Owl (Father) |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | Hirata Estate Revisited |
| Deathblow Markers | 2 |
| Weakness | |
| Reward | Memory: Foster Father Aromatic Flower |
| XP | NG: 10000 NG+: 12500 NG++: 18750 |
Owl (Father) ( 義父, Foster Father, Gifu) is a Boss in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This Complete Owl (Father) Boss Guide gives you strategies on how to beat Owl easily, as well as tips, tricks and lore notes. Bosses like Owl are special, dangerous Enemies that feature their own arena, a large and prominent health bar, and a variety of unique moves and abilities. You will need to perform multiple Deathblows on them in order to defeat them, and filling their Posture Gauge is the only way to accomplish this. However, decreasing their health will make it so their Posture Gauge depletes more slowly, assisting you in accomplishing this feat.
Owl (Father) Location
Where to find Owl (Father) in Sekiro?
- In the Hidden Temple, where you fought Lady Butterfly, in Hirata Estate. This is only accessible after doing the steps for the Purification Ending.
- See Endings for more information
- See The Owl for NPC version.
- See Great Shinobi Owl for the version fought at the top of Ashina Castle during the main game.
- This boss is optional but it must be defeated to achieve a certain ending.
Owl (Father) Rewards
What do you get from defeating Owl (Father) in Sekiro?
- Memory: Foster Father
- Aromatic Flower (unlocks Purification Ending if used after beating the final boss)
- 10,000 / 12,000 (without Kuro's Charm) Exp (NG)
- 12,500 / 15,000 Exp (NG+)
- 18,750 / 22,500 Exp (NG+2)
- 56,250 / 67,500 Exp (NG+7 and beyond)
Dialogue
- Talk (must be a certain distance behind Owl to initiate dialogue).
- "That day... I pulled you from the battlefield, a starving cub... I had no idea what you'd become."
- If attacked prior to initiating dialogue.
- "Very well!"
- "Very well!"
- First time player uses a prosthetic tool.
- "Hmm... The shinobi prosthetic... this was once... Curious device you have there..."
- "Hmm... The shinobi prosthetic... this was once... Curious device you have there..."
- Upon killing the player.
- "Good riddance... starving wolf."
- After first deathblow.
- "What a fine specimen you've become, Wolf. Allow me to honor your efforts-- and show you this old Owl's true power!"
- When killed.
- "Defeated by my own son? The feeling is not entirely unpleasant..."
Owl (Father) Boss Guide Strategies
Sekiro Owl (Father) Video Strategies
Sekiro Owl (Father) Strategy Writeup
WARNING: Just as in the Great Shinobi Owl Bossfight atop Ashina Castle, this boss has access to an extremely powerful Mikiri Counter that can be used against thrust attacks or combat arts that utilise thrusts such as Shadowfall by the player. This counter deals extremely high damage and will likely kill the player if they are already slightly hurt.
He uses many of the same attacks and styles as his earlier battle, but now he's faster and more aggressive. Fortunately for you, he doesn't use poison or the healing block. As always, you should make arrangements--spend money, get a new skill point--and then dedicate some attempts to learning to defend against his attacks. He will usually take one hit then deflect the second. Sometimes he'll merely guard the first hit before he deflects, but it's all posture damage.
He has a short recovery after many of his attacks--use them to punish him once you're comfortable deflecting. When he does his long attack sequence that ends with his gunpowder slash, dodge towards him as he tosses the gunpowder and get behind him to injure him. Sometimes he'll wind up a heavy overhead chop and it's possible to dodge it and punish--but if you get too far away from him while he raises his sword, he'll feint and leap into the air. If you get him with his back to a wall or a corner, you can attack relentlessly and you'll damage him outright or interrupt many of his attacks and movements for a short spell, enough to wear down his health and damage his posture.
Once his health is about half-way down, you can stop actively trying to bait attacks and switch into defense--deflecting all of his attack sequences and the occasional hit will wear his Posture away quickly. When he's on his second phase, run when he turns invisible until he drops out of it, and use Mikiri Counter to defend against his Shadowrush attacks--he most often does one after he throws a larger sweep of gunpowder and after he launches his blazing owl.
In the second phase, use firecrackers to interrupt his attacks and hurt him while he shields his eyes. Otherwise maintain the same principles as the first phase, just be ready for his owl-based attacks and don't be afraid to run from him to make some space for yourself to heal and douse your flames.
If you defeat the boss you will see the writing "SHINOBI EXECUTION" upon the screen.
