Skills and Skill Trees in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice refers to Character Progression by investing Skill Points into Skill Trees that unlock Combat Arts or Techniques. There are 5 Skill Trees, additionally you can acquire skills via texts.
Some of the Skills you unlock are passive Skills, meaning their effect will always be present. Others are active Skills called: Combat Arts, that the player must actively use by pressing LB + RB. Additionally, there are Ninjutsu Technique, which can be used only after performing backstab deathblow, they are also used actively - by pressing R1. Players can only one have a Combat Art and one Ninjutsu Technique skill equipped at a time.
- Shinobi Arts
- Ashina Arts
- Prosthetic Arts
- Temple Arts
- Mushin Arts
- Ninjutsu Techniques
- Comparative Table
All Skill Trees of Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
How to Get Skill Points
Players gain Skill Points by gaining Experience, which is done via defeating Enemies and Bosses. How much Experience you gain is thought to be based on your current "level", and the difficulty of the enemy defeated. For more information on this please see the Skill Points & Experience page.
How to Spend Skill Points
Players spend their Skill Points while resting at any Sculptor's Idol. Sculptor's Idols are spread across the game world (much like Bonfires in Dark Souls), so this can be done fairly easily.
Can I Respec My Skill Points?
Unfortunately, you cannot re-spec your Skill Points. You can, however, go into New Game Plus and your progress will carry over and you can unlock new skills.
Shinobi Arts - Skill Tree
The Shinobi Skill Tree in Sekiro focuses on stealth tactics, and will be the predominant Skill Tree for players who prefer to avoid direct confrontation, and would rather remain in the shadows killing in one strike. However, because Stealth is likely to play less of a role during Boss encounters, players should also invest in other Skill Trees as well.
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Whirlwind Slash
A Shinobi's Karma: Body
A Shinobi's Karma: Mind
Breath of Life: Light
Mid-air Combat Arts
*reqs Mid-air Deflection
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Mid-air Deflection
Mid-air Combat Arts
*reqs A Shinobi's Karma: Body
Shadowrush*reqs Shinobi Eyes
Mikiri Counter
Run and Slide
Shinobi Eyes*reqs Suppress Presence
Shadowrush*reqs Mid-air Combat Arts
Suppress Presence-
Shinobi Eyes*reqs Run and Slide
Shadowrush*reqs Mid-air Combat Arts
Vault Over
Suppress Sound
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Ashina Arts - Skill Tree
The Ashina Skill Tree in Sekiro focuses on combat and swordplay. This is the Skill Tree for the player who plans to be in direct confrontation with enemies often, and who does not care too much for stealth tactics. Because Bosses are likely to be fought in this manner, placing some points into this Skill Tree is recommended to all players.
Ichimonji
Descending Carp
Ichimonji: Double
*reqs Ascending Carp
Ashina Cross*reqs Flowing Water
Ascending Carp
Breath of Nature: Light
Flowing Water
Ashina Cross*reqs Ichimonji: Double
Ichimonji: Double
*reqs Descending Carp
Ashina Cross*reqs Flowing Water
Prosthetic Arts - Skill Tree
The Prosthetic Arm Skill Tree in Sekiro focuses on the use of the Prosthetic Arm Tool that all players possess. It allows the player to modify some of the tools they use into the manner that best fits their style of play. Since this can be direct or stealth combat, it is advised that all players spend at least some points into this Skill Tree.
Chasing Slice
Fang and Blade
Projected Force*reqs Mid-air Prosthetic Tool
Mid-air Prosthetic Tool
Sculptor's Karma: Scars
Sculptor's Karma: Blood
Projected Force*reqs Fang & Blade
Living Force*reqs Nightjar Slash Reversal
Grappling Hook Attack
Nightjar Slash
Nightjar Slash Reversal*reqs Emma's Medicine: Potency
Living Force*reqs Projected Force
Emma's Medicine: Potency
Nightjar Slash Reversal*reqs Nightjar Slash
Living Force*reqs Projected Force
Emma's Medicine: Aroma
Temple Arts - Skill Tree
The Temple Arts Skill Tree in Sekiro focuses on a set of moves and skills that the Monks of Senpou Temple use, providing Sekiro secret Martial Arts techniques. This skill tree is the only one that isn't provided by an NPC and is needed to be found by the player in Senpou Temple, Mt. Kongo.
Mushin Arts - Skill Tree
The Mushin Arts Skill Tree in Sekiro focuses on unlocking a set of moves that are upgraded, and stronger versions of each tree's ultimate ability. Players will need to unlock prerequisite skills in order to gain the listed skills in the Mushin Arts Skill Tree - this can be obtained by completing a quest from Tengu of Ashina, upon unlocking any ultimate ability, he will provide you with the Mushin Esoteric Text that contains the skills of the Mushin Arts.
