefully, as there’s a Taro Troop Brute hiding behind a rock on the right that will start patrolling out on the path as you move forward - but you can bait him out and then stab him in the back.

Quickly grab the Ungo’s Sugar near him, as looking up the path ahead you can spy one of the explosive-tossing Monks flanked by another member of Taro Troop wielding a massive shield, with another Monk on the ledge above. If you are quick you can hide in the bushes to the side, or wait until they double back to ambush them.

Otherwise, take out the grenade-tossing Monks first, then lure the brute with the shield back down - he’ll either try shoving the shield in your face or slamming it down and charging - making it hard to deflect accurately - and he may also try a body slam with his shield. You’ll find that one hit with the Loaded Axe won’t do it - but don’t be discouraged.

Either go for a few of the axe swings, or get the Spring-Load Axe upgrade and hit him with a sweeping cleave and follow up slam to break his giant shield. He’ll be so surprised to find his shield gone, that he’ll simply lie down and give up.

With the shield brute out of the way, use the branches above to grapple to the Monk on the ledge to stop the rain of explosives and grab the Gokan’s Sugar he was guarding, and be sure to watch out for another Monk up the path in front of a small hut. Move around the side or grapple onto the roof, and watch for two more Monks on the steps up to the main temple. Be sure to check under the stairs going up for some Ungo's Sugar.

Main Hall

At the top of the stairs you’ll be just outside the temple’s main hall, but finding a way in may prove difficult. Hug the wall and look around the corner to get a corner deathblow and approaching Monk - but note the two Temple Guardians standing in front of the main doors.

Since each are both looking in the opposite direction, it won’t exactly be easy to get the drop on them. You can try using the long balconies to grapple across and rush at them from the middle and hope for a quick deathblow before they can react - otherwise you may need to fight dirty.

Your goal is to get them apart or vulnerable, so consider either using Ceramic Shards or your Finger Whistle to get them interested in an area, and then backstab one when they turn around - or just run back down to the smaller building and hide until they lose interest and get separated - and then tag one’s attention with a shuriken. There’s also a third Temple Guardian further past the main entrance, so be wary you don’t get him involved too.

There’s nothing wrong with cheesing their AI to separate them, as they are a big hassle to deal with thanks to their uncanny ability to block most of your attacks and jump away while throwing shurikens. Swat them out of the air and jump over their fast sweep hits to take them out one at a time. Now you can open the door to the front entrance, and activate the Main Hall Sculptor’s Idol.

Before exploring the hall, head back outside and go down the length of the balcony and turn right - noting the pagoda on the far cliff. To the right, you’ll find another entrance to the main hall, along with a large cave entrance and stairs leading down.

Down here you’ll run into a Monk at the cave entrance, and further down is a large cavern with four Centipede Assassins. Since they love to back away and throw firebombs, use your Chasing Slice to close the gap and be aggressive to take them out quickly.

A path beyond them leads to a large chamber you can drop into, but instead of doing that, return to where you fought the centipedes and look along the left wall for a small opening you can crawl through. This leads to an alternate entrance to the large cavern that a Centipede Assassin is guarding, so you can kill him from behind before dropping down.

Move through the cavern to find a waterlogged passage at the bottom to sneak through, and you’ll find a Mibu Balloon of Spirit along the way. At the other end of the passage, grapple up to encounter three more Centipede Assassins, and clear them out quickly before they flood the place with fire.

Continue to grapple up past all the mummified corpses of temple priests to reach the end of the cave where you’ll be in front of the tall pagoda. Open the door and inside you’ll find the Senpou Esoteric Text - which unlocks the Senpou Temple Arts Skill Tree, letting you learn new martial arts that involve palm strikes and kicks like the Monks here.

You can also look around to find a Pellet by a tree, and some Spirit Emblems by a grave along the cliff where a Crawling Gecko is. To get back to the main hall, look above for a tree branch to grapple along that will boost you all the way back, and grab Ako’s Sugar before heading in.

The Main Hall has an assortment of Infested Priests in the wings - some that will spew crickets in one corner, and some that sprout an angry centipede in the other corner. Be sure to dart between the cricket belching priests to grab a Pellet.

On the other side, quickly nab an Ungo’s Sugar before the Infested Priest’s centipede can slither out, then head down the long passage at the end with a locked door.