Alternate strategy:
If you're having difficulty mastering deflections against this boss, a fairly reliable way to make the fight more manageable is to equip the Mortal Draw (or its enhancement) combat art, & during the fight, keep dash/sprinting away to keep most the length of the arena between you and Owl so he has to run after you. When he starts running from far away, he usually limits his attacks upon reaching you to 1. a simple running slash, 2. a shuriken throw quickly followed by a strong slash from his left side, or 3. two side dashes followed by his Shadowstep piercing charge. These three abilities can be avoided fairly reliably. The simple slash can be dodged forward & left (passing Owls right shoulder) & quickly followed up by the Mortal Draw two uses as long as you stay within range after your dodge (if you moved too far, simply use a single dash attack to close & deal damage) then quickly run back to the other length of the arena & repeat. The shuriken slice must be dodged forward & left TWICE QUICKLY (past Owl's right shoulder again - if you dash directly at him, or to your right instead, you run the risk of dashing into his outstretched blade & trigger a massively damaging slash that can instantly kill you from full vitality in NG) & again attack with the Mortal Draw 2X. The Mortal Draw combat art will always connect on the first attack (provided you stayed close enough) & the second will usually either land directly, or force him to block & prevent his quickest counter attacks. Finally, for his Shadowstep rush, Mikiri counter & follow up with a quick single slash (he recovers more quickly & can usually escape the Mortal Draw following a Mikiri Counter).
If Owl starts running towards you when at medium range, he is more apt to use one of his other move sets, including an off time (slightly delayed relative to his other animations), multi hit slash that can pivot & follow your dash to hit you in the back & flow into a multi hit combo including a sweep attack.
Following this strategy, you can quickly remove Owl's vitality in chunks & end the fight more quickly. In phase 2, continue to use the same strategy as his base move set remains the same; the only change necessary is to keep running when he enters the invisible owl teleport to avoid his drop attack & dash behind a pillar for easy protection from his fire owl projectile + Shadowstep as neither attack will move past the pillar (this also provides a safe window for using healing items or combat buffs before he resumes his offensive). The most frustrating problem I encountered during this strategy was fighting the camera as it can be easy to run into a pillar or wall while running to long range & occasionally the target lock may be lost after a dash, & if that happens, your initial attack may miss & leave you open for Owls close range offensive.
Another strategy to brute force this fight is to use a combination of Ako's Sugar, Divine Confetti, Rice, & Red Lumps to stay on the offensive, & force Owl back toward a wall to keep interrupting Owl's heavier combos & end the first phase very quickly. The second phase is a little harder due to the invisibility/teleport but the saving spirit emblems & Mortal Draw for phase 2 can keep Owl off balance long enough to quickly end this phase as well.
A useful counter to his firecrackers is to back away, and then use either the Shadowrush or Shadowfall combat art to counter, doing decent vitality and posture damage.
Sekiro Owl (Father) Attacks & Counters
| Attack | Description | Counter |
| Phase 1 | ||
| Zig-Zag | Many of Owl's attacks initiate after a zig-zag motion designed to confuse you. After this, he can do any of the following 5 moves: | |
| Shuriken Throw | Owl throws a single shuriken | Block, deflect or dodge to the side |
| Double Shuriken + flip | Owl will throw 2 shuriken then flip towards you in the air and then perform a single downward strike with his sword. | Deflect/block the shuriken and dodge sideways to avoid the flip and counter. |
| Shadowfall | Just like your Mushin Shadowfall Combat Art. Owl will charge up for an unblockable thrust, and if it hits, he will jump off and come down with 2 huge slashes. | Mikiri the thrust. |
| Shuriken Slash | Owl throws a shuriken at the player immediately followed by a running slash. Similar to the Chasing Slice Shinobi Martial Art | Block/Deflect both. If well timed you can also dodge his slash to the right for a counter opportunity, but it's difficult. |
| Perilous Sweep | Owl will move from the side and perform an unblockable sweep. Jump over it. He can perform the following after this: | Jump over it and stay close to him to bait out his overhead slash. Alternatively, jump back so you can jump kick his head and inflict posture damage |
| Large Overhead Slash | Owl will load up for a very powerful overhead slash. If you dodge to the side he will switch to a turning slash. If you dodge backwards he will perform a flip towards you and slash. | Dodge the overhead slash at the last moment and counter. Circling him may be safer than performing a dodge, as dodging too early prompts him to switch to a quick horizontal attack instead. You have time to get one or two hits in while he is charging up. |
| Backflip | Owl leaps off of you. It deals no vitality damage but much posture damage. | Deflect to minimize posture damage |
| Firecrackers | Owl throws blinding firecrackers in your face, then makes them explode. He can follow up with either Shuriken Throw, Shadowfall or Shuriken Slash | Dodge backwards to avoid |
| Running Slash | Owl runs towards you and performs a single strong slash. He can perform the following 2 moves after this: | Block/Deflect. You can also dodge to the left but you might get hit by the followups. |
| 5-slash Firecracker Combo | Owl performs 3 consecutive slashes with his sword, followed by an elbow, followed by firecrackers, which he will slash through. | Deflect/block his slashes, then dodge to the right when he throws his firecrackers for a counter opportunity. Dodging too quickly after the firecrackers are thrown will cause you to get hit by the follow-up slash, so a momentary pause is needed. A useful strategy is to back away, and then use either the Shadowrush or Shadowfall combat art to counter. |
| Double Slash into Perilous Sweep | Owl performs 2 consecutive slashes with his sword and ends with a Perilous Sweep. He can perform his Large Overhead Slash after this | Jump over it and stay close to him to bait out his overhead slash. Alternatively, jump back so you can jump kick his head and inflict posture damage |
| Shuriken Slash | Owl throws a shuriken at the player immediately followed by a running slash. Similar to the Chasing Slice Shinobi Martial Art | Block/Deflect both. If well timed you can also dodge his slash to the right for a counter opportunity, but it's difficult. |
| Stomp (deathblow) | Owl will raise his foot into the air then stomp down pinning the player to the ground and stabbing them through the chest. This attack does massive damage and cannot be blocked and does not have a Perilous indicator. Owl will likely use this after breaking the player's posture if he is close enough. |
Dodge backwards/safety roll in order to avoid it. |
| Phase 2 | ||
| Backflip + Shuriken | Same as in phase one but he throws shuriken after. | Block/Deflect both. |
| Owl Teleport | Owl will use his summoned owl to teleport above you and drop down with a slash | You can deflect his slash, or just run away/stay away from the owl to avoid |
| Fire Owl + Shadowfall | Owl will summon his owl to his hand and throw an unblockable fire owl projectile towards you, then follow up with Shadowfall. | Jump over the fire owl and mikiri his thrust |
Owl (Father) Lore
Lore theory: Owl is implied to be the one who originally killed Wolf during the events of the Hirata attack three years prior to the events of the game.