High Monk
Shadowfall*reqs Shadowrush
Shadowrush
Shadowfall*reqs High Monk
Spiral Cloud Passage*reqs Ashina Cross
Ashina Cross
Spiral Cloud Passage*reqs Shadowrush
Empowered Mortal Draw*reqs Living Force
Living Force
Empowered Mortal Draw*reqs Ashina Cross
Ninjutsu Techniques
The Ninjutsu Techniques in Sekiro focuses on a set of Shinobi skills that can be unlocked and equipped by the player as they progress the game. This type of technique allows Sekiro to perform a follow-up attack after performing a Backstab Deathblow - acquiring all three will reward the player with the “All Ninjutsu Techniques” trophy or achievement.
Sekiro All Skills
Click the Table Header To Sort
| Name | Skill Tree | Effect | Skill Points Needed | Requirements |
| Ascending Carp | Ashina Arts | Increases the damage inflicted to Posture upon performing a successful Deflection. | 2 | Ichimonji |
| Ashina Cross | Ashina Arts | From a sheathed stance, draw the blade at high speed. | 5 | Flowing Water Ichimonji: Double |
| Breath of Nature: Light | Ashina Arts | Recovers Posture upon executing a successful Deathblow. | 2 | Ascending Carp |
| Descending Carp | Ashina Arts | For a few seconds after deflection, increases damage to enemy posture from all sources. | 1 | Descending Carp |
| Flowing Water | Ashina Arts | Reduces the amount of damage to Posture when attacked by an enemy with a sword. | 3 | Ascending Carp |
| Ichimonji | Ashina Arts | Delivers a heavy, one-hit overhead sword strike. | 2 | Ashina Esoteric Text |
| Ichimonji: Double | Ashina Arts | Adds a follow-up overhead sword strike to Ichimonji. | 3 | Ascending Carp Descending Carp |
| Empowered Mortal Draw | Mushin Arts | Draw additional power, resulting in a longer-ranged, more powerful slash attack. | 5 | Living Force Ashina Cross |
| Shadowfall | Mushin Arts | After leaping into the skies with Shadowrush, allows one to perform a spinning sword attack as they descend. | 6 | High Monk Shadowrush |
| Spiral Cloud Passage | Mushin Arts | Unleashes shockwaves. | 9 | Shadowrush Ashina Cross |
| Chasing Slice | Prosthetic Arts | Allows one to perform a forward-dashing sword slice after using a certain Prosthetic Tool/s. | 1 | Prosthetic Esoteric Text |
| Emma's Medicine: Aroma | Prosthetic Arts | Increases the healing effects of recovery items. | 5 | Emma's Medicine: Potency |
| Emma's Medicine: Potency | Prosthetic Arts | Increases the healing effects of recovery items. | 4 | Grappling Hook Attack |
| Fang and Blade | Prosthetic Arts | Allows one to attack with the tool and sword simultaneously after using a certain Prosthetic Tool/s. | 2 | Chasing Slice |
| Grappling Hook Attack | Prosthetic Arts | Uses the Grappling Hook to launch oneself at an enemy followed by a rolling sword attack. | 1 | Prosthetic Esoteric Text |
| Living Force | Prosthetic Arts | Perform a follow-up attack with certain tools that imbues the sword with the tool's effect. | 4 | Projected Force Nightjar Slash Reversal |
| Mid-air Prosthetic Tool | Prosthetic Arts | Enables the use of Prosthetic Tools while in mid-air. | 3 | Chasing Slice |
| Nightjar Slash | Prosthetic Arts | A spinning leap attack that can quickly close or create distance from foes. | 2 | Grappling Hook Attack |
| Nightjar Slash Reversal | Prosthetic Arts | A spinning leap attack that can quickly close or create distance from foes while deciding which direction to rotate in when performing this skill. |
3 | Nightjar Slash Emma's Medicine: Potency |
| Projected Force | Prosthetic Arts | Allows one to draw the power of that Tool into the sword and release it in a forward direction after using a certain Prosthetic Tool/s. |
1 | Fang and Blade Mid-air Prosthetic Tool |
| Sculptor's Karma: Blood | Prosthetic Arts | Increases the amount of Spirit Emblems that can be held. | 2 | Mid-air Prosthetic Tool |
| Sculptor's Karma: Scars | Prosthetic Arts | Greatly Increases the amount of Spirit Emblems that can be held. | 3 | Mid-air Prosthetic Tool |
| A Shinobi's Karma: Body | Shinobi Arts | Increases the amount of Spirit Emblems that can be held. | 2 | Whirlwind Slash |
| A Shinobi's Karma: Mind | Shinobi Arts | Greatly increases the amount of Spirit Emblems that can be held. | 3 | A Shinobi's Karma: Body |
| Breath of Life: Light | Shinobi Arts | Recovers Vitality upon performing a successful Deathblow. | 5 | A Shinobi's Karma: Body |