Note: If you haven’t cleared Ashina Castle, you’ll find the surprisingly docile Senpou Temple Head Priest here by the Sculptor’s Idol, and talking to him he’ll share his remorse about the Divine Children of the Rejuvenating Waters, and ask that you deliver some text when you finally meet this child. However, you won’t be able to proceed until you defeat Genichiro in the castle.

If you’ve already defeated Genichiro, the Head Priest will have disappeared, leaving only a Dragon’s Blood Droplet on the main statue, a Lump of Fat Wax behind the central statue, and a curious bell on the table. Inspect the bell, and you’ll be transported to another realm entirely.

Boss Battle - Folding Screen Monkeys

Video Guide: Folding Screen Monkeys

As Sekiro awakens after using the bell, he will find himself in the Illusive Realm, a different world entirely, and comprised of a peculiar boss fight, the Folding Screen Monkeys.

Three Monkeys are depicted on two folding screens, with a fourth empty slot: A purple monkey with spectacles, an orange monkey with a gong, and a green monkey with a cone around its head. One of the monkeys will see you and shriek before running off.

You’ll gain the Illusive Hall Bell, which can only be used in this realm - and will reset the positions of both you and the Monkeys you need to hunt, for that is the objective of this realm: catch and defeat all of the monkeys to win.

Further up the platform here you’ll find a lone Monk, who will tell you a bit about the place and how best to catch the monkeys. The Purple Kimono Monkey is the “seeing monkey” who has great eyesight and will always see you coming, and will run away when he does. The Orange Kimono Monkey isn’t too great on the senses, but if he or another Monkey sees you, he’ll sound an alarm. Finally, the Green Kimono Monkey has great hearing, making sneaking fairly impossible.

With this in mind, you’re going to need some tricks up your sleeve to catch them, as the monkeys will jump around - mostly on the rooftops, and avoid you whenever possible. Looking out past the Monk, the area is divided into five buildings with platforms between them, and a large tree in the center.

The Green and Orange Monkey will usually start on this tree, while the Purple Monkey will be off on the roofs somewhere - and chasing them along the rooftops will spawn ghostly Monkeys that alone aren’t too much of a threat, but they do cause terror damage, so take them out with a shuriken to be safe.

As for the buildings, the ones on the right are empty, but the ones on the left are pretty interesting. The closest building on the left has a giant waterfall pouring into it, and a note inside says that nothing can be heard over the noise of the falls.

Further up, another room has a giant door that can be opened, which will send the room into darkness in which none but Sekiro can see. The same goes for the building at the back, where you can grapple up to the attic where there is no light. You can also find a path on the other side of the giant tree to find a bell you can ring to make a deafening noise.

With these clues in mind, it’s time to begin the hunt. Depending on the location of all the Monkeys, the Orange Kimono Monkey is often the easiest to hunt when alone. Once your sure he doesn’t have a line of sight on you, carefully grapple up to the rooftops and look for a trail of orange footprints. Follow them slowly while sneaking, and you’ll soon come upon the alarm-ringing monkey, who isn’t great on hearing you sneak up - and you can take him out.

For the Green Kimono Monkey, you want to chase him until he jumps down onto the large tree. When he’s here, either jump to him from the back where the bell is to make him run past the Monk, and corral him right into the room where the waterfall is - then back off and drop in from the hole in the roof to take him out.

Otherwise, jump at the tree from the Monk’s position and he’ll usually jump up to the rooftops and drop down to a platform close to the bell - and you can now ring the bell to stun him and break his posture, allowing you to quickly grapple over and finish the job.

As for the Purple Kimono Monkey, you can try chasing him and make him go left from the tree into the room with the door that darkens the place - but it's usually much easier to chase him along the rooftops until he enters the tall building at the rear, and he’ll stop in the attic where he can’t see you come in after him.

Now the three Monkeys are defeated - so why haven’t you won? If you think back to the Folding Screen, there are four slots with three monkeys… so what if you can’t see the final Monkey?

Stop what you’re doing and look behind you - and retrace your steps to find yellow footprints along the ground. Where the footprints end, try and run around and you may find that something is blocking your path - an invisible monkey, and you can slice the air to defeat it.

In a pinch, you can also just reset your position to the entrance, and turn around - where the invisible Monkey has been stalking you from the very beginning. It’s also possible that in attacking the other monkeys you may have accidentally hit him already - in which case, good job!

Defeating all four will grant you the Memory: Folding Screen Monkeys, as well as the Puppeteer Ninjutsu, which allows you to turn an enemy to your side after performing a backstab deathblow, and make it fight your enemies for you!