The first time Sekiro uses a shinobi prosthetic tool during the fight, Owl will comment on it, recognising it and implying he knew the previous owner, possibly from his time with the Sculptor and Dogan.
The Owl’s real name is Ukonzaemon Usui.
Owl (Father) Notes & Trivia
Resistant to poison, burn is effective though.
Unlike when fought in the present at the top of Ashina Castle, this version of Owl does not use the Shinobi Charm to prevent the player from healing.
There is an archer close to the idol who can be backstabbed (jump through the window-like gap in the wall to get behind him), allowing the player to start the boss fight with the Bestowal Ninjutsu. Because Owl will frequently try jumping away from you to escape damage, the extra reach from bestowal lets you keep striking him while he's attempting to evade you. Can be combined with buffs such as Ako's Sugar for additional damage.
Owl (Father) Image Gallery
[images go here]
AnonymousMist raven is the best thing to use when he uses that fire cracker slash
- Anonymous
Owl father is so much ****ing better than great shinobi variant it's unreal
- Anonymous
Really awesome fight. Arena kinda sucks though, I took a ton of hits from the camera unlocking from him
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Beat at AP 10, 1st NG. If you're having problem with his posture recovery, always mikiri his shadowrush
Uh...guys, remember there's a bug when he does a shadowrush but there's a pillar between you and him,you can mikiri through the pillar. No animation but posture increase. Latest patch,I don't know if it was only for me,I'll try it again when I can
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
lazy copy pasted bullshit ass boss who infinitely spam his shitty firecrackers at you. When he does his heavy overhead attack with infinite poise you never know if he'll do the simple ichimonji or if he'll do a 360 spin. He's unnecessarily ultra tanky. This arena is very bad for such a mobile boss that keeps jumping and running everywhere i always get stuck on pillars and the camera has a stroke everytime we approach a wall.
The only good thing I like about this boss is how at the start of phase 1 he'll run and jump around everywhere at super sonic speed like a ****ing coked up gremlins and as you start beating his ass he becomes slower and slower. I don't understand why not all bosses are like that it really makes you feel like you are having a real fight and seeing your opponent loose his strenght as you also get tired
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I know it may be controversial but i think that Owl Father îs way harder the Sword Saint Isshin.
- Anonymous
WHAAAAAA WAAHHHHH HIS AREEENNAAA IS TOO SMAAAAAAALLLLLLL WAAAAHHHHHH
- Anonymous
In phase 1 the perilous sweep can be easily interuptted with an R1.
- Anonymous
for the firecrackers just walking back normally will dodge it. If you are impatient you can jump backwards instead. Then you can run back to him to get a free hit.
- Anonymous
Shuriken with chasing slice makes the firecracker slice free damage as long as you can afford the emblems
- Anonymous
How many tries do people take to beat him? Still cant even after 30 odd tries lol. Though probably should not have made the first time be ng+ demon bell charmless run, right? Or is he always this hard to fight?
- Anonymous
ONE! The suzaku lotus umbrella is absolute,firecracker must be turtled.
TWO! Mikiri is absolute,you counter the thrust at all costs.
THREE! Deflection is absolute,there's no shame at missing a deflect,but you must deflect the next as soon as you can
- Anonymous
Use fire umbrella when firecracker but don't project force,use against firecrackers until it smokes and then boom
- Anonymous
The hardest part about this encounter isn't the boss... it is the god damn mother ****ing pillars.
- Anonymous
So… Anyone wanna fix the picture? It’s of Great Shinobi and not Father. Not really the end of the world, just looks kinda dumb
- Anonymous
For latest patch, don't need to be aggressive, it has become more of a game of patience. Just get close enough for him to make his move on you. Previous patches require players to be aggressive. Don't worry about getting only one or two hits on him, cos' as soon as half his life bar is depleted, his posture bar damage will increase drastically if you deflect/counter his attacks. Always make sure you have enough space, don't get stuck in the corner.