| Mid-air Combat Arts | Shinobi Arts | Allows one to perform Combat Arts while in mid-air. | 3 | A Shinobi's Karma: Body |
| Mid-air Deflection | Shinobi Arts | Allows one to guard against or deflect enemy attacks in mid-air. | 1 | Whirlwind Slash |
| Mikiri Counter | Shinobi Arts | Enables one to counter an enemy's thrust attack and dealing a large amount of damage to their Posture. |
2 | Shinobi Esoteric Text |
| Run and Slide | Shinobi Arts | Allows one to slide into a crouched position while sprinting. | 1 | Mikiri Counter |
| Shadowrush | Shinobi Arts | Unleash a long-range, powerful thrust. | 6 | Shinobi Eyes Mid-air Combat Arts |
| Shinobi Eyes | Shinobi Arts | Increases the damage inflicted to Posture upon executing a successful Mikiri counter. | 3 | Run and Slide Suppress Presence |
| Suppress Presence | Shinobi Arts | Reduces an enemy's ability to perceive those who are in stealth. | 2 | Mikiri Counter |
| Suppress Sound | Shinobi Arts | Suppresses movement noise by inhibiting an enemy's ability to hear it. | 3 | Suppress Presence |
| Vault Over | Shinobi Arts | Allows one to leap over and behind a Posture-broken enemy. | 2 | Suppress Presence |
| Whirlwind Slash | Shinobi Arts | A spinning attack that can hit several enemies at once. | 1 | Shinobi Esoteric Text |
| Devotion | Temple Arts | Increases the amount of time a Buddhist Candy is effective when used. | 3 | Praying Strikes - Exorcism |
| High Monk | Temple Arts | Adds sword slashes and additional kicks to Senpou Leaping Kick. | 4 | Senpou Leaping Kicks |
| Most Virtuous Deed | Temple Arts | Improves the amount of sen obtained and improves item drop rates. | 4 | Virtuous Deed |
| Praying Strikes | Temple Arts | Unleash a flurry of quick attacks that inflict damage while preventing a counterattack. | 2 | Senpou Esoteric Text |
| Praying Strikes - Exorcism | Temple Arts | Adds a finishing attack to Praying Strikes. | 3 | Praying Strikes |
| Senpou Leaping Kicks | Temple Arts | Allows one to start an attack with a leaping kick. | 3 | Virtuous Deed |
| Virtuous Deed | Temple Arts | Improves the amount of sen obtained and improves item drop rates. | 3 | Praying Strikes |
| A Beast's Karma | - | Increases the amount of Spirit Emblems that can be held. | - | Defeat the Sakura Bull of the Palace |
| Breath of Life: Shadow | - | Recovers Vitality upon performing a successful Deathblow. | - | Defeat O'Rin of the Water |
| Breath of Nature: Shadow | - | Recovers Posture upon performing a successful Deathblow. | - | Defeat the Armored Warrior |
| Dragon Flash | - | Perform a high-speed cut from a sheathed stance. | - | Defeat Isshin, The Sword Saint |
| Mibu Breathing Technique | - | Allows one to dive underwater, as well as breathe underwater indefinitely. | - | Defeat the Corrupted Monk at Mibu Village |
| One Mind | - | Unleashes a storm of attacks from a sheathed stance. | - | Defeat Isshin Ashina |
| Shinobi Medicine Rank 1 | - | Increases the healing effect of recovery items. | - | Defeat the Chained Ogre atAshina Outskirts |
| Shinobi Medicine Rank 2 | - | Increases the healing effect of recovery items. | - | Defeat the Blazing Bull |
| Shinobi Medicine Rank 3 | - | Increases the healing effect of recovery items. | - | Defeat the Chained Ogre atAshina Castle |
| Anti Air Death Blow | - | Allows to perform a deathblow on some enemies when they are in mid-air. | - | Buy the Text from Blackhat Badger |
| Floating Passage | - | Combat Art that unleashes repeated attacks, overwhelming enemies with flowing, dance-like movements. | - | Buy from Pot Noble Harunaga for 5 Treasure Carp Scales |
| Sakura Dance | - | Combat art that builds momentum in a series of leaping slashes, and can transition into mid-air prosthetic attacks. | - | Complete Gauntlet of Strength: Divine Heir |
AnonymousThere's a perk available in Far Cry 3 that lets you automatically loot any enemy that you kill with a takedown, and I just want to say it would have been nice to have something similar in Sekiro. The animation of Wolf absorbing piles of gold and loot like a human vacuum cleaner is admittedly fun and it's definitely a step up from having to loot everyone individually, but it gets a little tedious when farming, and I would have appreciated a more streamlined option.
