Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice walkthrough part 4 – Find the Shinobi Firecracker and fight the horse-rider

In the last part we expanded our shinobi arsenal and narrowly escaped sharing the fate of frozen mouse as we dodged a giant snake, but now things are really starting to heat up. At the gates of the Ashina Castle a deadly foe awaits, but first, we need to prepare.

From the Shrine you reached after the Snake, travel back to the Idol just before the Chained Ogre, there’s some backtracking to do.

When you’re there, turn around and head the way towards the rooster. Then grapple over the gate. Drop down and stealth kill the canon guy in front of you so he doesn’t give you any jip, then head over to the right and grapple off the tree branch.

Your destination is a hidden merchant at the top of the tall peak in the centre of the area, so walk forward across the stony cliffs that have lots of long grass on and grapple to the ledge at the end.

Follow the ledge around to the left then look up, you should see a grapple point at the top of the peak.

Inside of a little tent here is the merchant, he’s selling Robert’s Firecrackers for 500 coins and you need to buy ‘em.

Either sell one of the pouches of coins you’ve no doubt come across in your travels, or grind enemies until you have enough.

Once you’ve got the Firecrackers, go back to the Dilapidated Temple and get the Sculptor to fit it to your arm – this gives you the Shinobi Firecrackers.

Now travel back to the Ashina Castle Gate Fortress. From the shrine, grapple up onto the wooden tower and then over to the wall on the right.

Run along the wall to the left, then jump onto the guard to stealth kill him. At the end of the path, grapple onto the tree, then the rooftop.

Now equip your Firecracker and jump onto the battlefield below.

Gyoubu Oniwa

You’ll now be fighting the legendary warrior Gyoubu Oniwa and his mighty warhorse Onikage.

It’s not immediately obvious, but you can actually block a lot of his basic slash attacks with your sword, so keep your guard up as he charges.

Then when he stops to turn around you can grapple over to get a few free hits.

Your Firecracker is your secret weapon here though. The loud noise will scare his horse and make it buck, leaving Gyoubu Oniwa open.

As his health depletes his posture bar will restore very slowly, so keep up the aggression.

However, if you get stuck in close proximity with him for too long without scaring his horse, Gyoubu Oniwa will unleash some pretty devastating combos that continue to hit you on the floor, so get out of there as fast as you can.

The trick to this fight is to be patient and block, grapple in close, scare his horse, land a few hits and retreat.

Repeat this until his posture is broken and he will go down.

On his death, you’ll get a special powerup – a Memory – that raises your attack power, and the Mechanical Barrel, which lets you upgrade your arm.

Now head over to the shrine next to the gate and rest, using the memory to raise your strength.

In the next part, it’s time to storm Ashina Castle!