For those who are having trouble with his gunpowder:
As soon as he throws the gunpowder, you can jump away, run into him or run away from him before the explosion, I'd recommend running away as he can perform side slash if you're not careful.
- Anonymous
Like... the boss is really really fun to fight, but is there a reason why he can combo you from 100-0 in like a second sometimes? It doesn't help that if the camera just so happens to get stuck on a pillar, you can lose sight of him and die in a second.
I feel like for a fight this long, this sort of 100-0 combo shouldn't exist honestly.
- Anonymous
Ima be honest bruh I died about 40 times on great shinobi and only once on this one, if he still kept his shinobi charm this would be much harder. Though it was much more fun to fight this one than great shinobi because it's faster paced.
- Anonymous
This was hard and tough but it was IMO one of the best boss fights from any Fromsoftware game.
Perfect balance between challenging and fun. Fighting this guy (father version) felt like a Samurai / Ninja dance.
It was great.
- Anonymous
Fun fight, significantly harder than his "Great Shinobi" version.
If you came here looking for advice, here is what worked for me as a non-sweat, casual player:
Phase 1: Use a "double ichimonji" in his openings. Especially with the perilous move that he spams a lot and needs to be jumped: deflect the large overhead swing at the end of the combo, and then, immediately after, jump towards him (otherwise you'll miss since the aforementioned deflect will push you back significantly) and do ichimonji.
This will wear his posture down significantly whilst regaining your own. When he does the simultaneous firecracker + swing combo this also works.
Phase 2: Swap ichimonji for whatever your most powerful ability is. In my case, it was "mortal draw".
Assuming you used no prosthetics in phase 1, you should have plenty of spirit emblems since ichimonji is free. Use them all up to wear him down as quickly as possible. Swap back to ichimonji when you're out of emblems.
I find his second phase to be inconsistent because of his constant teleportation and the damn bird blocking your view at the worst possible moments, so I prefer to speed it up.
Talking of the bird, as soon as you see him disappear, look for the bird and run away from it, as that is where he will re-appear and try to smack you.
If you see firecrackers thrown randomly without any combo or sense, he's using them as a smoke screen for disappearance so get ready for him to re-appear and try to hit you.
General: Play aggressive, otherwise his monstrous posture will never go down. However, it's a slow fight even when aggressive, so don't overdo it. He does crazy damage, so trading is a death wish.
Take any mikiri counter that you can get to wear him down faster.
If you can, pin him down against a wall. You can clash swords for quick posture damage as he is really helpless if he can't jump around and run away; But this is a double-edged sword: if he pins you down instead, you're dead in a combo.
People below all mention different prosthetics, but in my case I wasn't able to get much out of any in this fight. You just have to deflect and not make too many mistakes. But I'm bad with prosthetics in general so perhaps check out their advice in that regard instead.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I feel like Phase 2 is way easier than phase 1 - due to his new owl attacks, he's on you a bit less than in phase 1, and one of those owl attacks - the fire owl followed by the long thrust, is relatively slow and very easy to mikiri counter as long as you avoid the fire owl. It means he's doing less firecrackers and sweeps and more thrusts, and Mikiri basically trivialises phase 2 since he does that fire owl + thrust attack fairly frequently, at least 3 times per fight in my experience.
- Anonymous
Why would he comment on the prosthetic if it's in the past, when Sekiro didn't have the prosthetic? This doesn't make sense.
- Anonymous
Any1 know if you can do Fountainhead and come back to fight him?
- Anonymous
I am sorry to say this and pls don't hate me but i did owl on my 1 try but it was pretty close . I think you just gotta have a good timing/reaction time to do him but its fairly easy just jump over his fire owl and mikiri counter his thrust attack after that (Phase 2).
Pls dont hate me for saying this
- Anonymous
This has gotta be the shittiest website on earth. Ate up two of my comments and won't let me reply to any of the messages.
It's a shame most Soul fans use this steaming pile of death. I guess the Fandom isn't any better either.
- Anonymous
He's so fun to fight against, and if you know when to use the shinobi arts to punish his openings (like stepping back then doing a chasing slice to counter his firecracker counterattack after deflecting your attack or doing a nightjar slash after dodging his nightjar slash), it's so satisfying to watch thematically, like father like son fighting using different shinobi arts. His zigzag steps pattern reminds me of Morgott (I played elden ring first) just to mess up your camera lock-on thus messing up your movement a bit.
- Anonymous
For anyone struggling with him in the year of our Lord twenty-twenty-three, I'll detail exactly what I did as a scrub tier Sekiro player.
Shinobi prosthetics: long spark firecracker. I didn't really use anything else because it's important to make sure you can use it if you need it. Maybe the umbrella that shields you from burns for the owl in stage 2, (although I haven't tried it.)
Weapon art: Double Ichimonji. Ichimonji in conjunction with long spark firecracker is used mostly for regaining posture. It can bring you from nearly full down to almost zero if you land two hits.
