During Sekiro’s opening, Genichiro Ashina easily bests the player and even cuts off their left arm. About midway through the game, the player finally gets their chance at a rematch against the skilled Ashina warrior. However, those who were hoping Ashina’s skills would have dulled in-between their two meetings will be sorely disappointed. Genichiro Ashina can be beaten, but it will take no small degree of skill to bring him low.
Sekiro: Defeating Genichiro Ashina
Ashina is tricky to fight mainly because he has such a wide breadth of different attacks. He can assail you with his bow from afar, and in-close his sword is no less deadly. Worse, there are no ancillary items or prosthetic tools that can give you a clear edge. If you want to defeat Ashina you’ll need to rely solely on your own swordsmanship.
Being aggressive is actually one of the best ways to deal with Ashina. When you attack him, he’ll usually block your first blow and then deflect your second. After he deflects, he’ll go for a swing of his own, allowing you to counter-deflect and inflict posture damage. If you land a clean hit and lower his vitality, all the better, but his posture is the main focus.
Whenever he leaps up and stabs into the ground, he’ll immediately follow with either a power stab or sweeping attack. You can try and counter those attacks if you want but it’s usually better to just avoid them.
Unfortunately, successfully draining Ashina’s two deathblow counters isn’t the end of the fight. Similar to Lady Butterfly, Ashina has a hidden second phase in which he sheds his armor and imbues himself with lightning. His second phase moveset remains largely the same only now he has a few additional lightning moves. In most cases these lightning moves can one-shot you, and they inflict shock status if they connect.
Again, the best strategy is to just be aggressive. Ashina’s posture gauge fills more quickly in his second form, and he also doesn’t block as many of your hits. He’s also less likely to deploy a lightning attack if he’s trading sword blows with you. Just keep up the pressure, avoid his attacks when you can, and you’ll eventually claim victory.
For more Sekiro content we’ve also got a guide on taking down the Armor Warrior in the Senpou Temple.