Inner Sanctum

Video Guide: The Mortal Blade and the Shinobi Kite Puzzle

Now that you’ve defeated the Folding Screen Monkeys, the Divine Child’s voice will call out, and you’ll awaken in the Inner Sanctum of the temple.

Enter to find the Divine Child, and ask for the Mortal Blade. You’ll be told that to draw the blade is certain death - but when has that ever stopped you? Take the blade anyway, and you’ll revive to gain the Mortal Blade - which can be used to kill that which cannot be killed by other means. This also means you can now kill Infested Priests in the temple to stop them from coming back (at least until you rest at a Sculptor’s Idol). It also grants you a new Combat Art - the Mortal Draw, which unleashes the blade in a large attack swing with lingering damaging mist. However, you’ll still use your regular katana for most fighting.

After speaking to the Divine Child, she’ll decide to assist you in your quest, and offer you… Rice! Rice can be used to regenerate vitality over time, much like a Pellet, but we also know someone who wants some Rice.

Before that however, look around the back of the building to find a Pellet, then look for a portal back to the Illusive Halls. If you decided to accept Kotaro’s request to “spirit him away”, you’ll find that he’s now living happily in this realm with all the lost children of the rejuvenating waters. As thanks for this, he’ll give you the Taro Persimmon, which will greatly increase posture recovery beyond that of a normal Persimmon - so use it wisely!

The Shinobi Kite, and the Sunken Valley Cavern

Now that you’ve got Rice straight from the Divine Child, head back to the first temple building where the Old Crone was pointing off across the cliff to the other side. Give her the rice, and she’ll mumble something about “winding the puppet to fly a kite”.

As it turns out, we know there’s a Shinobi Kite back at the entrance to the Senpou Temple, the one Blackhat Badger says the other assassin won’t use. But now since we’ve defeated the Folding Screen Monkeys, we have the Puppeteer Ninjutsu. Be sure to return to Blackhat Badger and tell him you have an idea!

Try putting it to use by equipping the Ninjutsu, and then getting a Stealth Deathblow on the Senpou Assassin by the kite, and watch as he goes about his job to release the kite higher into the air!

Be sure to tell Blackhat Badger about this development, and he’ll go use the kite to attend to whatever business he has - and you should go as well.

Return to where the Old Crone is and grapple up to the huge tree nearby, and move along the farthest branch until you can see the kite flying in the middle of the ravine, and use it as grappling point to boost you all the way to a platform on the other side.

Grab the Snap Seed here, and then head along the ledges grappling between branches to boost yourself down to where some giant snakeskin is, as well as some Scrap Magnetite.

Down below you’ll finally reach the Sunken Valley Cavern Sculptor’s Idol, and nearby is Blackhat Badger who is standing in front of a grave. He’ll thank you for helping him get here, and give you a warning about Ashina Castle before planning to head back there later - but we won't see him again until later

If you head past him, you’ll find a passage exiting into the Sunken Valley Cavern along with a Mibu Balloon of Spirit, and if you’ve already been to the Sunken Valley, you’ll find this is where the Great Serpent attacked you a second time.

If you survived this encounter, you’ll now find the serpent wrapped up around a spire below you - and a narrow plank puts you right over him. Time to end this.

Jump down from the perch and wait for the red icon to appear to unleash the mother of all Plunging Deathblows. After a truly brutal display, you’ll land nearby as the Great Serpent perishes, and you’ll get the Fresh Serpent Viscera… a very interesting Key Item. Since you’ve landed on the other side of the bridge, it’s best to check out this path to find a Mibu Balloon of Soul, and a nearby cave holds a corpse with two items in front of it - a Dragon’s Blood Droplet and Bundled ji*zo Statue.

Now that you’ve completed your tasks - use your Homeward Idol to return back to Lord Kuro and update him on your progress. In turn he has something new for you. Speak to him twice and he’ll give you the Okami’s Ancient Text, a note that mentions a fragrant stone within the depths of Ashina - a place one must throw themselves to find.

If you found the Bottomless Pit in the Abandoned Dungeon, the Old Crone there said something similar - and there’s also passage from the Sunken Valley’s Bodhvista Valley we can take as well. Before you leave, be sure to check in on old Isshin Ashina, and show him the Mortal Blade for his take. As you leave, you may notice you can eavesdrop on him when out of eyesight - so listen in to hear some interesting musings on a second sacred blade.

Now it’s time to choose your path, and then embark for the Ashina Depths.