Yes, you need to be aggressive with this boss but that's only half the story. You want to try get him up against a wall or in a corner. If you hit him, hit him again until he guards. As soon as he guards once, he will deflect the next blow. Just try keep up this pattern and stay on top of him. If he jumps back, immediately run at him and use a spinning slash. Without space, there's generally only a few attacks he'll whip out:
1. He will attack from his right. This comes out pretty quick.
2. He will attack from his left. This is slightly delayed.
3. He will jump off you. This can come out very quick and does a lot of posture damage, so as soon as you see the animation deflect.
4. He will spin and double slash you. Very obvious animation, so when you see him spin deflect twice.
5. He'll use firecrackers. Generally you want to run through this and do a spinning slash against him, unless he's too close to a wall, in which case you'll need to run backwards. He may do a thrust that you'll need to counter.
If he ever builds up an overhead attack, you need to make sure you wait until he's about to bring it down to attack. If you dodge too early, he'll switch to a slash which can catch you and isn't punishable. His overheads are his most punishable moves as you can usually get in two slashes. You can also attack him while he builds up the attack.
If you keep this up, he won't be able to use his more ridiculous combos. When he's down to about 2/3 he'll probably be ready for a deathblow if you keep on top of him.
The second phase is kinda the same deal. If he goes invisible, just start running away. If he uses the flame owl, either use the umbrella (untested) or try dodge it. Other than that it's basically the same.
So to reiterate, just keep on top of him and if he guards your blow, get ready to deflect and then attack again. If he deflects it will usually open him up to start a combo, but if he never deflects he'll usually only be able to get one attack off.
When he makes space, he'll typically use an attack with a long windup. This is why you want to run at him and use a spin slash. You'll always interrupt him if you're quick. Just DONT LET UP. If you get used to this it really trivializes the fight. You don't need to watch out for his absurd combos because he can never use them.
- Anonymous
He is fun, he is immensely fun - you can fight in his style to win, with all jumps and running, but camera is HORRIBLE, IT'S A TORTURE.
- Anonymous
Nightjar slash and the Aged mist raven feather helped me tremendously. Dodging backward on the firecracker slash and punish with nightjar was reliable and safe chip damage as long as I wasn’t backed into a wall. Careful aggressiveness gets you far with this fight imo and extra mobility helps you land that chip damage until half he is half hp or so and posture damage starts to stick and you can parry/Mikiri to victory. Feather to get you out of long combos and shitty camera angles.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If you dodge the shuriken he throws at you for his Chasing Slice, it suddenly gains a **** ton of hitboxes and whoops your ass even if you deflect it. But in the same manner, if you use an umbrella to deflect all of it, you do humongous posture damage on his ass.
- Anonymous
Push him into a corner and he's done. Jump over the fire bird and dodge into the firecrackers.
- Anonymous
I can't do it. I've tried everything. Gonna skip this one, my sanity is on the line :(
- Anonymous
Why did they extremely buff this guy? This is impossible with his million attacks that all need a very specific counter. I cant predict the future so have no idea which of his million attacks he is gonna do next. And that for the whole LONG fight AND 2 phases.
try not to get pushed into a wall and comboed challenge (impossible)
- Anonymous
Almost made me quit the game. For the first two hours, I got him to his knees and the prompt to finish him didn't appear! It took me another two hours to finally defeat him. The rhythm for me was to close in, attack attack, deflect deflect then a 33/33/33 chance on whether he'll do firecracker combo, long combo with the shoulder block, or a short combo that leaves him open. This guy dropped my 500 spirit emblems to 100 in my inventory.
- Anonymous
Boss should be called Owl (firecracker Lover) instead of father, every second combo is with firecracker :D
- Anonymous
he is a true master shinobi, he conceal his presence not just by using shinobi firecracker, strafing super fast left and right or being invisible itself by becoming the spirit owl... but his real weapon is the spirit owl that blocks your f*****g view when the camera angled just right enough to center the spirit owl and block the whole fight on locked target while you're being punished.
- Anonymous
and for the love of god don't even THINK of trying to heavy attack him.
- Anonymous
I just beat this boss for the first time, I'm on NG+2 and I'm not sure if it matters but I had attack on 26
This boss isn't THAT hard, you just have to get used to his attack patterns and be EXTREMELY agressive and you will beat him in no time. There are some very dangerous attacks that can easily one or two shot you that are great moments to attack him since they're easily avoidable if you know what you're doing, for example. In fact, I even accidentally beat phase 1 barely having used anything but unga bunga attack and parry, maybe some heals and buffs and nothing else, and I managed to beat phase 2 first try.
In short, very tough boss that requires you to git gud and once you do is quite """easy""". The best strategy is to be VERY agressive, as in literally run towards him and unga bunga attack. Don't let him breathe, just strike him until he dies. If you repeat enough times you will get used to him parrying you and how to parry him or what attacks to dodge, like the firecracker attacks. Just don't get frustrated and you'll eventually succeed
- Anonymous
This man's posture is ridiculous. For that reason I usually buff with Divine Confetti in the beginning and use Ashina Cross to reduce his health bar. Ashina Cross is a good pick because you can delay it in the second phase when he sometimes teleports away from you during punish windows. My primariy shinobi tool is Great Feather Mist Raven to dodge his Firecracker cheese consistently while also dealng some fire damage of my own. Damn, Sekiro without Kuro's Charm is so fun. It really forces you to use all your tools.