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Pro tips from someone who loves the game, GET MIKIRI COUNTER. get all the midair abilities, breath of life is fantastic, every latent ability in the ashina arts is fantastic, and senpou is up to you its not particularly gane changing. As for combat arts you get MD midway into the game and that's really all you need, speedrun to senpou after geni or just clear it out before geni and TP to the temple to get this fantastic art.
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I am late in my first playthrough and have just defeated Demon of Hatred.
The only skills I have left to unlock are Shadowfall and about half of the Temple Arts, which requires 20 skill points total.
It takes forever to get just 1 at this point in the game, so I am very afraid of the grind that awaits me
In every playthrough I just get ichimonji:double,breath of nature:light, mikiri counter,mid-air combat arts and projected force. Then spend any other skill point on dragon mask and everything is fine.
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I wish the XP was only dependent on the Skill Point level rather than how man Skill Points you’ve gained over the course of the game. It felt weird to me that gaining 1 Skill Point in the late game required the same amount of XP as 3 Skill Points in the early game
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Wow, just 368 skill points required to unlock every skill? Not too bad
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The amount of exp needed for later skills is cracked. In order to get all skills without grinding I think you would need over 7 ng cycles... I have platinum besides this trophy... and I’m considering giving up. At endgame of new game plus and I still have 34+ points needed. My entire ng+ run only netted 10-12 skill points...
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Can someone put more information regarding the damage to vitality and posture of the moves please? especially the mushin arts considering it's really expensive and imo requires good planning. I think there are lots of people like me who wants to save as much skill points as possible to convert them into attack power. Besides, if we understand the skills more in depth we could use them more properly.
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Unless I did the math wrong it takes 115 skill points to get every skill in the game that requires it. Why isn't this mentioned anywhere in the article? Seems like something that should be here by default...
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For anyone not sure which skills you should get early on ASAP. The rest is optional. - Mikari Counter - Mid-air deflect (rarely use but its good) - Mid-air prosthetic tool - Prosthetic tool follow up attack - All Ashina arts except Ashina Cross - Shadowrush combat art - Ichimonji Double combat art
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For me personally I got all skills and I got an option from Emma for Isshin's final words and when I select it she says she'll give me an item when I master the Esoteric texts
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Why is that my skill points bar has more than 10000 skill point needed to unlock the second skill bar
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Are ALL skills required for the "Height of Technique" trophy? Or just the combat arts? I'm on NG+2 and it still seems like a crazy grind..
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179 skill points for all these skills and it increases how much exp you need with each skill point this will be the last achievement anyone gets probably
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Sometimes not having a combat art equiped is better since it can screw up your attack if you accidentaly press block and attack at the same time wich is quite possible considering they are the 2 buttons you ll be pressing for 80% of the time. For example the ichimonji has a long animation.
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Currenlty missing: Floating Passage combat art procured from the pot merchant in Hirata Estate or fountainhead palace post-Master carp quest.
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I added an index in the table for Dragon Flash which i unlocked upon beating the game with the standard ending. If I dont get to it, someone should make a page for it.
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There are at least 5. One of which hasn't been mentioned yet but I found during my time as a beta tester. It involves epic level techniques and was very very hard to find and is a secret. One such is a finishing move with the mortal blade.
The skill trees give me a "covenant" vibe but applied to combat style. Like if I were good at deflecting (I'm not) I would solely upgrade the Ashina arts and then offer pale tongues and blood dregs to Tengu.
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I got a skill named Shinobi Medicine Rank 1, description as follow : " A Latent Skill that increases the healing effect of recovery items. Medicinal knowledge is vital for a shinobi's survival. Receiving wounds in battle is inevitable. The only way to learn such techniques is to be gravely injured time and time agian by worthy opponents" As decription suggest, i learned by dying again and again against the chained ogre. I wonder if there is any more "hidden" skills like this one
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It still says there are 3 skill trees even tho there are obviously more listed already, that line is based on prerelease information, but I guess they'll fix it when it's clear how many there are exactly
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Sekiro Skill Trees are now official! Exciting and hopefully something that will help create some fun for those looking for "builds", even if it's much simpler than Souls titles. I'm particularly interested to see how these passive trees work, and what skills we end up recommending to take with your first points.
I suppose there is no useless skills in Sekiro. If you know how it work and how to apply these is depend on the situtation. Experimenting is the way to find out, but it's still quite risky because in real combat it's impossible to predict what will happen
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