- Anonymous
huge fan of the part where he combos me at the end of the 8 minute fight for my entire healthbar despite having max prayer beads
- Anonymous
I finished this version of Owl with a mikiri counter and I almost creamed
- Anonymous
awesome fight just for the fact that it takes the already very fun mikiri counter and makes it even cooler with the fire owl -> shadowrush
- Anonymous
I discovered that living force with the fire arm really messes him up, just need to do the combo when he is open after one of his long attacks.
- Anonymous
I struggled a lot woth him. To the point where I came here to check if there was some gimmick. The big problem I was having was that his posture recovers absurdly fast. The trick to figure this out is sword clashing. Basically, close the distance, hit as much as you can until he deflects. He'll usually either do a single sideways or diagonal hit, or two quick spinning swipes. Any of those, you can easily deflect after he deflects you. Then, just go back to hitting him. If he kicks you and jumps back, close the distance and start again. Make the fight feel like it's just you two clashing swords. That'll let you chip away at his posture. All the advice here about how to counter his firecrackers or owl stuff is also great.
- Anonymous
Is this boss even beatable in 2022? The guides I find are not up to date and it feels that the AI is way different from what it was when the game first release. He 2 shots me constantly even if I have 18 vitality and I can barely do any damage to him with attack power 9. I need to miss 2 parries and he breaks my posture. Holy moly. People were complaining how hard the game was on release and FS decided to buff everything. o.0 I really enjoy the game and the fights but after 100 tries to the same boss, things get a bit stale.
- Anonymous
idk why people whine about the owl fights... has the easiest deflects in the game imo, and very frequent windows to punish. took me like 4 tries on each of his fights and im a huge noob. legit died to chained ogre more than i did to this guy.
- Anonymous
I was scared about this fight coz i heard he's even harder than sword saint so i left him for the very end, u can only imagine how shocked i was when i destroyed him in second try like wtf. Isshin took me 5 hours btw. Mortal blade works very well on him, combine it with ako + confetti and u can get to phase 2 in less than a minute. It almost felt like cheese but tbh this guy is a dirty cheese master himself so i guess he got what he deserved lmao
- Anonymous
This boss might seem as a hard one because he has a lot of health and it's not exactly clear when to punish him. However, after several tries I realized that he has pretty dull moveset if you continue to push him. Continue pushing after bright sparks and boss counter attack. I apologize for also stealing some hints from comments below. USE THE FOCUS on the boss (fixed camera following the boss).
When to punish him:
- Bright sparks (your hit into his deflect), his 2 hits and jump back with fireworks - dodge through fireworks and to the right of him, then get 2 hits (sometimes 3)
- When he tries to zig zag with perlious attack (which can be overhead slash, sweep, lunge forward - based on player's position) - if you were staying close - hit him once and he'll forget about that attack
- Sometimes you can fit a hit right after bright sparks, his counter hit, and then instantly yours
- He throws shuriken and then jumps with a slash - dodge the jump and get 2 hits in. Super easy.
- When he throws fireworks without 2 hit combo and then dashes forward with perlious thrust - use Mikuri. He will use this trick with the owl on the second phase - jump the owl, mikuri the boss and punish.
- If he disappears - run from that place and wait for the landing sound somewhere. Nothing to benefit from here.
Because dodging is not used here as much as Ashina Castle fight - this boss fight gets rather boring when you learn all the moves you need to stay close and push.
- Anonymous
It took me one hour and 15-20 attempts but I finally beat him yesterday. Easily the toughest boss I have faced so far, and much more difficult than the fight with him atop Ashina Castle, which only took me two attempts. The biggest challenge for me was figuring out how to deal with his firecracker tosses, as dodging through them does not work half the time.
- Anonymous
i mean. the image that is shown is the owl from ashina castle, not hirata, so when i saw that, it made me laugh
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Is this boss even beatable in 2022? The guides I find are not up to date and it feels that the AI is way different from what it was when the game first release. He 2 shots me constantly even if I have 18 vitality and I can barely do any damage to him with attack power 9. I need to miss 2 parries and he breaks my posture. Holy moly. People were complaining how hard the game was on release and FS decided to buff everything. o.0 I really enjoy the game and the fights but after 100 tries to the same boss, things get a bit stale.
- Anonymous
When the owl dies he awakes to find himself as an undead, he now goes by andre of astora
- Anonymous
forgive me if i missed some lore or dialogue to explain this, but does this guy have 2 boss fights and an npc encounter where he is dying on the floor? how many times does he die?
- Anonymous
much easier that great shinobi fight, he does much less posture damage to player and gives more oportunities to deal vital damage to him.
overall better design than great shinobi fight, one of most enjoyable fights in the game
- Anonymous
This guide is wrong, thrust attack works wonders in this fight. It demolishes vitality and posture bars and causes a guaranteed "stagger" animation. This poor guide is very much unexpected from a consistently great site like fextralife
- Anonymous
The 1st phase can be easily studied and DL'd like any other fight. Dodge through the close firecrackers to the right. Don't dash too much, especially at close range.
For the 2nd phase, it really helps to know: *Ignore* the bird unless he calls it to his arm or he disappears.
He calls bird: jump over firebird, then mikiri (twd where it came from)
He disappears: run from bird
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Most of his sweep attacks go in the same direction, once you can reliably jump backwards and a little to the left you can just bait those moves and bring his posture down faster
- Anonymous
Owl's Mikiri only covers the distance of normal sword thrusts. If you thrust with the spear outside this range, he will 'miss' his mikiri, leaving him vulnerable long enough for a chasing slice.
- Anonymous
Been fighting Owl since I finished the game. The guantlets & Inner Father only help me indulge in his fight & awesome music even more, and it's practically what I do in my spare time. I do Inner Genichiro & Demon of Hatred from time to time. But I've died to Owl at least a few thousand times now. Fighting him over and over, I kept raising the bar for myself. I eventually ditched the gourd, finished the game, then came back with Demon Bell and Charmless. I just want to say this fight is unforgiving and brutally precise. It will punish you for a single mistake. But when you learn his moves inside out, fighting Owl feels like you're the guy in the DS3 Master's set description.
- Anonymous
What's the point of breaking his posture bar when he already has 30% or less health left by the time it is actually broken?
- Anonymous
I used the vanishing feather to counter his firecrackers. Worked really well, even though I ran out of emblems near the end of the fight on NG+. You can use Suzaku’s umbrella as well, but if your posture is damaged enough he can break through and deal some massive damage. Feather is way safer in my experience.
- Anonymous
If you have projected force and suzaku's umbrella you can shield yourself from the firecrackers after the shoulder bash, and then hit him with a fire charged umbrella + kusabimaru.
- Anonymous
Watching videos of how to beat this boss, all of them from two years ago, I started to think: FS patched the game to be harder. In the videos, players spams attack button, Owl (Father) does nothing. Try to do the same, he jumps, he evades, he kicks your face and says you’re starving. Nine necklaces, he kills me in two hits. YouTube guy, life bar by the half, takes 3 hits in a row, not blocking or deflecting, still alive - no use of any candies or spiritfall. And sometimes Owl stops attacking, he just walks in circles for a while. Never happens on this side: he doesn’t get off me.
It seems like FS noticed gamers were finding different strategies to progress, identifying AI weaknesses and taking some advantages. And then they took it off. If playing aggressively was fun to players at first, now they made Owl more aggressive, breaking their own logic. He has smaller safe windows to hit him and almost all of his attacks can't be evaded - they track you.
Evading and deflecting - basic mechanics of the game - don’t work here, and when I beat him, I don't felt like I "git gud", as you say, I felt it was pure luck.
Don’t get me wrong: Sekiro is a great game, and has some bosses that were very fun to beat, but when the devs fix things just because players are finding it easier than it was planned to be, this is just dishonest.
- Anonymous
Initially I tried to keep away and punish openings like the Greas Shinobi fight. This doesn't work nearly as well because the arena is tighter and the columns get in your way when you try to dodge. It also takes forever.
So instead I learned how to dodge the firecrakers (rotate counterclockwise when it's after the combo or just dash through when he's jumping backwards) and just kept charging him. Almost everything can be deflected fairly easily and if you have a lot of prayer beads the posture damage can be handled (unlike the first fight). Took a few attempts to get a good read on when I should be punishing but when I got past the first phase I also got to the end because the second phase is very similar.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
On his regular slash combos, don't counterattack unless he does the double-slash. Instead wait for him to finish the combo, which is usually either the firecrackers which you can run around counterclockwise to hit him in the back, or a sweeping attack which you can jump back-left to land on his head. The extra easy deflects help build up his posture a little faster
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I'm not sure if this is helpful for anyone, but I found that you can get his first phase down instantly using a yashikura's sugar and mid air mortal draw twice. He sometimes survives but when he does he has one or two hits left before he's down. This leaves you with one phase to deal with and only down one gourd (for the healing once the sugar wears off).
- Anonymous
Under no circumstances do you dodge towards him when he uses his gunpowder. Seriously this is the worst advice for this boss. You dodge right into his swing, going backwards if you have room or to the sides are the only play. Towards him a restart 9/10 times.
- Anonymous
I just beat the Owl (father) and I found him a lot easier than Great Shinobi Owl. I'm not sure if its because I've gotten better at the game, got lucky, or just because I wasn't stressing out about this fight.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Oddly, the shuriken he tosses will count toward his posture if you deflect them. There's even a slight chance you might posture break him, which automatically zips Sekiro forward to be positioned right in front of him, lol.
- Anonymous
When you face Masanaga the spear bearer in Ashina Castle, the first line of his dialogue is "Oh, it's you". He could be saying that "it's you the one who killed my boy Masanari", yeah, but also he could be remembering you for your chronologically first encounter at Hirata Estate. I didn't finish my first playthrough yet, just beated father, but this is driving me crazy. Could Owl's memory have actually hapened? This slightly contradicts the memory of the battle, as it states something like "Owl's wish to fight with Wolf to death was granted, even if it was in an old memory", but we do know that the way that the Buddha statue works is ****ed up, since you carry your prosthetic tool the past and some more stuff like that. Maybe some of the things you did did happen and some didn't?
- Anonymous
I guess hitting him on his left and right sides helped the most to damage vitality. I saved some spirit emblems for phase 2 using the Mortal Draw to interrupt some of his attacks.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
After i deflect a couple of his attacks he just jumps 10 feet away and regains all of his posture. **** boss.
- Anonymous
Somehow I found this version to be much easier than the original one. I recently spent maybe 2+ hours on the Great Shinobi, while Father went down on what felt like 10th attempt. I think that Father has way more openings for punishing (like that long combo with crackers and diagonal slash that he uses very often), and it also felt like he leaves more time to regenerate Posture, which is something I suffered from a lot with the Shinobi version.
- Anonymous
Been stuck on him since 2 weeks after the game came out, after about 500 tries i've only gotten him to his second phase twice.
- Anonymous
Stay on his face and don't give any room for him to recover. Immediate beginning of the fight is probably the hardest, because it's still him setting the pace, and not you. Once you get into the rhythm just keep pressuring him. Passive play is very risky, because he has so many ways to punish from distance.
Mortal draw does damage him a lot, but it's costly, and also risky due to its slowness. Owl is very fast and covers a lot of distance. Bestowal is a waste of emblems, it won't amount to a substantial damage bonus in the beginning. Worst case is that you get completely creamed immediately, because you're trying to get in all the damage you can before it runs out.
Utilise shuriken followed by chasing slash to close gaps fast and possibly get in a hit. Staying too far for too long leaves you open and allows him to recover. Don't give him breathers. You can get a deathblow when he has about 50% vitality, if you're relentless. Constantly trade hits and deflections. He blocks three times and switches to his own combo which typically ends up in firecrackers, which you dodge and punish. It's IMPERATIVE you avoid firecrackers by dodging to his left (your right). The big slash that follows when he does the close proximity crackers won't reach far enough to connect if you dodge, and leaves a window for you to hit. Fumbling this means massive damage to you.
Ichimonji can do decent posture damage, but the timing is tricky. It's generally safer to just get in a couple of sword hits, because with enough vitality damage inflicting posture damage becomes easy by just deflecting him.
Second phase is completely the same, save for the owl shenanigans. Just run away when he changes location.
If you keep on his face you probably won't even have to worry about his shadowfall except when he does it after the fire owl. Every perilous attack in close distance is avoided with jumping
- Anonymous
This fight was the second "wall" for me in sekiro (after lady butterfly) where I had to actually hone my skill beyond what I could rest on prior to it. I was able to breeze through the owl Ashina Castle fight with relative ease, but this one was a whole other beast.
Aggression is key. Don't give him time to breathe except when you gotta heal or regain posture. Once his hp is sufficiently low, don't give him time to breathe ever.
- Anonymous
Made it to phase 2 in first 3 attempts. The only two of his attacks took most of my heals and killed me were the gunpowder slash and red owl dive with shadowfall followup. Saw the countering tip provided here and boom won on 4th attempt. First time when fextra provided some legit useful info.
- Anonymous
No Lie, been stuck on this lad since August. Managed to beat Demon's Souls in that time, but this fella keeps grinding my nose to the dust. I finally managed to bring him to second phase this week, and I consider that an accomplishment in itself.
- Anonymous
How old is Owl? The event in Hirata Estate happened 3 years ago. Is 3 years really enough to make someone going from his prime to “a shadow of his former self”?
- Anonymous
I find that if you use Mortal Draw during some of his slower moves, you can interrupt them and do a lot of vitality damage. Then, once you get him around half health, you can go on the defense and try to build up posture deflecting his combos. I ended up eking out a victory this way.
Even without emblems, Mortal Draw staggers him out of his overhead swing and his perilous sweep that leads into it. Additionally, side-stepping his fire sweep after the fire crackers gives you ample opportunity. Ashina Cross and Ichimonji Double also work, but Mortal Draw’s heavy vitality damage helps a lot.
- Anonymous
Honestly, I was just able to beat him (after quite a few tries) by continually using the High Monk skill. The frequent attacks in rapid succession kept pressure on him to where he would either guard, or start a move, but be interrupted, or sash backward to be hit by the next attack. Keeping up a relentless pace was the key, especially in his second stage, when he did the double shuriken to sword jump much less often. I also had the Mist Raven equipped to quickly counter his more devastating combos, then begin the High Monk combo again.
This dude must've aged a ****ing ton because his prime is actually an insane difference. I beat his old grandpa walking ass in three tries while here, I saw "StArViNG wOlF" at least fifteen times. Best way to beat him is to just be patient. Always wear his health down to around half before attempting to be aggressive and deflecting his attacks for the deathblow. Otherwise his posture will recover way too fast and you might make a mistake. Phase 2 is so much easier than phase 1 though. You get a lot more free attacks and Mikiri counters + he doesn't spam his firecrackers as often.
0
+10
-1